What is recorded here

Graveslab in Rathduff (madden) preserves a broken tapering stone from Kells Priory, where a plain shield near the top may have worn paint, a cross or heraldry before time stripped it away. It lay disturbed in the N transept, its base lost and edges chipped, yet its shape still points to a buried person honored by Augustinian canons in the late 13th or 14th century. The missing lower part does not diminish the slab; it invites imagination about the life that ended beneath priory stones.

One of a large number of graveslabs (KK027-029005-; KK027-029015-, KK027-029016-, KK027-029021- to KK027-029051-) found at Kells Priory for Augustinian canons (KK027-029004-) which have been described and catalogued by Higgins (2007, 453-67). A tapering graveslab (L 2.22m; Wth at top 0.53m; Wth at base 0.39m; T 0.23m) with chamfered edges. The slab is spalled and the lower sinister edge and base of the slab is broken off. It is decorated near the top of the slab with an incised plain shield (L 0.51m). Higgins (ibid. 461) suggests that the shield may have had a painted inscription, cross and heraldry. The slab was recovered during archaeological excavation from a disturbed layer in the N transept of the priory church. Stylistically this dates to the late 13th/14th century. (Higgins 2007, cat. no. 24, 461, fig. 7.3:1). Ref.: Higgins, J. 2007 The medieval funerary monuments. In M. Clyne, (ed.), Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny: archaeological excavations by T. Fanning & M. Clyne, 453-67. Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Dublin. See attached: KK027-029041-_01 Illustration in Higgins, J. 2007 The medieval funerary monuments. In M. Clyne, (ed.), Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny: archaeological excavations by T. Fanning & M. Clyne, 453-67. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 31 May 2023

Medieval Christian graveslab; associated with an Augustinian priory and significant for its connection to burial practices and monastic life in the late medieval period.

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