Home

Who
What
Where
When
Why
St. Ruadhan's Cross
 

County

Tipperary

Coordinates

N 53° 05' 29.2"   W 008° 07' 13.5"

Nearest town

Portumna

Grid Ref.

M 91983 04512

Map No.

53

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

42

Date of visit

Saturday 5 June 2010

GPS Accuracy (m)

11
Show Google Map              Show Monuments in the area

    
    
    
   
PREVIOUS      NEXT
The west wall of the old church. The stump of the first cross is visible at the right-hand side of the photo.


In the graveyard of the St. Ruadhan's abbey, now in ruins, there are the sorry remains of two high crosses. They date back to 750 and it's said they're among the oldest crosses in all Ireland.
St. Ruadhan, educated by St. Finian in Clonard and known as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, founded a monastery at this place in 540 and he was the first abbot of this monastery, which was the most famous one of Munster in his times. The present ruined building was built around the year 1000.
St. Ruadhan is famous also for his prophecy about the death of Diarmait Mac Cerbaill, a High King of Tara, who died in 565 right as St. Ruadhan had said.
The church has a nice doorway on its south wall which once was the east window of the nearby Augustinian abbey. A carved head above this doorway represents Walter de Burgh, the founder of the main church in Lorrha.
A more modern church has been built attached to these ruins.
The first stump of a cross is 6 metres west from the ruined abbey, it's 1.15 metres tall, 35 centimetres wide and 30 centimetres thick. Its base is a massive one and measures 1.52 metres by 1.40 metres and has a height of 45 centimetres.
The second cross is much shorter. It's 35 metres northwest from the first one. It's only 53 centimetres tall, with a width of 35 centimetres and a thickness of 25 centimetres. The base where it stands on has a height of 1.05 metres and measures 1 metre by 90 centimetres.


Browse by Monument Type
Browse by County
Browse by Date of Visit
Browse by Map Number

A-Z List

Clickable Counties
Clickable OS Maps Grid

Find a Map

Multimap

The days before GPS

The Stones in the Movies

Glossary
Links
Guestbook
FAQ

What's NEW?


Search


Site view counter: 21806873

Copyright © 1994-2024 Antonio D'Imperio
All the photos, the graphics and the texts on this website are automatically copyrighted to me under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886. Any violation of the copyright will be pursued according to the applicable laws.

info@irishstones.org

Powered by AxeCMS/CustomEngine(V0.25.00 build 999) by Sergio "Axeman" Lorenzetti. (C) 2009-2015

counter