Ratass Church is a medieval

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

with ogham stone inscriptions in

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in Count ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, Ireland. It is a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spe ...

Location

The church and adjacent graveyard are located on Quill Street, in the eastern suburbs of

History

It is believed that a

ringfort Ringforts, ring forts or ring fortresses are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Bronze Age up to about the year 1000. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are also many in South Wale ...

or embanked enclosure was built here first (''Rath Mhaighe Teas'', "fort of the southern plain"), before a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

church was erected in the 10th century AD, and served as the centre of Kerry diocese from 1111 to 1117, when the seat was moved to Ardfert. The west gable and part of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

walls belong to this earlier construction; the rest of the church is later.

Ogham Stone

The Ogham Stone is from much earlier. Based on its

Primitive Irish Primitive Irish or Archaic Irish ( ga, Gaeilge Ársa), also called Proto-Goidelic, is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages. It is known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland ...

grammar, the inscription is estimated to be from around AD 550–600. The stone is of fine purple sandstone (145 × 34 × 20 cm), with the inscription M SILLANN MAQ VATTILLOGG ("name of Sílán son of Fáithloga"). It was discovered in 1975 during a cleanup. The walls of a 19th-century burial vault had been built almost flush with it.

References

Religion in County Kerry Archaeological sites in County Kerry National Monuments in County Kerry Former churches in the Republic of Ireland Ogham inscriptions 6th-century inscriptions Buildings and structures in Tralee {{Ireland-church-stub