What is recorded here

St. Brendans Monument is a small D-shaped cairn on the north shore of a Galway island, built beside a smooth rock pothole and marked with coins and flower remains. Local people associate the site with St Columcille rather than St Brendan and still visit it on his day, blending memory, devotion and sea-worn stone into one quiet ritual.

Just above HWM on N shore of the island. The well (GA050-010001-) and the 'Monument' (GA050-010003-) indicated on OS 6-inch maps as being dedicated to St Brendan are locally associated with St Columcille and visited on his day (pers. comm. T. Robinson). The well consists of a small smooth rounded pothole (D c. 0.3m) on a flat rock outcrop. A semicircular drystone cairn (GA050-010002-) (D 1.2m, H 1.2m) has been built around its S side. Circa 1m SE is the 'Monument': this is a similar cairn, D-shaped in plan (D 1.2m, H 1.45m). Coins and the remains of flowers are visible amongst the stones of both cairns. The well known locally as St Brendan's Well (GA050-010004-) lies 50m to W just below HWM, and consists of a natural pothole (D 0.4m) with an irregular cairn (GA050-010005-) (H 1.2m) above it (info. T. Robinson). Noted by O'Flaherty in 1684 as a 'place in memory of St. Brendan' (Hardiman 1846, 104). (Killanin 1954, 101; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 418) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). Date of upload: 12 August 2016

Early Christian stone monument, likely 6th–7th century AD; associated with St. Columcille and reflecting the spread of Christianity in western Ireland.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.