What is recorded here

Islaunloughan is a small, low-lying island in Portmagee Channel, County Kerry, where a damaged stone cross once stood before moving into state care. The cross keeps one intact arm and a broken head, while the other arm has vanished entirely. It belongs to a small group of portable pilgrim crosses found on the island, suggesting people walked across open water to touch stone and leave prayer behind. The sea may have taken the missing arm, or time may have simply erased it, but the remaining angle still points toward the chance that devotion reached even this remote place.

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 0.49m; Wth 0.19m; T 0.05m) was on Illaunloughan and is now in the care of the OPW (National Monuments). The shaft and one arm with rounded angles are largely intact; the other arm is missing and the head is partially damaged. (Marshall and Walsh 2005, 9, fig. 5b) See attached drawing of cross taken from Marshall and Walsh 2005, Fig. 5b. 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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