High Crosses, Ballymore

The present church is dated to 1820 by a plaque over the main entrance door in the early Gothic Revival bell tower. This church was built to replace an earlier structure reputedly burnt during the 1798 Rebellion. Indeed, it was from here in the churchyard that the shot rang out over the village in the early hours of the 24 of May 1798, as a signal to the local United Irishmen to commence their attack on the military forces at free-quarters in the village (again if this piece is going to be referenced, where is the ref for this?).

Under the tower in the church hall stands a plain but impressively large cylindrical medieval baptismal font. This massive piece of carved granite certainly fulfills the stipulation of Christ Church’s 1189 Provincial Synod that “an immovable font” should be provided for baptisms in parish churches. The font also has a drain, another feature specified in the synod’s decree. And although this drain diverges from the synod’s specifications in not being centrally located, emptying instead from a large hole in what was probably the back of the font, it nevertheless seems likely that this font was installed in an earlier church under Norman control following the ruling of the Synod. This would date the font to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. No doubt, the font was used to baptise countless thousands of heads over the many centuries since.

Inside the body of the church, at the top of the nave, is the final resting place of an early sixteenth century effigy of a FitzEustace knight, but not the man himself. He was laid to rest at Old Kilcullen where this effigy was originally located. It was depicted as being propped against the church wall at Old Kilcullen in a drawing by Daniel Grose of 1792. However, by the nineteenth century the effigy was being used face down as a flat surface under a local water pump (Fitzgerald JKAS V?). It was subsequently moved for safekeeping to Barretstown castle, before finding a home in St John’s Church. No doubt the move to Ballymore Eustace was decided upon due to the effigy being identified as a Eustace knight. The FitzEustace family arrived in Ballymore during the fourteenth century to take charge of the castle on behalf of the Archbishop of Dublin, when the settlement was a manor belonging to the Dublin Archbishopric. Apart from these ancient monuments, the interior of the church also has a number of interesting World War One memorials in the form of plaques, dedicated windows and church furniture.

Outside, the very fragmentary remains of an earlier church, possibly the pre-reformation church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, are to be found in the east end of the grounds. Also scattered around the churchyard are a number of late medieval architectural fragments, such as window tracery and arches, which should be gathered together and secured somewhere onsite. There are also a number of cut granite pieces that need further investigation.

The site is well known for its wealth of medieval grave slabs that appear to straddle the early and late medieval divide, although not conclusively. However, it is the two high crosses that provide the strongest evidence, despite the lack in the written record, for this location having been a significant ecclesiastical site in the early medieval period. These two crosses are of uncertain date, but one, at least, is likely to be of 10th century date. Chris Corlett considers both to be of 10th century date (Corlette AI 2017?). The more difficult of the two crosses to date, the north cross, stands very close to the current church, situated just north of its vestry. The other cross, likely to be of 10th century date, stands at a much further distance to the south east, inline with the chancel of the church (added in 1894). Both of these crosses are of granite and while the north cross is very well preserved, the south cross consists of only a base and shaft that are both very eroded and unfortunately the head of the cross has been broken away and is missing.

These two Ballymore crosses are very plain with minimal decoration. The north cross is distinguished by having a relatively rare motif on high crosses, bosses. In this general area of East Kildare and West Wicklow, however, there are a number of medieval crosses with these features, so this cross is not an outlier and probably constitutes the finest pieces to survive from a workshop active in the locality during the middle ages.

Comparing their appearance side by side, there could be a tendency to conclude that the two Ballymore crosses were created at different times and by different hands. However, the nature of the ring on the south cross may point to a connection via the bossed crosses of Burgage More just five kilometers to the north east. The south cross’s imperforate ring shares similarities with the ring on St Mark’s Cross at Burgage More, which is one of the crosses that shares, along with the north cross at Ballymore, bosses enclosed by raised mouldings at the centre of its head. Therefore, while the two Balllymore crosses have no features in common, they both share features with St Mark’s Cross. The south cross at Ballymore is unfortunately missing most of its head, and, therefore, it is not known if it had bosses at its centre like the St Mark’s Cross. What is clear, however, is that both Ballymore crosses share a simplicity that tends towards basic geometric forms such as the circle and triangle.

The south cross was known to have panels on the base outlined by roll moudings. The shaft has clearly defined elongated panels running down its full length on each face that are terminated by triangular decorative motifs carved on the bottom of the shaft faces – all features already documented. However, it was not noted before this survey that the panels on the west and east of the base had carvings contained within them. The photogrammetric model revealed their faint traces; this despite the model being of low definition and the panel surfaces themselves being severely eroded. Some other observations, outlined below, were made following a study of the model. These observations relate to the possibility that the base has further carved panels that extend beneath the present ground level.

Capture

The survey that produced the 3D models of both crosses, reduced definition versions of which are embedded below, was carried out in 2019. While in Ballymore for other reasons, I stopped by to have a look around the churchyard of St John’s, which, as mentioned above, contains a number of rare medieval grave slabs that have been reused as modern grave markers and headstones (see image below). While I was there with my camera it became overcast – not good conditions for general photography, but ideal for photogrammetry – so I decided to take advantage and do a quick photogrammetry survey of the high crosses. As it was unplanned, it was a very cursory survey with no provision made to capture, for example, the top of the north cross, which is too tall to photograph from ground level. Capture was further encumbered by tree branches obscuring the view of the north cross’s upper extremes (see top left image below).

The south cross was surround by high nettles that had to be stamped down (see top right image above). However, the trees and bushes close to its west face were much more problematic as they made the lighting very uneven and the west face very dull. It was disappointing to find a sculptural piece of about 1000 years old neglected in such a manner. The organic material that had lodged in the socket of the base that holds the shaft was supporting tree sapling growth in the narrow crack on the broad sides of the cross. Ireland most certainly need more native species of trees planted and grown, but not necessarily from our ancient stone monuments. So I did my best to remove them.

Processing

Despite the casual nature of the capture and the obvious short comings in the resulting models, when processed in 2020, they surprisingly revealed new details on both crosses that had not been observed before. The new observations can add to our understand of the crosses somewhat, and also to what can be said about them, and may also help in dating them. A more planned survey may resolve some of the ambiguities presented by the models. However, the north cross has heavy growth of both lichens and moss on its head, and the south cross, leaving aside the fact that parts of it are very eroded, also has heavy moss and lichen cover on much of its surface. This thick organic covering would hinder any survey intended to resolve more detail.

Below is a brief summer on each cross along with the models hosted on Sketchfab. Under each summery you will find a link to a more detailed page for The North Cross – Ballymore and The South Cross – Ballymore with further imagery, videos, details, and interpretations.

Above (L to R): Architectural fragment, evidently the centre of a round-arched twin-light window; the 1820 Neo-Gothic tower; two moss covered medieval grave markers