Architectural fragment in Kilskeer

Thirty-five metres from the Kilskeer tower house, a carved mantelpiece fragment stands upright in the church graveyard, marking a grave it never intended to hold. The chevron, scallop shell, letters R and P, and date 1691 survive on stone about seventy-eight centimetres high, bright enough to read and strange enough to stop a visitor mid-stride. Perhaps it fell from the house during collapse or was carried out deliberately when the building stopped being a home. Either way, the graveyard gave the fragment a second life, turning a domestic ornament into a memorial for someone whose name has not survived.