Cross in Unknown

On raised ground at the base of a hill which rises to the S-SE, in rolling pasture overlooking a broad plain from NW-N. Located 2.30m NW of the high cross (KK030-008004-). The high cross is on a hillock where there are a number of 18th and 19th century headstones. The land drops away steeply immediately S of this hillock to a small valley with St. Nicholas’s holy well (KK030-008007-) c. 10m to the S in this valley. The land rises again immediately S of this, on which rise there are the remains of a church (KK030-008003-). All these monuments are enclosed within the graveyard (KK030-008010-). According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 4, 311-2) a monastery here was founded by St. Gobán Fionn early in the 7th century whose feast day is celebrated on the 6th of December. In the Annals of the Four Masters the obit of an abbot, Domhnall son of Niall is given in 1004 (Edwards 1990, 41). Of the monastic site only a high cross (KK030-008004-), two cross-slabs (KK030-008005-; KK030-008011-), a stone cross (KK030-008013-), the remains of a church (KK030-008003-) and two bullaun stones (KK030-008006-; KK030-008008-) are currently visible at the location. A crude plain limestone cross (H 0.59m (above ground); Wth across arms 0.44m; T 0.06m) similar to those found at other Early Medieval monastic sites, particularly in the West of Ireland. It is standing upright in the graveyard, the broad faces facing E and W. The W face is spalled at the top, the outer surface of the upper arm (Wth 0.23m; H 0.19m) having broken away. At the base of the shaft (Wth 0.29m; H 0.15m) the stone widens out (Wth 0.4m; H 0.1 above ground). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 3 August 2017