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KILNARUANE County Cork
‘The Bantry Pillar’, as this 7-feet high monolith is generally known, surmounts a low earthen platform on a hill crest 1 mile west-southwest of Bantry. It is decorated on one face with weathered scriptural scenes, and on the other with a carving of a primitive boat and crew. Mortises on either side of the dressed pillar were probably intended to hold the horizontal arms of a cross, so this monument possibly represents an early stage in the evolution of the tall free-standing High Crosses from Christianised standing stones and cross-slabs, and as such could date from the eighth century or before.
Click here to buy the Appletree Press book from Amazon.co.uk. For more information click on: Ireland's Ancient Stones - A Megalithic Heritage by Kenneth McNally, published by Appletree Press. |
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