Graveslab, Enniscoush, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Tombs & Memorials
A limestone slab measuring nearly two metres in length lies in the chancel of a medieval church at Rathkeale, County Limerick, its surface cut with an inscription that has preserved one woman's identity and lineage across three and a half centuries.
The lettering is formal Roman script, incised rather than raised, and the spelling follows the conventions of seventeenth-century English, where a "V" stands in for a "U" and the word "daughter" trails off in a lowercase "r" as though the mason's hand wavered for just a moment. These small irregularities make the text feel less like a monument and more like a document, a record made by real hands under real pressure of grief or commission.
The slab marks the grave of Anne Pigott, born Anne Dowdall, and the inscription identifies her as the eldest daughter of Sir John Dowdall of Kilfeny, Knight. She died on the twenty-second day of October 1673. The details were recorded in the Urban Survey of Limerick, compiled by Bradley and colleagues in 1989, which noted the slab's dimensions: 1.96 metres long by 0.91 metres wide. The chancel in which it lies belongs to the medieval church at Rathkeale, a town in west Limerick with a long history of Anglo-Norman settlement. The Dowdall family connection to Kilfeny and the title of knight attached to her father suggest a family of some local standing, though the inscription itself makes no further claims beyond lineage and date.
The church ruin at Rathkeale is the site to look for, catalogued under the record number LI029-031004- in the National Monuments inventory. The chancel area, where graveslabs of this type were typically placed to honour individuals of higher social rank, is where the stone lies. Graveslabs of this period are often easy to overlook underfoot, particularly when lichen or wear has softened the lettering, so it is worth taking time to read the surface carefully rather than scanning it at a glance. Flat light on an overcast day tends to bring incised inscriptions into better relief than direct sunshine, which can wash out shallow cuts in pale limestone.