What is recorded here

Broken limestone still stands upright in the western half of a children’s burial ground on Inis, its base wider than its shaft and two faint lines suggesting a cross that once rose above small graves. It has fallen, been turned upside down, and been set right again, as if the island kept adjusting a marker nobody could fully read. What the cross named, protected, or remembered has not survived the stone, but the children’s ground still gives the slab its address.

This broken limestone cross-slab (visible H 0.68m; max. Wth 0.5m; T 0.13m) is set upright in the W half of a children’s burial ground (GA111-002005-). When recorded in 1969 it was set upside down in the ground and in 1981 it was lying flat on the ground. A sketch from this time indicates that the base (Wth 0.5m) was wider than the shaft (Wth 0.37m) and the overall length of the fragment was recorded as 1.9m (information from Prof. Rynne). Two parallel lines on the slab probably indicate the shaft of a two-line cross. (Higgins 1987, vol. 2, 329, no. 55) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 12 February 2016 This monument was taken into Ownership under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 - National Monument 43.

This cross-slab likely dates to the early medieval period, associated with Christian burial practices. Its placement within a children’s burial ground suggests a ritual or commemorative function, possibly linked to local Christian traditions or memorials.

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