Relickoran — Inishmurray

Located on an eroding cliff face on the SE shoreline of Inishmurray Island, 85m SSW of an ecclesiastical enclosure/cashel (SL001-001001-), and 85m W of Templenaman church (SL001-003001-), enclosure (SL001-003002-) and graveyard (SL001-003007-). This complex of monuments, named ‘Relickoran’ on the 1837 and 1912 OS 6-inch maps, is a National Monument (no. 117) in state ownership. It comprises two conjoined enclosures (SL001-004001-; SL001-004007-), each of which contains a leacht (SL001-004002-; SL001-004006). The larger enclosure (SL001-004001-) has been used as a burial ground (SL001-004003-). Two cross slabs (SL001-004004-; SL001-004008-) once adorned the leacht (SL001-004002-) in the larger enclosure, and a cross pillar (SL001-004005-) stood by a stile between the two enclosures; these have all been removed to the Schoolhouse/OPW conservation storehouse, as have two cross-slabs (SL001-004009-; SL001-004010-) discovered during an archaeological excavation (99E0381), which took place here over two seasons in 1999 and 2000. The excavation was undertaken to record the elements of the monuments threatened by ongoing erosion; the results are described in detail in O’Sullivan and Ó Carragáin (2008, 251-298). The excavated elements of the monument were reconstructed on site, using the original stone, by the OPW in 2001. This enclosure, the larger of the two, consists of a rectangular area (12m N−S; 8m E−W) enclosed at W, N and E by a low drystone wall (Wth c. 1.2m; H 1m). The excavation exposed the original basal courses of the wall, which had an outer facing of unworked sandstone boulders with an inner core of smaller rubble. At S, the wall had been destroyed by marine erosion, but vestigial remains were found on the cliff edge, indicating that little of the original extent of the enclosure had been lost to the sea. Two stiles pierce the E wall, one towards the N end allows access from the surrounding field, and the other provides access to the smaller enclosure (SL001-004007-), conjoined on the east side of this. The stiles are simple, stone-faced gaps (Wth 0.65m), each closed with a single, large sill stone set on edge. The leacht (SL001-004002-) stands in the W half of the enclosure. The excavation revealed that a burial ground (SL001-004003-) existed at this location prior to the construction of the enclosures. Following its construction, this enclosure continued to be used as a burial ground for several centuries, and the leacht (SL001-004002-) became a focus for a particular concentration of burials. The two small cross-slabs (SL001-004009-; SL001-004010-), found during the excavation in rubble adjacent to the leacht, may originally have served as graveslabs. While the enclosure was in use as a burial ground, a paved path of large sandstone slabs was laid down at the inner wall face in a complete circuit of the enclosure. The path was edged by a kerb of upright slabs, edge-set in a narrow slot trench. The path would have facilitated the movement around the burial ground of visitors who wished to pray or hear mass at the leacht. Radiocarbon dates, derived from skeletal material, indicate that the enclosure, leacht and paving were built in a single integrated design sometime after the early 8th-century and before the 12th-century, perhaps in the period between the late 9th-to 11th centuries, if the evidence of cross-slab style is taken into account (O’Sullivan and Ó Carragáin 2008, 297). The latest burials in the enclosure dated from the late 15th to early 17th centuries. Following its abandonment as a burial place, the enclosure and leacht remained the focus for devotional activity, and there is evidence that the enclosure walls and the leacht were repaired/partly rebuilt on several occasion during the modern period. (O’Sullivan and Ó Carragáin 2008, 251-298). Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 8 March 2018