What is recorded here

No visible cross remains on the pillar, yet it still stands beside Hugh MacBrick's ruined church on the narrow Slieve League ridge. The lost marking may have faded under weather, or the pillar may have pointed toward the cliff, the water, the cairns or the church itself. In a place already reduced to fragments, that missing line makes the stone active rather than dead.

Hugh MacBrick's Church (DG090-004001-): Situated at the edge of a narrow ridge of Slieve League. The land rises on the S and SW to the cliff and falls away steeply to Lough Agh on the N. On the E the ridge is level and the land falls away again on the SE. The ruins are in a parlous condition and the whole is littered with collapse which obscures the outline of the drystone-built remains. Only the interior wall face of the church c. 6.5m by 3m internally, survive to any extent, c. 1.5m in height; some courses of the exterior face of the S and N walls survive. The interior E corner of a doorway in the S wall is in situ but the upper courses are inclined inwards. The church is bounded on the E and SE by a sub-right-angled section of wall, c. 2m thick; it is collapsed at the NE end. There are the remains of a structure on the N but its outline is obscured by fallen rubble. Some 3m SW of the church are the collapsed remains of a beehive structure (DG090-004002-), partly built into the slope of the mountain; the entrance is on the E. Three 'Holy Wells' (DG090-004003/005/007-) are noted on the OS 6-inch map near the church. N of the church is a cross-inscribed pillar stone (DG090-004004-). Approximately 26 cairns (penitential stations), three of which may be the remains of hut sites, are strung along both edges of the narrow ridge of Slieve League. (Ó Muirgheasa, Nos. 27 and 28.) The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

Likely dating to the early Christian period, the cross-inscribed pillar is associated with Hugh MacBrick's Church and may have served a liturgical or commemorative function. Such stones often mark ecclesiastical sites and may reflect the spread of Christianity in the region.

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