Inishmurray : Leacht
Visit Notes
Sunday, 20th June 2010
This leacht or altar is, like all the majority of the other examples on the island, is a cuboid structure made of dry-stone. The top of the altar is covered in slabs to form a flat surface.
Mounted upright in the top of the leacht is a very fine cross-slab with decoration on both sides. This slab was obviously created to be seen from both sides as pilgrims do a circuit of the altar.
The east side is heavily decorated with a rectangular border with a large cross within it. The four corners of the border have four smaller rectangles. The bottom two have crosses in them, while the upper two have geometric patterns.
The west face has a carved cross with a raised dot in the centre. There are four carved dots in the quadrants formed by the cross.
The carving on this slab is exquisite - one of the finest I've seen. I don't know if this is an original or a replica. Either way it's splendid!
Like this monument
Marked Sites
Random Gazetteer
A Selection of Other Leachts
About Coordinates Displayed
|
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |
Page loaded from cache: (Generation time: May 25 2013 01:55:28.)