39° [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



The next communication was by Rev. H. W. Lett, M.A., on 

 St. MacErc's Cross, Donaghmore, Co. Down. Mr. Lett said : — 

 The ancient Celtic cross, which is the subject of this paper, is 

 situated in the churchyard of Donaghmore, in the County of 

 Down, five miles north of Newry, and seven miles south of Ban- 

 bridge, not far from the Four-mile House on the leading road 

 between these towns. 



The Church of Donaghmore was founded about the middle 

 of the fifth century by St. MacErc, who became its first Bishop. 

 He was a brother of St. Mochay, of Nendrum, and died A.D. 

 497. Another brother was St. Columban Mulinn, of Derry- 

 keighan, in Dalriada ; their mother being Bronagh, daughter 

 of Milcho, with whom St. Patrick had been a captive near 

 Slemish in the Braid Valley. 



The cross stands twenty-five feet to the south of the chancel 

 of the present parish church. The material is a coarse County 

 Down granite. It consists of three stones, a base, a shaft, and 

 a collared head. Until its recent restoration by the Rev. J. 

 Davidson Cowan, chiefly through the assistance of the Club, it 

 was in a sad condition. The head was displaced and partly 

 buried at the head of a grave close by, and the shaft, though 

 resting on its base, was broken across about the middle. 



The parts have been carefully set together with cement, and 

 a stout' iron dowel put into the broken shaft. This was done 

 under the personal superintendance of Mr. Cowan and myself. 



The total height of the cross is ten feet six inches. The base 

 stone measures where it rest on the mouth of the cave three feet 

 from north to south, and two feet ten inches from east to west. 

 It rises by three steps of five inches rise and two inches tread to 

 the height of seventeen inches, and has no traces of carving or 

 inscriptions. 



The shaft is five feet six inches high, by eighteen inches wide 

 one way and fourteen inches wide the other way. The angles 

 are rounded into a corner-staff three inches in diameter, the 

 spaces between on all the four faces being similar, and filled in 

 with figures or interlaced patterns carved in high relief, The 



