Architectural fragment, Cashel, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Architectural fragment, Cashel, Co. Tipperary

At the south-west corner of 29 Main Street in Cashel, two pieces of medieval stonework have been quietly doing a different job for an unknown length of time.

Pressed into service as quoinstones, the large dressed blocks that form the angle of this building are not ordinary building material. They project slightly from the west face of the wall, a small but telling irregularity that hints at origins elsewhere.

The upper fragment is a chamfered limestone door jamb, punch dressed, meaning its surface was worked with a pointed tool to produce a rough, textured finish typical of medieval stone preparation. The lower fragment is a limestone corbel, a projecting block originally designed to carry the weight of a beam, arch, or some other structural element above it. Here it has been inserted on its side, repurposed as a corner stone with no regard for its original orientation. Both pieces are medieval, and both were almost certainly cut and carved for a building of some consequence, given the quality of their dressing and the scale of the corbel. Where that building stood, whether it was ecclesiastical, domestic, or defensive, and when these fragments were salvaged and built into the present structure, is not recorded. Cashel itself has no shortage of medieval fabric, dominated as the town is by the famous Rock, but the original home of these two stones remains unknown.

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