Monumental Pillars, An Riasc, Co. Kerry

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Crosses & Monuments

Monumental Pillars, An Riasc, Co. Kerry

One of eight cross-inscribed pillars and slabs at an early medieval burial ground on the Dingle Peninsula, a particular stone here has had a stranger journey than most.

Known as Stone D, this narrow sandstone pillar spent time at Adare Manor in County Limerick before being returned to the Kerry hillside where it belongs. It is not the only curiosity at An Riasc, but it may be the most travelled.

The burial ground, known in Irish as An Cheallúnach or Calluragh, sits roughly 1.25 kilometres east of Ballyferriter, near the highest point in the townland, with open views northward across Smerwick Harbour. The site is a National Monument, and among its collection of carved stones, Stone D is particularly worth attention. The pillar measures 1.14 metres in length and 0.13 metres in width, and its decoration is spare but deliberate. One face carries a simple Latin cross, below which the letters DNS are inscribed vertically; the opposite face repeats the cross motif, this time above an inverted inscription reading DNO. These abbreviations likely reference the Latin "Dominus", meaning Lord, a form of devotional shorthand common on early Christian monuments. What gives the carving an additional layer of precision is its system of small dots: one in each angle formed by the cross arms, two more at the top of the stone, and a further dot placed at the centre of the letter O. The removal of this stone to a private estate in Limerick was noted by Fanning in 1971, though it has since been returned to the site.

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