What is recorded here

Graveslab in Newtown OR Skirk is a cut stone slab with chamfered edges, originally taken from Skirke castle chimney and reused as a grave marker bearing a 1612 inscription for IESVS, MARIA, IOHN DVIGIN and ELLEN PURCELL. It sits in gently undulating County Laois countryside, where the castle’s firebox was broken open and its heartstone carried across the land to hold a dead body instead of hot smoke. The reuse suggests people valued the castle’s substance enough to reshape it for mourning, turning a noble household into a vessel for ordinary grief.

In gently undulating countryside. A cut stone slab with chamfered edges, originally from Skirke castle chimney. Reused as a grave slab and with the following inscription dated 1612. IESVS. MARIA IOHN. DVIGIN. I. 1VL1112 ELLEN. PVRCELL. (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 135). No visible surface remains of grave slab in graveyard (LA021-01002-). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

A 17th-century Christian gravestone; significant as a reused slab with Latin inscription, reflecting post-medieval funerary practices and reuse of materials.

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