The piece in question came originally from Leggetsrath, and it is the kind of object that rewards a closer look than its modest dimensions might suggest.

The fragment is roughly triangular and cut from limestone, measuring just under three-quarters of a metre wide and not quite thirty centimetres high. It formed part of a two-light round-headed opening, the sort of window or decorative aperture in which two arched openings sit side by side beneath a single containing arch, a form found in ecclesiastical and high-status secular buildings throughout the medieval period. What makes this particular piece worth attention is the carving on its spandrels, the roughly triangular spaces that fill the gap between the arches and the outer frame. On the front face, those spandrels carry a vegetal motif, meaning decorative carving drawn from plant forms, the kind of flowing, organic ornament that was a common but skilled element of Romanesque and later Gothic stone carving in Ireland. The back face is treated differently; its spandrels are finished with chisel tooling set within plain margins, a more workmanlike finish that would originally have been concealed within the fabric of the wall. The contrast between the two faces is a small reminder of how medieval masons thought carefully about what would be seen and what would not, and adjusted their labour accordingly. The piece is catalogued in the Kilkenny depot as stone carving number KD045.