Kilmalkedar


Kilmalkedar is a medieval ecclesiastical site and National Monument located in County Kerry, Ireland.

Location

Kilmalkedar is on the Dingle Peninsula, east of Ballyferriter and northwest of Dingle.

History

Kilmalkedar is traditionally associated with Saint Brendan, but also with a local saint, Maolcethair.
The surviving church dates to the mid-12th century, with the chancel extended c. 1200.
It was a traditional assembly site for pilgrims, who followed the Saint's Road northeast to Mount Brandon.
Some of the rituals carried out by locals, like performing nine clockwise circuits of the site on Easter Sunday, or the boring of holes in standing stones, suggest remnants of Celtic religion; Kilmalkedar may well have been a religious site long before Christianity arrived.

Buildings

The church resembles Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel. Its nave is with antae and steep gables. The chancel is externally. The doorway is a notable Hiberno-Romanesque piece. A hole in the east wall of the chancel is called "the eye of the needle"; if one can fit through it, one is certain to go to heaven.
Pre-Romanesque remains include a corbelled building, perhaps a monastic cell; an alphabet stone; an Ogham stone; a sundial; a stone cross; and some bullauns. One of the bullauns is associated with the mythical cow Glas Gaibhnenn.
The alphabet stone is carved with "DNI" and the Latin alphabet in uncial script, carved c. AD 550–600.
The Ogham stone reads ẠṆM MẠỊLE-INBIR/ MACI BROCANN and dates to c. AD 600.