Milestone

This is the large erratic incorporated in a boundary wall. The stone measures c. 2m by 1.20m and rises about 0.60m above the wall. Fr. McErlean (1905-6, 149-50) noted that nearly all Irish speakers then knew it under the name of Cloch an Linsig, though it was better known by all, even English speakers, as Cloch an mhíle or the mile-stone, from its being situated at the distance of an Irish mile from Galway. Fr. Rabbitte, however, writing in 1922, recorded that a ‘man now living in Moneenagissah, within a stone’s throw of Renmore gate, whose father and grandfather lived near the present Renmore Barracks never heard this rock called Clogh-an-linshee. He is intelligent, speaks English and Irish, and is 82 years of age. His sister who died a few months ago at the age of 96 and spoke Irish only knew the stone as Clogh a veela.’ (1922-3, 31, note 97). It would appear that at one time a bush stood close by to this rock and the names ‘Mile Bush’ and ‘Lynch’s Stone’ were interchangeable, though the former is most frequently found in documents (see Ó Máille 1948-9, sub nomen Cloch an Linsigh and 1950-1, 69 Mile Bush) as 'One close or park near Myle-Bush otherwise . . . Skehagh Clohylynchy [Skeach cloch an Linsigh - the bush of Lynch’s stone]' (Blake 1905, 46). The minor name ‘Milestone’ is recorded on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (surveyed in 1838), though this is position c. 150m to the east to the present stone.