Cross, Sceilg Mhichíl, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Crosses & Monuments

Cross, Sceilg Mhichíl, Co. Kerry

On the rocky Atlantic outcrop of Skellig Michael, among the most austere monastic sites in early medieval Europe, a large stone cross lies on a leacht in a way that quietly complicates the usual image of such objects standing upright and whole.

The cross has not simply fallen; it exists in two distinct states. Its base was found still fixed in the ground during excavation carried out ahead of conservation works, forming the western side of the leacht itself, while the upper portion rests horizontally on top of it. A leacht is a low, roughly rectangular cairn or stone platform used in early Irish monasticism as a focus for prayer and commemoration, often associated with a particular saint or founder. That the cross is both embedded in and resting upon this structure gives it an unusual double relationship with the monument it inhabits.

The cross itself is substantial, measuring 1.47 metres in height, 0.57 metres in width, and just 0.06 metres in thickness, making it a relatively slender but imposing slab. As described by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan in their 1996 archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, the face of the stone is dominated by an incised Latin cross whose open-ended arms reach to the very edges of the slab. Between the arms and the upper corners, a series of diminishing L-shaped grooves are cut into the stone, a decorative device that draws the eye inward in a stepped progression. Beneath each arm of the cross sits a diagonal cross enclosed within a grooved rectangle, and from the inner end of each rectangle a long linear groove descends; the northern one turns sharply outward to form an angular volute, a scroll-like termination that adds an unexpected flourish to an otherwise austere composition. Traces of further grooved rectangles survive on the arms of the slab itself.

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