Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Altar
Keel West, County Mayo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Keel West
- County
- Mayo
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 53.96954, -10.19770
- SMR number
- MA053-003002-
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
On a SE-facing slope in the SE end of a steep-sided, boggy valley overlooking Keem Bay. O’Kelly (1942, 3) recorded this as an ‘Altar of the penal days’, consisting of ‘a heap of stones’ with a large stone with a natural hollow which collected rain water that was used by people to cross themselves. These features are no longer evident. A D-shaped, flat-topped drystone-built structure or ‘altar’ (2.5m NE−SW; 2.2m NW−SE; H 0.95m), built by local people in the 1960’s, now stands on the location. Set upright in the centre of the flat top is a roughly cross-shaped stone slab (MA-53-003001-).
Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 9 January 2017
References
O'Kelly, M.J. 1942 Antiquities and folk culture –Achill Island. Unpublished notes in the topographic files of the National Museum of Ireland.
Nearby in the register
- Crossunder 1 mi
- Settlement clusterunder 1 mi
- Field systemunder 1 mi
- House - indeterminate dateunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.