Leacht in Inishmurray

Incorporated into the wall of the southern internal subdivision in an ecclesiastical enclosure (SL001-001001-) known as the Cashel. A tabular cairn or rectilinear block of drystone masonry stands at the angle between the two low drystone walls which form the arms of the southern enclosure or subdivision of the Cashel. It is clearly abutted by one arm of the enclosure (from the south-west) but is partly keyed to the other (from the south-east). The structure consists of well-laid small and medium flat slabs roughly coursed to form fair faces on all sides. Its orientation is WNW/ESE. It measures 1.7 m by 1.2 m and is 0.8 m high. Thus it resembles other leachta (SL001-001-001013-; SL001-001019-; SL001-001-021-) within the Cashel in its mode of construction and size. Furthermore, with the abutting walls removed, it would lie within the same area as the three previously known examples, in the open space south of the cemetery (SL001-001009-) and churches (SL001-001005-; SL001-001009-) which was perhaps the plateola [courtyard; central sacred space] of the monastery. There are no associated cursing stones or cross slabs however. The low dividing wall which abuts this leacht from the west is evidently of recent date as it does not appear on Wakeman’s plan of the Cashel, but does appear on Mountbatten’s plan and may designate the area reserved as a private burial plot by the Waters family (Mountbatten 1972, 50 and 62). The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in: Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press. Date of upload: 16 January 2018