Font in Castlefarm (mollahiffe Ed)

One third of a million years before written history, an octagonal granite font stood inside a ruined church in County Kildare. Its circular basin held clay rather than water, while two opposing holes on the upper edge waited for a hinged lid that no longer exists. The font measured seventy centimetres across and thirty-five centimetres high, small enough for one person to touch every side during a ceremony. It still belongs to the chamber, patient and complete except for the missing lid.