crosses historical ireland

The cross was originally found at Bealin but it has been removed to its present site in Twyford Demesne. On the east face are three animals above one another with bird-like heads, and a lion at the bottom. On the north face is a horseman with a staff, and above him a dog bites a deer's leg. There are also interlacing and geometric patterns on the cross. On the bottom of the west side there is an inscription to the effect that the cross was erected by one Tuathgail. The cross may date from a...

From the old monastery there remain a small undecorated T-shaped cross which is 7 feet high, a Round Tower - 57 feet high, built of rounded beach stones and with a round-headed doorway, as well as scanty remains of two churches....

The heads of two High Crosses have been mounted on modern shafts in a hill-top graveyard. Neither bears figure sculpture, but one bears a decorated boss at the centre of one face and encircled bossed ornament on the other....

Four Km from Athlone on the Mountemple road, you can see the Twyford Cross, of 10th century origin; it was discovered in a local log in the last century and is now erected on top of a prominent hill. Nearby, on the remains of Moydrum Estate, is an almost perfect early 19th century ice-house, the forerunner of our present day domestic refrigerator....

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 Churches:
The modern road runs through the area comprising the old monastery founded by the King of Leinster for St. Meadhog in the 6th century, and which was plundered by the Vikings in 930. In 1152 the ill-starred Dermot MacMurrough Kavanagh founded an Abbey, but it was burned down two years later. He rebuilt it in 1160 and handed it over to the Augustinians. Portions of this church still survive; they are the ruins furthermost from the road and can be recognised by the cha...

There may have been an early Christian monastery in the valley where, according to tradition, St. Colmcille banished demons who enveloped the valley in a fog. The most conspicuous remains are the pillars decorated with cross-motifs and geometric designs which are now the centres or 'stations' of the pilgrimage which takes place on the Saint's feastday on June 9th. The pillars are spread over an area in the valley 3.5 miles long and the pilgrimage takes as many hours to complete.

With...

Founded by St. Doulagh, who lived around 600. The old church is entered through that part of the church now used for Divine Service which was built in 1864.

The east end of the church, dating from the mid-12th century, is vaulted, above which is an attic room whose walls also serve to prevent the steep-pitched stone roof from caving inwards.

The remainder of the church is of 15th century date. At its centre is a room called 'The Hermit's Cell' which is reputed to be the burial...

A pilgrims 'Stations of the Cross' uses the ancient court graves - standing stones, cross-pillars and cross-slabs as marks on the pilgrims' route when the 'Staions' are travelled on June 9, the Feast Day of St Colmcille....

The church, which was dedicated to Saint Bridget, is unusual in that the chancel is broader than the nave. The chancel has a rounded chancel-arch and two round-headed east windows. It is of 12th or 13th century date. After the Norman conquest it was granted to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, and was attached to Kill of the Grange. In a field on the opposite side of the road is a tall, narrow cross with a bishop on one face and a head on the other, while a little down the road an ancient u...