What is recorded here

Ten metres north-west of the Confessional on Inis Cealtra, a small timber shrine stood within a palisaded enclosure, rebuilt several times before stone took its place. De Paor traced its ghost in the 1970s: a rectangular chamber no larger than a bedroom, a pillared portico at the south end, and an enclosure whose buried half still hides beneath the Saint’s Graveyard. Christian in intent yet shaped like Gallo-Roman precincts, it suggests Inis Cealtra borrowed older forms and made them holy.

Situated c. 10m NW of the ‘Confessional’ (CL029-009017-) on Inis Cealtra. Traces of a small, timber, rectangular structure of similar dimensions to the confessional (c. 3m x2m) and aligned N-S were found during excavations on the island by de Paor in the 1970s (de Paor 2013, 39, 57). There were traces of a pillared portico at the S end. The structure was aligned within a rectangular palisaded enclosure (CL029-009135-), the S and larger portion of which was overlain by the medieval Saint’s Graveyard (CL029-009030-) and not excavated. The wooden structure and the enclosure appeared to have been rebuilt several times and the structure may have been replaced ultimately by the stone confessional. The structure was interpreted as a shrine of Christian origin but modelled on a type of shrine within an enclosure precinct known from Gallo-Roman and Romano-British contexts. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 4 November 2015

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