What is recorded here

Tomb is a 13th-century limestone slab of a woman in a pill-box head-dress, now set in the south transept of St Mary’s parish church in Kilkenny. It began behind the chancel, waited through centuries of footsteps and faith, and still wears the faint suggestion of a face rather than a forgotten name.

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A 13th-century head-slab of a woman (L 1.72m; Wth 0.62m; T 0.2m), made from fossiliferous limestone. Originally situated ‘behind the chancel’ (Hunt 1974, vol. 1, 196). Hunt records it as, ‘…a tapering coffin-shaped slab with chamfered edge, the lower end pointed and bearing a cross with fleur-de-lis terminals and decoration, topped by the head of a woman in a pill-box head-dress with side-nets. This slab is extremely worn and practically all the detail has vanished. It probably dates to the thirteenth century’ (Hunt 1974, vol. 1, 196). The slab was set into the concrete floor of the former Monuments Room in the N transept of St. Mary's church in the 1960s but it was moved to its present location in the S transept in 2015. Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 21 November 2022

Medieval effigial tomb slab, 13th century. It is significant as a rare example of early monumental funerary sculpture in Ireland, depicting a woman and providing insight into medieval burial practices and artistic traditions.

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