Wicklow / Cill Mhantain / Cill Mhantáin / Vikingalo

Ronan (1928: 143) cites O'Curry's Wicklow Letters on "an old baptismal font laid just inside the door, with a basin 10 inches deep, and rudely ornamented on the outside" [Eugene O'Curry?], and makes reference to the present Protestant [C. of I.] church as having some elements of the ancient church, perhaps the doorway and the font. Described and illustrated in Hickey (1972: 101-103 and fig. 1, pl. 16b-18b): baptismal font of the Romanesque period consisting of an original basin "resting on a granite gully-trap but originally it probably stood directly on the floor". Hickey (ibid., p. 99) identifies the stone [cf. Pike's identification below] as identical to that of the entrance arch: "they have some of the characteristics of metamorphosed rock and come from a vein which is closer to quartzite than to mica schist". Hickey (ibid., p. 103) suggests that the main motif of the font, the chevron, is similar to the one found in the Priory of St. Saviour in Glendalough, and proposes that "both are probably the products of the same atelier which flourished during the abbacy of Laurence O'Toole from 1153 to 1162" [the latter after F. Henry (1970: 44-45)]. Hickley (ibid.) also informs that the first documented source on the font is the Ordnance Survey Letter of 1839 (p. 109), where it appears located outside the door. According to Pike (1989: 10-11), the church contains a Romanesque font, thought to be 12th century and claimed by local archaeologists as the oldest in Ireland. This limestone [cf. above] font is "D" shaped at the top, with straight sides to the front. The central drain empties out through a channel on the side of the base. It has a round base. The decoration consists of two hanging semi-circles supported by triangles on the front face. On the curved back of the font are two rows of smaller pedant triangles. The font is reported in Pike as no longer in use. [NB: Hickey (1972: 102) rightly points out the presence of three holes in the upper rim surface as "the marks of staples used to secure a font cover", and the fact that the forceful removal of the staples [rather than the cover] caused the damage to one of the two protrusions of this oddly-shaped font]. [We are grateful 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]