gallaun beside it or on the end stone of the grave, and a votive offering, a hair-pin, button, or generally the tassel from the woollen shawls, worn by all the peasantry in Kerry, is passed through the hole in the end stone of the grave. This holed-stone is a strange survival of the holed-stones so often found in the ends of dolmens. In the Gentleman's Magazine

for 1865, Part I., pp. 221, 223, Mr. H. M. Westropp, referring to holedstones, states:-" Another custom also prevalent in the rude ages, was that of lighting lamps in cemeteries and in tombs, in honour of the dead. These holes, therefore, may have been used for placing lamps in by

1 Borlase's "Dolmens of Ireland," p. 723; Fergusson's "Rude Stone Monuments," p. 161; Gentleman's Magazine, 1864, Part II., pp. 686, 700.

night as a kind of tribute to the memory of the dead, as these stones are generally found in connexion with ancient sepulchres. M. Viollet le Duc adopts this view, and mentions, in confirmation, that even at the present day, in Brittany, there is a tradition that these stones light up of themselves by night." This theory is most improbable when applied to the ordinary holed gallaun, but when the stone forms the end of a cumhdach, the suggestion is worthy of consideration.

3

Lord Dunraven refers to two structures such as this, which are in the churchyard of Tempull Chronain in the county Clare, one of which he illustrates. He states :-"There are two curious structures, called by O'Donovan in the Ordnance Survey Letters bone-houses, or cumhdachs for bones, in the churchyard; they are said to have been formed by St. Cronan." After which follows the description. He does not refer to any hole in the end, and Dr. M'Namara, Hon. Sec., county Clare, has kindly examined them for me, and informs me there is no hole.2 This cumhdach is not looked on as a bone-house, but as the priest's grave. There are no bones appearing inside. Beside the grave stands a gallaun, (see photo) on which a cross has been deeply incised by the frequent scoring on to it of those making rounds to the grave. Further to the west, a grave is marked by a Latin cross formed from a flag 3 inches thick. It stands 2 feet 8 inches high, and 2 feet 2 inches across the arms, which are 11 inches wide. The cells were situated on the lower terrace, to which you descend by the flight of stone steps, but here the modern vandal has been at work. Father O'Donoghue, whose recent loss to the Society and Irish archæology we must all deplore, states that when he visited (about 1853) the ruins of nine beehive cells could be traced clustered around what had been a larger building in the centre-probably the oratory-of which only a small portion of the side wall was visible. The peculiarly bright green verdure of the sward, due to its long occupation as a laura, is now very striking, but the cells have been removed. One large cell in the west-end angle is still in fine preservation. It is 20 feet in diameter, and the walls 5 feet thick at the base; portion at present stands 8 feet high. The entrance is perfect. It is 5 feet high, 3 feet wide at base, and 2 feet 6 inches at lintel. On the inside are two stones 15 inches wide, 3 inches thick, projecting 12 inches, set 6 inches over the lintel, and pierced with two holes, 3 feet 6 inches between holes, centre to centre, to hang the door, similar to that at Gallerus Oratory.5

The foundation of another cell remains south of this with two upright stones which formed the door jambs standing, it was 14 feet diameter.

1 Lord Dunraven's "Irish Architecture," vol. i., p. 106.

2 Mr. T. J. Westropp informs me he found a pierced stone at Teampull Kenanagh, on Innismaan (Aran), which he supposed to be the end of a cumhdach.

Note the similarity of the termination to the arms with the crosses on the Lombard's stone at Inchagoill.-(Petrie's "Architecture," p. 162; also Journal, vol. xxxi., p. 242.)

4.66 Brendaniana," by the Rev. D. O'Donoghue, p. 281.

5 See Journal, vol. xxii., p. 273.

Other standing stones mark the position of a cell opposite the steps close to the lower terrace, and this is all that is left of the laura of St. Buonia. To the east of the plateau are the remains of a rectangular building, the south wall of which was about 31 feet from the central terrace wall, and its clear width was about 18 feet. In connexion with this, and in continuation of the eastern side of it, large flag-stones stand set on edge, some 7 feet long, and about 4 feet high. It is impossible to state from its

present ruinous condition what class of structure existed here. At the western end a chamber was also formed, 8 feet by 6 feet, of large flagstones, some 6 feet 6 inches long, 6 inches thick, and standing 4 feet high. These also formed portion of the monastery. The remains of a cloghan is to be seen about 30 feet north-west of the enclosure; and two cloghans one of which is in fair preservation-are in the field south of the enclosure.

Jour. R.S.A.I.

Vol. XII., Fifth Series.
Vol. XXXII., Consec. Ser.

E

There are no authentic records to identify the St. Buonia of the Glen. Father Arthur Murphy, the parish priest, to whom I am much indebted for imparting to me his knowledge of the traditions and folk-lore of the district, informs me that the people believe St. Buonia to have been a holy nun. This, too, would appear to have been the opinion of the artist who rudely carved the female face on the memorial stone at the well. In the "Martyrology of Donegal," Beoin, Virgin, is commemorated on February 1st.

Of male saints, we find, on December 3rd, Beoan, son of Librén, Bishop. He was of the race of Laeghaire, son of Niall.

On August 8th, Beoan, son of Nessan, Bishop of Fidh Chuillinn in Ui Failge. He was of the race of Cathair of Leinster.

Beoan, Bishop of Temlacht Menainn, October 26th.

This is the Beoan to whom, with Mellan, Dr. Reeves' note refers. On January 27th we have commemorated Beon, fisherman, Muirghein. "Muirghein, i.e. a woman who was in the sea, whom the Books call Libán, daughter of Eochaidh, son of Muireadh. She was about 300 years under the sea till the time of the saints, when Beoan the saint took her in a net, so that she was baptized after having told her history and adventures" (p. 29).2

In a note to Beocc, who foretold the coming of Columcille, Dr. Reeves has Beocc, or Dabeoc, Latinized Beoanus, O'Donnell, lib. i, cap. 10. Trias Thaum., p. 390. This saint is commemorated October 25th. At July 27th, Beoghain, Abbot of Moville. At August 22nd, Beoghna, Abbot of Bennchor after Comhgall, the age of Christ when he resigned his spirit to heaven was 605.

Rev. Father O'Donoghue, in his desire to connect it even remotely with St. Brendan, of Ardfert, in his notes on the Latin life of that saint,

states:

"To this period (after returning from his voyage) we may attribute also the erection of a very primitive oratory on Inistuascairt, one of the Blasquet islands, the remains of which are still known as those of St. Brendan's Oratory. There is a dim tradition that he founded also the ancient laura' or group of early monastic cells, known as Kilabounia in the Glen, parish of Kilemlagh, barony of Iveragh, and that he occasionally visited his religious establishment there, sailing in his currach across Dingle Bay from his island oratory in the Blasquets. . . . I am inclined to think that this most interesting ancient laura' of Kilabounia was founded at a later time, not by St. Brendan himself, but by one of his early disciples, St. Beoanus, whose name occurs in the Visions of St.

1 O'Donovan's translation, edited by Dr. Todd and Dr. Reeves.

2 The Chronicon Scotorum records, A.D. 565:-In this year, Muirgeilt i.e. Líban, daughter of Eochaidh Mac Muiredha, was caught on the strand of Ollarbha in the net of Bedan, son of Innle, fisherman of Comgall of Bennchair.

Fursey, in conjunction with that of St. Meldan, another early disciple of St. Brendan." And in his notes on the legends of St. Brendan, referring the antiquities of the Glen, he states1:

"The earliest religious foundation there was apparently the little monastery of St. Beoanigh; and, judging from its present remains, we can scarcely entertain a doubt that this was founded, and the group of humble cells and the rudely-built oratory were erected, about the time of St. Brendan by St. Beoanigh, one of his disciples, and probably the same saint whose name we find as 'Beoanus' in the Latin Lives of St. Fursey, in connexion with the wonderful visions of that renowned saint. . . . If this conjecture regarding the founder of Killabeoanigh be well grounded, as I believe it is, it would explain the kindly interest shown by St. Brendan in his visits, of which tradition tells, to the new foundation of his spiritual children there, and it would serve to identify St. Beoanigh of the Glen with the St. Beoanus of the 'Visions of St. Fursey,' and to throw some light on obscure passages in the early life of the latter saint."

The records connected with the "Life of St. Fursey" are so confusing and in some places contradictory; and it is so difficult to determine who the saints Beoanus and Mellan were, who figure so prominently in the famous "Visions of St. Fursey, ," that it is open to supposition that the Beoan of the Visions may, in some way, be connected with the laura in the Glen; but the author of " Brendaniana" goes much further, and supposes that when St. Fursey's father, Fintan, returned to rule over his father's kingdom in Corcaguiny, he had St. Beoan as tutor for his son, and that the same saint afterwards founded his monastery here in 560, and the oratory at Coomaneaspuig some time after, where he died, and was buried at Killabuonia.4 However, there are no grounds for such conjectures; and if it were so the commemoration day of such a holy man was not likely to be forgotten in the Glen.

Dr. Reeves, in his "Antiquities of Down and Connor," notices "the names Nasad, Beoan, and Mellan in the 'Martyrology of Engus' at the 26th of October, i.e. three saints from Britain, and are (interred) in one church, i.e. Tamlacht Menand at Loch Bricrend in Iveagh in Ulidia. The Calendar of the Four Masters' mentions only two names, Beoan, bishop, and Mellan, of Temlacht Menainn on Loch Bricrenn. These two persons are mentioned in the Life of St. Fursæus (Acta SS., p. 97, col. 2) as concerned in an occurrence which the Annals of Ulster, refer to the year 626." By this record they would appear to have lived in the time of St. Fursey, whose death is fixed by various authorities at

1 "Brendaniana," by the Rev. D. O'Donoghue, p. 282.

2 See O'Hanlon's "Lives," vol. i., p. 235.

4

Ibid., p. 287.

3 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 393.

6 Page 113.

5 Lanigan states that his reputation was equally great with St. Mellan (O'Hanlon's "Lives," vol. i., p. 250).