Inchagoill is an island in

Lough Corrib Lough Corrib ( ; ) is a lake in the west of Ireland. The River Corrib or Galway River connects the lake to the sea at Galway. It is the largest lake within the Republic of Ireland and the second largest on the island of Ireland (after Lough Nea ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Its Christian ruins constitute an Irish National Monument. The island name means "Island of the devout foreigner."

Location

Inchagoill is an island of located in the northwest part of Lough Corrib. It lies halfway between

Oughterard Oughterard () is a small town on the banks of the Owenriff River close to the western shore of Lough Corrib in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. The population of the town in 2016 was 1,318. It is located about northwest of Galway on the N5 ...

and Cong. Burr Island () lies immediately to the north.

Ruins and monuments

St. Patrick's Church

Graveyard and ruined chapel on Inchagoill - geograph

Also called Templepatrick (''Teampall Phádraig''), its construction was traditionally attributed to

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...

and his nephew

Lugnad Luguaedon of Inchagoill (also ''Lugnad'', ''Lugnaedon'', ) was an Irish hermit. Luguaedon is known from a remarkable upright, decorated cross-slab stone on the island of Inchagoill, Lough Corrib, County Galway. It reads "LIE LUGUAEDON MACCI M ...

, who is credited with bringing him to Ireland by boat; it is more likely to date to the 6th or 7th century AD.

Lugnad's stone

This stone, of

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

grit and shaped like a

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

, bears the inscription ''Lia Lugnaedon Macc Limenueh'' ("Stone of Lugnad son of Limenueh", the latter being Patrick's sister Liamain; there are many variant readings). It is the oldest inscription in Ireland in the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

(all earlier inscriptions are in Ogham). The pillar is known as 'Lugnaedon Pillar', a piece of Silurian grit stone, about two feet high with an incised cross on the north side, and two such crosses on each of the other sides. The stone bears an inscription "Lie Lugnaedon Macc Li Menueh", translated, it means "The stone of Lugnaedon, son of Limenueh", the sister of St. Patrick. The pillar dates back to the 6th century. This pillar is the remains of an Ogham stone, and was sanctified with crosses after it was purged of its pagan inscription, by the founder of the church.

Templenaneeve

Chapel on Inchagoill, Lough Corrib - geograph

In Irish ''Teampall na Naoimh'', "church of the saints." A flagged path of in length connects the two churches. Templenaneeve is Hiberno-Romanesque church with a 12th-century decorated arched doorway; its sculpted heads are similar to those at

Annaghdown Abbey Annaghdown Abbey (full title: the Abbey of St Mary de Portu Patrum but also commonly known as Annaghdown Priory) is a ruined house of the Arroasian canons in the townland of Annaghdown, County Galway, Ireland. The site was probably founded by T ...

. The incised slab is 8th century, and there are three bullauns as well. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

is semi-circular and undecorated.

Graveyard

The graveyard is also ancient; buried there is Muirgheas O'Nioc (Muirgius ua Nioc; died 1128),

coarb A coarb, from the Old Irish ''comarbae'' (Modern Irish ''comharba'', Latin: ''hērēs''), meaning "heir" or "successor", was a distinctive office of the medieval church among the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. In this period coarb appears intercha ...

of Tuam. (He is often incorrectly described as

Archbishop of Tuam The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ga, Ard-Easpag Thuama) is an archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Catholic Church. Histor ...

, but that title didn't exist until 1152.) Other important families in the region also used the graveyard: Kinnaveys, Conways, Sullivans, Murphys, Lyddans, Butlers.

Other sites

A holy well (Tobernaneeve), two cross-inscribed pillars and five cross slabs.

Today

An annual

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

is celebrated on the island, and local cruise companies offer tourist expeditions to the island.

Coillte Coillte (; meaning "forests"/"woods") is a state-owned commercial forestry business in Ireland based in Newtownmountkennedy. Coillte manage approximately 7% of the country’s land, and operates three businesses - their core forestry business, a ...

have extensively afforested the island.

References

{{Reflist Religion in County Galway Archaeological sites in County Galway National Monuments in County Galway Islands of County Galway Lake islands of Ireland