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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Font (present location)

Stephenstown North, County Kildare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Font (present location), Stephenstown North, County Kildare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Stephenstown North
County
Kildare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.17106, -6.70032
SMR number
KD024-067----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1830 · V.3:11-15:XV. Britisches Reich. C. Kon: Ireland. a. Prov: Leinster. Counties: 1-12 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

A large bowl shaped stone (ext. diam. 0.64m; rim T 0.1m; H 0.36m) with circular basin (top diam. 0.44m; base diam. 0.17m; D 0.21m) and no drainage hole may represent the remains of an early medieval font. It is too large to represent the remains of a medieval water stoup and not the right shape for a bullaun stone. It is possible that this plain unperforated bowl shaped stone was used as a medieval mortar rather than as a baptismal font and may have belonged to the adjoining Herbertstown Castle or was used for domestic purposes of the residential priest at Herbertstown Church. Such a function has been suggested for several large undecorated bowls which lacked a central drainage hole (Roe 1968, 12). The stone was removed from Herbertstown Church (KD023-018----) some time before 1990 by local parishioners and placed in the graveyard of St. Peter’s R. C. Church, Two-Mile-House (Gibson 1990, 60). Cross-referenced with KD023-018004-. A later medieval square-shaped font (KD024-066----) also taken from Herbertstown Church lies a few metres to the W.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by William Gibson

Date of upload: 23 April 2019

References

Gibson, W.H. (ed.) 1990 St Peter's Church, Two-Mile-House, 1790-1990.

Roe, H.M. 1968 Medieval fonts of Meath. Meath Archaeological and Historical Society.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Font (present location) in Kildare All County Kildare records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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