Sheela-na-gig

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise overlooking the low-lying floodplains of the river Shannon to the S. Well preserved rectangular tower house (OF029-008001-) four storeys high which has been greatly modified with a later building attached to the E side of the tower. Unlocated Sheela-na-gig now missing that was recorded in the 1906 by Thomas Cooke a local antiquarian who stated that this figure was known locally as the 'Witch'. According to Guest this figure was ‘said to be cut in limestone and preserved in a museum in the south of Ireland’ (Guest 1936, 110). Hitchcock recorded that the ‘late Mr. Cooke stated that he had in his possession an image called by the peasantry "the witch," which originally stood in Cloghan in the King's County, the old name of which was Cloghan-na-gcaora, the stone of the sheep, which represented an Hermaphrodite, one of the breasts being like the sun and the other a crescent like the moon’ (Hitchcock 1908, 30).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload/revision: 05 June 2012

References

Hitchcock, F.R.M. 1908 The Midland septs and the pale. Dublin. Sealy, Bryers and Walker.

Guest, E.M. 1936 Irish sheela na gigs in 1935. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 66, 107-29.