ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what this ring of monuments might reveal about the character of pilgrimage on the island in the early medieval period. It focuses on the medieval evidence for pilgrimage rituals in Ireland. The monastic island of Inishmurray has arguably the best-preserved and most coherent set of pilgrimage monuments of any early Irish church site. The chapter explains Irish and European evidence for the sorts of rituals that these monuments may originally have been constructed, liturgical processions and individual devotions by both monks and lay people. Documentary sources and analogies with other sites suggest that the pilgrimage was carefully designed to convey a sense of the sacredness of the monastery and the holiness of its founder to the general population. In fact, considered in the European context, it would have been surprising if early Irish clerics had not made use of the potent combination of landscape and material culture, to propagate their belief in the power of their saints.
