Ardoileán

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High Iceland (Irish Ardoileán ), is three kilometers off the coast of Connemara in the west of County Galway an Irish island in the Atlantic Ocean west of Cape Point and Aughrus of Friar's Iceland. The high cliff determines the coastline and explains the name " High Island". Narrow inlets give her a deeply indented and distinctive shape. The island is uninhabited.

History

How many small islands on the west coast, it became the site of an early medieval monastery. It should have been founded by St. Feichin of Fore, who died in 664. One of the important manuscripts about the life of St. Feichin was written on the island. The " Chief Confessor of Ireland " (top confessor ) St. Gormgall ( Gorgonius ) was buried here in 1017. The most important ruins of the located in a valley on the south side of the monastery is the rectangular church with a flat lintel above the entrance. However, it can not be original, since it consists of an old stone cross. The eastern end of the church is destroyed. Around the church the bases of beehive huts and a number have been preserved plates are decorated with crosses. The wall surrounding the monastery is obtained.

From 1960 to 1998, the island belonged to the poet Richard Murphy (born 1927), who lived on the mainland in the near Claddaghduff and wrote in his high- Iceland - stories and other works about the legacy of the early monks. Crossings to the island took place long with a special boat, the Curragh.

In the 1980s, a study and then an archaeological excavation and restoration of the facilities began. At the same time there was a study of the vegetation history of the island. Colin Rynne with a study on one of the rare preserved horizontal water mills. The mill is situated in the southwest of a larger lake and about 100 m southwest of the Oratory. Get yourself have the foundations of walls made ​​of dry walls on both sides of a small creek. Rectangular in plan (length 6.9 m, width 4.4 m), they sit above the creek that is fed at this point by a 1 m wide gap. Macalister ( 1896a, 204) and Herity (1977, 60) described the structure still as a mill dam. More likely is but the remains of the horizontal mill. Approximately 18 m upstream are the traces of a possible dam, which includes a four-meter long row of boulders (length 4 m). The mill seems to date from the 9th or early 10th century. It is particularly relevant for the architecture and art history of Ireland. The book includes a detailed analysis of the monastery and its elements. The excavators prove that the preserved building remains only reflects the last period of use from the late 10th to the 12th century. Nothing can be dated to the time alleged founding of the monastery in the 7th century. The enclosure wall was, however, before the establishment of the monastery there.

High Iceland must like Skellig Michael are interpreted as a hermitage, with very few inhabitants. This image fits but difficult to build a water mill and the associated activities.

The work has provided a contribution to the history of the island. The pollen analyzes suggest that BC gave monastic activities after 1000 on the island. In contrast, the material found in the floor of the church provided the data between 300 BC and 20 AD lie. They show an Iron Age activity on the island. After the use of the monastery ended, the next unique bustle takes place on the island again until the 19th century by mining. Due to the displacement of Cross Slabs however, there is evidence that the island was until the recent past, the focus of pilgrimages.

Among the protected monuments on the island also feature

• Brian Boru Fountain and his Pillarstone
• Several major cross- slabs
• A historic stone cross