What is recorded here

No. 1098 is a small slatey-sandstone slab with two neat holes, one at each end, buried among three hundred unnamed markers in Kildrum Graveyard. It may have marked the place where an un-baptised child was laid to rest, chosen because its holes already broke the surface of the world. The double piercing gives the stone the shape of a question rather than a answer, as if death itself had been driven through it twice.

In 2010 a graveyard survey carried out by Laurence Dunne recorded the following details about Holed-stone No. 1098: 'Kildrum Graveyard is situated on the N side of the Dingle Peninsula 4km NE of Dingle. It is situated on an elevated site at 50m OD on the lower ENE slopes of Leathaoibh with views S over Dingle Harbour and Mount Brandon to the NE. The old graveyard [KE043-130001-] is studded with around three hundred small unnamed headstones, notched grave markers and cross-slabs that are disposed around the interior. The spatial and density patterning of these gravemarkers most likely reflect the location of the medieval church [KE043-130----] and also the oval enclosure that is evident on the 1st Ed OS map of 1841. There are no visible, above ground, coherent, remains of the medieval church of Kildrum today. Three holed-stones, (1098, 1120 & 1122), were recorded within the old burial ground at Kildrum. Holed-stone (1098) of slatey-sandstone, 0.43m x 0.23m x 0.065m, has a double perforation, one at the top and the other at the base. Both perforations are small and uniform, diameter of upper perforation 20mm and bottom 28mm. The double perforation is unusual and not accounted for at other sites. There is a distinct possibility that it is a re-used stone selected because of the perforations for use as a burial marker for an un-baptised child in the ceallúragh area of the old burial ground. See attached plan and photographs courtesy of Laurence Dunne Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by Laurence Dunne Date of upload: 27 June 2022

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