Cross-slab, Coomanaspig, Co. Kerry

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Crosses & Monuments

Cross-slab, Coomanaspig, Co. Kerry

On the north-facing slope of Kilkeaveragh mountain in County Kerry, a roadside holy well sits quietly within a stone enclosure, its covering lintel bearing a faintly incised linear cross.

What makes the site particularly striking is not one cross but several: a second, more deeply incised cross marks one of the side slabs forming the well's walls, and an upright slab standing in front of the well, roughly sixty centimetres tall and thirty-five centimetres wide, carries the same motif again. The repetition feels deliberate, as though whoever shaped and placed these stones wanted to leave no ambiguity about the devotional weight of the water beneath.

The well is known in Irish as Tobar Chúm an Easpaig, meaning the Well of the Bishop's Hollow, a name that points toward early ecclesiastical associations, though precisely which bishop is no longer clear. A short paved path leads visitors from the road to the well itself, which is defined by two side slabs and a covering lintel, a form of construction typical of early Irish holy wells where the sacred source is enclosed and partially sheltered rather than left open. The cross-inscribed slabs belong to a broader tradition of early Christian stonework found across Kerry and the wider Iveragh Peninsula, where simple incised crosses mark everything from grave slabs to boundary stones, often with no surviving written record to explain their origin or exact purpose.

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Pete F
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