What is recorded here

Clear water records the shape of Illaunloughan, but the cross already belonged to the region when it was set beside the shore. Its rounded head and worn arms mark it as a small pilgrimage stone, the kind people carried past memory and repeated in prayer. It leaves the channel only because the sea would have taken it, yet the cut angle and red earth remember the island.

National Monument No. 10001. Illaunloughan/Oileán Lócháin (KE087-036017-) is a small, low-lying island located in Portmagee Channel, c. 120m from the mainland at S and c. 400m WNW of Portmagee (Port Mhic Aoidh) village. The island stands in the civil parish of Killemlagh (Cill Imleach), in the barony of Iveragh (Uíbh Ráthach). According to Marshall and Walsh (1998, 102) 'There is no historical documentation for the island, and the origin of its name is uncertain. Lochán may be the name of a saint associated with the island, a theory supported by the mention of two Lochans in the Martyrology of Oengus, written c. AD 800 (Stokes 1984, 255, 263) and by the inland location of Killoughane (Cill Lócháin) ecclesiastical site [KE065-058001-] at the eastern end of the Iveragh peninsula (O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, 357). Alternatively the island name may be derived from the island of the chaff. Four seasons of archaeological work, carried out from 1992 to 1995, have completed the excavation of about 70 per cent of the island. One of four portable crosses (KE087-036009/012-) described by the excavators as 'Pilgrim crosses' (Marshall and Walsh 2005, 201). This stone cross (L c. 0.3m; Wth c. 0.13m) was on the seashore on the E side of Illaunloughan and is now in the care of the OPW (National Monuments). The head is rounded and both damaged arms display traces of hollowed angles beneath (Marshall and Walsh 2005, 9, fig. 5a) See attached drawing of cross taken from Marshall and Walsh 2005, Fig. 5a and photograph of cross now housed in Killarney OPW Depot, courtesy of Dr. Connie Kelleher, NMS Senior Archaeologist. Cross Reference with KE066-253----. Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork. Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 30 March 2022

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