Gallarus Oratory

Gallarus Oratory
Séipéilín Ghallarais
Gallarus Oratory is located in Ireland
Gallarus Oratory
Gallarus Oratory
LocationDingle Peninsula, County Kerry
CountryIreland
DenominationPre-Reformation Catholic
Specifications
Floor area14.4 m2 (155 sq ft)
MaterialsOld Red Sandstone
Administration
ArchdioceseCashel
DioceseArdfert and Aghadoe
Official nameGallarus Oratory
Reference no.66

The Gallarus Oratory (Irish: Séipéilín Ghallarais) is a chapel on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland. It has been presented variously as an early-Christian stone church by antiquary Charles Smith, in 1756; a 12th-century Romanesque church by archaeologist Peter Harbison in 1970; a shelter for pilgrims by the same in 1994. The local tradition prevalent at the time of Charles Smith attributed it to one Griffith More, being a funerary chapel built by him or his family at their burial place.

The oratory overlooks the harbour at Ard na Caithne (formerly also called Smerwick) on the Dingle Peninsula. Saints road (Cosán na Naomh), an old pilgrimage road less than 300 metres away, leads to the summit of Mount Brandon, which can be seen in the background of the oratory.[1]

  1. ^ Harbison, Peter (1991). Pilgrimage in Ireland: The Monuments and the People. Syracuse University Press. p. 141. ISBN 9780815602651.