Northeast of Dunshaughlin, and behind the Killeen Castle, there are the ruins of the Killeen church and this wonderful cross shaft.
The shaft is on the north side of the church, and stands on a square base which measures about 70 centimetres on each side and with four short stone pillars on each corner.
The cross shaft, made of limestone, is wonderfully decorated on all sides with human figures and floral motifs, and it's 1.12 metres tall, 25 centimetres wide and 12 centimetres thick. It appears to have been broken in three blocks and then repaired.
It might date to the early 16th century, possibly between 1500 and 1510.
On the main faces, the upper parts are decorated with foliage motifs, the lower parts have a pair of human figures which might be saints, but their worn out conditions make the identification hard.
It seems, though, that the figure on the left on the west face is St. Andrew, with St. Simon next to him.
On the east face, the figure on the left might be St. Bartholomew, with St. Thomas on the right.
The south face of the shaft has a floral motif on the upper half, and an ecclesiastical figure in the act of blessing on the lower half.
On the north face there's still a floral motif on the upper half and St. Philip on the lower half.
As soon as we arrived at the site, an archery tournament was going to start, and we were invited to leave quickly for safety reasons, so we had to rush things.
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