This is one of the two crosses which once stood in the grounds of the ancient church of Kiltuck in the Shanganagh Castle Demesne, which is about 1 km south from here. This ancient church was mentioned in a Papal Bull of 1179, so we can easily say that these crosses date from around the middle of the 12th century.
During the works of the Ordnance Survey in 1837 it was reported that a stone cross was found along with a cross base inside the ruins of that church. Another cross head was found at the gate lodge of the demesne. According to an old tradition, the first stone cross was originally located at the end of a lane nearby Rathmichael Church, so in 1911 it was moved to what was believed to be its original location and where an empty cross base was. This cross is now known with the name of Rathmichael Cross.
In 1956 the archaeologist Pádraig Ó Héailidhe was involved in the study of the Fassaroe Crosses and met Father C. F. Hurley who made him find out that a missing part of the second cross had been in the grounds of St. Anne's church in Shankill for an unknown length of time. So, the head, the shaft and the base of this second stone cross were finally reunited. When the restoration works were over, this cross was re-erected in the grounds of St. Anne's Church in Shankill.
It's a granite cross, 102 centimetres tall, 27 centimetres wide at the base and 52 centimetres wide at its arms, and about 16 centimetres thick. It leans by 1° to the west (270°).
The cross base might resemble a mill stone, it measures about 75 centimetres of diameter and has a height of about 30 centimetres, but this is irregular all around its circumference.
On the west side of the Kiltuck cross a crucifixion has been carved in outline, like the Rathmichael Cross and Fassaroe Cross Fassaroe Cross. On the east side of the shaft there's a human face, with visible eyes, nose and a straight mouth. The three sections of the granite cross have been set together with concrete which has been modeled in a rather good fashion so that the junctions are quite well concealed. The granite cross base has been mounted on a concrete plinth that carries the date of June 1983, the date of the restoration works.
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