Great Cumbrae Island, Millport
Cist (Period Unassigned), Cross (Medieval)
Site Name Great Cumbrae Island, Millport
Classification Cist (Period Unassigned), Cross (Medieval)
Canmore ID 40673
Site Number NS15SE 9
NGR NS 1625 5492
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/40673
- Council North Ayrshire
- Parish Cumbrae
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Cunninghame
- Former County Buteshire
Millport, Great Cumbrae, cruciform stone fragment
Measurements: H 0.46m, W 0.49m, D 0.10m
Stone type: white sandstone
Place of discovery: NS 1625 5492
Present location: in the Cathedral of the Isles at Millport (Canmore 120846).
Evidence for discovery: found in 1823 at the head of a stone sarcophagus in the sand dunes at Millford Bay, perhaps in re-use. It was about 1.5m in height but was broken soon afterwards and only the head survives.
Present condition: broken and weathered.
Description
This pillar stone has been shaped into a solid cross with relatively short arms. Faces A and C have a pecked inner line outlining the cross shape.
Date range: medieval.
Primary references: Stuart 1867, pl 74.7; Fisher 2001, 72-3, no 5.12.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019
NS15SE 9 1625 5492.
A mediaeval stone cross and stone coffin were found in 1823 about 5 or 6 ft below the surface of a natural sandhill and about 10 or 12 ordinary paces (i.e. 25-30ft) southwards from the west window of 14, Guildford Street, Millport. This street is erroneously called Guildhall Street on some OS plans.
The coffin, empty and lidless, was about 8 feet long by 2 1/2 feet wide by 1 1/2ins thick and divided into 2 parts by a ridge, 3 feet from one end, almost half the depth; the head piece was hollowed out and the coffin rested upon red soil. Near the head and broader end was an upright cross originally about 5ft overall, with the shaft 2ft into the soil and the carved face towards the coffin above which it rose 1 1/2 ft. The coffin was broken up for building stone and the cross shaft was accidentally broken and mislaid. The cross head was recovered by Drummond and passed into the possession of Cumbrae College in which churchyard it may be seen.
Hewison (1893) and Lytteil (1886) refer to the Cross as the "Trahoun Cross". Hewison adds that it is apparently a High Cross" and is now within the Cathedral Church at Millport.
NSA 1845 (J Drummond); J Stuart 1867; J MacGown 1883; Valuation Rolls 1964-5
Field Visit (6 November 1964)
Sited at NS 1625 5492. No further information was found. The cross fragment is still in the cathedral.
Visited by OS (JTT) 6 November 1964
Reference (2001)
(Great Cumbrae no.12)
Upper part of a cruciform stone, found in 1823 at the head of a sarcophagus in a sand-dune close to the shore of Millport Bay, on the SE side of Guildford Street. The area where it was found was known as Trahoun (1), and the name is preserved in an adjacent house. The stone, which was about 1.5m high, was broken into two pieces after its discovery, and the shaft was lost before 1840 (2). The head, which is of much-worn white sandstone, is 0.46m high (3) by 0.49m across the arms and 100mm thick, and the surviving fragment of the shaft is 0.24m wide. The arms vary in thickness but all taper slightly and the top arm is inclined to one side. Both faces have edge-mouldings of 20mm to 35mm but no other ornament is visible.
(NSA, 5 (Bute), 74; Stuart 1867, pl.74, 7; Hewison 1893, 1, 283, no.1; Allen and Anderson 1903, 3, 417, no.3; Curle 1964, 224-5, no.3, and pl.14, 5; Cross 1984, C2).
Footnotes:
(1) This was said to be derived from the small barony of 'Troughewan' (NSA, 5 (Bute), 74).
(2) Ibid.
(3) This corresponds closely to the '1 1/2 feet' that the cross rose above the sarcophagus (ibid.).
I Fisher 2001, 72.
