This small island, sitting about 500 metres from the mainland in a sheltered spot, is home to an extraordinary collection of religious monuments within a single graveyard. The site, now a National Monument, contains two medieval churches; St Mary’s and St Connell’s; along with a fragment of a high cross, four cross slabs, and a graveslab, though one cross slab that was once part of the collection has gone missing over the years.

Inside St Mary’s Church stands one of these intriguing cross slabs, a stone monument measuring 96cm by 85cm and just 3cm thick. Though its top left corner has broken away and been lost to time, the remaining portions, now in two conjoining pieces, still display the slab’s distinctive decoration. The centrepiece is a Maltese cross with a central circle, whilst narrow grooves run along both sides of the slab and a zig-zag pattern is inset from a groove along the top.

This wealth of medieval stonework on such a small, tidal island speaks to Inishkeel’s importance as a religious site in medieval Ireland. The good pasture land that surrounds these monuments suggests the island has been carefully maintained over the centuries, preserving this unique glimpse into Ireland’s ecclesiastical past for those willing to time their visit with the tides.