What is recorded here

Half a chamber and a leaning wall on a steep Kerry slope, the shrine faces the Skelligs like a window into another age. Its west stone carries a round hole and a cut cross, while the broken north slab still lies inside the small room. People call it the Priest’s Grave, and that name does more work than history because it admits the dead may have lived here before the saints arrived.

KE088-027004- is located on a fairly steep, S facing slope of Knocknaskereighta mountain, towards the head of a broad valley which is locally known as ‘The Glen’. It affords excellent views to St Finan’s Bay and the Skelligs at W. The site is associated with St Buonia (Beoanigh), who is locally reputed to have been a sister of St Patrick. It has also been suggested that the site was founded by St Brendan or by St Beoanus, his disciple (O’Donoghue 1893, 280-3). Permission to survey the site was refused, and the following description is based on summary notes and the accounts published of it by Lynch (1902a) and Henry (1957). Gable-Shrine (KE088-027008-): Located just W of the leacht (KE088-027009-), this shrine is formed of two inwardly inclining rectangular slabs and one remaining triangular end-stone. The side-stone at N is broken and a portion of it now reclines in the interior of the structure, which measures 1.3m x .75m; E-W. The W end-stone features a smoothly cut circular perforation, .15m in diameter, near at its base. Above this is a deeply incised Latin cross. The shrine is locally referred to as ‘The Priest’s Grave’. See attached photographs courtesy of Amanda Clarke The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 954. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 July 2013

A shrine dedicated to Saint Buaine, likely built in the early medieval period, is situated in a prominent landscape position, reflecting the spiritual and communal significance of the site in its historical context.

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