Cross-inscribed stone, Na Gleannta Theas, Co. Kerry

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Crosses & Monuments

Cross-inscribed stone, Na Gleannta Theas, Co. Kerry

At a holy well in the townland of Na Gleannta Theas on the Dingle Peninsula, two stones once kept company with the water.

One bore a plain inscribed cross; the other, according to at least one account, carried writing that nobody could read. That second stone, with its indecipherable text, is the kind of detail that tends to slip quietly out of the record, leaving only a trace of itself behind.

The well goes by two names: Tobermolog and Tobar Mhealaicí, the latter a personal name suggesting some association with a figure called Mealaicí, though the identity behind it is now obscure. Holy wells in Ireland were commonly marked by upright stones bearing simple incised crosses, serving as focal points for local devotion and pattern days, seasonal gatherings that combined prayer with communal ritual. The cross-inscribed stone here, catalogued as Curran no. 64 in the regional record of such monuments, stood above the well rather than beside it, a positioning that gave it a degree of prominence in the small sacred landscape of the site. The note about a second stone with writing that was already unreadable when recorded by Ó Danachair in 1960 raises questions that cannot now be answered with any confidence. Whether the script was worn, non-standard, or simply unusual enough to resist easy interpretation, the observation was considered worth preserving, even without explanation.

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