What is recorded here
One chamber holds a knight lost since Hickson saw him with a sword, while another keeps a carved tomb chest beside Tober na Molt. The chest may have come from Ardfert Friary, and its worn figures still show a mitred cleric, a book-holder and an indeterminate centre. Whatever tomb these stones belong to, they have been moved, reused and remembered across a small Kerry landscape.
Knight's effigy (lost).
Hickson (1892-4, 137; 1895, 330-6) describes seeing an effigy of a knight with a sword. Cross reference with KE021-115003-
Tomb surround described by Hunt (1974, 152-3) as; One and a quarter miles north-east of the
old railway station at Ardfert is a holy well, known as Tober na Molt [KE021-115002-]. There, part of a tomb-chest, perhaps an end, thirty-nine inches [1m] long and twenty-three inches [0.58m] high, is built into a rough stone 'altar' close to the well. It is alleged to have been brought here from Ardfert Friary [KE020-047----]. It is carved with three ogee-headed niches with foliate spandrels, containing figures. That on the dexter side is an ecclesiastic with a mitre holding a crozier and blessing with his right hand. The sinister figure holds a book and could be female. The central figure is indeterminate. The robes fall in tubular folds. The carvings are much worn and eroded, but it is possible to recognize that they are very provincial in style and primitive in execution. The date must be somewhere in the sixteenth-century, but it is interesting to note the presence of the schematized 'C' shaped ear found constantly in the Western carvings persisting'.
Revised by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of revised upload: 9 May 2022
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
Purseman's FortArchaeological place · 182 yd
Ardfert Franciscan FriaryVisitor information · 410 yd
Ardfert FriaryVisitor information · 452 yd
Hut site in ArdfertHut site · 648 yd
Ardfert Parish Roomchurch hall/parish hall · 748 yd
Statue of Roger CasementMemorial · 798 yd
CastleCastle, unclassified · 850 yd
15th Centenary of the birth of St-BredanMemorial · 859 yd
Site of CastleCastle, unclassified · 1.1 mi
Tobar na MoltSpring · 1.6 mi