TOURP/8

In 1944 Duignan opened trenches at the base of the cross-shaft and to the west of the platform. This enabled the construction of the composite cross to be determined ... Five fragments of the broken west face of the shaft were discovered at the foot of the cross where they had fallen and the separate upper limb was found lying near by ... The shaft was removed from its setting by Duignan and the pieces fitted back together. The shaft was then re-erected in its original position, the upper limb was set in the ground beside it and the fragments were deposited in the NMI. In November 1987 a further small excavation took place around the base of the re-erected cross so that a cattle grid could be installed'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 290: `The cross-shaft stands about 7 m to the south-east of the ruined church at the centre of a collection of worked stones which are protected by a cattle grid. The upper limb of the cross is set into the ground immediately behind it. Five large flakes from the top of the west face of the shaft are preseved in the NMI. The inscription is on the west facer of the shaft'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 291: `The cross was a composite monument consisting of a monolithic shaft with narrow transom and a separate upper limb. When fitted together by the mortice-and-tenon joint, the two stones had a total length of 406 cm. ... The long edges of the shaft were cut back to give deep rebates. These curve inwards above and below the transom, creating the impression of hollowed armpits. The effect of these rebatements is to leave a `narrow tongue' of stone c. 16 cm thick, standing proud on either side of the shaft'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 291--292: `The cross is plain except for the text and three-equal armed crosses incised on the lower member. There is an outline cross with hollowed armpits at the centre of the crossing on the west face and a similar one in the middle of the shaft on the east face. ... On the west face, near the bottom of the shaft, is incised a third cross which has square expansions at the terminals and crossing. The expansions form five boxes which are internally decorated with one of three simple cruciform patterns'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 292: `The text is incised immediately above this cross in six horizontal lines'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 292: `The text is written in a form of insular decorative capitals, the distinctive script used for display purposes in de luxe insular manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne gospels and the Book of Kells, and also on metalwork and some stone sculpture'.

Okasha/Forsyth/2001, 295: `the best possibility for dating the cross is the form of the script used. The fashion for insular decorative capitals lasted from the beginning of the eighth century until the early ninth. One of the first fully developed examples is the Lindisfarne gospels, dated between 698 and 721 ... Although too little survives on the East Cross for a thorough comparison, some features appear to link it to examples of insular decorative capitals from the earlier rather than the later part of the eighth century. The lozenge-shaped O with head- and foot-lines is found, for example, in the display script of the Lindisfarne Gospels and on the Ardagh Chalice ... It also occurs on the Tarbat stone [TARBT/1] and on a lost eighth-century slab from Hartlepool'.