Oronsay Priory, Great Cross. General view from West.

Description Oronsay Priory, Great Cross. General view from West.

Date 1895 to 1898

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 740705

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of AG 1713

Scope and Content Oronsay Cross, Oronsay Priory, Argyll & Bute, from the west The Oronsay Cross, a late 15th- or early 16th-century disc-headed cross, stands beside the ruins of Oronsay Priory on the small island of Oronsay. The priory, founded between 1325 and 1353 by John I, Lord of the Isles, as an Augustinian community, developed intermittently through the 14th and 15th centuries, but by the early 17th century was in a ruinous condition. This photograph of the cross was taken by Erskine Beveridge c.1897. The cross, set in its original socket stone, stood, in the late 19th century, in the burial ground close to the south wall of the Priory Church (left). The west face (seen here) is dominated by the figure of Christ, in unusually high relief, which fills the disc-head and the upper part of the shaft. The spaces between the figure and the cross are filled by interlace ornament in various patterns, and the lower part of the figure is flanked by plant stems emerging from five intertwined roundels that occupy the greater part of the shaft and spring from the tails of a griffin and another beast at the foot. Below the beasts is a Latin inscription which records that 'This is the cross of Colinus, son of Cristinus MacDuffie'. The cross was carved by Mael-Sechlainn O Cuinn, a sculptor-mason who trained at the Iona school of sculpture and carving, and the same man who rebuilt the cloister in the priory in the early 16th century. It was erected to Colinus or Malcolm MacDuffie who was lord of Colonsay and chief of the clan Duffie in the late 15th century. He probably died between 1506 and 1509, and the cross was erected c.1500. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap