What is recorded here

Inishcaltra is a small Clare island where a broken twelfth-century cross-slab still lies beside an old church, its incomplete name preserving Bishop Gilla-Críst in stone. The island has long drawn people inward, as if the sea itself were tightening around a hidden chamber of memory. What is lost in the missing fragments may still be working, waiting for someone reckless enough to listen.

A recumbent cross-slab, part of a composite grave situated in the E half of the ‘Saint’s graveyard’ (CL029-009030-) on Inis Cealtra (this slab is 2.5m from the N wall and 3.3m from the E wall of Teampul na bhfear ngonta (CL029-009015-). Noted by Macalister (1916-17, 156, no. 58) as of ‘twelfth-century type’. Described by Okasha and Forsyth (2001, 73-5) as a large cross-slab (H 1.45m; Wth 0.42m; T 0.1m), broken into two pieces with several pieces missing. The face is dressed and incised with an outline Latin cross with hollowed angles and a square base, open at the bottom. An incomplete inscription in two lines across the top of the cross reads ‘…DOGILLU…EPISCO’ (Bishop Gilla-Críst). Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 27 October 2015

A recumbent cross-slab from the early medieval period, likely 8th to 10th century, associated with a Christian burial or memorial in a saint's graveyard; such stones often marked high-status individuals or had liturgical significance. Local tradition may link it to Inis Cealtra's history as a monastic site.

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