St. Finden’s Cross
National Monument No. 137 in State care. Situated on a level area on a gentle W-facing slope. with stream 23m to E. St. Finden’s [Finnian/Findian of Clonard] High Cross stands in NW quadrant of Aghowle graveyard (WI042-019003-), 12m NW of NW angle of a Romanesque church (WI042-019001-) built on the site of a monastery founded by St . Finnian in the sixth century. In the NW quadrant of Aghowle graveyard (WI042-019003-) stands St Finden’s high cross (dims. H 2.8m; Wth across arms 1.6m), an imperforate ringed cross resting on a pyramidal base (H 0.5m; 1.28m x 1.1m at ground level). It is undecorated except for sunken panels on the sides of the shaft and on the underside of the ring and arms (Harbison 1992, 10). The cross was described in 1838-40 as ‘an old stone cross near the N.W. corner of the Church ruin the top of the shaft broken off and lying beside the pedestal’ (OSL). O’Donovan (OSL 1838, 14/G/21/9(31-2)) recorded that; ‘about 36 feet distant from the northwest corner of this church stand the pedestal and shaft of a granite cross (St. Finden’s) of the primitive ages of the Irish Church, and the remaining part (which completed the cross) lies prostrate on the ground immediately to the west of them. It was apparently blown off by a storm’. It has been suggested that the cross at Aghowle is an example of an unfinished high cross (www.crsbi.ac.uk). According to Drury (1906, 169-70) in the process of re-erecting the high cross, ‘a portion of the shaft was shortened in order to form a dowel on which the upper portion was fixed’.
150638,WI02345,HICR,WI023-028011-,WICKLOW,BROCKAGH,R148747,712450,696845,53.010487099999999,-6.324298970000000,Cross – High cross,,,https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2CWI023-028011-,Location: Stone Store
Monument Type: Cross – High cross