Pre-Norman Stone Crosses in the British Isles

Many of the tourists who visit Muncaster Castle near Ravenglass in Cumbria may well notice St. Michael's Church because it is next to a car park for the Castle, but most of them don't visit it. Being dedicated to Michael, an archangel, angels feature strongly in the stained glass windows within the church, and the west window depicts a scene from the Last Judgment, with Christ in majesty overseeing Michael who is separating those who are lost from those who are saved. In the churchyard, just south of the West door are the remains of an ancient cross or crosses.

The remains consist of a cross shaft, a wheel-head cross and a base - all illustrated in the picture above. The shaft and head may have originally been joined, but the base appears to belong to a different cross. All the pieces are carved from local red sandstone.

The shaft is ornamented with a chain-link pattern on each of its faces, which might represent the "tree of life". By the style of carving, this appears to be late tenth century work.

The wheel-head carries little evident ornamentation, but what was once there may have eroded away. The wheel-head was rescued from a garden wall at Eilbeck cottage near Irton Hall, and was united with the shaft by Josslyn, Lord Muncaster in the late nineteenth century. The cross arms protrude beyond the wheel a short distance, making this an "eared" wheel-head.

The base is very damaged and worn, and relatively little can be said about it other than it might benefit from having a hole drilled in the side of it to allow the water which inevitably collects in it (it is near the Lake District, after all) to drain away.

The shaft (and head, if it is the right one) appear to date from the early part of the tenth century.

Muncaster Church is next to Muncaster Castle, just off the A595 road near Ravenglass.

Viking ("Anglo-Norse") sites
Gosforth	Aspatria, Burnsall, Dearham, Dyserth, Gosforth, Halton, Hovingham, Lastingham, Maen Achwyfan, Muncaster, Oswaldkirk, Penmon, Penrith, Staveley (North Yorkshire), Sinnington, Stonegrave, Urswick, Waberthwaite

* 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

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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).

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