St. Canice's Cathedral (CoI), Kilkenny

Notes:

Contains a variety of stone types (see D. Tietzsch-Tyler nd). The walls of the cathedral are built of two dark limestones that crop out either immediately near the cathedral or a short distance to the west. The locations of the quarries from where the limestones of the Ballyadams Formation and the cherty Clogrennan Formation were obtained by the earliest builders are unknown. Some Old Red Sandstone, probably from south Kilkenny is used in walling and for carved elements, while Dundry Limestone was imported from Somerset and utilised in nave arches (where it may have alternated with local grey limestone blocks), elaborately carved capitals and bosses, and around some windows and doorways of which the west is most striking. The spandrel contains a quatrefoil in Kilkenny limestone and carved bosses and representations of angels in Dundrey stone but now badly weathered. Some of this weathered stone was replaced in 19C restorations using yellow sandstone quarried at Coolcullen 18 km northeast of Kilkenny. The sanctuary and Lady Chapel are tiled in a tesselated pattern of four different coloured marbles thought to represent the the four provinces although this is certainly erroneous as the marbles are Connemara Marble, Cork (or Kerry) Red, Kilkenny Black and a grey variety said to be from Tyrone but more likely to be from north Cork. The font is square in outline with a cylindrical bowl carved in Kilkenny Black Marble as is the striking effegy of the eight Earl of Ormond who died in 1539. The Caen Stone pulpit is more recent, as is the Carrara Marble reredos.