Shrine, Ballinlena, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Holy Sites & Wells

Shrine, Ballinlena, Co. Mayo

In the northern half of a graveyard in Ballinlena, Co. Mayo, a low grass-covered mound sits flanked by a careful arrangement of upright stone slabs, some barely knee-height, two of them rising to nearly two metres.

The mound itself is modest, roughly three and a half metres long and half a metre high, largely swallowed by grass and clumps of brambles. It would be easy to pass it without a second glance. The detail that changes the picture is a piece of local knowledge: soil taken from near this grave is believed to confer a blessing on whoever holds it.

The mound is traditionally held to be the grave of St. Cummin, a figure credited with founding a monastery on this site in the seventh century. Early medieval saints of this kind were frequently associated with the establishment of monastic communities, and the landscape around such sites often accumulated layers of devotion over the centuries that followed. Here, that devotion has taken a very physical form. Along the western side of the mound runs a north-to-south row of seven upright slabs, their long axes oriented to match the mound itself. Two of them are tall, rectangular pillars with flat tops, well matched in size and carefully placed: one at the northern end of the row, in line with the northern end of the grave; the other toward the southern end. Between them stands a cross-slab, a stone carved or shaped to bear a cross, along with two lower uprights set close together. The eastern side of the mound is marked by a single edge-set slab over a metre long, with a smaller, now-leaning slab just beyond the southern end. The overall arrangement has the character of a boundary deliberately drawn, a grave defined and held in place by stone.

The site sits roughly fifteen metres north of a church within the same graveyard enclosure. The mound's stonework is partially obscured by vegetation, so the full arrangement of slabs rewards a slow circuit rather than a single glance from the path.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Shrine, Ballinlena, Co. Mayo. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement