Font in Herbertstown

A large bowl shaped stone (ext. diam. 0.64m; rim T 0.1m; H 0.36m) with circular basin (top diam. 0.44m; base diam. 0.17m; D 0.21m) and no drainage hole may represent the remains of an early medieval font. It is too large to represent the remains of a medieval water stoup and not the right shape for a bullaun stone. It is possible that this plain unperforated bowl shaped stone was used as a medieval mortar rather than as a baptismal font and may have belonged to the adjoining Herbertstown Castle (KD023-018003-) or was used for domestic purposes of the residential priest living inside Herbertstown Church. Such a function has been suggested for several large undecorated bowls which lacked a central drainage hole and were initially identified as fonts (Roe 1968, 12). The stone was removed from Herbertstown Church (KD023-018----) some time before 1990 by local parishioners and placed in the graveyard of St. Peter’s R. C. Church, Two-Mile-House (Gibson 1990, 60). Cross-referenced with KD024-067---. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by William Gibson Date of upload: 23 April 2019