Graveslab, Inishcaltra, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Tombs & Memorials
On the early medieval island monastery of Inishcaltra, set in Lough Derg on the Shannon, there exists a record for a graveslab that has effectively vanished.
Not stolen, not destroyed in any documented way, simply gone, its present location unknown.
The slab appears on a plan drawn by R.A.S. Macalister, the prominent Irish archaeologist, during his survey of the island in 1916 to 1917. His plan of the so-called Saint's graveyard shows the slab close to the centre of that burial ground, though he did not assign it a number among his recorded stones. It was undecorated, which sets it apart from the carved and inscribed slabs for which Inishcaltra is better known. A graveslab of this type is typically a flat stone laid directly over a burial, often marking a grave of some significance even when it carries no inscription or ornament. At some point between Macalister's survey and the present day, this particular stone ceased to be visible at its recorded position, and no subsequent investigation has established where it went.
