What is recorded here

Marian and i walked the castle demesne at Slane on a bright autumn day. We climbed toward the old hermitage tower and found a large limestone block lying among loose stones beneath it. One flat face carried a crude but clear carving of St Catherine, her wheel in one hand and the other across her chest. She wore a crown, a tunic and a cloak caught over one arm. I touched the rough edge and imagined the sculptor chopping at the stone with little more than patience. Marian said the saint still watches the field, not through grandeur but through endurance. We sat beside her for a while, eating bread and drinking water, letting the castle keep its distance. When we left, the tower stood above us and the wheel turned quietly in the stone.

from Bradley and King (1985, 143): St. Catherine stone 15th century. Large, crudely-shaped block of limestone among loose stones beneath the tower of St. Erc's Hermitage (ME019-026----). It is squared off on one side showing St. Catherine with a wheel in her left hand and her right hand across her chest. She is dressed in a cloak caught over her left arm and tunic with a crown. The style is not unlike the apostle stone (ME019-026---). Dims H 0.48m; Wth 0.48m; T 0.2-0.32m. Date of upload: 15 July, 2014

Likely dating to the early medieval period, the stone may have had a Christian devotional or boundary function, possibly associated with St. Erc's Hermitage. Its later identification with St. Catherine suggests a later tradition or repurposing of the site.

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