Modern day technology produces new High Cross

Modern day technology produces new High Cross

A MOURNE granite replica of the 1,100 year-old Downpatrick High Cross has been successfully installed at the front of Down Cathedral.

The monument has replaced the original stone which has been a fixture of the town’s landscape since it was carved in AD 900 as a “prayer in stone.”

It has been erected as part of a major conservation project to preserve the remains of the original High Cross, which has considerably deteriorated over the years due to wear and tear.

The original cross, which depicts faded biblical scenes, including the heads of Adam and Eve, and Cain about to slay Abel along with a scene that is believed to represent Christ entering Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday, was moved in December and will be housed in a purpose-built extension within Down County Museum where it will be the centrepiece of a new gallery.

The new cross was made by stone carvers, S. McConnell and Sons of Kilkeel, who scanned the original and created an exact replica from granite quarried on Thomas Mountain, above Newcastle.

One of the company’s directors, Alan McConnell, spoke about the privilege it was to be responsible for the challenging project, which he said took around three months to complete.

Work on the new cross was world’s away from the traditional approach that would have been taken to the original with staff from S. McConnell and Sons using computer generated scans to create the stand-alone piece.

Detailed high resolution scans were fed into a computer that was used to carve the granite with specialist stone mason Declan Grant then painstakingly ageing the stone over two weeks, being sure not to remove any of the important features of the images while making it look as close to the original weather-beaten High Cross as possible.

“I am overwhelmed that we were able to do this locally,” said Alan.

“It was a complicated bit of work and certainly different from anything we have ever done.

“It feels like an important job and it has been brilliant to be involved.”

Down Council chairwoman, Maria McCarthy, welcomed the installation of the cross as the latest stage in the project to preserve the original cross.

She said it was also important that others could appreciate a replica in the position in which it stood for 116 years.

“Easter is a very appropriate time to install the Cross, with its carvings marking the history of salvation leading up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection,” she said.

“It is hoped that tourists will come to see the new cross and of course the many other buildings, monuments and artefacts relating to our unique Early Christian heritage in the coming months.”

The Downpatrick High Cross Extension project is a partnership project between Down Council, the Church of Ireland, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the East Border Region, and is part-financed by the European Union’s INTERREG IVA Cross-Border programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body.