Decorated stone, Ballynerrin, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Stone Monuments
There is something quietly frustrating about an object that exists mainly as a footnote.
At the old church site in Ballynerrin, County Wicklow, there may or may not be a decorated stone, depending entirely on whom you ask and whether anyone has looked in the right place lately. The decoration itself, the nature of any carving or inscription, remains undescribed, which only deepens the puzzle.
The trail begins with a 1973 publication by Reynolds and Haworth, who recorded the possible presence of a decorated stone at the Ballynerrin church. That cautious word, "possible", does a lot of work here. It suggests the authors had reason to believe something was there, perhaps a local account or a partial sighting, without being certain enough to describe it fully. Since that note was made, the stone has not been located by subsequent researchers. It may have been moved, buried, incorporated into later building work, or it may simply be waiting for someone to look more carefully. Decorated stones at early ecclesiastical sites in Ireland can range from simple incised crosses to more elaborate early medieval carvings, and their significance varies accordingly, which makes the absence of any description here all the more tantalising.