Maclean's Cross, Iona (Argyll and Bute)
A fine 15th-century free-standing cross
Introduction
This fine cross stands beside the ancient Sràid nan Marbh (‘street of the dead’), at a point where it met another track leading up from Port Ronain, ‘St Ronan’s Port’, where the modern pier is. We can picture pilgrims filing up from the boats and pausing to say a prayer here before moving on up the road to their final destination, the famous abbey and St Columba’s shrine.
History to the present day
The cross is a fine example of the Iona school of stone-carving, active in the late 15th century. The school’s output included also those wonderful graveslabs now on display in the Abbey Cloister and Museum, and the splendid MacMillan Cross at Kilmory Knap Chapel, beside Loch Sween. Carved from a single stone slab more than 3m high, the disc-headed cross is carved on both sides with tightly packed plaitwork and foliage. The cross-head is decorated with two animals (east side, facing the road) and a crucifixion scene (west side). The armed horseman carved on the foot of the shaft may be a depiction of the MacLean chief who commissioned the monument around 1500.
