Leacht, Aghatubrid, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Holy Sites & Wells

Leacht, Aghatubrid, Co. Kerry

Among the early Christian monuments scattered across the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, a leacht at Aghatubrid sits quietly between two rectangular stone buildings, its original form now only partially legible.

A leacht is a type of commemorative or devotional cairn, typically a low platform of stones associated with early medieval religious sites, often marking a place of prayer or the memory of a saint. This one was roughly square, approximately 3.5 metres on each side and around 0.4 metres high, its edges defined by large upright slabs set end-to-end. Several of those slabs still stand at the southern and western sides, though a number lean outward at pronounced angles, giving the structure a slightly dishevelled look. The interior, where erosion and disturbance have exposed it, is filled with small stones and a notable quantity of quartz, a material that turns up frequently in Irish prehistoric and early Christian contexts, its significance still debated.

Two perforated slabs add a further layer of interest. One lies flat on the surface of the leacht itself, with a small circular hole just three centimetres across; another, larger slab with a perforation of nine centimetres lies just outside the south-eastern corner. These are not structural features in any obvious engineering sense. Archaeologists A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan, writing in their 1996 survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, suggested that these slabs may be the remnants of a gable-shrine, a small box-like reliquary structure with pitched stone sides that would once have sat atop the platform, similar to a surviving example on a leacht at Killoluaig, a short distance away. If that interpretation is correct, the perforations may have served a ritual function, allowing pilgrims to touch or make contact with whatever relic or sacred object was housed inside.

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