Cross Inneenboy
| Cross Inneenboy | |
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Native name Irish: Cros Iníne Baoith |
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Replica on Roughan Hill
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| Type | stone tau cross |
| Location | Roughan Hill, Corofin, County Clare, Ireland |
| Coordinates | 52°58′40″N 9°06′53″W / 52.977822°N 9.114703°WCoordinates: 52°58′40″N 9°06′53″W / 52.977822°N 9.114703°W |
| Height | 90 cm (3 feet) |
| Built | 12th century AD |
| Official name: Tau Cross (Cross Inneenboy) | |
| Reference no. | 574 |
 Location of Cross Inneenboy in Ireland
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Cross Inneenboy (Irish: Cros Iníne Baoith or "cross of the daughter of Baoth") or the Roughan Hill Tau Cross is a stone tau cross and National Monument located in County Clare, Ireland.
Cross Inneenboy formerly stood on a large boulder on Roughan Hill, 2 km (1¼ mile) northwest of Kilnaboy; but was later moved several times for safe-keeping, lastly to Clare Heritage & Genealogy Centre in Corofin, where it is now located. A replica has been erected at the original site near the road between Kilnaboy and Leamaneh Castle.
The cross was likely erected in the 12th century and served as an ecclesiastical boundary marker (termonn). Reportedly, it was one of three similar structures, but it is the only one whose whereabouts are known today.
Kilnaboy takes its name from the Irish Cill Iníne Baoith, "Church of Baoth's daughter"; the cross is therefore the "Cross of Baoth's daughter." Saint Inneenboy was the patron saint of the Dál gCais.
In 1937, Adolf Mahr, Keeper of Irish Antiquities and Director of the National Museum of Ireland, published a theory that associated the cross with the Celtic double-heads from Roquepertuse, France. In 1940, Joseph Raftery supported this theory, counting the Kilnaboy cross in the same category of La Tène sculptures. Etienne Rynne, however, in an article on the Tau Cross in 1967, compared the craft style of the two carved heads with other works nearby – the immediate area offering three other examples of tau-croziers. He thus showed that the cross was in fact likely a boundary mark of the Romanesque period (12th century) and not a pagan idol of the early Iron Age.
The tau cross has also been associated with Saint Anthony the Great, one of the founders of Christian monasticism. There are only eight other similar crosses in Ireland.
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