What is recorded here

High Island, County Galway: a broken cross-slab in garnet mica-schist, found beneath the floor of Cell B beside the old church, its shaft cut short so no one knows whether the cross reached downward or stopped at the centre. It is small enough to carry, thin enough to hide in a coat, yet heavy with the idea that someone marked death, prayer or ownership on island stone before forgetting became ordinary. The church and clochan still stand above the place where it lay; the slab itself has moved into keeping, deprived of soil, tide and witness. What is certain is the cut, the cross and the loss of its bottom; what is lovely is the shape of what is missing.

Recorded by Fisher (2014, 213, no. 30, Fig. 7.5), this broken cross-slab (H 0.36m; Wth 0.44m; T 0.06m) was found during the excavations of the floor of ‘Cell B’, the clochan (GA021-026013-) to the E of the church (GA021-026014-) on High Island. It is of garnet mica-schist and only one face is decorated. It bears a linear cross but because the shaft is truncated it is uncertain whether it is a Latin or Greek cross. The cross-slab is now in the care of the OPW (Athenry depot, Co. Galway, see GA084-151021-). Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 20 November 2015

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