Leacht in Inishcaltra OR Holy Island

Situated within the graveyard (CL029-009030-) E of St. Caimin’s church on Inis Cealtra. According to the Ordnance Survey Letters (O’Flanagan 1927, vol. 2, 226) a grave, lying a few yards from the SE corner of St Caimin’s church (CL029-009011-) marked the burials of ‘the twelve saints’ who founded the churches on the island. He noted an uninscribed upright stone marking the location of a horizontal one that covered the grave. Many recumbent graveslabs are still in situ in the graveyard but it is not known which of them marked this ‘Saint’s grave’. A sketch in Petrie and Stokes 1878 (vol. 2, 41) shows four upright stones towards the SE corner of the saint’s graveyard which were not to be seen in Macalister’s time but which may have been associated. (Macalister 1916, 163, no. 85) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 3 November 2015

Linked to St. Caimin, an early Irish Christian saint associated with Inis Cealtra (Holy Island), the site reflects a tradition of sacred burial and veneration connected to the island’s monastic past. The location within the graveyard suggests its use as a place of prayer or pilgrimage, possibly connected to local healing or protective traditions.