Kilnaruane Pillar Stone

A monastery may have been founded here by Brendan in the 6th century AD.^[4]

The pillar was erected in the 8th or 9th century AD. The name may refer to "Church of the Romans", and a community which accepted the Roman dating of Easter, a major controversy in the early Middle Ages.^[5][6]

The monastic settlement on the site may have been destroyed by a Viking attack.^[7]

The stone is a thin schist pillar 2.1 m tall.^[8]

On the northeast face:

• Celtic knot
• an orans (praying figure)
• Greek cross
• Saints Anthony the Great and Paul the Hermit meeting in the desert: both were important figures in Christian monasticism. A raven flies down from heaven with a loaf of bread to feed them

On the southwest face

• Celtic knot
• Two pairs of sheep/goats with interlocked horns — this is now the symbol of the Sheep's Head peninsula
• a currach boat with four oarsmen and one figure steering the rowers through a sea of crosses. This could be Brendan or Cessair.^[9]

Mortises on either side of the pillar were probably for attaching arms of the cross.^[10] Nearby are stone fragments, possibly a bullaun or the arms of the high cross.^[11][12]

• 
  Arm of the cross?
• 
  Celtic interlace
• 
  SE face