Modern impact on the fabric of the Ruthwell Cross

Citation

Hobma H, O'Donnell D, Karkov C, Foster S, Graham J, Osborn W, del Turco R, Broatch R, Broatch S, Callieri M & Dellepiane M (2016) Modern impact on the fabric of the Ruthwell Cross. Old English Newsletter, 46 (1). http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/issue/ruthwell.php

Abstract
First paragraph: The Ruthwell Cross is a partially reconstructed Anglo-Saxon stone cross that has been housed since the late nineteenth century in a specially built apse of the Ruthwell kirk between the villages of Clarencefield and Ruthwell in modern Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The monument is commonly dated to the eighth century (Ó Carragáin, Ritual and the Rood; O'Neill), albeit with some disagreement as to both its dating and indeed whether it was originally a cross (see particularly O'Neill; also the essays in Orton, Wood, and Lees; pre-1642 opinion of whether the monument was a cross or a pillar is inconclusive). Although it was moved to its current location in the apse only at the end of the nineteenth century, the monument seems to have always been associated with the Ruthwell church site. As a related monument still standing at nearby Bewcastle and the frequent finds of fragments from similar objects at the even closer but now abandoned monastic site at Hoddom suggest, such monuments also appear to have been relatively common in the area (on Hoddom see Lowe, Brooke, and Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; the Bewcastle cross has an extensive bibliography: relatively recent works include Ó Carragáin, Ritual and the Rood; Orton, Wood, and Lees; Ó Carragáin, "Christian Inculturation in Eighth-Century Northumbria: The Bewcastle and Ruthwell Crosses"; Ó Carragáin, Ritual and the Rood 32-33, discusses the relative frequency of crosses in the area; see Bailey and Cramp for a detailed description).  Available from the publisher's website: http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/issue/ruthwell.php

Journal
Old English Newsletter: Volume 46, Issue 1