crosses historical ireland

It is noteworthy, not simply for its early Irish High Crosses, but for the manner of a masterpiece of restoration. The major beauty, the great High Cross, had been smashed and spread over the ground in an outrage of iconocilasm but the remnants were collected, chip by chip, splinter by splinter, and restored to today's stature by a blind man....

An Early Christian monastery founded possibly by St. Berichter or Berchert who, with his father (a Saxon Prince) and two brothers, came to Ireland after the Synod of Whitby in 664. Another saint of the same name, who was possibly also Abbot of the monastery, died in 839.

The existing church is of various dates. The south end of the east wall is probably the oldest part (12th century?) while the south door and window are early 13th century. The present chancel was built in the 15th ce...

The church on the site of a monastery founded by St. Buodan was built probably in the 17th century but the lintel over the door, with worn carved figures on it, was taken from an earlier church.

In the north-east angle of the church is a grave-slab erected by Magnus MacOrristin (possibly a Scotsman) with a sword and a hurley stick on it.

In the adjoining field to the west is a very pleasing High Cross. On its east face in the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, and on the we...

Standing in the pretty village of Tynan is a High Cross which, like so many of its kind in Ulster, consists of two fragments, originally separate, mounted on top of one another. The head-fragment, with a prominent boss at its centre, was cleverly restored in the 19th century. The lower fragment bears a panel of Adam and Eve on one face and what is possibly a representation of David among the Israelites on the other....

The monastery at Kells would appear to have been first founded in 804 by monks from St. Colmcille's foundation at Iona who were fleeing from the Viking invasions and seeking a safer place for their treasures. In 877 reliquaries of the saint were transferred to Kells. The monastery was raided by the Vikings in 919, 950 and 969.

The greatest treasure of the monastery - the Book of Kells, now in Trinity College, Dublin - which had possibly been written here in the early 9th century, wa...

The shafts and head of one or two crosses, possibly of 11th century date. The decoration is well executed, and presents a fine study in loosely knit geometrical interlacing patterns....

In the cemetery is a late medieval church. the round-headed south window may have come from an earlier church on the same site. The trunk of a cross with a coat of arms and an inscription, put up in 1622 in memory of Florence Fitzpatrick and his wife, has been re-erected near the National School nearby....

Three 16th and early 17th century wayside crosses erected in a grove just outside the village of Killucan. The first has an inscription 'This stone was for Tir: McKin : and Alson Plunkett his wife in the year 1531'. Those commemorated, Tirlogh McKenny and his wife, died in a coaching accident (it happened even then!). The cross originally stood beside the Dublin - Athlone road. The second cross says 'Arthur Darcy et K. Fitzgerald me feri na Dni 1604. The rest of the Latin inscription is from...

Celtic Heritage, Holy places, ancient rituals, old myths and legends, early Celtic Church. Tours and lectures with recognized scholars on Celtic Heritage, myths and stories with the storytellers Niall de Burca or Liz Weir....

The High Cross in the field is one of the most satisfying of the earliest carved Irish Crosses, the interpretation of the symbols still exciting scholars. The worn stone carvings include St. Anthony and St. Paul in the desert; the Temptation of St. Anthony; Jacob and the Angel; a figure flanked by two horsemen and a hunting scene. Strong traditions holds this to be the burial place of Niall Caille MacAeda, High King of Ireland, who died in 846 A.D. The early church was reconstructed in the Mid...