Provenance
Discovery: Westropp (1914, 77) recorded this stone as one of two tall stone pillars, one on either side of a ‘walled burial space, 7 feet wide (2.1m), which spanned the width of the church… on the E side of the burial space at Cross Abbey’, which was possibly an early Christian church site (Monasticon Hibernicum).
Findspot: Cross Abbey (Mainistir na Croise), Cross (Boyd) (An Chrois), Co. Mayo, Ireland (ITM Coordinates: 464096, 830903)
Last recorded location(s): The ogham stone is incorporated into the outer edge of the low E wall of the grave structure, at a distance of 1.1m from the N wall of the church. The base of the stone is flanked on the S, W and N sides by the grave wall; the E face is more or less flush with the external face of the grave wall (Archaeological Survey of Ireland, Field Report 2017). 3D recorded as part of the Mayo Ogham project 2022, funded by The Heritage Council and Mayo County Council.
Support
National Monuments Service SMR ID: MA016-004004-
Object type: Pillar
Material: Stone type unknown
Dimensions: H 1.95 × W 0.20 × D 0.15 m
Condition: The stone is quite weathered and spalled. Although not included by Macalister in his 1945 Corpus, Westropp (1914, 77) recorded this stone as showing ‘notches on the natural-squared edge and faint traces of straight and slant scores’.
Inscription
Text field: Traces of a possible ogham inscription (presumably reading upwards) can be seen on the north-west angle of the pillar.
Letters: The strokes near the ground are slanted and probably pocked but only evident on the B side (Aicme Beithe) of the angle.
Edition
Ogham text: ᚂ̣[.. ? ..
Transcription: Ḷ[.. ? ..]Ṛ.. ? ..Ṿ[.. ? ..]Ṇ[.. ? ..]ẠṂỤBA
References
- Westropp 1914, 77