Yet that is precisely the fate of a 16th or 17th century carved stone at Kiltullagh, County Galway, where the two sections now flank the entranceway to the car park south of the local church and graveyard, quietly repurposed as building material rather than commemorative monument.

What makes the slab particularly interesting is what survives on its surface. According to research by Higgins (1998), the stone bears carved elements of a plough, used here as a vocational symbol to identify the person buried beneath it as a farmer. This kind of occupational imagery on gravestones, where a tool or instrument of trade stands in for a name or lineage, was a recognised practice in late medieval and early modern Ireland, offering a legible shorthand for identity at a time when formal inscription was not always accessible or customary. The slab tapers slightly along its length, a typical feature of early grave markers, and would originally have lain flat over or close to a burial.

The two halves sit on either side of the wall opening, which means a visitor passing through the entrance to reach the church or graveyard will walk directly between them, though without prior knowledge there is little to signal their significance. The carved detail of the plough is what to look for on the stone faces set into the wall.