Donaghmore High Cross

Ardboe Cross

One of the finest examples of the Irish High Cross in Ulster, can be found at Ardboe County Tyrone, located on a small hillock close to the western shores of Lough Neagh.

Ardboe High Cross, which dates to the ninth/tenth century AD, is all that now remains of a sixth century monastery, which was established at Ardboe by St. Colman. The monastery was burned in 1166, destroying any early wooden structures. Nonetheless, Ardboe endured as a centre for Christian worship, later becoming the site of a medieval parish, and in the nearby graveyard stands the remains of a seventeenth century church erected for Protestant worship - abandoned in the eighteenth century for the current Church of Ireland location. Also located in a nearby field to the north is another ruined church known as the Abbey.

The Cross, made of sandstone, stands exceptionally high, about eighteen feet, and is a characteristic local variation, consisting of a taller more narrow shaft with a small cross head - also discernible at the nearby High Cross in Donaghmore, County Tyrone. Although slightly weathered and damaged - emigrants in the earlier part of this century often took with them a small chip of stone from the cross - Ardboe High Cross is a superb example of figure carving incorporating twenty two panels of sculpture of biblical events.