Carved stone cross head

This fragment of an early stone cross was discovered in Rerrick Old Churchyard by the late Daphne Brooke in 1991. It is generally similar in the style of other Anglian stone crosses, for example at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire and Gosforth in Cumbria, and probably dates to the 9th or 10th Centuries. In the 8th and 9th century Galloway was part of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. The fragment comprises three flared arms broken from a shaft. On one side there is a central boss defined by two concentric circles. Two of the arms are patterned but it is not possible to determine the character of the decoration. The rear face is very weathered. These crosses are part of our earliest Christian heritage and were erected to mark meeting places for outdoor services. Church buildings were often erected later on the same sites and the discovery of this fragment in Rerrick Old Churchyard may indicate the antiquity of that site as a place of worship.