Scotland’s St Oran’s Cross to be restored

One of the most important symbols of medieval Scotland,  St Oran’s Cross, will be re-erected for the first time in centuries, as part of the celebrations of the 1450th anniversary of the established of a monastery on Iona in Scotland.

St Oran’s Cross dates back to the eighth century and is the  world’s first Celtic High Cross. It was chiselled out of schist stone blocks quarried from the Ross of Mull, close to Iona, weighs more than a tonne and stands nearly four-and-a-half metres tall.

The cross may have been commissioned by a King, possibly Óengus son of Fergus king of the Picts, following his conquest of the area around AD 741. It was created by the finest carvers in Scotland. Historians speculate that it could be an imitation in stone of the Golgotha jewelled cross, erected at Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in AD 417. It may have been coloured in red and gold to replicate jewels, in imitation of timber or metal prototypes....