Stone head, Kilmurry More, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Stone Monuments

Stone head, Kilmurry More, Co. Mayo

At the entrance to the graveyard at Kilmurry More in County Mayo, a small carved stone head has been set into concrete, fixed in place like a gatekeeper.

It is easy to walk past without a second glance, yet the object it represents is almost certainly a fragment of a medieval church that has otherwise vanished entirely from the landscape.

The head is carved in relief on a stone block roughly 27 by 28 centimetres, the face itself just 17 centimetres tall and 10 centimetres wide. The features are simply drawn, with no great attempt at naturalism, but one detail stands out: a headdress, most likely a bishop's mitre, its base forming a clear horizontal band across the forehead. A mitre is the tall, pointed ceremonial hat associated with bishops and abbots in the Western church, and its presence here suggests the figure was a person of ecclesiastical rank, or at least intended to represent one. The stone is thought to have originated with a medieval church that once stood somewhere within the graveyard boundary, a building of which no above-ground trace now remains. The graveyard itself continues in use, the church long since gone, and the carved head persisting as the only physical remnant of whatever stood here centuries ago.

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Pete F
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