Cross-slab (present location) in Inishmurray

Brought to the Schoolhouse/OPW conservation store from Teach Molaise (SL001-001005-) in the Cashel (SL001-001001-) in 1989. Slab fragment (H: 0.38 m, W: 0.345 m, Th: 0.06 m) with part (c. 35%) of a ringed cross whose lost shaft extended beyond the ring. The cross arms comprised pairs of false relief strands that, in the surviving right arm, form a Stafford knot terminal. Part of a large and complex interweave survives at the crossing. The ring is delimited by false relief strands between which are step twist features. Most of the surviving examples are suggestive of an anticlockwise motion, but just right of the cross shaft is one that steps upwards in both directions, facilitating a change in the direction of the steps to the left of it. The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in: Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press. Date of upload: 12 March 2018