What is recorded here

Graveslab in Tooreen East is a late-medieval folk-art stone bearing a Latin cross, an eight-petalled marigold roundel, knot panels and the date 1596, now set against a field wall at a T-junction in County Galway. It may have stood farther back in the land, perhaps near a children’s burial ground, which would make its bright marigold and proud flag-bearing figure a gesture of love rather than mere decoration. Whoever carved it worked flat and fierce, giving death a shape that still seems to wave at the road.

This roughly rectangular late-medieval graveslab (H 0.83m; Wth 0.59m; T 0.09m) is against a field wall on the NE side of a T-junction. It is an interesting example of folk art and bears a Latin cross with a roundel at its head. The roundel is decorated with an eight-petalled marigold motif. Further decorative features include a rectangular panel with a fret-like pattern at the junction of the arms and shaft, and almost square panels with simple duplex knots at the end of each arm. Below the right-hand arm the date 1596 is visible. The panel below the left-hand arm bears a figure holding what appears to be a flag aloft. The carving is partly in the round but is mainly flat. The end of the shaft is worn. The upper panels above the arms bear an indecipherable inscription in two lines (information from J. Higgins). According to local information, the graveslab originally stood in the field across the road from the cross (GA103-187001-) c. 140m to the SW (O'Connell and Korff 1987, 9), which may associate it with the children's burial ground (GA103-187002-). Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 5 September 2019

Late-medieval Christian graveslab; dates to the 14th–16th century. It reflects local funerary practices and folk art traditions in the region.

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