Recumbent cross-slab (Govan 32) Photograph © B Keeling
This is one of the recumbent tombstones in Govan Old Parish Church. It formerly lay in the kirkyard and would originally have been placed on top of a grave. It was probably carved in the 10th century and is one of a group of five cross-slabs at Govan in which the cross is decorated with interlace patterns. Other cross-slabs from the site have plain, undecorated crosses and seem to be slightly later. This stone has been re-used in modern times, probably in the 17th or 18th century: it has the initials T H and A H in the centre of the cross-head.
References
JR Allen & J Anderson, The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1903). Part III, p.470.
Rosemary Cramp, ‘The Govan recumbent cross-slabs’, pp.55-61 in Anna Ritchie (ed) Govan and its Early Medieval Sculpture (Stroud, 1994) [at p.56]
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Heart of the Kingdom 