Local community get rare chance to see top of 5.5m cross
MEMBERS of the local community, schoolchildren and visitors from around the world got the chance to see something unique in Monasterboice last week - Muiredach’s Cross - looking from the top to the bottom.
It’s been about a decade since the OPW erected a platform to check the condition of the top of the cross and this time they invited locals to come and have a look and learn more about the ancient structure.
Although time has taken its toll - it is about 1,200 years old - all round it has weathered well say the experts.
But with a changing climate, who knows what the future holds, with many suggestions being put forward about taking the cross down and placing it in a tourist centre, replacing it with a replica as has been done elsewhere.
It is only when you get so close to the centre of the cross that you find its true beauty and craftsmanship.
The cross is made from sandstone and it probably came from Carrickleck quarry near Kingscourt as the sandstone there seems to be of the same grade.
The person that designed it - believed to be an individual - could have spent two years in Monasterboice carving it.
How it was brought to Monasterboice is a mystery as it would have weighed about 10 ton in a raw state, suggestions being it was drawn by a team of oxon on a cart or indeed placed on rollers.
John Devitt, who acts as a guide at Monasterboice, is always amazed at the secrets the cross and its environs throw up from time to time.
‘We get about 250,000 visitors here each year and they have a lot of stories to tell,’ he states.
A Canadian woman recently revealed that her Great Great Grandfather was the surveyor on the Boyne Viaduct while another couple from New Caledonia were related to 1916 hero Sean Heuston.
John just adores the place and knows every inch of the crosses and the fields nearby.
‘70% to 80% of the visitors here are Germans,’ he points out and says there’s no evidence that the Vikings came here.