NOTES ON IRISH ARCHITECTURE. NOTES ON IRISH ARCHITECTURE. BY EDWIN, THIRD EARL OF DUNRAVEN. EDITED BY MARGARET STOKES. VOLUME I. LONDON : GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1875- LHISWICK PRESS: — PRINTED BY WHITTIN'GHAM AND WII.KINS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. m LIST OF PLATES. PLATES PAGE Dun Aengus, on the Greater Island of Aran . . . . l n. and iil 3> 4 Dun Conor, on the Middle Island of Aran . . . . iv. and v. 6) 8 Dubli Cahir, on the Greater Island of Aran . . . . vi 9 Dun Oonacht, on the Greater Island of Aran . . . vii. lo Dun Oghil, on the Greater Island of Aran .... viii. 12 Cashel Baivn, County of Sligo ix « 7 Ddnbec, County of Kerry ....... x. ...... ■ 19 Cahir Gel, County of Kerry xi 22 Staigue Fort, County of Kerry xn. xiii. xiv. xv 24 St. Michael's Rock (the Greater SkelHg), County of Kerry . xvi. xvn. xviii. xix. xx. . . . 26 Senach's Island (the Magherees), County of Kerry . . . xxi. and xxil 37 Inisglora, St. Brendan's Monastery, County of Mayo . . xxiii. and xxiv 40 Inismurray Monastery, County of Sligo xxv. xxvl xxvn. xxvin. xxix. . 45 Cell on Church Island, Loch Carrdin, County of Kerry . . xxx. ...... 55 The White Church (near Dingle), County of Kerry . . . xxxi 57 Cell, near Kiimalkedar, County of Kerry .... xxxii 5^ Gallams Oratory, County of Kerry xxxin. and xxxiv 59 Molaga's Bed, County of Cork xxxv 62 St. Benen's Church, on the Greater Island of Aran . . . xxxvi 7° Cill Cananach on the Middle Island of Aran .... xxxvn. and xxxvin. ... 73 Church of St. Colman MacDuach, on the Greater Island of Aran xxxix. and xl. . . . ■ 75 Kill Enda, on the Greater Island of Aran .... xli. 7^^ Temple Sourney, on the Greater Island of Aran . . . xlii. . ■ ■ - ■ ■ Kill Gobnet, South Island of Aran xltii ^3 St. Brecan's Church, on the Greater Island of Aran . . xliv. ^7 St. Brecan's Bed, on the Greater Island of Aran . . xlv. ^9 Ratass Church, County of Kerry ...... xlvi. 9^ Dulane Church, County of Meath XLVn. and XLVlll 94 Trinity Church, Glendaiough ....... XLix. and l 98 Our Lady's Church, Glendaiough ...... ll ■ Vlll List of Plates. Ought Mama, County of Clare St. Cronan's Church, Tarmon, County of Clare St. Dervila's Church, County of Mayo Killeevy, County of Armagh .... Clonamery, County of Kilkenny Banagher Church, Londonderry St. Kieran's Church, on the Greater Island of Aran Tomgraney, County of Clare .... Tober na Dm, County of Kilkenny . PLATES PAGE Lii. and Liii. ..... I02 Liv. and Lv 105 LVI 107 Lvn. and lviii. .... 109 LIX Ill LX. Lxi. and Lxrr. . . . 112 Lxnr T20 LXIV 122 LXV 126 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. DRAWN BY ENGRAVED I)V P.'VGE I. Doorway of Dun Aengus .... , J^red. Wm. Burton . . Swain • 5 2. Steps in Diin Oghil . H. Burchett . . Swain ■ 13 3- Ground plan of Steps ..... . JI. Burchett . , Swain ■ 13 A- . Oldham . . 16 5- Steps in Cahir Gel ...... W. IJ'akt'JuaH OldJiain . 16 6. Masonry in Fort near Oranmore JF. JVakeman Oldham . 16 7- Oatlinc of wall, Cahir Balliney . Lord Dunraven Gray . 18 8. Ground plan and section, Dunbec . 20 9. Doorway of Clochaun in Cahir na Mac Tirech . M. Stokes . . Swain 2 r lO. Masonry, Cahir Gel ..... . Dr. Graves . . LLanlon 22 1 1. . Dr. Graves . . Gray ■ 23 12. Masonry, Cahir Gel . . ... . Dr. Graves . . Gray ■ 23 13- . Dr. Graves . . Gray ■ 23 14. . Lord Dunraven . LLanlon ■ 24 15- Ground plan of Doorway, Staigue Fort . . Lord Dunraven . LLanlon ■ 25 16. Ground plan of Cell, Staigue Fort . . Lord Dunraven . LLanlon ■ 25 17. St. Michael's Rock (the SkelHg) . Robert Callwell Swain . 26 18. The Way of the Cross, on the greater Skellig . . M. Stokes . Swain . 29 19. Doorway of Oratory, Senach's Island . M. Stokes Swain ■ 38 20. Cashel of Monastery, Senach's Island . M. Stokes Swain ■ 39 21. Interior of St. Brendan's Oratory, Inisglora . M. Stokes LLanlon . 41 22. Cros na Trindide, Inisraurray . M. Stokes LLanlon ■ 52 23- Ground plan of St. Finan's Cell . Lord Dunraven LLanlon • 55 24. LLanlon ■ 56 25- Lintel projection. Cell, Kilmalkedar . Lord Dunraven Swain ■ 59 26. Lord Diuiraveji Swain ■ 59 27. . G. V. Du Noycr . . 60 28. Example of door shutters in oratories . G. V. Du Noycr . . 60 29. Kilbannon, county of Galway George Petrie . Branston . ■ 71 30- Kill Cananach, interior of doorway George Petrit Branston . ■ 73 31- George Petrit Branston . . 78 32- Kill Enda, south window . M. Stokes LLanlon ■ 79 33- St. Caimin's Church, doorway, exterior . . George Petrie . Swain ■ 85 34- St. Caimin's Church, doorway, interior . . M. Stokes . S7aain ■ 85 35- St. Caimin's Church, south window . M. Stokes LLanlon - S5 36. St. Brecan's Church, north window . M. Stokes . Swain . 88 37- Swain . 89 38. Masonry in Ratass Church .... . W. F. Wakeman . . Swain ■ 92 39- Section of north door, Glendalough . Jjird Dunraven Swain 97 40. Section of moulding, Glendalough Cathedra! , . Lord Dunraven . Swain ■ 97 b List of Riigraviitgs, 41. Trinity Church, Glendalough . 42. Belfry of Trinity Church 43. Temple Martin, doorway 44. Maghera Church, doorway 45 to 48. Mouldings, Tomgraney . 49, 50. Mouldings in south window, Tomgraney 5 1 . Capital of Angle-shaft, Tomgraney . DRAWN BY W. F. XVaJiemn'i Beranger M. Stokes Gco7-ge Peine J. J^ogers J. Rogas J. Rogers ENGRAVED BY Hanloii . Hanlon . Hanloft Swain Swain . Simin . Swain PAGE 98 99 105 123 124 LIST OF LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES. PLATE I. Fig. I. Ground plan, Dun Aengus „ 2. Ditto Dun Conor 3- Ditto Dubh Cahir II. I. Ground plan, Dun Eochia ...... 2. Ditto Wothar Ddn 3. Ditto Cahir Gel III. I. Ground plan of Monastery on St. Michael's Rock (the Greater 2. Oratory ........... IV. Ground plan of Monastery on Senach's Island (the Magherees) 2. Font of Senach's Church V. I. Ground plan of Monastery on Inismurray .... 2. Doorway of Cell ......... 3- East window of St. Molaise's Church, interior VI. I, 2, 3- Ground plan of Cashel and churches at Molaga's Bed 4, 5. 6- Sections .......... 7- Finial ........... 8. Pilaster .......... 9- Stoup ........... 10. Angle Moulding VII. Fig. I. Ground plan, St. Benen's Church 2. Ground plan, Kill Gobnet 3- Ground plan, Kill Cananach 4. Ground plan of Church 5- Ground plan, Tempul Assurniadhe 6. Ground plan, Tempul Beg na Naeve 7- Ground plan, Kilfrochan Church S. Ground plan. Kill Enda ....... 9- Ground plan, Tempul Chronain 10. Ground plan, St. Dervila's Church II. Ground plan, Tempul Muire, Kilmacduach .... 12. Ground plan. Temple Patrick, Inchagoile .... 13- Ground plan, Kilmurvey 14. Ground plan of church on Ireland's Eye .... 15- Ground plan of St. Kevin's Oratory 16. Ground plan of Trinity Church 17- Impost of chancel arch, Oughtmama 18. Section of chancel arch, St. Kevin's Church .... 19. Angle projection, Oughtmama Clmrch .... TO FACE PACE PREFACE. //^^ jlEFORE submitting to the public the following pages, it is advisable to offer a few yQw/Zx ^'^"^^^ explanation of their origin, and to allude briefly to the circumstances ///f7^\ that affected the style and form of their production. I have no intention of \i\^A^ turning the pages of a preface into a vehicle for a long biographical sketch HxUl^JWK of my father, the author of this book. It is not required, and w^ould therefore TKoAV/ be out of place here. Neither would I be willincr to undertake such a task ''^nv even if it were necessary. For, if I attempted to express my sentiments ade- quately, and allowed myself to use language laudatory, but which I know to be well within the limit of strict truth and free from all taint of exaggeration, I should — not to the eyes of his personal friends indeed, but in the sight of the general public — rim the risk of being looked upon as a prejudiced panegyrist, and my attempts to delineate trust- worthily the outlines of his character and career might be misconstrued, and considered to be the result of a mere desire to praise. But it still remains my duty, both to editor and reader, to allude to the causes that led to the commencement of the following book, and briefly to remark upon the last few years of my father's life, which were spent, to the exclusion of all other pleasures and pursuits, in preparing for a work which he was not destined personally to complete. During his career my father took up and studied very many different branches of science and art. At Eton he developed a strong taste for astronomy, and he subsequently spent three years at the Dublin Observatory under Sir W. Hamilton, where, by constant assiduity and steady application, he acquired a large practical as well as theoretical ac- quaintance with that subject. Geology, botany, and mineralogy, with various branches of wide-spreading natural history, in turn occupied his attention. Being a man possessed of quick perceptions rather than a powerful grasp of mind, of untiring industry, and endowed with an energy and zest for learning that never flagged, he succeeded in acquiring much XII Preface, more than a mere superficial knowledge of these various sciences. The versatility of his mind precluded him from attaining to very marked superiority in any single subject; but the rapidity with which he gathered and stored up information, and the concentration of self which he was able to bring to bear for a time upon the object of his studies, ahowed him to accumulate a fund of knowledge extremely varied, and yet sufficiently profound, not only to qualify him to appreciate the conversation and company of men eminent each in his own particular branch of science, but also to render his society very agreeable to them. During the later years of his life he devoted himself with ever increasing assiduity to archseology. It was not exactly a new subject to which he turned his attention, for he had always been more or less attracted to this science. In the circle of his most intimate acquaintances were Dr. Graves, now Bishop of Limerick; the Rev. James Graves, of Kilkenny; the Rev. William Reeves, D.D., now Dean of Armagh ; Dr. Stokes, of Dublin ; the late Dr. Todd, and many other friends, men who, relaxing from their several labours, delighted to stretch their physical and mental muscles in grappling with a subject interesting to them all, and who infused an amount of genuine genial humour into their semi-scientific gatherings that would have stirred into laughing life the dead bones of even a dull and uninteresting science. One of his greatest friends was the late Dr. Petrie, in con- junction with whom belaboured to form the Irish Archaeological Society in 1840. In 1849 he presided at the annual meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Society held that year in Cardiff. In 1869 he again officiated at Bridgend as President of the same Association, and in 1871 he accepted office under the Royal Archaeological Institute, and became presi- dent of a section. It was, however, to the work of observing and mapping, photographing, and otherwise studying and endeavouring to preserve the architectural remains and other antiquities of Ireland, that he principally addressed himself. In 1S43, at which time he represented Glamorganshire in Parliament, he took an active part in pressing upon Sir Robert Peel the necessity of appointing a commission to inquire into the causes for post- poning the completion of the Irish Ordnance Survey, then being carried on. In 1845 he j'oined in laying the foundation of the Celtic Society. In 1S65 he printed, as an appendix to a short volume written and brought out for private circulation by his mother, and entitled " Memorials of Adare," a minute and exhaustive treatise on the architectural remains that are so abundant in the immediate neighbourhood of the Manor House and town of Adare. That jDortion of the work in which he treats of the round tower and church of Dysart will be reprinted in the second volume of " Notes on Irish Architecture." In 1862 he accompanied the Comte de Montalembert, who was then engaged upon his book, " The Monks of the West," on a short tour in Scotland. Preface. xni Partly from a desire to obtain general information on the vexed subject of Round Towers, but principally with the view of preparing himself for the task of writing the present work, he in 1867 travelled in France and Italy, studying early ecclesiastical archi- tecture, and bestowing especial care and pains upon campaniles, or bell-towers, a class of building well represented in many cities of those countries, more especially at Ravenna. In 1868 also he travelled through the north of England, seeking out and examining everything of interest in architecture. Thus, as my father advanced in life, he became more and more engrossed with the single subject of archEeology in general, and of Irish archeology in particular, and he gradually abandoned all other pursuits and devoted to this favourite study all his leisure time. While this constantly growing passion formed a powerful inducement to undertake the present work, there were other motives also which urged him very strongly in the same direction. His predilection for Ireland, as affording the field of operations most congenial to him, is, I think, attributable to three causes. First, his attachment to the country and people ; secondly, his affection for Dr. Petrie ; and, thirdly, the intense love of truth and abhorrence of cant and injustice that formed tlie central point of his character, round which all other attributes were secondarily grouped. He did not admire that school of patriots who teach a people to sustain their self-respect by dreaming of ancestral glories instead of by looking at the honourable results of their own exertions. He revered those qualities that urge men to fight upwards through all difficulties to some practical fruition, and had little sympathy with the sickly sentimentality of those who spend their breath in whining about former days and past injustice, instead of struggling to make the best of present circumstances. But, while he thoroughly appreciated the stupidity of striving to give a fictitious value to things Irish, by claiming upon their behalf a measure of remote antiquity, vague and impossible to sustain, yet he also felt deeply the injustice of those, who, actuated partly by an antipathy to the Western Celts apparently inherent in them, partly by the natural reaction consequent upon the audacious pretensions put forward by the extreme partizans of the bygone glories of Ireland theory, denied to Ireland her fair share of credit, and looked upon the Celtic population as a people which had never emerged from barbarism. The incapacity of the race was in their minds a settled question, and all intrusive facts were comfortably disposed of by quoting the scriptural saying, " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" Feeling keenly on this point, my father was moved to undertake the important and difficult task of endeavouring to show, that whatever truth there might be in legends telling of a very high state of civilization attained by Ireland, while the rest of Europe slumbered heavily, steeped in the uneasy sleep of ignorance, yet it was certain and demonstrable that as early as XIV Preface. the sixth century tlie Irish nation showed symptoms of a vigorous individual Hfe, was intrinsically strong enough, was endued with possibilities of development sufficiently persistent to enable it to originate and foster to a considerable degree of perfection a distinctively national form of architecture. After Dr. Petrie's death, in i860, my father took an active part on the committee formed to deal with his published and unprinted writings, and as a continuation of Dr. Petrie's labours this book was undertaken. It was, therefore, with the triple object in view : first, of throwing a little light upon a branch of science he dearly loved ; secondly, of vindicating the character of the ancient and mediaeval Irish, and substantiating their claim of having attained unassisted to a degree of culture that would favourably compare with the contemporaneous condition of other European nations ; and, thirdly, of walking further in the path in which Dr. Petrie had set out, and of elaborating some of the projects initiated by him — I say, some of the projects, for in many questions of archseology the two friends widely differed — it was with these three objects in view that my father commenced collecting the material which appears in the following pages, and began forming the series of views and plans that accompany the text. The summers of 1866, 1867, 186S, 1869, he spent in carefully going over the ground in Ireland with which he was previously acquainted, and in investigating the ecclesiastical remains of localities new to him. With the exception of Tory Island in the County of Done- gal, I don't think that there is a single island or barony in Ireland containing anything of architectural value which escaped his notice. On these expeditions he generally took with him a photographer, Mr. Mercer, who most effectively seconded his efforts. He was also frequently accompanied by Dr. Stokes, of Dublin, one of his earliest friends, and by his daughter. Miss Margaret Stokes, the editor of this work. During this time my father's health was failing, and it is scarcely too much to say that his death, which took place at Great Malvern in October, 1871, was considerably accelerated by the exposure and over-exertion to which in these expeditions he subjected himself He spoke to me latterly very frequently on the subject of his book, for the future of it caused him great uneasiness. He was most anxious to leave it in some- thing like definite shape and order, but, though he continued to work as long as waning strength permitted, he was unable to do so. He would have felt much more distress at leaving matters in such a comparatively unfinished condition had he not been perfectly assured that, in entrusting the manuscript and other material to Miss Stokes, he was placing them in hands thoroughly competent and most desirous to do justice to them. Such a task was not new to Miss Stokes, for she had already edited the first volume of Preface. XV Dr. Petrie's " Christian Inscriptions in tlie Irisli Language." She had been with my father in many of his Irish tours, had frequently tallied over with him the scope and object of the book, and had discussed the plan of construction to be pursued in it. She was thoroughly conversant with all my father's ideas on the subject, and was therefore in all respects well qualified to accept an obligation which, while most arduous and difficult even for her to perform, would have been quite impracticable to any one else. My father did not live long enough even to thoroughly arrange his notes. Photographs, sketches, ground plans, and sections with measurements mentioned but not yet drawn to scale, rough notes, and fragments of manuscript, voluminous but in great disorder, constituted the material with which the editor had to deal. Any one who has under- taken a similar work will readily comprehend the vast difficulties that have been sur- mounted, and will understand with what gratitude I, as representing my father, tender to Miss Stokes my most sincere thanks. Had my father lived to complete his book, and sought for one to whom he might dedicate the fruit of his labour, I think I well know what name would have arisen fore- most to his mind. Intimate from an early age, having many pursuits in common, very similar in religious tone of mind, the Count de Montalembert and my father entertained for each other a firm and mutual friendship, which closed only with life. " PrEenobili Viro Edvino Wyndham Ouin, Comiti de Dunraven," appears on the title-page of the third volume of the " Monks of the West," and to the memory of his great friend, Montalembert, I have no doubt that "Notes on Irish Architecture" would have been dedicated. Perhaps, as acting in my father's place, I may be permitted to do so even now. With these few remarks I confidently leave "Notes on Irish Architecture" to the fair criticism of those interested in the subject of Comparative Archceology, feeling sure that one of my father's objects at least will have been gained if, by its perusal, others who may possibly be by nature or through circumstances more adapted to the work than he was, but who cannot bring to bear upon it more patient care and love, may be induced to turn their attention in the same direction, and to follow out the line indicated therein. DUNR.WEN. Cooinbc Wood, Kingston-on-Thavus, September ^rd, 1875. INTRODUCTION. H E special interest which attaches to the study of Ecclesiastical Archi- g^M^^^^^SS^-'" tecture in Ireland before it ceased to be essentially Irish is, not that it i^^fflK^^^- P°sssss6'3) some have vainly asserted, any unequalled antiquity or beauty «i^SLv®^»' compared with works of ancient art in other countries, but rather that, ^ ^^^^^^ owing to various circumstances, the remains of a great number of monu- ments belonging to the period between the sixth and twelfth centuries of the Christian era have survived, untouched by the hand either of the restorer or of the destroyer, and that in them we may trace the gradual development from an early and rude beginning to a very beautiful result; the dove-tailing, as it were, of one style into another, till an Irish form of Romanesque Architecture grew into perfection. The first examples of this art in Ireland are the Pagan forts and dome-roofed Sepul- chres, built without cement, and showing the same ignorance of the principle of the arch which is common to the primitive builders of all countries. The latter are of such dignity and importance that it may require to be explained why they are not as closely described as the forts in the beginning of this work. The answer to this is, that, while the forts can be distinctly connected with the first Monasteries and Cashels of the early monks, no such link exists between these ecclesiastical remains and the sepulchres. On the contrary, in the one thing which sets any stamp of individuality on such architecture, that is, the character of the designs in their decoration, nothing is more remarkable than the difference in principle which exists between the ornaments on the walls of these pagan tombs and those which appear on monuments known to be of Christian origin. Interlacings, knots, con- ventional forms, and the double line or divergent spiral never appear among these pre- christian carvings, but rude attempts at imitation of natural forms, so strangely absent from our early Christian art, such as outlines of leaves, are found instead. These show a per- ception of nature which will be sought in vain in the works of the early monks, and they are found along with single line spirals and other linear designs, differing in no sense from the rudest and first efforts in the graphic art of primitive man throughout the world. The tombs in which such stone carvings are found were pre-christian, so far as they were the burial places of a race who practised heathen forms of interment, as is proved by the discovery of vessels containing offerings, or perhaps provisions, placed near the skeleton, XVI 11 Introdttctio7i. or of urns which held the ashes of the dead. That the custom of burning the dead con- tinued in use for some time after the partial Christianization of the island cannot be doubted. However, no record or tradition exists proving these tombs to have been devoted to Christian uses at any time, whereas many such survive regarding the forts which were in numerous instances given up to ecclesiastical purposes, when the king or chief, on his con- version to Christianity, presented to God his Dmi or fortress, within the shelter of whose walls the missionary and his attendant monks erected their little cells and oratories. To judge from the existing remains of the earliest Christian monasteries in Ireland, it would appear that the monks merely adopted the method of building then practised among the natives, making such modifications in form as their difference of purpose and some traditional usage required. The earliest ecclesiastical buildings in Ireland are the mon- asteries consisting of two or more oratories together with the dwellings of the monks, enclosed by a wall termed Caisel, pronounced Cashel, i.e., stone fort, a word derived from the Latin castellum. The remains of these circumvallations so strongly resemble the pagan fortresses, that Dr. O'Donovan was inclined to regard them as having been such origi- nally. However, a comparison between the two proves that, while their similarity in struc- ture seems to point to the same degree of knowledge in the builders, yet differences do exist which mark their independent purpose. It maybe surmised that the island monasteries were often used as places of temporary retreat, from the many incidental references to them as such in the legendary lives of the saints; for instance, in the Martyrology of Donegal, p. 65, it is said of Kieran of Seir- kieran, " It is he that used to go to the sea rock that was far distant in the sea .... and used to return again." And the founders of these hermitages were generally men at the heads of large and important schools of religion and learning, such as Clonfert, Devenish, Ardfinnan, and others, who either used them as places of probationary effort at an early period of life, or visited these retreats at rare intervals, or in their old age retired thither to die in quiet. But they were men of " hard hands and tender hearts, sustaining themselves by their labour," men of indomitable courage and no mean skill, who crowned these storm- beaten cliffs with their uncemented but still enduring walls. Monasticism and the love of an eremitic life, which are the natural growth of a fervent religious spirit in any period, became especially so while the Eastern influence, in which asceticism formed so large a part, stIU permeated the Western Church. They were an essential portion of the ecclesiastical system of these ages all over Europe, and such monasteries and cells as are described in this work were probably not peculiar to Ireland at the time in which they were erected. This is proved by the existence of similar remains in the islands off the coast of Scotland and Wales; and if on such. heights as those of Mont St. Michel, in the bay of Avranches, or St. Michael's Mount, off the coast of Cornwall, no such rude and primitive remains are now visible, yet, nevertheless, they may have once existed, and may have been superseded by the works of the greater architects of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The student of ecclesiastical history must then turn to the islands off the west coast of Ireland if he would see the outward and visible signs of this system in the sixth and seventh centuries. He will see the Introduction. XIX dwellings and the sanctuaries of men who lived and died upon these barren rocks ; but how they lived is a question he will not be able to answer. Only in such a scene as lies before him in the church of St. Michael on the Skellig can a thoughtful mind realize to the full the strength of that spirit which drove man, in his undying struggle with the powers of evil, into these solitudes. In the next period of Irish architecture a very perceptible advance takes place, the marked features of which are the gradual introduction of cement in some form or other, the addition of the chancel with the chancel arch ; and, thirdly, while the ancient features of the horizontal lintel and inclined sides are preserved in the doorways, the introduction and growth of a richly decorated style anterior to that of a Romanesque style in Ireland. The greater number of these buildings, not omitting the smallest and most primitive, show marks of tooling, and the decorations in four of them are mouldings and ornaments elsewhere held to mark a late period in architecture. Small as these buildings sometimes are, we shall call them churches, to distinguish them from those uncemented oratories previously described. Besides, they generally stand alone, and do not form the centre of a group of monastic cells inclosed in a cashel such as did the 6rst oratories. Whatever faith may be placed in the traditionary evidence of the antiquity of these simple churches of one chamber, it is clear that those buildings which have the addition of a chancel, and in which this feature is coeval with the rest of the building, and not the work of a later date, must belong to a period far removed from that of the founders of these churches, who lived in the si.xth and seventh centuries. There is but one example of a chancel arch-built in the primitive style — one stone overlapping another till the sides meet at the apex — and this is at St. Kevin's, Glendalough. The true arch, with radiating joints, was introduced wath the chancel, and it is curious that, long after the knowledge of the arch was thus spread through the country, the horizontal lintel was pre- served in the doorways. The point of greatest interest in the development of architecture at this stage is the gradual growth of the use of ornament, not only on the principal features, but on the walls of the buildings also. At first such ornaments seem often introduced without reference to the general effect or beauty of the building, however they may add to its significance ; the cross is often found on the soffit, not on the face, of the doorway, and the other frag- mentary decorations are scattered about the walls of the buildings without any principle of arrangement that we can discover, and yet evidently are not insertions of a later period. These churches thus decorated preserve all the archaic character of the earliest Christian remains with rude and massive masonry, and little, if any, cement ; the primitive east window is seen adorned, perhaps only on one side, by the fillet moulding ; the corner stones are carved with scrolls ; the eave rests on dragons' heads ; and from the walls which bear " The grey and grief-worn aspect of old days," Strange human heads project " with wild bewildered gaze. Of one to stone converted by amaze." XX Introduction. English writers on architecture seem to hold that, where any mouldings are thus found, they are the best and safest guide to the history of the building, both as to the period when it was erected and the people by whom it was constructed. As regards England, it is true that the architecture of the Norman style of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and of the earlier variety of Romanesque, commonly called Anglo-Saxon, may be characterized by certain mouldings and ornaments which are not found to have existed in that country before the introduction of the round arch ; and it seems probable that such ornament was of foreign origin, while in Ireland the decoration of the Romanesque doorway of the twelfth century is but the repetition in stone of the illuminated pages of the scribe of the seventh century, who, in his turn, repeats the graceful and varied designs of the pre- christian worker in bronze and gold. The history of the development of art in England and Ireland is so different, that no arguments founded on English experience can lead to any safe conclusions as to the date of similar work in Ireland. At one period in the history of Britain there was a school of Celtic decorative art existing in the country, from which source forms of infinitely varying beauty might have been drawn, yet it seems as if all traces of this native art had died out during the long occupation of the country by the Romans, and the power of free and graceful design, shown in the decorated bronzes and other relics of the late Celtic period, no longer lives in the art of the Anglo-Norman time. But the events which happened in England so early as from the second to the fifth centuries, and which led to the disappearance of Celtic style of decorative art, do not find their parallel in Ireland till the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth centuries, when, after the settlement of the Normans, a foreign school of art gradually superseded the native style. The date of Irish ornamented buildings cannot be arrived at, therefore, by means of any comparison with English examples. These monuments must be view-ed with a larger vision than that of writers who bind themselves by rules merely founded on local experience. Dr. Petrie, who was the first great investigator of the history of Irish architecture, though in his early life holding that most of these churches were the work of their founders, yet at a later period saw the difficulty of assigning to them so early a date ; ' and the more he learned of other examples of Romanesque architecture in Western Europe, and the further he advanced in the science of Comparative Areheeology, the clearer it became to him that he had antedated many of our buildings. This learned antiquary gladly assisted in the further investigations which he felt must clear the way for truth, and welcomed the light he saw arising, while his own torch declined, even as " All great men who foreknew Their heirs in arr, for art's sake have been glad And bent their old white heads as if uncrowned Fanatics of their pure ideals still, Far more than of the laurels which were found With some less stalwart struggle of the will." ^ ' See ArchEeological Essays, by the late Sir James Simpson, Bart., edited by John Stuart, LL.D., vol. i. pp. 67, 87, 116. Notes by Dr. Petrie. ^ Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Casa Guidi Windows, p. 26. Introduction. XXI Whatever his followers may discover, he will remain the Pioneer who guided our footsteps in the all but interminable and tangled jungle which must be cut through before we can even hope to arrive at the brink of that gulf which divides us from the Past. It is not till we reach the tenth century that any historical basis on which to fix the date of these buildings can be found, and with the church and belfry of Tomgraney (County of Clare) begins that first series of buildings in Ireland the age of which can be esti- mated with any certainty. The belfry of this church was erected in the year 965, by the Abbot Cormac O'Cillene, who also built a church at Clonmacnois, where another tower of the same nature is said to have been commenced that year. A great restoration of monasteries took place between the years 996 and 1008, when King Brian Borumha secured a temporary peace from the incursions of the Danes, by whom, as we read in the annals, " the whole realme was overrunn and overspread. The churches, abbeys, and other religious places were by them quite razed and debased, or otherwise turned to vile, base, servile, and abominable uses. . . . But King Bryan was a meet salve to cure such festered soares, all the phissick in the world cou'd not help it elsewhere, in a small time he banished the Danes, made up the Churches and Religious houses, restored the nobility to their Antient patrimony and possessions, and in fine brought all to a notable reformation." ' To this period and the two following centuries the erection of the Round Towers, half strongholds and half belfries, may be safely assigned ; and Lord Dunraven has already proved that the type chosen was not so peculiar to Ireland as has been supposed.^ One of the earliest forms of campanile in Italy appears to have been a tall cylindrical tower with a conical roof ; and various instances to be hereafter given of such structures in Ravenna, Switzerland, France, and the British Isles, will prove that such a type existed in the eleventh century in Western Europe, although, having elsewhere been superseded by forms of greater beauty, few examples are now left standing save in Ireland. In the Carlovingian period, as we are informed by M. Viollet-le-Duc, " Les con- structeurs carlovingiens, prt^occup^s avant tout d'elever une defense surmontee d'une guette et d'un signal sonore, ne songerent pas tous d'abord a d^corer leurs clochers," ' and in another place he remarks, " On pent done consid^rer les plus anciens clochers autant comme deq monuments destines d faire reconnaitre leglise au loin comme un signe de puis- sance, que comme des tours baties pour contenir des cloches. Des motifs etrangers au.x idees religieuses durent encore contribuer a faire elever des tours attenantes aux eglises. Pendant les incursions normandes sur les cotes du Nord, de I'Ouest et le long des bords de la Loire et de la Seine, la plupart des Eglises furent saccagees par ces barbares ; on dut songer a les mettre a I'abri du pillage en les enfermant dans des enceintes et en les appuyant a des tours solides qui defendaient leurs approches. Ces tours durent etre natu- rellement baties au-dessus de la porte de I'eglise, comme dtant le point le plus attaquable. Dans ce cas, le placement des cloches netait qu'accessoire ; on les suspendait au sommet ^ Annals of Clonmacnois, A.D. ioo2. ^ Memorials of Adare, pp. 218, 232. xxu Introdtidion, de ces tours, dans les loges ou les combles qui les couronnaient. C'est, en effet, dans les contr^es particulierement ravagees par les incursions periodiques des Normands que nous voyons les eglises abbatiales et meme paroissiales preced^es de tours massives, dent mal- heureusement il ne nous reste guere aujourd'hui que les Stages inferieurs." ^ There appear to have been five varieties of campanile in Ireland, the first and most common that which stands apart from the church, the second that which is attached to its side, the third a smaller tower springing from some portion of the roof, and, though circular* yet generally rising from a square base, while the fourth and fifth are square, the first bearing a strong resemblance to the early Scottish square towers, such as may be still seen attached to St. Diarmid's Church on Inis Cloran in Lough Ree, and the last belonging to a later and more ornate type, such as the towers at the junction of the nave and chancel at Cormac's chapel, Cashel. The lofty detached tower appears to be the oldest type in Ireland, and its singular character of solitude is clearly to be attributed to the fact that the Irish churches before the Cistercian period were invariably low and small, while the continental buildings reach nearly to the height of the tower beside which they stand. Speaking of these towers, Mr. Wilkinson remarks : " Such designs could have originated only with people whose minds were familiar with the large structures of the country from which they emanated ; there is a character and bold design in their outline, and indeed in every part, which bespeak them as the production of a vigorous mind ; nothing is superfluous, nothing indicating doubt and experiment, but with a bold and pre- conceived outline they at once advance their lofty form."^ Although the apertures of some of these monuments suggest that they belong to a period earlier than that in which the knowledge of the true arch had reached Ireland, yet some, most probably erected in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, have beautifully orna- mented round arched doorways, and among these are some of the earliest examples of Irish Romanesque. The limits of this introduction permit a very faint indication of those points in which this style differs from the Anglo-Norman. In an essay^ on the origin and growth of Romanesque architecture by Mr. Freeman, this writer points out that the two great systems of Architecture, when arranged according to their leading principles of construction, are the Entablature and the Arch. Each of these systems has been, in its own time and place, the animating principle of a style of architecture. It is apparently in the blending of these two styles — the lingering of the older, that of the entablature, and the engrafting of its forms on those of the Round Arch — that the local character to which we give the name of Irish Romanesque consists. The first style, characterized by the horizontal lintel, had already reached to a very ^ Diet, de I'Arche. Fran^aise, Viollet-le-Duc, vol. iii. p. 2S8. lb, p. 286. - Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland, p. 90. 3 The Origin and Growth of Romanesque Architecture, Fortnightly Review, No. LXX. New Series. Oct. I, 1872. See also History of Architecture, by Edward A. Freeman, p. 199. London, 1849. Introduction. xxiu high type of beauty (as we may see in the doorways of Maghera and Banagher churches), when the round arch was first introduced ; and there appears still to have been a clinging to the idea of horizontal extension in the minds of the Irish builders even after they had universally adopted the round form. In the Irish doorway the idea of a group of columns is conveyed by rounding off the angles and channelling the jambs into bowtels or little clustered shafts. And instead of capitals, which each crown a separate column, one long and level entablature unites the whole at the top. At each end of this a woman's head is often carved, whose streaming hair, intertwined in long locks, seems to bind the group of columns into one, and forms an interlaced ornament on the face of the entablature. The feeling that gives rise to such preservation of ancient forms is very different from blind imitation or retention. The constancy that will not part from that which has already borne noble fruit belongs to some higher principle than ignorance or blind idolatry. It may be that the most important achievement of Irish architecture was the discovery of a method of stone roofing at once enduring, lofty, and picturesque, which seems a natural growth as a defence in a climate exposed to rain, and snow, and tempest. The later examples of these buildings mark the transition from the period of the round to the pointed arch ; but there are early stone roofs of simpler and ruder form, and there still remain a number of these buildings in Ireland which can be so arranged as to show in a regular series the striving after, and final achievement of, the pointed arch. These churches all form studies of the deepest interest owing to this fact, but it will suffice for our present purpose to name four : Gallarus ; Friars' Island, near Killaloe ; St. Columba's House at Kells ; and Cormac's Chapel at Cashel. The first evinces no knowledge of the principle of the arch ; but the form of a pointed arch was obtained by one stone projecting beyond another till they met at the apex. This roof was liable to sink at the sides from the great weight of the stones, and the second church on our list shows that the method adopted for counteracting this was as follows : — The lower story of the building was roofed by a barrel vault built on the radiating principle ; ^ on this was raised the high pitched stone roof, at first, as in the church on Friars' Island, constructed of rectangular slabs of various thicknesses laid in courses each overlapping the preceding one, and dressed inside and out to the rake of the roof Under the ridge is a space left, the primary purpose of which was to lighten the weight on the vault, but which afterwards, and in larger buildings, served as a chamber. In the oratory or house of St. Columba, at Kells, the construction of the upper arch is less rude, and the builders were evidently striving to rise from the false pointed to the more perfect form of the radiating round arches ; the stones are laid in horizontal layers half-way up, and then radiate towards the top. The open space above the barrel vault is divided by cross walls into three portions, the shape being a triangle having two sides formed to a rude curve, these sides not being arched but built of thin stones and thick beds of mortar, the courses projecting as they rise. The process ' The barrel, waggon, tunnel, or cradle roof, a cylindrical vault resting on the tops of the side walls, with its axis in the longitudinal direction of the building, was a common and ancient method of roofing. XXIV Introduction' followed seems to have been this : that the walls were brought up to the level of the springing of the arch, that then dry stone cross walls were built, supported on which a rough centering was made, and upon this the arch was formed by building flat stones on their edges with a rough approach to radiation by the use of thick mortar beds, and finished at the top by selecting a thicker or thinner stone, as the case might require, for keying ; then, having brought the external walls up to the level of the eaves, they pro- ceeded to form the roof, carrying It up in masonry resting on the back of the arch as far as they judged it safe to go, and building the remainder with a hollow space to reduce the weight, introducing cross walls for support. In the roof of Cormac's chapel a further advance is seen. Here the coverings In both stories are true arches constructed with radiating joints, and the upper one is in every respect a pointed arch, and as Mr. Wilkinson observes, speaking of another similar roof at KlUaloe, *' this is only one of the several examples of the kind in which pointed arches were used, and the date of whose erection Is probably prior to the existence of buildings in England containing the pointed style." The boldness with which the heavy stone roof of Cormac's Chapel was placed 50 ft. above the ground upon a structure little more than half that width, as well as the skilful manner of its execution, are very striking.^ The theories held by some that the pointed arch was first derived from copying forms produced by the intersections of branches of trees, or of apertures made by two stones meeting at the top, or from the intersection of round-headed arcades, seem all founded on Insufficient basis, since they merely show how the external form might have been sug- gested, as if architecture arose from copying some visible outward feature, and were not in itself the expression of some inner necessity. The discovery and progression of newer and more perfect forms In this art must emanate from some want, and spring from the effort to supply some defect in a previous style which may have rendered it less fit for its purpose. The object of the Irish builder being the formation of an extremely steep roof, the method which combined loftiness with lightness was sought after, until the pointed arch was attained, and proved the perfect form on which to rest his superstructure. It is probable that the first cause which led to the prevalence of the pointed arch throughout the north of France, the west of Germany, and the Netherlands, in the eleventh and following centuries, was the method of vaulting churches. Mr. Fergusson in his " History of Architecture" speaks of the mode of double roofing which originated in Ireland, comparing It with that adopted in the south of France in the same age, and adds that " It enabled the Irish to make the roof steeper than could be effected with a single vault, and in so rainy a climate this may have been of the first importance. Had the Irish been allowed to persevere in the elabo- ration of their own style, they would probably have applied this expedient to the roofing of larger buildings than they ever attempted, and might in so doing have avoided the greatest fault of Gothic architecture. Without more experience It is impossible to pronounce to what extent the method might have been carried with safety, or to say whether the Irish ' See Wilkinson, Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland, p. 145. See Monograph of Cormac's Chapel.— A. Hill. Introduction. XXV double vault is a better constructive form than the single Romance pointed arch. It was certainly an improvement on the wooden roof of the true Gothic style, and its early abandonment is consequently much to be regretted." ' The study of these buildings and the questions that they raise may be of wider import than has been yet acknowledged. To the Irishman it may minister to his self-respect to feel that he belongs to a race who could originate and develope, to a result of great excel- lence and beauty, a native school of architecture. To the student of art in its widest sense it is a matter of deepest interest, that enough yet remains through which he can trace step by step the progress of this style from the simple source from which it sprang. To copy the work of a former age is one thing, to search out its vital principles and strive to trace them to their source is another ; and if we are to be the begetters of new beauty, and our work to be a living growth and no mere imitation, no work of ancient art will be too humble for our study. It would appear that Irish Romanesque, though influenced by foreign art, yet was somewhat pre-existent to Anglo-Norman architecture, and entirely independent of it. It Avas a native style springing from a people possessed of original power and mind, lowly in aspect when placed beside the grand monuments of Norman art in England, lowly, but not therefore unlovable. No one can stand before the doorway of Maghera or the chancel arch of Queen Dervorgil's church, or gaze upon the Chalice of Ardagh, without feeling that there was " a true instinct of composition " and a pure vital principle at the source of art so noble and so chaste, for in them a certain classic character is visible, and these works give evidence of the existence of a spirit which, could it be called back to life, might help us to better results than we have yet attained. " None but a master may dare such simplicity." The quality here alluded to is not in any way a proof that Irish Architecture is imitated from the Greek, nor is there any evidence that it could be its offspring. This art was of native growth, and a style the leading characteristics of which were gradually developed features of primitive forms which may be termed the architecture of necessity, springing, as it were, from the wants and instincts of man in a natural state, yet gifted with artistic feeling. Such, also, was the case in Greece, though with an infinitely greater result ; and there the original idea of the Entablature never was abandoned, even when architecture reached its highest point. The interesting thing to note is, that a result, similar in some important details, is arrived at by schools entirely ignorant of each other's works ; and a classic character marked by a certain simplicity and repose, as well as a delicate perception of fitness in ornament, with a noble reserve in its use, has been attained by both. However, while it can be proved that Ireland may lay claim to the possession of a national and individual style, this was but a branch of the great order of Architecture then prevailing over western Europe, which has been termed Ur Romanesque, and is the earliest form after the introduction of the round arch. On its first springing from Italian models, it varied less in different countries than the Norman and other later styles which ^ See History of Ajchilecture, James Fergusson. Vol. ii. p. no. d XXVI Introduction. supplanted it, yet it had in all places its local character, and in Ireland this character is marked with a peculiar strength as well as beauty, because, when the Romanesque wave reached our shore, there was already a style of architecture here which had attained to very noble results, and from the blending of the former with the latter emanated that form which we need not feel ashamed to claim as Irish Romanesque. It becomes a matter of deep moment now to fix the period at which this art touched its highest point. For now it is for us to say whether the story told by past and present writers on her history be true. We are told that Ireland had long fallen from that high state when her faith " burnt like a star in Western Europe ; " that her people " when the Normans took charge of them, were, with the exception of the clergy, scarcely better than a mob of armed savages," who, as a nation, " have done nothing which posterity will not be anxious to forget," who " have little architecture of their own, and the forms introduced from England have been robbed of their grace ; " " imaginative and poetical, yet unable to boast of one single national work of art." ^ For errors such as these the antiquaries of Ireland, who have claimed a too early date for her monuments, are as much to blame as those who would assert that no stone churches were built, or chiselled work was executed, till the eleventh or twelfth centuries. Nothing but calm and patient inquiry, with careful balance of evidence and opinion, will ever place our feet on solid earth ; and let us not forget that the place where History stands with veiled face is holy ground, and the veil will only rise before the large eyes of Love, that love which " bids touch truth, endure truth, and embrace truth,"- but which, when the veil is lifted, "grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater."' In conclusion, a few words must be added in further explanation of the order of the plates. The idea of a topographical arrangement was abandoned by Lord Dunraven when he perceived that the main interest of the work lay in the fact that, by the other course, which he finally adopted, a series could be presented showing the gradual development of styles ; he thus preferred sacrificing the merely local interest attached to the situation of these buildings, to the wider one of giving them a place in the history of Architecture. The editor has striven to follow out his plan in this as also in the additions which she has been compelled to make to the notes written by him on the spot, most of which additions she has inclosed in brackets. The historical notes she has been enabled to supply mainly through the assistance of the very Rev. William Reeves, D.D., Dean of Armagh ; but she must also acknowledge much kind help from Mr. William Hennessy and the Rev. Francis Shearman ; while, in verifying and correcting the architectural details, she has been assisted by the Rev. James Graves, of Kilkenny, Mr. Owen, architect to the Board of Works, and Mr. James Fuller. In compliance with a wish expressed by Lord Dunraven, when engaged upon the ' FroLide, The English in Ireland. Vol. i. pp. 14, 15, 22, 23. - Browning, Turf and Towers, p. 273. ^ Shakespeare, Sonnets, No. cxix. Introduction. xxvii work, she has also in some parts added descriptions of the aspect of these singular ruins, and the scenery by which they are surrounded ; although even here she can scarcely lay claim to the authorship of passages which are but the faint echo or reflection of that deep sentiment for nature which formed so large a part of Lord Dunraven's character, and an imperfect expression of the feelings inspired by these scenes in the hearts of her father and of the other friends who accompanied her pilgrimages to these sanctuaries, and who have since informed her mind, while they strengthened her hands, by their sympathy in her work. If she here names the late Rev. James Henthorn Todd, Frederic William Burton, and Samuel Ferguson, she does but enrich the monument to their country's worth, the first stone of which was laid by George Petrie. PART I. Section I. Pagan Forts. DUN AENGUSA. Fort of Aengus, on the Greater Island of Aran, Plates I. II. and III. ) the traveller on the west coast of Ireland crosses the Bay of Galway and reaches the Islands of Aran which lie at its mouth, he there finds remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in western Europe, excepting those whose primary object was sepulchral. Landing on Aranmor, the largest of the three islands, and commencing his walk at the southern end, he should keep along edge of the cliffs, which, gradually increasing in height as he advances m to form a grand barrier to the ocean that beats for ever at their feet. ;y are of limestone, and are marked by long parallel horizontal lines or jres, so that where they break they seem to shape themselves into huge ises, squared as if by giant hands. Here and there, where in bold pro- montories they advance into the sea, they have become separated from the and rise like towers from the waves. The ruins of some ancient city with iken pinnacles and shattered towers and riven walls seem to lie before him, and Nature is the giant builder here. Passing upward and onward toward the highest point, the traveller will begin to perceive that this precipice is crowned by a circular wall, " grey, weather-beaten and wasted, " whose broken and serrated edge stands dark against the sky. That it is indeed a wall and not a part of the rock on which it is founded, seems at the first glance doubtful, so little does it differ in colour from the cliff itself ; yet, on gazing steadily, the masonry comes out like some fine mosaic work as contrasted with the enormous slabs B 2 Fort of Aengus. from which the clifi" would seem to have been formed. And so, still ascending towards the building, the traveller reaches at length the highest point of the range and enters the fort of Aengus. The solitude and grandeur of the scene are unspeakable. To the north and west lies the ocean, while to the south are dimly visible the cliffs of Clare, shining in silvery whiteness through a summer mist. To the east the eye also reaches the horizon, but over a dreary desert of limestone flags. No human habitation is to be seen, not even a tree or plot of grass ; grey and silent, the monotony of the scene is only broken, while its strange sadness is increased, by the ruined fortress that stands in the foreground as it has stood for centuries, like " one upon a rock, Environ'd with a wilderness of sea. Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave." Then turning from the broken cliff to the ruined wall, the traveller will ask, who was the builder here ? The legends of these early builders are preserved in the compilations of Irish scribes and bardic writers dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. The story, which is said by these writers to have been handed down orally during the earliest centuries of the Christian era, and committed to writing when that art first became known in Ireland, is the history of the wanderings and final destruction of a hunted and persecuted race, whose fate would seem to have been mournful and strange, as the ruined fortresses of the lost tribe which now stand before us. Coming to Ireland through Britain, they seem to have been long beaten hither and thither, till, flying still westward, they were protected by Ailill and Maeve, who are said to have reigned in Connaught about the first century of the Christian era. From these monarchs they obtained a grant of lands along the western coast of Galway, as well as the Islands of Aran, where they remained till their final defeat by the heroes CuchuUin, Conall Carnach, Ross and Keth. Thus their forpis seem to pass across the deep abyss of time, like the white flakes of foam that are seen drifted by the hurrying wind over the wild and wasted ruins of their fortresses. It is impossible to accept such tales as history. Even supposing that any one of these legends was first committed to writing in the si,xth or seventh century, and then again transcribed in the twelfth and thirteenth, when it assumed the form in which it has come down to us, such cannot be taken as an authentic record of even the mere tradition which existed in the sixth and seventh centuries. The writers of those periods were acquainted with classical history ; and, just in the same way as the biographers of the early Irish saints, who were familiar with Holy Scripture, I i Fort of Aengus. 3 attributed to them similar acts and miracles to those recorded of the Hebrew prophets, so did these authors of pre-Christian legend in Ireland swerve from the bare truth to colour their narrative with a glory borrowed from the heroic times of Greece. However, in the present case, any lengthened discussion as to the amount of credibility to be attri- buted to these legends, would be out of place. It will be sufficient for our purpose carefully to examine and describe the monuments themselves to which they relate.^] Diin Aengusa, or the fort of Aengus, is named from one of the sons of Hua *M6r, a chieftain famed in the earliest period of Irish legendary history. It occupies an angle of the cliff, and is therefore protected by it on two sides to the north and west. It is in plan irregularly concentric, composed of three areas or wards, each within its wall. The interior, or fort proper, is half an ellipse, 142 ft. on the short diameter, which rests on the cliff, and 150 ft. deep, being half the long diameter, which projects northward from the cliff. The containing wall is 8 ft. to 12 ft. thick. The entrance is on the north-east 90 ft. from the cliff. The fort is unequally placed within the second area, being 22 ft. from its west and 210 ft. from its east wall, measured along the cliff. Towards the north, the depth of this ward from the cliff to the wall is 300 ft. ; the wall is 8 ft. thick at the entrance to the fort near the north-east corner. In general figure this ward is a very rude and irregular half-circle. The outer area is quite different in plan, being oblong and four-sided ; the cliff ' The traditions of these early builders are preserved in the following writings 1. A tract contained in the MS. H. 2. 17, library of Trinity College, Dublin, in the handwriting of O'Luinin, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century. It is termed the battle of Magh Tuireadh (Moytura), and forms one of a series of historic tales entitled Catha or Battles. 2. A miscellaneous volume of MSS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, containing, inter alia, the only ancient account of the battle of Moytura, in which conflict the Firbolgs were overwhelmed by the Tuatha De Dananns. It was after this defeat that the Firbolgs are represented as having sought refuge in various remote places, including the Aran Islands. The language of the tale, copied into the MS. in the fifteenth century, is very old. 3. Book of Lecan. — A collection of annals and historioil tracts, for the most part compiled and transcribed in the year 1416, by Gilla Isa Mor MacFirbis. This book contains two copies of the Book of Invasions- Duald MacFirbis, the descendant of Gilla Isa, quotes not only the Annals of MacFirbis, who died 1279, but also the Book of Invasions of Ireland, written by the grandfather Dubhaltach (or Dudley), as an authority for the battle of Moytura. 4. The Book of Ballvmote.— A compilation of the fourteenth century, comprising historical tracts and genealogies ; and including a very full account of the vicissitudes of the Firbolg race. 5. Tract written by Gilla Riabhach O'Clery about the year 1460, now preserved in the British Museum, being a history of the second, or so-called " northern," battle of Moytura. There are many bardic legends and poeras professing to give the history of the race whose monuments are here described, such as : — i. A poem by Cennfaelad the Learned, who died a.d. 677 ; see O'Curry, " Lectures on Ancient Irish History," vol. i. p. 472. 2. A poem by Gelasius, primate of Armagh, who died circa 1156-1173, on the Firbolg colonies, quoted as having been taken from themselves in the Book of Lecan, at folio 277 b., and at 27S b. there is another on the same subject. 4 Fort of Aengus. forming the south and east sides, while the other two are formed by the wall 4 ft. thick. Here also the second ward is placed far from the centre of the third, being 630 ft. from the outer wall on the east side and 140 ft. from the west. Thus, the whole of the south or cliff face of the entire work is 11 74 ft. long, while the east, also a cliff face, is 340 ft. The west wall is about 590 ft. The north wall is about 1320 ft. The outer entrance is to the north-east, nearly opposite that of the middle ward. The reason of the eccentricity of the two interior wards is, that they occupy the knoll or highest parts of the rock. The innermost wall is 18 ft. high. See Plate III. Its composition is remarkable. It is entirely without cement, and formed of two faces, built of stones of moderate size, but laid with considerable care, so as to produce a tolerably smooth face, while the central core is of mere rough dry rubble. Where the stones have any length they are laid as what builders term " headers," that is, stones showing their heads, not their sides. This method of construction is calculated to give durability to the wall, and shows considerable skill. [Dr. O' Donovan observed that the two faces of this wall were 7 ft. higher than the core, and that the same difference occurred in other forts, though only to the extent of 4 ft. This must have been intentional, for the core would scarcely have been removed for any later purpose, and the progress of decay would have first attacked the faces. Is it possible that these faces may have been left as parapets to afford shelter from an enemy attacking in front or rear ? Or can it be that some later inhabitants of the work have cleared away the loose core to obtain a parapet ? The inner doorway is a rude, flat-topped opening, 3 ft. 4 in. wide. Only its upper 3 ft. is now visible, the lower part being covered up with rubbish. Its top is a lintel 6 ft. long, upon which are laid two other shorter stones, tending to shift somewhat the pressure. When Dr. O'Donovan saw the doorway in 1S39, it was perfect. It has since shared the mournful fate which awaits the whole structure. The annexed drawing, made on the spot in the year 1857 by Mr. Frederic Wm. Burton, and which he kindly allows me to use, was then a faithful representation of this doorway, but since that time a great change has been effected ; stones, formerly lying in horizontal courses, are now very much inclined outwards and downwards, and much displacement has evidently taken place, not only in the sides of the doorway but in the lintel also. This drawing embraces the whole wall for 6 or 8 ft. around the door, and reveals a peculiarity which seems to have escaped the notice of Lord Dunraven, and which may have disappeared in the general ruin of the wall before the place was visited by him. This is, namely, a relief or projection in a vertical line of the stones composing the sides, or at least the right hand side, of the door above the general face of the wall. Fort of A engtis. 5 and Mr. Burton observes in a letter on the subject, " It is true tliis peculiarity may have been accidental in the original construction, or due to subsequent dislocation ; yet it was too well marked to make the latter hypothesis probable, and this relief of the architrave seems to me to be of importance, for it really looks like the inchoation of a marked feature of some of the more ancient square doorways in Irish Churches."] In the inside of the inner wall of this fort there is now no trace remaining of a plat- form such as is usually found to have existed in the interior of these structures, but there was a chamber or passage, such as exists in Staigue Fort, county of Kerry (see Plate XV.), in the north-west portion of the wall observed by Dr. O'Donovan, who says, " This passage Doorway in the Fort of Aengus. led from the inside into the thickness of the wall, and measured 5 ft. 6 in. in length. 2 ft. 9 in. in width, and 3 ft. 7 in. in height." The interior of the fort is quite a table land of rock, with scarcely any grass : at one side, joining the cliff, an upper stratum of stone has been left. If there ever were any buildings inside the fort, they must have been placed against the wall, and are now all covered with debris, or the stones of which they are formed may have been flung over the cliffs by boys. The whole fort has been greatly ruined since Dr. Petrie first saw it, forty-five years ago, and even within the last ten or twenty years this wall has suffered lamentably, from the habit which prevails in these islands of hunting rabbits. The second or middle wall of the fort is rather more than twice the diameter of the 6 Fort of Conor. inner wall above described, which it approaches within 40 ft. on the west side. It is 6 ft. thick, and in one place 1 2 ft. high ; the wall is double, that is, has two faces as described. There is a doorway in the north-east portion where the wall is 8 ft. thick. This doorway is 4 ft. 7 in. wide and 3 ft. high. There is also a platform or offset in this wall. The outer or third wall is inferior in construction and strength to the two others, and is irregular in its plan, apparently having been neither broad nor strong. The entrance is also by a doorway 4 ft. wide, and only 3 ft. 6 in. high, having a stout lintel 9 ft long, and the interior part covered in with flags. At the door the wall is 8 ft. high and 5 ft. thick, and much better built than elsewhere. Towards the west end this wall is much dilapidated ; towards the east it is 8 ft. thick, better built, and better preserved. But a feature most worthy of note in the military defences of this fortress is the manner in which the approach across the open space of the exterior ward is rendered difficult. A few yards in advance of the wall is placed a belt, 60 to 80 ft. broad, composed of long narrow stones set on end and sloping irregularly outwards, and placed at irregular distances, but with about room for a man to pass between them. This labyrinth of stones is evidently intended, like the chevmix de /rise of a modern fortification, to retard the approach of an assailant, and to scatter and expose to the weapons of the garrison any body of men who might have crossed the exterior wall. In Plate II. the remains of this curious defence is represented, together with a portion of the outer wall. A very similar defence is to be seen placed as an exterior work upon the two weaker fronts of Caer Helen, a hill fort in Caernarvonshire. (" Arch. Journal," vol. xxv. p. 228.) The outer enclosure or third wall is very irregularly built, and runs from cliff to cliff. DUN CONCHOBHAIR. Fort of Conor, on the Middle Island of Aran. ■f^^Si^'t^^ Plates IV. and V. ^^^X^^^^ HIS is the noblest of all the cahirs or forts in the three Islands of ^Kmi\r^ Aran. It is named Dun Conchobair, or the fort of Conor, from another iHLv^CTlf son of the chieftain Hua 'Mor, and brother of Aengus, whose fort we ^ have just described. This building is of greater extent and better masonry than Dun Aengusa. It is situated on the highest ground in the centre of the IVIiddle Island of Aran, called Inismain, at a height of 250 feet above the sea. The fort itself or innermost enclosure measures 227 ft. in length, by 115 ft. in breadth. It is of a long oval form, and, like Dun Aengusa, the wall had two faces and a central core; ^HOIIHAIK. : \ Of AKAN. Fort of Conor. 7 it has a decided batter, and this must have been originally intended, though the angle may have been increased by the inner wall being so much ruined. I observed vertical divisions, clearly visible on the outer face of the wall (see Plate IV.), a peculiarity which may also be seen in Staigue Fort in the county of Kerry (see Plate XIII.) Here they occur on both the east and west sides of the building, and make it appear that the wall was built in short lengths, each completed independently. Were there but one or two of these, the meaning would probably be that spaces were left open during the progress of the work for access to the interior. The doorway is 6 ft. 3 in. wide, but the part of the fort in which it is situated, the north-east, has been much damaged during the last ten or twenty years by rabbit hunters, as is the case in all the forts. On the north-west side the outer wall is singularly built, and thicker in some quarters than in others, varying from 4 or 5 ft. to 8 ft. in width. On the east and south-west the inner wall is 1 1 ft. and the outer wall 7 ft. thick. This inner wall may in reality have been double, but the ruined masses prevent the possibility of accurate examination. On the east side the wall is clearly triple, the middle compartment having two faces. The inner wall is 7 ft. thick, the middle one 5 ft. 6 in., and the outer also 5 ft. 6 in. Thus a triple compacted wall is formed 18 ft. in thickness, and nearly 20 ft. in height. On the west side there are traces of lateral steps, such as those at Staigue Fort in Kerry. Here they are above the platform and leading to the summit. On this side the wall stands on a rocky cliff 8 or 10 ft. high. The steps up to the platform rise facing the wall on the north side. Two other sets of platform steps are visible here. From the north-west side round by the east to the south- west, where the fort is not built on the rocky scarp, there is a second or outer wall. This does not at present join on to the main wall at either end, as Dr. O'Donovan has represented it in his plan, and it certainly was not bonded into it. The east and south part of this wall are nearly gone. On the south-east side I found a doorway, which measured 4 ft. in width. There can be little doubt that this wall was e.xactly like the outer wall of Diin Oghil, and the second outer wall of Diin Aengusa. There are still some remains in the interior of this fort of cloghauns, or beehive- shaped cells ; and Dr. O'Donovan says there were several built against the wall, but they were more or less destroyed, as are most of the beehive-shaped cells of Aran. It was his opinion that the inhabitants of the Aran Islands continued to live in these houses to a comparatively late date ; for, though they have now changed the mode of constructing the roofs of their houses, the style of their walls is even now as cyclopean as that of Ddn Aengusa, if not more so, and they still build small houses for their cattle of nearly the same style and dimensions as the more ancient cells. 8 Fort of Conor. The most remarkable feature of this grand ruin is the existence of an outwork or sort of bastion, represented in Plate V. No such additional building as this is found in connection with any of the other duns. It projects 51 ft. from the inner wall of the fort on the north-east side, so that a portion of the outer wall of the fort just described forms its south-west side. It is an irregular oblong, about 70 ft. by 51 ft., and the corners were rounded off. The wall is 5 ft. thick in some places, but on the eastern side it increases to 9 ft. It is 15 or 16 ft. in height at one place on this side. The outer wall runs up towards the west of the building, but is broken away just where it should join on to it. There are two entrances. The larger one is 8 ft. wide, and Dr. O'Donovan suggests that this may be because it was meant for the admission of cattle. It stands on the east side, near the angle of the wall, while on the west there is a smaller doorway facing the fort. Dr. O'Donovan remarks, in speaking of this building, " I incline to think it was a bawn for cattle In form this building is not unlike the square enclosure near the moat of Dromore and Clones. Such square enclosures are of Milesian or Scotic extraction, while this is a Belgic or Firbolgic one." Fort of Muirbheach Mill. This fort takes its name from another mythic hero of the Firbolg race. All that is now left of this fortress is a portion of wall extending from 50 to 100 yards, only four courses of which remain in one place, and in others only one or two. It is situated in the townland of Kilmurvey, in the Greater Island of Aran. The wall curves round, and now encloses the remains of an ancient church dedicated to St. Colman MacDuach. This wall has been described by Dr. Petrie, who saw it in a far more perfect state when he first visited Aran in the year 181 1; and in his MS. notes of that visit he says : — " This ancient wall is still in great part remaining, and is constructed of huge masses of stone in the Cyclopean style, in one part, and another of smaller stones, squared like those in the wall of Diin Aengusa. The wall is in some parts 20 ft. high and 14 ft. thick. Where the larger stones have been used its thickness was much less, and a square building was erected to strengthen it. This addition might have been the reparation of a later age. Within may be seen the foundations of the ancient round house which this wall was raised to protect." I The Black Fort. 9 DUBH CATHAIR, The Black Fort, Aranmor. Plate VI. f'HlS fortress is situated in the southern part of the townland of Kil- leany, in the Greater Island of Aran. It derives its name from the dark colour of the stone of which it is built, and is named the Dubh Cafhair or Black Fort. It consists of one great wall 220 ft. in length, which stretches across a neck of land 354 ft. in length, between two great cliffs, which rise about 300 ft. above the sea. This wall is double faced, each portion being about 8 ft. in thick- ness, making the entire thickness of the wall from 16 to 18 ft. It has a slight inclination inwards. The top is nowhere perfect, and the highest part of the wall as it stands at present is 20 ft. The stones of which it is composed are generally small and very rudely put together; they are fixed lengthwise inwards, as in Dun Aengusa and in Staigue Fort, in the county of Kerry, though the masonry in this instance is far inferior to that of the latter. The doorway of this fort was placed near the east end of the wall. It is now com- pletely ruined. There were traces of a similar door in the north-west portion of this fortress when Dr. O'Donovan first visited the place ; but the wall on this side has now fallen into a shapeless heap of ruins. Both these doors were placed in parts of the wall rising from the very edge of the cliff, so that their destruction may be caused by the breaking away of the ground from beneath them. Entering the fort, Dr. O'Donovan observed, on that part of the platform which was nearest to the western cliff, several small stone houses or cells of an oblong form, with rounded roofs, somewhat the shape of an upturned boat ; one row extended along the wall against which they were built, while another row of such buildings ran from north to south for a distance of about 170 ft. The house or cell, marked a in the annexed ground-plan, was the most perfect of the group. It measured 12 ft. across from east to west; the others were nearly of the same dimensions. The largest one, which was placed close to the wall, was iS ft. in length and 1 3 ft. broad. There was also a small chamber in the thickness of the wall which still remains perfect, measuring 3 ft. 8 in. long, by 3 ft. 4 in. broad, and it was 3 ft. 8 in. high. It resembled the cell in the wall of Dun Aengusa. These have now altogether disappeared, and scarcely anything remains but the foundations of these houses. lO Diin Oonacht. Outside this fort there is a rude form of chcvaux de /rise, somewhat similar to those outside Ddn Aengusa. The standing stones of which this is composed are also placed aslant, but they are not so closely planted, and do not cover so large an extent of ground as those of the greater fort. Outside of this defence the remains of several buildings are visible, one of which evidently was a beehive-shaped cell, and a portion of its roof is still preserved. The other cells seemed to have been square. A gentleman named King mentioned to me that when he formerly visited this place he found a sort of midden inside this house containing bones and periwinkle shells. Dr. O'Donovan observes that " This fortification would appear from its colossal rudeness to be many years older than Diin Aengusa or Diin Conor." He adds that the design of the wall bears some resemblance to the one built by O'Conor and the English to fortify the peninsula of Rinn Duin, near Athlone. The guide, an old man, who accompanied me to the place, informed me that he remembered the wall nearly perfect ; but that a great part of it had fallen in a storm a few years ago. Scarcely any of the Inside face of the wall now remains, and the force of the Atlantic waves has swept away the lesser buildings which it enclosed. One wave he described as rising in such a vast body of water above the cliff, that it over- ran the hollow within the wall of the fort, and flung the stones about in all directions. side rises precipitously from the plain of limestone flags below. It commands a fine 1 Mr. W. M. Hennessy has kindly favoured the editor with the following note on the name of this fort : — " Diin Onacht, or Diin Eoghanacht ; i.e. the fort of the ' Eoghanacht ' or sept of Eoghan. The person from whom tliis sept derived their tribe name was Eoghan Mor, or Eugenius Magnus, the son of Ailill Oiium, King of Munster in the 2nd century, and the common ancestor of the principal families of Munster and Thomond. The present baronies of Burren and Corcomroe, in the county of Clare, together with the Island of Ara (vidgo Armi), anciently formed the patrimony of this branch of this powerful family, distinguished by the names of Eoghanacht Arann and Eoghanacht Ninusa. In the account of Maelduin's navigation, contained in ' Lebar na huidhri ' (transcribed DUN EOGHANACHTA. DtJN Oonacht, Aranm6r. 5' HIS fort takes its name from an ancient family called the " Eoghanacht" or sept of Eoghan,' a name, in its Anglicised form of Oonacht, still borne by the townland in which the fort is situated in the Greater Island of Aran. " It is built on the summit of a height which at the north Plate VII. * Diin Oonacht. view of the northern coast of Connemara, and the beautiful range of mountains called the Twelve Bens ; with Golinhead in the foreground, while in the far distance rises the promontory of Black Head in one dark mass from the ocean."' The fort is nearly circular, being 97 ft. from north to south inside, and 93 ft. from east to west. The wall is almost vertical, and is built of good-sized stones laid horizontally, but not in courses ; many of these stones are from 3 to 4 ft. long, and about i ft. 6 in. deep. This is about the size afforded by the native rocks in the strata close by, from which, of course, the material for the building was obtained. No part of the wall is perfect; its greatest present height is about 16 ft. on the southern side. It is apparently single, and from 14 to 15 ft. thick, but the wall is now much ruined, especially on the east side, and Dr. O'Donovan, who visited it In the year 1839, described it as formed of three divisions, the first or innermost being 4 ft, wide, the central also 4 ft., and the outer portion 8 ft. in width. The doorway is on the eastern side. It is 5 ft. 9 in. broad, and regularly faced with stones of considerable size, but owing to the ruin into which it has fallen, its height and other characteristics cannot now be determined. A platform runs all round inside the fort, which is about 3 ft. deep and 6 or 7 ft. in height. There are three recesses in the wall about 4 or 5 ft. deep and about the same width, one opposite the door and the other at right angles to it. When Dr. O'Donovan first saw this fort he observed four flights of stone steps leading from the floor inside to the top of the wall. They were placed respectively at the north, east, south, and west sides of the building. Even then they were much injured, but they have now totally dis- appeared. Dr. O'Donovan believed that originally all these forts had similar flights of steps leading to the summit of the wall. It does not appear that there was ever any defence to this fort, such as the chevanx de /rise seen outside those of Diin Aengusa and the Black Fort, but it is built of much larger stones, and its wall is thicker. Near the doorway the stones are remarkably large. About half a mile from this fort, towards the west, there are two clochauns of an oblong form. The most perfect of these is 13 ft. 4 in. in breadth by 6 ft. 2 in. in width. It is angular on the west side, and rounded on the east. These buildings have two doorways. circa 1 100) Eoglmnacht na Narajid is given as an alias name for Eoganacht Ninusa. In the ' Annals of the Four Masters,' at the year 1482, the chief of the O'Conors of Corcomroe is called chief of Corcojiiroe Ninais, and it appears from an inquisition taken in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that the Greater Island of Aran is stated to consist of three towTilands, the one called Trian Muimhnech (the Momonian division), the other Trian Connachtach (the Connacian), and the third Trian Eoghanacht (Eugenian)." ' See " Ethnological Excursion to the Aran Islands," by M. Haverty, p. 1 7. 12 Diin Oghil. DUN EOCHLA. /\^_ Dun Oghil, Aranm6r. — , Plate VIII. ■^"iraMl I OGHIL, or the Fort of the Yew Wood, stands in a commanding situa- Av// / t^o^ crowning tlie summit of the highest hill in the island. It is situated in \ / '^^ townland of Oghil in the Greater Island of Aran, and was evidently once a very important fortress, and built for the defence of the north side of the island. Qn It commands a fine view of the harbours on every side. When Dr. O'Donovan first visited this fort he found it in a much better state of preservation than Diin Aengusa. It consists of two enclosures placed at unequal distances one from another. The internal ring or keep is nearly oval in form, measuring 91 ft. from north to south, and 75 ft. 6 in. from east to west (see ground-plan, fig. i, facing this page). It is a strong triple compacted wall, each division well formed with large stones. The masonry differs from Dun Aengusa in that the stones are laid horizontally in the wall, their sides, not their ends, coming to the face of the building. Its greatest height is 15 ft. 6 in. ; this is at the western side. At the east it is 14 ft. high. Here the two outer divisions of the wall are the same height, and measure 8 ft. in thickness, but the central division, which was 2 ft. 7 in. thick, is now nearly destroyed. The doorway is on the north-east side. It is 7 ft. 9 in. wide, but is now only 3 ft. in height. It was formed of very large stones, two of which extend the entire thickness of the wall. One of those, placed on the left-hand side, measures 9 ft. 7 in. in length and I ft. 3 in. in height, and i ft. 3 in. in thickness. There is but one of the foundation- stones remaining. Those which formed that part of the wall about the doorway may be seen lying in numbers in the hollow beneath, and they seem to have been hurled out of their places by the storm. There is a banquette, or platform, which runs round the inner side of the wall, and which is formed by the top of this inner portion, which is in some places 6 ft., and in others 7 ft. lower than the outer division of the wall, which thus forms a parapet. This is from 5 ft. to 6 ft. in height, and 2 ft. 6 in. in thickness. The main wall is, at this point, 5 ft. higher than the level of the banquette. The total thickness of the walls when united is 20 ft., the outer portion being 7 ft. 6 in., the middle 10 ft., and the inner 2 ft. 6 in. in To face pag'e 13. Dlin Oghil. 13 thickness. Access to this platform is gained by three flights of steps, one at the south- west side, another at the south, and another at the north-east side.' Of the first flight, leading from the ground to the top of inner wall or platform, that on the south-west side, only four steps are now visible, but three others still remain, though now hidden by the debris from the top. This flight is 4 ft. wide, and rises to within one Steps. step of the platform. Then the next flight of steps, that on the south side, leads on from the platform to the top of the wall. This consists of three steps. The first step, which is formed of two stones, measures i ft. i in. high and 6 in. in depth. The second step is formed of one stone, measuring 7 in. high and 8 in. in depth. The third consists of three stones rudely placed, and i ft. 4 in. high by 7 in. deep. The third flight, that in the north-east side, is now almost destroyed. It led from the ground to the top of the platform. FOUT NEAR THE ViLL.AGE OF OgHIL. About half a mile to the south-east of the village of Oghil stand the ruins of another very fine fort, of the name and history of which nothing is now known. It was built of much larger stones than those hitherto described ; the masonry is finer and more solid than any I have seen, and, as is the case in all these buildings, no cement is used. This fort appears to have been circular, but it is difficult to calculate what was the original diameter of this circle from the portion which remains. It would appear to have measured 60 ft. ' The editor has to thank Mr. Richard Burchett for the above illustrations of this first flight of steps. He hai also kindly added the following measurements ;— Height of steps 5 ft., width of ditto, 2 ft. 4 in ; height of main wall at this part 10 ft. ; height and width of steps, each 6 in. Mothar Dun. across. The greatest height of the present remaining fragment of the wall is 7 ft., and it is 12 ft. thick. This fortress must have been impregnable on the eastern side, as the wall rises from the very edge of the precipice. It is asserted by the oldest inhabitants of the island that this was the strongest fort there, but the greater part of the wall was destroyed that its stones might be used in building the little houses of the neighbouring village. west (see Ground Plan, fig. 2, facing page 12). It is built on the slope of a rocky hill, and not on the level at the top, which is peculiar. Only the upper part of the wall is on a line with the summit, so that any body of men approaching it along the top of the hill could overlook the area of the fort. The wall, like those of the other forts already described, consists of three distinct divisions, built in a compact mass and faced with stones of a considerable size. It is 15 ft. thick and 15 ft. high on the western side. The doorway is in the north-east portion of the building, and is 7 ft. wide, but the top is destroyed, and the whole so much injured that none of its charac- teristics can be discovered. In the interior of the wall there is a platform which is 3 ft. wide at the top and at a height of 6 ft. from the ground. Two flights of steps led from the floor of the fort to the top of the platform. The first of these was on the west side, it was 3 ft. 8 in. wide, and the other was on the north-eastern side of the fort ; another, of which only three steps now remain, was on the eastern side, while the fourth leads from the platform itself to the top of the building. It consisted of four steps. This platform was flagged with thin slabs of limestone. In a later portion of this work a distant view of this fort may be seen in the background of the view of Cill Cananach, Plate MOTHAR DUN. OTHAR DUN is situated in the Middle Island of Aran, called Inis- main. The part of the island in which it stands, and whence it takes its name, is called Mothar, which signifies a park or cluster of trees. This fort bears a strong resemblance to that of Dun Oonacht, though not so circular in form. It measures 103 ft. from north to south, and 93 ft. from east to On the Middle Island of Aran. XXXVII. The White Fort. 15 Forts on the South Island of Aran. The name of the great fort has unfortunately been forgotten by the natives of the island. It is strongly situated, and encircles a rocky height. It is a double enclosure, both walls being of an irregular form. The outer wall on the south side, which appears to have been of a great height, runs along the bottom of the hollow ground. It is now a mere ruin, and only 4 ft. 6 in. thick. The inner wall encloses a space 170 ft. in length by 123 ft. in width. In one place it is 12 ft. high and about 8 ft. thick. The doorway was placed on the east side, but is now so much destroyed that it is difficult to ascertain the original size. It appears to have been about 6 ft. 6 in. wide. There are beehive-shaped cells or cloghauns inside. And there is one between the outer and inner wall, the walls of which are sunk in a hollow, and the roof of which springs from the level of the ground. There is the same remarkable circumstance to be noticed in the construction of this fort as was observed in that last-mentioned. The wall is a revetment, and is built after the manner of the so-called Pelasgian walls in Italy, on the face or slope of the hill, so that the top does not reach much above the level of the rock inside. A fortress of later date, called O'Brien's Castle, has been erected within this fort. It is an oblong tower, two stories in height, with a very lofty battlement, rising 10 ft. above the water course. The remains of another fort may be seen on this South Island of Aran, about half a mile to the south of the ruins of St. Kevin's Church, but it is now such a complete ruin that no description of it can be given. Within this fort stands a sepulchral mound called the Grave of the Seven Daughters, and over the grave there stands a pillar stone with a rude cross sculptured thereon. Another monument, apparently Pagan, lay to the east of O'Brien's Castle. It was called Cahir Na-mbhan. The White Fort. Besides the seven forts in the Islands of Aran I examined three on the mainland, in the county of Galway. The first of these is called Cahir Gel, or the White Fort. It is situated in the parish of Killursa, and takes its name from the whiteness of the stone of which it is built. It lies about 2 miles from Lough Corrib, on the road from Kylibeg, or Clydagh, to Headford, and gives its name to the townland in which it stands. Its grand Cyclopean walls are formed of unhewn stones, measuring roughly 5 ft. 7 In. in length, 3 ft. in i6 The White Fort. depth, and i ft. 6 in, in height. The walls are loft, thick, and when Dr. O'Donovan first visited the place they measured from 1 6 to 20 ft. in height, but now their height varies from 6 to 10 ft., a large quantity of the stones having been removed to build a barrack at Headford. Inside, this fort was 1 1 7 ft. in diameter. The entrance is on the south-east side, and measures 7 ft. 6 in. in width. Cahir Gel. There appear to have been steps in the wall which may have led to a platform or banquette, but the interior of the wall is too much destroyed to say with certainty whether any such ever existed or not. This fort has been already described by Sir William Wilde in his account of Lough Corrib, page 95. The next I examined was a fort called Cahir Aidne, situated near the eastern shore of Lough Corrib, opposite to Lee's Island. It is about 100 ft. in diameter inside. The stones of which it is built „TEPo .N c„H,R Cel. jjQj. ^^fy large, and the walls, which are very imperfect all round, are about 8 or 10 ft. high and 6 ft. thick. The outside of this building is quite hidden by brushwood and ivy, and is encircled by a ditch and bank. The third fort lies on the road from Oranmore to Gort. It measures 140 yards in diameter. The present height of the wall is 7 ft. The masonry is very rude. Fig. a is an example of it at a place where it is from 5 to 6 ft. high. There were two doorways on the north and the other on the south side, but no covering stone remains to either. One jamb of the northern doorway is formed of a huge slab or block of stone 7 ft. long, and 5 ft. 6 in. high. On the other side there is a stone which measures about 4 ft. long, and 4 ft. in height. The wall here is 7 ft. thick. Cahir DUn Fergus. i? CAISEL BAN. Cashel Bawn, County of Sligo. Plate IX. S|ASHEL BAWN formed one of a chain of forts that ran along the foot of the Ben Bulben range of mountains, in the county of SHgo. It is almost circular in form, being 78 feet in diameter from east to west, and 76 from north to south. The wall seems to have been single. In the lower part the stones of which it is formed are large. The inner face of the wall is perfect to the height of 6 or 8 ft. There are no small stones in it, but it is built of limestone boulders, which were probably the material nearest at hand ; the mass of the wall merely consists of rubble very loosely put together. The doorway was on the eastern side. Only one of the lower stones is now re- maining, and this measures 3 ft. 8 in. in width. Here the wall is 13 ft. in thickness, and the doorway was, consequently, of this depth. It grows narrower on the inner than on the outer side. There is no trace of any flight of steps in the wall leading to a banquette, but there is a passage on the west side in the thickness of the wall. Altogether this fort is totally different from those in the Aran Islands, and very inferior in construction. In the county of Clare I examined five of these great fortresses. CAHIR DUN FERGUS. HE ground-plan of this fort is somewhat in the form of a horse-shoe. At a there is a decided right angle, and something approaching one at b. The wall is still 13 ft. high at one part. It is very roughly built. The stones are generally laid in horizontal layers, though some are nearly vertical. The faces of these stones are very rough. On the l_ east side of the wall the masonry is more regular; here the stones are laid lengthwise inwards, and there is one large stone measuring 4 ft. 7 in. by 3 ft. in depth. The wall has no regular batter, and is single. The doorway was on the east side, its jambs are now destroyed. At the height of 4 ft. from the ground there is a banquette or platform to which a flight of steps ascends. These steps are 2 ft. 6 in. wide and i ft. 6 in. in depth. The whole building appears to have been thrown up in a hurry. The floor is of D i8 Cahir Dzin Fergus. bare rock, and, at the doorway, is three feet higher inside than out. There are no signs of chevaux de frise, nor of any outworks here. In the barony of Burren and to the north of Inchiquin Lake I observed several forts, but could only examine them hurriedly. Their names seem to have" been lost. One, which stands at the side of the road from Clifden to Tarmon, north of the Lake of Inchi- quin, is most beautifully situated on the summit of a rock which itself rises in the form of a gigantic fortress from the centre of the ravine in which it stands. The fort wall is 12 ft. thick, and in some parts is 12 ft. high. The stones are well laid with their lengths across the wall. The doorway is on the east side, where the wall is 1 2 ft. thick. The remains of clochauns or beehive-shaped houses are visible in the interior. About half a mile to the east of this lies a magnificent concentric fort with three walls, standing, like Diin Aengusa, at the edge of a cliff. It bears a stronger resemblance to those in the Islands of Aran than any I have yet seen elsewhere, and, as' I had heard nothing of its existence before, I thought it a great discovery. On the south-west side the outer wall is much ruined, and has fallen to the height of eight feet. It is built of rather flat stones, and the masonry is very rough. The second wall is much the same. There was formerly a sort of covered way walled in, or a passage on either side, leading from the outer to the inner wall, but this is nearly destroyed. The wall of the third or innermost enclosure is still 1 3 ft. high, but the top is ruined ; all round it is 20 ft. in thickness, and in some places it would appear that it was originally double. The floor of this fort is 4 or 5 ft. higher than the ground outside. No remains of a doorway can be seen in any of the walls. There was a platform or banquette inside the inner wall, 4 ft. above the ground and 3 ft. deep. A few of the steps which led up to it are also preserved ; they are about 3 ft. wide. A very small clochaun or cell is still standing outside this fort, but its roof is destroyed. I visited another fort, called Cahir Balliney, which is situated beyond Kilbanaghan Church. The wall here is built in fine old -looking masonry, 11 ft. thick, but is now only 6 ft. high. Near Ballyalavan, also in the county of Clare, there are three forts close to the road. The wall of the principal one is 8 ft. thick. It batters as shown in the cut fig. c. There was a platform inside at the height of 4 ft. from the ground. There appear to have been some oblong buildings in the interior. Near Kilfenora there are remains of several such fortresses, one of which is a noble ruin. The wall is double ; that on the outside having two faces with the interior filled with rubble, larger and coarser than is seen in the forts of Aran. The stones are not laid in courses, they are of good size, but not very large. The wall is from 13 and 14 to 18 ft. in thickness, and 14 ft. high. Dunbec. 19 The door was on the east side, and is now filled up. The largest stones are in the part of the wall near it. One lintel remains. It is 8 ft. long, 3 ft. wide, and i ft. 4 in. deep. This door is approached by a curved passage about 9 ft. wide, but it is in such a ruined condition that the arrangement is not easily ascertained. all communication with the mainland. It is 200 ft. in length, and consists of a double wall all along about 22 ft. thick, and the inner wall is 9 ft. in height, while the outer is in some places only five. The inner wall has two faces. The stones of which it is built are the largest I have ever seen in any fort. They are flattish, and are laid with their lengths in. Another lesser wall ran round along the edge of the cliff. [In the thickness of the wall at each side of the entrance (a), Mr. G. V. Du Noyer observed long narrow passages (f f), formerly covered in, the uses of which are not apparent, as no original means of access to them are visible.] See ground-plan, p. 20. The doorway of this fort is the most curious and the largest I have yet seen in Ireland. A view of the interior is given in Plate X., and the details of this entrance will be better understood from the accompanying plan and section, taken from Professor Sullivan's description of this fort in his Introduction to Mr. O'Curry's " Lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish," p. cccxiv. It is 22 ft. in depth, 3 ft. 8 in. high, 3 ft. wide at the base and 2 ft. 2 in. at the top on the outside. The lintel is 4 ft. 7 in. long, 3 ft. deep, and i ft. high. The doorway grows wider towards the inside, where the lintel is 6 ft. 5 in. long, and 4 ft. deep. The next roofing stone is 8 ft. long, and 4 ft. deep. Inside, the doorway is 5 ft. high, and 7 ft. wide across; in the right hand side on entering, there is a very small passage i ft. 5 in. square, which leads on a level with the ground into a small chamber 4 ft. in height, and 7 ft. long by 4 ft. wide. There is a similar chamber on the other side of the door, but no small passage to it that I could find. Mr. Du Noyer describes one as opening on the area in front of the fort. There are three ramparts with intervening fosses running parallel with this wall on DUNBEC. The " Little Fort," County of Kerry. Plate X. / HIS fortress is situated on a headland in Dingle Bay, at the foot of Mount Eagle, in the parish of Ventry and townland of Fahan. This great Cyclopean work consists of three ramparts and a massive stone wall, which reaches from cliff to cliff, and cuts off the promontory from 20 Dundee. the outside. [The relative proportions of these mounds and fosses are shown in the section which is taken between N and s in the plan. They are formed out of the drift clay and gravel which overlie the strata of dull purple grits, sandstones, and slates, of Ground-plan and Section of Dunbec. which the promontory is composed.] The innermost rampart was faced with stones, and is about 12 ft. thick. There is a causeway leading through these three ramparts to the door. Dunbec 21 The large flags of which it is formed are laid over an underground passage, about i ft. 6 in. in depth, and from 3 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. in width, to where the causeway crosses the central rampart. There are several curious clochauns within the interior of this fort, they consist of angular chambers enclosed in circular buildings. I see no difference between these clochauns and some of the ecclesiastical cells. From the extreme eastern and western limits of the external fortifications just de- scribed, two walls extend up the flank of Mount Eagle, which enclose a plot of ground now called Park-a-doona. Here commences a line of buildings consisting of forts enclosing groups of clochauns which extend along the sea-coast, from this Dunbec Fort on the east to the village of Coumeenoole in the parish of Dunquin on the west. The most remark- able of these groups is enclosed within a fort named Cahir na-mac-tirech, or " the stone fort of the wolves." The wall of this fort is very fine, the stones are set transversely, and one of them measures 6 ft. in length by 5 ft 6 in. broad. The doorway is in the eastern side of the wall, it is 11 ft. deep and 3 ft 6 in. wide ; the northern jamb is half- formed of small stones placed horizontally, and half of one large stone set upright. Inside there are five cells grouped together, and the doorways of these cells are larger than those for supposed ecclesiastical purposes. The principal house of this group is very well built ; its doorway is formed internally of large upright (lagstones supporting a horizontal lintel ; it is 4 ft. high, and has inclined jambs 2 ft. 6 in. wide at the bottom, and 2 ft. at the top. In the other clochauns, the doors are from 3 ft. to 4 ft. in height, and 2 ft. wide. The Doorway of Clochaun in Cahir na-mac-tirech. 22 The White Fort, County of Kerry. wall of the next clochaun is 3 ft. thick, its doorway is 4 ft. 6 in. high, 3 ft. 2 in. wide at the base, and 2 ft. 3 in. at the top. There is another fort still further to the west which is very remarkable, for its walls are threaded with various passages. It is situated on the slope of a hill, and has a wall only on three sides, the cliff or steep bank forming the fourth. Within there is a group of clochauns, the doorways of which are remarkably high for such structures. In one cell, the doorway is 6 ft. high, 4 ft. 7 in. deep, and 3 ft. 9 in. wide. One of these cells is 10 ft. high, and 7 ft. 8 in. in diameter. Another group of small clochauns lies to the east of the fort of Dunbec ; and at the distance of about half a-mile beyond Glen Fahan stream, I saw a group of three, each one of which communicated with the others. One of these measured 18 ft. 8 in., but I could only give a cursory exami- nation to these structures, which extend over many miles {^jide map). CAHIR GEL. ' The " White Fort," County of Kerry. Plate XI, / HIS remarkable fort is situated about half a-mile north of Ballycarbery Castle, and about two English miles to the north-west of the town of Cahirciveen, in the parish of Cahir, barony of Iveragh, county of Kerry. It is named Cahir Gel (Gheal), or White Fort, from the light colour of the stones of which it is built. This fort consists of a single circular wall, the circle measuring 86 ft. in diameter (see ground-plan, fig. 12, facing page 11). The wall is 18 ft. in thickness, and 14 ft. high. The masonry is the most perfect I have ever seen in these struc- tures, and practically quite equal to that of any cemented wall. The stones are well chosen, they look very small on the face of the wall, but they are placed so that only their ends are shown, and closely resembling in appearance a prismatic basalt dyke. They are from 2 ft. to 3 ft. in length. The character of these stones is very rhomboidal, as is seen in figs, rf, e,f. All the interstices are filled in with stones of the very smallest size, and wedged in as tightly as possible. Both faces of the wall are quite regular. The stones used in facing are long prisms, the sides of which appear to be perpendicular to the surface of the wall. The The White Fort, County of Kerry. 23 batter is considerable, and in some places there is a tendency to the bulbous in the form of the outline which is apparent in the same degree at Staigue Fort. The character of this masonry is well seen in the annexed careful drawings by my friend Dr. Graves, now Lord Bishop of Limerick, which he has kindly permitted me to use. the next 2 ft. 3 in., and the upper one 2 ft. 2 in. in width. These were reached by flights of stone steps which led to the top of the wall from one platform to another (see fig. g). Very few of these are now remaining. 24 Staigue Fort. STAIC FORT. Staigue Fort, County of Kerry. (Plates XII. XIII. XIV. XV.) ^ HIS noble specimen of ancient Irish architecture is situated in Kil- crohan parish, in the barony of Iveragh, in the county of Kerry. It is difficult to explain the origin of the name of this fort. Staic is a word signifying heap, reek, rick or stack. The range of mountains, forming one side of the amphitheatre in which it stands, are called the Reeks and also the Stacks, just as in other parts of Ireland rocks of a certain form are called "Stags," a corruption of the Irish word Staic ; so that the true interpretation of the name of this fort is probably the " Fort of the Reeks." It consists of one circular wall 89 ft. in diameter, 12 ft. 10 in. thick at the base, and 7 ft. at the top. It is 18 ft. high at the north and west sides. Its material is indurated schistus, the rock of the surrounding mountains. The wall is quite perfect on the north side, and the coping-stones still remaining are flags about 3 ft. long. The masonry and construction of this wall are very striking. The stones are all flat and shallow, and laid as headers, the interstices being filled in by small spawls so admirably fitted and firmly fixed as to be all but immovable. A view of the exterior of this building is given in Plate XII., and in Plate XIII. an outer portion of the .wall is seen, which exhibits a peculiarity in the method of construction previously noticed in the description of Diin Conor. I allude to certain vertical divisions which make it appear that the wall was built in short lengths, each completed independently. b c Figs, b and c show sections of this wall. There is a remarkable curve visible both at the outside and inside in the outline of this fort (see fig. «), and it is curious that near the top of the wall the stones on each face incline towards each other somewhat in this manner (see fig. d). i Staigtie Fort. 25 This fine doorway is on the south side of the fort, the centre of which it does not quite face. It measures 6 ft. 2 in. in height, 5 ft. 2 in. wide at the base, and 4 ft. 3 in. at the top. It is 12 ft. 9 in. in depth, that being the thickness of the wall at this portion. It is built of long flags, and roofed by three lintel stones. The outer one is 5 ft. ro in. long, 9 in. thick, and 2 ft. deep. The next is 2 ft. 6 in. deep. The top rises i ft. 3 in. Fig. ^ is a section of the doorway, showing the deep reveal which occurs just when the change of height takes place at the top. This is important, as seeming to indicate that a door was once placed here. The ground rises nearly 2 ft. on the inside, and the aperture within is only 5 ft. 5 ' in. high. Here the lintel is 6 ft. 3 in. long. On the exterior it will be observed that there is a second lintel, taking the weight of the superstructure off" the lower one. Staigue Fort. Interior. Plate XV. In this plate a portion of the interior of the fort may be seen. The inside of the wall is divided into ten compartments by flights of steps, which run crosswise to its summit. These steps are generally i ft. 4 in. high by i ft. 3 in. deep and i ft. 3 in. wide. They are irregular, in some instances rising directly from the ground, in others not reaching to within 3 ft. of it. In the thickness of the wall there are two chambers of this form, the entrance to one of which may be seen in this plate. This doorway is 2 ft. 9 in. wide, and 3 ft. 6 in. high inside, but the ground of the fort is nearly i ft. higher outside the chamber than it is inside. This apartment is 6 ft. high. The second is near the entrance, and is 10 ft. long and 4 ft. wide and 6 ft. 3 in. high. They are constructed like clochauns — the ceiling formed with over- lapping flags. This fort was encompassed by a moat or fosse 26 ft. wide and 6 ft. 3 in. deep, the remains of which are still evident. PART I. ECTiON II. EARLY CHRISTIAN MONASTERIES. SCEILIG MHICHIL. St. Michael's Rock. And watching, as a patienf, sleepless eremite, The moving waters at their priest-like task Of pure ablution round earth's human shore. T a distance of about twelve miles from the westernmost point of the coast of Kerry, stand the two islands of the Greater and Lesser Skellig. rst of these is a rock dedicated to St. Michael, which, h'ke the spire e g;reat cathedral, raises its graceful and majestic form, steadfast and n-incr, above the swellino- waters of the wide Atlantic ocean. The Si. Michael's Rock. 27 Church of St. Michael, with its group of monastic cells, is built upon its northern summit, where the rounded form of the hill is tinged with delicate green and roseate colour from the sea plants that grow upon its bosom ; while to the south, the bare pointed rock which forms its highest peak, shoots upwards towards the sky. Seen at a distance of some miles from the sea, veiled in summer mist and sunlight, nothing is more lovely than this island ; but, as the vessel gradually approaches, the character of the scene is changed, and the cliffs which form its precipitous sides reveal their dark forms, and the great black masses of slate rock grow terrible in their aspect when seen to rise above and overhang the little boat as it approaches the landing-place. This is a narrow cove, where the surrounding cliffs rise vertically to the full height of the island, and at the end of the gully a cave " more black than the blackness " yawns to the wave, which, swelling in slow majestic motion, sinks and engulphs itself within its mouth. (Plate XVI.) A narrow road, cut on the face of the precipice, and winding in and out, as it follows the outline of the projecting cliffs, ascends gradually to the lower lighthouse. It is defended by a strong parapet wall on the sea side, which, when viewed from a distance, shows like a white waving thread along the dark overhanging rock. About midway it passes along the sides of another chasm, like that at the landing-place, which also ends in a cave, where the wave falls with a deep w^ild boom. Nothing can be more wonderful than the breaking of the sea upon the cliff as seen from this parapet all along. The clear waters, meeting and commingling, swell and fall far below, and, as they fall, they break into all shades of green, blue, violet and white against the dark grey rock, while, as the wave subsides, its roar is succeeded by the hissing sound of the cataracts of water it has left behind, pouring from the crevices in a thousand streams. Looking upward and beyond the lower lighthouse, which stands about 1 40 ft. above the sea, this zigzag road with its whitened parapet may still be seen winding as a white line among the black cliffs overhead. Above, the rock towers higher and higher, and is split into fantastic forms, like the opened leaves of a book set upright, with narrow strips of bright green running between them, or fringing the horizontal blocks of the strata at their feet. When the sunlit mists or vapours sweep in driving clouds above them, the effect is in the highest degree mysterious and beautiful ; but, when at one moment these mists rise so as entirely to conceal the heights, and at the next they vanish as if at the touch of some unseen hand, and the cliff again stands revealed against the blue imfathomed sky, it seems as if the whole scene were called up to the eye by some strange magician's wand. The ancient approach to the monastery from the landing-place was on the north- 28 St. Michael's Rock. east side. There are 620 steps from a point of the chff, which is about 120 ft. above the level of the sea, up to the monastery. The rest of this flight of steps is broken away, and a new approach has been cut by the lighthouse workmen. The old stairs run in a varying line ; the steps, which grow broader towards the upper half of the ascent, are lined with tufts and long cushions of the sea-pink, and at each turn the ocean is seen breaking in silver foam hundreds of feet below. The first resting- place is the flagstaff station, from which the descent into the sea is almost perpendi- cular. It is crowned by an upright rock, which seems to be the last portion of one of those great leaves into which, by its natural cleavage, the rock is separated. It has all the effect of a monument, now like the statue of an archer, and again, Avhen viewed from another point, rising black and rugged somewhat in the form of a rude and timeworn cross. This island has been the scene of annual pilgrimages for many centuries, and the service of the Way of the Cross is still celebrated here, though with some perfectly traditional forms of prayer and customs, such as are now only found to exist among the islanders along the west coast of Ireland. From the last place mentioned a long flight of steps reaches to " Christ's Saddle," or the Garden of the Passion. Here the pilgrim rests before his final ascent to the Oratory (see Plate XVII.) This valley is a narrow saddle- shaped strip of land between the two extreme heights of the island, either side being perpendicular to the sea. It is covered with a soft green sod. Standing at that side which faces the western horizon, the whole of the great Spit, as the highest point of the island is called, may be seen rising from the sea — a sheer precipice from summit to base. It runs up like a Gothic tower, girt with buttresses and pinnacles, all in a glory of colours. The black rock at its foundation contrasts with the deep blue of the sea, and above it is variegated with tufts of lichen and sea pink, fern and moss, which, when lit up by the evening sun, shine out in every shade of green. Towards the summit the rock becomes lighter in tone and less thickly clothed with vegetation, until it ends in a sharp point glittering in the sunlight, Having rested in this valley, the pilgrim, feet and head uncovered, pursues his way upward on the pathway that marks the " Way of the Cross." Turning the corner, he reaches the third station, called " The Stone of Pain," where is commemorated the moment when Christ, bowed under the weight of the cross, sank for the first time to the ground. Here he finds himself on the edge of a precipice many hundred feet above the sea. From the side strange pointed rocks project like the finials of a spire, and, looking downwards, the eye rests on one of these rocks below, which has, first by nature and then by man, been rudely hewn into the form of a cross, which lays its " dark arms " St. Michael's Rock. 29 across the sea, This station is named " Tlie Roct: of Woman's Wailing," and here it is that the scene in the wall; to Calvary is recalled when Christ turns and says, " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children ; for behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the The Way of the Cross. wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills, cover us." Looking upwards, the first glimpse of the cashel or enclosing wall of the monastery is seen ; when the wall is reached, the path leads along a level way through the entrance into the Garden of the Monks ; then there is a low covered passage, emerging from which and ascending a few more steps, the platform is reached on which stand the 30 S^. Michael's Rock. ruins of the Church of St. Michael, and the beehive-shaped cells in which the monks dwelt. The scene is one so solemn and so sad that none should enter here but the pilgrim and the penitent. The sense of solitude, the vast heaven above and sublime monotonous motion of the sea beneath, would but oppress the spirit, were not that spirit brought into harmony with all that is most sacred and most grand in nature, by the depth and even by the bitterness of its own experience. SCEILIG MHICHIL. St. Michael's Church and Monastic Cells. Plate XVIII. 1 IE buildings which form this monastery occupy a piece of ground measur- ing about iSo ft. in length by from So to lOO ft. in width. They are — ist, The Church of St. Michael, two small oratories, Nos. 5 and 7 in ground- plan, and six anchorite cells or dwelling-houses. There are also two wells, and five leachta or places of entombment, and several rude crosses. This group of build- ings were enclosed on one side by the rock against which they were partly built, and then by the cashel which ran along the edge of the precipice. The old entrance was at a (see ground-plan). It consisted of a flight of steps through a door, which i.s now stopped up. It leads into a small level piece of ground called the Monk's Garden at b, then by another flight to the doorway d, which is now stopped up. Part of the cashel or wall to the south of the leachta at G has fallen down. There are 670 steps from the monastery down the face of the cliff to where the path is broken away above the sea. Below this are two small enclosures l and M. l is about 12 ft. wide, like a terrace levelled on the rock. At M there is a wall, but it is not part of the ancient work ; that becomes visible where L joins the wall, and it may be seen to extend for about 90 ft. to the north end, where it abuts against the rock. The masonry of this ancient wall is beautiful, and worthy of the builders of Staigue Fort, whose work it strongly resembles. There is the same curve or batter in the outline of the wall, the stones are laid as headers, and fixed in horizontal layers, although they follow the batter. It is astonishing to conceive the courage and skill of the builders of this fine wall, placed as it is on the very edge of the precipice, at a vast height above the sea, with no possible standing ground outside the wall from which the builders could have worked ; yet the face is as perfect as To faop page 30 MAN.Hanliarc.litU I.iir.ilun SCKIL M0NAS1 Si. MichaeFs Rock. 31 that of Staigue Fort, the interstices of the greater stones filled in with smaller ones, all fitted as compactly and with as marvellous firmness and skill. There are projecting stones placed at intervals in the face of this wall, and it has been suggested that they may have been used by the builders to stand on, but it is difficult to conceive men working in such a position at a height of 700 or 800 ft. above the sea. They may, however, have supported a rude scaffolding. St. Michael's Church, the ruins of which may be seen represented in Plate XVIII., is evidently not the original church of this monastery, but a rebuilding of a later period. It faces north-east, which is peculiar. The other buildings are of drystone masonry, whereas the walls of this are cemented with a kind of shell mortar. They are 3 ft. 5 in. thick, and were formed of large stones, some of them being roughly dressed. The south wall may have been part of the original building. It is formed in like manner as the cashel, without cement. The sides of this church were perfect a few years ago up to the spring of the gable, but now the south wall has fallen into ruin, having been weakened by the islanders who dug close under it to form a grave. It was built partly upon a rock, partly upon a substructure with a decided batter in the wall. The south door was of dressed stone, 5 ft. 3 in. high, 2 ft. 5 in. wide at the base, and 2 ft. 4 in. at the top. The east window is arched, the arch being scooped out of a single stone. It is 3 ft. 7 in. high, and 1 1 in. wide at the base, and 10 in. at the springing of the arch. The remains of the ancient altar still exist, it is a stone table about i ft. high, 4 ft. 6 in. wide, and 2 ft. 8 in. deep, built a little to one side, the centre not being directly under the east window, nor on a line with the centre of the building. Cell No. I. — This building is circular, with a beehive-shaped roof. It is built of small stones, none of which have ever been rounded. The interior is 16 ft. 6 in. in height. The wall at the bottom is 6 ft. 6 in. in thickness, and 6 feet thick at the top. There are two rows of projecting stones or steps on the outside of the roof. They may have been for standing on or putting planks across, while the building was in process of erection. There are some of these projecting stones in the inside also. The doorway is internally 3 ft. 10 in. high, 2 ft. 9 in. wide at bottom, 2 ft. 5 in. at top ; externally 4 ft. 8 in. high, 2 ft. 6 in. wide at bottom, and 2 ft. 2 in. at top. It has a double lintel. Over the door is a small window, and above it the form of the cross is seen. It is composed of five or six quartz stones, whose whiteness tells in strong contrast to the dark slate of which the cell is built. How this reminds me of the crosses in the gables and fronts of early Italian buildings ! There is another window facing west, externally i ft. 3 in. wide, and i ft. high. It has two stones which form its jambs, they project i ft. 6 in. at each side, and are i ft. wide and 9 to 10 in. deep. 32 St. Michael's Rock. At the top of the building, towards the south side, there is another small aperture almost circular in form. The walls in the interior are nearly upright for 7 or 8 feet. The window is much broader than it is long ; 4 feet within the room there is a semi circular step, and then a second to the wall. The angles of the wall in the interior are rounded off. Tiiere are three small recesses in the wall inside measuring about 2 ft. wide by i ft. 6 in. high. Cell No. 2. — The sides of this building are rectangular internally. The inside face of the wall is smooth; it is 4 ft. thick, and the chamber is 10 ft. 6 in. high. The stones of which it is formed are large ; one, which is over the door and extends across the side, is 7 ft. wide. Some of these stones are decidedly dressed to the curve, particularly that one which forms the lintel of the door. The wall is nearly vertical for 6 ft. The door inside is 4 ft. 7 in. high, 2 ft. wide at the bottom, and i ft. 7 in. at the top. Outside, the door is 4 ft. 4 in. high, and i ft. n in. wide at the bottom, and i ft. 8 in. at top. There is an aperture at the summit of the building, which is covered by a large flag about 4 ft. square. This cell is much better built than cell No. i, and of larger stones. It is doubtful whether the projections in front of this building are old. The two first are for steps. They are different masonry from the building itself There is a semicircular step in the floor inside. Cell No. 3. — This building is rectangular in the interior, the top is covered by an oblong flag about 1 ft. by 2^- ft. The floor rises two steps above the level, and a covered drain runs through it, coming out at the entrance of the building. The door is on the outside, 3 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. i in. wide at the bottom, and i ft. 11 in. at the top. This building strongly resembles No. 2, and the masonry is the same, while the internal form of both is exactly similar. There is the same aperture in the roof, which was evidently meant for a chimney. These buildings have no projecting stones like No. I, and the back of both is now covered with sods; whether they were so originally or not I cannot say, particularly now, as the ground has been levelled by the lighthouse workmen. Cell No. 4. — The general form of this cell is similar to that of No. i. The interior is 1 2 ft. high. There are two small recesses inside about 9 in. square. The floor rises in two steps, and one of them is semicircular. The angles of the building inside are rounded off for the first 5 ft., and above the building is oval. The floor is well paved, eight or nine of the flags being 5 ft. long. The door is large as compared with the others ; it measures 4 ft. 6 in. high, and 2 ft. 6 in. wide at the top, and 3 ft. at the bottom where the wall is 4 ft. thick. Above the level of the door there is a projection, 2 ft. wide Si:. Michael's Rock. 33 and I ft. deep. A second projection nearer the door is i ft. wide, and there is a third 3 ft. above. These run square, while the form of the building is oval. There is a window about I ft. 6 in. from the top. There are projecting stones in the wall which reach nearly to the roof This cell was evidently sodded intentionally. On the north side the earth and grass on its back are from i ft. to 2 ft. in depth. No. 5. — This building was an oratory. The interior preserves its quadrangular form to the height of 8 ft., and then passes into the oval dome. The doorway is large and very remarkable ; it is 4 ft. 10 in. high and 3 ft. 8 in. wide at the bottom, and 3 ft. 2 in. at the top ; it has the usual horizontal stones for jambs, but then, on the inside, two long stones are set on end at each side. The wall here is 4 ft. 8 in. thick, one of these stones is 3 ft. 6 in. high. The flags on the apex of the roof are 5 ft. long, and i ft. 5 in. wide. The east window is peculiar, it measures i ft. 8 in. wide by i ft. 4 in. high inside, and i ft. 6 in. high by i ft. 3 in. wide externally. On the side of the door there is a projection i ft. 6 in. above ground, and another on a level with the top of the door runs all round the building. These projections are square, with their angles merely taken off. Cell No. 6. — The form of this building is square to the height of two feet above the lintel of the door, and then becomes circular. There is a projection to the height of i or 2 ft. above the door. Inside are two rows of projecting stones or pegs, which here, as also in the other cells, may have been the supports of book-satchels ; three cupboards i ft. 6 in. long by i ft. wide. The chamber is 13 ft. high inside. The door is 3 ft. 10 in. high, and I ft. 8 in. wide at the top, and 2 ft. wide at the bottom. This door has a double lintel. There is a circular orifice at the top of the chamber. Oratory No. 7. — This appears to be the most ancient of all the buildings ; it stands alone, and is very curious. It is rudely built. Its outside is well seen in the drawing fig. 2, facing p. 30. The interior is well built, quite on the plan of the Gallarus oratories. There are no projecting stones. The east window is broader than it is high, as in cell i and oratory 5. The door is 3 ft. 6 in. high, i ft. 10 in. wide at bottom, and i ft. Sin. at top. The interior of the cell is 8 ft. to the top. At the end of the top level there is a small opening i ft. wide and 6 in. high. The east window externally is 2 ft. wide and i ft. high, and internally i ft. 8 in. wide, and 10 in. high. Cell No. 8. — This is the ruin of a circular cell on the north-east side of cell No. 3, about 9 ft. 8 in. more would be visible but for the modern wall built up against it. This was perhaps the most ancient of all the cells. Before concluding these notices of this group of buildings, I may add that I think Nos. 5, 6, and 8 were probably the most ancient. No. 5 seems to mark a transition from the cell or dwelling-place of the monk to such oratories as were built in the form of Gallarus, of F 34 S^. MicAael's Rock. which No. 7 is like a miniature copy, and which it perfectly resembles both inside and out. There are two structures called leachta, stone monuments, places of entombment, one to the north-east, the other to the west, of oratory No. 5. They are marked G and H on the ground-plan. The largest, g, is raised about 3 ft. above the level of the ground, the lower course of the wall being formed of long horizontal flagstones, while pieces of loose quartz are built into the upper course. A line of upright stones runs along the east and a portion of the south-west side, and probably once surrounded the whole structure. These pillar-stones are either rudely shaped into the form of a cross or have a cross incised upon them. Fourteen of these crosses are still standing on the western side, and a few opposite them. The smaller leacht, H, is similar to this in form, in the centre of which stands a great cross, which may be seen in Plate X X., but the top of the south-west wall has been covered by a flagging placed there by the lighthouse-builders of late years. Numbers of ancient crosses are to be seen on the cliffs in various parts of the island, which was a place of pilgrimage and penance in the early ages of the Church. Near the highest point of the island, which is called the Spit, I found the remains of a little building Avhich appears to have been quadrangular, probably an oratory — all that now remains are portions of the south and west walls, with one jamb of the doorway and a cross standing near. This is probably the spot which is marked " burying place " in the map of the Ordnance Survey. There are also curious portions of an ancient wall on certain projec- tions of rock near the Spit. Historical Notes on the Skellig Islands. The Greater Skellig is celebrated in some of the oldest legends of Ireland as the burial- place of Ir, the son of Milesius, who was buried near the summit of the rock, where a cromlech was standing up to a late period, which was held by tradition to mark his grave. The story of the death of this hero was given by an ancient poet Eochaid O'Flinn, related in the psalter of Cashel, and quoted by Keating in his " History of Ireland " (p. 50). After describing how Ir, with the other Milesian heroes, was driven out to sea, a storm came on in which Ir, with his ship, was separated from the fleet, and driven on the western coast of Desmond, where the ship split upon the rocks, and every man perished. The body of Ir was carried by the waves to Skellig Island, and there buried.' " This ' See " Ogygia," part ii. pp. 82, S3. The same legend is preserved in the O'Gorman MSS., Royal Irish Academy, pp. 1014, 11 50 to 11 55. In another legend called Cath Finntraga, the Battle of the White Strand, this island is referred to under the name Glas Charraig, or the Green Rock. It is said that when the mythical hero Daire' Dormhan invaded Ireland, he landed on this island before entering the Bay of the White Strand, i.e. Ventry Harbour. (See O'Curry's "Lectures on Irish History," vol. i. p. 315.) S^. Michael's Rock. 35 place," writes Keating, "by reason of its peculiar qualities, deserves a particular descrip- tion. It is a kind of rock, situated a few leagues in the sea, and since St. Patricks time much freqitetited by way of piety and devotion." It is to be lamented that the historian gives no authority for this statement as to the early date of a religious establishment on this island, since no record connected with the monastery is given by the annalists previous to the year 8 1 2, and there is no history of its founder. Archdall, borrowing from Smith's " History of Kerry," states that an abbey was founded here by St. Finan, but he quotes no ancient authority. St. Finan the Leper was the saint referred to, whose cell on Lough Currane, in the same barony, but on the mainland, resembles those on this rock. Ware (p. 107) speaking of the church on this rock says, "Of the first founder I can say nothing." Inisfallen Friary we learn from the same authority was also founded by St. Finan, surnamed the Leprous, after the middle of the sixth century. See Colgan, "Acta Sanct." March 16. Fiondn, the Leper of Sord, and of Cluain-Mdr, in Leinster ; and of Ard Fionain in Munster. He was of the race of Cian, son of Oilioll Oluim. (Martyr. Donegal.) There is but one ecclesiastic connected with this island whose name appears in the Irish calendars, and the 28th of April is the day. In the " Martyrology of Tamlaght" the commemoration is " Suibni of the Scelig; " in those of Marian Gorman and Donegall it is "Suibne of Scelig," which Colgan latinizes, "Subneus abbas Schelekensis." (Actt. SS. p. 57 (5, n. 2.) The notices of the place in the Annals furnish some more names : — 823. " Eitgall of Scelig was carried away by the strangers, and soon died of hunger and thirst." (Annal. Ulst.) In the " Wars of the Danes," the occurrence is more fully related : " Scelig Michil was also plundered by them ; and they took Eitgall with them into captivity, and it was by miracles he escaped, and he died of hunger and thirst with them " (p. 7). The same authority records another plundering of Scelig Michil not long afterwards. (I6id. pp. 17, 228. See also the notes at pp. xxxviii. 223.) A.D. 950. Blathmhac, of Sceilig, died. (Four Mast.) A.D. 1044. Aedh, of Sgelig-Michil, died. (Four Mast.) There was a legend preserved in Kerry within Dr. Petrie's memory, that when St. Malachy was driven out of his monastery at Bangor, he took refuge for some time in the monastery on the Greater Skellig. St. Bernard, in his life of that saint, relates how Cormac, King of Munster, when visited by Malachy, set apart a place for the building of a monastery at Ibrach, in Munster, and this place has been already identified by Dr. Lanigan with Iveragh, the barony in the county of Kerry of which the Skelligs form a part. It is not improbable that while St. Malachy and the band of monks who followed him were employed about the erection of their new foundation on the mainland, he may have visited the anchorite establishment on this island. 36 S^. MichaeVs Rock. At Ballinskelligs are to be seen the ruins of an ancient abbey or friary, of the order of St. Augustine canons. The monastery was removed from the Great Skellig, which was found to be too difficult of access. The ancient abbey on the mainland appears to have been a very noble and extensive edifice. Here there is a holy well dedicated to St. Michael, which is annually visited on the 29th of September. In the 28th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, November 24th, a lease of this abbey was granted to John Blake, for the term of twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of £(> 13J. 4flf. The Skellig Rock has been described by Giraldus Cambrensis, in his work, " Topo- graphia HiberniEe." [See edition lately published by the Master of the Rolls in England.] " In the southern part of Munster, in the neighbourhood of Cork, there is an island with a church dedicated to St. Michael, famed for its orthodox sanctity from very ancient times. There is a stone outside the porch of this church, on the right hand and partly fixed in the wall, with a hollow in its surface, which every morning, through the merits of the saint to whom the church is dedicated, is filled with as much wine as will conveniently suffice for the service of the masses on the day ensuing, according to the number of priests there who have to celebrate them. A like miracle is mentioned in the dialogues of St. Gregory, where he speaks of a certain Campanian monk named Martin, who secluded himself for many years in a narrow cave of Mount Marisco." The editor has to thank Mr. W. M. Hennessy for the following curious passage relating to this island, found by him in a MS. account by Thaddeus Moynihan, furnished to Edward Llhwyd. (H. 2, 14. T. C. D. p. 338.) " Only one rock, which is an admiration in Europe, laying or standing in the western part of the Barony Iverahagh in Kerry. This Rocke stands 3 leagues from the earth in the main ocean, itt is all at lest 700 perches long or heigh, and with much adoe one man can climb up the stayres to it at a tyme, if he lookes of any side he will be afrayd of faleing into sea, att the top of this rock is a Church built, and a church yeard about it, people coming too far to perform a pilgrimage in that Rocke, there is a fount or well springing out of the Rocke in the top, and which is very admirable, there is no bird that threds in the said churchyeard above but must go to the very brinke or bancke thereof affore they can fly ; they can fly over it, but if they light in that place they can never fly until they run to the brink as afforesaide. Lett no man doubt of this, for it is as sure as death, and the place is held miraculous out of those workes, it is named from the Archangel! St. Michaell, in Irish Sceilig Michil." Senack's Island, Magherees. 37 OILEN-TSENAIG. Jff »| Senach's Island, Magherees. nl^lW^/ 59) Plates XXI. and XXII. fflUy^^Ht ENACH'S Island forms one of a group of islands called the Magherees, which hv^ J/kC*^(/^^^ situated off the coast of Kerry, in the townland of Killshannig, parish //lR7=n¥A\ °^ Killiney and barony of Corcaguiney. [The names of both townland and III ^^3^ ill parish appear to be of ecclesiastical origin, one signifying the Church of Senach ■^^^^^^^ (Cill-tSenaig), and the other the Church of Enna (Cill Einne). The ruins of a monastic establishment may still be seen on an island belonging to this group, named Oilen-tSeanaig, or the Island of Senach (Anglice lUauntannig). It is low and level, dipping slightly to the south. The cashel and monastic buildings are at the south-east corner of the island, so close to the water's edge that a portion of the wall has fallen into the sea, although on the sheltered side. The ground enclosed by this venerable cashel has been long used as a burial-place ; and on that side of the island which slopes towards the sea, and where the wall has been washed away, the graves of those long resting there have been opened by the beating waves, and portions of human skeletons and fragments of bones are seen projecting from the face of the bank, while the roofless oratories and broken cells, and the great rude cross that rises over all, dark against the sky, seem only to add to the sense of desolation and to enhance the mournful poetry of the scene.] The cashel of this monastery must have been a very fine one. Rudely built of the great blocks of limestone found near at hand, the wall was 1 8 ft. in thickness. But only in one spot does a single portion of the outer face remain. It extends for a distance of about 20 ft., and is now 4 ft. or 5 ft. in height. The entrance was about 4 ft wide, and on the south-west side of the enclosure. Unfortunately, the island on which it stands was let about sixty years ago to two tenants, who found this cashel an excellent quarry from which to procure stones for their own buildings, and thus the destruction of this great wall is accounted for. Inside the cashel the remains consist of two oratories, three clochauns or cells, and three leachtas or burial-places. They are closely grouped together in the southern half of the cashel, and not scattered over the enclosure, as are the buildings of Inismurray, an island off the coast of Sligo. Oratory i. — This is a very rude but valuable example of the early church. (See Plate XXI.) It measures internally 14 ft. in length by 9 ft. in width. On the west the outer wall is 7 ft. thick. There is an offset of i ft. running along each side, and, where 38 SenacUs Island, Magherees. any portion has been exposed to view, a separate face appears ; tliat is, the wall has a face within the offset, at least on one side. Then there is a second offset at the level of the lintel of the doorway, which is 4 ft. broad at the widest part, and 2 ft. at the narrowest. This building is, I think, the best example I have seen of transition from the simple clochaun to the angular well-built oratory, of which Gallarus is the type. Unfortunately, the true form cannot be ascertained, either externally or internally, as the upper portion of the roof is gone, and a good deal of the outer offset is ruined. This second offset was in no way bonded to the inner work ; so naturally it has separated and crumbled down. There is some herring-bone masonry, formed of white " popples," in a portion of the south wall of this oratory. Mr. G. V. Du Noyer gives a drawing of a perfectly similar example of this masonry in the wall of a cell belonging to the monastic establishment at Inistuskert, one of the Blasket Islands in the same county. See the small building to the left, Plate XXI. The sides of the doorway are rather curved. It measures 2 ft. 6 in. wide at the base, and i ft. 10 in. at the top. It is 4 ft, or perhaps 4 ft. 4 in., in height externally. The east window has a curious inclination to the south. It has a horizontal lintel, and, at one side, there is an upright stone, which appears to have been inserted to prop up the lintel. There is one peculiarity in this window which I have never observed before ; that is, it has externally a drop of 6 in. in the sill. There is a narrow curved passage leading up to the doorway of this oratory, which peculiarity we afterwards observed again on the Island of Inisglora, where a somewhat similar passage to the entrance still remains. The second oratory or cell is formed like some of the cells on the Skellig Rock, square inside and rounded or oval outside. The east end of this building is carried away and the roof is gone. The north wall is 8 ft. thick. The doorway measures 3 ft 6 in. in Doorway of Oratory on Senach's Island, SenacHs Island, Magherees. 39 height, 2 ft. wide at the base, and i ft. 9 in. at the top. There is a cross above the doorway, formed of white "popples," set in the dark grey stone of which the wall is formed, such as we had seen before in the monastery on the Skellig. Clochaun (fig. 3). — This cell is much ruined. It measures 13 ft. by 8 ft. I could not discover the entrance ; but on the west side there is a doorway leading by a passage to a chamber in the wall. Here the wall is on a level with the ground. See Plate XXI. Clochaun 4 and 5. — These cells are very rudely built, the interstices between the stones not being filled up. They have the stones projecting from the roof externally, such as we observed in the cells on the Skellig, but there are no platforms or offsets. The size of the first is 11 ft. X 8 ft. The doorway measures 4 ft. 6 in. in height, 1 ft. 10 in. broad at the top, and 2 ft. 4 in. at the base. The wall is 4 ft. in thickness. Cashel on Senach's Island. Leachta i. — The largest of these is built as a wall, but is now a good deal pulled about. There are several white stones at the top. At the end of this leacht stands the cross, which measures 6 ft. in height, and the shaft is i ft. 3 in. wide. This cross is surrounded by a small circle of stones. A poor man who had committed homicide, came to the foot of the cross and absolutely fasted two days, spending his nights within this small circle, until the priest of the parish sent him out of the island. These leachta are about 4 ft. high, and are square oblong buildings with white stones lying on the top. They are like those still standing inside the cashel at Inismurray. At a distance of about a hundred yards from the cashel, and close to the edge of the low cliff or shore, there is a large stone which measures 6 ft. in length and 4 ft. in width, it is 2 ft. 6 in. high. There is a shallow basin scooped out of the face of this stone 9 in. wide and 3 in. deep, and close to it a little incised cross with a round hole at the termina- tion of the arms and shaft. 40 Inisglora. In one respect, this is a more interesting place than Inismurray, as the buildings are far ruder and olderTlooking, and I dare say sixty years ago this monastery was nearly as perfect as that on the Skellig Rock. The tradition still preserved among the inhabitants of the neighbouring district on the mainland is, that there were three brothers, Flinn, Senan, and Senach, corrupted now into Shannig. The first lived at Brandon, Senan at Iniscattery, and Shannig, after whom the island was named, lived here. I LAN Mill. This island is about one mile to the west of the other. The remains on it are very curious. They consist of a circle of stones, chiefly boulders, lying on the surface, from which curved lines of stones radiate in three directions, one leads to the foundations and remains of buildings, lying at a distance of about 150 yards from the centre circle. One of these buildings is square, with an enclosure near it measuring about 30 ft. in length from north to south, then there are two clochauns or cells, and an oratory, and leacht. When I was here last, the oratory had an east window and a doorway, these are now gone, and a pillar has been erected by the Naval Survey people, so the man told us, out of the stones of this oratory and the leacht, if such it was. INISGLUAIR. Inisglora, St. Brendan's Oratory. Plate XXIII. ISGLORA is a long level island in the Atlantic, about a mile from the ) coast of Erris, county of Mayo, in the barony of Erris and parish of Kilmore. The remains of a monastery are still to be seen here. They consist of three ' churches, three clochauns or cells, part of the cashel, or enclosing wall, and some leachta and other sepulchral monuments, along with the crosses of the stations on the Way of the Cross. St. Brendan's Chapel is the most remarkable of these ruins. It is 12 ft. long by 8 ft. 6 in. broad. The walls are formed of thin stones fitted without cement, and the whole building bears a general resemblance to the church on Bishop's Island. The walls appear to have always sloped a little inwards, but now the ground around the building has been n Inisglora. 41 so long used as a place of interment, that it is considerably raised above its former level, and three sides of the little building are nearly buried. The west side alone is quite free. The walls have been caused to bulge in by the pressure from without, and it is probable that the second side wall will soon fall.' The wall is 3 ft. thick. The top of the eastern gable is gone, the western one slopes on the outside, and both gables overhang internally, the roof was somewhat of a beehive form, a few of its stones at one angle may be seen in the accompanying illustration of the interior of this oratory as viewed from the top of the south wall. The west door, the interior of which is shown in this drawing, measures 3 ft. 9 in. in height. It is 2 ft. wide at the bottom, and i ft. 6 in. at the top. The depth of this door- way is 3 ft. One curious feature in this doorway should not pass unnoticed — that is, a projecting stone inside just over the north of the door, with a hole in it 2\ in. wide, which was evidently intended for a hinge. Outside, the door is approached by a passage between two walls. This is about 18 ft. in length, and the walls, though now in a very G 42 Inisglora. ruinous state, as may be seen from the view given in Plate XXIII., are 5 ft. higli, and 4 ft. wide. The east window is square-headed. Inside it is i ft. 6 in. wide, and 2 ft. high, the jambs are nearly vertical. This window is blocked up by the ground outside. There is no arch, nor is there any particle of cut stone about this building. It is apparently of a transitional character from the round to the square, and is of the earliest type. I dare say it is of St. Brendan's age. TempiJl na Naomh. This church, as well as the chapel we have just described, is situated close to the sea- shore on the edge of a slope down to the beach. It is evidently of a later date than the other. Cement is used in the masonry of the walls, as well as central grouting. The masonry is rude, particularly in the north and south walls. They are built of good-sized stones, while those in the ends of the north and south wall are small. The present door is exactly in the north-west end of the wall in this later work. There are no windows. The east wall is destroyed. This building measures 26 ft. by II ft. Tempul-na-mban. This church is much ruined. It must have stood outside the cashel. The only portions now standing are the west wall and half of the west gable, the north wall, and a part of the south. It measures 24 ft. in length by 12 ft. in width. There is a recess in the centre of the west wall 4 ft. above the ground. It is 3 ft. 4 in. long, 2 ft. 3 in. high, and I ft. 9 in. deep. The walls are 3 ft. thick. The door is near the centre of the north wall. It is 5 ft. high above the present level of the ground. It is formed thus : The jambs are vertical. There are three fine cells, called by O'Donovan tower-houses or torthighs. ST. BRENDAN'S CELL. Plate XXIV. ^^^^^ HE cell No. I, called St. Brendan's Cell, measures 19 ft. 6 in. in f^^^ diameter. The present level is probably 2 ft. or more above the old one. I have lost the diameter of the second cell, but it is about 12 or 14 ft. The wall is 4 ft. thick. The doorway of this cell, which was on the side, was on a much higher level than that of cell No. i. It was 4 ft. 6 in. high. Inisglora. 43 3 ft. wide at the bottom, and 2 ft. 9 in. at top. Tiiere are two singular recesses in the sides. The well is very curious. It consists of a small round tower 3 ft. 3 in. in diameter, and is covered by a stone roof The approach to it is through a narrow passage, with stone walls, 9 ft. long, it is at the opening 2 ft. 6 in. in width, but narrows as it approaches the well to I ft. 3 in. There is then a flight of seven steps down to the well. This passage was covered by the roof rising with the steps, but, as an old man told me, this roof was washed away by the sea in his father's time. The cashel which surrounded this establishment is in a very ruinous condition. It is now only about 3 ft. high and 2 ft. wide, 35 yds. long, and very irregular. Historical Notes on Inisglora. — The church on this island was founded by St. Brendan, who was born in Kerry in the year 484, as stated in the " Vita S. Brendani," and the place of his birth has been identified with Tubber na Molt or the Sheep's Well, in the townland of Tubbrid, near Ardfert (Book of Lismore, fol. 72). Additional information is supplied by the tract entitled " Navigatio Sancti Brendani," where it is said, " He was born in a district of Munster, called Annagh," which in Irish corresponds with the term "marsh" {stagnum in Latin), and there is a parish named Annagh close to Tralee. He made two voyages in search of an earthly Paradise about the years 540 and 560, and in these expeditions he seems to have visited most of the islands on the western coast from Kerry to Aran Mor, in the county of Galway.^ He also sailed to Brittany, and after his return thence, he founded the great monastery of Clonfert, for the monks of which place he drew up a particular rule, said to have been dictated by an angel. He died in his sister's nunnery at Annaghdown, on the i6th of May, in the year 577, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, on which day his memory is venerated in the Martyrology of Donegal. The sees of Ardfert and Clonfert honour St. Brendan as their patron. He was also the founder of the monastery of Inis-da-Dromand, and had a cell on the Island of Inisquin on Lough Corrib. No record of the history of the island or monastery of Inisglora is preserved by the annalists. Dr. Todd, in a note to his edition of the Irish version of Nennius, p. 193, says, " Inishglory is at present uninhabited ; but it contains the ruins of some very ancient dwellings ; and leeks and other garden herbs, introduced by the monks of St. Brendan, are found growing wild in several places on the island." The name of this island ^ Irish version of the " Historia Britonum" of Nennius, p. 193; O'Donovan's " Hy-Fiachrach," p. 492. The earliest printed edition in English of St. Brendan's voyages is that of Wynkyn de Worde. London, 1516. See " Acta Sancti Brendani," edited by the Rt. Rev. P. F. Moran, D.D., Bishop of Ossory, from the Liber Killten- niensis. Marsh's Library, Dublin. 44 Inisglora. Inisgluair, signifying the island of purity, is derived from an ancient tradition which held that no corruption could take place in its sacred soil. O'FIaherty (" Ogygia," p. 290) makes this the seventh wonder of Ireland. Giraldus also mentions this miraculous island, but under a wrong name, confounding it with Aran ("Top. Hib." dist. ii. c. 6). In the account preserved by Nennius of the wonders of Eri, according to the Book of Glen- da-Locha, we read, " Inis-Gluair in Irrus Domhnann ; this is its property, that the corpses that are carried into it do not rot at all, but their nails and hair grow, and every one in it recognizes his father and grandfather for a long period after their death. Neither does the meat unsalted rot in it." The Island of Inisglora is mentioned in O'FIaherty's "Ogygia," p. 290, in the follow- ing verses : — VII. Cemere Inisgloria est, pelago quod prospicit Irras, Insula, avos atavosque solo post fata sepultos Effigies servare suas, vegetisque vigere Unguibus atque comis. Hominum caro nulla putrescit. " On Inisglory, in the sea that washes Irras, one may behold bodies of men three or four generations back that have been lying in the earth, whose features are still entire, and their hair and nails are still growing. All human flesh resists decay." To face pajje44. INISHMURRAY CABHEL r Inismurray. 45 INIS MUIREDAIG. I-NISMURRAV. CaSHEL OF MONASTERY. Plate XXV. ISMURRAY is an island in the Atlantic, at a distance of about five miles from the coast of Sligo. It forms part of the barony of Carbury, in the county of Sligo, and belongs to the parish of Ahamlish. The aspect of this island is desolate and bare ; a tableland with roclcy precipitous sides, rising gradually to face the Atlantic, but low in the eastern end, where the monastery is situated. The group of ruins here offer the most characteristic example now in existence of the earliest monastic estab- lishments in Ireland. The cashel, a view of which is given in Plate XXV., is in all respects similar to the great dry stone walls of the prehistoric forts which line the west coast of Ireland, except that instead of being circular or oval, there are certain irregularities in its form as it follows the outline of the space occupied by the buildings it was designed to enclose. This irregularity is not to be accounted for by the nature of the ground. There is no apparent reason )why the north-east side should have been projected out nearly to an angle. Its greatest internal diameter is from N.E. to S.W. 175 ft, while from S.E. to N.W. it is only 135 ft. The walls are very much broken, particularly on the inside. The highest part remaining is on the N. and N.W. side, where, at present, it is about 13 ft. high. Between thirty and forty years ago, when Dr. O'Donovan visited the place, the wall was 15 ft. in height. It is from 11 ft. to 13 ft. in thickness on the N. side, and on the S. it is from 7 ft. to 8 ft. thick. This cashel is built of blocks of sandstone, varying in size in different parts of the wall. On the N. side the stones are from 2 ft. to 4 ft. in length. These stones are well selected and placed, not with their lengths running into the wall as in some of the Kerry or Galway forts, so that the ends appear on the face of the wall, but they lie lengthwise, with their sides to the surface. The masonry may be said to be ruder than that of Staigue, and the inter- stices are not here filled in with spawls as they are in the Kerry fort. However, this latter fact may be owing to the different quality of the stone. On the east side the masonry is different, being composed of small thin flagstones. There are two entrances. That on the north-east side is nearly perfect. Its external 46 Inismurray. dimensions are 6 ft. 3 in. high, 3 ft. 5 in. wide at the bottom, and 3 ft. at the top, so that the sides incline 5 in. The depth of this doorway in the wall is 8 ft. The lintels do not go all through, as the inner face of the wall is broken down. This doorway is called by the people on the island, the Water-door. This, I presume, is from its proximity to the well of St. Molaise. The southern entrance is nearly destroyed, the western side having fallen to the height of i ft. That on the eastern side is perfect to the height of 4 ft. It is formed of small stones. The external wall at this point is formed of sandstone, and is also 4 ft. high. The masonry here is small. This entrance is 3 ft. wide, as well as I could make out, and the wall here 8 ft. thick. This cashel is covered with grey lichen, which, combined with the rude character of its masonry and the size of its stones, contributes to give it an even finer and more venerable character than that of the forts either in Kerry or in the Islands of Aran. As an undoubted ecclesiastical cashel or caher, this one is much the most striking of these now remaining in Ireland. INIS MUIREDAIG. INISMURRAY, INTERIOR OF CASHEL. Plate XXVI. HE interior of the enclosure presents a most remarkable appearance, containing, as it does, churches, cells, raised structures with chambers and underground passages running through them ; leachta, tombs, stations and pillar stones with inscribed crosses, some still standing and others fallen on the ground. TEMPUL MOLAISE. CHURCH OF ST. MOLAISE, INISMURRAY. Plate XXVII. HERE are three churches within this cashel ; they are named Tempiil Molaise, or the church of St. Molaise ; Tempiil na bfear, i.e. the church of the men, and Tempiil na mbin, i.e. the church of the women. The largest is now called the Monastery, but formerly was also named Tempiil Molaise ; it is situated near the centre of the cashel, and is obviously the oldest of the three churches, but is unfortunately in a very dilapidated condition (vide Plate XXVII.) The walls are built of rough sandstone, like the cashel ; the stones are laid in the same IN' IXlSMURRj IREDAIG- lEl. OF MONASTKKV. r Inismurray. 47 manner, lengthwise. Very little cement was used; it was a sort of mixture of shell grouting and clay. I think it was merely grouted in the centre of the wall. Both gables are gone. There are pilaster buttresses at the east end, 2 ft. 4 in. wide and I ft. deep. One of these is nearly destroyed, and the other is in a very tottering condition. This building is 25 ft. 6 in. long and 12 ft. wide. The walls are 2 ft. 3 in. thick. The doorway is 4 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. 2 in. wide at the bottom, and i ft. g in. at the top, so that the sides incline 5 in. The east window is very rude in character ; it is deeply splayed, with four little steps in the splay. The external view is seen in Plate XXVII, (See also fig. 2, plate facing page 44.) It is 2 ft. 9 in. in height, and i ft. 10 in. wide at the bottom and i ft. 6 in. at the top. The top is formed out of two stones. The inner arch is 4 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. 10 in. wide at the bottom, and 2 ft. 7 in. at the springing of the arch. The arches are circular, and hollowed out of single stones. There is a stone, or bullaun, with a small hole scooped in it, at the north side of the door ; the diameter of the hollowed part is 8 in. INIS MUIREADAIG. INISMURRAY, ORATORY OF ST. MOLAISE. PL.\TES XXVIII. AND XXIX, HIS church is situated close to the wall on the north side. (Vide B on the ground-plan.) It is built with shelly lime mortar. The ends of the north and south walls are not bonded into the adjoining parts of the gable, which has a peculiar effect. There is a very low-pitched stone roof, which seems to have been restored. It is a straight - sided arch; the stones externally appear to be placed lengthwise on the slope. Inside, plaster and wattle marks prevent the structure being seen. The west door is 4 ft, in height, with vertical jambs : the depth in the wall is 2 ft, 2 in. The east window has four little steps leading up to the aperture in the splay, like those in the church of St. Molaise, just described. It has a rude semicircular arch cut out of one stone, with a deep incision in its soffit, and externally a reveal. The outside of this window is seen in Plate XXIX. It is I ft. 4 in. in height, i ft. 3 in. wide at the base, and i ft. i in. at the springing of its arch, so its sides incline 2 in. A rude altar, formed of small stones, occupies the east end of the oratory. It is merely a raised place resembling another elevation, at the south end of the church, under which the people believe St, Molaise to lie buried. Dr. O'Donovan, in his " Letters 48 Inismurray. on the Antiquities of Inismurray," written while engaged on the Ordnance Survey in the year 1834, states that there were formerly several tombstones with inscriptions, but they have been all destroyed except one, which is a small stone, with the words OR DO MUREDACH HU CHOMOCAIN HIC DOKMIT. (Pray for Muredach, grandson of Comocan, [who] sleeps here.) There are three more inscribed stones within the cashel of Inismurray, illustrations of which are given in the " Christian Inscriptions of Ireland," vol. ii. Plate IX. and page 15. The third church (c on the ground-plan), called Tempiil na Tinne, is of more recent date than the other two. Its masonry is inferior. The walls are perfect to the gables. The west gable has fallen. The walls are 2 ft. 3 in. thick. This church is 1 7 ft. long and 1 1 ft. 3 in. wide. The door is in the south wall ; it is 5 ft. 6 in. high inside ; shaped as in the section, being 3 ft. 6 in. wide inside and 2 ft. 6 in. outside. The east window is narrow, and flat-topped. There is a window in the north wall opposite, used probably as a door, for the sill is only i ft. 6 in. above the level of the ground. It is flat-topped as well as the south door. The name Tempdl na Tinne, " church of the fire," is derived from the belief that if a sod of turf is laid on a particular part of the floor it will be kindled. The clochaun or cell marked d in the ground-plan, is the largest of the cells ; it is about 13 ft. by 12 ft. in diameter, and of irregular shape. It is 13 ft. high. The walls slope nearly from the ground. The doorway, of which I give a sketch (see fig. i, ground- plan), is very curious ; it is formed externally of two long, nearly upright, flags, with a lintel ; it is 4 ft. high, 2 ft. 3 in. wide at the base, and i ft. 9 in. at the top ; the sides inclining 6 in. There is a small window facing the south-west, the sill of which is 4 ft. from the ground. There are little steps in the sill, as in those of the churches here. This little window is 1 ft. 8 in. wide, and i ft. high. The inner window is i ft. 10 in, wide, by I ft. 8 in. high. There is a low flat projection, meant, I suppose, for a seat, on the right- hand side as you enter the cell ; it is 10 ft. long and 2 ft. high. I have not observed this feature in the cells on the Greater Skellig, or elsewhere. There are no external offsets to the wall or projecting stones from the roof, such as may be seen in the remains on the islands of the coasts of Kerry and Clare. The cell (marked e) called Tratan a Corgaoir (place of prayers) is a very curious one, and the islanders say the name of this building is derived from the fact that it was here the monks sang vespers. The building is, externally, 20 ft. long by 12 ft. wide, and of irregular shape. Internally, it is square-sided, and 10 ft. long by 7 ft. wide. It is 7 ft. high. The wall on the north side is 2 ft. 8 in. thick. As the roof has fallen in, it is impossible to say at what level the floor was. When O'Donovan saw this cell, he described it as of a Inismurray. 49 beehive form, so the roof appears to have fallen in since he visited the island. In the north side there is a door 3 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. 6 in. wide : this leads into a very small chamber about 6 ft. by 5 ft. in diameter ; above this there was another chamber of the same size. The next cell is situated at the east side of the south door of Tempiil na Tinne. It is long and narrow, extending to the east end of the church. It is 8 ft. 6 in. long, 2 ft. 6 in. wide, and 5 ft. high ; the roof being composed of flag-stones, slightly sloping to the south. At present there is no access to this cell except through the roof, but on examining the western termination, it became clear that there was a means of access here formerly which has been long closed. On referring to the plan of the cashel, it will be seen that the western portion, from the entrance to St. Molaise's Chapel, is enclosed by a wall, now more or less ruined; but the remains are continuous, and quite sufficient to show the extent and form of the enclosure. Within it stand Tempiil na Tinne, the large cell or clochaun D, and different small cells and passages. The whole ground — from Tempiil na Tinne to the external face of this wall and from the same church to the wall of the cashel and to St. Molaise's Chapel— is raised several feet. The surface is quite uneven, and the boundary vague, owing to the fallen stones and broken-up portions of ground. The present level, which is raised by dibris, is sufficiently elevated to admit of there being passages and small cells beneath it on the old floor. Were a proper exploration made, more details of interest would doubtless be discovered. The wall at entrance e is 7 ft. thick. The doorway is 3 ft. wide at bottom, and 2 ft. 8 in. at the present top, which is 5 ft. high. It is impossible to say whether this was a covered doorway or not, as the wall is not up to its original height at either side. On entering, a narrow passage to the left may be seen ; it is from 3 ft. to 4 ft. long, leading into a small square chamber about 5 ft. long by 4 ft. broad, and 5 ft. in height. It has a domical roof, with a large flag-stone in the centre. Following the principal passage, at a distance of 16 ft., is the doorway into Tempiil na Tinne. The passage proceeds along the wall of the church, and at its west end there is the door leading into the larger of the two clochauns or cells. From the clochaun or cell marked B, a wall extended nearly to St. Molaise's Chapel, where it joins the cashel wall. This forms a second enclosure, the object of which is now not apparent. The wall is much ruined, being only 2 ft. high at present, and its outline is defaced. Within this enclosure is a very curious uneven passage through the wall ; a small door, 2 ft. in width, opens upon another straight passage, about 3 ft. wide, the level of which, at 7 ft. from the door, drops suddenly about 2 ft. This narrows to 2 ft. 6 in., and ends with an opening in the external wall of the same width. The bottom of this passage, H Inismurray. near the opening, was partly filled with shell lime, and bones of various animals, as rabbits, sheep, &c. Could this have been a place for throwing lumber into ? The wall here is from 12 ft. to 14 ft. in thickness. There is a similar passage to this, but smaller, opposite Tempul na Tinne ; it is only 2 ft. wide at the end, and 2 ft. 6 in. about the middle, but the centre expands to a sort of chamber, 5 ft. long by 4 ft. wide. Here there is a drop, as in the passage a, and a small door opening in the external face of the wall, 2 ft. 6 in. high, and 2 ft. wide. The passage is about 5 ft. high. There is a double face to the wall here, which is caused by an off-set 3 ft. wide, rising to a height rather above the top of the passage ; the off-set slopes up from each side, and thus probably formed the mode of access to the summit of the wall. A short distance to the west of this passage there is a very small opening in the wall, leading to a chamber 7 ft. 6 in. long, 5 ft. wide, and 4 ft. high. The roof is slightly domical at the sides, with large flag-stones covering the centre, the ends overlapping each other from west to east. No one but a very slight person could pass through the little door : at present, access is attained through the roof one of the flag-stones having been removed. Near this chamber is a portion of ground raised a few feet, in which runs a passage now open, proceeding along which westwards for about 5 ft., a very small doorway occurs, leading into a little chamber about 5 ft. square and 4 ft. high, which has a window in the external wall 2 ft. wide by i ft. 6 in. in height. The passage is blocked up to the east of the opening. The remains of a small square chamber in the wall may be seen a few feet to the south of this apartment, but the top and the west side are destroyed, and no door, or mode of access to this room, can now be discovered. Adjoining the south entrance there is another raised portion of ground, and there is probably a chamber at one point, where there is the appearance of a rounded roof, which is about 6 ft. above the level of the ground. A short distance from the east end of the cell near the south door of Tfempul na Tinne, there is an open portion of an underground passage about 2 ft. 6 in. wide. Following its western course, it now stops within two or three feet of the cell n ; in another direction it leads by an opening 2 ft. wide, i ft. 6 in. high, to a little oval chamber about 8 ft. or 9 ft. long, 5 ft. wide, and scarcely 3 ft. high, which lies near the door of St. Molaise's Chapel. The wall here, opposite the church door, is 4 ft. 6 in. high. It is difficult to conceive the use of such a little chamber, unless for the purpose of concealing the treasures of the monastery when an attack was imminent. About 30 ft. east of the southern entrance of the cashel, there is a small oval chamber about 5 ft. long by 4 ft. in diameter. It is now half filled with old straw. The people here say that when a man is interred in the cashel, his straw bed was stuffed into this Inismurray . little chamber. Three feet above it there is another small apartment about 3 ft. in diameter, with a flattish roof, the door of which is 2 ft. square. The wall on each side of this door is recessed i ft. 6 in., following the arrangements of the chambers on the opposite side of the cashel. This completes the description of the churches, chambers, and passages, as far as they can be at present made out. Were a thorough examination possible, more details of this very remarkable group of buildings would doubtless be brought to light. There are three singular little structures within the cashel, called by the people Leachta, or Beds. The largest, E, is called " Clocha Breaca," the speckled stones. It is a squared structure 7 ft. on each side, and from 3 ft. to 4 ft. high. The top is covered with rounded stones of different sizes. The people say they can never be twice counted to the same number. Several of them have crosses and circles cut upon them. The stone here illustrated is called St. Patrick's Rose. This stone is 8 in. in diameter, and 4 in. thick ; another stone 7 in. by 5 in. in diameter and 4 in. thick ; another 1 7 in. by 9 in. The superstitions and the ancient customs connected with these relics are curious. They were used as cursing stones, and for purposes of revenge. The aggrieved party must perform stations (that is, must make the circuit termed the Way of the Cross, repeating the prayers at the different stations) nine times, and then turn the stones, and it is believed that if his enemy be really guilty, he will soon die or lose his mind. Such is the account given me by the natives, and confirmed by one or two curious illustrations. As to the original use of these stones, I can give no opinion. On the north side of the Clocha Breaca there lies a stone cist, or tomb, without any covering slab. It is called Moylan O'Daly's tomb. The people also say he was a wicked saint, and there are various traditions about him, but they were not sufficiently interesting or apparently reliable to deem them worth insertion. The second tomb is near the southern entrance. It is 5 ft. 6 in. long, 5 ft. wide, and 3 ft. high, and has rather sloping sides and loose ordinary stones at the top. The third is between the monastery and the east wall. It is 8 ft. long by 6 ft. wide ; but 2 ft. of the length is only 2 ft. in height. The top has a mixture of rounded and other small stones upon it. There are a number of stones with inscribed crosses and various ornamental designs, the largest of which stands at the west end of the monastery. It is seen in Plate XXVII. Its dimensions are 4 ft. high and 2 ft. wide. There is another on the north side of the same church, which is marked in the plan as near the door of St. Molaise's Chapel. A sketch of this is given above. Two or three more are placed against the cashel wall. Others are on the ground. I subjoin sketches of the most characteristic examples. There is a very curious stone, marked z in the plan, which has recesses cut in the 52 Inismurray. sides, and two small holes near them in the face of the stone. The recesses are 5 in. high, 2 in. wide, 3 in. deep. The small holes are in the eastern side. There is a similar one near the Nunnery. Women, when pregnant, come to these stones to pray for their safe delivery. ,They place their fingers in the side holes, and their thumbs in the front ones, and thus easily pull themselves up from the kneeling posture. This is the present use to which these stones are put. What their original purport was I know not. On Christmas Day the people go to pray in St. Molaise's Chapel. Formerly the Cros na Trinoide, Inismurray. Stations of the Cross were held within the cashel, but these stations are now nearly all discontinued. On the north-west side of the cashel, just opposite the chamber, is a curious little building, like a very small clochaun or cell. The roof has fallen in. Its dimensions were about 5 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in. The doorway is on the north side, about 2 ft. square. The people call this the Sweating Place, but they appear to have no tradition which might explain the name. Near the south-east side of the wall is St. Molaise's Well, which never runs dry. It is a dome-shaped building, about 7 ft. long and 6 ft. wide. The descent into it is by five steps. It is covered at the top by large flag-stones. The doorway is 6 ft. high, 3 ft. 8 in. wide at bottom and 3 ft. at the top. This well resembles, to some extent, the one on Inisglora. Inismurray. S3 Attached to the external wall of the cashel, at the north-east angle, is one of the leachtas or stations. It is about 6 ft. by 7 ft. in size. The top is a small upright stone with a pretty incised cross. Between the cashel and the shore are the ruins of a church called TempCil Muire, Mary's Church, or the Nunnery. It is built of small stones, and is not very ancient. The dimensions are 28 ft. in length and 13 ft. in width. It has a west and south door. The former is now blocked up. The jamb stones are very small. It is 5 ft. high, 3 ft. 6 in. wide at top, and 4 ft. at bottom. The east window is narrow and square-headed, about 7 ft. high. Near the east end are two square recesses, one at each side in the north and south wall, and over them narrow square-headed windows. About 10 ft. to the south-east of this church are the foundations of an oblong building 24 ft. long and 9 ft. or 10 ft. wide. In this enclosure are three leachta ; close to the door there is a small bullan or font. A remarkable figure, carved in wood and representing an ecclesiastic vested in a medijeval chasuble, may still be seen standing at the south-east angle of the altar in the chapel of St. Molaise. It is believed by the islanders to be a statue of the patron saint, and is held in great reverence by the people. It is carved in oak, and now much worn, and it measures between 4 and 5 ft. in height. It is quite similar to another ecclesiastical figure still preserved on Inisglora, but in a better condition. This figure may be seen in Plate XXIX. The following is a list of the monuments on this island : 1. Olla Mhuire. 2. Trathan na rig-fear, i.e. strand-place of the chiefs. 3. Leachta na Sagart ; the monuments of the priests. 4. Cros Mor ; the large cross. 5. Trathan Aoda ; the Trahan, or strand-place, of Hugh. 6. Leachta Phatraig, Patrick's monuments. 7. Leachta Cholaim Cille ; Columbkill's monuments. 8. Crois na Trinoide, i.e. the Cross of the Trinity. 9. Leachta Cholaim Cille, No. 2. (See No. 7.) 10. Reilic Odrain ; Odran's graveyard. 11. Caiseal M6r; the great cashel. 1 2. Clocha Breaca, i.e. the speckled stones. Historical Notes. — It has been already stated that this place was known by the name of the Island of Muiredach so early as the year 747, and it is not impossible that the person from whom it took its name, and by whom the monastery was founded, was Muiredach, a 54 Inismurray . follower of St. Patrick, who was placed by him over the church of Killala, and that just as the Island of Senach, off the coast of Kerry, which has been already described, was named from the saint who founded the monastery there, so was it with this island ; for we find, a century later, that a contemporary of St. Columba's, Molaise, was abbot of this place ; there is no reason to suppose that he was the first abbot, or the founder of thfc monastery. Had it been so the island would, probably, have at some time borne his name. Molaise founded one of the churches on the island. In the " Martyrology of Donegal," p. 217, we read — " Augxist 1 2, Molaisse, i.e. Laisren, son of Deglan, of Inis Muireadaigh, in the north" i^-.e. north of Connaught). He it was who at the Cross of Ath-Imlaisi [the above-mentioned parish of Ahamlish] pronounced sentence of banishment on St. Columba. (See Reeves's " Adamnan," p. 287.) I have been informed by Mr. O'Looney that there is an old Irish life of this saint, in which the foundation of this church is described, and where it is stated that Molaise was a disciple of St. Maignen. It appears from the passage in the Life of Columba, regarding this saint, that he was already a man in authority when Columba was still young, and thus we may believe him to have been some years his senior, and conclude that the foundation of his monastery was in all probability prior to that of lona, and took place at some time early in the sixth century, about 520 to 540, The entries in the Annals regarding this island are as follows : — A.D. 747. Dicolla, son of Meinide, Abbot of Inis Muiredhaigh, died. A.D. 798. Mac Laisre, the Learned, of Inis Muiredhaigh, died. A.D. 802. Inis Muiredhaigh was burned by foreigners, and they attacked Roscommon. These foreigners were the Danes, who first appeared in the Irish seas in the year 795, and began their depredations by attacking those islands in which there were monasteries possessing some wealth. Thus about the same time they plundered Hy (lona) and Inisbofin. (See " Wars of the Gaidhil," Todd, Introd. p. xxxii.) So late as the beginning of the seventeenth century there is mention made of Inishmurray in the Annals of Loch Ce, where we read : — " A.D. 161 2. Maeleoin O'Dalaigh^ died on the festival day of the dead {i.e. All Souls Day), and was interred in Inismuiredhaigh, after bearing triumph from the world and the devil ; and let everyone who reads this give a blessing on his soul." ^ This is Moylan O'Daly, whose tomb Lord Dunraven describes in page 50, and whose character, as there given, is diametrically opposed to this. Church Island. 55 LOCH CARRAIN. Cell on Church Island. Plate XXX. J)OCH CARRAIN (pronounced Curraun) was originally called Loch Luigh- dech (pronounced Loch Lee). It is situated in the parish of Dromod, in the barony of Iveragh, near its junction with that of the county of Kerry. The island on which the ruin now to be described stands, was formerly called Inis Uasal, or the Noble Island. It lies towards the east end of the lake, where it is embosomed in an amphitheatre of mountains, the last of the great range which extends from Killarney to the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. These hills, rising from the verge of the water to the south and east, take their deepest shadows beneath the morning and the noonday sun ; when, veiled in purple colour, they gain in early day the solemnity of evening twilight. The calm water, reflecting in its deepest tones the beauty of the earth and sky ; the still and silent air, the distance from any human habitation, all fill the mind with a sense of profound seclusion and repose ; and the ruin of the anchorite's cell, with its ivied roof, rising from the green level of the little island that lies upon the bosom of the lake, seems but to form the natural centre to the whole poetry of the scene. The cell, known as the dwelling ef St. Finan the Leper, stands at the north-east end of the island, now called Church Island, or Oilen a teampuil. This building looks more circular than square, as its angles are rounded off externally. The so-called Cyclopean character of the masonry is derived from the rude, shapeless ».«.e. boulder stones of which it is built, and which are fitted to- gether without cement : the material nearest hand happened to be such large stones, rounded by the action of the water, and numbers quite similar may still be seen lying upon the edge of the lake. Those on the west side of the lake are the largest and rudest. They vary in length from 2 ft. to 3 ft. The walls are 6 ft. thick and g ft. 9 in. high. Inside, the building is quadrangular, as shown in the Ground-Plan of St. Finan's Cell. ground-plan here given, where the size can also be seen. The stones are better fitted together and smaller in size on the inner than on the outer CJuLTch Island. ace of the walls. There are two doorways to this building. The principal one faces N.N.E. ; it is 3 ft. wide at the bottom and 2ft. 10 in. at the top. The lintel is 5 ft. 3 in. long, i ft. 3 in. high, and I ft. 8 in. deep. The height of this entrance is 4 ft., and it is 6 ft. deep. Internally it measures 3 ft. in width Section of Wall, St. Finan's Cell. . at the base, 2 it. 7 m. at the top. Doorway of St. Finan's Cell, Interior. The west door is i ft. 8 in. high, i ft. 5 in. wide at the top, and 1 ft. 7 in. at the base. The lintel is 3 ft. long and i ft. 6 in. in depth and height. Church I.sland, near Valencia. This is a small, rocky island which stands near the Island of Valencia, and belongs to the parish of Caher, in the barony of Iveragh, in the county of Kerry. The ruins of an ancient monastic establishment, with a portion of the foundation of its surrounding wall or cashel, may here be seen. One oratory, with three clochauns or cells, and a square building, formed the group within this wall. The oratory faces E.N.E. ; its walls are 6 ft. high and 5 ft. 6 in. thick. Inside it measures 18 ft. in length by 1 1 ft. 3 in. in width. It is very well built of flagstones, fitted together without cement, and evidently intended not to be covered. The wall batters from the ground each way. The western wall, in which the principal doorway must have been, is broken down. There is a small aperture on the south side 2 ft. 10 in. in height and I ft. 10 in. wide at the base. There is a window on the south side also which is The IVhiie CJnLrch, or St. Manchans Chtirch. S7 1 ft. 8 in. high and i ft. 9 in. wide. The wall outside is strengthened at the base by a projection [like a rude plinth] which on the west side is 3 ft. high and i ft. deep, while on the east it is on a different level, and rises 2 ft. higher. The Rev. John O'Hanlon has described and illustrated these ruins in an essay on the identification of St. Malachy O'Morgair's " Monasterium Ibracense" (see " Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy," vol. i. ser. ii. No. 7, 11 71-2, page 107). TEMPUL GEL, OR TEMPUL MANCHAIN. The White Church, or St. Manchan's Church. Plate XXXI. . ALLY-MORE-REAGH, the townland in which this very ancient church is situated, lies on the eastern slope of a hill, overlooking the valley in which Kilfountain stands, in the parish of Dingle, barony of Corcaguiny. It is built in the same manner as the oratory on Church Island, Valencia — the stones are uncut, no cement used, and there is no sign of ornament anywhere. The stones are rather thin and put in lengthwise ; one stone is 3 ft. 6 in. long and i ft. 9 in. broad ; another 2 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 5 in. ; one, in the angle, 3 ft. 9 in. by 2 ft. The western wall only inclines slightly. The wall inclines from the bottom in the inside. The east wall has fallen, and two-thirds of the north wall, and there is no trace of a gable. The wall is 4 ft. 6 in. thick, and the greatest height from 7 ft. to 9 ft. The west door is at present 3 ft. 6 in. high, but it was originally 4 ft. 6 in. ; it is I ft. II in. wide at the present level of the floor, and i ft. 7 in. at the top, at the true level it would be 2 ft. wide at the bottom. We were told by the people about that formerly there were a number of small build- ings surrounding the oratory, which, I suppose, were cells ; but that they were all removed by a Scotch tenant who came there thirteen years ago, who wished also to destroy the church, but was prevented by the natives of the place. We found a little to the west a very small building, like one of the chambers seen in a fort, only it stands alone. Can this have been a little cell ? It measures inside 5 ft. or 6 ft. by 4 ft ; it is covered with a flag. Within a few yards of the church are two small stones, with crosses within a circle ; they are plain, without ornamental design of any kind. Another such cross is inscribed on a large, deeply-imbedded stone, like a rock. A I Cell near Kilmalkedar. curious (worked ?) stone of conglomerate, with a pretty smooth face, was lying close to the church. It is seen in the photograph. To the west, and i8 feet from the church, there is a grave 14 ft. in length, 4 ft, wide, 3 ft. 8 in, high, beside which stands a stone with an Ogham inscription carved on its eastern face. There is a plain inscribed Greek cross on two of the other sides. The stone is 5 ft. 3 in. long, 2 ft. broad, and 9 in. thick. The Ogham stands about 30 ft. from the west door at the west end of the grave. If there was ever a cashel surrounding this establishment it has been quite destroyed. I was told that several stones, with crosses, had been taken away by the same tenant who destroyed the cells. CELL MAELCEDAIR. Cell near Kilmalkedar, County of Kerry. 10^^^. Plate XXXII. H E parish and toWhland of this name are situated in the barony of ^M/l^^J^^- Corkaguiny, in the county of Kerry. The name is derived from Cell A'^^Sf' Maelcedair — that is, the Church of Maelchedair. In the " Martyrology ^^^0' of Donegal" we read — May 14, " Maolcethair, son of Ronan, son of the king of Uladh, of Cill Melchedair, near the shore of the sea to the west of Brandon Hill. He was of the race of Fiatach Finn, Monarch of Erin." No further record appears to exist of this place, which, to judge from the existing remains, must have been an ecclesi- astical establishment of some note from an early period down to the twelfth century. At present we shall confine ourselves to describing those buildings which appear to be of the earliest date ; they consist of a clochaun or cell, and two oratories, one — which is named Gallarus— being at the distance of half a mile from the others. All these ruins are, as the old martyrologist describes, built upon the margin of the sea to the west of Brandon Head. The first oratory, Plate XXXII., is near the church of Kilmalkedar, This most curious little building resembles Temple Manchain, but is more perfect. Tradition ascribes its erection to St. Brendan and his contemporary St. Malchedar. The walls of this building gradually incline towards one another till they are closed at the top with a row of flags extending along the ridge of the roof. Internally it is perfect to the apex on the western side, and is 1 2 ft. in height. The end walls are thicker than ii i Gallarus. 59 those at the side. The external measurements of this building are 24 ft. in length, 1 5 ft. 6 in. in width; while internally it is 17 ft. long and 10 ft. wide, and the walls are thicker in some places than in others, those at the sides being 3 ft., the east gable 2 ft., and west gable 4 ft. 6 in. thick. The door is on the west side, and is 4 ft. high, i ft. 1 1 in. wide at top, and 2 ft. 4 in. at the bottom, and 3 ft. 6 in. in depth. This door has a projecting lintel, from which a shutter appears to ^^.^y^ ^ The east window is square-headed, with vertical jambs. The inside measures 3 ft. in height, and i ft. 1 1 in. in width. The sill of this window is level, and the aperture is placed in the centre of the thickness of the wall, from which there is an This cell has been described by the late Mr. Du Noyer, in the "Jour. Kilk. and South East of Ireland Arch. Soc," vol. v. 1864-5, P' ^ section of the roof shows externally the form of a pointed arch, as at Gallarus, but it has sunk internally, so that the form is curved or bulged inwards. No cement is used, and the stones are flat and close-jointed. A short distance to the north-east of this church there is another small cell, which measures 8 ft. 3 in. in length, and 5 ft. 5 in. in breadth, and 6 ft. in height. On the top of the roof are five flags, laid horizontally along the ridge of the roof. The door was on the north side, but its original form was destroyed in late years. The window was in the west side, but it also is now disfigured. The original rude lintel remains. The cell has been remodelled to form a pigstye ! have been suspended inside. (See page 60.) This lintel projects 8 in. from the wall. outward splay as well as the usual inner one. It measures, in the middle of * the wall, 2 ft. 6 in. in height, and in width 5 in. at the top and bottom. I give a sketch of this remarkable double splay. GALLARUS. Gallarus Oratory; West End. y HIS oratory is 15 ft. 3 in. long, and 10 ft. 2 in. wide. The building is 16 ft. high. The top is 17 ft. 6 in. long, and consists of 5 flags 2 ft. wide. On these rested triangular capping-stones about i ft. high, only one of which now remains ; another is lying on the ground. The flag-stone at Plates XXXIII. and XXXIV. the top of the east gable has a socket-hole at the end. 6o Gallams. The height of the building at the western side is i6 ft. ; 15 ft. by 8 ft. clear of walls, which are 4 ft. thick at the ground level. And, following the curve at the north, it is 18 ft. The masonry is of flat greenstone rubble, carefully built ; the door-dressings are neatly wrought, and there is no appearance of mortar having been used. The north side has a plinth course i ft. 6 in. high and i ft. wide. The walls are 3 ft. 2 in. thick, formed of uncemented stones admirably fitted together. The lateral walls converging from the base to the apex in curved lines, and the end walls, though in a much less degree, converge also. I found, between several of the joints, a hard whitish stuff, of which I have a specimen. This is caused by the water percolating through the stone. INTERTOR 01- GaI.I.ARUS DOORWAY. ThE DOORS IN EARLY ORATORIES. The doorway is in the west end. It is the only instance of a doorway in such oratories which is not extremely low, and it is different in character from those of the forts and the cells within their walls. This door is 5 ft. 7 in. high, 2 ft. 4 in. wide at the base, and i ft. 7 in. at the top, and its depth is 3 ft. 2 in. Another remarkable feature in this doorway besides its height is, that the stones, of which its sides and lintel are formed, are dressed. Over the lintel, on the inside, there are two projecting flagstones pierced at each end vertically by large holes, from which, as Mr. G. V. Du Noyer was the first to suggest, " a wooden door could have been suspended." It is obvious that by inserting strong wooden loops into these vertical perforations, a wooden door could readily have PL. XXXIV. GALLARUS. ; 1I.L..RU3 ORATOSV, WEST EX! Gallarus. 6i been suspended, after the manner represented in the accompanying woodcut. In some cases these holes arekperfo rated at each end of one long projecting flagstone which runs across the top of the doorway. The east window is round-headed, the arch cut out of two stones ; it measures 3 ft. 4 in. in height, i ft. 10 in. in width at the base, and i ft. 7 in. at the top, and 3 ft. 2 in. in depth. There is a splay, or slope, in all directions from the inner to the outer arch. The stones forming this window are also dressed. The aperture of the window is i ft. 4 in. high, and 10 in. wide. The arch is cut out of one stone. Near the roof, on the inside, are three or four little projecting stones in the wall ; they seem as if placed there to hang things on. * Some of the white quartz stones are lying aliout on the ground near the east end, like those at Temple Manchan ; they say this {vide drawing) was on the top of the gable, and was blown down. It has a (tenon?) for a socket, and is a very curious stone. Of this building, Mr. J. Ferguson remarks : " It shows the strange Cyclopean masonry, the sloping doorway, the stone roof, and many of the elements of the subsequent style ; and it is, at the same time, so like some things in Lycia and in India, and so unlike almost any other building in Europe, that it is not to be wondered at that antiquaries should indulge in somewhat speculative fancies in endeavouring to account for such remarkable phenomena.'" Mr. Brash, in his account of this building, observes that " The masons who designed and built this structure — in the section adopted, the material selected, and the character of the workmanship — showed an amount of practical skill, knowledge, and experience that must have been the result of long and extensive practice.'" There is some difficulty in e.xplaining the origin of the name Gallarus. Dr.O'Donovan was of opinion that it was Gall-ros, but Mr. W. M. Hennessy informs me that " ros" means a wooded point, and could not be applied to any place near Gallarus. He inclines to the belief that the word is " Gall arus," meaning " foreign house," just as " Cenn-arus," which has been corrupted to Cennanus Kenlis, or Kells, meant the chief house, or fort. ' " History of ArchitecUire,'- James Ferguson, vol. ii. p. 117. " Kcclesiastical Architecture of Ireland," p. 10. 62 Malagas Bed. LEABAMOLAGA. Molaga's Bed, County of Cork. J/ HE parish of Templemolaga, situate in the barony of Condons and Clangibbon, in the extreme north-east angle of the county of Cork, con- tains the three townlands of Labbamolaga (East, Middle, and West), in the first of which is the monastery which forms the subject of the present Plate XXXV. article. A large ash-tree overshadows the ruins of the east end of these buildings, and a little mountain stream runs along the southern side. The remains of this lonely sanctuary are now fast crumbling away. They consist of an oratory, a church, another square building, two crosses, and a cashel or enclosing wall. The oratory, the west end of which may be seen in the plate, measures, externally, 13 ft. in length and 9 ft. 8 in. in width, and from 5 ft. to 6 ft. in height, and the walls are 2 ft. 9 in. thick. The roof and gables have fallen. In the year 1845, when Dr. Petrie first heard of this oratory, the east gable and window were still perfect. The walls are built of sandstone — large blocks super-imposed with very little cement. The stones are roughly squared, and the masonry is in rude courses. There is no plinth apparent in this building, but at the east and west ends there are those vertical flat rectangular projections in the angles, called by Dr. Petrie pilasters ("Eccles. Arch." p. 1S8); that on the west angle is 2 ft. 3 in. wide and i ft. 5 in. deep. (See fig. 8.) The west doorway (vide Plate XXXV.) is very peculiar, being formed of two upright stones for jambs, which support a massive horizontal lintel.' It is 5 ft. 6 in. in height, 2 ft. 4 in. in width. The jambs are vertical, and 2 ft. 6 in. in depth. It has an architrave band projecting i in., and about 6 in. wide. [This feature is quite visible in the photo- graph on the left side of the doorway as well as on the lintel. In the year 1845, the east window and altar of stone were in good preservation. There was also a window in the south wall.] Two stones, believed to have been candle- sticks, were preserved on the altar : they were 10 in. high, of an upright form, and so hollowed that they could support a candle, which, passing through them, rested on the altar. There were also two spherical stones of rude form, but one was ornamented by See " Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland," p. 8 (R. R. Brash). Malagas Bed. 63 two deeply incised lines which cut each other at right angles. These stones were held by the people to be of miraculous origin. There are now two flattish oval stones to be seen here, and one is marked with two concentric lines of a different colour ; and there is also a remarkable pillar stoup (fig. 9), which was evidently placed against the wall. (See plan drawn by Mr. G. V. Du Noyer.) There is a tomb on the south side in the interior of the building which measures 5 ft. 6 in. in length, i ft. 8 in. in width, and i ft. in depth. Second Church. The side-walls of this larger and less ancient building are now destroyed ; those at the ends are from 4 ft. to 5 ft. high in some places, and the masonry is a sort of ashlar work of squared red sandstone blocks. The doorway is quite gone ; but four corner-stones of the northern jamb remain, which are sufficient to give some clue to the probable date of the building. I give a section of the moulding on these stones. See fig. 10. Another square building lies to the east of the larger church, which is altogether unlike anything I have yet seen. There are two crosses near the church ; and all these buildings are enclosed in a cashel or termon wall, as shown in the ground plan, which " is built of dry masonry. The stones are hammered and squared, and well fitted together. It is perfectly level at the top, so that its present appearance is very probably that which it originally had. There is no trace of a parapet, or other indication of the wall having been intended as a defensive work." ' Steps lead up to this enclosure on the east and west sides, which are 6 ft. wide. (See figs, i and 4.) To the south of the cashel on the side of the hill, at a distance of about 80 yards, stand four pillar stones, as if at the corners of an oblong enclosure, 2 5 ft. long and 6 ft. broad. According to tradition, they are the forms of four men, who profaned and robbed this sanctuary, and who were here turned to stone. The oldest church here (the doorway of which is shown in Plate XXXV.) is called Leaba Molagga, or the Bed of Molaga, from an ancient tradition that the square tomb beneath the south wall was the grave of the saint who bore this name. St. Molaga must have lived at the close of the seventh century, for it is stated in his life that he was one of those who survived the pestilence in 665. He was born in Feramugia, which is now known as the barony of Fermoy, a part of the county of Cork, and is described as founding a monastery and school at a place subsequently called after ' Letter from Mr. G. V. Du Noyer to Dr. Petrie, dated .^pril 29, 1852. 64 Malagas Bed. him Tulach min Molaga. That the ruined churches and cashel here illustrated may be certainly identified with this monastery is rendered still more probable by the fact that Tulach min is evidently the ancient name of what is now called Labbamolaga. St. Molaga, after spending many years in wandering through Ireland, Scotland, and, as some say, Wales, returned to this place and died on the 20th January — on which day his memory was kept sacred both in this place and at Lann Beachaire, in Fingall. In the " Martyrology of Donegal,"' p. 23, we read that the memory of Molacca of Tulach min Molaga was venerated on the 20th of January, and that he was also known by the name Loichein, son of Dubh Dlighidh, and was of the race of Fearghus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe. The parish of Timoleague, in the barony of Barryroe, and county of Cork, are the remains of a Franciscan friary which derives its name from this same saint, being, in Irish, CeAcl) iitoUvjA, " House of Molaga," and it is to this, as the principal church of the saint, that Colgan seems to refer, in heading his memoir at the 20th of January, "Vita S. Molaggas seu Molaic Confessoris, Patroni Ecclesije de Tegh-Molagg£e." (Actt. SS. p. 145.) He also founded the church at Lann Becuir in Bregia, as we learn from the notes in the Lebar Brecc on the Calendar of Oengus. Lann Becuir signifies " Church of the Bee- man," and is a most interesting name. The word Ian is the term generally used in Wales for a church; and wherever it occurs in composition in Ireland, it indicates some Welsh connection. Beachaire, derived from beach, " bee," signifies " a keeper or cultivator of bees," and all this tallies most remarkably with the statement in the saint's life, that on his return from St. David in Britain, he founded this church, having previously obtained from Modonnoc, the first importer to Ireland of hive bees, a swarm from his stock. (Colgan, Actt. SS. p. 147 Lann Becuir, in the thirteenth century, was called Lambeecher, and thereby we are enabled to identify this place with the modern Bromore, a little north of Ballriggan, where, near the northern boundary of Fingall, is the ancient cemetery, con- taining the ruins of a mediaeval church. ' Lanigan, "Eccl. Hist.," vol. iii. pp. 82, 84, Life of St. Molaga, cap. 22. Colgan translated this life from Irish into Latin, and published it at 20th January. (Actt. SS. p. 145.) PART II. Section I. EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. THE second part of this work illustrations will be given of those churches where either grouting or cement of some kind has been used, and the style still belongs to that of the entablature and not the arch, all the doorways having horizontal lintels and inclined jambs, and a gradual development into an ornamented style, anterior to the Romanesque period, may be traced. These buildings all possess a strikingly archaic character; indeed, the air of great antiquity that hangs round many of them is likely to lead to misconceptions as to their date. Built, as they were, of the materials found nearest to hand, the massive, so-called Cyclopean, character of their masonry may be due to the geological formation of the places in which they are principally found, and for this reason consideration should be given to the nature and general aspect of the country in which they stand. These districts are in the counties of Clare and Galway, and in the Islands of Aran, which lie at the entrance of Galway Bay, and which are, geologically, a portion of the county of Clare. The great part of these districts is entirely composed of limestone, lying in horizontal strata, sometimes slightly curved, and occasionally traversed by veins of black, green, and white marble, fit for architectural or ornamental purposes. There is something very singular in the aspect of the country, which often stretches to the horizon like one continuous quarry, the stone lying on the level face of the plain, from which blocks of almost any length may be obtained, some of the beds being unbroken for upwards of 50 ft. The hills in the Aran Islands are low, rounded, and gray, in no part rising to a greater elevation than from 400 ft. to 500 ft. There are no rivers in these islands, and the K 66 Aran Islands. absence of even a running mountain brook tends to give peculiar value to the springs which are scattered through these districts. Thus many of the wells are here held sacred to this day. These fountains, with their equally sacred trees, covered with votive offerings of propitiation or gratitude to the spirit of the place, form studies of the deepest interest, particularly where, amid the wild scenery which generally surrounds them, groups of worshippers, in the rich colours of their national costume, add to the solemn character and poetry of the scene. In Aran Mor, or the Greater Island of Aran, there are two lakes, Lough Dearg and Port-owen, which are formed by the entrance of the sea through subterranean channels. Landward the shore slopes gradually to the water's edge, while seaward the islands slowly rise to their greatest height, then break into those precipices which seem to form a link in the great chain of majestic cliffs that all along the west coast of Ireland stand, like a gigantic wall, facing the Atlantic waves. The aspect of these' islands has been admirably described by Dr. Conroy, in his " Visit to Aran," in the following passage : — " Having gained the low hill that commands the village, we halted to contemplate the weird landscape that surrounded us. It was a scene peculiar to Aran. The island falls from the south-west, facing east and north, and from the vantage ground on which we stood the eye traversed fields upon fields of bare, dark-gray rocks, which now rose into hills, now sank into valleys, according to the action of the force that had originally upheaved the island itself. The ground was covered with rocks, not scattered and disjointed, as they occur elsewhere, but spreading into immense sheets and tables of stone, sometimes 60 ft. broad, as smooth as polished marble, and giving out beneath the tread a sonorous metallic ring. In some places these slabs rise tier upon tier, stone overlapping stone, with a precise regularity of mass and form which reminded you of masonry cunningly piled by giant hands. Winding in and out in a thousand mazes, a thread of fresh green herbage could, on closer inspection, be traced along the hill-side, up-springing where the natural cleavage of the rocks had left deep fissures, now and then widening into a patch of verdure, in which wild flowers of every hue bloomed in lu.xuriance against the gray crag. Frequent enclosures of stones crossed each other in and out, in almost countless ridges, until it seemed as if both rocks and verdure were covered with iron net-work of the most irregular pattern." ^ It is impossible while gazing on such a scene not to be reminded of the word- pictures that Eastern travellers have given us of that great limestone district of Syria, which extends from Lebanon through Palestine, and reaches to Arabia. True, this Irish scene may want the height and extent of the Eastern, especially as found in the Sinaitic ^ "Visit to Aran." Tlie Rev. Dr. Conroy, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois. Clare. 67 district. The hills of the west are not as " the Alps unclothed," ' but, when we read of the long, monotonous ranges of mountain enclosing the desert of the " Tih," or the Wanderings, and picture to ourselves their long horizontal lines, and the wide undulating pebbly plain that lies beneath them, the scene still seems to bear upon its face the same aspect of desolation, the same calm grandeur which is to be found here ; and the likeness becomes still more striking in what we learn of Palestine from the description of Dean Stanley : — Rounded hills, chiefly of a gray colour, gray partly from the limestone of which they are all formed, partly from the tufts of gray shrub with which their sides are thinly clothed, and from the prevalence of the olive j their sides formed into concentric rings of rock, which must have served in ancient times as supports to the terraces, of which there are still traces, to their very summits ; valleys, or rather the meetings of these gray slopes with the beds of dry watercourses at their feet ; long sheets of bare rock laid like flagstones, side by side, along the soil ; these are the chief features of the greater part of the scenery of the historical parts of Palestine These rounded hills, occasionally stretching into long undulating ranges, are for the most part bare of wood, forest and large timber (with a few exceptions hereafter to be mentioned) are not known. Cornfields and (in the neighbourhood of Christian populations, as at Bethlehem) vineyards creep along the ancient terraces. In the spring, the hills and valleys are covered with thin grass, and the aromatic shrubs which clothe more or less almost the whole of Syria and Arabia. But they also glow with what is peculiar to Palestine, a profusion of wild flowers, daisies, the white flower called the Star of Bethlehem, but especially with a blaze of scarlet flowers of all kinds, chiefly anemones, wild tulips, and poppies. Of all the ordinary aspects of the country, this blaze of scarlet colour is perhaps the most peculiar, and to those who first enter the Holy Land it is no wonder that it has suggested the touching and significant name of the Saviour's blood-drops."^ It has been already observed that the Islands of Aran are geologically a portion of the limestone district of the county of Clare, and the nearest point of the mainland to them is at the foot of Black Head. This mountain, crowned by Cahir Diin Fergus, forms a noble termination to the north-western part of Clare. While in some places the headland descends abrupdy to the sea, in others the shore stretches out from its foot in low, flat ridges of black rock, intensely black as seen against the dazzling whiteness of the waves. Here, even in calm weather, the Atlantic rollers advance in slow procession, and heave their volumes of dear green water, transparent as liquid emerald, while the breeze which catches the snow-white crest of the wave casts the foam around it and above it in a veil of unimaginable purity and beauty. This rocky coast, which gradually rises to the cliffs of Moher on the south, remains low and monotonous along the north of Clare ; but, passing inland, the limestone hills increase in beauty and grandeur, rising to a much greater height than they had attained in Aran. Even where their height is inconsiderable, the forms in which their rocks are broken are full of majestic beauty. In the valleys at their feet, great masses of rock, built of squared blocks of limestone, rise like citadels, while the mountains lie in terraces ^ See Sir Frederic Wenneker's "Notes of a Visit to Egypt," p. 214. ^ Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," p. 13S. 68 Clare. of stone marked by flowing curves, line following line in slow succession, till they seem to rise by giant steps to their smooth and rounded summits. At their base the land stretches out in flat, horizontal lines of flagstone, which give all the repose of still water to the landscape, and when at early dawn far on the horizon the level lines of the grey and desert plain are met by level lines of crimson light and bars of purple cloud in heaven, nothing can exceed the solemnity of the picture. The view becomes less mournful and desolate in character as the road approaches the country round the Lake of Inchiquin, which is the very heart of Clare. Here "the bareness of the rocks upon her border" is softened with exquisite luxuriance of verdure and fulness of colour, and fringed with the delicate fronds of the maidenhair fern ; in the nooks and dells among the rocks are spots " unutterably green," harmonising with the peculiar warm and rich gray of the limestone rocks that rise above them, while the wild flowers that gem these corners and little nests, glow with a colouring only the more vivid as contrasting with the quiet hue of the rest of the landscape. The purple foxglove, heather, geranium, and wild thyme, with the golden leaf of the variegated ivy, the crimson berries of the orchis, and red fruit of the wild strawberry, all forming rich contrast with the pure delicate hue of the hare-bell and forget-me-not and speed-well, " which make a blueness there as of the sky when it is deepened in the water."' Here the sides of the hills are often wooded, principally with wild ash and oak, and at their feet lie rocks covered with velvety moss of a golden-bronze colour, ferns, and ivy. It is as if Nature, like a tender mother, had but reserved all her richest gifts for this, her least happy child, and flung around the barren surface such a veil of graceful foliage, and so garlanded the stones with wreaths of creeping plants, that all sense of desolation, or even want, is lost. Standing on the higher ground other thoughts fill the mind — the ruined church and tower — the castle — forts and tombs of a prehistoric age strike the eye at every turn, and in the far distance rise the pale desolate hills, like echoes from the Holy Land, speaking to the mind of sacred memories and truths where no change is.] ' Felix Holt, vol. ii., pp. 56, 57. Aran Islands. 69 ARAN ISLANDS. fx ISLANDS may be properly included under this title — Aran Mor, Inismain, Inisheer, Straw Island, Ilan na Branach, and Ilan Eachach, or Horse Island. These islands have the barony of Moycullen on the north, and Moycha in the barony of Concomroe and county of Clare, on the east, and the Black Head stretching out into the sea on the south ; Aran Mor stands sixteen miles north-west from this headland of the coast of Clare, and about eight miles south of Golam Head, in the county of Galway. These islands occupy a space of about fifteen miles in length, and they vary in breadth from two to three miles. Aran Mor is six miles long, while the others are about two miles each. In the year 1645 the ruins of seventeen ancient oratories and churches were still standing on Aran Mor. Their names are enumerated in a list sent to Colgan by the then Archbishop of Tuam, Malachias QuEelasus. Tempul mac Longa, and Kill na Manach, and Tempul mic Canonn, have been long destroyed. Dr. Petrie and Lord Dunraven have furnished us with notes on the following ecclesiastical remains on the three Islands of Aran : — 1. Tempul Benen, Aran Mor. 2. Cill Cananach, 3. Tempul Muire, ich, 1 \ Middle Island, uire, J 4. Tempul Beg, ] \ Kilmurvey, Aran Mor. I Aran Mor. 5. Tempdl mac Duach, 6. Teglach Enda, 7. Tempiil Assurniadhc, 8. Cill Gobnet, '\ 9. Relic na saed n ingean, j South Island. 10. Tempiil Caomhan, J 1 1 . Tempul Brecdn, 12. Tempiil Ciaran Monaster, \ 1 3. Tempiil a Phoill, I Aran Mor. 14. Tempul an cheathruir aluinn. j Since Dr. Petrie visited the Middle Island and the South Island of Aran, in the year 182 1, all traces of two churches which he saw and described then have disappeared. They were Tempiil Muire on the Middle Island, and Relig na saed n ingean on the South Island. 70 S/. Beiteris Church. TEMPUL BENEN. St. Benen's Church, Island of Aran. Plate XXXVI. §BOVE the Bay of Kill Enda, in the Lsland of Aran M6r, rises one of those limestone hills which, like the heights of the Arabian desert, as described in the beautiful language of Dean Stanley, remain " always faithful to their tabular outline and blanched desolation." On the summit, and just at the most precipitous edge, stands an oratory. Roofless, tall, and narrow, with its high-pitched gables and bare massive walls, the ruined building is in strange harmony with the lone melancholy of the scene. Looking westward from the height, the eye reaches to the far horizon line of the Atlantic Ocean, first passing over a wilderness that lies below, without one single feature to break its solitude ; a sea of rock, undulating, monotonous, and gray, so that under a dark and cloudy sky the surface of the island seems but a part of the wide ocean which embraces it, whose swelling waves have turned to stone.] The interior of this building is lo ft. 9 in. long and 7 ft. wide. The walls are 2 ft. thick. The present height to the summit of the gables is 15 ft., and 6 ft. 6 in. to the top of the side walls ; 2 ft. of the gables are gone. The masonry is extremely good ; the mortar a sort of grouting, and some of the stones are of great size. Plate XXXVI. gives a good idea of the character of the masonry. One stone in the inside of the south gable is 7 ft. long ; another 4 ft. 8 in. by 4 ft. 4 in. There are no pilasters at the angles, such as were noticed in Leaba Molaga, p. 61 stipra. See ground-plans, facing page 72, fig. i. As the primitive Irish churches are generally placed east and west, it is a curious thing that this building stands north and south, without there being any apparent reason for this most unusual arrangement. The doorway is in the north gable wall. It is the narrowest I have seen, as compared with its height, and its jambs incline to a remarkable degree. It measures 5 ft. 2 in. in height, i ft. 11 in. wide at the bottom, and i ft. 4 in. at the top. The lintel is 5 ft. 6 in. long, i ft. high, and 2 ft. deep. There is only one window, which is in the east side-wall. Externally this window is only 4 J in. wide at the base, and 3 J in. at the springing of the arch. O' Donovan thinks the altar must have been placed in this window. It is round-headed, the arch being scooped Aran Islands. 71 out of two stones. It is placed at a distance of 2 ft. 6 in. from the gable and 3 ft. 6 in. from the ground. This little window is shown in Plate XXXVI. A rectangular enclosure lies about 20 ft. north of the door. It is 11 ft. high, 5 ft. 6 in. wide, and 4 ft. deep. Two of its sides are formed by the rock against which it is built, and two by the wall ; at one angle overlapping stones remain, which formed part of the roof, and show its construction. The top would be about the level of the church. There is a doorway in the east wall which is 2 ft. wide. At 100 ft. to the north of this church a group of cells is to be seen, but they are so destroyed and filled with stones that the plan could not be made out without a thorough clearing of the debris : one of them was rectangular, and they seem to have been sur- rounded by a sort of cashel. KiLLBANNON IN THE CoUNTV OF GaLWAY. Historical Note on Tempul Benen.— Dr. Petrie' held that the Benen, or Benignus, from whom this church was named, was to be identified with the Benen who founded the church of Killbannon in the county of Galway, and that he was the disciple of St. Patrick mentioned in the Senchus Mor. The reason why Dr. Petrie inclined to this opinion was probably because Colgan speaks of him as " Benignus Archiepiscopus," and as patron of Kilbannon, and no other saint of that name is mentioned in the " Martyrology of Donegal," where he is venerated on the 9th of November ; also in a passage in an ancient poem attributed to him, it would appear that he was familiar with Aran, since, when 1 See Petrie "Eccl. Arch,," pp. 334, 347, 34S, 444. 72 Tlie Canoits Church. enumerating the seats of the King of Cashel, he mentions " The great sea plain — Mur-mhagh," which appears to be identical with Murvey of Kill Murvey in the Island of Aranmor.' The church or monastery of Kilbannon (of which the above drawing was made by Dr. Petrie upwards of thirty years ago) was built, like that of Tempiil mac Duach in Aran, inside the wall of an ancient Diin, or castle, called Diin Lugaid, from a lord of that county, who, with his father and four brothers, was here baptized by St. Patrick and Benen, and who gave up their fort to the saint to form a cashel for their monastery^ (see Appendix to " Vitam S. Patricii," Tr. Th., p. 204, ex vita S. Benigni). That this building on Aran IVIor was the original Oratory of St. Benen, or Benignus, the disciple of St. Patrick {circa 432-500), may be doubted, since there is a wide dif- ference between the masonry of this building and that of the oratories already described, founded by men who lived in the sixth and seventh centuries. CILL CANANACH, Plates XXXVII. and XXXVIII. UCH difficulty exists as to the origin of this name. In Archbishop O'Kealy's account, published by Colgan ("Acta Sanctorum," p. 714), and reprinted by Hardiman (" lar-Connaught," pp. 74, 75), the church is called " TempuU Ceannanach," The name " Ceannanach " has not been met with in any calendar of Irish saints. Mr. W. M. Hennessy has suggested that the name was originally Tempill na Cananach, or the Canons' Church — just as on the Island of Aran M6r there was Cill na Manach, or the Church of the Monks. If this be true, the church may be associated with the two canons whose tombstone is now built into the wall of St. Brecan's Church in Aran Mor, which bears the following inscription : — " Or do ii Canoin." There was a church on Aran Mor named Tempul mic Canonn (Church of the Son of the Canon). It formed one of the group of churches of Kill Enda, as we learn from the list of those buildings published by Colgan in the year 1645, and drawn up by Malachias QuEelseus. ^ " Book of Rights," Introd. pp., ii. 93. ^ In the year 1S26, when Dr. Petrie visited this place, the remains of this great Rath, a portion of the circle, was still to be seen \ in 1838, when Dr. O'Donovan visited the same place, all traces of this enclosure had been swept away by the plough. T/ie Canons ChurcJi. 73 This church is situated near the shore of Inismain, or the Middle Island of Aran. It stards upon a platform of long limestone flags, which extends some distance between the sandy shore and a rocky escarpment some twenty yards to the west of it. The gray colour of the rocky floor on which it rests is relieved by the brilliant green of the vegetation which springs with wild luxuriance in the fissures of these rocks, and each slab is fringed with a border of delicate maidenhair fern, bramble, and dog-roses. Facing the west door a low cliff rises, rounded and smoothed as if by glacier action, where the gray is relieved by bands of a warmer reddish colour, and the clefts of this line of rock are filled with young Interior of Doorway, Cill Cananach. birch and hawthorn, while its face is garlanded with woodbine and ivy, and the summit is crowned by an ancient pagan fort. This is a very striking little church, both from its apparent antiquity and its position. An aged elder-tree has grown up within its walls, so as to fill entirely the inside of the building as well as overshadow its walls outside. The size of the building is 1 3 ft. in length by 8 ft. 6 in. in width. The walls are 2 ft. thick. (See ground-plan, facing page 72, fig. 3.) Those of the nave are carried one-third up the gable, which is an ugly feature in them, but perhaps there was an outer stratum of gable. The stones are very large, and L 74 Church on Inismain. grouting is used for cement. There is no plinth, but at each end there are projecting stones like handles at the four angles, one of which is to be seen in Plate XXXVII. at the right-hand side of the doorway. (See ground-plans, fig. 3.) The doorway is in the west end ; it is 4 ft. 6 in. high, i ft. 7 in. broad, and I think the jambs are vertical, though O'Donovan's measurements make the base i ft. 8 in., thus one inch wider than the top. The lintel is 4 ft. 8 in. long. The exterior view of this doorway may be seen in Plate XXXVII., and the interior is shown in the engraving on page 73, drawn on wood by Dr. Petrie from a sketch by Mr. W. F. Wakeman. The east window is triangular-headed. Externally it is i ft. 7 in. high and 10 in. wide, with sides nearly vertical ; internally it is 3 ft. 6 in. high, and 2 ft. 3 in. wide at the base, and i ft. 1 1 in. at the top. At a distance of about a hundred yards to the north of this building there is a heap of ruined walls, the remains of a building the doorway of which is now all that is left. This is square-headed, and measures 4 ft. 6 in. in height, 3 ft. 6 in. wide, and the lintel is 6 ft. 6 in. long and 4 ft. wide. Tempul Caireach Dergain. Inismain. At this place stood a group of buildings which formed a nunnery, of which two churches and a leacht now remain. The ruins of the first church are only a few feet high, and the building is divided into three parts. It is situated on the hill towards the centre of the island. The second is now called Tempdl Muire, or the Church of Mary, though when Dr. Petrie first visited the island, in 1821, the name of the patron saint, Cairech, was still preserved. This building has of late years been fitted up as a chapel, a square addition having been made to the south side. The size of the original building is 39 ft. long, by 14^^ ft. broad; it was not divided into nave and chancel; the doorway, which is in the north wall, is pointed. The east window is also pointed and small. The other windows are all square, There is a very rude and ancient-looking bullan, or vessel, still in use, for holding holy water. Dr, Petrie adds, speaking of this building : " It does not seem to be of equal antiquity with the other churches in these islands, being built of smaller stones, and less marked by signs of decay. It is sheltered by a ledge of rock, from which issues a beautiful fountain, and on the summit of which the remains of the nunnery of St. Caireach may be seen. Beside the monastery is placed the tomb of the Virgin saint, an open bed with a pillar at one end, on which a circle and cross are sculptured ; and at a little distance Church of St. Colman Mac Dtiach. 75 the Saint's well is seen, beneath an ancient thorn-tree, which shades it, and is decorated by the votive shreds spread there in gratitude for real or imaginary benefits derived from its sacred water." Historical Note on Tempul Caireach Dergain. — The holy virgin to whom this place was dedicated was Caireach Dergain, daughter of Conall Derg, sister of St. Enna, of Aran, and of the princely house of Airghiolla (or Oriel). Her principal nunnery was at Clonburren, on the Shannon, nearly opposite Clonmacnois. Her death is given by the Four Masters as occurring in the year 577, on the 9th of February, on which day her memory is venerated in the calendar of Oengus, where she is styled Cairech Dergain the Godly. KiLMURVEY. CiLL MuiEBHECH MiLL. This is the name of a townland in Aran Mor, which is derived from the cashel, or fort, of Muirbhech IVIill, part of which still remains, enclosing the oratory and greater church, which are dedicated to Colman mac Duach, and are named Tempdl beg na naiomh, Tempiil Mor Mac Duach. This wall has been described in the first part of this work. See page 8, supra. Tempul beg na naiomh, the Little Church of the Saints, is a small oratory without nave or chancel. Its size is only 15 ft. 6 in. in length, and 9 ft. 6 in. wide. The west wall is quite gone, and only 6 ft. of the others remain ; one stone is 7 ft. long. The east end has a projection 3 ft. high, and 8 in. deep. Of the east window the sill alone remains, and this splays downwards. TEMPUL MAC DUACH. Church of St. Colman Mac Duach, Island of Aran. Plates XXXIX. and XL. HIS is the most curious church to be seen in Aran. It is composed of nave and chancel. The nave and chancel walls are both added to and raised several feet. These additions give a very ugly character to this most striking old church. The nave is 18 ft. 8 in. long, and 14 ft. 6 in. wide. The chancel is 15 ft. 4 in. long, and 1 1 ft. 2 in. wide ; walls, 2 ft. 8 in. thick. See plate facing page 72, fig. 13. On both the 76 Church of St. Colman Mac Duach. north and south sides the stones are of very large size ; as examples of these the following measurements are given : — Two stones measure 17 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. ; another, 10 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. ; one 7 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in., and one 6 ft. 5 in. by 2 ft. 8 in. ; one 9 ft. by 2 ft. ; another 10 ft. by I ft. 3 in. Of the stones on the south side, one is 9 ft. by 2 ft. 9 in., one 5 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. i in., and one 6 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. This church is built with mortar. There is no plinth. There are pilaster buttresses in the west gable, 2 ft. 4 in. wide and i ft. 2 in. deep, which are simple prolongations of the north and south wall. The west door is of fine and massive character. It is 5 ft. 5 in. in height, 2 ft. 3 in, wide at the base, and I ft. 1 1 in. at the top, the jambs inclining 4 in. The lintel is a granite block, 5 ft. long by I ft. 6 in., and 2 ft. 6 in. deep. The east window has a very deep splay. It measures 4 ft. i in. in height, 6 in. wide at the base, and 5 in. at the top. There is a square-headed window in the south wall of the nave, the interior of which may be seen in Plate XL. ; it measures on this side 4 ft. in height, I ft. 10 in. wide at the base, and 6 in, at the top ; externally it is i ft. 7 in, in height, 10 in, wide at the base, and 9 in. at the top. There is also a straight-sided window in the south side of the chancel, measuring 2 ft. 4 in. high, and 7 in. wide at base, and 5 in. at top, externally. The chancel arch is of uncut thin stones (see Plate XL.), and has a plain impost, with a slight chamfer ; it is 9 ft, 6 in, wide. The impost of the chancel arch is on the north side, a plain stone 6 in. high, and projecting 2 in. ; whereas on the south side of the chancel arch the stone seems to have been hammered off roughly to the form shown in the cut a. „ I The distance from the nave wall to the chancel arch is 2 ft. 8 in. ; the width of r~ K the wall is 2 ft. 8 in. ; the projection on the chancel side is 2 ft. 3 in. There j_ J was a chamber over the chancel, the walls being built on projecting or corbelled stones ; they are about 5 ft, high, including a sort of battlement. The base of the east wall is original, the upper part being probably the date of the east window — twelfth century. The gable pitch medium, rather above a right angle. There are two projecting stones at the angles, just below the springing of the gable, see cut b. I suppose i the church had a wooden roof. A rude representation of an animal may be seen sculptured on a stone on the north wall near the west end. A large stone stands near the west door of the church : it is 7 ft. 6 in. 3 high, 2 ft. wide at the top, and i ft. 6 in. at the base. On the east side of this stone a plain cross is incised, of which I made a rubbing. Dr. Petrie, in his notes on his tour in Aran, in the year 1821, observes: — " Three or four years before our visit to Aran, our kind entertainer, Mr. O'F., in making a garden near the larger church, discovered nine or ten subterranean cells, of an oblong quadrangular form, connected with each other by a passage. These cells were Church of St. Colman Mac Diiach. 77 placed in rows of three cells each, and those in the centre were something larger than those at either side. The centre cells were 8 ft. by 6 ft., and about 3 ft. 6 in. high. " A great number of ornamented brass pins, or fasteners for the mantle, or perhaps cowl, were discovered within the cells. They were of various forms and sizes, covered with a beautiful green patina, and of tasteful an'd neat workmanship, as far as I can judge from a few that remained in Mr, O'Flaherty's possession, which I was so fortunate as to procure. No coins or any things of precious metal were found. " At the same time a great number of flagstones, apparently monumental, were turned up, nearer the church. They were laid like a pavement, and, according to the account given by Mr, O' Flaherty and others, were all inscribed with characters not like Irish letters, but generally, if not wholly, resembling darts, or barbed arrows. This description having been given by persons who had recently seen Irish inscriptions, makes it peculiarly to be regretted that none of those stones were preserved. They were all broken up to build a garden wall. There is no burial-place at present within the village." Historical Note on Kilmacduach. — This church was founded by St. Colman mac Duach early in the seventh century. He was of the same family as Guaire Aidhne, King of Connaught. The period of his sojourn in Aran M6r is not exactly known, but before the year 620 he lived as a hermit in a wild rocky valley in the north of Clare, where the remains of his little oratory, the cave in which he slept, and two altars, may still be seen. This place is still visited by pilgrims on the saint's day, February 3rd. He withdrew from his mountain solitude at the request of King Guaire, who became a Christian, and gave him a grant of land in the county of Galway, where he founded the great monastery of Killmacduach. No record has been preserved of any further history of this church. Dr. Quzelaeus, when naming it to Colgan, speaks in the following terms — " Ecclesia Tempull mic Duach (i. Templum S. Mac Duachi, qui et Colmanus cognomento Mac Duach appellatur) ; qus est pulchra Ecclesia ei Sancto dicata." (Actt. SS. p. 715^.) ' See Petrie, " Eccl. Arch.," pp. 175, 176, 344, 421, 446, 452 ; Lanigan, " Eccl. Hist." vol. ii. pp. 341, 342. r 78 Kill Enda. KILL ENDA. [Dr. Petrie's Notes.] Plate XLI. HE catalogue of the churches of Aran appended to the life of St. Enda, and published in 1645, the "Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae" of Father Colgan, has been already alluded to. This list, though very imperfect, and in some parts erroneous, is valuable as having preserved the names of several churches in the neighbourhood of Kill Enda, of which there is now scarcely anything remaining, most of them having been destroyed by a detachment of Cromwell's soldiers for the purpose of building a barrack. Base of the Belfry of Kill Enda. A vivid recollection of this sacrilegious demolition is transmitted among the islanders from generation to generation, and there is no name that is held by them in greater detestation and abhorrence than that of Cromwell. The churches thus destroyed belonged to the monastery of St. Enda. They were situated immediately beside the village of Kill Enda (now Killeany) so called from the ruined church which bears that name. Nothing could be happier than the choice of site for those buildings, being sheltered by a lofty hill, and commanding a view of the beautiful Bay of Kill Enda, with the picturesque shores and mountains of Connemara in the distance. The names of these churches were as follows : — i. Kill Enda. 2. Teglach Enda. 3. TempuU mac Longa. 4. Tempull mic Canonn. 5. The Church of the Holy Virgin. 6. TempuU Benain. 7. Kil na manach. (Colgan, Actt. SS. pp. 714(5, 715 a.) At a little distance from the last-mentioned church stands the ruined belfry belonging Kill Enda. 79 to these religious edifices ; it is still called by the islanders Cloicteach Enna, or the Bell-house of Enda. This interesting relic had outlived the destruction of the coeval edifices by the soldiers of the Commonwealth, and in the memory of the oldest existing inhabitants of the island it was still, they say, 84 ft. high. But it was not proof against lightning, the winds of the Atlantic, and the decay of time, and all that now remains is a stump of 50 ft. in circumference and 8 ft. or 9 ft. in height. In an ancient poem entitled "Columb Cille's Farewell to Aran," the following verse occurs : — Aran, thou sun, ! Aran, thou sun, My love lies in it west ; If within the sound of its bell, AHke is it for .anyone as to be in happiness.^ The tower is built of well-rounded stones, good-sized blocks, and in courses. The wall appears to have two concentric faces, which is very singular. The diameter of the inner is 1 1 ft., and of the outer about 16 ft. Kill Enda. This church lies east by south ; it is a simple quadrangular chamber measuring internally 19 ft. 5 in. by 9 ft. 8 in., and the walls are i ft. 10 in. in thickness. The east gable and lower half of the north wall are original, and built of large stones, cemented with good mortar ; one of the stones is 10 ft., another 8 ft in length, and 2 ft. 6 in. in height. In the larger stones the horizontal joints are not close, but small spawls are introduced between them. Plate XLI. gives the character of this older masonry, as contrasted with that of a later date, which is seen in the west end. The rest of the building is the work of the 14th or 1 5th century, if we may judge by the Gothic north doorway and the different character of the masonry. The present pitch of the gable is probably lower than the original one. There is no plinth to this church, but there are pilasters to the east wall i ft. 8 in. wide by 8 in. deep. They do not reach quite to the gable, but the edge of this gable is later work. The present doorway is pointed, and in the north wall. The east window is primitive, and its interior is represented in the above drawing. Here it measures 2 ft. 4 in. in height by South Window, Kill End.\, Aran Moe. ' See " Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin," vol. i., p. 1 S5. 8o Kill Enda. I ft. 3 in. in width ; externally it is i ft. 8 in. high and in. wide at base, and 8^ in. at the springing of the arch, out of which it is cut, and which is two stones in depth. The splay is not great, and there are no steps in it ; the arch of this window is of punched work. About 3 ft. below this window there is a projection reaching across the east end, but it looks like work of a later date. Inside the church there is a stone lying on the ground with a shallow hollow cut in it: this may have been a stoup for holy water, or a bullan. It measures i ft. 8 in. by I ft. 7 in. Historical Note on Kill Enda. — This church was founded early in the 6th century by St. Enda, who died about the year 540. Here it is said that he was visited by St. Brendan, in the account of the acts of that saint. This must have been about the year 540. He was also visited by Ciaran, of Clonmacnois, who remained sometime in the island assisting him in the management of his monastery. When he parted from St. Enda, a cross was erected in sign of mutual brotherhood. Monaster Ciarain, in Aran Mor, still bears his name. St. Enda is venerated in the Martyrology on the 21st of March, where it is said, " He resigned his heirship of a kingdom and of the great wealth of his patrimony for God ; and he founded a church in Ara, and afterwards assumed the abbacy thereof Thrice fifty was his congregation." It is said in an ancient poem of Cuimin of Coindeire, that " he used to be in a stone prison praying for all persons." Enda, of high piety, loved In Ara; victory with sweetness, A prison of hard narrow stone, To bring all unto heaven. The life of St. Enda was taken by Colgan from a manuscript preserved in the Island of All Saints, on Lough Ree, written by Augustin Magraidin, who lived in the year 1390. He is said to have visited Italy, and founded a monastery in Latium ; and it was there that he was directed by his sister, who followed him from Ireland, to seek a certain island in the western ocean, called Aran. The island was given to him by Angus, King of Munster. There are two places in the Islands of Aran which are still called by the same names by which they are distinguished in this ancient life of St. Enda : Eochuill, the place where he first landed, and Traighnaneach, in the Middle Island, where it is said some horses swam to shore who were driven into the sea out of Aran Mor, by Enda. He divided the island into ten parts, and built monasteries in each. In his own monastery of Killenda he kept the Book of the Gospel, brought to him by an angel from heaven, as well as a sacer- dotal case of sacred utensils (casula sacerdotalium ministeriorum). Temple Soiirney. 8i The Four Masters record the names of some of the subsequent abbots of this church from the seventh to the 1 2th century. A.D. 654, St. Nem Mac Ua-Birn, successor of Enne, of Ara, died on the 14th of June. A.D. 755, Gaimdibhla, Abbot of Ara, died. A.D. 916, Egnech, successor of Enda of Ara, bishop and anchorite, died. A.D. 1 1 14, Maelcoluim Ua Cormacain, successor of Enda of Ara, died. A.D. 1 167, Ua Dubhacan, i.e. Gillagori, successor of Enda of Ara, died. Nothing further is recorded of this church, apparently, after the twelftli century. TEMPUL ASSURNIADHE. Tempul Sourney, Aran Mor. Plate XLII. ' HIS church is situated near the village of Ballanacraga, about half a mile to the west of Monaster. It is thus described by Dr, Petrie, writing in the year 182 i : — " It is a small oratory, joined to a little monastery of scarcely larger dimensions, both built in the rudest and most antique fashion. These ruins, like many of the religious buildings of Aran, are placed in a sheltered and secluded situation, under a limestone cliiT, the near view confined by rugged rocks to the little green spot, once, perhaps, the garden of the ancient monks, and the world, which they had abandoned for ever, seen only beyond the mighty ocean in quiet and far-off distance ; but the presence of a few old thorn-bushes, growing in the little dell which surrounds the oratory, and spreading their shelter over its crumbling walls, give it a wild beauty which few of the other churches of Aran possess." Of the two buildings spoken of in this passage by Dr. Petrie, only a portion of one now remains. Of this, the south, north, and east walls may still be seen ; the west has fallen in, and there is no gable. This little church is curiously shaped, being 16 ft. long by 12 ft. wide, and the walls 2 ft. 9 in. thick. (See ground-plan, fig. 5.) The most singular feature in it is the bulge in the north wall, which is original, but scarcely visible internally. This church was built with a sort of mud mortar. To judge from the ruins of the west wall, the width of the door at its base must have been i ft. 7 in. at the bottom. The east window seems to have been peculiar ; the splay is wide, and the lower half of the window M 82 Church of the Four Beatitiful Saints. is blocked up by the wall, while beneath it stands a rude altar of stones, with a super- incumbent flag, 4 ft. 6 in. wide, 2 ft. deep, and 4 ft. high. It is difficult to explain the name of this church ; it may mean the " church of the vigils." Dr. Petrie writes the name Teampull na Sourney, and it has been thought that the origin of the word may be found in the name of St. Esserninus, of whom little is known, except what is said of him in the lives of St. Patrick (see Colgan, " Trias Thaum," pp. y^a, 152^7, 265;?). He is mentioned in the following passage in the " Chronicon Scotorum," a.d. 438 : " Secundinus, and Auxilius, and Esserninus are sent to the Irish ; but they obtained not pre-eminence or authority in the time of Patrick alone." Dr. Quaelseus says (vide "Acta Sanctorum," p. 715) this church was held in the highest veneration by the islanders. " Ecclesia vocata Tempull-Assurnuidhe, quae dicata fertur S. Assurnidhe (vel Essernino forte) ; et haec est in maxima veneratione apud Insulanos." Dr. Petrie mentions a tradition preserved in the island when he first visited it, that Assurnidhe was the name of an abbess who presided over a small nunnery at Drumacooge, near Tyrone House, on the south-east side of the Bay of Galway, where her church, a beautiful little building, still remains ; and that at the close of her life she retired to this oratory in Aran. TEMPUL AN CHEATHRUIR ALUINN. The Church of the Four Beautiful Saints. I R. PETRIE first visited this ruin in the year 182 1, when it was in a state of much better preservation than it now is. In a journal of his tour in Aran, he thus describes it : " This church is a small but well-built edifice of cut stone. It was lighted by three very small round-headed windows, placed so as to illuminate the altar, two in the side and one in the east wall, which has a level sill, but splays to the right and left ; the top of this window has fallen, and it is now arched over with ivy, woodbine, and thorny bramble, which overhangs the simple stone altar that yet stands below. A stone bracket projects from the wall to the left of and a little above this altar, intended, probably, to receive a figure. But the most remarkable feature of this building is a small chamber within the wall on the west side, 6 ft. long by 3 ft. 10 in. broad. The walls of this church are now only a few feet above the ground. To the east is a small enclosure, and near the church there is a beautiful little well. To the west there is a spot called the Graves of the Four Beauties. They are rude headstones, but without Kill Gobiiet. 83 inscriptions. Two pillar stones are standing to the west of tliis place ; one measures 13 ft. by 2 ft., and 8 in. thidc ; tlie other 10 ft. by 3 ft. wide, and 6 in. in thicl^ness. The altar and bracliet mentioned above, with a portion of the sides of the east window, still remain. This church is described by Dr. OuEelseus to Colgan in the following passage : — " The church called Tempull an cheathruir aluinn, or the ' Church of the Four Beautiful Saints,' who were SS. Fursey, Brendan of Birr, Conall, and Berchann, whose bodies are also said to be buried in the same tomb, lying in the cemetery of the same church."' CELL GOBNAIT. Kill Gobnet, South Island of Aran. Plate XLIII. HIS ruin is near that of an ancient castle, and stands in a little romantic dell or nook, surrounded on all sides by lofty rocks, that shut out the view of everything save the sky. The internal measurements of this building are 12 ft. 8 in. in length by 8 ft. 6 in. in width ; the walls are 2 ft. 7 in. thick. (See ground-plan, fig. 2.) Mortar is used, and the stones are small, and gable medium pitch. The doorway is in the west end ; it is 5 ft. 5 in. in height, i ft. 11 in. wide at the base, and i ft. 7 in. at the top. The east window measures internally 3 ft. 3 in. in height ; it is 2 ft. wide at the base, and i ft. 10 in. at the top. It is round-headed, the arch cut from a single stone. Under this window the altar is still standing which Dr. Petrie first described when he visited the church in the year 1822. This church is not so old-looking as St. Caimin's Church, on the same island. A pillar-stone stands close outside the west door, and Dr. Petrie describes a cell like St. Flannan's cell as standing opposite the door, and in very perfect preservation when he first saw it. There were two rude sarcophagi formed of large slabs of limestone without dressing, sculpture, or inscription of any kind. [These buildings are believed to be the oratory and dwelling-house of St. Gobnet, to whom the church is dedicated, and whose memory is still celebrated there on the 1 1 th of February. In the Martyrology of Donegal we read — " February 1 1. Gobnat, virgin. At M6in-M6r, in the south of Erinn, is her church [and at Baile Mhuirne] ;" and in the ^ See O'Flaherty's " West Coiinaught," p. 75. 84 Si. Caivtins Church. Calendar of Oengus she is thus noticed : " My Gobnait with pure goodness as to God's love was opulent."' Baile Mhuirne, called Ballyvourney, is a monastery six miles to the west of Macroom, in the county of Cork. At what time St. Gobnat lived has not been deter- mined. Dr. Lanigan" refers to a tradition — which, however, he seems to doubt the truth of — that this saint got her church of Ballyvourney from St. Abban, who appears to have lived in the seventh century, but about whose date also there is much uncertainty. The second church on Innisheer, according to Colgan, was dedicated to St. Paul, but this circumstance is not preserved by tradition. It is called by the islanders Relig na saed n'ingean, or the burial-place of the Seven Daughters. Of the church, which was small, but little more than the foundation remains. It is situated in the centre of the island, in a very exposed and elevated situation. A few monumental stones, sculptured with crosses, are lying within the church, but they are without inscriptions ; and adjoining the church is a very remarkable extensive circular wall, about 7 ft. high, with a heap of stones in the centre, like a rude altar. As this is not strong enough for a diin, or fortress, I confess I cannot conjecture for what purpose it was intended. The seven daughters who repose beside this wild crag are probably the seven daughters of Fergus, whose memory, according to the Martyrologies, is venerated in the church of Teach-inghcn-Ferghusa, in Connaught, on the 24th of May ; and of whom nothing more is known save that they appear to be the same as the "septem Moniales de Tyr-ua-Fiachra aidhne" (Colgan, Actt. SS. p. 337;?), a district opposite the island of Ara Coemhain, in the lower part of the county of Galway, commemorated in the life of St. Farrannan.] TEMPUL COEMHAIN. " •^^^^''SS'i Church of St. Caimin, on the South Island. rp^ ^^^^ ^^^y' H I S little building is situated on the shore to the east side of the island, ?^M/iu^ in the townland of Carrow Castle. It is built in a hollow in the sand, and *illsl'^^ll brings vividly to mind the description by Scott of the church of St. Ninian in ■■' ^^^^ the Shetland Isles: "The roof, with its lead and its rafters having been stripped from the little rude old Gothic building, it was left in the wilderness to the mercy of the elements. The fury of the uncontrolled winds, which howled along an exposed space, very soon choked up nave and aisle, and on the north-west side, which was chiefly exposed to the wind, hid the outside walls more than half-way up with mounds of ^ Or Emaigtlie, the name of the place wherein she is. (Notes from the Lebar Brecc, pp. 81, 84. Calendar of Oengus.) ^ Lanigan, " Eccl. Hist." vol. iii. pp. 14, 21. S^. Caimins Clmrch. 8S drifted sand, over which the gable ends of the building . . . arose in ragged and shattered nakedness of ruin."' This little building is divided into nave and choir, the nave being only i6 ft. long by 1 2 ft. wide, and the chancel 1 1 ft. 6 in. long by lO ft. 6 in. wide. The walls are 2 ft. 8 in. thick. The gables are high pitched, forming almost an equilateral triangle. It is built with mortar, and the stones are of ordinary size. The west door, now nearly choked up with UOORWAV OF bT. CaIMIN'S CHURCH. sand, is of the ancient and primitive type. It is i ft. lo in. wide at the top, and probably 2 ft. or 2 ft. I in. at the base. The lintel has one peculiarity, that it projects 9 in. into the church inside ; a somewhat similar projection is to be observed in the inner side of the lintels of the doorways in the churches at Inis mac Dara, Kilnaboy and Scattery Island. [There is a second doorway on the south side of the nave, but with a pointed arch.] The east window is long and round-headed. Its mea- surements are : 3 ft. 6 in. high, 8 in. wide at base, and 7 in. wide at top, externally ; and 5 ft. 8 in. high, 3 ft. 5 in. wide at base, and 3 ft. 3 in. wide at top, internally. On the south side of the choir there is a triangular-headed window, too much ruined on the outside to be measured, but on the inside it is 2 ft, i in. high by 2 ft. in width. There is no window in the nave. South Window in St. Caimin's Church. ' See "The Pirate," vol. ii. pp. 86, 87. 86 Si. Caimins CJmrch. The chancel arch is pointed, and of cut stone, with a curious impost moulding, like a very rude irregular beading. About ten yards to the east of the church there is an oblong recess or building about 5 ft. in depth, and at the bottom is a large slab, upon which, when the sand was cleared away, I found a curious cross inscribed, of which I have a rubbing. This was a tombstone, and the walls, which seem modern, may have been built to protect it from the sand. When Dr. Petrie visited this church, in 1821, he found that this cross was held by tradition to mark the grave of St. Coemhan, and then a rude pillar-stone was standing at one end of the grave, which has been since removed. At that time the gravestone, which still remains, was held in great reverence by the islanders, who believed that the sick and the maimed had only to lie down upon it, when they were immediately healed, and that the stone had also the power of accommodating itself to the form and size of every sufferer who lay down upon it.^ [This superstition is one of early date among the British as well as Irish ; we find in an ancient poem, translated by O'Flaherty in his " Ogygia," that a stone possessed of the same powers is there mentioned as standing on Tara hill ; and Nennius, a writer of the ninth century, describes another such, " in the county of Cereticum [Cardigan], in which is a mountain called Cruc Maur, on the top whereof stands a sepulchre, along which whoever extends himself though he be a man of a short stature, yet he shall find the sepulchre just even to his length, and though he be four cubits high, the sepulchre shall be of the same length, and so still fitted to the proportion of every man ; and whatever weary traveller shall kneel thrice by it shall be no more weary to the day of his death, though he should live alone to the day of his death in the remotest part of the world." There is much obscurity about the identity of the St. Coemhan to whom this church was dedicated. Colgan, in a IWS. note, maintains that the Coemhan of Airdne-Coemhain in the county of Wexford, and brother of St. Kevin of Glendalougli, was also the founder of Cill Coemhain in one of the Aran Islands, called from him Ara Coemhain ; and one argument in favour of this belief is, that the patron saint was revered both in the church in the latter island, and in Wexford, on the same day, the 12th of June. In the " Martyrology of Donegal " we read : — " And this is Caomhan, or Sanct-Lethan, and he had the same mother as Caoimhghin and Natcaeimhe, of Tirdaghlas, i.e. Caoimell, daughter of Cennfhionnan, son of Cis, son of Lughaidh. He was of the race of Corb Uloim, son of Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe." ' See OTlaherty's " West Connaught," p. 88. 6"/. Brecans C/mrck. 87 However, O'Flaherty' denies the assertion of Colgan in the following passage : " This likeness of the names of Aird-n-coeman and Coeman-Airne, and other circumstances, induced Father Colganus to believe Coeman of Ard-ne-coeman and Coeman-Airne were the same person, and worshipped the 12th June.^ But it appears by an old author, Engus-kele-de, quoted by Colganus, that Coeman-Airne was brother to St. Coemgin, and elsewhere that Coeman, St. Coemgin, his brother, is worshipped the 3rd November.'" As this saint lived in the seventh century, we may conclude that the church was founded about that period. That there is work of two dates in this church can hardly be doubted, and it is curious that some of the oldest features in the church of St. Caomhain, in Ara Caomhain, resemble exactly the oldest-looking church at Glendalough, Trinity Church (see PI. L.), which has the same curious little south window in the choir.] TEMPUL BRECAIN. St. Brecan's Church, Aran Mor. Plate XLIV. ' HE buildings belonging to this monastery of St. Brecan, usually termed '■^^{ the " Seven Churches," are situated close to the village of Oonaght (Eoghanacht), about two miles from Kilmurvey in the townland which forms the western part of the island. The ruins form an interesting group in a wild and romantic situation. They occupy a little dell walled in on three sides by ridges of limestone rock, and on the fourth side opening on a distant but delightful prospect of the picturesque mountains of Connemara. Of the churches only two now remain, and it seems very doubtful whether there ever were any more. On this subject Dr. Petrie remarks, in his journal : — " Tradition says that there was a group of seven churches here, but I feel very sceptical on this point, for even though several buildings remain, they do not appear to have been churches but monastic houses, and Dr. Quslasus, who is no slender authority, only mentions Tempiil Brecain and Tempiil a Phoill." Tempiil Brecain appears from its situation to have been the central building of the group. For an early church it is of a large size ; the nave measures 32 ft. in length and ' See O'Flaherty, " West Connaught," pp. 87, 90. 2 Colg. 12 Mar., p. 586, num. 6. Item, 21 Mar., p. -^it,, prope finem. ^ Supra, p. 177, num. 88. 88 5/. Brecaiis Church. 1 8 ft. in width, tlie chancel 20 ft. 6 in. by 18 ft., thus the nave and chancel are of equal breadth. There is work of various periods in this church, but the north wall and the wall between the nave and chancel are original. I think portions of the north and east walls of the chancel are also original. If this be so this is one of the largest early churches I have met with. The height of the nave walls is about 9 ft., the chancel 12 ft. The masonry is not in courses, mortar was used, and little spawls were introduced between the stones. The character of the masonry is rude and large ; one stone in the north wall measures 8 ft. by 3 ft., another 6 ft. by 3 ft. It may have been repaired at a later period, when other changes were made, and the fact that there is now no south-west pilaster buttress to be seen supports this view. At the north-west angle of the nave there is a pilaster buttress which is 2 ft. wide and 7 in. deep." There is no trace of the original west door, but there is a doorway with a pointed arch in the south wall. There is but one window in this building, which seems to belong to the original structure ; it is situated in the north wall of the nave 5 ft. from the chancel arch. The ; arch-stones of this triangular-headed window are I ft. g in. long and i ft. 8 in. broad ; the jambs are almost vertical. The outer stones of the window are gone, but internally it widened to the breadth of about 6 in., and the height to the springing of the arch was i ft. 3 in. The long narrow east window has inclined jambs, the inclination being only I in. This window, as well as the south win- dow of the chancel, is of transition date, the first being pointed, the other round-headed [the former is 7 ft. in height, and 7 in. broad at base] ; the jambs of the east window have a sort of long-and- short character about them on the outside. The chancel arch is of beautiful small ashlar work, and is clearly inserted in the older wall. Dr. Petrie re- marks on it, in his MS. notes on Aran, that " this arch is of such excellent workmanship, and so truly Roman in its style, that it is impossible to avoid believing it to have been the work of foreign architects." The gables of this church are not very steep. With respect to the age of this building I can offer no conjecture. In the interior of the west wall of the nave, a stone may be seen in the wall inscribed OR ar ii canoin. North Window of Nave, Temple Brecan, Aran Mor. 5'/. Brecans Bed. 89 LEABA BRECAIN. St. Brecan's Bed, Aran Mor. Plate XLV. HERE is a small oblong enclosure near the church, called St. Brecan's Bed, about 7 ft. long by 5 ft. broad. It is very similar to that of St. Benen, and was held by tradition to be the tomb of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. When this enclosure was first opened by Dr. Petrie, about fifty-two years ago, a slab was discovered 6 ft. below the surface of the ground bearing the inscription Sci Brecani.' On raising this flag a deep grave was disclosed filled with water- worn rounded stones from 8 to 12 in, in diameter, which had been brought from the adjacent strand ; and, on throwing them out of the grave, one was found containing an inscription Cross near St. Brecan's Church. in the Irish character, Oii ar Bran n-ailither. Pray for Bran the pilgrim.- A beau- tifully sculptured stone stands at the side of this grave. The upper part is broken off. There is a rude figure on the west side — is it a representation of the crucifixion ? The stone now measures 6 ft in height, and is i ft. 4 in. wide. Another remarkable stone, inscribed VII. Romani, lies in the south-east corner of the churchyard. To the east of the church, at a distance of about a hundred yards, lies ^ Petrie, " Eccl. Architecture," p. 138. ^ " Cliristian iMcriptions, collected and drawn by George Petrie," vol. ii. p. 20. N 90 Si Brecmis Bed. another sculptured stone, broken at the top, which measures 3 ft. 3 in. in length and 2 ft. 6 in. in width. On the limestone flags at a short distance two fine sculptured crosses are lying. One, which is represented in the above drawing, is imperfect, and measures now 6 ft. 6 in. in length by 3 ft. 6 in. in width. It was originally placed in a square enclosure, about 4 ft. or 5 ft. high, with a doorway on the east side, and probably formed the tomb of some celebrated person. The second, now also in fragments, was brought up from near the church ; it is 9 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 3 in. wide at the base, and i ft. 8 in. at the top. There are figures on tliis one also, and a crucifi.xion extremely rude in character and much rubbed in parts. Several oblong buildings stand close to the church, facing north and south, with doors in the north and south walls. Another small building lies about 20 yards to the south of the church, which is now nearly ruined. It measures 19 ft. in length by 10 ft. 6 in. in width, and just south of it is another of about the same size. The church of the Hollow is a mediEeval building, and I made no note of it. It stands in a little recess so closed in by rocks as scarcely to admit of a passage round it. This is a small oratory, with one door and window, both pointed. At a short distance there is a low mound of stones, which is about 13 ft. long, 6 ft. wide, and 4 ft. high. The group of buildings here should be mapped and carefully examined ; but as, with one exception, they are of a late date, it would be useless for me to attempt this work. [When Dr. Petrie visited this place first, he found the ancient baptistery still remaining; it was situated to the north of Tempiil Brecain, and was a circular font of about 8 ft. in diameter formed of a single stone placed over a spring, but much choked up with stones and rubbish. The size of this font marked its great age, since it must have belonged to a period when total immersion was practised by the church. A similar font still remains at Tallaght, near Dublin. It was held by Dr. Petrie that the Brecan who founded this church was to be identified with Brecan, the founder of Ardbraccan, now the seat of the Bishops of Meath, grandson of Carthen Finn, the first Christian prince of Thomond. He must have died early in the 6th century, and his memory was venerated on the 6th of December. However, there was another Brecan more closely connected with Clare and Galway, to whom it seems more probable that this church owed its origin, and that this tombstone belonged. Of him we read in the following passage from the Martyrology of Donegal : " May i. Brecan, bishop. Some think that this was Brecan of Ara, and of CiU Brecain, in Thomond, and who is of the race of Corbmac Gas, son of Oilill Olum." At what time this saint may have lived it is now impossible to discover ; but it does S^. Brecmis Bed. 91 not appear to have been at the earliest period of the Church in Ireland, judging from the character of his monument, and of even the oldest parts of this church in Aran. There is an ancient MS. in Trinity College Library, Dublin, dated 1443, which con- tains a poem entitled "Sanctus Breacan Cecinet," and professes to be a history of this saint. From this it appears that he was first named Breasal, and that he lived some time in the fifth century, when St. Patrick visited the court of King Eochy ; he is described as first visiting Meath, where he consecrated the church of Ardbraccan. He then went to the plain of Magh Adhair, in the county of Clare, and consecrated Cill Brecain, and where he describes himself as head of a hundred churches. From this poem it would appear that the Brecan of Meath and of Clare, who belonged to the court of Eochy, was the same person as the saint of Aran, and there is a passage in the book of Lecan, fol. 214, where Breasal or Breacan, son of Eochaidh Balldearg, is called Breacan of Ara. From the following passages in Colgan's " Acta Sanctorum," it appears that this saint was venerated on the 12th of October as well as the 1st of May: " Colitur S. Brecanus in Kill-Breacain in Tuamonia, 12 Octobris, et i Maii, juxta Martyrol. Tamhlachten, Mar. Gormanum et Aengusium auctum." (p. i-ja. n. 5.) There was a Brecan cousin-germain of St. Diman or Dima Dubh, who flourished in the beginning of the seventh century, having been the disciple of St. Colmanellus ; but there does not seem to be any authority for connecting his name with the Islands of Aran. The last-mentioned Brecan, and his brother Diman, were of the family of the Dalcassian Brecan, being sons of the brother of ./^ngus, the son of Carthenn Finn, the son of Blod, the son of Cass, from whom the family of the Dalcassians derived their name and origin. Diman was the son of Aengus. There is one other entry in the Acta Sanctorum of Colgan, being a notice of a church dedicated to a saint of this name : " Ecclesia pulchra, et dim Parochialis, Tem- plum Brecain, Templum Brecani, vocata ; eidem Sancto Brecano dicata ; in qua et eius festum celebratur 22. Maii." (p. 715a.) 92 Ratass. RATH-MAIGHE-TEAS. Ratass Church. Plate XLVI. ^^p"'HIS ruin is situated in the parish of Ratass, in the barony of Trugh- ^ anacmy, and county of Kerry. Its name is derived from Rath-Muighe- Teas, which means the fort of the southern plain. [Wlien Dr. O'Donovan visited this churcli in 1841 he was enabled to make a more careful examination of the interior. He describes it as divided into nave and chancel, the nave measuring 31 ft. 6 in. in length by 19 ft. 6 in. in width, and the choir 17 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft. 10 in. The walls of the nave are 3 ft. i in. thick, and about 12 ft. high, with chiselled quoins. There is a breach of 10 ft. on the south wall of the nave, and the south wall of the choir is destroyed. The middle gable and choir arch have fallen.] This building is now so blocked up with tombs and trees, and its walls so covered with ivy, that it is difficult to measure or examine it thoroughly. The ashlar masonry of the east front seems to be of sandstone, well pointed, but it is only visible up to the window, where the wall is concealed by ivy. The west front is also ashlar as far as the gable, where, as in the side walls, there are plain courses of spawled masonry. Here the wide- jointed, almost rubble masonry at the top appears to be work of a later date than the Masonry in Ratass Church. Ratass. 93 fine-jointed, joggled, megalithic work of the doorway, and at each side. The gables are imperfect, and do not seem to have been very steep. There are pilasters at the west end 2 ft. 9 in. wide and i ft. 7 in, deep, of ashlar work. The walls are 3 ft. thick. The doorway is only 4 ft. high above the present level of the ground, which is probably raised 2 ft. above the old. It is 2 ft. 7 in. wide at the present base, and 2 ft. at the top. The lintel is the finest I know. It is 7 ft. long and 2 ft. 4 in. high. Inside the door has a deep reveal 3 in. wide and 3 in. deep. This lintel looks very fine inside. The doorway has an architrave 1 1 in. wide and \ in. deep.' The east window measures 5 ft. to the springing of the arch, and 4 ft. 3 in. wide internally. Externally it was 3 ft. 6 in. high ; it has a simple round moulding carried under the cill, like that which may be seen in a window in Desmond Castle, and the jambs are nearly quite vertical. It was formed of chiselled freestone, each block extending the entire thickness of the wall. Historical Notes on Ratass. — Dr. Smith has described this church in his work entitled "Ancient and Present State of the County of Kerry," p, 167. He says it is wholly built of old red sandstone brought at a great distance from the mountains, although there were fine quarries of limestone to be had on the spot. Dr. Petrie has also described the doorway of this ruin in his work on " The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland," p. 169, and remarks at the close of his observations : " Respecting the founder's name, or the date of the erection of this church, I regret to be obliged to state that I have dis- covered no historical notice, and I can only offer a conjecture, grounded on the etymology of its name, — which appears to have been anciently written Rath muighe deiscirt, i.e., the rath or fort of tlie southern plain, to distinguish it from Rdth muige tuaiscirt, the rath of the northern plain, now shortened to Rattoo, the seat of an ancient bishopric about ten miles distant to the north." This latter, he adds, "was erected by Bishop Lughach, one of the earliest propagators of Christianity in Kerry, but of whose history nothing more is preserved than his name and festival day, the 6th of October, as set down in the Martyrology of Aengus, and in all the later calendars." ' The curve in the jamb, which is represented in the plate, does not exist in the doorway itself, but is caused by some accident in the photograph. 94 Dulane. tulAn. Dulane Church, County of Meath. * Meath, about two miles north-west of Kells. It stands on a grassy mound, U surrounded by a ditch, and is a singularly picturesque ruin. The grand and massive doorway, calling to mind the forms of the old Cyclopean architecture, f HIS church is situated in the barony of Williamstown, in the county of Plates XLVII. and XLVIII. the huge grey stones of which its broken walls are formed, seem in perfect harmony with the stems and branches of the aged elder trees that, serpent-like, fling their wild forms across the time-worn ruin. This building measures 35 ft. in length by 21 ft. in width. The stones are large, and very little cement is used. The south wall, which is 1 2 ft. high, has lost its top. The walls are 3 ft. 4 in. thick. There are projections of pilasters at the east and west ends. Those at the west end are 3 ft. 3 in. deep and 2 ft. 10 in. wide ; those at the east are 2 ft. 6 in. deep and 2 ft. 8 in. wide. Some of the stones of which they are formed have been tooled. The doorway is the finest I have seen. It measures 5 ft. i in. in height, 3 ft. 6 in. wide at the base, and 3 ft. 4 in. at the top. The lintel, now partially broken, is 7 ft. 6 in. long. It is i ft. 9 in. high externally and i ft. 7 in. internally. It contracts in form, so as to meet the reveal and give proper width to the soffit. It is built of sandstone, and an architrave consisting of two incised parallel lines runs down the side of the jamb near the outer angle. The east wall is almost destroyed, while that on the north is quite of Cornwall, and his memory is venerated on the i6th of IVIay, under which date his death is thus recorded in the Felire of Oengus : — "The holy death of Carnech, the mighty;" and the gloss adds: "i.e., Cairnech of Tuilen, near Cenannas [Kells], and of the Britons of Corn [Cornwall] was he." It is of this Cairnech, or Carantoch of Tuilen, that Dudley MacFirbis probably speaks when he says {Genealogical MS., p. 749, Royal Irish Academy) : "Cairnech, he was of the Britons of Corn, and hence he is called Cairnech [Cornish] ; viz., Cairnech, son of Luitech, son of Luighidh, son of Talum, son of Jothacar, son of Alt. This is what Giolla Caomhain relates in the history of the Britons." (See Irish version of Nennius, ed. by Dr. Todd, note xxii. p. cxi.) Colgan relates that St. Cairnech was honoured at Tuilen on the i6th of ruined. [Historical Notes on Dulane. — This church was dedicated to St. Cairnech, a native Dulane. 95 May, and in an ancient Irish legend, called the death of Muirchertach Mor Mac Erca, pre- served in a vellum MS. in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dub. (H. 2. 16.) p. 316 (see " Battle of Magh Rath," pp. 20, 146), it is stated that when this king was faithless to his wife she went to Cairnech of Tuil^n, who was her spiritual adviser, to tell the story of her wrongs to him, and Cairnech then sought the king to remonstrate with him, but was denied admission to the house of Cletty, where he lived, and so the saint, declaring the king's reign to be at an end, erected a monumental mound for him, and then himself ascending the mound he pronounced from its summit a curse upon the house of Cletty, and then " he cursed the Dun and rang his bell at it, and departed sorrowful and dejected." Since which day the house of Cletty was no more heard of, since no king had courage to reside there ever after. From this legend it would appear that Cairnech was at one time resident in Ireland, and may therefore have been the founder of the church of Dulane, although Dr. Todd, in the following passage, seems to hold that the church was only dedicated to his memory. He says, " It is probable that his memory was introduced into Ireland, and a church dedicated to him at Tuilen, by the three tuatha or septs of the British, i.e. Welshmen, who settled there, according to the topographical poem of O'Dugan, and who were called Cairnech's Congregation " (ib. p. cxi.) The following notices of Dulane appear in the Annals of the Four Masters : — A.D. 754. Dubhdroma, Abbot of Tuilen, died, A.D. 781. Faebhardaith, Abbot of Tuilen, died. A.D. 870. Maeltuile, Bishop and Abbot of Tuilen, died. His death is also recorded in the " Chronlcon Scotorum," where his name is given in full as Maeltuile Ua Dunan, and the chronicle adds, " It was this Maeltuile who gave the incitement to battle between the men of Teabhtha and the Gailenga and Feara-Ciil, defending Tulen, and the Gailenga and Feara-Ciil were defeated and slaughtered on the green of the town ; and Coinder-an- catha is the name of the spot where the battle was fought, from that time to this." A.D. 919. Ciaran, Bishop of Tolan, died. A.D. 936. Maelcairnigh \i.e. Servant of Cairnech], Abbot of Tulan, died. A.D, 943. Maeltuile, son of Dunan, successor of Tighearnach and Cairneach, i.e. of Tuilen, died ; he was a bishop. A.D. 967. Maelfinnen, son of Uchtan, Bishop of Ceanannas, successor of Ulltan and Cairneach, died. A.D. 949. Godfrey, son of Sitric, with the foreigners of Ath-cliath, &c. A.D. 950. The plundering of Dulane is recorded in the " Chronicon Scotorum" along with Kells, Downpatrick, and other churches, by Gothfrith, son of Sitric, on which occasion 3,000 men were taken prisoners, together with an enormous quantity of gold and silver. 96 Glendalough. A.D. 1170. Tuilen was burned by Mac Murchada and his knights, who led an army into Meath and Breifne, when he plundered Clonard and burned seven churches besides.] Glendalough Cathedral. This building reminds me of the Cathedral of Clonmacnois, which it resembles in the character of its walls, as well as being work of two distinct ages. It consists of nave and chancel. The western part or nave is certainly of a much earlier date than the eastern part or choir. The nave measures 48 ft. 6 in. in length and 30 ft. in breadth. The chancel is 25 ft. long and 22 ft. broad. The entire length of the cathedral is about 96 ft. The walls are 3 ft. 6 in. thick. There is something very peculiar about the masonry of this church. The lower courses of the nave are all squared blocks of dressed mica slate cut with an axe, and dovetailed into each other in many instances. Some of these blocks are from 3 ft. to 4 ft. long. Above these are several feet of mica slate stones, with a good deal of mortar visible, while the upper portion for several feet is rubble work, con- taining a greater preponderance of boulders of granite, and less mortar. A writer in the " Gentleman's Magazine " ' observes, speaking of this masonry, that it is of large blocks of squared stone in the lower part, but of rubble in the upper, and the windows on the south side have something like long and short work in the jambs ; one of the windows has its inside arch cut out of one stone. The quoins of the chancel are of granite, cut, and with a chamfered edge. The quoins of the nave are mica slate, and most of the stones have a chamfer. The nave has pilaster buttresses at both ends, they widen out near the top in a peculiar way which I have not before noticed. These pilasters are 2 ft. 9 in. broad and 2 ft. deep. The chancel below the window has a string-course extending nearly the length of the east wall. It is a simple round block, terminating at one end in a sort of head i^ide sketch), something like that at the small door at Rahen. The other end is destroyed. Internally, there is a similar string course consisting of a large round moulding, which extends about 10 ft. along the north and south chancel wall. The west door is very striking. The lintel has a hole 3J ft. deep at one end, which received a hinge, and the door lay back against a recess, where there are three large bolt holes. The door is 3 ft. 6 in. wide at the top and 3 ft. 1 1 in. at the bottom, and 7 ft. 4 in. high. It is wholly of mica slate, and many of the stones extend the full thickness of the ^ See "Gentleman's Magazine," new series, vol. xvi. p. 277. Glendaiough. 97 wall. The lintel is 5 ft. 4 in. long and i ft. high, and extends 2 ft. 4 in. into the thickness of the wall. This doorway has one peculiarity, which is that of having an arch over the lintel with a tympanum filled with rough stones. Dr. Petrie observes this was evidently to relieve the weight on the lintel ; he refers to two other examples of the same con- struction, one in the doorway of St. Kevin's Church in Glendaiough, and another at Britway in the barony of Barrymore, and county of Cork. There is a raised flat architrave on the jambs and head outside. In the north wall of the nave, I found the lower jamb stones of a door, apparently of oolite, a of which the chancel ornamented work was made. [Dr. Petrie observes that no stone of this description is found in the province of Leinster. It is a kind of Caen or Portland stofte.] I give a rough section to about ^ in. scale of this doorway. In the north wall of the nave I found the foundations and lower jamb stones of a richly recessed and moulded [late 12th] century door- way, apparently built of the oolite of which the chancel ornamented work was made, of ^, which I give a rough section (a). Scale about ^in. The great east window is now destroyed all but a portion of the moulding of the south inner arch jamb, which I give here (b) . There are two roundheaded windows ; one of them is 4 ft. 3 in. high, ^ and I ft. 7 in. wide at the base, and i ft. 5 in. at the top. The inner arch is 5 ft. 7 in. high, 2 ft. 2 in. wide at top, and 2 ft. 3 in. at the base. This window is arched with rough voussoirs. In the second window, the arch is scooped out of a single stone ; its inner face is 5 ft. 2 in. high, and i ft. 10 in. wide. The splay is slight. Mr. Parker observes : " A point in which the nave windows here resemble those of the round tower is that the windows do not splay to the inside, but are the same Avidth inside as outside." The chancel arch is almost destroyed to the foundation ; some portions of its jambs, which are chamfered at the edge, but without moulding, are all that is left of it now. It was 1 7 ft. 6 in. wide, and appears to have been semicircular. On the south side of the chancel, there is a square-headed doorway leading to a small apartment, probably a sacristy. The doorway measures 5 ft. 9 in. in height, 3 ft. 6 in. wide at the top, and 3 ft. 10 in. at the base. The chamber is i5 ft. in length, and 10 ft. 6 in. in breadth. This building and the chancel are held by Petrie and Parker to be of later date than the other parts of the cathedral. o 98 Trinity Church. TEMPUL NA TRINOITE. Trinity Church, Glendalougii. Plates XLIX. and L. ^■'HIS church is situated to the east of the ancient city of Glendalough. [The name Tempiil na Trinoite, or Church of the Trinity, was probably given to it at a late date, and it may be supposed that this is the cella of St. Mochuarog, described by the compiler of the " Acts of St. Kevin," who lived in the beginning of the twelfth century, as situated to the east of the city.] The building is divided into nave and chancel, and a square basement story at the west end, which was the foundation of the round belfry, evidently an addition of a later date. The Interior of Basement Story at west end of Trinity Church. nave measures 29 ft. 6 in. long by 17 ft. 6 in. wide, the chancel 13 ft. 6 in. long by 9 ft. wide (see ground-plan, fig. 16, page 68) ; the walls are 2 ft. 6 in. thick. It is built of [undressed] mica slate, with good sized stones near the bottom of the wall. There are some granite blocks in the walls, one, .which is in the south wall of the nave, measures 6 ft. long and i ft. 6 in. high. The chancel quoins are of granite. The walls of the chancel are about 7 ft. high to the beginning of the gable, which is of a rather steep pitch, and the walls of the nave are about 10 ft. high. The east wall is about 2 ft. 6 in. Trinity CImrch. 99 thick. The chancel arch and doors are of well-cut granite. In some of the cut stone distinct chiselled marks are visible. The original doorway is in the west end of the nave, and has a horizontal lintel with inclined sides, very massive in construction, and formed of well-chiselled granite blocks. It is 6 ft. 1 in. high, 2 ft. 7 in. wide at the base, and 2 ft. 5 in. at the top, and 2 ft. 6 in. in depth, the granite blocks of which it is formed being of the full thickness of the wall.' There is a doorway in the south wall within a few feet of the west end, which was evidently an insertion at the later date at which the belfry built against the west door was added. Nothing now remains of this aperture but some of the stones forming the lower part of the jambs. Fortunately, a faithful representation of this doorway by Gabriel Bei.frv of Trinity Church. Beranger has been preserved, in which it is shown to have been a door of the same class as that of the church on the island of Ireland's Eye, round arched, the arch being formed of radiating stones springing from a rude impost, and with inclined jambs. (See Petrie's " Eccl. Architecture of Ireland," pp. 176, 177-) The east window is small and round-headed, both inside and out, the arch being cut out of one stone. It measures 2 ft. 6 in. high, i ft. wide at the base, and 10 in. at the top. * Petrie, " Eccles. Arch." pp. 181, 182, 185, 392. " Notes on the Arch, of Ireland'" {" Gentleman's Magazine,'' new series, vol. xvi. p. 277). lOO Trinity Church. There is a flat table projection over the outside arch 2 in. in depth.' There is also in the chancel south wall a triangular-headed window ; the jambs of the inner arch are upright. It is 8 in. wide at the bottom, 7J in. at the top : i ft. i in. high, 6 in. to the springing of the arch. Inside it is 3 ft. 3 in. in height, being 2 ft. 2 in. to the springing of the arch. The lower cill stone is bevelled off. The south window of the nave is of chiselled stone, and it splays to a good width. There is one small recess to the right of the east window in the east gable wall of this church. The chancel arch is of well-chiselled granite of two faces, and with an arch of rubble stone between the voussoirs. It is of a semicircular form, without chamfer or moulding, and springs without imposts from jambs which incline slightly. The square base of the round belfry is built in an inferior way to the rest of the church, and its walls are now no higher than 10 or 12 ft. The upper part of this tower was round, and its height was 40 ft. when it was blown down in 1 8 1 8. Petrie gives the following measurements in his MS. notes : — " It was about 60 ft. in height and 40 ft. in circumference — the lower storey, like the Tower of Killossy, being square to the height of 15 ft. The basement storey of the tower was entered from the church through the old west door." The north window here measures internally 3 ft. g in. in height, 2 ft. in width at the bottom, and I ft. 10 in. at the springing of the arch. This church has projecting stones outside at both ends of the nave and on the chancel ; they extend about i ft. Sir Wm. Wilde suggests that these may have been early attempts at gargoyls.' There is over the outside of the east window a flat table projection of 2 in. depth. This church has an old character about it in every respect, except that the granite blocks in the quoins are well cut and chiselled. Historical Note on Trinity Church. — [As all dedications to any but Irishmen or adopted Irishmen are to be suspected as not primitive, it must be supposed that Trinity Church is not the original name of this building. It has been identified with the cdla of St. Mochuarog, the situation of which is described in the Acts of St. Kevin, a work compiled as early as the beginning of the twelfth century. St. Mochuarog is comme- morated in the Martyrology of Donegal, at December 23: — " Moghorig, of Deirgne, son of Brachan, i. e. King of Britain, son of Bracha-meoc. Dina, daughter of the Saxon King, ' See " Memoir of Gabriel Beranger " (" Journal of the Royal Hist, and Archjeol. Assoc. of Ireland," vol. ii. 4th series, p. 458), by Sir Wm. Wilde, who has kindly allowed the editor to use the accompanying illustrations. - Ibid. p. 461. Our Ladys Church. lOI was his mother, and the mother of nine other saints." This saint appears to have lived early in the seventh century, for we are told in the work above mentioned that St. Kevin, of Glendalough, who died a.d. 6i8, when he felt his end approaching, received the holy viaticum from St. Mochuar6g, a Briton, who had a cell to the east of Glendalough.] TEMPUL MUIRE. Our Lady's Church, Glendalough. Plate LI. ' HIS small building, consisting of nave and choir, is situated to the west of the cathedral. The chancel is lightly bonded into the nave. The nave is 32 ft. long and 20 ft. 6 in. wide ; the choir is 2 1 ft. 4 in. long and rg ft. 6 in. wide. The length of the building externally is 62 ft. The walls, which are 3 ft. in thickness, are formed of mica slate, some of the stones are large. The north wall is 3 ft. 6 in. thick. The quoins are of dressed granite. There are two faces of stone with a mere rubble centre grouted. The writer in the " Gentleman's Magazine " observes in his notes on this church' : — " The chancel is clearly an addition to the nave made at a a later period, and its rubble work is more regular and in smaller stones than that of the nave." But I do not agree with him here. It has no projecting pilasters (or plinth), and the walls are much ruined ; so much so that it is impossible to say with certainty whether it had projecting stones at the corners or not. The doorway is very fine, and situated in the west end ; it is of wrought granite. It measures 5 ft. 11 in. in height, 2 ft. 10 in. wide at the base, and 2 ft. 6 in. at the top. The lintel is 4 ft. 10 in. by i ft. 3 in. high, and 3 ft. 2 in. deep. The blocks of granite of which it is formed extend the entire thickness of the wall. Upon the outside face of the door is a flat band or architrave about 6 in. wide and \- in. deep. On the top there are two incised lines 6 in. above the architrave, and upon a portion of the inside edge of one of the jambs is a small torus or bead. The soffit of the lintel has an incised cross saltire upon it. All the other features of this church are destroyed. Petrie says the chancel arch was of chiselled stone ; there is no indication of recesses in the walls.^ ' Notes on the "Architecture of Ireland," ibiii. vol. xvi. new series, p. 277. Petrie, "Eccles. .\rch." pp. i6g — 172. I02 Ought Mcima. This building appears to me to be older than Trinity Church. [Dr. O'Donovan, in his Letters from the County of Wieklow, while engaged on the Ordnance Survey Memoir, expresses much doubt as to whether this church was originally called after the Blessed Virgin. He believes that it must have been the Cill Ifin mentioned in the Irish life of St. Kevin, preserved in the MS. Library of Trinity College, Dublin (H. 4. 4.), where it is stated that St. Effinus or Ifinus had a convent of monks; and he is confirmed in this opinion by one of two legends given in this manuscript, from which it appears that the Church of St. Ifin was surrounded by land corresponding to that which surrounds our Lady's Church, it being more fertile and far more richly cultivated than that near any of the other churches of the valley. St. Ifinus, the Irish form of whose name is Aiffen, is thus commemorated in the " Martyrology of Donegal" : June 3. Aiffen, of Cill-Aiffein, near Gleann-da-loch.] UCHT MAMA. Ought Mama, County of Clare. S?s Plates LIT. and LIII. HIS townland is situated in the parish of the same name, in the barony of Burren and the county of Clare. These churches, three in number, take their name from the district in which they are placed — Oct-Mama, or " the breast of the high pass," and the name conveys a true idea of their situation, for they lie at a considerable height on the very bosom of one of the hills forming the amphitheatre which encloses the valley of Corcomroe. [These ruins should be visited in the earliest hour of morning, to enjoy the full poetry and charm of the scene. The mountains are formed of the grey limestone rock, described already as characterising the scenery of Clare and Galway. Barren as their outlines may appear, yet in such places as this upland valley, these hills afford sweet pasturage for cattle; and sheep, truly "silver white," with goats and cows, are seen grazing peacefully on rich, soft beds and fields of grass. In winter the steep and narrow roads are rendered impassable by floods, and the heights are then deserted ; but, in the summer time, the inhabitants of the little village at the foot of the mountain leave their cattle up here to feed. Then, in the early morning, the women, bearing their milk-pails on their heads, may be seen ascending the mountains with free, elastic step, and their PL LI. TEMPUL MUIRE. OUR LADV'S CllUKCH, GLENDiLCCH. r Ought Mcima. 103 voices heard across the hills, as they call their cows to their side for milking. The red and purple dresses of these women, the cattle, the rich green pasture, form strong and delightful contrasts of colour to the grey tones of the scene, and the faint odour of fresh milk from the pails, borne on the " clear pure air " of morning, the silence only broken by the ringing laughter of the women as they meet in groups and chat gaily before com- mencing their homeward path ; all combine to form a scene of fresh and healthy life, the beauty of which is only strengthened when the sun, breaking forth from amid the clouds, casts in long rays a veil of delicate silvery light over the steep mountain side.] The group of ruins consists of three churches : two lie together, as seen in the plate, in a straight line, one before the other ; and the third about a hundred yards E. N.E. It is remarkable that, like St. Benen's Oratory on Aran Mor, this latter church faces more north and south than east and west. The principal church consists of nave and chancel. The nave is perfect; it is 27 ft. 4 in. long and 22 ft. wide. The chancel, 2 1 ft. long and 1 7 ft. wide. The walls are 2 ft. 9 in. thick : these walls, along with those of all the out-works here, are of limestone. The church is built of very large stones. The east part of the north wall is of very fine masonry, and well jointed, slightly polygonal. The rest is ruder, and of large stones, less well chosen and shaped. The west end of the south wall has roughly hammered stones. Some of the stones in the north wall of the nave are 7 ft. by 2 ft. and 5 ft. by 2 ft. The walls are 14 ft. high. The stones of these churches seem all bedded in mortar. The north wall is still standing ; the south and east walls are gone. There are no pilaster projections, nor is there any plinth to this building ; but there are the projecting stones [like handles at the corners] (see fig. 19, page 68), and there is a water table of projecting stones, which forms a kind of cornice to the building. The west door is very fine ; it is built of well-chiselled limestone, and is square- headed, with inclined jambs. It measures 6 ft. 4 in. in height, 2 ft. 10 in. wide at the base, and 2 ft. 7 in. at top. The wall is 2 ft. 9 in. thick, and the stones e.xtend the entire thick- ness of the wall. One of these stones is 2 ft. 6 in. in height : another, i ft. 6 in. This door reminds me very much of those at Glendalough. It has a large projecting lintel inside, with holes (6 in. in diameter) for the hinge of the door, like that of Gallarus. There are two round-headed south windows : one has a horizontal lintel in place of the inner arch. This window Is 5 ft. 3 in. high and 5 in. wide. The Interior is 3 ft. 10 in. wide, and its height from the ground to the cill Is about 5 ft. One of the windows is 5 ft. high, and \\ In. wide. The other is arched, and 4 ft. 2 in. wide ; they are of cut stone. To the west of the church stands the top of the old east window ; it is a remark- Ought Mdrna. able stone, being 3 ft. 6 in. long, 2 ft. 8 in. wide, and i ft. 8 in. high. The inner and outer arch are all cut out of one stone, and chiselled : the inner measuring 2 ft. wide ; the outer, 9 in. The chancel arch (see Plate LIT I.) is of small, well-cut stones, but not bonded well into the walls, and they seem as if they will soon be pressed out. This arch measures 10 ft. in width, and is about 13 ft. high. From the north wall to the arch is a distance of 6 ft. 3 in. ; and from the south, 5 ft. 10 in. It has imposts. I give the chamfer of the impost of the chancel arch (fig. 1 7, p. 68). There is a font in the corner of the south wall and west gable inside, which appears to be of equal antiquity with the rest of the building. It projects from the wall at the height of 4 or 5 ft, and there is no appearance of its being an insertion. It is sculptured, and the work exhibits much spirit and feeling. The design is a vessel resting on the forms of two stags, whose antlers are interlaced. Historical Note on Ought Mama. — Nothing is known of the history of this place, but it may safely be inferred that the original church was founded here by St. Colman Mac Duach, since the holy well which lies to the north-east of the churches is named after this saint. His life has been already noticed in this work (page 77 stipra, when speaking of the church in the island of Aran-M6r, which is dedicated to his memory). It has been suggested by Dr. O' Donovan that the place termed Beagh, described as possess- ing a monastery of the third order of St. Francis, may be identified with Ought Mdma. [See Archdall's Monast, p. 43. Ware includes Beagh in his list of the Franciscan monasteries of the 3rd order in the co. Galway. Mon. Antiqs., p. 282.] Temple Martin. This church is situated in the townland of Churchfield, in the parish of Kinard, and barony of Corcaguiny, county of Kerry. This church is nearly ruined. It is built of ordinary-sized brown stones, grouted lime, and sand. Half of the west wall is down — all of the east and part of the north and south walls have also fallen. It is built in irregular courses, and has no plinth. The original length of the building is 32 ft. 8 in., the breadth 12 ft. 10 in. The burial place here has long been disused. The west door is of chiselled brown stone, 4 ft. 7 in. high, and 2 ft. 4 in. wide at the base and 2 ft. i in. at the top. The lintel is 3 ft. 9 in. long, and has a reveal. It is i ft. deep and 3 ft. wide. Its depth extends for the full thickness of the wall. The interesting St. Cronans Chtirch. point about this door is, tliat it exhibits what appears to be the earliest, and at all events the simplest, style of moulding I have met with. The door jambs are well cut or dressed. Doorway of Temple Martin. [The founder from whom this church was probably named, cannot be identified, since the patron day in this place is forgotten. The name Martin was probably introduced into Ireland with Christianity, and adopted in honour of St. Martin of Tours, uncle of St. Patrick, and the great patron of Monasticism in the West.] TEMPUL CHRONAiN. St. Cronan's Church, Tarmon. 'tfRJltS^'''- Plates LIV. and LV. S^^^^^^ EMPUL CHRONAIN is situated in the parish of Carron, in the barony T^fmKw^^, °f Burren and county of Clare. ruin is beautifully placed in the midst of a grove of noble old '-■ ^^^0^ ash trees, some of great size, the stem of one measuring 2 1 ft. in circum- ference. This grove of trees, and the still more venerable ruins overshadowed by them, stand in the centre of a picturesque dell, bounded by a limestone scarp which rises in a perpendicular line at one side of the church to a height of 20 ft. The arms of the grand old ash tree wliich hung over the other side were killed, and out of the stem, at the p io6 Sif. Cronaris CImrch. height of 3 ft. or 4 ft. from the ground, grew four gigantic branches, each HI o ft. 8 in. ' ' See " Cill Sleibhe-Cuillinn," by the Rev. George Reade, M. A. ; " Journal of the Hist, and Arch. Association of Ireland," vol. i. pt. i, 3rd series, p. 93. See -\rchdale's "Monast." pp. 34, 732. I I 2 Banagher. The local name of this church is Clonamery ; but it is probable that it was originally called Cluain Amhra. The history of this church appears to be entirely lost ; nor is it likely that it can be recovered. It was dedicated to Brendan of Clonfert, whose memory is venerated on the 1 6th of May. (See List of Churches in Ossory Diocesan Statutes.) A hill called Brandon Hill or Knock Brendan rises to the east of this church, between it and the village of Graig na Manach. BEANNCHAR. ■ B.^NAGiiER Church, Londonderry. .■^^nT--^.... Pl.\tes LX., LXI. and LXII. ^^%^) HIS church stands on an eminence in the townland of Magheramore, in "OTjlKf^^^ the parish of Banagher, in the barony of Keenaght and county of London- derry. It is surrounded by a cemetery, which bears evidence from its ^^^^ numerous tombstones of having been the favourite burying-place of an extensive district. The name was originally derived from Beannchair, a word which frequently enters into the topographical names throughout Ireland, and signifies horns, peaks, or peaked hills or rocks, not White choii\ as has been supposed, and as it has been explained by Ware and Colgan {vide Acta SS. p. 439). This place is termed Bencharra in the Taxation of 1291, and in the rental which is attached to Primate Colton's Visitation made in the year 1297, it is styled Bangoria. The building consists of nave and chancel. The nave measures 35 ft. in length by 20 ft. wide. The walls are about 15 ft. in height, and the west gable is nearly perfect and carried up to a great height in its pitch. The walls are about 3 ft. thick. The masonry of the nave is of good hammered stone, but not laid in courses e.xcept in the west gable, where the stones are smaller than those in the north and south walls, and are laid in rude courses. The chancel measures 20 ft. 8 in. in length by 16 ft. in width, and the total length of the building, including the thickness of the transverse chancel wall, is 57 ft. 8 in. The masonry of the chancel is more elegant externally than that of the nave. It is ashlar, and of unusually large stones, with good rubble grouting inside. There is evidence to prove that the angles were constructed of cut stone, with a deep and graceful moulding. Pr.. LXI. jir.ANKCHAR. '.lAN-ACHER, Baiiagher. "3 The west door, the exterior of which is shown In Plate LXI., is very remarkable. Unfortunately this view of it is partly obstructed by the graves and tombstones, which rise to a height of 4 ft. and 5 ft. in front of it. It is externally 5 ft. 10 in. high, 3 ft. 5 in. wide at the base, and 2 ft. 7 in. at the top. The tympanum is 2 ft. 2 in. high. A large block of stone, 5 ft. 9 in. in length and i ft. 7 in. high, forms the lintel outside, which does not, however, reach back the whole thickness of the wall, but inside it forms a kind of tympanum to a semicircular arch of regular dressed stones. In the middle of the inner face of this great lintel is a rude projection, which was probably intended as a stop to the door when shut, to prevent its being prized upwards. Externally there is a fine archi- trave above, and at each side. The east wall is entirely prostrate. An old man informed Dr. Petrie, when he visited this church in 1832, that it had fallen thirty-six years before. He described the east window as round-headed, upwards of 6 ft. high, being a single light about i ft. wide externally, and 3 ft. wide internally. Many of the stones which formed the east window lie scattered in the churchyard. There is a round-headed window in the south wall of the nave, with a bold moulding on the outside. The arch is scooped out of two stones. The jambs outside cannot be measured, one being partly broken away. This aperture is of cut stone. The inner arch is 5 ft. 8 in. high, 2 ft. 9 in. wide at the top, and 2 ft. 11 in. at the base ; there is a very deep splay downwards. On the sides, top, and bottom of this window holes may be seen, which are meant apparently for a frame on the sides. The south window in the chancel is very remarkable {see Plate LXII.) The aperture outside is rounded at the top, and measures 6 in. wide and 2 ft. i r in. high. The jambs are vertical. The internal moulding is remarkable. An old man, upwards of seventy years of age, informed Dr. Petrie, in the year 1832, that he remembered the chancel arch standing when he was a boy, and that it was a round arch, the height of which he could not recollect. Historical Notes. — The only record connected with this place is to be found in the annals of Ulster at the date 1 121 ; it is stated that " Gilleaspoig-Eoghain O' Hennery, King of Cianachta, was killed by his kinsmen in the middle of the cemetery of Bennchar." The Four Masters record the deed, but suppress the place. Tradition states that the founder of this church was a saint named Muireadach O'Heney. The name O'Heney, originally O'h-Enni, or Ua h-Enni, is a common one in the townland in which this church stands, and Dr. Reeves observes that the persons so named " are probably the descendants of the original herenachs, the patron saint of this parish being Muriedhach O'Heney." The same writer Q 114 Banagher. observes, " From the passage which is extracted from the Annals of Ulster it is evident that there was a church at Banagher so early as the year 1 1 2 1 ; but from the otherwise total silence of the annalists regarding this place, as well as from the fact that St. Murie- dhach O'Heney, the alleged founder, is not noticed in the calendars, and moreover, that the form of his name is not reconcileable with a date anterior to the nth century, it is reasonable to assign its erection to a period within that limit. At the foot of the hill, near the river Owenbeg, in the townland Templemoyle, there are the foundations of a small church, but without any cemetery, which the natives say are the remains of a church that St. O'Heney commenced, but was diverted from completing by the removal of the stones at night to the higher situation, whither the saint was conducted by a stag, which bore his book upon its antlers, and acted as a guide as well as a moving lectern. It is very possible that this Templemoyle is the site of an earlier parish church, which was abandoned for the larger and better circumstanced one on the higher ground, that Muriedhach O'Heney caused to be built." ' There are three holy wells in the immediate neighbourhood of this church, where stations were performed within the memory of an old man still living when Dr. Petrie visited the place in 1832. One of these was named Tober Muireadhaigh, or the Well of Muredach. It is to be regretted that no record of the day on which the saint was thus venerated has been preserved. Another tradition states that Banagher Church was founded under the superintend- ence of St. Patrick ; and though this building may not be of any earlier date than the iith or 1 2th century, yet it is probable that it did but replace a more ancient structure which may have formed one of a group of churches mentioned in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, where we are informed that the Apostle, having crossed the Foyle, remained in the neighbourhood of the Faughan river for seven weeks, during which time he laid the foundation of seven churches, and Dr. Petrie goes on to show that the ruins of six churches still remain so near the Faughan river that their original sites may have been those chosen by the Apostle, but as the ancient names are now forgotten it is impossible to identify them with certainty. An additional interest is attached to this church from the fact of its having been chosen, in the year 1397, by Primate Colton, Archbishop of Armagh, as the place in which to hold his visitation of the clergy of Derry,^ ' See Primate Colton's Visitation of Derry, edited by the Rev. William Reeves, p. 107. ^ Ibid, pp. 53, 106-188. Maghera. Maghera. Maghera is a parish in the county of Londonderry and barony of Loughinshohn, Its name is contracted from Machairc rat/ia, the pronunciation of which is well represented in " Magherira," as it is called in an Inquisition of 1609. "Rath Luraich," signifying the rath of Lurach, was the ancient form, and continued to be employed as Rath Loury in ecclesiastical records. When the word Machaire (" plain ") was prefixed, the name ii6 M aghem. Machaire-Ratha-Luraich being too long for convenient use, the last word was dropped. Thus also Maghera, in the county of Down, was formerly Machaire-ratha-Muir bhuilg. (Reeves' " Eccles. Antiq." p. 27.) The church is a simple oblong (71 ft. 10 in. long by 20 ft. 5 in. wide), and does not seem to have been divided into nave and chancel. The east wall is almost gone. The other walls are chiefly built of some trap or basalt, rubble and good-sized stones cemented with yellowish mortar. The walls are 18 ft. high and 2 ft. 8 in. thick. The fine west door, shown in the accompanying illustration, is of two orders, and is square-headed. The outer is 8 ft. 9 in. high, and 5 ft. 11 in. wide at the base and 5 ft. 6 in. at the top ; and the inner or door proper is 6 ft. 7 in. high and 2 ft. 10 in. wide at the top. The base cannot be measured. It is of sandstone. The ornamented architrave of the outer border is 6 in. broad. Internally, the outer order is a plain semicircular arch of well- cut stone ; it, as well as the tympanum, are plastered, and a slight incised line runs down near the inner angle of the jamb. The soffit is quite plain. The section of the door is thus (see fig. a) : — The lintel is 2 ft, 2 in. high. A group of figures is carved, the central being Christ on the Cross, but tlie head and feet have been destroyed. The jamb stones on the north side have all fallen out, and those on the south would have been all down by this time but for the care of the present clergyman, Mr. Gough. There was a slightly rounded A. ,"E'^.--- projection at the outer angle, as shown at (a). I do not think this door was an insertion. Above the doorway the Crucifixion is represented, carved in relief, the figures of the eleven disciples, and the two solcHers with spear and " sponge; while the architrave is also richly sculptured. There is a square tower at the west end, close up against the door, which prevents it from being properly photographed. This tower has two large plain arches on the north side. It has three ofisets, and the tower batters slightly. Over the arches there are long, round- headed windows, the arches scooped out of one stone. This tower does not look as old as the west wall of the church and is of better masonry. In the accompanying woodcut the decoration of one side of the architrave of this doorway is represented, the figure at the top of which is of great interest. It represents a Saint triumphing over Evil— the sharp-pointed crozier being plunged into the body of the serpent writhing at the foot of the saint. There is a form of cross thus pointed at the foot of the shaft, called the " cross fitch^e," Moulding of J \mis " ^^'^ible," SO called bccause, being sharpened at the end, it could be fixed upright in the ground, and may have been copied from the cross attached to the Maghera. 117 pilgrim's staff' The robe worn by this ecclesiastic, as well as the staff, call to mind the line translated by Dr. Todd (see "Life of St. Patrick," p. 411), from a — - % A prophecy preserved by the scholiast on Fiacc's hymn describing the u " His garment pierced at the neck with crook-like staff comes he." The headdress is the conical cap {baradh, from Ital. birettd), which form was used by the Galilean clergy of the early Church, and was continued in Ireland up to the end of the last century, as I am informed by my friend the Rev. J. Shearman. The first professors of the College at Maynooth wore this Galilean baradh, as may be seen in their portraits preserved in the Refectory at Maynooth, and it is also represented in the old portrait of David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory, preserved at Jenkinstown, county of Kilkenny. In the scroll patterns below this figure a very striking resemblance may be traced to the border running up one side of the leathern satchel of the Shrine of St. Moedoc, now deposited in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and which forms part of the Petrie collection. The ancient stone font of this church still remains ; it measures 8 in. in diameter and is 7 in, deep. Historical Notes on Magiiera. — The founder of this church, St. Lurach, was of the race of Colla Uais, through his son, Fiachra Tort, whose descendants were called Ui-Tuirtre, and gave name to Hy Tuirtre, a district on the east borders of the counties of London- derry and Tyrone, extending from Maghera southwards to Stewarts- town, and bounded by the Bann, Lough Beg, and Lough Neagh. (See Reeves's " Eccles. Antiq." pp. 292-297.) His kinsmen, Guaire Mor and Guaire Beg, founded the church of Aghadowey, a few miles to the north, and it is interesting to find the undesigned harmony which exists between the local cultus and the genealogical relations of these and many other saints in the Irish calendar. The exact period ' Such was probably the cross of Oswald, described by the Venerable Bede (book iii. c. 2. Eccl. Hist.), who relates that " the king himself, full of faith, laid hold of it and held it with both his hands till it was set fast by throwing it in the earth." ii8 Maghera. at which St. Lurach flourished is not recorded, but we may form an approximate calculation from the number of degrees he was removed from the founder of the family, whose date is known. COLLA UAIS, Monarch of Ireland from a.d. 327 to his death in 331. I FiACHRA Tort, Who gave name to Hy-Tuirtre. Echin. Laeghaire. I . I Fedhhm. Fergus. I h 1 Daire. Fulachtaid. Laisren. I I I Cuana. Colman. St. Lurach. St. Guaire Mor St. Guaire Beg Festival, of Aghadowey, of Aghadowey, Feb. 17. joint Patron, joint Patron, January 22. January 9. Thus, allowing thirty years for a generation, St. Lurach, being si.x generations removed from Colla Uais, who flourished in 331, his date, as well as that of St. Guaire M6r, may be reasonably assigned to about the year of our Lord 511. (See Dr. Reeves' notes on Colton's Visitation of Derry, pp. 80, 81.) Cuana, the name of St. Lurach's father, is Cuanach in the genitive, and here we find another satisfactory coincidence, for in the ancient Calendars of Tamlaght and Marian Gorman, we find, at the 1 7th of February, the commemoration of Lui-ach mac Cuanach. The former record adds another particular which also helps in fixing his date, for it states of Lurach that he was one of the Socii of Loman, St. Patrick's nephew, and that " hi omnes in Ath Truim requiescunt." The Martyrology of Donegal, which is a later production, confounds our Lurach with Luran of Derryloran, " Lurach Duanaire (of the Poems), son of Cuana, of Doire Lurain in Uladh. He was of the race of Colla Uais, monarch of Ireland. Darerca, sister of Patrick, was his mother. He was also a bishop." (p. 35.) Luran it was who was styled Duanaire: his mother was Darerca, his church was Doire Lurain, now Derryloran, or Cookstown, in the county of Tyrone, and his festival is placed at the 29th of October, " Luran, Bishop of Doire-Lurain." Of St. Lurach's history we know little more, except that he seems to have been the ecclesiastic who baptized St Cainnech, who was born in Drumachose, in the same county, a few miles to the north-west, in the year 5 1 7. The occurrence is thus related in the " Vita Sancti Kannechi," published by the late Marquis of Ormond from the Codex Salmanticensis : " In illo tempore in regione Kiennachte sacerdos non inventus est qui infantem baptizaret. Ideo Dominus quendam episcopum nomine Luceth [recte Lurech], Maghera. 119 ad baptizandum eum de longe produxit, hac ex causa : nam alio die ipsius sancti Episcopi vaccas fere agitaverunt de quibus xii. defuerunt, qui sollicite secutus vestigia earum, invenit illas juxta domum Laidech, et postquam ille baptizavit infantem, cum suis vaccis rediit " (cap. ii. p. 2). The Life in the " Codex Kilkenniensis," Marsh's Library, reads, " Sanctus igitur Cainnicus baptizatus est a venerabili episcopo nomine Luyrech quem misit Deus ad eum baptizandum " {ibid. p. 55). The primitive monastery of St. Lurach was probably enclosed by a circumvallation of earth, which was called his rath. Thus we have elsewhere a place called Rath Espuic- Innic, or the Rath of Bishop Innic, and such a combination is indicative of a very early foundation. (See Reeves's Eccl. Antiq. pp. 181, 196, and the excellent remarks of Mr. Wakeman in the "Journal of the R. Hist, and Archa;ol. Assoc. of Ireland," 4th series, vol. iii. p. 61.) The following are the notices of this place in the Irish Annals : — 816. Fergus of Rath-Luirigh, Abbot of Finnglais, died. (Four Mast. 814; An. Ult. 815.) 832. The plundering of Rath-Luirigh and Connor by the foreigners. (Four Mast. 831 ; An. Ult. 831.) 1135. Cluain-Iraird, Cennannus, Rath-Luraigh, and many other churches, were burned. (Four Mast.) 1 2 18. Gilla-na-naev, O'Gormally, priest of Rath-Luraigh, died on his pilgrimage. (Four Mast.) 1 3 19. Brian, son of Donnell O'Neill, Tanist of Tyrone, was slain by the Clann- Hugh-Boy and Henry Mac Dauill at Rath-Luraigh. (Four Mast. 13 19.) From the absence of the names of any abbots or bishops connected with this church, it is plain that it never attained primary importance in the neighbourhood. That dignity was enjoyed by Ard-sratha or Ardstraw, which was the chief ecclesiastical seat of the Cenel-Eoghain, or race which occupied Tyrone. At the Synod of Rathbreasail, in 11 10, which was the first systematic definition of the diocese of Ireland, mention is made of the see of Ardsratha and its boundaries stated ; Derry is incorporated with Raphoe, and Rathlury is not noticed. But afterwards, when, in 1158, Derry was formally created an episcopal see, and Ardstraw became absorbed in Clogher diocese, Rathlury acquired a portion of its dignity, so as in the Roman Provinciale to be noticed as suffragan to Armagh. (See Ware's "Antiq. Hib." p. 221, ed. Dublin, i860; Bingham's "Antiq. of Christ Ch." vol. iii. p. 172, ed. Lond. 1840 ; King's " Memoir of the Primacy of Armagh," p. 105 ; " Ordnance Memoir of Templemore," p. 21 ; Reeves' Colton's Visitation, p. 10.) I20 S^. Kierans Church. So late as 1252, Gorman O'Chearbalain was styled Bishop of Rathlury or Derry, and he recovered Ardstraw and some neighbouring churches for the see of Derry. (Ussher, "Brit. Eccl. Ant.," Works, vol. vi. pp. 417, 622 ; Harris's Ware's Works, vol. i. p. 288.) When the. newly-formed diocese was subdivided into rural deaneries, Rathlury was included in that of Bynnagh or Cinel Binne; and so it appears in the Taxation of 1306, where it is rated at i mark a year ; as also in the Visitation of 1397, where it is taxed at 3 marks. (Reeves's Colton, p. 76.) In after times this deanery was divided, and all the parishes included in that part of it which consisted of the present barony of Loughinsholin were formed into the Deanery of Rathlowry, as appears in the Ulster Visitation Book" of 1622. The patron saint is locally called St. Loury, or Leuri, as Lewis (Topographical Dictionary) writes it ; and in the Visitation Book of Bishop King the church is styled " Ecclesia S. Lourochii." His well is called by his name, and in the churchyard his grave is said to be marked by a low headstone, which has a wheel cross incised on it. O'Donovan has a good note on the name Rathloury, at a.d. 1218 (vol. iii. p. 193), but his statement concerning the parish priest's name may be corrected by the following inscription in the chapel yard ; " D. O. M. hie situs est Rev. Adm. ac Venerabilis Dominus Mattheus McCosker Diocesis Deriensis Decanus & Vicarius Generalis, EcclesiK Rathlurensis parochus, vir prudentia Uteris et religione conspicuus ; obiit ix. Kal. Decembris mdcccxxvii. jetatis Ixxxii. TEMPUL CHIARAIN. St. Kieran's Church, Aran Mor. Plate LXIII. )T. KIERAN'S Church is situated in the townland of Monaster in the greater island of Aran. This building is not divided into nave and chancel. The masonry looks old : the stones in the east gable are moss-grown and worn : the gables are not very steep. There is a curious projection of about 6 in. at each angle on the west gable. The church measures 37 ft. 9 in. in length, by 18 ft. 6 in., and the walls are nearly 3 ft. thick. The west gable contains a square-headed doorway, which is now built up. It is 3 ft. 3 in. wide at the base, and 3 ft. at the top. It has small chiselled stones in its jambs, which have a chamfer, as has the lintel. This doorway looks late, though possessing some characteristics of the primitive style. A similar square-headed doorway of a S^. Kieraiis Church. 121 late date may be seen built up in the north wall of the church near the southern shore of Iniscaltra in Lough Derg. On the north side there is a pointed doorway of late form, but both the inner and outer arch have a round moulding at the angle carried down to the ground. The east window (the interior of which is the subject of the plate) is long and narrow. It measures externally 6 ft. 4 in. in length, and is 6-j- in. wide at the bottom and 5 in. at the top, while internally it is 11 ft. 4 in. high by 5 ft. in breadth. This window has a curious string-course, which may be seen in the photograph ; its section is given here. Externally this window has shafts supporting a plain moulding, carried round the round arch. The capitals of these shafts are bulbous. This window affords a remarkable example of fine-jointed masonry, the joints joggled. There is another window near the south-east angle of the church. It measures 4 ft. i in. in length, and is 5 J in. wide at the bottom and 4 in. at the top. Opposite to this window is another, which is square-headed, and is now blocked up. There is the ordinary square recess in the south wall near the east end. There is another recess — the use of which it is difficult to explain — in the same wall towards the west end. It is about 6 in. deep, 7 ft. in length, and 3 ft. high, reaching to the ground, and with a single stone at the back. Dr. Petrie, writing in 1821, adds: "On the north side of the church are some remains of the monastery, which was of an inferior style of building, and apparently less ancient. The ruins are not respected, and are decreasing daily." At a little distance from the east and west ends of the church there is an upright cut stoije, 5 ft. or 6 ft. high, on two sides of which a cross is sculptured ; and a similar one may be seen in the cemetery, which is some hundred yards distant. These stones were evidently erected to define the limits of the sanctuary or bounds of the Termon land of the church. Historical Notes on St. Kiekan's Church. — This church, dedicated to St. Kieran, was erected, as Archbishop Quaelseus states, on the site of Mainistir Connachtach, or the Monastery of Connaught.' It appears from an ancient life of St. Kieran, the founder of Clonmacnois, that after he had studied successively under Justus of Fidharta and Finnian of Clonard, and spent some time with Nennidius, in his monastery in the island of Inis Maigh Samh, on Lough Erne, where he appears to have assisted him in the management of that institution, that he then repaired to Aran, " wishing to improve himself still further in the knowledge and ' Colg. " Actt. SS." p. 7 IS a. 122 Tovigraney. observance of monastic discipline." It must have been at some time near the year 537, and when he was about twenty-seven years of age, that he came to the monastery in Aran IVEor, then governed by St. Enda. He was received with kindness by this saint, who employed him for seven years threshing corn for the use of the community. During that period he was considered a pattern of piety and sanctity, and Enda is said to have had some visions relative to the extraordinary merit of Kieran, and the number of religious houses which in course of time would belong to his institution.' Dr. O'Donovan remarks, in his letter from Aran ■? " It is very probable that the Connacian Monastery was also dedicated to St. Kieran, as the spot on which it stood was the theatre of his labours while he was serving his apprenticeship with St. Enda." The oldest reference to the church, the ruins of which are now standing, is to be found in the list of churches of the diocese of Tuam, sent to Colgan by Archbishop Qucclseus shortly before the year 1645. The words in the catalogue are: " Ecclesia Mainister Connachtach Monasterium Connaciense appellata cujus postea diruto loco e.xtructa est Capella sancto Kierano dicata." The writer does not inform us whether he drew this information from tradition or written authority, but it is probable he drew it from both. TUAIM GREINE. TOMGEANEY, CoUNTY OF ClARE. Plate LXIV. HIS church is situated in the parish of Tomgraney and barony of TuUagh, in the north-east end of the county of Clare, and about four miles east of Lough Derg. The name is written in Irish Tuaim Gr^ine, and is explained in the Books of Lecan and Lismore as signifying the Tumulus of Grian. It is a long building, measuring on the outside 78 ft. 6 in. in length by 27 ft. in width. It is divided by a cross wall into two compartments, which may be termed nave and chancel, though in reality they are separate buildings, the work of different periods and styles. The older portion, or nave, measures 36 ft. in length by 21 ft. 6 in. wide. It is built of massive polygonal masonry ; the stones, which are closely fitted, are of great size, particularly in the north wall, one being 7 ft. long by 2 ft. deep. There are square pilasters or antffi at the west corners of the building, which measure 2 ft. 10 in. wide and i ft. 11 in. deep. They are capped by a double projecting course of stone. ' See Lanigan, " Eccl. Hist, of Ireland," vol. ii. p. 5 1. ^ " Letters for the Ordnance Sun'ey Memoirs," Lib. R. L Academy. Tomgraney. 123 The west door is square-headed, with inclined sides ; it is built of massive blocks of well cut stone, which extend the full thickness of the wall, thus being 3 ft. in depth. It is 6 ft. 5 in. high, 3 ft, 5 in. wide at the base, and 3 ft. 2 in. at the top. The lintel is 7 ft. 4 in. long, the only ornament being a flat archi- trave band 9 in. wide and |- in. deep. There are two rude, square- headed windows in the nave ; one has a reveal in the lintel, and an architrave about 6 in. wide. The other has been restored. The later portion of this building, or that which has been termed the chancel, has next to be described. The masonry is very peculiar. The lower portion of the wall is fine jointed ashlar. This is continued for seven or eight feet above the level of the moulding in tomgrakey church. ground. Over this the work is inferior, the masonry is wide-jointed, and at a greater height still it altogether ceases to be ashlar, but is laid in more irregular courses. Herein it resembles the masonry of O'Rourke's tower at Clonmacnois, the lower part of which is also fine ashlar work, superimposed by coarser and inferior masonry. The east window is round-headed with perpendicular sides; it has only 8 ft. or 10 ft. of its jamb splay mouldings left. (Fig. «.) The inner arch is 1 1 ft. «■ 4 in. wide. There is a window in the north wall of the chancel which is very handsome. (See figs, i, 2.) The inner arch is about 7 ft. high and 4 ft. 9 in. wide, and externally it is 4 ft. 7 in. high and i ft. 6 in. wide. Fig. 2. Fig. I. \-7 N North Window, Chancel. North Window, Tomgranev. There are two windows in the south wall of the chancel, the mouldings of which are very curious, and bear a striking resemblance to the ornament used on the chancel arch of 124 Tomgraney. Monaincha. (See figs, a, b.) Externally they are 3 ft. 5 in. high, and i ft. 5 in. wide. Fig. a. Fig. b. South Window, Chancel, Tomgranev. Internally they are 5 ft. 8 in. high, and 4 ft. 2 in. wide. They are square-headed outside and round inside, with vertical jambs. The angle chevron and roll moulding may be seen on these windows, but the latter only goes up one stone — in fact, the pattern on the two end stones differs from that on the others in general design. These have a large ball or pellet in the centre of the diamond. The bead ornament is profuse, as in all late work. At the apex of the chancel gable a carved head, with a round full face, may be seen. Among the most striking features in this part of the building, are two \ columns 10 in. in diameter; they have moulded bases and carved capitals. They are placed at each angle of the east end outside. riTAL OF Angle Sh, Tomgraney. 125 Historical Notes. — There is much obscurity about the history of the foundation of the church at Tuaim Greine. That the name of the founder was Crondn is proved by the fact that the abbots of this place are termed Coarbs of Cronan ; but to which of the many saints who bore this name the origin of this church is due, it is difficult to decide. No life of Cronan of Tuaim Gr6ine is given by Colgan, and till some life of this saint is discovered, no surmise can be formed as to the date of the foundation of this place. In the Martyr- ology of Donegal we read at October ig, " Cronan of Tuaim Greine.'" Dr. Lanigan is inclined to believe him to have been identical with Cronan, founder of Roscrea, who lived in the end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh century, for this saint had been on the west side of the Shannon, and had formed some religious establishments before he settled at Roscrea; but his memory is venerated on the 28th of April. On October 19th we have also the commemoration of " Colman, of Tuaim Greine" (Mart. Don.) The notices in the annals of this place are as follows : — A. D. 735. Maincheine, of Tuaim Greine, died. (Four Mast.) A. D. 744. Conall, Abbot of Tuaim Greine, died. (Four Mast.) A. D. 747. Reachtabhrat Ua Guaire, Abbot of Tuaim Greine, died. (Four Mast.) A. D. 789. Cathnia Ua Guaire, Abbot of Tuaim Greine, died. (Four Mast.) A. D. 886. The abbey of Tuaim Greine was plundered. (Trias Thaum, p. 634.) A. D. 949. The abbey of Tuaim Greine was plundered. (Ibid.) A. D. 964. Cormac Ua Cillen, of the Ui Fiachrach Aidhne, Comarb of Ciaran and Coman and Comarb of Tuaim Greine, by whom the great church of Tuaim Greine, and its Cloictech, were constructed, " sapiens et senex, et Episcopus, quievit in Christo." (Chron. Scotorum, p. 217.)^ It was at this time also the great Church of Tirone was built by Cormach O'Killeen, Bishop of Tuaimgreiny. (MS. translation of Keating in Armagh Library.) A. D. 1002. Donnghal, son of Beoan, Abbot of Tuaim Greine, died. (Four Mast.) A. D. 1007. Brian Boromha, the famous monarch of Ireland, repaired the steeple about this time. " It was he [Bryen] also that caused the great Church of Killaloe to be built and the Church of Inniskaltragh and repaired the high steeple of Toomgreiny." (MS. transla- tion of Keating in Armagh Library.) [From an ancient fragment, supposed to be a part of Mac Liag's life of that king, preserved among the manuscripts in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, it would appear that this powerful monarch erected, or at least restored, for the clergy, no less than thirty-two of these structures.] ' " Eccl. Hist." See vol. iii. p. 3S1. ^ See Lanigan, vol. iii. p. 3S3, quoting from Ware and Harris. 126 Tomgraney. A. D, 1026. Conall Ua Cillen, successor of Crondn of Tuaim Greine, died. A. D. 1031. Mac Dealbhaeth, successor of Cronan of Tuaim Greine, died. A. D. 1078. Cormac Ua Beain, successor of Crondn of Tuaim Greine, died. A. D.I 084. O'Rorke of Breifne reduced this abbey to ashes.' A. D. 1093. The successor of Crondn of Tuaim Greine died. A. D. 1 100. Macraith Ua Flaithen, successor of Ciaran, and Cronan of Tuaim Greine, died on his pilgrimage at Achadhbo. A. D. 1 164. This abbey was again reduced to ashes this year. (Act. SS. p. 634.) A. D. II 70. It was plundered again about this time. (Act. SS. p. 634.) A. D. 1 185. Kenfaela, successor of Cronan of Tomgraney, died. A. D. 1485. Nicholas O'Grady, Abbot of Tuaim Greine, a charitable and truly hos- pitable man, who was free in Limerick, died. In the passage quoted above from the " Chronicon Scotorum," the earliest authentic record of the erection of a round tower is to be found, and Keatinge informs us that this round tower was repaired about forty-three years afterwards by Brian Borumha. This tower no longer exists, but Dr. Petrie, writing in the year 1842, states that, according to the tradition of the oldest natives of the place, some remains were to be seen forty years before. Tomgraney is now used as a parish church. faces east. TOBER NA DRU. Well near Freshford, County Kilkenny. Plate LXV. HIS well is situated about one mile and a half north-east of Freshford, in the townland of Clontubret and parish of Lisdowney. This remark- able building is now much ruined, scarcely a stone of the face of the wall or roof remains. It rises from a plinth course, and the doorway The inner roof, which is straight-sided, and rises to an acute point, is formed Act. SS. p. 361, and O'Halloran, vol. ii. p. 294. Holy Well. 127 by stones projecting each beyond the other, but dressed to the pitch. At the side stands one of those remarkable stones which formed an ornament for the apex of the gable, such as has already been observed in the description of the ruins of Leaba Molaga. (See Plate facing p. 64, fig. 7.) END OF VOL. I. HIlx REFERENCE LIBRARY ST. PAUL HILL LIBRARY St. Paul, MN. CHISVVICK PRESS;— PRINTED JiV WHITTINGHAM ANU vffil.KINS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. L GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 3 3125 00782 3475