Galway No. 1
Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Standing permission
Results: 19 records
B01: symbol - shield - emblem - Lynch crest
Scene Description: North side of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
B02: design element - motifs - floral - 4-petal - cross shaped
Scene Description: North side of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
B03: design element - motifs - quatrefoil - cusped
Scene Description: South side of the basin: motifs arranged in two rows, up-and-down
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
B04: design element - motifs - tracery
Scene Description: East side of the basin: two Ogee windows
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
B05: design element - motifs - tracery
Scene Description: West side of the basin: two Ogee windows
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
BS01: design element - motifs - floral or foliage
Scene Description: East side of the basin: in the three spandrels
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
BS02: design element - motifs - circle - motif inside - tree-spoke - curved spokes
Scene Description: West side of the basin: in the left spandrel
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
BS03: design element - motifs - floral - fleur-de-lis - 3
Scene Description: West side of the basin: in the centre spandrel, two up, one down
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
BS04: animal - mammal - quadruped
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes] West side of the basin: in the right spandrel; passant; looking left; could be a dof or another canine; not particularly lynx-like, if that is what it was intended to represent
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font
Scene Description: showing the north-east sides; note the new base: the outer colonnettes missing in Paley's time [ca. 1844?] have been replaced, but the central shaft is not the carved one showing in Paley's engraving
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - north side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joan Pike, 1989
Image Source: digital image of a drawing in Pike (1989: 30)
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (letter of 9/2/2004)
view of font - south side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joan Pike, 1989
Image Source: digital image of a drawing in Pike (1989: 30)
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (letter of 9/2/2004)
view of font - east side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joan Pike, 1989
Image Source: digital image of a drawing in Pike (1989: 30)
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (letter of 9/2/2004)
view of font - west side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Joan Pike, 1989
Image Source: digital image of a drawing in Pike (1989: 31)
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (letter of 9/2/2004)
view of font
Scene Description: notice the missing outer colonnettes, and the beautifully carved central shaft
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged]
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of basin - interior - drain
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of basin - detail
Scene Description: West side of the basin: detail of the upper rim: a brass (?) staple for the cover; probably not original
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of basin - detail
![North side: detail of the left corner, showing the Lynch crest [cf. FontNotes]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1061028007_compressed.png)
Scene Description: North side: detail of the left corner, showing the Lynch crest [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lis Audigier, 2006
Image Source: digital photograph by Lis Audigier, 2006
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 00860GAL
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 16th century, Late Medieval
Church / Chapel Name: Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas / Eaglais Choláisteach San Nioclás (C. of I.)
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end of the nave, just W of the S entrance
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra
Church Notes: On the site of the present 1320 church was a small chapel and adjoining it there stood a church belonging to the Knights Templar. Their order was first suppressed and before 1324, when their estates in England were transferred to the Knights Hospitaller, their church in Galway was demolished. (Pike, 1989, p. 30-31)
Church Address: St. Nicholas Collegiate Church, Lombard St, Galway, H91 PY20, Ireland -- Tel.: +353 89 489 8084
Site Location: Galway, Connacht, Republic of Ireland, Europe
Directions to Site: Located at the head of Galway Bay, 185 km W of Dublin
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe
Font Notes:
Click to view
John Cooke, a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, mentions in his report to the Society (1895) only that "the top of the font is old, and has finely carved sides". Described and illustrated in Paley (1844): "It is difficult to say what is the date of this Font; the form is Norman, but the tracery in the arches has very much of Flamboyant character, and this, together with the foliage of the shaft, renders it probable that the date is of the latter end of the fourteenth, or the beginning of the fifteenth century." In Paley's time it had lost the four shafts supports of the corners, as can be seen in the holes left on the upper volume of the plinth in Paley's (1844) illustration but, by Brandon's time (1948), the font is described as "square, carried on a central stem, and four small angle shafts". Described and illustrated in Pike (1989) in whose time [ca. 1989] the octagonal corner shafts, moulded at the foot, are still there [probably reconstructed after Paley's time]; the plinth is round and made of three steps altogether; the basin is decorated on each of the four faces, the Lynch crest [a/p Pyke's identification] being on the east face; the west face is carved with cuspless tracery, not found elsewhere on a font in Ireland; the north and south faces bear different designs of geometric flowers.
A 3-D model of this font made by b-unicycling may be seen in Sketchfab [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/st-nicholass-baptismal-font-8796ff3453224aafb7961639e4c30e98] [accessed 25 July 2025]; its caption reads: "Baptismal font from the 16th century at St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church in Galway. It is still in use and the no. 1 stop on the self-guided tour. The windows on the font resemble the windows in the church."
A 3-D model of this font made by b-unicycling may be seen in Sketchfab [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/st-nicholass-baptismal-font-8796ff3453224aafb7961639e4c30e98] [accessed 25 July 2025]; its caption reads: "Baptismal font from the 16th century at St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church in Galway. It is still in use and the no. 1 stop on the self-guided tour. The windows on the font resemble the windows in the church."
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. Rachel Moss, and to Trinity College, Dublin, for the copy of Ms. Pike's work, and to Ms. Joan Pike for her kind permission to reproduce her original drawings. We are also grateful to Lis Audigier for her October 2006 photographs of this font
COORDINATES
UTM: 29U 496422 5902616
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 53.27277, -9.05366
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 53° 16′ 21.97″ N, 9° 3′ 13.18″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, type unknown
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: square
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Height of Basin Side: 35.56 cm*
Basin Total Height: 35.56 cm*
Height of Base: 35.56 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 71.12 cm*
Font Height (with Plinth): 124.46 cm*
Trapezoidal Basin: 73.66 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * Pike (1989: 30-31)
REFERENCES
- Borg, Raine, Smålands medeltida dopfuntar, Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2002, p. 89
- Cooke, John, "Galway", 25, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1895, pp. 290-296; p. 294
- Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, unpaged
- Pike, Joan H.K., "Medieval Fonts of Ireland", [Supplied courtesy of The Dept. of the History of Art, Trinity College, Dublin], [Ireland]: [Privately printed], 1989, p. 30-31