Cross — Carpenterstown

Drawn by Du Noyer (George Victor Du Noyer, “Calvary cross. On road side near Temple fanurn Co. W Meath. Sheet 3/4,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, accessed January 24, 2020, http://rsai.locloudhosting.net/items/show/23471.) in the 19th century and described in 1928 as 'The central portion of the head of a cross with a solid ring 1ft. 1in. (0.32m) in diameter. On it are the letters I H S in relief and the remains of an inscription in four lines of five letters each. It is placed on the socket stone on the roadside near the National School, two miles N of Fore' (Crawford 1928, 58-9, no. 7). Recorded in 1976 as 'Located beside the roadway (E side) is a small limestone cross very weathered and worn. Only the head and upper portion of the shaft remains, one arm of the cross is gone. The cross is set in a large limestone socketed base of roughly square shape. The socket itself is a roughly neat shape but is too large for the upper portion of the shaft , the shaft was therefore of a tapered form. The mongram I H S and an inscription in raised lettering in English on one side of the cross head. Some of the letters can be read but it is difficult to make any full sense of it. Some of the letters on the right side especially are missing' (SMR file). Described in 1980 as 'The head and part of the shaft of a small solid ring cross (H 0.49m; Wth 0.34m; T 0.1m) with a large socketed base. The shaft has broken and the lower part of it is missing. The cross is quite damaged and only the remains of 2 arms can still be seen. On one face there is an inscription in capital letters and rather difficult to decipher. Possibly reads I H S (O)RA PRO A(N)/ (I)MA IOAN/ REL…/NN?. The other face is plain. The base is a large shaped rectangular block (dims. 0.54m x 0.53m), only roughly shaped with a deep rectangular socket (dims. 0.3m x 0.19m) cut in its upper edge. The cross is on the roadside, on E side of road' (SMR file). A sketch of the inscription shows the date 1650 near the base of the head of the cross (SMR file). A chapel indicated as 'Templefanum' (WM003-075----) is located 90m to the N. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 23 June 2010