End or Beginning?

At Castlekeeran, Co Meath, you get ‘two for the price of one’. First is an ancient ‘dysert’  hermitage with termon crosses,  then what has been described as ‘the most beautiful holy well in Ireland’.

The word ‘termon’ is found in Irish place names such as Termonfeckin and comes from the Latin ‘terminus’, meaning ’end’. Instead of cutting themselves off with high walls from the world, early Irish monks raised stone crosses or cross-inscribed slabs to mark their space. These are the termon crosses.

Usually little attention is given to them because of their comparative lack of decoration. Simple geometric patterns and roll edge mouldings were sufficient to alert travellers they were nearing a sacred space.

The crosses now at Castlekeeran are not in their original locations. When the monastery was suppressed in 1540 they were moved inside the surviving graveyard and ruins for preservation.

The area’s original name was ‘Diseart Chiaráin’, the Hermitage of Ciarán. To distinguish that Ciaran from the great Ciarans of Clonmacnoice and Saigir he was known as ‘the Pius’.  Columcille is said to have given him that title and the same Columcille is also said to have knocked the corner off one of his crosses.

According to the story, when Columcille was building his monastery and tower at nearby Kells he envied the fine crosses at Diseart Chiarain and came by night to steal some of them.  Three are said to have been moved to Kells.  However when he came back for a fourth, Kieran woke and disturbed the thieves. Just as Columcille was fleeing across the nearby river with the cross on his back, Kieran caught up with him. Seeing he could not escape with the cross Columcille threw it into the middle of the river, knocking a piece off.

They say you can still see that cross in the stream with a corner missing.

It is interesting that people should remember their saints in this way but in fact Ciaran lived about two hundred years after Columcille. The story seems like tongue-in-cheek ‘fake news’ in a continuing rivalry between the neighbouring communities of Castlekeeran and Kells.   

For a period Castlekeeran was a worthy rival of Kells (of the famous book). Besides its termon crosses, inside the present church ruins can be found a number of early Christian grave slabs and an ogham stone with the words ‘Of Thy Cuan son of the sons of Luigne’. The original compound must have been quiet impressive.  

Today Castlekeeran is a ruin and not in the same league as its neighbour, Kells. But it is worth searching for if only it discover its surviving treasures. And nearby is St Ciaran‘s Well, described in 1849 by Sir William Wilde, surgeon, archaeologist and father of Oscar Wilde as ‘the most beautiful holy well in Ireland’.   More on that next time.