Graveslab, Holycross, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Holycross, Co. Tipperary

Along the south side of the cloister at Holycross Abbey, there is a medieval graveslab that no longer appears to be where it was recorded.

Its current location is unknown, which gives this particular stone an unsettling quality that the others in the same group do not quite share. Six graveslabs were documented along the southern cloister arcade of this Cistercian abbey in County Tipperary, and this one, catalogued as number six in D. Maher's survey of medieval grave slabs from the county spanning 1200 to 1600 AD, has since slipped from view.

The slab itself is a tapered form, nearly two metres long and now broken into two portions, with chamfered edges running along all sides. A chamfer is simply a bevelled edge, a finishing technique that was common in medieval stonework and gave slabs a cleaner, more deliberate profile. The surface is heavily worn and covered in lichen, but enough remains to make out the central decoration: an eight-armed fleur-de-lis cross carved in relief, set on a stepped base. The middle foil of the lower vertical arm connects to the shaft, and a knop, a small rounded projection, appears further down, also in low relief. There is no visible inscription, which means whoever was commemorated here left no legible name behind, only the care and precision of the carved cross to suggest they were someone worth marking at all.

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Pete F
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