What is recorded here

Tooms West is a narrow place where a cleric bled onto soil that still refuses grass. The Red Spot holds that loss beside a sandstone altar, waiting for hands remembered enough to touch them.

In semi-wooded scrubland. A sandstone outcrop (approximately 3.20m wide on north face; height 1.70m) is locally believed to be a Mass-rock. An oval-shaped area of ground, lacking in vegetation, approximately 1m to the north of the rock (3.26m E-W; 1.80m N-S) is known as the ‘Red Spot’ and believed to be the place where a cleric was murdered when trying to escape from Macloneigh Church (CO071-082002-) to Kilnarovanagh church (CO083-007, -). According to local folklore, after the cleric’s blood was spilled nothing ever grew in this spot again. Compiled by: Dr Bernadette McCarthy Date of upload/revision: 21 July 2023

A Mass-rock traditionally used by Catholics during the Penal Days in Ireland, when public worship was forbidden; such sites were often hidden in remote or wooded areas for secret celebration of the Mass. The bare oval area may indicate repeated use of the site for religious gatherings.

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