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Cross in Inishcaltra OR Holy Island

Cross

What is recorded here

Inishcaltra is a holy island in County Clare where St. Caimin’s church still stands beside a flat sandstone block with a small round socket. The block may have held a cross or fitted a door, and its carved lines point outward like a compass dropped into myth. Either way, the stone marks the place where human hands shaped devotion before the sea took most of the evidence.
Located near the W gable wall of St. Caimin’s church (CL029-009011-) just N of the doorway. A possible cross-base (originally in the Saint’s Graveyard, see Macalister (1916-17, pl. XV, close to 38(26)) comprising a subcircular, sandstone, flat-topped block (0.32m x 0.3m) with a circular, flat-bottomed socket (diam. 0.08m; D 0.05m) inside a carved circle. Two opposing radial lines extend from the socket to the circle. Macalister (ibid., 152) notes that this may have been a door-socket. Revised by: Mary Tunney Date of revision: 26 April 2016

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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