Font

The National Monuments Service's description

Formerly located in Carran Church (CL009-075001-) and described in 1839: ’A broken stone altar remains under this [E] window and on its left corner, a Holy Water Font of curious formation.’ (O’Donovan and Curry, 1839, 95). Recorded by Higgins (1994, 17-18) who described the bowl of a font, lying in rubble to the left of the altar as the sub-pyramidal top of a narrow, free-standing font. There was no trace of a shaft or base. The bowl was almost complete except for one corner that was broken away. It was decorated with an unusual grotesque head with an extended neck carved in high relief. The facial features are exaggerated and there is a loose folded garment around the neck. Also unusual is the rectangular internal shape of the bowl; such bowls are often circular, sometimes square and occasionally, though rarely, faceted. The remainder is decorated with small precise pocking, a type of tooling typical of the 15th and early 16th century.

References
Higgins, J. 1994 Further medieval sculpture at Carran Church, County Clare and its significance. The Other Clare 18, 16-19.
O’Donovan J. and Curry E., Ordnance Survey Letters, Part 1. Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the County of Clare, collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1939.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Mary Tunney

Date of upload: 24 August 2022