Graveslab, Ardfert, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Ardfert, Co. Kerry

In the chancel of the medieval complex at Ardfert lies a limestone graveslab that marks no one by name.

No inscription identifies the person beneath it, no carved figure commemorates their status, and no heraldic device announces their family. What remains is a plain tapering slab, 195 centimetres long and narrowing from 61 to 51 centimetres across, with moulded edges as the only concession to ornament.

The slab is thought to date from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, a period when Ardfert was a place of considerable ecclesiastical importance, serving as the seat of the Diocese of Kerry. Graveslabs of this type, sometimes called coffin-shaped slabs for their characteristic taper from head to foot, were a relatively common funerary form across medieval Ireland and Britain. The moulded edges here suggest some degree of care in the stone's preparation, though limestone of this kind was locally available and widely worked in the region. Whether the anonymity of the slab reflects a deliberate choice, a lost inscription, or simply the passage of time is impossible to say now. The thickness of twelve centimetres gives it a solidity that has kept it intact through centuries of exposure and change.

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