Graveslab, Kilbarrack Lower, Co. Dublin

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Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Kilbarrack Lower, Co. Dublin

A graveslab dated 1654 sits somewhere in Kilbarrack Lower, on the northern fringe of Dublin, except that nobody is entirely sure where.

Once formally recorded in the graveyard, the stone has since slipped out of the official record in a more literal sense, its exact location now simply listed as unknown. That particular phrase, so final in an archival context, carries a peculiar weight when applied to a physical object of carved stone that presumably still exists somewhere underfoot, overgrown, or face-down in the earth.

Graveslabs of the seventeenth century were not uncommon markers for the moderately prosperous, typically flat stones inscribed with a name, a date, and occasionally a carved motif such as a skull or an hourglass, laid directly over a burial rather than raised upright. The date 1654 places this one in a fraught period of Irish history, just a few years after the Cromwellian campaigns and the considerable disruption they caused to communities, parishes, and their physical records. Kilbarrack itself has early ecclesiastical origins, its graveyard associated with a medieval parish, and it is exactly the kind of site where layers of burial and commemoration accumulated across several centuries, with older stones gradually losing their legibility or their position above ground. The monument was compiled into the record by Geraldine Stout and uploaded in August 2011, suggesting it was recognised as a known quantity at some point but had already lost its precise coordinates by then.

For anyone inclined to look, Kilbarrack graveyard is located in the coastal suburb of the same name on Dublin's northside, not far from the DART line, and it remains an active burial ground with older sections that repay careful attention. Searching for a lost graveslab is, by definition, an exercise without a guaranteed outcome, and there is no clear guidance as to which corner or wall or overgrown margin might conceal it. The stone could be buried beneath later ground deposits, repositioned during earlier grave-digging, or simply overlooked because its inscription has weathered beyond easy reading. Anyone with a genuine interest in early modern funerary monuments, or in the specific history of this parish, would do well to contact the relevant heritage or local authority records before visiting, in the event that more recent survey work has narrowed things down.

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Pete F
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Kilbarrack Lower, Co. Dublin
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Ref: DU00738

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