Leacht

The National Monuments Service's description

Associated with the ecclesiastical remains at the SE end of Cruach na Cara/St Macdara’s Island. Five leachta or penitential stations have been recorded in the vicinity of the church (GA076-020001-): (a, GA076-020003-) c. 70m NNW is a D-shaped pile of stones (L/Wth 2 9m> H 0.9m), centrally placed within which is a plain upright limestone slab (GA076-020027-); (b, GA076-020004-) c. 20m NW of the church, it consists of a large chunk of the natural granite bedrock (L 2.8m, Wth 1.7m) with a number of hollows and small rounded boulders on its flat top; (c, GA076-020009-) c. 20m NE of the oratory, it was described and illustrated by Bigger (1896, 109) as a flat-topped drystone 'altar', on the top of which were 'several spherical praying or “cursing stones”' (GA076-02026-), and an upright cross slab (GA076-020010-). All that survives today are the roughly rectangular foundations (L > 2.7m) defined along W side by set slabs. Two of the cursing stones are still visible and the cross now stands c. 3m to SSE. Beside it is a holed stone, probably the 'hollowed stone' or 'socket' (GA076-020016-) referred to by Bigger (ibid.; Hardiman 1846, 98); (d, GA076-020006-) c. 15m S of the oratory is a circular scatter of boulders and small stones (D c. 7.5m), mostly of granite but with some of limestone and one of quartz. No trace of the 'several fragments of a cross' (see GA076-020018-) noted here by Bigger (1896, 110) survive. Finally, the leacht (e, GA076-020020-) immediately to the E of the church was known as the 'Saint's Bed' (Bigger 1896, 105-6).

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). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Updated by: Olive Alcock

Date of revised upload: 31 May 2018

This monument was taken into Guardianship under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 - National Monument 242.

References

Hardiman, J. (ed) 1846 A chorographical description of West or H-Iar Connaught written in A.D. 1684 by Roderic O'Flaherty, Esq. Dublin.

Bigger, F.J. 1896 Cruach Mac Dara, off the coast of Connamara: with a notice of its church, crosses, and antiquities. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 26, 101-12.