Cross-slab, Bray, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Crosses & Monuments
In Bray, a stone was pulled from the ground that no longer exists in Bray at all.
A slab with a cross cut into its surface, the kind of object that in early medieval Ireland served as a grave marker or devotional focus, was recovered from this location and has since been held in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
Cross-inscribed slabs are among the more quietly persistent survivals of early Christian practice in Ireland. They range from rough fieldstones with a simple incised cross to more elaborate pieces bearing intricate knotwork or inscriptions, and they appear across the country in church ruins, graveyards, and occasionally in fields where ecclesiastical sites have long since vanished. The Bray example, catalogued in the National Museum's register in 1965, gives little away about the circumstances of its discovery, but its removal to the national collection suggests it was considered significant enough to preserve formally rather than leave in situ.

