Orsay, Cross

NR 164 516. Three fragments of an Early Christian cross-slab, found beside Hugh MacKay's Grave in 1959, (Islay Archaeological Survey Group 1960) are now in the Museum of Islay Life, Port Charlotte. They are of grey hornblende-schist, probably derived from the Lewisian of Islay, and together measure 0.53m in length by 0.27m in maximum width. On one face there was incised a ring-headed outline cross with square armpits, having an outline Greek cross in each of the lower cantons within the ring, the only ones for which evidence survives. In the lower right canton the spaces above the arms of the crosslet are roughly tooled to form pellets, as on a cross-slab from Killean, Kintyre. (RCAHMS 1971)

Whereas bosses or pellets in ringed crosses are of frequent occurrence, and the grouping of crosslets round an unringed cross is found both on altar-slabs and upright slabs, the combination found here is difficult to parallel.(RCAHMS 1984)

Visited July 1974

RCAHMS 1984

RCAHMS prepared a measured drawing of the carved stone from Orsay, now in the Musuem of Islay Life, at 1:10. The drawing was published at 1:15 (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 256A).

Late medieval chapel in early 19th-century enclosure. Three fragments, 0.53m by 0.27m, of a slab bearing an outline ringed cross with square armpits. The surviving (lower) quadrants enclose crosslets with pellets above the arms. (Museum of Islay Life).

I Fisher 2001.