Fermoy

Described and illustrated in Pike (1989: 12): in the Middle Ages the Cistercian Abbey of Castrum Dei stood on the South bank of the river, originally a 12th-century Benedictine abbey, later Cistercian and dissolved in 1560. The C. of I. parish church which now [ca. 1989] houses the font was buil in 1802. Pike (ibid.) describes this object as a strange font [probably a stoup] of doubtful age, bearing some similarity to the Doneraile Font; there are four high relief faces, apparently heads of kings; the font is round, roughly hemispherical; there is no pedestal; the drain is a little to one side and comes out under the chin of one of the faces. The font was no longer is use at the time of Pike's visit ca. 1989. The entry for this church in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage [https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/20821022/christ-church-church-place-carrignagroghera-fermoy-cork] [accessed 26 April 2023] mentions a "font incorporating bowl dating from thirteenth century […] The bowl of the font to the interior is a survival from the now destroyed thirteenth-century abbey of Fermoy".