What is recorded here
Balgeeth in County Meath holds a limestone Sheela-na-gig carved with prominent facial features, bent legs and hands guiding the eye to the pudenda. The figure emerged from a hidden masonry pier at a farmhouse entrance, suggesting people once built her into a threshold where domestic life began. She is still kept at the farm, turning an ordinary entrance into a place where visibility, boundary and human wit collide.
A female exhibitionist figure was discovered hidden in a masonry pier at the entrance to a farmhouse ‘several years ago’ and is kept at the farm. The figure is carved in relief on a limestone block (max. dims 0.54m x 0.28m; max. T 0.24m). The legs are bent in the same direction and the hands are on the thighs indicating the pudenda. The breasts are only lightly indicated but the facial features are prominent. (Keeling 1984)
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of revision: 27 January 2017
A Sheela-na-gig figure, likely dating to the medieval period, often associated with fertility or apotropaic symbolism, though its specific meaning or use in this context remains unclear.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
Places near here
IndicatedGraveyard · 1416 yd
Church (in Ruins)Church · 1419 yd
CastleCastle, unclassified · 1500 yd
Font in Rath (duleek Upper By.)Font · 1734 yd
farmyard complexfarmyard complex · 1.1 mi
PuddenhillHeritage attraction · 1.2 mi
Athcarne CastleCastle, tower house · 1.7 mi
Newtown GorseWood · 2.8 mi
FourknocksPassage tomb · 3.1 mi
The story of the milk standMemorial · 3.2 mi
Newtown HillMountain / peak · 3.3 mi
Common LimeCommon Lime · 3.5 mi