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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Cairn - unclassified

Inis Ní, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Cairn - unclassified, Inis Ní, County Galway, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Inis Ní
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.41633, -9.90158
SMR number
GA050-010002-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Just above HWM on N shore of the island. The well (GA050-010001-) and the 'Monument' (GA050-010003-) indicated on OS 6-inch maps as being dedicated to St Brendan are locally associated with St Columcille and visited on his day (pers. comm. T. Robinson). The well consists of a small smooth rounded pothole (D c. 0.3m) on a flat rock outcrop. A semicircular drystone cairn (GA050-010002-) (D 1.2m, H 1.2m) has been built around its S side. Circa 1m SE is the 'Monument': this is a similar cairn, D-shaped in plan (D 1.2m, H 1.45m). Coins and the remains of flowers are visible amongst the stones of both cairns. The well known locally as St Brendan's Well (GA050-010004-) lies 50m to W just below HWM, and consists of a natural pothole (D 0.4m) with an irregular cairn (GA050-010005-) (H 1.2m) above it (info. T. Robinson). Noted by O'Flaherty in 1684 as a 'place in memory of St. Brendan' (Hardiman 1846, 104). (Killanin 1954, 101; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 418)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993).

Date of upload: 12 August 2016

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Cairn - unclassified in Galway All County Galway records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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