Cross-slab, Cooly, Co. Donegal

Co. Donegal |

Crosses & Monuments

Cross-slab, Cooly, Co. Donegal

The early Christian monastery at Cooly in County Donegal sits on prime agricultural land that slopes gently towards Lough Foyle to the east.

Local tradition maintains that St. Patrick himself founded this religious settlement, though the exact date remains uncertain. The site consists of a sub-rectangular graveyard containing several ancient features, with the remains of churches and other monastic buildings scattered throughout the area.

In 2014, the Bernician Studies Group conducted a magnetometer survey of the fields surrounding the churches and graveyard, revealing the ghostly outline of the original ecclesiastical enclosure that once defined the boundaries of this Early Christian community. This non-invasive archaeological technique allowed researchers to peer beneath the soil without disturbing the ground, mapping out structures that have been hidden for centuries.

During a clean-up of the graveyard in 2010, several previously unrecorded cross-slabs came to light, including one particularly interesting example identified by the Bernician Studies Group. This small stone slab, measuring just 18cm high and 48cm wide, features two sunken equal-armed crosses carved into its surface. When first spotted, only a tiny portion of the slab was visible above ground; the rest lay buried beneath centuries of accumulated earth, waiting to tell its story of early Irish Christianity.

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