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We spent an hour with one of the tallest and well preserved High Crosses in Ireland

July 15, 1999:

We made a quick stop along the road at the Moone High Cross. This was a well signposted monument and a hefty business of B & B's with a tongue-in-cheek approach to the antiquities has grown up around it.

This is the picnic table at the 'High Cross Inn' just outside Moone.

But the real star of the show is the cross you see above. It was made sometime around the sixth century out of finely carved granite. The artists showed themselves capable of fine stonework, but chose to illustrate their cross with the cartoonish flat characters which were coming into vogue at that time. Each panel tells a story from the Old or New Testament:

Jesus being crucified and the Romans stabbing him with a spear.

Isaac sacrificing his son, and then being reprieved to sacrifice a goat instead.

Adam and Eve. You can guess what's about to happen...

Three brothers saved in the oven by an angel.

Daniel and the seven lions

Twelve Apostles, all in a row.

The miracle of the loaves and the fishes.

Romans with an early Christian.

Good and evil whispering in someone's ear.

Here's an unidentified seven headed monster.

Book of Revelations anyone?

While we were there, archaeologists were digging for more secrets on the cross and its abbey.

Next to Boyne Valley: Megalithics Extremictus

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