The story of the Caldragh figures
The larger Caldragh figure has stood in this graveyard since at least 1841, when it was first recorded, and was almost certainly carved long before, in the Irish Iron Age. Scholars commonly date it to around the first century AD, which would make it some two thousand years old. It is widely called a Janus figure after the two-faced Roman god, though that name is misleading: rather than one head with two faces, it is two complete figures, each with a face and torso, carved back to back on a single block of stone.
The smaller, much more worn figure beside it is the Lustymore figure. It was found on neighbouring Lustymore Island and moved to Caldragh in 1939 to stand alongside the larger idol. Centuries of weather have left it in poor condition, but its general human shape can still be made out leaning against its older companion.
Who carved the figures, and exactly why, is unknown. One reading links them to the war goddess Badhbh, the hooded crow of Irish myth, since the island's name comes from the Irish Inis Badhbha, meaning Badhbh's Island. In the early 2000s a detached segment of the larger figure was rediscovered half-buried in the ground close by, a reminder of how much has been worn away.
Today the figures remain where generations have left them, among later Christian burials in a graveyard that has clearly been a special place for a very long time. They are protected as a scheduled monument and are freely open to anyone who makes the drive out along the Lough Erne shore.