What is recorded here

Robert Preston of Gormanston built the chantry chapel at Stamullin around 1460, leaving behind a cadaver tomb where a knotted shroud projects beyond the bones. The dead man still occupies the chamber, his marble flesh worn smooth by centuries of breath and forgetting. What he buried beneath that stone may have been hunger, fear or a name he refused to speak. The chamber keeps the shape of the refusal, waiting for someone brave enough to ask what it withheld.

Within the chantry chapel attached to the parish church of Stamullin (ME034-001----) which was built by Robert Preston of Gormanston c. 1460 (O'Neill 2002, 28). The slab (dims 2.3m x 1.17m) depicting a cadaver has been described by Roe (1969, 17-18) as: Tomb cover only. Stone flat on ground, slightly ‘embanked’ by sloping course of cement all round. Eastern extent of slab touching one end of double effigial tomb and partially obscured by a wooden structure which protects the latter. The slab is rectangular and measures 2.3m long by 1.17m wide; thickness not ascertainable by reason of cement surround. The skeleton effigy is 1.72m tall by 0.46m wide across the shoulders. Each end of the knotted shroud projects beyond the effigy by some 25cm. Though much abraded the relief is still about 9-10cm in height. The chapel itself appears to have been formed by the S aisle of medieval parish church, and separated from the chancel of this by two round-headed bays now built up. Entry to the chapel was also gained by a small pointed doorway on west wall with elegant moulding terminating in carved heads, seemingly early to mid-15th century in date. A few traces of a decorated piscina-aumbry are in the S wall. No references to the cadaver effigy traced. See attached image of cadaver stone. Date of upload: 11 February, 2015

Effigial tomb slab, 15th century. It is significant as a rare surviving example of a cadaver effigy in a chantry chapel context, reflecting late medieval funerary art and religious practices in Ireland.

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