Architectural fragment in Garristown — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Garristown is a place where a church, a graveyard and a house with a strange limestone fragment share one small valley. The fragment may belong to the old college recorded in the Civil Survey, or it may have come from Moortown Castle, as local tradition claims. Either way, the stone still stands in the gable of an ordinary house, carrying a lost name and a mocking figure into the life of the village.

In S gable of a two-storey house in Garristown village, 65m E of Garristown Church (DU003-011001-) and Graveyard (DU003-011001-). Consists of an incomplete limestone hood moulding which bears an inscription (L 0.75m, Wth 0.15m) with possible sheela-na-gig figure as a decorative hood moulding terminal. It is possible that the hood-moulding may be in-situ as the 1654-56 Civil Survey recorded that there was 'one stone house thatcht commonly called the Colledge of Garestowne' (Simington 1945, 17). According to local tradition the stone came from 'Moortown Castle' (Vernacular Buildings Survey County Dublin:3/0310010). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 14 February 2023

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.