What is recorded here

Cruach na Cara is a small island in County Galway where a plain limestone cross-slab still stands beside old church remains. The slab may be inverted, its broad end buried and its narrower shaft pointing upward, while a groove cuts across its upper face. A granite boulder lies nearby, perhaps once used for cursing or warning. The place keeps the shape of devotion, memory and human contradiction without explaining itself.

Associated with the ecclesiastical remains at the SE end of Cruach na Cara/St Macdara’s Island. Located within an enclosure (GA076-020014-), c. 20m to the NE of the church (GA076-020001-). When recorded by Bigger (1896, 109), this plain limestone cross-slab (H 1.1m; max. Wth 0.58m; Wth of shaft 0.45m; T 0.07m) was upright on top of a leacht (GA076-020010-). It is now set in the ground c. 3m to its SSE. Described by Higgins (1987, ii 389, no. 109) as a straight-sided slab with ‘gently sloping shoulders which expand into a large, irregularly-shaped protrusion or end.’ This suggests that, in its present form and when it was on the leacht, the cross-slab is inverted in the ground. An irregular groove is visible running across the centre of the upper area of the slab. A small spherical granite boulder on the ground to its W may be a cursing stone (see GA076-020026-) that was formerly located on the leacht. (Gosling 1993, 172, no. 997 c) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 6 June 2018

Dated to the early medieval period, likely between the 7th and 10th centuries, the cross-slab is associated with a Christian settlement and may have served a liturgical or commemorative function. Its location near the church suggests a connection to the cult of St Macdara, a local early Irish saint.

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