Inscribed Stone,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An inscribed stone of white limestone, its face measuring about 15 feet by 12 feet, with a projecting base, situated at the side of the main road. The inscription originally read as follows: “Frances Anne Vane Marchioness of Londonderry Being connected with this Province by the double ties of birth and marriage and being desirous to hand down to posterity an imperishable memorial of Ireland’s affliction and England’s generosity in the year 1846-47 unparalleled in the annals of human suffering Hath engraved this stone. Fair Tablet fashioned by the Almighty's Hand To guard these confines of the sea and land No longer shalt thou meet the stranger’s sight, A polished surface of unmeaning white, But bid him ponder on the days of yore, When plague and famine stalked along the shore, And pale Irene veiled her dropping head Like Rachel weeping for her children dead, Tell him that to assuage these pangs and fears, Britannia gave her bounty with her tears And bear this record, though in phrases crude, Of England’s love and Ireland’s gratitude. Moluidh an tighearna oir is maith e noch do chnimnigh orainn Staid uirisle, ona mairigh a throcaire choidhche.” It has been defaced by all references to England and Britannia having been removed from the inscription, while a bronze tablet formerly affixed alongside and reproducing the original inscription has also been removed. The concluding lines in Irish translate as “O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good; who remembered us in our plight, for His mercy endureth forever.”

SETTING: The rock or stone stands in a very rural area, at the side of the main coast road, on the inland side, facing the sea; abutted on each side by low limestone and basalt rubble retaining walls, with a steep and rocky hill rising behind.

Historical information

This limestone rock was caused to be smoothed off and given its inscription by Frances Anne Vane, Marchioness of Londonderry, in 1849 as a memorial of the Famine in Ireland of 1846-7, and thus is sometimes referred to as the ‘Famine Stone’. It was defaced in the 1920s, and the bronze tablet removed sometime after 1970.

References – Primary Sources
1. Inscriptions on the rock face.
Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Glens of Antrim (Belfast, 1971), p 25 (although the tablet only is recorded there, the author evidently unaware of the inscription in the rock).
2. M. McSparran, C. Dallat and J. Irvine, Oh Maybe it was Yesterday (Glens of Antrim Historical Society, 1980), p 23.
3. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1980), p 31.
4. C. Dallat, The Road to the Glens (Belfast, 1989), p 25.
5. P. Magill, Garron Tower (Belfast, 1990), pp 37 and 38.
6. SMR no. ANT 20:2.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A well-lettered inscription stone which is associated both with a well-known personage of the area and a well-known event of historical interest, which has been spoiled by later alterations.