What is recorded here

Van Hoek called it a Mass Rock, but the OS maps marked it an altar before anyone remembered worship. The thin semicircular slab still stands in rough pasture east of Pollan Bay sandhills, its south-east face crowded with crosses that may be human cuts, weathered hollows or both. It probably arrived from the dunes further west, dragged out of shifting sand by hands that stopped believing the ground owned them.

A semicircular thin standing slab of stone, the SE face of which is covered with designs including crosses. Many of these have probably been weathered and it is likely that many of them are reworkings of cavities previously cut by natural forces. It is situated on open rough pasture E of the sandhills of Pollan Bay. It is believed that it was moved to its present location from the sand dunes further W. It is located on the Isle of Doagh within half a mile of a number of examples of rock art. The stone is referred to on the 2nd and 3rd editions of the OS 6-inch maps as an 'altar'. This altar was described by Van Hoek as a Mass Rock in his catalogue of rock art from the Isle of Doagh (Van Hoek 1987, 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 (5th–10th century), the cross-inscribed pillar reflects the spread of Christianity in the region and may have served a ritual or commemorative function. The reworking of natural cavities into crosses suggests a blending of prehistoric and Christian symbolism.

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