Shrine

The National Monuments Service's description

Wakeman (1875, 335) describes this feature as a single block of sandstone (dims 1.85m x 0.67m; H 0.94m), which is hollow and shaped into the form of a wooden house or church. It displays construction features such as barge-boards emphasising the junction of the gables and the roof and their extension into decorated finials. It has carvings of ecclesiastics on the gables and the walls, which are now very eroded. It was utilised in post-medieval burial rituals, and modern inscriptions have attempted to appropriate it to various factions with the result that it has split into two portions from rough treatment. It is probably the earliest surviving feature of St Tigearnach’s monastery, which could date to the period of the earliest stone churches in the ninth or tenth century, and it is now displayed inside the perimeter of the graveyard (MO011-010003-) at S.

See the attached images _1 from S; _2 from SW

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 29 November 2016

References

Wakeman, W. F. 1875 On the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Cluain-Eois, now Clones, County of Monaghan. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 13, 327-340 (RT 329-32; ‘Abbey' 333-35; Shrine 335-8