Historian's dream is to see Ballynacargy history explored further

A carved slab featured on the National Monuments Service Facebook page is from Ballynacargy – and is reckoned to be over a thousand years old.

While locals were aware of the existence of the slab – which features a crucifix – the National Monuments Service did not know about it until the last month, and were thrilled to be able to add it to the extensive list of monuments in Westmeath that feature on the interactive map through which records can be accessed.

“We would encourage people to report any unrecorded monuments to the service,” says archaeologist Caimin O’Brien of the National Monuments Service.

What in Westmeath constitutes a recordable monument is anything dating from prior to around the year 1700, says Caimin, who was delighted with the Ballynacargy find, which emanated from Kilbixy.

“We knew there was a monastery there, but this is evidence, which we didn’t have before,” he says, explaining that similar examples from places such as Clonmacnois, sometimes marked the burial spot of an abbot.

The local historian who found the slab says it is only one example of the wealth of heritage around Ballynacargy.

Watson Mills – who is 93 – discovered the carved slab during a community effort at restoring the graveyard at Kilbixy.

Now installed in the church at Kilbixy, the slab is believed to date back to the 10th or 11th century.

The description of the slab on the Department of Arts and Heritage site is that it is an “early Christian cross-inscribed stone consisting of an incomplete sandstone slab (H 0.78m x Wth 0.45m x T 0.09m) decorated with an incised or pocked marked triple line cross with triangular-shaped terminals framing broad interlaced ribbons”.

While it is just recently that the National Monuments Service becamea ware of the artefact, it was actually in 1980 that the discovery was made – an occasion Watson still remembers clearly: “We were doing a clean-up of the graveyard, and I happened to see this standing up,” he recalls.

Archaeological experts who viewed the stone were of the opinion that there was possibly, nearby, a further part of the slab to be found, and that this would likely be inscribed with some detail about whose grave it marked.

As it happens, that hasn’t turned up, but the 11 centuries old slab can now be seen by worshippers at Kilbixy Church.

Watson’s dream, however, is to see funds provided to fund exploration of a large souterrain believed to exist at the same location.

While souterrains are, he says, “relatively common”, what makes the one at Kilbixy worthy of examination is its size.

“It’s supposed to have been big enough to fit in a couple of hundred people inside,” he says.

Soutterains had a variety of uses, Watson continues.

“They’d have been used for underground storage, or they could be used as a safe place if people were being attacked,” he says.

There are already at least three others in the area, including one at Emper, but the one at Kilbixy is believed to be the largest of all.

“We couldn’t just open it up: you’d have to do it right, with archaeologists and so on,” says Watson, who’d like to see a geophysical survey of the site conducted to explore further.

Caimin is aware that there are ancient histories claiming there is a souterrain at Kilbixy:

"I think it would be possible to identify the location of this possible site, discovered in 1793," he says. adding that the souterrain was probably located in an area where there are no burials, or general ground disturbance.

"A geophysical survey technique such as ground penetrating radar might be able to identify the precisely the location of the souterrain," he stated.

According to Caimin, this souterrain was first recorded in 1793 edition of a publication called Anthologia Hibernica. It described how labourers working near "the new church" of Kilbixy found an underground passage. When they followed it, it led to a number of cells, some oval, some circular, varying in diameter from 6 feet to 18 feet, with small arched entrances leading from one to another.

"These cells are of rude masonry, with small horizontal funnels from each, supposed to admit air; the use of these we are at a loss to judge of; they now cover over a quarter of an acre of ground, and new discoveries are making every day," the Anthologia Hibernia discovery stated.

In the meantime, focus is, says Watson on the leper hospital at Kilbixy – further evidence of the extent of activity there was around Ballynacargy in times past.

According to the Department of Arts and Heritage, Kilbixy was founded by St Bigseach who was connected to St Brigid of Kildare.