Tihilly High Cross
A few miles outside Tullamore on the main road to Clara lies a beautiful and little known local antiquity, Tihilly (Loughaun) High Cross.
The Cross is located on farmland and I called into a nearby house for permission to enter which was kindly granted by the landowner.
The Cross at Tihilly is also sometimes known as Loughaun High Cross.
It is an elaborately decorated Cross which has seen previous damage and been repaired.
I wish the the OPW could provide small circular steel fences or grants for some type of protective fence or enclosure.
These monuments are often used as Scratching posts by farm animals which adds to the destruction or loss of any carvings or artwork on the antiquities.
The head of the Cross is of the perforated "Celtic" type but it is badly damaged now. It stands on a damaged circular base, part of which is original to the Cross.
The shaft is covered in intricate interlaced knotwork and geometric patterns.
The craftmanship on the stonework is quite skillful and a pleasure to see firsthand. I could make out some birds along with another unrecognisable animal.
The figures of Adam and Eve were once discernible on the Cross but have long since been worn away. A Crucifixion scene is identifiable on the Head of the Cross.
There is the remains of a medieval Church beside the Cross and some scattered stones nearby which are from the ruins of a Well.
Several Cross slabs are supposed to be here as well but I didn't see them on my short visit. Whether they are still there or not I don't know.
It would have been wonderful to see the slabs in a small purpose built enclosure alongside the Cross. Hopefully they are still on the site somewhere.
Some of the less apparent historical structures which once stood locally at Loughaun are a possible stone enclosure, several burial sites, the Holy Well and the ruins of a later 18th century Mill.
Tihilly is roughly two kilometres from Durrow Abbey and five or six from Rahan as the Crow flies so it's probable that there was interaction between all of these ecclesiastical sites at some time in history.
A monastery was reputedly founded at Tihilly in the 5th Century, the running of which was handed over to a Saint Cera, sometime in the 6th Century.
Tihilly is well worth visiting although do check in with the landowner first.
It's a bucolic setting and there are several mounds and depressions in the landscape which leaves you scratching your head trying to interpret your surroundings in a historical context.
Coordinates below :
53.310692, -7.543752
Tihilly - Early Christian Sites in Ireland
