High Cross on the move

High Cross on the move

4 December 2013

HAVING weathered the elements for over 1000 years, the Downpatrick High Cross is heading indoors as part of a major new conservation project.

Clergy gathered on Thursday to mark the move from outside Down Cathedral to the nearby Down County Museum, where it will be on display in a specially constructed extension.

A replica is to be set up at the cathedral to replace the original cross, which has suffered considerable deterioration through time.

Originally carved in about AD 900 as a ‘prayer in stone’, and put up in an unknown location at the early medieval monastery on the Hill of Down, the High Cross was taken down after the Reformation and used as the town’s Market Cross. This was located outside the present Down Arts Centre, where the town’s former Market House stood from 1660.

This became a very busy place, and the cross may have suffered some damage here, before being dismantled and its parts dispersed around the town. Only in the 1890s were the parts gathered together by Francis Joseph Bigger and reconstructed outside the east end of Down Cathedral, with the help of subions from generous donors.

The 1100 year old Mourne granite cross will be carefully dismantled by conservators this week, and a small excavation will take place on the site on Saturday. The replica is being made by S. McConnell and Sons of Kilkeel and will be put in place early in 2014.

A similar project was carried out some years ago at the important monastic site of Clonmacnoise in County Offaly, but this is the first major project to move a High Cross inside, as close as possible to its original site, in Northern Ireland.

The Church of Ireland has agreed to a long-term loan of the cross to Down Council in order to protect it from the weather and to interpret it to visitors within a purpose-built extension at the rear of Down Museum, which will also have views of other early medieval sites in the landscape, including Down Cathedral, Inch Abbey and the Mound of Down.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) is funding most of the project, with almost £500,000 for the museum’s new extension and exhibitions being facilitated by the East Border Region and EU funding, as well as by Down Council.

The removal of the cross for conservation is the first stage in a 16 month project. In 2014 this unique piece of Irish art will be cleaned, drawn and photographed, while the museum extension is constructed and exhibitions and a new tea-room are developed.

New photographs and scans of the cross are already revealing details of the carvings which have not been seen before, leading to new interpretations of the biblical scenes from the Old and New Testaments depicted on its front and rear faces.

The Dean of Down, the Very Rev. Henry Hull, said he was pleased the future of the High Cross was secured.

“The Town Cross was gifted to the Dean and Chapter at the end of the 19th century and has stood in front of the cathedral since that time,” he said.

“We have been very conscious of the effect of weathering in eroding the features on the cross and we are very grateful to the European Union, NIEA, Down Council and Down County Museum in enabling us to preserve this special monument for further generations.”

Down Council chairwoman, Maria McCarthy, said the scheme would provide an important boost to the town’s Christian Heritage offerings.

“We are looking forward to preserving the Town Cross for all members of the community and attracting tourists from all over the world to see this ancient and iconic monument of local Christianity and culture,” she said.

Down Museum intends to invite the public to meet the conservators who are going to clean up the Cross early in 2014.