But within its grounds, archaeology has turned up something quieter and more intimate: a substantial collection of medieval graveslabs, the kind of funerary stonework that once marked individual burials inside the priory church and its associated chapels. One such slab, tapering from roughly 56 centimetres at the head end down to 39 centimetres at the foot, and running almost 1.87 metres in length, was recovered from the lady chapel, the part of the church typically dedicated to the Virgin Mary and often favoured for the burial of those of particular piety or social standing.

The slab dates stylistically to the 13th or 14th century, a period when Kells Priory was well established as a house of Augustinian canons, an order of clergy who followed the Rule of St Augustine and lived communally while also serving pastoral functions in the wider area. Graveslabs of this type are flat or slightly dressed stone markers, usually placed directly over a burial, and they were a common form of commemoration in medieval Irish monastic settings before more elaborate effigial monuments became fashionable. This particular example is one of a notably large group found at the site, all of which were described and catalogued by J. Higgins in a 2007 volume dedicated to the priory's archaeological excavations, carried out by T. Fanning and M. Clyne. The concentration of such slabs at Kells speaks to how actively the priory functioned as a burial ground for the surrounding community over several centuries.