Shrine, Cill Buaine, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Holy Sites & Wells

Shrine, Cill Buaine, Co. Kerry

On a steep south-facing slope of Knocknaskereighta mountain, above a valley the locals call simply 'The Glen', a small stone structure sits with a carefully drilled hole near its base and a Latin cross cut above it.

The hole, roughly fifteen centimetres across, is smoothly worked, which makes it all the more deliberate-feeling against the rough mountain setting. This is a gable-shrine, a form of early medieval monument in which two inwardly leaning rectangular slabs and a triangular end-stone create a miniature house-shaped enclosure, likely intended to shelter relics or to mark a grave considered especially sacred. This one is known locally as 'The Priest's Grave', though no particular priest's name attaches to it in the surviving accounts.

The site belongs to the early Christian ecclesiastical enclosure at Cill Buaine, and its founding traditions are layered and somewhat contradictory, which is itself not unusual for Kerry's early church sites. The place is associated with St Buonia, also recorded as Beoanigh, who local tradition holds was a sister of St Patrick. Other accounts, cited by O'Donoghue in 1893, propose that the site was founded instead by St Brendan, one of Kerry's most celebrated saints, or by Beoanus, a disciple of Brendan's. Whether these overlapping attributions reflect genuine historical memory or the tendency of later communities to attach prestigious names to revered sites is impossible now to say. The shrine itself sits just west of a leacht, which is a low cairn-like monument also associated with early Christian devotion, often used as a focus for prayer or penitential practice. From this part of the slope, the views open westward across St Finan's Bay toward the Skelligs, those improbable rock pinnacles that carry their own freight of early monastic life.

Access to the site for formal archaeological survey was refused, so what is known comes from published accounts by Lynch in 1902 and Henry in 1957, along with summary field notes. The north side-stone of the shrine is broken, and part of it now lies inside the structure rather than forming its wall. It is a modest, slightly battered thing at first glance, measuring just 1.3 metres by 0.75 metres, but the precision of that circular perforation in the end-stone suggests it was made with a specific purpose in mind, possibly to allow contact with relics housed within, a practice found at other early Irish shrine monuments.

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, Cill Buaine, Co. Kerry. 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