Killeen

Described and illustrated in Roe (1968: [73]-76 and pl. XXX), who dates this font to the first half of the 15th century, an octagonal font having "suffered severely from exposure as well as from seemingly deliberate maltreatment [...] much of the carving has been hacked away [...] rim extensively injured." Roe (ibid.) describes the remaining ornamentation as being discernible on only four of the basin sides: three are large shields carved to overhang the bevelling of the bowl and, above each shield, "a very bodly carved head, now savagely defaced." Roe (ibid.) believes there are traces of markings on the shields to suggest that "heraldic charges were actually carved and not merely painted on the prepared surface of the stone." The carved head on the other panel, one with long hair and a long moustache which meets a beard divided in two locks, reminds Roe of the "caput Johannis in disco" so popular in alabasters of the period in Ireland enough to "justify its recognition as the Head of John the Baptist." Described and illustrated in Pike (1989: 47)