Penitential station

The National Monuments Service's description

On a S-facing slope to the N of the public road from Killinaboy to Leamaneh and to the N of an overgrown stile in the wall. Named ‘Chair’ on the 1840 OS 6-inch map and named ‘Seehaun Inneenboy’ on the 1916 ed. Listed as 'Potential site - name’ in the RMP (1996). Described by Westropp (1900, 407) as ‘the seat of Inghean Baoith, the patroness of Kilnaboy parish, a sure cure for lumbago and rheumatism, but requiring three pilgrimages to obtain relief’. Described by MacNamara (1900, 28-9) as a ‘rude chair’ which appears ‘to have been interfered with at one time by quarry-men or road-makers’. MacNamara (1900, 29) repeats the tradition that ‘Inniwee was in the habit of using it as a chair, on which she used to sit and pray’ and that ‘Inniwee's seat has still a certain reputation among the peasantry as an infallible cure for the backache’. He also notes (ibid.) that the chair is difficult to find due to its similarity to the other parts of limestone outcrop which surround it and in order to make it visible he ‘marked the stone with a small cross’ which is at ‘at the sitter's right hand’.
On inspection in 1998 outcropping rock c. 10m inside a style N of the wall and at the foot of the crag was noted with a number of pools dug in it. This may be the stone described by MacNamara although no cross was noted. ‘Clogh-an-Airgid’, a possible penitential station (CL016-056----), is named close by on the OS maps but its location is uncertain.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Lynda McCormack

Date of upload: 24 May 2022

References

Westropp, T.J. 1900 Excursions of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Summer meeting, 1900. Description of the places visited. Section III. Third excursion; Section IV. Fourth Excursion. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 10, 392-419; 420-26.

MacNamara, G. 1900 The ancient stone crosses of Ui Fearmaic, Co. Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 30, 22-33.