High Island (Galway)
| High Island Ardoileán |
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| Waters | Atlantic | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 32 '47 " N , 10 ° 15' 26" W | |
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| surface | 32.8 ha | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
High Island ( Irish Ardoileán ) is an uninhabited Irish island in the Atlantic Ocean west of Cap Aughrus Point and Friar's Island , three kilometers off the coast of Connemara in the west of County Galway . The high cliff defines the coastline and explains the name "High Island". Deeply cutting, narrow inlets give it an unmistakable shape.
history
Like many small islands on the west coast, it became the site of an early medieval monastery. It is said to have been founded by St. Feichin of Fore, who died in 664. One of the important manuscripts on St. Feichin's life was written on the island. The "Chief Confessor of Ireland" (chief confessor) Saint Gormeal of Ardoilen (Gorgonius) was buried here in 1017. The most important ruin of the monastery located in a valley on the south side is the rectangular church with a flat lintel above the entrance. But it cannot be original because it consists of an old cross stone . The east end of the church is destroyed. Around the church, the bases of beehive huts and a number of panels decorated with crosses have been preserved. The wall that surrounded the monastery has been preserved.
From 1960 to 1998 the island belonged to the poet Richard Murphy (1927-2018), who lived on the mainland in nearby Claddaghduff and wrote about the legacy of the early monks in his High Island stories and other works. For a long time, crossings to the island were made with a special boat, the curragh .
In the 1980s, a study and subsequent archaeological excavation and restoration of the facilities began. At the same time the vegetation history of the island was examined. Colin Rynne made a study of one of the rarely preserved horizontal water mills . The mill is located in the southwest of a larger lake and about 100 m southwest of the oratory . The foundations of dry stone walls on both sides of a small stream have been preserved. Rectangular in plan (length 6.9 m, width 4.4 m), they sit above the stream, which at this point is led through a 1 m wide gap.
RAS Macalister (1870–1950) and Herity (1977, 60) described the structure as Mühlendamm. However, it is more likely that it is the remains of a horizontal mill. About 18.0 m upstream lie the traces of a possible dam, which comprises a four-meter-long row of boulders (4 m long). The watermill appears to be from the 9th or early 10th century. It is particularly relevant to the history of architecture and art in Ireland. The book includes a detailed analysis of the monastery and its elements. The excavators prove that the existing building structure reflects the last period of use from the late 10th to the 12th century. Nothing can be dated to the presumed founding time of the monastery in the 7th century. The enclosure wall, however, was there before the monastery was founded.
High Island, like Skellig Michael, must be interpreted as a hermitage with very few inhabitants. However, this picture hardly fits the establishment of a water mill and the associated activities.
The work has made a contribution to the history of the island. The pollen analyzes suggest that monastic activities did not begin until after 1,000 BC. BC on the island. The material found in the floor of the church, on the other hand, provided data from between 300 BC. BC and AD 20. They show an Iron Age activity on the island. After the use of the monastery ended, the next clear activity on the island did not take place again until the 19th century through mining . Due to the relocation of Cross Slabs , however, there are indications that the island was the focus of pilgrimages until the recent past.
The protected monuments on the island also include:
- Brian Boru Fountain and its Pillarstone
- Several major cross slabs
- A historic stone cross
literature
- Paul Gosling: Archaeological Inventory of County Galway . Vol. 1: West Galway (including Connemara and the Aran Islands) . Stationery Office, Dublin 1993, ISBN 0-7076-0322-6 .
- Peter Harbison : Guide to the Naional Monuments in the Republic of Ireland Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992 ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 p. 93
- Richard Murphy: High Island. Faber 1974
- Richard Murphy: High Island: New and Selected Poems. Harper and Row, 1975
- Richard Murphy: Selected Poems. Faber 1979
- Jenny White Marshall and Grellan D. Rourke: High Island - An Irish Monastery in the Atlantic . Town House 2001
