Moone High Cross, High cross in Moone, Ireland.
Moone High Cross is a granite high cross in Ireland standing 5.33 meters tall with carefully carved religious panels depicting biblical stories arranged in three sections. The stonework displays fine details throughout each section, showing different scenes and patterns from top to bottom.
The cross dates to the early medieval period and stood as a complete structure for centuries until 19th-century excavations at the abbey ruins exposed buried sections. The 1835 discovery of fragments allowed researchers to later reassemble it with a middle portion uncovered in 1893.
The stone panels show biblical scenes from both testaments, including Daniel in the lions' den and the feeding of the five thousand. These religious carvings served as visual lessons for pilgrims and worshippers who could see stories they might not have read elsewhere.
The cross sits about one kilometer west of Moone village under a protective roof at the remains of an early monastery. Access is through a wooden door set into the stone wall, and the grounds around it preserve traces of the monastic settlement.
Near the River Greese, fragments of other high crosses remain scattered across the monastic grounds, showing how extensive this early burial site once was. This cross ranks among the second tallest in Ireland and thus stands alongside other surviving examples still visible in the region.
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