What is recorded here

Half a meter of ancient doorframe stands upright in a front garden in Leana, County Clare, bearing a carved human face near its top. The stone once belonged to Cill-mic-Ui-Donain, a medieval church now lost, before men reused it in a field wall where Macnamara found and drew it in 1897. Someone later carried it south and set it before a house, pulling a fragment of worship out of oblivion and into everyday sight.

Described and drawn by Macnamara (1897, 78) being one of several well-cut jambstones which he discovered reused in a field wall to the W of a non-extant medieval church site Cill-mic-Ui-Donain (CL017-018----) - from which the architectural fragments apparently derived. Macnamara (ibid.) described this fragment as having an inclined scotia moulding six inches wide [c. 15cm], and a human head carved in alto-relievo at the top of the scotia. Described by Westropp (1900-1902, 140) as one of several late jamb stones ‘of an inclined door with hollow fluting at the angles, and a monk’s head at the top’. Swinfen (1992, 10) also illustrated this architectural fragment, which by the time of her writing had been moved and set upright in the front garden of a house c. 480m to the S (CL017-288----). This architectural fragment (H 0.53m; Wth 0.43m; T 0.28m) has a concave chamfer (Wth 0.15m; D 0.01m) with a human face (H 0.22m) carved in relief near the top. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 23-10-2025

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