Structure in Inishmurray

Located against E wall of the enclosure (SL001-002002-) which surrounds Templenaman church (SL001-002001-) and graveyard (SL001-002007-). Close by the south-east angle of the church (SL001-002001-), a massive stone bench of drystone rubble abuts the inner face of the cemetery enclosure on the east side. This is up to 6 m long (north/south) by 2 m wide and is over 1 m high. The surface is flattish, slightly domed, and formed by a litter of small rubble. No authority comments on the use or antiquity of this feature. It may have been a place on which coffins rested – after the church became ruinous – during funerary ceremonies within the women’s cemetery. Alternatively, Dr Patrick Heraughty (pers. comm.) attributed this to the OPW who allegedly removed a large stone buttress from the south face of the church in the 1970s and piled up the stone from that in this large, neat cairn. This is a National Monument (no. 117) in state ownership. 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