Drakestown Cross Slab, Meath


Drakestown Cross Slab There is not a lot of information about the church at Drakestown. We do know a church was listed for 'Vill de Drak' in the ecclessiastical taxation of Pope Nicholas IV 1302-1306. It is also recorded that a church in Drakestown, which was dedicated to St Peter, lay in ruins from 1641. There are scant remains of the later church, which stood inside a D-shaped graveyard, but the remaining achitectural fragments suggest a 15th century date. I would not recommend a visit to the site of the church, but the Drakestown cross slab is certainly worth viewing. It is mounted on a masonry pillar about 150 metres west of the church site and can be seen from the roadway. The slab is almost one metre in height and bears an inscribed ringed cross on the west side. I do not have a date for the slab, but I presume it comes from an earlier church. The image below was taken from the pillar looking east towards the ring of trees that mark the boundary of the old graveyard.
	Situated: From Kells in Meath head north West on the N 52 for about 12 kilometres, then as the road bends left turn right and go 1.1 kilometres straight down this road. The cross slab is in a field to your left behind a farm gate. There maybe an electric fence so take care. Discovery Map 35. N 8293 8132. Last visit Apr 2017. Longitude: 6° 44' 31" W Latitude: 53° 46' 29" N Google Map. Photos: Jim Dempsey.

Drakestown

Cross Slab

There is not a lot of information about the church at Drakestown. We do know a church was listed for 'Vill de Drak' in the ecclessiastical taxation of Pope Nicholas IV 1302-1306. It is also recorded that a church in Drakestown, which was dedicated to St Peter, lay in ruins from 1641. There are scant remains of the later church, which stood inside a D-shaped graveyard, but the remaining achitectural fragments suggest a 15th century date. I would not recommend a visit to the site of the church, but the Drakestown cross slab is certainly worth viewing. It is mounted on a masonry pillar about 150 metres west of the church site and can be seen from the roadway. The slab is almost one metre in height and bears an inscribed ringed cross on the west side. I do not have a date for the slab, but I presume it comes from an earlier church. The image below was taken from the pillar looking east towards the ring of trees that mark the boundary of the old graveyard.

Situated: From Kells in Meath head north West on the N 52 for about 12 kilometres, then as the road bends left turn right and go 1.1 kilometres straight down this road. The cross slab is in a field to your left behind a farm gate. There maybe an electric fence so take care.

Discovery Map 35. N 8293 8132. Last visit Apr 2017.

Longitude: 6° 44' 31" W

Latitude: 53° 46' 29" N

Google Map.

Photos: Jim Dempsey.

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