blocked up, through which a person sitting in the window-seat would command a view of the altar in the eastern chapel, and of the one in the new church to the north: which points to there having been a church there previous to that now existing; though no doubt later

Fig. 4. Sketch from South-east.

than the old church. This room is covered by a barrel vault.

From here another stair leads up to the long room which runs the whole length of the building, and which is about 35 ft. long by 7 ft. 3 ins. wide at the two ends, and 9 ft. in the middle. The floor at the west end is

raised 2 ft. 10 ins., up four steps. It has three windows, two of which have seats in the sills, and there is a fireplace in the north wall. There are also two small square holes through the roof of the eastern part. Both the east and western parts are formed in the solid stone roof (see section), which forms a pointed barrel vault, the spring of which is 2 ft. above floor, and the apex 7 ft. 4 ins. in the eastern and 8 ft. 9 ins. in the western part. The central part under the tower is groined.

From here, still another stair leads to rooms in the tower; about half-way up this stair is a small cell about 3 ft. 6 ins. square, and perhaps 4 ft. high, which is said to have been used for the purposes of penance in the case of refractory monks, etc.; it is certainly lighted by a cross-shape slit, which may give some colour to this, but I should think it is quite as likely to have been the larder.

The room still remaining in the tower is little over 9 ft. square; it has five plain square-headed windows, and a fireplace.

There was another room over this, the corbels for carrying the floor of which still remain, and which has four very small windows and no fireplace. This must have been entered by a ladder and a trap in the floor, as the stair stops at the room below.

The tower is finished with the usual Irish type of battlements. The exterior is shown by the sketch from the south-east, and is extremely picturesque; it is built very well and solidly of good ashlar, and is in a thoroughly sound condition. There was evidently a bell-turret to the south of the tower, rather low down, the top of which has gone; and there are marks of a gable cross on the west gable. There are also some corbels on the west wall, the uses of which are at present not very obvious. The three large windows of the eastern chapel are evidently insertions. The character of the work is very plain; there are no mouldings except the splays of the windows, and no carving.

To the north-east of the church is the well, of which Wakeman gives the following description :

"The Well of St. Doulough, probably used as a baptistry, is in keeping with the singular character of his Church. The spring is covered by a stone-roofed octagon building; it rises through a circular basin cut out of a single stone, and was, not many years ago, thought to possess miraculous powers. Tradition states the interior of the octagon was anciently decorated with pictures, and holes are pointed out as having been made by the iron pins that fastened them to the wall. Adjoining is a most curious subterraneous bath. It is supplied by the well, and even yet the water rises to a considerable height within it. According to Mr. D'Alton, the well was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the bath was called "St. Catherine's Pond."1

The well-house stands in the centre of an octagon sunk 6 ft. below the level of the ground, which has a flight of steps down into it on the south, and a square recess on the north, with a stone seat and a tank sunk in the floor. The inside of the well-house is circular and domed. It is lighted by three cross-shaped slits, and four small windows in little gablets in the roof. The floor is 2 ft. 3 ins. below the ground outside, and the level of

1 From W. F. Wakeman's Hand-Book of Irish Antiquities, Pagan and Christian, 1848.

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the water-which, when I was there, was about 2 ft. deep -is about 1 ft. below the floor.

The well supplied the tank outside, which is now dry and partially ruined, and the very curious underground chamber or bath to the north, which is approached by a very narrow flight of steps from the level of the ground, and is roofed with a circular barrel vault. The water was still standing in this to a depth of about 1 ft. 6 ins. when I saw it.

The exterior of the well-house is of very good though simple design; unfortunately, the top stones of the centre portion, and also of the small gablets, have in all cases gone, but they were probably surmounted by

crosses.

As to the probable date of the church and well-for I think they are both of the same age-it is not very easy to form an exact idea, owing to the total absence of that great test, mouldings; but, judging from the general appearance of the work, the shape of the openings, etc., I should be inclined to place it 1400, or possibly earlier. The church belongs to a very interesting type of buildings peculiar to Ireland, commencing with the early oratories, beehive-shaped cells built of stone slabs laid horizontally, and projecting over one another till they meet in the centre. Then the square plan is introduced, the best-known example being the oratory of St. Gallerus, which is formed in the same way-by bringing over the side walls till they meet in the middle-the gable walls being nearly vertical, but still inclining slightly. The next step was to build low vertical walls and then the roof as before, but keeping the outside straight instead of following the line of the inside. The next and most important step was to form a chamber (very small in the earlier examples, and increasing in size in the later ones) between the inside covering of the chapel and the outside of the roof: the best-known example being Cormac's chapel at Cashel, built in the first part of the twelfth century, which is considerably larger and more ornate than this, and consists of a nave and chancel covered by barrel vaults, over which are two chambers at different levels, separated by a wall, in

1898

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