What is recorded here

Eight metres from the rath, an unfinished limestone cross still stands with five circular bosses on its front and a raw uncut back. The incomplete stone suggests a carver stopped before finishing the edge, leaving the sacred shape half-hidden inside ordinary rock. A nearby holy bush gives the place its name, while the cross waits patiently for people to remember the hand that shaped it.

Named ‘Cross’ on the OS 25-inch plan (1897) - which appears to show its location c. 8m to the NW of a rath (CL017-088002-) - and similarly recorded on the Cassini edition (1916) of the OS 6-inch map. Noted by Westropp (1900-2, 139; No. 44) who recorded that, ‘ … the head of a bossed Celtic cross [CL017-088003-] and the holy bush [CL017-088001-] which gives the place its name, remain near a large rath [CL017-088002-], with a Man-made underground passage [CL017-088004-] …’ An eroded limestone wheeled-cross head (L c. 0.71m; Wth c. 0.68m; T c. 0.1m) described by MacNamara (1900, 32) as ‘rudely cut and apparently not quite finished … the back is uncut, but the front is ornamented with five circular bosses marked with concentric circles and formed into a Celtic cross by means of incised lines of no great depth’. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Eve Campbell Date of upload: 21-10-2025

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