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hunters. Near Oghil village is a fragment of another dun on the edge of a rock, 20 feet high; it is of fine masonry, and 7 feet high.

MONASTER KIERAN.-Quelæus (1645) has an interesting note on this church, stating that it was first called Monaster Connachtach, and

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Holed Stone.

rebuilt as a church of St. Kieran. Its church is nearly perfect; but the low, broken walls of the monastic buildings tell little of its arrangements. Colgan ("Acta SS.," pp. 708-9) states that St. Kieran, the carpenter's son, coming to St. Enda, about 535, dwelt with him for seven years; and being set by him to thresh corn for the community, threshed it so thoroughly that he threshed all the straw into grain, which (it is quaintly suggested) accounts for the scarcity of thatched houses on the islands. The church is a simple oblong, 37 feet 9 inches x 18 feet 6 inches. An ancient-looking door, with lintel and inclined jambs chamfered (perhaps in later days) is built up in the west wall, which has slight projections; the north door is late medieval. The east window has a handsome wide splay, and is neatly moulded, both outside and inside; it is similar to the late Romanesque churches of the period of the Norman Invasion. Another similar light occurs in south wall, and opposite it a square north window, now built up. Two stones, with incised crosses, stand east and south-west of the church; the east has a hole (shown above the circle in the illustration) through which, a fisherman told me in 1878, cloths were drawn for curing sore limbs. A mound recently used

for burial is noticeable north of the Kilronan road, near the sea.

TEMPLESOORNEY (Teampull Assurnidhe).-A very ancient defaced little oratory, described in Dunraven's Notes. It lies westward of the last. It measures 16 feet x 12 feet, has a projecting "handle stone" at one corner, and the remains of an altar. The name possibly means "Church of the Vigils," though some refer it to Essernius, who was sent to Ireland in 438, according to the "Chronicon Scotorum." Local tradition makes Assurnidhe a nun, from Drum-a-cooge, on Galway Bay.

KILNAMANAGH.-This church has been destroyed and forgotten. Quelæus says it was called after the monk, Caradoc Garbh, from whom Cowroogh is named. It may be a church site noted by O'Donovan as lying near a cross and a pool in the middle of the island. In the list of Quelæus it lies between Monaster Kieran and Teampull Assurnidhe.

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KILLEANY.

But for the vandalism of the Cromwellian garrison we should be able to explore an unusually extensive and interesting group of ruins at this place. The ancient list of churches gives 1, Killenda, the parish church; 2, Teglach Enda, with the tomb of St. Enda; 3, Teampull mac Longa; 4, Teampull mic Canonn; 5, St. Mary's; and 6, Temple Benan. Of these only Teglach Enda and Temple Benan remain. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th stood with Kill Enda between the castle and round tower. The four churches were demolished about 1651, and used for the building of Arkin Castle. Dr. O'Donovan found here a beautiful fragment of a cross, of which there is a sketch by Mr. Wakeman in the Ordnance Survey Notes, 1840.

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THE ROUND TOWER, now a mere fragment, and much repaired, but showing fine masonry in the lower courses, stands in the fields south of the castle. Early in the century it was 5 stories high, a beautiful slender structure. In Petrie's time it was 80 feet high. It fell in a storm. The two upper stories were used for building the castle. It is 48 feet 9 inches in circumference, and was 4 feet 10 inches high in 1840; but it was then much embedded in rubbish. Lord Dunraven found it was 8 feet high, and it is now under 13 feet high. The Friary well, Dabhach

1 There is a beautiful view by Du Noyer in one of his large books of views in the Royal Irish Academy.

Einne, remains to the right of the tower, near Arkin; near it tradition states that "the sweet bell of the tower" was buried. Not far away appear the foundations of the Franciscan Convent, built in 1485, presumably by the O'Briens. The base of a large stone cross and part of the shaft lie in the middle of the field. Kill Enda stood in the hollow near the tower, on the north. It is noteworthy that hops grew freely in the fences; they were probably introduced by the monks, those indefatigable cultivators.

ARKIN CASTLE, or CROMWELL'S FORT.-A low, unpicturesque edifice, on the shore of the bay. Near it, on a flat rock, is cut a series of squares, suggesting a chess board, and supposed to have been used for games by the garrison. A decorated cross base was removed from the walls to Mr. O'Malley's house. The sand of the bay in parts abounds in foraminifera, and is a beautiful microscopic object.

TEGLACH ENDA (Tighlagheany on Ordnance Survey).-The remains of a fine early church. The east and north walls are ancient, of large masonry, with little cement. The east window has a round head, cut out of one block of stone. There are antæ to this face of the church. The north window and door are later, and the west gable has been rebuilt. The building is a simple oblong, 24 feet x 15 feet.1 Sir Morogh O'Flaherty, of Bunowen, was buried in it in 1666. Its cemetery contained, in the 17th century, the graves of 120 saints, including St. Enda. The latter saint, the patron of the island, was son of Conall Dearg, of a noble family of Oriel, which had settled in Ulster. His sister married Engus, king of Cashel. Enda was abbot first in Italy, and then getting a a grant of Aran from his royal brother-in-law, about 480, he removed thither, and lived for fifty-eight years in his new monastery. He was visited by Brendan before that saint set out on his adventurous voyage, and reckoned Kieran of Clonmacnois among his monks for nine years." In the wall of the church will be found a slab, with the words, "op do scandlain" ("Pray for Scandlan").

IAKARNA CLOGHAUNS.-Going round the Tramore or intake in the sand, beyond Teglach Enda, we meet (if still uncovered) the Leaba or grave enclosure, 9 feet x 3 feet 6 inches, long buried in deep sand. Near it is, or was, a structure resembling a cromlech; and westward are a number of ancient enclosures, running down below high water. Finally, near the north-east point of the island, Captain Rowan, of Tralee, uncovered two curious cloghauns. The remains consisted of an oval ring of loose stones, 72 feet in diameter, within which were two cloghauns, one oval and nearly defaced, the other oblong, 8 feet 2 inches × 6 feet 8 inches, entered by a side passage with steps. Human remains were

1 Barry. Lord Dunraven gives the interior dimensions as 19 feet 6 inches x 9 feet 8 inches, and walls, 1 foot 10 inches.

2 Ware's "Antiquities," p. 249. Ussher's "Index Chronolog."

found in the oval cloghaun; they were the bones of foreign sailors drowned at Cala-na-luinge; the natives buried them in the sand, digging down on the cloghaun by chance, when its roof fell in. These remains rest on the solid rock.1

East of Iararna is Port Deha (Daibche), where the barrel of corn, set afloat from Clare by Corbanus, the pagan king of Aran, to test the divine mission of St. Enda, was washed on shore. At the S.E. corner of the island lie the Glassan rocks, "Aile-na-glassog," or "pollock rocks."

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Here one calm day, in 1852, a huge mountain of water suddenly rose up the cliff, and swept away seven or more fishermen (see University Magazine, April, 1853). Not far from it is a round tower of dry stones, 12 feet high and 40 feet circumference, called Turmartin, and reputed to be St. Gregory's grave. Sailors strike sail to it on occasions as a mark of respect to the saint.

Rev. W. Kilbride on "Iararna." (See Journal, 1868-69.)

TEMPLE BENEN. Or the ridge between Killeany and Glassan stands the diminutive but uniceli oratory of St. Benen, its unusually sharp gables forming a conspic t land-mark. It faces N.N.E. and S.S.W., and measures 15 feet 1 : 11 feet 3 inches externally, and 10 feet 9 inches x 7 feet internall gables being 15 feet high. The window, its head and splay cut out ngle stone, is set in the east wall. This strange arrangement is not gether unprecedented, occurring in the Dubh Regles of St. Columba Derry, as described by Manus O'Donnel about 1520.1 The north door has inclined jambs, and is 5 feet high, 1 feet wide at bottom, and 1 feet at top; the lintel is 6 feet long; the central block of the west wall is square, and of unusual size. Near the church are a group of monastic cloghauns with traces of a cashel.

Doo CAHER OF DUBH CATHAIR (Black Fort).-Going westward, from Killeany, but along the south coast of the island, we reach a rude but very remarkable fortification, built across a headland. The wall is 220feet long, 20 feet high, and 18 to 16 feet thick. O'Donovan boldly dates it 1000 years older than Dun Engus. Inside were two rows of stone houses, one along the wall, the other extending 170 feet near the cliff, now nearly destroyed by the great waves which break across the headland in storms, and have destroyed the end of the wall and a gateway, which Petrie saw and described. Outside is a chevaux de frise, and the remains of several buildings; one had a midden of shells and bones. N.W. lay a second and similar fort, nearly destroyed. This had a cloghaun, 18 feet 6 inches across, and its rampart was 6 feet 7 inches thick. The fort is called "Doon-doo-haar" by the natives. It is marked on the one-inch Ordnance Map as Doonaghard.

OTHER REMAINS.-There are some slight remains of a fort one and a-half miles S.W. of Kilronan, 72 feet diameter, walls 7 feet thick. Toberronan, a holy well, in the village of Kilronan; two cloghauns, one mile to S.W., not far north of which is Kilchorna, an aharla. There were three cromlechs-one at Cowroogh, one near Kilmurvey, and one at Fearann a choirce, near Cowroogh.

The straits round and between the islands are-to the north, the North Sound, or Bealach locha Lurgain; east of Aranmore, Gregory's Sound, or Bealach na haite; east of Inismaan, Bealach na Fearboy, from "Fearbad," a district in the island between Aran and Clare, South Sound, or Bealach na finnis.

1 "Trias Thaum.," p. 398.

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