Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Inscribed stone
Ballinlena, County Mayo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Ballinlena
- County
- Mayo
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 54.27731, -9.21016
- SMR number
- MA008-006005-
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 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
The 1838 OS Letters record that in Kilcummin graveyard (MA008-006007-) there was an inscribed stone that was traditionally used as a cursing stone: ‘There formerly was a stone in this Churchyard on which it is said there was some inscription, and which the people were accustomed to turn or get turned, when they imprecated curses against any one of their enemies.’ (O’Flanagan 1927, 101-2 (195-6)). The stone was deliberately broken to prevent its use, then reassembled, and finally, sometime in the early 1800’s, removed from the graveyard by a local priest, who is said to have brought it to a ‘new Roman Catholic chapel’ in Ballina. According to tradition, a fragment of the stone remained in the graveyard (ibid. 101-2 (195-6). The exact whereabouts of the stone are unknown.
Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 15 July 2019
References
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
- Cross-slabunder 1 mi
- Cross-inscribed stoneunder 1 mi
- Graveyardunder 1 mi
- Shrineunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.