What is recorded here

Half a metre tall and cut from dark mica-schist, the slab lies flat in an OPW depot on High Island after emerging from silt above an old burial mound. Its face holds eight segments formed by two intertwined crosses, with a smaller linear cross floating in the centre like a quiet heartbeat. It may have stood upright beside the mound, marking death or devotion before the sea and time buried it.

Recorded by Fisher (2014, 112, 217, no. 37, Fig. 7.6), this irregular cross-slab (H 0.62m; Wth 0.47m; T 0.09m) of garnet mica-schist was found in a deposit of silt and grit overlying a leacht (GA021-026084-) to the E of ‘Cell B’, the clochan (GA021-026013-) to the E of the church (GA021-026014-) on High Island. It may originally have stood upright on or close to the leacht. One face is decorated. It is filled with a circle that is divided into eight segments by bands that form two interconnected Greek crosses. Within a central roundel there is an incised linear Greek cross. The cross-slab is now in the OPW depot on the island - see GA021-026060- for original location. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 22 February 2023 Fisher, I. (revised by Scally, G. and Maddern, C.) 2014 Catalogue of cross-slabs. In G. Scally, High Island (Ardoileán), Co. Galway: Excavation of an early medieval monastery. Archaeological Monograph Series 10. Dublin. The Stationery Office.

This cross-slab is likely of early medieval origin, associated with Christian worship or burial practices. It may have originally marked a holy site or served as a memorial within a local ecclesiastical landscape.

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