St MacDara's Island and Church, Galway

St MacDara's Island / Cruach na Cara St MacDara's Church, Leacht and Cross slab An annual pilgrimage takes place to St MacDara's Island on the 16th July each year, when local fishermen and sailors venerate their patron saint. It is believed an Early Christian church was founded on the island by St Sinach MacDara in the 6th century. The first church was probably a wooden one and the present 10th century stone roofed church imitates the structural design of the wooden church. The antae on the east and west gables imitates the wooden posts that would have supported the roof and the finials represent the crossed wooden rafters, see image below. The roof stones that were originally cut to mimic wooden shingles were restored in 1977. The cyclopean walls and windows are an absolute delight. There were five leachts or stone altars on the island, where pilgrims would stop to pray as they did their rounds. Some of these leachta held cross slabs or pillar stones. The type of finial, that mimics the crossed rafters appears almost to be unique to Ireland. Henry S. Crawford lists only 11 more examples, one of which is an illustration in the Book of Kells, two are on the house-shaped tomb shrines at Clones in Monaghan and Monymusk in Scotland, a reliquary associated with the Irish abbot Colmcille AKA St Columba. Two more are on the high crosses at Durrow and Monasterboice, leaving six examples at Clontubrid, County Kilkenny, Ballymorereagh and Kilmalkedar County Kerry, Labbamolaga County Cork, which is now missing, and finally one plus a fragment of another are preserved inside St Caimin's Church on Inishcealtra, County Clare. The now missing decorated sample at St Macdara's Island was discovered on the island in 1884.
Trabeate west doorway and Antae	East wall interior
South window	Modern finial reproduction
pictured below is the church from the beach with a leacht to the extreme right.
Leacht and Cross slab The best preserved leacht with a plain pillar stone is pictured below, it lies about &o metres NNW of the oratory. it consists of a collapsed D-shaped pile of stones. I presume it may have oiginally looked similar to the leacta on Inishmurray in County Sligo. I say this because it was described by in 1896 as a flat topped drystone 'altar' with several 'cursing stones' on top. about 15 metres south of the church are the scattered remains of another leacht. A third lechta, defined by a heap of stones next to the east gable, is known as the saint's bed. Little remains of the other two leachta. The beautiful cross slab pictured below is located close to the beach, about 55 metres SE of the church. The west face, below right, is decorated with a latin cross in false relief, enclosed in a broken semi-circular band. Below the circle is a triquetra knot. The east face is described on the national monuments website as bearing another latin cross in false relief with T-shaped terminals. The base terminates in a pair of opposed angular spirals. A roundel is visible at the junction of the arms and shaft and there is a small boss with a central hollow in each of the two upper cantons. Possible conjoined boss-like features are evident in the lower cantons. Special thanks to José for sharing these wonderful images with us.
West face	East face
Situated: St MacDara's Island lies 2.5 kilometres off Mace Head on the south coast of Connemara. The best time to visit is the 16th of July for the mass held for the blessing of the boats. Many private boats (for hire) sail from Mace Head, Carna and Roundstone on this day. Discovery Map 44: L 72250 29933. Last visit July 2026. Longitude: 9° 55' 02.4" W Latitude: 53° 18' 16.1" N Google Map Photos: José Gutiérrez.
Ref: National Monuments Service website, www.archaeology.ie Ref: Crawford, Henry S. “Finial Stones.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 4, no. 2, 1914, pp. 171–72. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25514355.

St MacDara's Island / Cruach na Cara

St MacDara's Church, Leacht and Cross slab

An annual pilgrimage takes place to St MacDara's Island on the 16th July each year, when local fishermen and sailors venerate their patron saint. It is believed an Early Christian church was founded on the island by St Sinach MacDara in the 6th century. The first church was probably a wooden one and the present 10th century stone roofed church imitates the structural design of the wooden church. The antae on the east and west gables imitates the wooden posts that would have supported the roof and the finials represent the crossed wooden rafters, see image below. The roof stones that were originally cut to mimic wooden shingles were restored in 1977. The cyclopean walls and windows are an absolute delight. There were five leachts or stone altars on the island, where pilgrims would stop to pray as they did their rounds. Some of these leachta held cross slabs or pillar stones.

The type of finial, that mimics the crossed rafters appears almost to be unique to Ireland. Henry S. Crawford lists only 11 more examples, one of which is an illustration in the Book of Kells, two are on the house-shaped tomb shrines at Clones in Monaghan and Monymusk in Scotland, a reliquary associated with the Irish abbot Colmcille AKA St Columba. Two more are on the high crosses at Durrow and Monasterboice, leaving six examples at Clontubrid, County Kilkenny, Ballymorereagh and Kilmalkedar County Kerry, Labbamolaga County Cork, which is now missing, and finally one plus a fragment of another are preserved inside St Caimin's Church on Inishcealtra, County Clare. The now missing decorated sample at St Macdara's Island was discovered on the island in 1884.

Trabeate west doorway and Antae

East wall interior

South window

Modern finial reproduction

pictured below is the church from the beach with a leacht to the extreme right.

Leacht and Cross slab

The best preserved leacht with a plain pillar stone is pictured below, it lies about &o metres NNW of the oratory. it consists of a collapsed D-shaped pile of stones. I presume it may have oiginally looked similar to the leacta on Inishmurray in County Sligo. I say this because it was described by in 1896 as a flat topped drystone 'altar' with several 'cursing stones' on top. about 15 metres south of the church are the scattered remains of another leacht. A third lechta, defined by a heap of stones next to the east gable, is known as the saint's bed. Little remains of the other two leachta.

The beautiful cross slab pictured below is located close to the beach, about 55 metres SE of the church. The west face, below right, is decorated with a latin cross in false relief, enclosed in a broken semi-circular band. Below the circle is a triquetra knot. The east face is described on the national monuments website as bearing another latin cross in false relief with T-shaped terminals. The base terminates in a pair of opposed angular spirals. A roundel is visible at the junction of the arms and shaft and there is a small boss with a central hollow in each of the two upper cantons. Possible conjoined boss-like features are evident in the lower cantons. Special thanks to José for sharing these wonderful images with us.

West face

East face

Situated: St MacDara's Island lies 2.5 kilometres off Mace Head on the south coast of Connemara. The best time to visit is the 16th of July for the mass held for the blessing of the boats. Many private boats (for hire) sail from Mace Head, Carna and Roundstone on this day.

Discovery Map 44: L 72250 29933. Last visit July 2026.

Longitude: 9° 55' 02.4" W

Latitude: 53° 18' 16.1" N

Google Map

Photos: José Gutiérrez.

Ref: National Monuments Service website, www.archaeology.ie

Ref: Crawford, Henry S. “Finial Stones.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 4, no. 2, 1914, pp. 171–72. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25514355.

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