Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

During my training to be an ordained Christian minister, I was introduced to the strand of Christian spirituality known as Celtic Spirituality, and while undertaking research into the subject I became very interested in the monuments which people - including me at first - group under the heading of "Celtic Crosses". They are the focus of this part of my web site. Of course, it's the case that the more you know about something, the less simple it is, and so many of the monuments at the web-site can't be properly called "Celtic" - words like "Saxon", "Anglian", "Pictish" and "Viking" are more appropriate.

There are hundreds of these relics to be found around the various parts of the British Isles, so for the sake of having a manageable web-site I have grouped them by country.

Each of the pages linked above lists sites I have visited, though the pages for those sites may still be in preparation. A simplified composite index, listing only those pages that are complete, is available here.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a particular type of monument, you may find the following base page helpful - it also contains an outline of the Christian history of Britain from Roman times to the Norman Conquest.

There are other topic pages about various aspects of these monuments. Click below to reach them.

* The Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference (and corresponding Latitude/Longitude) given at the top of the pages describing individual sites usually refer to the location of the closest or most prominent entrance to the site where the monument is to be found - e.g. a gate into a churchyard. For monuments located in open country, or at a significant distance from the site entrance as just defined, the co-ordinates usually refer to the exact location of the monument.
Please allow for a small error in the co-ordinates of up to a couple of dozen metres.

Thanks to the people at streetmap.co.uk, if you click on the Grid References in the magenta boxes on the site pages,
you'll see an extract from the relevant Ordnance Survey 1:50000 Landranger map!

As the official mapping agency of the United Kingdom Government, the Ordnance Survey produces the definitive maps of the country. They contain a wealth of information.
For more details, visit www,ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure

Click here if you need an explanation of the terminology on these pages

Click here if you would like to see a bibliography

Click here if you would like to download the freeware "Mordred" font (in True-type for Windows)
so that the headings used on these pages will then look like the following:

Click to go to Pre-Norman crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales	Read about the Saints
Click to go to Mediaeval crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales

Locality maps at this web-site have been developed using Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 (and later editions).

This page is a part of Chris Tolley's web-site. Latest update: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 03:59
Links on my pages can point to other web-sites. If you find that the administrators of those web-sites have made changes which mean you can't access them, please let me know, so I can update or remove the links. As far as I know, none of my links point to sites likely to contain offensive material - but if you discover otherwise, please let me know, as I would like to remove such links from my pages.
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©1996 to 2002: Christopher J. Tolley