Lag-ny-keeilly

Location - at the foot of Cronk-ny-Irree-laa in Patrick, approached by a track from Eary Cushlin

View of Lag-ny-keeilly

Lag-ny-Keeilley. Keeill, Cemetery, Culdee's Cell, and Enclosure - note East to top

The 1st Archaeological report carries a detailed description but the introductory remarks are worth quoting

This most interesting of our ancient keeills, set on a ledge forming a small natural platform near the foot of a lag or hollow torn out of the almost perpendicular western face of Cronk- ny-Irree-laa, can be reached by boat, but the landing — a mile and three-quarters south of Dalby beach — can only be effected within about an hour of high water on a calm day, and the upward climb of about 200 ft. is steep and not easy. The proper mode of access is by the old pack-horse road through Eary Cushlin, which passes onto the Sloc by foot tracks, and so to the south of the Island. This roadway in itself is of great interest as the best existing survival of our pack-horse ways before the modern system of highroads, and a walk along it, — about three-quarters of a mile from the farmstead, — calls up a picture of the condition of our Island in the centuries long ago. The latest funeral to pass this way appears to have been little over a century ago [ie. c.1800] , as it was remembered by an aged parishioner born and brought up at Eary Cushlin, who went to her rest some forty years ago at the venerable age of ninety. The body, wrapped in a winding-sheet, was strapped on the back of the old mare, supported by the " burliagh" or bundle of straw which served for a saddle, and the horse was led down the long track to the little Burial ground surrounding the ruined keeill.

It is truly a spectatular site - probably chosen as on a clear day it is about the only position from which one can seen both St Patrick's Isle at Peel and also another Patrician site in Ireland.

References

First Report of Archaeological Survey - Proc IoMNH&ASoc #1 p277 1908