What is recorded here

South Cross stands in Ballymore Eustace graveyard beside St. John's Church, its granite shaft rising nearly two metres from a tall rectangular base. Carved before 1200, it still shows half-diamond shapes on each face and the broken edge of a ring once cut into the stone. A recent survey by Seán Sourke found faint marks on the base that may belong to another cross, hidden beneath the first. The stone has watched burials, weather and forgetting, keeping its shape while the meaning of its carves slips away.

Bradley (et. al. 1986, vol. 1, 79) described the South Cross standing in Ballymore Eustace graveyard (KD029-011004-), to the SE of St. John's C. of I. church as consisting of an unpierced ringed cross carved from a single block of granite (total H 1.97m; base: H 0.82m; L 0.46-0.56m; Wth 0.38-0.4m; shaft; H 1.15m; Wth 0.35m T 0.24-0.27m). The base is a tall rectangular piece of stone, not much wider than the shaft, with low moulding around its edges. The gently tapering shaft has rounded edges and is undecorated except for half-diamond shapes on the lower end of each face. Only the lower sections of recessed spandrels forming the ring survive. It is probably pre-1200 in date. Recent photogrammetric survey of this cross carried out by Seán Sourke clearly shows the V shaped terminal at the base on all four faces of the cross. The survey also revealed faint traces of a possible ringed cross visible on the W face of the base and fainter traces of possible decoration on the other three faces of the cross-base. See attached photogrammetric images courtesy of Seán Sourke. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 16 October 2020

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