Graveslab, Burgage More, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Burgage More, Co. Wicklow

Among the collapsed stonework of a ruined church tower at Burgage More, a granite fragment sits unremarked in the rubble.

It measures roughly 43 centimetres long and 35 centimetres wide, and on its face is cut a partial cross, incised directly into the stone. The slab is a remnant of what was once a grave marker, now broken and displaced, its original position long since lost to the slow collapse of the medieval structure around it.

The fragment was recorded by Corlett in 2003 as Slab 3 in a study of such stones at the site. It lies within the old graveyard at Burgage, adjacent to the ruins of the church tower, both of which form part of a broader complex of early ecclesiastical remains in this part of County Wicklow. An incised cross, that is, a cross cut or scratched into the stone surface rather than carved in relief, is one of the oldest and most widely distributed forms of grave marker in early medieval Ireland, found on slabs ranging from the elaborately decorated to the plainly functional. This example falls toward the latter end of that scale; what survives is a portion only, suggesting the slab was larger before it broke, or before whatever event reduced it to its current state among the fallen masonry.

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