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Eilean Mor 6

Cross (Medieval)

Site Name Eilean Mor 6

Classification Cross (Medieval)

Canmore ID 38640

Site Number NR67NE 4

NGR NR 66602 75099

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38640

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish South Knapdale
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NR67NE 4 6659 7510.

(NR 6660 7509) Stone Cross (NR)

OS 6" map (1924)

A cross, which fell and broke, stood on the highest part of Eilean Mor. A cast of the shaft now replaces it, the original shaft being in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS]. The head, also illustrated by White, had been lost since 1920, but has recently been recovered and placed in the NMAS.

M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964; T P White 1875

The rough concrete shaft stands in a stone rectangular base.

Visited by OS (DWR) 16 May 1973

Architecture Notes

Eilean Mor.

NMRS Drummond Drawings from SAS cross, figure and view.

Activities

Field Visit (August 1984)

(6) Shaft and detached disc-head of a freestanding cross, about 2.95m in overall height including a tapered butt 0.6m high. The shaft has been broken across, and whereas the lower half remained in situ in its socket-stone at the highest point of the island (NR 666751) until the 20th century, the upper part was not recorded by Lhuyd in 1699, having presumably already been built into the W wall of the chapel(supra). The two halves were re-united some time before they were presented to the National Museum in 1937, and were repaired at that time. The cross-head was recorded by Lhuyd along with the lower part of the shaft (en.20*), but was found by T S Muir in 1864, 'on the shore under the eminence', and placed by him in the chapel. It was removed shortly before1922, but was returned to the National Museum in 1960.

The shaft, which tapers from 0.32m by O.l4m at base-level to 0.24m by 0.09m at the top, is framed on both faces by a triple moulding with a narrow central member. This moulding continued onto the cross-head, which is 0.67m in diameter, but this is now damaged at the edges and both side arms are lost, although they are shown intact in Lhuyd's drawing, while the top arm is also incomplete. The lower part of the original E face (en.19) bears a panel with a Lombardic, inscription (infra), open at the foot but separated by a plain upper moulding from the figure of an abbot or bishop dressed in eucharistic vestments, holding a crosier in his left hand and with his right hand raised in blessing. He stands in a niche below a cusped ogee-headed canopy which springs from the edge-moulding and whose central finial is elaborately foliated. The worn area above this appears to form a calvary base for a cross-raguly bearing the damaged figure of the Crucified Saviour, which continues onto the cross-head, the legs being shown in the upper part of the shaft. The torso is flanked by stylised figures of the Virgin Mary and St John, and the rood has inner mouldings and foliated terminals, while its upper arm is spanned by a curved label with the initials INRI ('Iesus Nazarenus Rex ludeorum', 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews'). The remaining spaces round the perimeter are filled by leaves springing from thee dge-moulding. The W face of the shaft is filled by an undulating plant-stem forming occasional circular medallions, which springs from the tail of a lion at the foot. The cross-head is filled with intertwined leaf-stems springing from the edge-moulding, and Lhuyd's drawing shows that this moulding was continuous, cutting off the cross-arms which, like those of the E face, contained leaf-sprays.

The Lombardic inscription on the E face, which is in sixteen lines, was intact at the beginning of the 20th century, but three letters in the first line were damaged some time before 1937. It reads:

+MA [RIO] /TA DE R/OS INSU/LARUM I DOMIN/A ET

IO/HANNE/S PRES/PITER / AC HER/EMITA I/STE

INS/ULE ME I FIERI F/ECERU/NT

'Mariota de Ros, Lady of the Isles, and John, priest and hermit of this island, caused me to be made'.

Mariota, daughter of Waiter Leslie, Earl of Ross, married Donald, Lord of the Isles, some time before 1403, and his wife's claim to the disputed earldom was the main reason for Donald's campaign of 1411 which ended in the Battle of Harlaw. Since the inscription does not include the title 'Countess of Ross', which Mariota used elsewhere, it is possible that it was carved before her brother's death in 1402.

The base that formerly housed the cross is a rubble-built platform, 2.5m from N to S by 2.3m, and 0.8m high, which incorporates a central raised socket-stone of chlorite-schist, 0.76m square by 0.13m thick, with a socket 0.33m by 0.14m. It is occupied by a modern concrete replica of the crossshaft.(Lhuyd, pl.10a,b; Muir, Eccles. Notes, 20, 204-5; Drummond, Monuments, p1.78, 1-3; White, Knapdale,pls.31-2; JRSAI, 29 (1899), fig. on p.345 (head only); PSAS, 61 (1926-7),152-4, fig.12,3 on p.153; ibid., 71 (1936-7), 367-8,fig.4 on p.368; ibid., 93 (1959-60), 253; Steer and Bannerman, Monumental Sculpture, inscription number 80, p1.l5A-D).

Iona school, late 14th or early 15th century.

RCAHMS 1992, visited August 1984

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