Tynan Village Cross

On or near the site of the hilltop parish church was an Early Christian church associated with St Vindic. Little is known of its early history but two stone crosses survive, the Village Cross and the Terrace Cross now at Tynan Abbey (not in State Care), as well as a fragment in the graveyard and two pieces built into the graveyard wall, a cross-base and ring fragment. The Village Cross is not in its original position, having been moved at least twice. It is composite, made up of two different crosses, the base and lower shaft of one being matched with the upper shaft and head of another. The lower shaft on the east side has a rectangular panel with Adam and Eve, and on the west side is another panel with a large figure and smaller figures behind. The head is mended and partly reconstructed, of open ringed form, decorated with tall bosses with traces of interlace. The shaft has panels of interlaced decoration.

This cross, like the Eglish crosses, belongs to the Blackwater valley group and may date from the 10th century. On the nearby graveyard gatepost is an unusual hollowed stone, a 17th-century sundial, of which another example can be seen in Monaghan town.

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