Cross-slab, Sevenchurches, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Crosses & Monuments

Cross-slab, Sevenchurches, Co. Wicklow

Among the many carved stones associated with the early monastic complex at Glendalough, one modest slab rewards closer attention for what its geometry quietly communicates.

The stone now forms part of the exhibition display at the site's visitor centre, which means it can be examined at close range rather than glimpsed in the open air, and the precision of its carving becomes apparent in that context in a way it might not otherwise.

Patrick Healy, writing in an unpublished Office of Public Works report in 1972, recorded the slab in careful detail. It is a rectangle of mica schist, a metamorphic rock with a faintly lustrous, layered surface, measuring 0.82 metres by 0.54 metres and 0.13 metres thick. Cut into its face is a ringed Latin cross, meaning a cross whose arms are intersected by a circle, a form common in early medieval Irish stonework. What makes this example worth examining is the layering of its design: the ring overlies the expanded arms of the cross rather than simply meeting them, and at the centre sits a double circle. The inner circle and the spaces between the arms and the surrounding ring are slightly recessed, giving the whole composition a shallow relief that catches light across its surface. The Sevenchurches area is the older name for what is more widely known today as Glendalough, the valley in County Wicklow that grew into one of the most significant monastic settlements in early Christian Ireland.

Because the stone is held within the visitor centre rather than left outside among the ruins, its surface detail has been preserved well. The slight recession of the inner fields, noted by Healy, is the kind of carving that repays a moment of looking rather than a passing glance.

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