Graveslab, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Tombs & Memorials
On the floor of a Church of Ireland building in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, lies a medieval graveslab that most visitors would walk past without a second glance.
It sits in the south-east corner, broken roughly two-thirds of the way down its cross-shaft, its upper portion still measuring over a metre in surviving surface length. What makes it worth stopping for is the quality and confidence of its carved decoration: an incised cross with fleur-de-lis terminals and a lozenge at the centre, enclosed within a double-lined quatrefoil, each indent of which has a triple curving motif projecting inward. Beneath the cross-head sits a concentric circular knop. There is no inscription, so whoever commissioned this slab took their identity to the grave in the most literal sense.
The church itself is a 19th-century structure, but it was built directly on the former chancel of St Mary's, a 13th-century foundation whose architectural footprint it effectively continues. A chancel is the eastern portion of a church, traditionally reserved for the clergy, which means the graveslab almost certainly originated in a space of some liturgical significance. The decorative vocabulary of the carving, particularly the fleur-de-lis terminals and the quatrefoil frame, places the slab stylistically in the 13th or 14th century, a period when Anglo-Norman influence on Irish ecclesiastical stonework was at its most pronounced. A second slab within the same church shares a closely similar design, which may suggest a local workshop producing a recognisable type, or a family or community choosing matching memorials within a generation or two of each other.
The slab is accessible inside the church building, lying flat on the floor in its corner position. Because it is broken and set at floor level, and because there is no inscription to draw the eye, it rewards those who are already looking rather than those passing through. The companion slab nearby is worth examining alongside it, since the similarities between the two pieces are easier to appreciate when seen together.