Rochestown Church (Tipperary)

A drawing of one the first sheela-na-gigs so to be identified, made in the early 1840s by the Irish antiquarian Thomas Westropp,
and first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 1840–44.
It was, apparently, on the gable wall of the church, but Witkowski reported it as being on the centre of
the archivolt (keystone) of the doorway, citing a Richard Payne Knight who made the second sketch below.
This is highly unlikely, and a reminder of the unreliability of early reports, especially second-hand.
Illustrated amongst his Sketches in Ireland (in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin), it has long since disappeared.

His contemporary John O'Donovan mentioned another Tipperary carving at Kiltinane, also on a gable wall.

 

from Gustave-Joseph Witkowski's L’Art profane à l’église