BALLINDERRY SHEELA-NA-GIG

This Sheela-na-Gig is carved on the keystone above the main door of the Ballinderry tower house. The figure is accompanied, somewhat unusually, by a marigold, a bird and a rosette.

She has two plaits of hair that project out horizontally from her head one of which is in a standard French plait and the other seems a more complicated knot pattern. Both hands pass in front of her body to indicate her groin, but there is no clear vulva.

There is something between her played legs which, it has been suggested, may represent menstrual flow. Her navel is visible and she might have a left breast. There is no sign of the right one.