Stone pillar from Kilnasaggart
The stone column of Kilnasaggart ( Irish Cill na Sagart , "Church of the Priests") stands in a small enclosure near the hamlet of Jonesborough in Ó Fiaich Country not far from Slieve Gullion in the south of Armagh in Northern Ireland , near the border with County Louth in the Republic of Ireland .
A 2.8 m high granite column ( English pillar stone ) marks the former location of an early Christian cemetery, which is located on one of the early main roads in Ireland. The route called "Slighe Miodhluachra" ran, initially roughly following today's M1 , from Drogheda in County Louth through the Moyry Pass (Gap of the North) to Dunseverick in County Antrim .
The old Irish inscription on the southeast side of the column shows a dedication of the stele:
- In loc so Taninmarni Ternoc mac Ceran Bic er cul Peter Apstel
- "This place was bequeathed by Ternoc, the son of Ceran the Little under the patronage of the Apostle Peter"
The death of Ternoc is recorded in the annals of Tigernach in the years 714 or 716. The column can thus be dated to the 8th century and is the oldest datable inscription stone in Ireland. There are also three Greek crosses carved into the side of the inscription . There are ten on the back, most of them in rings. Excavations carried out in 1966 and 1968 uncovered an early Christian cemetery with stone and earth graves near the column. Several small plates with incised crosses may have served as tombstones.
Nearby lies medieval Moyry Castle (1601) and the Bullaun of Edenappa. It differs somewhat from the typical hemispherical depressions of other bullauns. It is shaped like a bowl, about 40 cm in diameter and 20 cm deep.
See also
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 4 ′ 20.2 " N , 6 ° 22 ′ 44" W.