What is recorded here

Graveslab in Fennor (duleek Lower By.) preserves a narrow chiselled stone bearing the year 1548 and the name Katherina of Wilkinstone. The missing portions took the names with them, leaving behind a thin rib of memory near the churchyard gate. What remains is not a complete monument but a edge of one, sharp enough to cut through centuries and still point toward the people it failed to keep.

A fragment of a graveslab with the date 1548 is recorded from the graveyard at Fennor (ME019-035001-) but was not noted in 2014. It is described (FitzGerald 1914-15) as: Near the churchyard gate, being used as a headstone, is the portion of a mullion-like stone, measuring 3 feet in length, 9 half inches wide, and 6 inches in thickness (dims c. 0.9m x c. 0.23m x 0.15m); along the length of one face runs a fragment of an inscription in incised black-letter; the opposite face is smooth and plain, and the sides are grooved. What form this monument took is a puzzle, considering the narrowness of the stone and the fact of its being neatly chiselled on all sides. The missing portions contained the names. What is left of the inscription reads: …DE WILKINSTONE GENEROSI QUA KATHERINA…ILLE QUIDEM ANO DNI 1548 ET 24 MES…. FEBRUARII ILLA VERO Neither the Fiants nor the Inquisitions give one a clue to the possessors of Wilkinstown about this date. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 2 September, 2014

A 16th-century Christian graveslab; locally significant as a rare surviving monument with a dated inscription from the early modern period.

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