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Pillar stone in Oileán Máisean

Pillar stone

What is recorded here

Oileán Máisean is a small island off County Galway where an early Christian church still stands beside a leacht containing a thin granite pillar. The unmarked stone leans eastward twenty metres from the worship building, suggesting it marked a boundary, honoured a dead person, or guided visitors through a sacred landscape. Its simplicity removes the need for invention because the shape and position already speak.
Within the N half of a leacht (GA076-011007-) that lies c. 20m to the NNW of an early Christian church (GA076-011001-). This thin granite pillar stone (L 1m; base Wth 0.23m; max. T 0.09m) is roughly rectangular in plan and tapers from the bottom to the top (Wth 0.1m; max. T 0.12m). It is undecorated and leans to the E. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 29 April 2014
Likely dating to the early Christian period, the pillar stone may have had a ritual or commemorative function, possibly associated with the nearby church. Its slender form and positioning suggest it could be a holy or boundary stone linked to local Christian or pre-Christian traditions.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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