It is an arresting detail, a fragment of Christian stonework from one era left quietly embedded within the ruins of another, and it sits at the heart of a place whose history involves one of the most famous and ill-fated military orders in medieval Europe.

The demesne known as Templehouse takes its name directly from the Knights Templar, the religious and military order founded in the twelfth century to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. A preceptory, which was the Templars' term for a regional administrative centre and estate, was established at this location in County Sligo at some point before 1271. Along with Temple House Castle and its surrounding lands, it formed a functioning Templar manor for several decades. The order was suppressed in 1312, under pressure from Pope Clement V and King Philip IV of France, bringing the Templar presence at Templehouse to an abrupt end after roughly forty years. What remains today is a complex of ruined monuments, several structures clustered together on the same ground, with that displaced high cross base lying within the walls of the hall-house, a type of unfortified medieval residential building that served domestic rather than defensive purposes.