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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Penitential station

Gortnagane, County Kerry, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Penitential station, Gortnagane, County Kerry, 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
Gortnagane
County
Kerry
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Penitential Station
Latest-edition OS map
Penitential Station
Coordinates
52.04071, -9.25601
SMR number
KE068-022004-

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 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1865 · Ireland, (South) Sheet. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1883 · Ireland 3. (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

In the N half of a cashel (KE068-022001-) named 'Cathair Craobh Dearg' and known locally as 'The City'. The penitential station consists of a cairn of stones (diam. 1m; H 0.7m) to the N of a mound (KE068-022009-). 'Rounds' were traditionally made here on 1st May, which marked the start of the festival of Bealtaine. Cronin (2001, 42-3) gives a detailed account of the sequence of the 'rounds'. The practice continues today and Mass is celebrated on the cairn on that day. Two possible hut sites (KE068-022010-, KE068-022011-) are to the ENE and NE, respectively.

See attached photographs courtesy of Amanda Clarke

Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork.

Date of upload: 31 January 2011

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 Penitential station in Kerry All County Kerry records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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