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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Cairn - unclassified

Clonmacnoise, County Offaly, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Cairn - unclassified, Clonmacnoise, County Offaly, 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
Clonmacnoise
County
Offaly
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
Carn of the Three Crosses
Coordinates
53.32788, -7.98079
SMR number
OF005-028001-

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)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (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

On top of a natural esker ridge running NE-SW in undulating countryside. Marked as the 'Carn of the Three Crosses' this is the site of a square shaped flat topped cairn (H 0.5m; 3.6m E-W; 3.2m N-S ) delimited by a series of upright kerb stones set on edge. There are 3 wooden crosses inserted on the top of the cairn. An Early Christian grave-slab with inscription which reads 'Oroit ar Thurcain lasandernad in chrossa' was found at the base of this cairn in the early 1900'3 (OPW 1906-7). There are two broken ringed crosses of 19th-century date in the cairn material. The esker is the Pilgrims Road used in early Christian times as a Roadway to Clonmacnoise and connects the Nun's Chapel (OF005-029001-) to the Cathedral (OF005-004001-).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 23 May 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 Cairn - unclassified in Offaly All County Offaly records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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