658. The island itself lies about 500 metres offshore in a sheltered spot, and when the tide is low, visitors can walk across to explore this ancient ecclesiastical site. The graveyard here contains an extraordinary assemblage of early Christian monuments: two medieval churches dedicated to St Mary and St Connell, a fragment of a high cross, four cross slabs, and a graveslab, all scattered across what is now good pasture land.

Among these treasures was another cross slab, photographed in 1932 by Henry Wheeler, which has since vanished without a trace. This missing monument was a modest but intriguing piece, roughly square in shape at about 30 centimetres across and 7 centimetres thick. What made it particularly interesting were the markings on both faces: one side bore an incised cross with decorative expanded terminals, whilst the reverse displayed what appeared to be another cross formed from an interlace design that expanded from three parallel grooves. The slab was already broken when Wheeler documented it, and its current whereabouts remain a mystery.

The disappearance of this cross slab represents a small but significant loss to Ireland’s archaeological heritage. Whilst the remaining monuments on Inishkeel continue to tell the story of medieval Christianity in this corner of Donegal, the missing slab serves as a reminder of how vulnerable these ancient artefacts can be. Its detailed documentation by Wheeler and later scholars like Lacy ensures that even though the physical object has gone, its memory and significance live on in the archaeological record.