What is recorded here

Lifting the floor of the small clochan on High Island exposed a hidden chamber where worship and memory had been buried together. The triangular garnet mica-schist slab carried an expansional Latin cross, its line widening as if pulling light from the dark rock. It is no longer beside the church but kept at the Athenry depot, still holding the shape of what the island once revered.

Recorded by Fisher (2014, 214, no. 32, Fig. 7.6), this is one of two cross-slabs (see also GA021-026057-) that were found from the paved floor of ‘Cell A’, the clochan (GA021-026012-) to the N of the church (GA021-026014-) on High Island. The cross-slab (H 0.56m; Wth 0.31m; T 0.1m) of garnet mica-schist is roughly triangular in shape. One face is decorated above the butt with an expansional Latin cross framed by a band with an ovoid centre and D-shaped terminals. The cross-slab is now in the care of the OPW (Athenry depot, Co. Galway, see GA084-151022-). Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 20 November 2015

Probably dating to the early medieval period, this cross-slab may have had a liturgical or commemorative function within a monastic or ecclesiastical setting. Its discovery in a clochan suggests a Christian association, possibly linked to early Irish monastic tradition.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.