English: Shrine in form of a wooden church close to the round tower, considered by Michael Moore as possibly the oldest surviving structure of St Tigearnach’s Monastery. W. F. Wakeman describes it as follows: “Situated upon a line between the round tower and the abbey, and directly facing the doorway of the former structure, occurs a monument, in some respects unlike anything which has elsewhere been noticed in Ireland. It is formed of a single block of hard red sandstone, 5 ft. 10 in. in length by 3 ft. in height, which has been fashioned into the form of an early Irish church. The interior is artificially hollowed, so that the work forms a shrine in form exactly like that of St. Ethelreda, preserved in Ely Cathedral. Its position is east and west, like that of a church. Upon what I may style the eastern gable is carved the upper portion of a human figure, the head of which is covered by a triangular head covering, probably a mitre. Upon the southern side, just below the eve, are two heads of animals, graven bracket-fashion, and very similar in style to some of the grotesque carvings remaining within the round tower of Ardmore. This side, also, bears an unintelligible sculpture [..]. The northern and western sides are quite plain. It may be observed that the tops of the gables are finished much in the same manner as those of the representations of early churches which we often see terminating our richer crosses.” The shrine was used for burials in post-medieval times where, according to local tradition, the shrine was used as a family grave by the McMahons or the McDonnells. This was described as follows: “It [the shrine] is not so small. It gets wide towards the floor. If the copestones were off, two or three men could move about in it. Besides, the mode of interment was this: the corpse was taken out of the coffin, and left on ‘stretchers,’ the empty coffin left beside it; lime was then applied. When the next corpse came, the former empty coffin was taken out and broken beside the tomb.” See the record of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland and Wakeman, W. F. “On the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Cluain-Eois, Now Clones, County of Monaghan.” The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, vol. 3, no. 21, 1875, pp. 327–340. Fourth Series, www.jstor.org/stable/25506666.