What is recorded here

Half a metre of carved stone from Inchbofin, the cross-slab still keeps its looped terminals and curved central mark in the Athenry depot. It travelled from Lough Ree after ground-clearance works exposed it near the old church, leaving behind the soil and light where it first stood. The two different fret patterns suggest a carver who knew more than one tradition, or a workshop where several hands shared the same chisel.

This cross-slab (H 0.49m; max. Wth 0.56m; T 0.1m) bears a three-line cross with looped D-shaped terminals, apart from that at the head, and a central circle with a curved swastika or tetraskelion. Two types of fret pattern are visible in the terminals, one in the top and dexter terminals and the other in the base and sinister ones. The cross-slab was found during ground-clearance works in the vicinity of the church (WM015-001----) on Inchbofin island on Lough Ree, Co. Westmeath (Commissioners of Public Works 1913, Appendix E, Slab C) and is currently kept in the OPW depot in Athenry. See WM015-001009- for its original location and see GA084-151033-/WM015-001010- for another similar cross-slab. (Crawford 1913, 329, 1. (c)) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 2 March 2023 Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland 1913 Eighty-first annual report of the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland with appendices for the year ending 31st March 1913. London. HMSO. Crawford, H.S. 1913 A descriptive list of early cross-slabs and pillars. (cont.) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 43, 151-69, 261-5, 326-34.

This cross-slab is likely of early medieval Christian origin, dating to between the 8th and 10th centuries. The tetraskelion and cross design suggest symbolic Christian and possibly pre-Christian influences, often associated with protection or spiritual significance in early Irish monastic tradition.

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