Cross, Ballysize, Co. Wicklow

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Crosses & Monuments

Cross, Ballysize, Co. Wicklow

A granite cross rising just over a metre from a natural rock slab in a quiet Wicklow graveyard might not announce itself as anything out of the ordinary, but the stone it stands in carries a name that stops you: locally, that slab is called the Bishop's Grave.

No bishop is formally recorded there, which is part of what makes the designation so intriguing. The cross itself is unringed, meaning it lacks the characteristic circular halo that connects the arms on the more familiar high crosses of Ireland, and it sits socketed into the granite in a square recess cut to receive it.

The cross stands at the south-western edge of the graveyard at Ballysize, and its details reward close looking. Curved rebates, shallow grooved channels, run along both faces of the shaft just beneath where the arms extend, a decorative or structural feature that gives the junction a slightly sculpted quality. On the lower eastern face of the shaft, a further carved motif appears: an equal-armed cross inscribed within a circle, a simple but deliberate composition quite distinct from the overall form of the monument. The extremities of the cross have suffered damage over time, so the original profile of the arms is partly lost. The site was noted by Hawkes in 1938, and the cross has since been placed under a preservation order, recognising its significance as an early ecclesiastical monument.

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