Cross-inscribed stone, An Tseantóir, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Crosses & Monuments
On a low mound at An Tseantóir on the Dingle Peninsula, two standing stones mark what may be a leacht, a type of commemorative cairn associated with early Christian devotion, often built at pilgrimage sites or places of veneration.
The taller of the two, rising 1.25 metres, carries inscriptions on both faces: a cross with slightly expanded terminals on one side and faint linear markings on the other. Its companion stone, barely reaching half a metre, stands quietly at the opposite end of the mound. The pairing is restrained, almost understated, yet the care taken with the decoration suggests this was a place of deliberate significance.
What makes An Tseantóir particularly interesting is a third stone that no longer stands in place. The 19th-century antiquarian George Victor Du Noyer recorded it lying loose beside the taller inscribed stone, and described it in his Antiquarian Sketches as a roughly circular slab bearing a Maltese cross enclosed within a circle. The Maltese cross, with its characteristic equal arms that flare outward at each tip, appears across early medieval Irish ecclesiastical sites, though its exact significance at any given location is rarely straightforward. Whether the loose stone had fallen, been displaced, or was never upright at all, Du Noyer did not say. Its current whereabouts are not recorded. J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, which covers the Dingle Peninsula in considerable detail, drew together much of what is known about the site, and a 3D model of the monument is now available online at skfb.ly/6ssxQ for those who want to examine the carved faces more closely than a field visit alone might allow.