Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Graveslab
Rathduff (madden), County Kilkenny, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Rathduff (madden)
- County
- Kilkenny
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 52.53893, -7.26663
- SMR number
- KK027-029026-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
One of a large number of graveslabs (KK027-029005-; KK027-029015-, KK027-029016-, KK027-029021- to KK027-029051-) found at Kells Priory for Augustinian canons (KK027-029004-) which have been described and catalogued by Higgins (2007, 453-67).
Described by Graves (1864-6, 185-6, 229) as a tapering limestone slab, being, ‘coffin-shaped, bevelled on the edges, and bore a graceful floriated cross of the Edwardian period, carved in relief’. It had a partly legible incised inscription, ‘by the side of the stem of the cross, in Lombardic capitals’, which read ‘HIC JACET RICARDUS COMERFORD [QUI Q]ONDAM PRIOR EXSTITIT ISTIUS DOMI’ (ibid.). Graves (ibid. 186) gives the translation as, ‘Here lies Richard Comerford, who was formerly Prior of this convent’. In Carrigan’s (1905, vol. 4, 62) list of priors of Kell Priory in the 14th century, which he bases on the work of the 17th-century historian James Ware (Ex Registro &c), there is no mention of a Richard Comerford, however, there is a Richard Cotterell, who died in 1319. Carrigan (ibid.) suggests that either Ware may have mixed up the surnames or Graves misread the graveslab inscription. According to Graves (1864-6, 185) the slab had been broken into three parts, one of which was missing. Currently all three parts are unlocated. (Higgins 2007, cat. no. 9, 466-7).
Ref.:
Graves, Rev. J. 1864-6 Proceedings and papers. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 8, 185-9, 229.
Higgins, J. 2007 The medieval funerary monuments. In M. Clyne, (ed.), Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny: archaeological excavations by T. Fanning & M. Clyne, 453-67. Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Dublin.
Compiled by: Jean Farrelly
Date of upload: 30 May 2023
References
Clyne, M. 2007 Kells Priory, Co. Kilkenny: archaeological excavations by T. Fanning & M. Clyne. Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Dublin.
Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.
Nearby in the register
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.