The earliest datable stone monument in Ireland

The Kilnasaggart Pillar Stone dates to 700 AD and stands 6 feet tall. There is Ogham script on the stone that translates to ‘ this place, Ternoc, son of Ciaran the Little, bequeathed it under the protection of the apostle Peter’. Ternoc’s death has been recorded to 716 AD and so it can, therefore, be assumed with good certainty that the pillar stone was sculpted a few years earlier. It has 10 carved crosses and 31 incised cut marks that may have been caused by swords or knives being sharpened. These types of pillar stones were usually located on ancient sites that were previously used for pagan worship. Beside the stone is an old story of a cow that says… ‘there once was a famous cow in this glen that gave milk in abundance to everybody who came, always filling the bucket.  One person, however, attempted either through greed or malice, to milk her into a sieve which angered the cow so much that she stamped her foot on this stone and then fled the valley forever’…a shape of a hoof remains beside this stone to this day!