What is recorded here

Inishcaltra is a small Clare island where a plain Latin cross still stands inside St. Caimin’s church. The stone is tall enough to touch, broad enough to remember, and old enough to have outlived the hands that first handled it. Its surface is marked by deep straight grooves, perhaps made when the cross was also a tool, sharpening edges before it became a marker of faith. That dual life fits the island: sacred and practical, remembered and worn, holy in the way all useful things become holy when people keep returning to them.

Located against the S wall of the nave of St. Caimin’s church (CL029-009011-) and 5.88m from the E end. Noted by Macalister (1916-17, 155, no. 42) as of ‘twelfth-century type’ and described as ‘a slab 5ft 2in (1.57m) by 1ft 9 1/2in (0.54m) by 4 1/2in (0.11m). Plain Latin cross of two lines, with a base formed by oblique lines running downward from the lower corners of the stem. The surface of the slab is deeply scored with straight grooves; apparently it has been used at some time for sharpening tools.’ Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 7 October 2015

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