page_title: St Patrick's Purgatory
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: St Patrick's Purgatory / Location
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Station Island from the shore of Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland.
context_page_description: St Patrick's Purgatory is an ancient pilgrimage site on Station Island in Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland. According to legend, the site dates from the fifth century, when Christ showed Saint Patrick a cave, sometimes referred to as a pit or a well, on Station Island that was an entrance to Purgatory.
  Its importance in medieval times is clear from the fact that it is mentioned in texts from as early as 1185 and shown on maps from all over Europe as early as the fifteenth century. It is the only Irish site designated on Martin Behaim's world map of 1492.
context_section_description: In the nineteenth century there was some confusion about the actual site of St Patrick's Purgatory—whether it was on Station Island or Saints Island on Lough Derg, County Donegal. For instance the early nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland (1837–42) locate the Purgatory on Saints Island. However, its location on Station Island is a tradition that continues unbroken from the Middle Ages. It is clearly indicated on documents dating from that time, and it appears as "Caverna Purgatory" on the detailed map of Station Island in Sir James Ware's De Hibernia (1654) and Fr. Thomas Carve's book, Lyra Hibernica (1666).
caption: View of Station Island from the shore of Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.6.6", "Image DateTime": "2010:08:12 15:28:26", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.5.8", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[11, 46, 641/20]", "Image GPSInfo": "390", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:05:28 11:46:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:05:28 11:46:33", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200"}