Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Inauguration stone
Kilmacrenan (kilmacrenan Ed), County Donegal, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Kilmacrenan (kilmacrenan Ed)
- County
- Donegal
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- NULL
- Latest-edition OS map
- NULL
- Coordinates
- 55.03320, -7.77322
- SMR number
- DG045-010005-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1881 "Ireland to Illustrate the Military Condition of the Country." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Not included in the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal' (1983) or the SMR (1987). John O'Donovan, writing in 1835, quoted a folk tradition about a footprint stone associated with Cill Mhic Nenáin, near Kilmacrenan village. He was told by a local story-teller, Manus O'Donnell, that as a boy he had seen a stone beneath the north-east window of the friary church decorated with the 'impression of a foot and other ornaments'. He believed that it was upon this stone that Ó Domhnaill, chief of Tir Conaill, had stood during his inauguration ceremony. According to the same source the stone was apparently broken up, some time later, in a malicious act by a 'Mr. Mac Swine, who having changed his religion, became a violent hater of everything Irish.' (OSL, 53). See E. FitzPatrick, Royal Inauguration in Gaelic Ireland, c. 1100-1600. A Cultural Landscape Study. 2004, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, pp. 18, 111-2, 185-193.
Nearby in the register
- Stone headunder 1 mi
- Religious house - Franciscan Third Order Regularunder 1 mi
- Graveyardunder 1 mi
- Buildingunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.