Southwest of Schull, in the townland of Croagh (marked on older maps as ‘Seafort’), are the remains of an unmortared, dry-stone early-Christian oratory, the only surviving example of such a structure in Cork county. There is an associated ‘clochaun’ to the south of the oratory, which like the oratory itself, is of corbel construction. Both are within an oval, early ecclesiastical enclosure which would have denoted the sacred area.

This is also the only extant early Christian structure on the Mizen. The late medieval churches, Kilbrown Old Church and Kilmoe Church ruin at Lisagriffin are the next oldest Christian ruins, dating, probably, from the fifteenth century Gaelic Revival.

If you would like to know more about the Early Christian era on the Mizen: www.buythebook.ie/this-is-the-mizen/