Ballymore carved head may have come from France or Wales

An ancient stone carving that was discovered by accident in the old Church of Ireland graveyard in Ballymore is likely to have been transported to the area from abroad, according to experts who have viewed the artefact.

“The stone is not native Irish stone at all, and they reckon it’s either from Wales or from France,” reveals Seamus McDermott of Ballymore, the first to spot that the stone had a carved face, likely to be that of Christ.

“We knew we had this stone in the graveyard, and we thought it was part of an ogee window from the medieval church built here in the 12th or 13th century,” says Seamus, explaining that the face carved on the side of the 12-inch by eight-inch stone is not easily visible, and it was only when the sunlight hit it at a certain angle that it was revealed.

“I was taking photographs there in the spring in the early morning sunshine, and when I moved the stone to take a photograph of it, I saw the face on the side. That was the first time we saw the carving.”

The Westmeath heritage officer, Melanie McQuade, took a keen interest in the find, and arranged to have 3D photographs of the stone taken, which are now on display on the county council website. She also arranged to have other artefacts from the same location scanned.

“Between the medieval 12, 13th century church and the present ruins – St Owen’s, built in 1827 – there was another church on the site, and we have pieces of the windows from that, and they were also 3D scanned for that website,” says Seamus.

During examination of the carved stone, the view of the archaeologist who undertook the scanning was that it would be unusual to have a carving on the side of the pointed stone, as if it were in fact the top part of a window, that side would not have been visible as it would have been embedded in the wall.

Their conclusion was that it was more likely that the stone formed part of a shrine.

The 12th century church would have been built by the Anglo Normans – possibly by the de Lacy family, says Seamus: “They think now possibly they would have brought that to Ballymore.”

The stone has now been removed from the graveyard at St Owen’s for preservation and safekeeping.

In the meantime, scaffolding has just erected around the tower of the ruins of St Owen’s, and work is about to begin on the restoration of the structure, and replacement of a particular pinnacle that fell off several decades ago.

Grant aid totalling €100,000 was allocated for the work, says Seamus, adding that this will not cover the cost of all the works required, but that the community hopes that a further allocation will come next year to complete the task.

“This project would not be possible without the financial support of the Heritage Council. The work is being carried out by CALX Renderers under the auspices of Westmeath County Council, Melanie McQuade, the heritage officer, and overseen by Lotts Architecture,” he says.

Two years ago, the restoration committee cleaned up the graveyard and recorded and plotted the burial sites. The oldest gravestone found in that graveyard is from the early 1600s, and of the 220 gravestones recorded, 190 appear to have been of deceased Catholics.