Bewcastle Cross

[2] There have been suggestions that neither cross was originally a single piece of stone completed in one phase of work, and both have been proposed as the earlier.

[3] The theory that the cross is probably the work of the team of masons and sculptors brought in by Benedict Biscop from the 670s to expand the monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, then one of the leading centres of culture in the Kingdom of Northumbria is still supported by the Bewcastle website;[4] this reflects the dating of scholars such as Meyer Schapiro.

Below this is an arched panel in which, as at Ruthwell, a nimbussed Christ is being lifted up on the heads to two identical creatures, raising his right hand in an act of blessing while holding the scroll of life (Rev 5) in his left.

The north side may also contain runes that are barely decipherable above the fifth panel, but may refer to Wulfere, among others, who was a son of Penda, and king of Mercia.

One such reads it as: "thissig be(a)cn thun set(t)on hwa(e)tred waethgar alwfwolthu aft alcfrithu ean kuining eac oswiuing gebid heo sinna sawhula"

[citation needed] possibly referring to Egfrid, son of Oswy and brother of Alhfrith (also Alchfrith or Ealhfrith), who ascended to the throne in 670.

A replica of the cross, including a guess at the missing part, is in the churchyard of the neo-Romanesque St Mary's Church at Wreay near Carlisle.