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Monaghan Sundial






One of two sun dials on display in the privately owned McAree's Vintage Museum, Ballinode.
A 220mm diameter slate dial on a 250mm square plate. One corner is missing but the remnants of the inscriptions and the symbols leave no doubt as to the makers interest in freemasonry.
The hour lines extend from a circle around the base of the gnomon to a time ring which shows 4a.m. to 8p.m. in 30 and 15 min divisions. The hours are in Roman numerals with four as IIII. It has a simple 1mm thick by 85mm high bronze gnomon (now loose and broken). The symbols show a skull and cross bones inside the outline of a coffin and a cross in one corner and a skull and a G inside an equilateral triangle in another. There is a portion of two inscriptions remaining.
------ENTIA ---------& VIRTUS    and     ------ET LUX FUIT
These are clearly two of the most frequently use mottos in Freemasonry viz.
SAPIENTIA, PULCHRITAS & VIRTUS = Wisdom, Beauty and Strength
SIT LUX ET LUX FUIT = Let there be light and there was light.
The dial was "MADE BY DANIEL NISTEL" and two initials "TW" are carved on a lead insert near the base of the gnomon. Daniel Nistel joined Masonic Lodge 753 in Rooskey, Cootehill, Co. Cavan on 3rd July 1794, not too far from Ballinode.

Museum Lat 54° 16' North     Long 7° 02' West

Irish Grid    H  262500     335400

If you know the location of a sundial in Ireland (NOT a mass produced DIY Store garden ornament) please email it to me (Click here to email M.J.Harley) - a member of British Sundial Society
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