The Riasg Buidhe Cross is a cross standing in the gardens of

Colonsay House Colonsay House is a Georgian country house on the island of Colonsay, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It is a Category B listed building, and is now in the ownership of the Barons Strathcona. The gardens are open to the public, and are listed o ...

on the

Inner Hebridean The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

island of

Colonsay Colonsay (; gd, Colbhasa; sco, Colonsay) is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, located north of Islay and south of Mull. The ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeil, it is in the council area of Argyll ...

, Scotland. It takes its name from the now abandoned and ruined village of Riasg Buidhe, about southeast of Colonsay House, where it was found in the nineteenth century.

History

Dating from the 7th or 8th century, the cross stood at Riasg Buidhe in what was recorded as an old burial ground until 1870, when it was taken to Colonsay House close to Kiloran ( gd, Cill Odhráin) which was built in 1722. The cross was placed beside Tobar Oran ( en, The well of St. Oran) and in the vicinity of the now lost Chapel of St. Oran. One side of the cross shows a solemn face with distinctive eyebrows and ears, below which extends a long thin neck. The arms of the figure - presumably Christ - are represented by two opposite spirals, and the lower part of the body ends in a fishtail, perhaps referring to the ancient Christian tradition of representing Christ as a fish. The other side of the cross may be intended to represent a penis, as some have suggested.

References

* David M. Wilson: ''The Art of the Picts - Sculpture and Metalwork in early medieval Scotland'', London, Thames and Hudson 2004, . *Kevin Byrne: ''Lonely Colonsay - Island at the Edge'', Colonsay, House of Lochar 2010,

External links

{{coord, 56.0930, -6.1882, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Archaeological sites in the Southern Inner Hebrides Colonsay Buildings and structures in Argyll and Bute Scotland in the Early Middle Ages Monuments and memorials in Scotland