What is recorded here

Nine decades of rain and sheep have bitten the cross into a faint shadow, yet the stone still stands six metres from the church wall, watching Kenmare Bay through the graveyard grass. It is not a monument to a named king or a remembered battle; it is a marker for the ordinary dead of Coad parish, their identities surrendered to erosion while the shape of their faith remains. The slab belongs to Behaghane, not to legend, and its endurance is the point.

Kilcrohane Church/Cill Chrócháin, also known as Coad Church and traditionally dedicated to St Cróchán, the patron of the parish, is located close to the N boundary of a rectangular graveyard (KE106-032002-) on the lower SE slopes of Coad mountain. The site overlooks Cove Harbour and Kenmare Bay to S. In the graveyard, 6m S of the SE angle of the church, is an upright cross-inscribed slab. It measures 0.91m high and 0.3m x 0.07m at base. Its smooth W face bears a broadly grooved, single-line, Latin cross. In 2009 a graveyard survey carried out by Robert Hanbidge and Ann Frykler of Headland Archaeology Ltd. recorded the following details: 'There is one cross slab present at Behaghane graveyard grv no. 575; this has previously been recorded as RMP KE106-032005. It is a simple erect stone slab with a faint carved cross, heavily eroded and also used as a scratching post by grazing sheep within the graveyard'. See attached photograph of Toberavilla and Turas Chrócháin, Co. Kerry, taken 1946 by Caoimhín Ó Danachair courtesy of and © National Folklore Collection, UCD. The Photographic Collection, F025.18.00004 accessible online at https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbeg/24631. The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 1087. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 12 April 2022

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