What is recorded here

Half-hidden on a steep Kerry slope above The Glen, the cross-inscribed pillar still leans south beside its gable shrine. Carved with a Latin cross and a smaller diamond-bound mark, it faces St Finan’s Bay and the distant Skelligs. Local story ties the place to St Buonia, perhaps sister of St Patrick, while other accounts credit St Brendan or his disciple St Beoanus. Whoever first climbed that remote valley, they set a boundary marker where faith, weather and memory still meet.

KE088-027004- is located on a fairly steep, S facing slope of Knocknaskereighta mountain, towards the head of a broad valley which is locally known as ‘The Glen’. It affords excellent views to St Finan’s Bay and the Skelligs at W. The site is associated with St Buonia (Beoanigh), who is locally reputed to have been a sister of St Patrick. It has also been suggested that the site was founded by St Brendan or by St Beoanus, his disciple (O’Donoghue 1893, 280-3). Permission to survey the site was refused, and the following description is based on summary notes and the accounts published of it by Lynch (1902a) and Henry (1957). Cross-slab (KE088-027007-): This stands close to the NW corner of the gable-shrine (KE088-027008-) and inclines strongly to S. It is of regular rectangular form and stands 1.22m high. Its W face features a deeply grooved Latin cross with bifid terminals, beneath which is a smaller cross which is enclosed within a lozenge. See attached photograph courtesy of Amanda Clarke 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. 954. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 July 2013

Likely dating to the early Christian period, the cross-inscribed pillar in Cill Buaine may have served a religious or commemorative function, possibly associated with a local monastic or ecclesiastical site. Such stones often mark territorial boundaries, memorialize individuals, or reflect Christian iconography linked to early Irish saints or settlements.

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