The remains of a little church in Ray, County Donegal, said to have been founded by St Fionnán in the sixth century, although the present building is late mediaeval. It has four arched windows on the south wall and an entrance at the west end as well as what appears to be another, long-blocked entrance on the east gable wall. Inside stands what is thought to be the tallest High Cross in Ireland, rising more than 19 feet high. According to legend, the cross was originally made for St Columba who planned to bring it across to Tory Island but instead presented the finished work to St Fionnán. A charming story but it is now accepted that the cross dates from several centuries after both men lived. Aside from its exceptional height, the cross is also notable for being cut from a single piece of stone from the Muckish mountains, and for being very thin, only about six inches deep: this perhaps explains why, unlike many other High Crosses, it is undecorated. The cross was blown down in a storm in the mid-18th century and lay on the ground until the 1970s when placed in its present location.
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Beautiful pictures!
2 questions:
1. Why does one end of the dwelling have a much thicker stone wall? It appears to be maybe 3x the width on the left side versus the right side.
2. What is the round stone with a hole in it in front of the high cross? It’s the large round middle stone I’m thinking about.
Thanks
Brian
Thank you for your message. The north wall does look thicker but it also looks heavily repaired, so that may explain the additional depth. As for the round stone, I assume that like its neighbours on either side it is an old mill stone but am open to correction on this…
Dear Irish Aesthete,
many thanks for this piece.
Do we know what material the roof would have been?
Joe
Thank you for your message. I think most likely thatch would have been used on the roof here, as it was on many other buildings at the time.
It’s dotie.
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