Cross-slab (present location) in Inishmurray

Originally recorded on the Treenode Beg leacht (SL001-014001-), but removed to the Schoolhouse/OPW conservation store in 1989. Badly worn, slightly tapering slab (H: 0.745 m, W: 0.335 m, Th: 0.065 m) whose upper two thirds is filled with an incised trapezoidal frame surrounding a cross in false relief. This element bifurcates into pairs of strands just before the crossing which intersect one another before passing into opposite flanking cross arms. The false relief also divides near the terminals where the resulting strands form Stafford knots. At the bottom corners of the frame the line curves inwards and then back on itself to form a half turn spiral. There are slight vestiges of the spirals that Wakeman (1893, 141-43) depicted as developing from the square upper corners of the frame. Wakeman describes this slab as having a simple Latin cross on the second face (this can be seen in his general sketch of the altar at fig. 73), but he may have been mistaken, for there is now no evidence 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: 19 February 2018