Home

Who
What
Where
When
Why
Clonmacnoise - South Cross High Cross
 

County

Offaly

Coordinates

N 53° 19' 34.14"   W 007° 59' 09.78"

Nearest town

Shannonbridge

Grid Ref.

N 00923 30656

Map No.

47

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

51

Date of visit

Wednesday 20 June 2018

GPS Accuracy (m)

3
Show Google Map              Show Monuments in the area

    
    
    
    
    
PREVIOUS      NEXT
The red and yellow stick is 1 metre long, for scale.


Clonmacnoise lies in a meander on the left bank of River Shannon, and it is one of the oldest early Christian settlements in Europe.

St. Ciarán along with Diarmait Uí Cerbaill founded it around 544 and he chose a central site in Ireland, at the crossroads of the main Irish river and the Esker Riada, the geological gravel and sand formation that stretches east-west across Ireland, so that the new monastery could be accessed from everywhere.
It soon became an important centre for studying religion and it attracted scholars and pupils from all over Europe, and grew into a large monastic city. It was also an important centre for craftmanship and trade.

In its best period it had up to 17 churches, but today only 7 of them survive in ruins. Along with these ruins, there are also three crosses and two round towers, one of which attached to a church.

The South Cross is the first thing a visitor sees upon entering the large enclosure of the monastic site.
This cross is a replica, the original one is kept inside the Visitors' Centre for protection, but I think that the replica is getting more weathered than the original one.
Though being a high cross, it doesn't bear any of the typical carvings or biblical scenes as other high crosses do, apart from a crucifixion.

The cross is 2.76 metres tall and stands on a base which is 97 centimetres tall, for a total height of 3.73 metres.
The arms open at 1.12 metres, the shaft is 44 centimetres wide and 31 centimetres thick.

The west face is the one a visitor sees first. It has five bosses on its head.
The first panel under the head shows a crucifixion. Along with Christ, there are four more figures in this scene. Two small figures sit crouched above Christ's arms.
Two more figures are at the feet of the cross, the one on the left holds a spear and pierces Christ's chest. The other two panels on the west side of the shaft have interlaced patterns.
The east face of the cross has bosses on the head and in the first panel of the shaft. The other two panels have interlaced patterns.
The south side of the cross has interlaced patterns on all panels but the bottom one, where there are four bosses aligned vertically.
The north side has only interlaced motifs.

Animal and human carvings are on the base of the cross, but they are badly worn.

The original cross might date from the 9th or 10th century.

We came to Clonmacnoise for the first time on July 4th, 1994, and again on May 18th, 2002.


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: 21810678

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