The High Cross of Kildare, on the southwest of the cathedral is not one of the great Irish high crosses, nor is it certain that it even occupies its original site. But its very roughness suggests antiquity. In 1686 the shaft, which had probably been broken from the base at some stage, was used as an altar step in the then newly restored pro¬cathedral (the old chancel), and the head was lying in the graveyard near the base. Restoration, insofar as the parts could be found, was made in late Victorian times.