What is recorded here

Inishvickillane, southernmost of the Blasket islands, holds a small stone font no taller than a man's forearm, marked outside with a lightly cut cross. The font once stood inside the Early Christian oratory on the island's rocky eastern slope, where monks may have washed hands before prayer or cleaned instruments after surgery. When the island emptied, the Haughey family took the font into their home to keep it from breaking or being lost. It is not a grand basin but a surviving fragment, small enough to carry across a threshold yet old enough to have watched the sea change the shape of the place.

Inishvickillane, the southernmost of the Blasket islands, lies 7 miles SW of Slea Head and 9 miles from the nearest embarkation point at Dunquin pier. The island has an area of 199 acres and the Early Christian monastic settlement KE061-006---- lies at the SE end of the island, on the E slopes of a rocky buff which rises prominently above the remainder of the island. (8) (KE061-006009-) Portion of a stone font remained in the oratory until recently when it was taken for safekeeping into the Haughey residence on the island. It measures .18 to .2m in height and .25m across (O'Leary and Snodgrass 1976, 13). A small cross has been lightly inscised on the outside (information: Mr. Haughey). The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 845. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 8 August 2013

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