ICLTA/2

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 51--52: `According to Macalister ... the cross was discovered `smashed in pieces' by the Board of Works in 1879-80 and was reconstructed then. ... It is broken into four pieces, with fractures at the top and bottom of the shaft and separating the left arm from the cross-head. ... The surface is severly abraded'.

Macalister/1916, 148: `bearing elaborate ornamentation on one face. The other face is quite plain.

The sculptured face is so badly weathered that at first sight it seems absolutely impossible to make out the ornament. The decipherment offered on the accompanying Plate is the result of a microscopic examination of every square centimetre of the face of the cross -- a task that occupied the better part of two days, followed by four days spent over a number of rubbings. Even with every care, I cannot feel sure that I have made out the whole pattern beyond the possibility of cavil; the stone is too far gone to allow anyone that satisfaction. The most doubtful part is the central pattern of spirals. The spirals are there, though they have to be very carefully looked for; the fret in the middle is also fairly distinct. But when it comes to linking the spirals up, one with another, the would-be decipherer is confronted with ambiguities between which he must be content to choose the most probable.

The panel on the sinister side of the base remains intact, but that on the dexter side is almost entirely lost; and the small portion that remains is not sufficient to tell us what device it bore. The remaining panel bears in rather high cavo rilievo the figure of an animal, from whose mouth depends the leg of a man. This device is familiar in Halstatt art; it appears several times on the famous figured buckets of the early Iron Age. But it is curious to find it in a monument of Celtic Christian art.

On each of the edges of the stone is an inscription...Above the horizontal arm the edge is quite plain. The end of the sinister arm has a simple quasi-key pattern and a similar design was probably cut on the opposite end, but is now quite worn away'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 52: `This monolithic free-standing ring-less cross has semi-circular armpits and, at its base, rectangular panels on either side of the shaft. ... The outline of the cross is delineated by a continuous roll moulding. The surface is severly abraded but it is clear that the arms and shaft of the cross were elaborately decorated with various kinds of interlace. ... All that can be seen on the left side-panel are two boss-like objects, but on the right panel there is a quadruped, perhaps a unicorn, with the leg of a devoured human protruding from its mouth. ... The narrow face on the end of the right arm is decorated with rectilinear ornament but the equivalent surface on the left arm is worn away. The back of the cross is not visible; Macalister described it as `quite plain''.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 52: `The text uses half-uncial script'.

CISP: The lettering is Insular half-uncial. The three A's are all in the OC form, the Rs and Ss are majuscule and the Ds all have 'ascenders' which bend to the left over the bow. Indeed they appear more like Os with a short stroke to the left from the top left hand corner. There are two forms of E; the open uncial form and the closed minuscule form. The two Hs each have short horizontal strokes atop the ascender. Interpuncts are found on either side of I.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 52: `The text uses half-uncial'.

CISP: The lettering is in Insular half-uncial. Letter forms of note include the half-uncial G, the two certain majuscule Rs, the T-shaped I and the two Ds in the form of Os that have a short stroke to the left from the top left-hand corner. The curve of the top of the C appears to continue to vertical.