TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Font (present location)

Gainestown, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Font (present location), Gainestown, County Westmeath, 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
Gainestown
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.48448, -7.32473
SMR number
WM026-106----

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)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

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

The National Monuments Service's description

Font (WM026-003003-) now located inside W porch of R. C. church at Gainestown, 2.65km SSE of Lynn Church (WM026-003----) and graveyard (WM026-003001-) where the font originally stood. Moved from Lynn graveyard in 1954 and placed inside the porch of Gainestown Church by Fr. Finian O'Conor. Cogan (1867, 452) recorded in 1867 that a 'fine old font of the church [Lynn] is in the cemetery; the bowl is circular, and measures one foot ten inches (0.56m) in diameter'. Described by Roe (1968, 118-9) as a 'most remarkable creation and one which well may be unique. Square and massive, the vessel is cut from a single stone (dims. H 0.72m x Wth 0.66m), into three stages, each decreasing in width from the top down. To merge with the middle section (Wth 0.55m x H 0.15m) the under part of the top stage (Wth 0.65m x H 0.29m) is carved as a gentle concave curve while instead of being formed as a simple cube, the lowest part (Wth 0.42m x H 0.27m) has its angles shaped to give a convex profile. The basin (diam. 0.56m x D 0.19m; rim T. 0.05m) is flat-bottomed without a drain'. The R. C. Church at Gainestown was reputedly built with stones taken from Catherinestown Castle (WM026-124----) in 1853.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 19 January 2018

References

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

Cogan, Rev. A. 1862-70 In John F. Fowler, Joseph Dollard (eds), The diocese of Meath, ancient and modern, 3 vols. Dublin. Dollard Publishers.

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 Westmeath All County Westmeath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map