St Brigid's Cross on Arran

While traveling around Arran we visited Lamlash, a very pretty seaside village on the east coast of the island. Outside their parish church stands an unusual carved cross. The weathered carving shows Christ emerging from a chalice as at a mass, with kneeling devotee below. The reverse is a cross decorated with foliage.

We found out later that the cross was actually discovered on Holy Island (an island which is now owned by Buddists and used as a retreat). A tenant of a farm on Holy Island removed the cross from his land sometime in the 1850s or 1860s and buried it for reasons unknown in Kilbride graveyard. It was discovered in 1896, and at some point transferred to its present location. It was being referred to as 'St Brigid's Cross and states', for no obvious reason, other than it stood at Cnoc na Croise on the putative Pilgrim's Way, and marked the point where pilgrims from the west of the island saw Holy Island for the first time.

Below the cross is a hollowed-out stone, long believed to be a font, but probably just a mortar.