<< Text Pages >> Kildavnet Churchyard Crosses - Ancient Cross in Ireland (Republic of) in Co. Mayo
Submitted by Sunny100 on Tuesday, 01 November 2011 Page Views: 3219
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Kildavnet Churchyard Crosses Alternative Name: Kildownet Crosses, St Dymphna's CrossesCountry: Ireland (Republic of)
NOTE: This site is 6.116 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Co. Mayo Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Castlebar Nearest Village: Carrick-Kildavnet
Map Ref: L731997
Latitude: 53.931191N Longitude: 9.932767W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Macha visited - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5
At the south-eastern shoreline of Achill Island, along Atlantic Drive in western Co. Mayo, is the tiny village of Carrick-Kildavnet. The early Christian churchyard of Kildavnet (Cill-Damhnait) has a medieval ruined church, once dedicated to the 7th century St Dymphna, and several tiny stone crosses and pillar-stones standing within the graveyard. Also, there are many other small stones jutting out from the ground surrounded by more recent gravestones - these curious stones may date from well before the first church here; in fact they may be of prehistoric origins, perhaps an earlier, pre-Christian settlement. Just outside the graveyard wall is St Dymphna's holy well - a site of pilgrimage as is the ruined church that has no roof.
In the 7th century an Irish princess called St Dymphna (Dimpna) took refuge here from her father a king of Monaghan who disaproved of her Christian views. She founded the first church here, but soon after she fled to the Netherlands with her confessor. Eventually her father caught up with her at at Gheel and murdered his daughter there in 650 CE. Dymphna's confessor, St Gerebernus, was also murdered at the same time.
The collection of rather crude crosses and pillar-stones in Kildavnet churchyard are no more than a few feet high, one cross in particular still has its three arms intact and signs of carving - there is also a thin pillar-stone that is intact - the others are barely recongnisable as being Christian and are worn and broken. They date from the 7th-8th century CE. Dotted about around these Christian stones are other stones embedded into the ground, some of them in between recent tombstones - but what are they - are they, in fact, the remains of some prehistoric settlement, cairns or an ancient burial ground ?
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