What is recorded here

Cruach na Cara is a small island in County Galway where five leacht markers still sit beside ancient church remains. The largest surviving structure measures 2.7 metres, has collapsed into rubble, and keeps two visible stones on its west side. Bigger photographed it in 1896 with a cross-slab and round praying stones on top, suggesting people once touched, marked or cursed the place before decay took it.

Associated with the ecclesiastical remains at the SE end of Cruach na Cara/St Macdara’s Island. This leacht (2.7m E-W), one of five recorded on the island (see also GA076-020003-, GA076-020004-, GA076-020006- and GA076-020020-), is located within the S half of an enclosure (GA076-020014-) that lies c. 20m to the NE of the church (GA076-020001-). It is roughly rectangular in plan and is in a much-collapsed state. Only two set stones are visible on its W side and one on its S side. The interior is strewn with rubble. When photographed by Bigger (1896, 109, Fig. 7), the leacht was three to four courses high and a cross-slab (GA076-002009-), and ‘several spherical praying or "cursing" stones’ (GA076-020026-) were visible on top of it. Two of these stones are visible on its W side, one of limestone and one of granite. The cross-slab is now set in the ground c. 3m to the NNW of the leacht. A small spherical granite boulder on the ground to its W may also be one of the cursing stones. Another cross (see GA076-020022-) may be associated with this leacht. (Gosling 1993, 172, no. 977 c) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 6 June 2018

Linked to St Macdara, an early Irish saint associated with the island, the leacht may have been used as a holy site for prayer or pilgrimage. Local tradition connects St Macdara with miraculous cures and the protection of livestock, reflecting common themes in early Irish hagiography.

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