Graveslab, Timolin, Co. Kildare

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Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Timolin, Co. Kildare

In a graveyard at Timolin, a modest slab of stone carries an inscription that has puzzled and intrigued local historians for well over a century. Known as the Kehoe Stone, it dates to 1633 and bears a carved cross with a stepped base in relief, a simple but dignified design typical of early seventeenth-century funerary carving. What gives the stone its particular curiosity is the inscription itself, which reads: 'Donagh Kighow Alisonne Vrghbold Farrel Kighow.' The spelling is a reminder of how fluid and phonetic Irish name recording could be in this period, when scribes rendered Gaelic names into English by ear, producing forms that often bear only a loose resemblance to the names as they would later be standardised.

The stone commemorates members of the Kehoe family, the surname rendered here in two variant spellings within the same inscription, 'Kighow' appearing twice alongside what appears to be a woman's name, Alisonne, and the name Vrghbold Farrel. The Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society noted the stone in 1896, situating it within the broader context of the old monastic site at Timolin, a settlement with roots that long predate the seventeenth century. The graveyard in which the slab lies is associated with that earlier monastic foundation, meaning the Kehoe Stone rests in ground that had been used for burial and religious observance for generations before 1633.

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