Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Leacht
Inis Oírr, County Galway, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Inis Oírr
- County
- Galway
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- St. Cavans Grave
- Latest-edition OS map
- St. Cavans Grave
- Coordinates
- 53.06387, -9.51400
- SMR number
- GA120-007004-
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 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In an area of sand dunes close to the NE shore of the island, c. 10m to the NE of the church (GA120-007001-). Named ‘St. Cavan’s Grave’ on the OS 6-inch maps and depicted as a small rectangular enclosure or leacht. The grave, which was believed to have the miraculous power of adapting itself to the size of any person who slept in it looking for a cure, was almost covered in sand by the early 19th century (O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 3, 428). A stone-lined pit, at the base of which there is a cross-inscribed cross-slab (GA120-007007-), may mark its site. It is now protected by a small stone-built roofed building. (Gosling 1993, 97, no. 554)
Compiled by: Olive Alcock
Date of upload: 10 March 2016
References
Gosling, P. (compiler) 1993 Archaeological inventory of County Galway, vol. 1: West Galway. Dublin. Stationery Office.
O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Mayo collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Bray.
Nearby in the register
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.