What is recorded here

A half-metre limestone figure with a missing head and broken legs sits in the Hunt Museum, having spent unknown years buried in a roadside wall near Black Castle. Her plump trunk and exaggerated pudenda stared out at passing carts until culvert workers pried her loose. She may have guarded the castle gate before its demolition, watching men and women with equal indifference.

Sheela-na-gig (LI023-040001-) now located in the Hunt Museum in Limerick City. According to McMahon and Roberts this sheela-na-gig was discovered by workers while repairing a culvert on a small stream c. 100m from Black Castle in Caherelly (LI023-040----) where the carving (dims. 0.48m x 0.33m) had been rebuilt into the fabric of the roadside wall (McMahon & Roberts 2001, 120). It has been suggested that this sheela-na-gig may have come from the nearby castle (LI023-040---) when it was pulled down in the 19th century. Described by Freitag as a stone (dims. H 0.5m; Wth 0.34m) with figure ‘skilfully carved in flat relief on local limestone; damaged, head missing, and legs from thigh downwards and left hand also broken away. Trunk and limbs unusually plump without signs of emaciation; well shaped droopy but proportional breasts. Arms passing behind legs; right hand lifting lower part of thigh. Deeply incised naval and oval pudenda; shape of latter exaggerated, and seems to be split at upper end. A groove is cut vertically downwards below pudenda’ (Freitag 2004, 126). See attached screenshots of 3D model of Sheela-na-gig created by Digital Heritage Age. 3D model can be accessed on the Sketchfab website at: https://skfb.ly/6t6Mo Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 28 May 2012

Dated to the 12th to 14th century, this Sheela-na-gig is likely associated with medieval Christian contexts, possibly linked to monastic or ecclesiastical sites. The figure, typically depicted as a woman with exaggerated sexual features, may have had a symbolic or didactic function, though its exact meaning remains debated.

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