Bealin High Cross

About

Baylin High Cross is a high cross and National Monument located near Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland.

The cross is believed to have been moved, perhaps from Clonmacnoise. On the east face was a lion and a scroll of interlaced creatures with birdlike heads running up the shaft, and a Celtic knot pattern at the centre of the head. The North face shows a hunting scene with a horseman with spear and a dog biting a deer's leg.

There is an inscription at the bottom of the west face dating the cross to around AD 800: the inscription reads OROIT AR TUATHGALL LAS DERNATH IN CHROSSA ( Middle Irish : 'A prayer for Tuathgal who caused this cross to be made'), referring to the Abbot of Clonmacnoise who died in 811.