Irish High Crosses
Ardboe / Ard Bó In the sixth century St Colman established a monastery on the western shore of Lough Neagh. As there are at least one hundred and thirty saint's named Colman it is difficult to identify the exact saint, see the link to Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae below. Presently the ruins of a sixteenth century parish church, built on the site of St Colman's monastery, stands in an irregular-shaped graveyard. At the entrance to the graveyard stands the tallest high cross in Northern Ireland, and third third tallest in the whole of Ireland. This 10th century sandstone cross stands to a height of 5.6 metres approx. The west face of the head features a badly weathered crucifixtion scene, see image below. Stephaton stands on the right of Jesus with Longinus on the left. There are three figures on each arm which maybe represent the two thieves, each being held by two roman soldiers.
The west face pictured below right bears many biblical scenes, from the bottom panel up they are as follows: 1. Adoration of Magi. 2. Wedding at Canna. 3. the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. 4. Christ enters Jerusalem and 5. The Mocking or Arrest of Christ ? The east face, below left, bears iconographic panels with scenes from the old Testament. |
|
East face |
West face |
| Pictured below are a couple of scenes from the east face, Daniel in the Lions den and Adam and Eve, as you can see the east face is more weathered than the west face. There are figure scuptures also featured on both the north and south sides. | |
Daniel |
Adam and Eve |
|
Situated: On the Western shore of Lough Neagh, County Tyrone. From Armagh take the A29 North to Cookstown then take the B73 West, drive about 8 kilometres down this road, then take a right sign-posted turn for Ardboe. Group: Ulster. Discoverer. Map: 14 H 966 756. Longitude: 6° 30' 17" W Latitude: 54° 37' 11" N |
Nearest High Crosses featured on this website. Donaghmore: 22Kilometres SSW. Armagh: 33 Kilometres South. Tynan: 38 Kilometres SSW. Connor: 44 Kilometres NE.
Last Visit: April 2003. |
Ref: https://omniumsanctorumhiberniae.com Ref: Bigger, Francis Joseph, and William J. Fennell. “Ardboe, Co. Tyrone: Its Cross and Churches.” Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 4, no. 1, 1897, pp. 1–7. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20563755. Ref: https://irishhighcrosses.com/ |
|
Previous-----Crosses Home-----Next