Cross-slab, Termons, Co. Kerry

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Crosses & Monuments

Cross-slab, Termons, Co. Kerry

On the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, there is a stone that no one can find any more.

It was recorded, described, and then it vanished, leaving behind only the notes that once catalogued it. The slab was roughly 90 centimetres tall and carried a linear Latin cross on its eastern face, the upper shaft ending in a bar terminal, a simple horizontal stroke that gives the cross a more formal, finished appearance. On the western face, a second cross was present but poorly preserved, and researchers suggested it may have included a reversed chi-rho monogram, one of the earliest Christian symbols, formed from the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek and occasionally rendered in mirror image in early medieval stonework.

The site at Termons takes its name from the Irish word for sanctuary land, territory attached to an early Christian church and afforded special legal protections in medieval Irish law. That context makes the cross-slab's presence less surprising; such carved stones were common markers of sacred ground. The antiquarian John Windele visited the site in 1848 and noted both the stone and the fact that religious stations were conducted there during Easter, suggesting that the place retained some active devotional significance well into the nineteenth century. Windele recorded his observations in a manuscript now held by the Royal Irish Academy, and it is likely that the stone he described is the same one later catalogued in the 1996 archaeological survey of South Kerry. Whether it was moved, buried, or simply lost to the landscape in the intervening years is not known.

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Pete F
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