This 1.42-metre-high standing stone, oriented north to south, bears an incised cross with small circles at its terminals and centre; a silent witness to what local tradition claims was St. Columba’s final glimpse of Irish soil before his exile to Iona. The stone stands just north of St. Colmcille’s holy well, a modernised shrine that still draws pilgrims every 15th of August for an annual turas, maintaining a devotional practice that has endured for centuries.

The site holds particular significance in the story of St. Columba’s departure from Ireland in 563 AD. According to local lore recorded by Ó Muirgheasa in 1936, after sending his boat down the River Foyle from Derry, the saint walked overland along the high western shore, repeatedly turning back to catch glimpses of his beloved oak woods. When he reached Stroove, however, Derry had finally vanished from view, and it was here, tradition says, that he sorrowfully boarded his vessel for the journey that would transform him into Scotland’s apostle. The emotional weight of this moment has embedded itself deeply in local memory, transforming this coastal spot into a place of both farewell and pilgrimage.

The archaeological landscape here comprises more than just the cross-marked stone and well. About 10 metres southeast of the well, early Ordnance Survey maps mark a curious feature labelled simply as ‘graves’; a boulder surrounded by a semi-circle of stones whose exact nature remains unclear. Together, these elements create a sacred geography that speaks to centuries of religious observance, from early Christian times through to the present day, when pilgrims still come to take the waters and perform their stations at this threshold between land and sea, between Ireland and exile.