Graveslab, Sevenchurches, Co. Wicklow

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Tombs & Memorials

Graveslab, Sevenchurches, Co. Wicklow

At the monastic site of Glendalough in Co. Wicklow, the graveyard around the round tower holds more than the eye initially registers.

Among the headstones and fragments scattered across the ground, one graveslab has been standing in the wrong orientation for long enough that it has simply become part of the landscape. According to the architectural historian P.J. Healy, who documented it in 1972, the slab measures 0.98 metres in length, yet only 0.65 metres of that is visible above ground, and the portion that does show has been erected upside-down relative to the way Healy originally drew it.

Gravestones and architectural fragments from early medieval monastic sites were frequently disturbed, reused, or repositioned over the centuries, sometimes deliberately, sometimes through gradual ground movement or later burial activity. Healy's 1972 study gave this slab a catalogue number, 195, and it remains one of several loose architectural pieces surviving in the area. A second fragment, a separate architectural element, stands immediately to the south of the graveslab, suggesting that this small cluster represents the residue of something larger, perhaps structural stonework from one of the site's many ecclesiastical buildings, repurposed or simply left where it came to rest. The Sevenchurches area, known more formally as Glendalough, takes its colloquial name from the cluster of early Christian churches once gathered there, though the precise count has always been approximate.

To find the graveslab, locate the distinctive Moloney high-cross-style headstone and its associated grave plot, which lies roughly 44 metres to the south-southwest of the round tower. The graveslab itself stands 8.3 metres to the northeast of that headstone. It is easy to walk past without pausing, which is precisely why it rewards a second look.

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