What is recorded here

You can still see the diagonal tooling on its straight sides, but the face looks back with bulging eyes, a broken nose and a tongue pushed through thick lips. It may have supported a roof or crowded an arch, yet it leaves behind a warning rather than a smile. The striations on its cheeks and neck echo Sheela-na-gig imagery, while its Dundry stone and 13th-century style connect it to heads at Ferns Castle. Now it waits in a Kilkenny store, small enough to lift yet heavy enough to stop a room.

In the OPW store, Kilkenny (Kilkenny depot stone carving number: KD006). A carved head (L 0.3m; Wth 0.25m; max. D 0.21m), possibly a corbel though it could also have been part of an arch. There is diagonal tooling on the straight sides. It has a grotesque face carved in high relief with frown lines, bulging eyes, a large nose (broken at the end), thick lips with a short tongue protruding. There are striations, similar to those found on Sheela-na-gigs, on the cheeks and down the length of the neck. It is similar to heads at Ferns Castle which are also carved from Dundry stone (Colfter 2013, 65, Fig. 13A). Stylistically this dates to the 13th century. See attached: KK019-026371-_01 (photograph by Chris Corlett) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 25 January 2023

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