Graveslab, Saints Island, Co. Longford

Co. Longford |

Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Saints Island, Co. Longford

On Saints Island in Lough Ree, within the ruined church of an Augustinian priory, a plain limestone graveslab sits raised on four small supports, marking a grave that has long since lost the name of whoever lies beneath it.

There is no inscription, no heraldic carving, no cross. The slab simply tapers, wider at one end than the other, and says nothing beyond its shape.

The slab measures 1.64 metres in length, tapering from 0.52 metres at the head end down to 0.32 metres at the foot, and is 0.14 metres thick. It rests on four dumb-bell piers, the kind of double-lobed stone supports that once formed part of the priory's cloister arcade, repurposed here to elevate the graveslab above the church floor. That combination of tapering form and overall dimensions is consistent with a date before 1700, though without an inscription the identity of the commemorated person remains unknown. The priory on Saints Island was an Augustinian house, belonging to an order of friars who followed the Rule of Saint Augustine and who established numerous communities across medieval Ireland. The island itself, set in Lough Ree on the River Shannon, had a long religious association predating the Augustinians, with early monastic activity recorded there from the early medieval period.

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