Graveslab, Gracedieu, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Tombs & Memorials
Two carved stone slabs lie in a field outside the ruins of a medieval nunnery in north County Dublin, neither sheltered nor particularly signposted, simply resting where they have always been.
What makes them quietly arresting is the combination of their age, their displacement from the building they were presumably connected with, and the detail still visible on at least one of them after five centuries of Irish weather.
Both slabs date to the sixteenth century and are associated with the remains of the nunnery at Gracedieu, a religious house whose own recorded reference number points to a more substantial complex than what survives today. The two slabs sit at different distances and in different directions from the nunnery remains: one approximately twenty metres to the north, the other around six metres to the west. The western slab is the more ornate of the two. It carries an incised cross, that is, one cut directly into the stone surface rather than raised in relief, with a stepped base and floriated arms, meaning the ends of the cross branch outward into decorative leaf-like forms. Around the margin of the slab runs an inscription, though the notes do not specify whether it remains fully legible. Graveslabs of this type were typically commissioned for individuals of some local standing, and the carved detail here suggests the same. The record was compiled by Geraldine Stout and updated by Christine Baker.
The site sits within reach of the Dublin city boundary, though the field setting means visitors should expect uneven ground and no formal path to either slab. The western stone rewards a closer look given the marginal inscription, which may require crouching and a raking light to read properly; early morning or overcast conditions often work better than bright midday sun for picking out incised lettering. The nunnery remains nearby provide context for the slabs, even in their fragmentary state, and the spatial relationship between the three elements, the ruins and the two displaced stones, gives a reasonable sense of how a small religious precinct once organised its dead around its buildings.