The Archaeology of Early Christianity in the North of Ireland 9781407302850, 9781407321202

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
PREFACE
ANN HAMLIN PUBLICATIONS
Foreword
List of Figures (by Page Number)
List of Figures (by Figure Number)
List of Plates (by Page Number)
List of Plates (by Plate Number)
Chapter 1 AIMS AND PROCEDURE
Chapter 2 THE WRITTEN SOURCES
Chapter 3 THE CONTRIBUTION OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Chapter 4 EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SITES: NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION
Chapter 5 EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SITES - TOPOGRAPHY
Chapter 6i EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SITES: THE MATERIAL REMAINS
Chapter 6ii CHURCHES
Chapter 6iii ROUND TOWERS, SOUTERRAINS AND OTHER BUILDINGS
Chapter 6iv BURIALS
Chapter 6v CROSSES
Chapter 6vi CROSS-CARVED STONES
Chapter 6vii FIGURE-CARVED STONES
Chapter 6viii BULLAUNS AND OTHER STONES
Chapter 6ix WELLS
Chapter 6x THE MONASTIC ECONOMY: SUBSISTENCE, SCHOLARSHIP AND TECHNOLOGY
Chapter 6xi MONASTIC TOPOGRAPHY
Chapter 7 HISTORICAL DISCUSSION
Chapter 8 THE SITES FROM 1200 TO THE PRESENT DAY
Chapter 9 THE FUTURE
COUNTY GAZETTEERS
APPENDICES
ABBREVIATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX OF PLACES IN THE GAZETEER AND APPENDICES

Citation preview

BAR  460  2008   HAMLIN   THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND

The Archaeology of Early Christianity in the North of Ireland Ann Elizabeth Hamlin Edited by

Thomas R. Kerr with contributions from Janet Bell, Alison Kyle, Marion Meek and Brian Sloan

BAR British Series 460 9 781407 302850

B A R

2008

The Archaeology of Early Christianity in the North of Ireland Ann Elizabeth Hamlin Edited by

Thomas R. Kerr with contributions from

Janet Bell, Alison Kyle, Marion Meek and Brian Sloan

BAR British Series 460 2008

Published in 2016 by BAR Publishing, Oxford BAR British Series 460 The Archaeology of Early Christianity in the North of Ireland © A E Hamlin, the editor and contributors severally and the Publisher 2008 The authors' moral rights under the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any form of digital format or transmitted in any form digitally, without the written permission of the Publisher. ISBN 9781407302850 paperback ISBN 9781407321202 e-format DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407302850 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

BAR Publishing is the trading name of British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd. British Archaeological Reports was first incorporated in 1974 to publish the BAR Series, International and British. In 1992 Hadrian Books Ltd became part of the BAR group. This volume was originally published by Archaeopress in conjunction with British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd / Hadrian Books Ltd, the Series principal publisher, in 2008. This present volume is published by BAR Publishing, 2016.

BAR PUBLISHING BAR titles are available from: BAR Publishing 122 Banbury Rd, Oxford, OX2 7BP, UK E MAIL [email protected] P HONE +44 (0)1865 310431 F AX +44 (0)1865 316916 www.barpublishing.com

Acknowledgments There are a number of people who should be acknowledged and thanked from the outset. Firstly, there are those who were included in the list of acknowledgments to the original thesis (some since deceased) – Professor E.M. Jope (Queen’s University, Belfast); Dudley Waterman (Archaeological Survey); Tom Delaney and Richard Warner (Ulster Museum); Dr. Lucas (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin); Dr. Kathleen Hughes (Newnham College, Cambridge); Mr. D.R.M Weatherup (Armagh Museum); Mrs. D. Flanagan; Rev. P. Gallagher; Dr. G. Gillespie; Mr. R. Haworth; Dr. T.E. McNeill; and Mr. J. Murphy. In the production of this edition, I would like to express my thanks to the Executors of the Estate of the late Ann Hamlin - especially Dr. Marie-Therese Flanagan (Queen’s University, Belfast) – for permission to finally publish this work and bring it to wider attention. The process of scanning in the original PhD thesis and then converting the images to workable documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software was undertaken by my colleagues Janet Bell, Alison Kyle and Brian Sloan. Alison Kyle should also be thanked for proof-reading the resulting document and ironing out most of the faulty text. I would also like to thank Marion Meek for preparing a short bibliography of Ann Hamlin which appears at the start of the text. Finally I would like to pay tribute to the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork (Queen’s University, Belfast), and the Environment and Heritage Service (an agency within the Department of the Environment (NI)), for supporting the production of this edition.

PREFACE In the 1950s and 60s, archaeology in Northern Ireland developed through the wise machinations of Estyn Evans, Professor of Geography at Queen’s University, Belfast. The Department of Archaeology was established under Martyn Jope; and government archaeology was begun with Dudley Waterman and Pat Collins. Despite the fact that none of these gentlemen had any prior knowledge of Ireland, its history or archaeology, amazingly they devoted the rest of their lives to finding out and with careful, scientifically based studies, promoted the examination of field archaeology throughout the north including recording, excavation and where possible conservation.

Dudley Waterman had seen her research and recognized her talent. When Waterman died in 1979, Ann was appointed his successor and remained till retirement in 1999. One could say that this thesis formed the basis for government archaeology in the last quarter of the 20th century. She encouraged research into topics not fully developed in Northern Ireland – listed buildings, garden history, industrial archaeology and conservation of everything from excavated material to castles or windmills. This wide range of interests, her ability to communicate and her wish to help led to a whole range of popular publications. One that had a widespread influence was ‘The Care of Graveyards’ (1983), intended to help district councils at a time when generous grants were on offer to ‘tidy’ graveyards and the resulting work could be drastic. This little pamphlet was copied far and wide, provided a personal help line and could be claimed as another offshoot of the thesis.

Ann Hamlin came from a similar background. She grew up in Birmingham and Bristol, read History at St. Hugh’s, Oxford, and Archaeology at the London Institute of Archaeology. She had volunteered on digs from the age of 17 – Dinas Powys with Lesley Alcock; Fussels Lodge long barrow with Paul Ashbee; Windmill Hill with Isobel Smith; and Nonsuch Palace with Martin Biddle. Nothing Irish and no churches! She elected to do her PhD in Belfast because she hoped Martyn Jope would be a mentor to guide her in the synthesis of archaeology, history and architecture. The first subject she chose was Armagh City, but once she had looked around Northern Ireland, she preferred what was then, in the 1960s, an underdeveloped topic. Her thesis comprises a physical survey of Early Christian Churches in Northern Ireland, an analysis of their locations and a discussion of written evidence.

Three other as yet unpublished studies are likely to come out in the near future. Together with Próincéas Ní Catháin she had been working on a survey of ogham stones in Ireland and although this is not complete, it is still viable. When Ann contracted motor neurone disease in 2001, she still made her way to Scotland to give the Whithorn Lecture, using Nendrum, Co. Down as a link with Ninian and Scotland. The Whithorn Lectures are always published. Last but not least is the work she and Roger Stalley did over many years on the hundreds of loose carved stones on Devenish, Co. Fermanagh. At a stage where she was severely handicapped, she still wanted to return to this immense jigsaw puzzle which has already yielded fascinating knowledge of a fourth major church whose position is unknown.

Even though the work was not published until now, it has been much used by scholars in Ireland and beyond. Ann Hamlin, without ever lowering her standards of academic rigour, was a committed communicator; she always shared her knowledge when asked and was able to make difficult subjects clear. The thesis led to many by products. The best known of her popular work is her book with Kathleen Hughes ‘The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church’ (1977). Other offshoots of this survey include ‘Some northern sundials and time keeping in the early Irish church’ in ‘Figures from the Past’, ed. Etienne Rynne (Dublin, 1987); ‘Crosses in Ireland: the evidence from written sources’ in ‘Ireland and Insular Art’ ed. M. Ryan (Dublin, 1987); ‘ A women’s graveyard at Carrickmore, County Tyrone and the separate burial of women’ with Claire Foley, UJA, 46, 1983; ‘Using mills on Sunday’ in ‘Studies on Early Ireland’, ed. B.G. Scott (1982).

Archaeology in all its facets is a constantly evolving body of information. In the 1970s, air photography and the proton magnetometer were the main tools of non-invasive investigation. Today we have several ways of improving this study. Ann Hamlin’s above ground examination however provides us with a solid framework for future studies. In her last years she was excited by the new thoughts on the organisation of the Early Irish Church, the layers of monastic and secular rule and land management already touched on in ‘The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church’. These can be accommodated by the new users of this survey. And of course excavation, most spectacularly at Nendrum but at many other sites will continue to fill out the story.

When the government archaeology section started to grow, Ann Hamlin was recruited from her post in the History Department of Exeter University in 1975.

(MARION MEEK 2008)

iii

ANN HAMLIN PUBLICATIONS ‘The excavation of ring-ditches and other sites at Stanton Harcourt’, in Oxoniensia 28 (1963), 1-19.

DOE (NI) guide-card for Dundrum Castle (1977). DOE (NI) guide-card for Dungiven Priory (1977).

‘Early Iron Age sites at Stanton Harcourt’, in Oxoniensia 31 (1966), 1-21, with H Case.

DOE (NI) guide-card for Ballycopeland Windmill (1979).

‘The moving of Copplestone Cross’, in Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries (1968-70), 246.

DOE (NI) guide-card for Devenish (1979). DOE (NI) guide-card for Grey Abbey (1979).

‘Church sites in Langfield parish, Co Tyrone’, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 34 (1971), 79-83 (see also 2.16).

‘Two cross-heads from County Fermanagh: Killesher and Galloon’, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 43 (1980), 53-8.

‘Ireland and Britain AD 400-800’ (review article), in Bulletin of the Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement 2 (1971), 22-7.

‘The Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record’, in Ulster Local Studies 5 (1980), 24-7.

‘Church sites in Langfield Parish, Co Tyrone’, in Drumquin (Omagh, 1993), 142-7, reprinted from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology 34 (1971), 79-83 (see 3.3), with a postscript.

Celtic Monasticism: the Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church (Seabury Press, New York, 1981), US edition of 1.1.

‘A chi-rho-carved stone at Drumaqueran, Co Antrim’, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 35 (1972), 22-8.

‘'Field archaeology: the local contribution’, in Ulster Local Studies 6 (1981), 1-3.

‘A chert implement from Bridford’, in ‘Archaeological Notes’, Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 30 (1972), 238.

‘Government archaeology’, in Popular Archaeology 2 no 9 (1981), 28-30. ‘Dignatio diei dominici: an element in the iconography of Irish crosses?’ in Ireland in Early Medieval Europe: Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes, eds. R McKitterick, D Dumville and D Whitelock (Cambridge, 1982), 69-75.

‘Two apex stones from Co. Fermanagh’, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 38 (1975), 87-8. Contributions to ‘Banagher Church, Co Derry’ by D M Waterman, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 39 (1976), 25-41. ‘Deserted medieval sites in Devon’, with John Hall, in The Devon Historian 13 (1976), 2-7.

‘Early Irish stone-carving: content and context’, in The Early Church in Western Britain and Ireland: studies presented to CA Ralegh Radford, ed. S Pearce (BAR, Oxford, 1982), 283-96.

‘Some further documentary evidence for the round tower on Devenish’, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 39 (1976), 73-4.

‘Using mills on Sunday’, in Studies on Early Ireland: Essays in Honour of M V Duignan, ed B G Scott (1982), 11.

‘A painting of Norman work at St. Stephen’s church, Exeter’, in Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 34 (1976), 92-4.

‘A crucifixion plaque reprovenanced’, with R G Haworth, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 112 (1982), 112-16.

The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church, with Kathleen Hughes (SPCK, London, 1977).

Contribution to Gravestone Inscriptions, Belfast vol. 1, ed. R S J Clarke (Ulster Historical Foundation, 1982), with A Given, on Shankill graveyard, pp vii-viii.

‘A recently discovered enclosure at Inch Abbey, Co Down’, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 40 (1977), 858.

Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland: an Introduction and Guide, with HM colleagues (HMSO, Belfast, 1983, reprinted 1987).

DOE (NI) guide-card for Armagh Friary (1977). ‘A women's graveyard at Carrickmore, County Tyrone, and the separate burial of women’, with Claire Foley, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 46 (1983), 41-6.

DOE (NI) guide-card for Bonamargy Friary (1977). DOE (NI) guide-card for Carrickfergus Castle (1977). iv

Contributions to ‘Preliminary excavations at Movilla Abbey, County Down’ by M J Yates, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology 46 (1983), 53-66.

Pieces of the Past: Archaeological Excavations by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland 1970-1986, eds Ann Hamlin and Chris Lynn (HMSO, Belfast, 1988), short-listed for British Archaeological Book Awards, 1989.

DOE (NI) guide-card for Banagher and Bovevagh Churches (1983).

‘Sankt Mochaois Kloster i Nendrum’, in Irland: den gatfulla ön (Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm, 1988), 93-5.

DOE (NI) guide-card for Inch Abbey (1983). 'Collation seats in Irish Cistercian houses: Grey Abbey, County Down and Graiguenamanagh, County Kilkenny', in Medieval Archaeology 27 (1983),156-8.

‘Government archaeology in Northern Ireland’, in Archaeological Heritage Management in the Modern World, ed H Cleere (London, 1989), 171-81.

The Care of Graveyards (DOE (NI) booklet, 1983). ‘Zur Archäologie früher kirchlicher und profaner Siedlungen in Irland’, with C J Lynn, in Kilian: Mönch aus Irland aller Franken Patron, ed J Erichsen (Munich, 1989), 56-73, pls 53-69.

‘The study of early Irish churches’, in Irland und Europa: die Kirche im Frühmittelalter, eds P Ní Chatháin and M Richter (Stuttgart, 1984), 117-26. ‘Fonts and other hollowed stones’, in Lecale Miscellany (1984), 28.

Contribution on graveyards to Making Sense of History: Evidence in Ireland for the Young Historian, eds C Gallagher, C Kinealy and T Parkhill (Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, 1990), 29-32.

‘Die irische Kirche des 8. Jahrhunderts in der Archäologie’, in Virgil von Salzburg: Missionar und Gelehrter, eds H Dopsch and R Juffinger (Salzburg, 1985), 265-85.

‘Bampton Castle, Devon: history and archaeology’, with R A Higham, in Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 48 (1990), 101-10.

‘Emain Macha: Navan Fort’, in Seanchas Ard Mhacha 11, no 2 (1985), 295-300.

‘The early Irish church: problems of identification’, in The Early Church in Wales and the West, eds N Edwards and A Lane (Oxford, 1992), 138-44.

‘'The archaeology of the Irish church in the eighth century’, in Peritia 4 (1985, published 1987), 279-99 (English version of 2.5).

‘Archaeological survey in Northern Ireland’, in Inventories of Monuments and Historic Buildings in Europe: Proceedings of a Colloquium held in Oxford, England, in 1988 (RCHME, London, 1992),41-4.

‘Archaeological survey: Donegal and beyond’, in Peritia 4 (1985, published 1987), 300-306. ‘Documentary evidence for round towers’, appendix to M Hare, ‘The study of early Irish church architecture: an Anglo-Saxon viewpoint’, in The Anglo-Saxon Church: Studies in Honour of H M Taylor, eds L A S Butler and R K Morris (CBA, London, 1986), 131-45.

Carrickfergus Castle, new format DOE (NI) guide-card (1992). Contributions to Archaeological Resource Management in the UK: an Introduction, eds. J Hunter and I Ralston (Institute of Field Archaeologists, Stroud, 1993), 37-8 (structure) and 134-5 (legislation).

‘Crosses in Ireland: the evidence from written sources’, in Ireland and Insular Art, AD 500-1200, ed M Ryan (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1987), 138-40.

‘Eleventh-century monasticism in Ireland’, note in the Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies 19 (1993), 54-5.

‘Some northern sundials and time-keeping in the early Irish church’, in Figures from the Past: Studies on Figurative Art in Ireland in Honour of Helen M Roe, ed E Rynne (Dublin, 1987), 29-42.

‘The Blackwater group of crosses’, in From the Isles of the North: Early Medieval Art in Ireland and Britain, ed C Bourke (HMSO, Belfast, 1995), 187-96.

‘Iona: a view from Ireland’ (review article), in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 117 (1987), 17-22.

‘Roofless and ruined: Ulster’s ruined churches’, in Ulster’s Historic Churches: a crumbling inheritance? (Belfast 1996), 3-6.

DOE (NI) guide-card for Navan Fort (1987). ‘Caring for the built heritage in Northern Ireland’, with N Brannon, in The Archaeologist (Institute of Field Archaeologists), Winter 1996, No 27, 18-20 1996/7.

DOE (NI) guide-card for St Patrick in County Down (1987).

v

The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church, with Kathleen Hughes, new edition (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1997).

‘Archaeological heritage management in Northern Ireland: challenges and solutions’, in Heritage Conservation in Modern Society, ed F P McManamon (One World Archaeology series, World Archaeological Congress, New Delhi, December 1994) (2000).

‘The early church in County Down to the twelfth century’, Chapter 3 in Down: History and Society, ed L Proudfoot (Geography Publications, Dublin, 1997), 4770.

‘The early church in County Tyrone to the twelfth century’, in Tyrone: history and society, ed H A Jefferies (Dublin, 2000) 55-84.

‘Presenting historic monuments in a divided society: Northern Ireland’, in The Museum Archaeologist 22 (1997), 3-5. Nendrum, new format (DOE (NI) guide-card (1997).

Dungiven Priory and the Ó Catháin Family in Ogma: Essays in Celtic Studies in honour of Próinséas Ní Chatháin, eds. M Richter & JM Picard (Dublin 2001) 118-137.

‘New Historic Churches Trust for Northern Ireland’, in Church Archaeology 1 (1997), 46.

Pioneers of the Past, (Belfast, 2001), published by Ann Hamlin for Newnham College Library Fund.

‘Grey Abbey: architectural detective work’, in Church Archaeology 2 (1998), 53-4.

‘Some little known Ulster Inscriptions’ in Roman, Runes and Ogham, eds. J Higgitt, K Forsythe and DN Parsons (Donington, 2002), 51-65.

vi

Foreword In the thirty years since Ann Hamlin submitted her doctoral thesis on ‘The Archaeology of Christianity in the North of Ireland’, her study has become a work of first resort for anyone researching the history - both documentary and physical – of early churches and church sites in Northern Ireland. The county gazetteer has provided an invaluable asset for academic, amaetuer and professional archaeologists and historians alike in identifying the location of early ecclesiastical sites. Whereas ‘The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church’ (Hughes and Hamlin 1977), gives a general over-view of the period, the county gazetteer acts almost as a local guide-book to the individual churches.

Changes in planning regulations from the mid-1990s onward, however, have fundamentally altered the way in which archaeological excavation is undertaken. This has meant that the major players in archaeological excavations are now the commercial archaeology companies. A recent survey has shown that 75% of all Early Mediaeval/Early Christian period sites excavated between 1970 and 2002, were done by comercial companies, with universities accounting for only 7% (O’Sullivan and Harney 2008, 35). The rapid expansion in archaeology in Ireland over the past decade may be seen in the fact that just over 50% of the Early Christian/Early Medieval period sites excavated between 1970 and 2002 took place after 1999 (ibid. 24).

This work has been highly influential, despite the fact that it only physically exists in two copies at Queen’s University Belfast – one buried in the library stacks; and the other available in the Archaeology Office. Publication of this work is long overdue and hopefully this edition will re-enforce the fact that ‘The Archaeology of Christianity in the North of Ireland’ is one of the most important archaeological/historical syntheses on Irish material to be created in the latter-half of the twentieth century.

Unlike academic excavations, which were predominantly research-based, the recent explosion in archaeological excavation by commercial companies is largely driven by the construction industry – roads; housing; and quarries. The preliminary desktop-based archaeological assessment aims to locate known archaeological sites, as well as attempting to identify potential archaeological sites. As a result most of the archaeological features discovered during such work had not previously been identified as such. Whereas unknown secular sites may be uncovered by such processes, the continuity of use on many early ecclesiastical sites means that previously unknown church sites are less likely to be the subject of serendipitous discovery. This fact notwithstanding, a number of Early Christian period enclosures with associated burials have been recently discovered in the Republic of Ireland, primarily during road works. The 93 articulated burials, 14C dated between the early fifth and late tenth centuries, from enclosures at Raystown, Co. Meath, for example, may be indication of a nearby, unknown church site (Seaver 2005). Although no such site has as yet been uncovered in similar circumstances in Northern Ireland, it is probably only a matter of time before this happens. Richard Iven’s excavations at the presumed rath of Dunmisk, Co. Tyrone, for example, uncovered a (monastic?) cemetery in a quadrant of the enclosure which was tentatively identified by Ann Hamlin as ‘Domnach Mescain’ (‘The Brewer’s Church’) - one of the seven ‘domnach’ churches reportedly founded in this area by St. Patrick (Ivens 1989, 61). It is highly unlikely that Dunmisk is the only mis-identified enclosure-site in the Northern Ireland SMR, and similar discoveries during excavation would not be unexpected.

The original thesis is a rather intimidating work, consisiting of three weighty volumes, more than 20cm in total thickness. Volume 1 consists of the thesis proper; Volume 2 consists of the county gazetteers; and Volume 3 consists of figures and plates. The original thesis runs to just over 1100 pages, but is able to be compressed here to less than half that size. Original page number are retained throughout the text – these are shown in square brackets thus: [1] – in order to allow for cross referencing between the orignal thesis and this edition. I have also incorporated Volume 3 into the main text. In order to maintain conistency with the original thesis, the original plate and figure numbers have been retained. The result of this is that the illustrations do not run in numerical order through the text and to assist in navigation through the work, I have produced a list of figures and plates which give the page numbers where they may be found in this edition. There has had to be some replication of illustrations because of the nature of the text, but I have tried to keep this to a minimum. With the exception of the interspersed figures and plates, however, this edition truthfully and fully replicates the original doctoral thesis.

More difficult to locate, however, are un-enclosed burial grounds from this period, such as that discovered at Mount Gamble, Co. Dublin (O’Donovan 2002). These may have a presumed association to a nearby church site (whether extant or now disappeared), but, since they only become evident during excavations, it makes it impossible to include such potential sites into any

Archaeology in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has experienced a major sea-change since Ann was working on her thesis in the early 1970s. At that time archaeology was a relatively small-scale profession, with a limited number of annual excavations undertaken by either university or government employees.

vii

overview of the archaeology of the early church in Ireland.

Many of the excavations on known ecclesiastical sites failed to uncover Early Christian material, due both to the scale of the project and the continuous use of the site, e.g. Bangor, Co. Down (McHugh 2004). Some of these investigations, however, successfully uncovered early ecclesiastical material. A disused, covered well was discovered opposite Clogher Cathedral, Co. Tyrone (Warner 1974); and early burial activity was discovered at St. John’s Point, Co. Down, where a stone long cist was found underlying the north wall of the church (Brannon 1980). On Devenish Island the foundations of what has been interpreted as a second round tower were discovered 13 ½ feet north-northwest of the upstanding round tower (Waterman 1973-4). Excavations at Downpatrick, Co. Down in the 1980s and 1990s failed to locate the supposed round tower there, but did manage to locate two substantial ecclesiastical enclosure ditches (Brannon 1997). At both St. Thomas’, Rathlin Island (Gormley 2007) and Doras, Co. Tyrone (McDowell 1987), excavations found material dated to the Early Christian period, but failed to discover definitive proof of ecclesastical use. Souterrains were uncovered in excavations at Grange of Mallusk, Co. Antrim (Crothers 1995), and at Roselick, Co. Londonderry (McIlreavy 2008), both of which Hamlin included in her appendices, along with other ‘potential’ ecclesiastical sites. While these suggest an Early Christian period occupation date, they are not necessarily proof of Early Christian ecclesiastical activity on site.

Since the compilation of ‘The Archaeology of Christianity in the North of Ireland’, there have been over 60 excavations on, or near, early ecclesiastical sites and potential early church sites in Northern Ireland. Almost half of these investigations found no evidence for Early Christian period occupation. Eleven of these excavations occurred at sites not identified by Ann Hamlin as being definitely early in date (Table A). Townland Ballygarve Forthill Glebe, Armoy Killylane Ballybrolly Drumacanver Kilmore Ballyvicknacally Carrowreagh Tullynure Dunmisk

County Antrim Antrim Antrim Antrim Armagh Armagh Armagh Down Down Londonderry Tyrone

Grid Ref: J 147764 J 449937 D 009046 J 277990 H 842459 H 80523775 H 94325116 J 21095326 J 43717450 H 806828 H 628706

TABLE A: POTENTIAL EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SITES EXCAVATED 1976-2007, NOT INCLUDED IN HAMLIN 1976.

Excavations at Forthill, Co. Antrim (Crothers 1993; Halpin 2000) and at Drumacanver, Co. Armagh (Carver 2005), searching for the churches of ‘Templecorran’ and ‘Kilnacarrick’ respectively, both failed to discover anything of relevant archaeological significance. Possible Early Christian ecclesiastical ditches were identified in excavations at Ballygarve, Co. Antrim (Reilly 1997); St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic church in Glebe townland, Armoy (Hurl 1997); Carrowreagh, Co. Down (Crothers 2002) and Tullynure, Co. Londonderry (Brannon 1985). Several test trenches alongside a banked enclosure in Ballyvicknacally townland, to the immediate rear of Dromore (Co. Down) cemetery, failed to provide any dating or functional evidence (McSparron 2006). The reputed ‘church’ site, and associated human skeletal remains, from Killylane, Co. Antrim was located in the east-end of a ‘D-shaped’ enclosure of Early Christian date (Williams & Yates 1984); and an excavation at Ballybrolly, Co. Armagh to investigate the reputed ‘Abbey’ site, uncovered dry-stone walled structural remains from the Early Christian period (Lynn 1983). Both these sites, however, may represent contemporary secular settlement or later anthropogenic intrusions.

PLATE A: DRUMADOON, CO. ANTRIM – BELLSHRINE

Industrial activity – primarily in the form of metalworking residue – has also been discovered on the early ecclesiastical sites at Movilla, Co. Down (Ivens 1984); Dunmisk, Co. Tyrone (Ivens 1989); Aghavea, Co. Fermanagh (Ó Baoill 2000); and Clonfeacle, Co. Tyrone (McHugh et al. 2004). A second excavation at Clonfeacle also uncovered a carved stone ‘trial piece’, presumably used by metalworkers to develop a design.

Wells and springs are often associated with church sites (see Figure 14 and Chapter 6, ix, below). The excavation at St. Aidan’s, Kilmore, Co. Armagh, uncovered a well and 1000+ sherds (mainly of early mediaeval souterrainware) (Crothers 2002). A holy well (‘Mulleague’s Well’), was historically reported to have been in the vicinity of the excavation at Ballygarve (Reilly 1997). viii

Excavations on the raised rath at Drumadoon, Co. Antrim (Williams et al. 2003) uncovered an example of a later (perhaps 12th century) bellshrine (Plate A), possibly from some of the many surrounding ecclesiastical sites (see Fig. 19 below), or potentially from another, as yet undiscovered ecclesiastical site. A corn-drying kiln, suggesting large-scale food processing, has also been discovered at Raholp, Co. Down (Logue 2003).

The various excavations undertaken since the mid-1970s have furthered our understanding of the layout and chronology of some of the early ecclesiastical sites in Northern Ireland. Inferences may also be made about the wider socio-economic effects these sites had on the surrounding secular populations. The works of Richard Sharpe (1984; 2002) and Colman Etchingham (1999) have challenged pre-received assumptions about the way in which the early church functioned in Ireland. Such rigourous self-examination can only strengthen the discipline of Early Christian ecclesiastical archaeology and history in Ireland.

The exceptionally preserved tidal mill at Nendrum, Co. Down (McErlean 2002; McErlean & Crothers 2007) gives some insight into both the technical capabilities of monastic craftsmen in the seventh century, but also can be used to infer other aspects of the social and economic life of the monastic complex and its environs. The second major recent excavation on an early ecclesiastical site took place to the rear of the graveyard and round tower in St. Olcan’s, Armoy, Co. Antrim. This excavation uncovered a wonderfully complex multi-period site with substantial enclosure ditch, structural remains, a souterrain and a carved ‘idol’ figure, among the highlights (Nelis et al. 2007).

The boom in archaeological excavations in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and the re-evaluation of perceived wisdom, increases the need for the production and publication of syntheses like ‘The Archaeology of Christianity in the North of Ireland’, to pull together all the various strands and arguments of a complex, vibrant discipline. [THOMAS R. KERR 2008]

Select Bibliography: Beer, N.: 2004, Evaluation at St. John’s Point Church, Co. Down. CAF Monitoring Report No. 002

Crothers, N.: 1993, Excavations at Templecorran, Ballycarry, Co. Antrim. Excavations 1993.

Beer, N.: 2005, Evaluation at Killevy Church, Ballintemple, Co. Armagh. CAF Monitoring Report No. 025

Crothers, N.: 1995, Excavations at the Grange of Mallusk, Co. Antrim. Excavations 1995. Crothers, N.: 2002, Excavations at Carrowreagh, Co. Down. Excavations 2002.

Beer, N.: 2005, Evaluation at Armagh Friary, Parkmore, Co. Armagh. CAF Monitoring Report No. 026.

Crothers, N.: 2002, Excavations at St. Aidan’s, Kilmore, Co. Armagh. Excavations 2002.

Brannon, N.F.: 1979, ‘A small excavation in Turraloskin townland, County Antrim’. UJA (42) 86-87. Brannon, N.F.: 1980, ‘A trial excavation at St. John’s Point Church, Co. Down’. UJA (43) 59-64.

Donnelly, C.J., Macdonald, P., Murphy, E.M., & Beer, N.: 2003, Excavations at Boho high cross, Toneel North, Co. Fermanagh. UJA (62) 121-142.

Brannon, N.F.: 1980-4, Excavations at Inch, Co. Down. Excavations 1980-4

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Gormley, S.: 2007, Excavations at St. Thomas’ Church, Church Quarter, Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim. CAF DSR No. 048.

Brannon, N.F.: 1986, ‘Five excavations in Ulster 19781984’. UJA (49) 89-98 [St. Luran’s, Derryloran, Co. Tyrone].

Halpin, E.: 2000, Excavations at Templecorran, Ballycarry, Co. Antrim. Excavations 2000.

Brannon N.F.: 1997, Excavations at St. Patrick’s, Downpatrick, Co. Down. Excavations 1997.

Hurl, D.P.: 1993, Excavations at Solar, Co. Antrim. Excavations 1993.

Carver, N.: 2005, Evaluation at Drumacanver, Keady, Co. Armagh. CAF Monitoring Report No. 038.

Hurl, D.P.: 1997, Excavations at St. Patrick’s, Glebe, Armoy, Co. Antrim. Excavations 1997.

Carver, N.: 2005, Excavations at Aghaloo Church, Rousky, Co. Tyrone. CAF DSR No. 042.

Ivens, R.J.: 1984, ‘Movilla Abbey, Newtownards, Co. Down. Excavations 1981’. UJA (47) 71-108. ix

Ivens, R.J.: 1987, ‘The Early Christian monastic enclosure at Tullylish, Co. Down’. UJA (50) 55-121.

O’Donovan, E.: 2002, Exacavtions at Mount Gamble, Miltonsfields, Dublin. Excavations 2002.

Ivens, R.J.: 1988, ‘Secrets of a hilltop’, in Hamlin, A. & Lynn, C.J. (eds.) Pieces of the Past (Belfast 1988).

O’Sullivan, A., & Harney, L.: 2008, Medieval Archaeology Project: Investigating the character of early medieval archaeological excavations, 1970-2002 (Dublin 2008)

Ivens, R.J.: 1989, ‘Dunmisk Fort, Carrckmore, Co. Tyrone: Excavations 1984-1986’. UJA (52) 17-110.

Reilly, A.: 1997, Excavations at St. Miloc, Ballygarve, Co. Antrim, Site I. Excavations 1997.

Logue, R., Donnelly, C.J., and McHugh, R.J.: 2003, ‘Excavations in the vicinity of St. Tassach’s Church, Raholp, Co. Down’. UJA (62) 116-120.

Seaver, M.: 2005, ‘Run of the Mill? Excavation of an early medieval site at Raystown, Co. Meath’. Archaeology Ireland (19.4) 9-12.

Lynn, C.J.: 1983, ‘Excavations at Ballybrolly, Co. Armagh’. UJA (46) 47-51

Sharpe, R.: 1984, ‘Some Problems Concerning the Organization of the Church in Early Medieval Ireland’. Peritia (iii) 230-270.

Lynn, C.J.: 1983, Excavations at St. Donard (Maghera), Carnacavill, Co. Down. Excavations 1983. Macdonald, P.: 2004, Excavations at Kilroot, Co. Antrim. CAF DSR No. 036.

Sharpe, R.: 1992, ‘Churches nad Communities in Early Medieval Ireland: towards a pastoral model’, in J. Blair and R. Sharpe (eds.) Pastoral Care Before the Parish (Leicester 1992), pp 81-109.

McDowell, J.A.: 1983, ‘Excavation in an ecclesiastical enclosure at Doras, Co. Tyrone’. UJA (50), 137-154.

Warner, R.B.: 1974, Excavations at Clogher, Co. Tyrone. Excavations 1974.

McErlean, T., McConkey, R, & Forsythe, W.: 2002, Strangford Lough: An Archaeological Survey of the Maritime Cultural Landscape. (Belfast 2002) pp. 200211.

Waterman, D.M.: 1973-4, ‘’Excavations on Devenish Island, Co. Fermanagh. UJA (36-37) 100-102.

McErlean, T. & Crother, N.: 2007, Harnessing the Tides: The Early medieval Tide Mills at Nendrum Monstery, Strangford Lough. TSO

Williams, B.B. & Yates, M.J.: 1984, ‘Excavations at Killylane, County Antrim’. UJA (47) 63-70. Williams, B.B, McSparron, J.C, and Ó Neill, J.J: 2003, Excavations at Drumadoon, Co. Antrim. CAF DSR No. 23

McHugh, R.J.: 2004, ‘Excavation at Malachy’s Wall, Bangor Abbey, Co. Down’. UJA (63) 65-75. McHugh, R.J, Bell, J., and Macdonald, P.: 2004, ‘Excavations in the vicinity of St. Jarlath’s Church, Clonfeacle, Co. Tyrone’. UJA (63) 52-64.

Yates, M.J.: 1983, ‘Preliminary Excavations at Movilla Abbey, Co. Down, 1980’. UJA (46) 53-66.

McIlreavy, D.: 2008, Excavations at Roselick, Co. Londonderry. CAF DSR No. 57. McSparron, J.C.: 2006, Evaluation at Ballyvicknacally, Co. Down. CAF Monitoring Report No. 051. McSparron, J.C.: 2008, Excavations at Macosquin, Co. Londonderry. CAF DSR No. 048.

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Moore, P.: 2003, Excavations at Donagh, Galloon, Co. Fermanagh. CAF DSR No. 014.

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Mytum, H.: 2001, Geophysical Survey of Devenish Island. Excavations 2001. Nelis, E., Gormley, S., McSparron, J.C., Kyle, A.: 2007, Excavations at Armoy, Co. Antrim. CAF DSR No. 044. Ó Baoill, R.: 2000, Excavation at St. Lasair’s, Aghavea, Co. Fermanagh. Excavations 2000. x

List of Figures (by Page Number) FIG. 2

FIG. 3

FIG. 16 FIG. 17 FIG. 26 FIG. 27 FIG. 36 FIG. 37 FIG. 47C FIG. 48 FIG. 49 FIG. 62 FIG. 63 FIG. 75 FIG. 76 FIG. 4 FIG. 5 FIG. 18 FIG. 28 FIG. 29

FIG. 38 FIG. 40 FIG. 50 FIG. 64 FIG. 77 FIG. 79C FIG. 39 FIG. 79A FIG. 19 FIG. 86 FIG. 80 FIG. 21B FIG. 40A FIG. 6 FIG. 30 FIG. 51A FIG. 65B FIG. 89 FIG. 80

MAP OF SITES WITH EARLY MATERIAL NOT FOUND IN WRITTEN SOURCES SYMBOLS USED FOR THE HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAPS CO. ANTRIM: HISTORICAL MAP. CO. ANTRIM: MATERIAL FINDS CO. ARMAGH: HISTORICAL MAP CO. ARMAGH: MATERIAL MAP CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY – HISTORICAL MAP CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY: MATERIAL MAP MULLABOY AREA MAP CO. DOWN – HISTORICAL MAP. CO. DOWN – MATERIAL MAP CO. FERMANAGH – HISTORICAL MAP CO. FERMANAGH – MATERIAL MAP CO. TYRONE - HISTORICAL MAP. CO. TYRONE – MATERIAL MAP HISTOGRAM: SITUATION HISTOGRAM: ALTITUDE CO. ANTRIM: TOPOGRAPHY CO. ARMAGH: TOPOGRAPHY TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: LOUGHGILLY, KLLEVY, CLOGHINNY, KILDARTON, BALLYMORE, EGLISH CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY – TOPOGRAPHY. TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: ENAGH & TERMONEENY CO. DOWN – TOPOGRAPHY CO. FERMANAGH – TOPOGRAPHY CO. TYRONE – TOPOGRAPHY BODONEY – TOPOGRAPHY OF SITE PROMONTORY SITES: AGIVEY & CUMBER ARDSTRAW – TOPOGRAPHY NORTH ANTRIM MAP (TOP); DRUMNAKILL SITE (BOTTOM). SOME SITES CLOSE TO IMPORTANT ROUTES CHURCHES AND EARLY CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT IN EAST TYRONE. DRUMEENY: SITE MAP ENAGH – SITE MAP MAP OF ENCLOSURES ARMAGH CITY –SKETCH MAP NENDRUM – SITE PLAN INISHMACSAINT ENCLOSURE MAP OF PATRICIAN HORIZONS – WRITTEN SOURCES CHURCHES AND EARLY CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT IN EAST TYRONE

FIG. 41 FIG. 52 FIG. 53B FIG. 65C FIG. 7 FIG. 54A FIG. 70 FIG. 31 FIG. 54B FIG. 55C FIG. 42 FIG. 55B FIG. 45B FIG. 44

14

15

15 16 17 18 18 19

FIG. 67

20 20 21 22

FIG. 68 FIG. 71B FIG. 43

22 23 24 27 27 28 28 29

FIG. 69B FIG. 45A FIG. 69A FIG. 35A FIG. 8 FIG. 45C

29 FIG. 21 FIG. 79B FIG. 9 FIG. 59B FIG. 32

30 30 31 32 33 34

FIG. 53 FIG. 81B FIG. 10 FIG. 83B FIG. 22 FIG. 46

34 35 37

FIG. 85 FIG. 41 FIG. 83E

39 40 40 43 44 44 45 45

FIG. 11 FIG. 12 FIG. 60A FIG. 34D

BANAGHER – SITE PLAN RAHOLP – SITE PLAN MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) - SITE PLAN AGHAVEA – SITE PLAN MAP OF CHURCHES DERRY – CHURCH PLANS INISMACSAINT – CHURCH PLAN KILLEVEY – CHURCH PLAN. NENDRUM – CHURCH PLAN RAHOLP – CHURCH PLAN. BANAGHER – CHURCH PLAN TEMPLE CORMAC – CHURCH PLAN. DUNGIVEN – CHURCH PLAN. MAGHERA (CO. LONDONDERRY) – CHURCH PLAN. DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE PLAN. DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR PLAN. WHITE ISLAND - CHURCH PLAN (AFTER UJA 1959). BANAGHER – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. BALLYWILLIN – CHURCH PLAN. DONAGH – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. TYNAN – CARVED STONE. MAP OF ROUND TOWERS AND SOUTERRAINS. TAMLAGHT FINLAGAN – CHURCH PLAN. DRUMEENY SOUTERRAIN - PLAN. ARBOE – TOPOGRAPHY OF SITE MAP OF BURIALS RAHOLP – CROSS-CARVED STONE. KILNASAGGART – SKETCH PLAN OF GRAVES MAGHERA – PLAN OF EXCAVATED TRENCHES. GRAVEYARDS AT CARRICKMORE MAP OF CROSSES KILLOAN CROSS BASE CO. ANTRIM – ROUGH CROSSES CO. LONDONDERRY – ROUGH CROSSES MISCELLANEOUS ROUGH CROSSES BANAGHER – SITE PLAN DONACAVEY CROSS-SHAFT (AFTER DAVIES 1941) MAP OF CROSS-CARVED STONES SOME TYPES OF CROSSES NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONES DRUMCONWELL – CROSS-CARVED OGAM STONE

47 47 48 48 52 54 56 59 59 59 60 60 61 62 63 65 65 66 66 67 68 69 72 79 80 83 84 85 90 91 94 96 110 111 111 111 112 112 115 116 120 121

46 FIG. 23A

xi

DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE

122

FIG. 24B FIG. 25E FIG. 58C FIG. 34A FIG. 57B FIG. 59A FIG. 82B FIG. 82E FIG. 73 FIG. 82D FIG. 57E FIG. 74A FIG. 74B FIG. 57B FIG. 61A FIG. 23B FIG. 34B FIG. 47B FIG. 58B FIG. 24A FIG. 58D FIG. 74C FIG. 82A FIG. 33G FIG. 34C FIG. 34E FIG. 72C FIG. 25A FIG. 35C FIG.56D FIG. 56A FIG. 83D FIG. 61 FIG. 56B FIG. 35B FIG. 57C FIG. 83C

TURRALOSKIN – CROSS-CARVED STONE TRUMMERY: CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER GETTY 1855) LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) DERRY – CROSS-CARVED STONE MAGHERA (CO. DOWN)– CROSS-CARVED STONES CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMSALLAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONES KILCOOCROSS-CARVED STONES (2 & 3) WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONES (1 & 2) DERRY- CROSS-CARVED STONES SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DRUMEENY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) KILLEVY CROSS-CARVED STONE DUNCRUN CROSS-CARVED STONE NEWRY – CROSS STONE DROMORE: CROSS CARVED-STONE EDENMORE- CROSS-CARVED STONE TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILNSAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONES CLOGHINNY – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER CARRICKCROPPAN – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE CREVILLY VALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE MULLAGHBRACK – CROSS-CARVED STONE DOWNPATRICK – CROSS-CARVED STONE BANGOR – CROSS-CARVED STONE CLONOE – CROSS-CARED STONE (LOST/DESTROYED) SAUL – SUNDIAL BANGOR – SUNDIAL MAGHERNAHELY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING

123

FIG. 13 FIG. 84A

123 FIG. 84C 123 FIG. 14 124 FIG. 15 124 124

FIG. 30 FIG. 87

125 FIG. 89 125 126

FIG. 88

126

FIG. 90

127

FIG. 91 FIG. 92 FIG. 93 FIG. 81A FIG. 44

127 127 128 128 129

FIG. 94 FIG. 23D

129 129 129 131 131 131

FIG. 22A FIG. 23A FIG. 21C FIG. 23B

131 132

FIG. 21B FIG. 23C

132

FIG. 24C

132 133

FIG. 22B FIG. 25D FIG. 25E

134

FIG. 22C

134 134

FIG. 30 FIG. 29C FIG. 34E

135 135

FIG. 29B FIG. 34C

136 137 138

FIG. 34D FIG. 29E FIG. 29C FIG. 29B FIG. 31 FIG. 34B

138 143 xii

MAP OF BULLAUNS BODONEY – STONE WITH HOLE SEEN IN PLAN KILLELLAGH – STONES WITH HOLES SEEN IN PLAN MAP OF WELLS AT OR NEAR EARLY CHURCHES MAP OF ECCLESIASTICAL METALWORK ARMAGH CITY SKETCH MAP PAGANISM: MAP OF SOME EVIDENCE AT CHURCH SITES PATRICIAN HORIZONS – WRITTEN SOURCES BISHOPS: FIFTH TO EIGHTH CENTURIES SOME NORTHERN SAINTS: DEDICATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS EIGHTH-NINTH CENTURY REFORMS MAP SHOWING VIKING ACTIVITY TWELFTH CENTURY REFORM SITES IN LANGFIELD PARISH MAGHERA (CO. LONDONDERRY) – CHURCH PLAN 1975: SITES IN STATE CARE AND EXCAVATED SITES BROOMBEG - CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER OS MEMOIRS) BROUGHANLEA – ROUGH CROSS: NORTH FACE DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE LOCATION OF KILLE ENAN AND GOBBAN SAER’S CASTLE DRUMEENY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) DRUMEENY SOUTERRAIN DRUMEENY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DUNTEIGE – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER LAYD - HOLED CROSS - WEST FACE LAYD - CROSS-CARVED STONE TRUMMERY - CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER GETTY 1855) TULLAGHOREEAST CROSS- NORTH FACE ARMAGH CITY SKETCH MAP LOCATION OF BALLYMORE CARRICKCROPPAN – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER LOCATION OF CLOGHINNY CLOGHINNY – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER DRUMCONWELL – CROSS-CARVED STONE LOCATION OF EGLISH LOCATION OF KILDARTON LOCATION OF KILLEVY KILLEVY - CHURCH PLAN. KILLEVY - CROSS-CARVED STONE – FACE AND TOP

144 150 150 155 161 170 173 176 177 178 181 183 185 188 191 193 201 202 205 206 206 207 207 210 213 214 220 220 223 232 233 233 234 235 235 237 238 239 240

FIG. 32 FIG. 33 FIG. 29A FIG. 35C FIG. 29C FIG. 34A FIG. 35A FIG. 39A FIG. 46B FIG. 45A FIG. 41 FIG. 42 FIG. 43 FIG. 46C FIG. 39B FIG. 47B FIG. 45B FIG. 40A FIG. 84C FIG. 47C FIG. 44 FIG. 47A FIG. 45C FIG. 40B FIG. 46A FIG. 56A FIG. 56B FIG. 54A FIG. 57B FIG. 56D FIG. 57C FIG. 57E FIG. 58D FIG. 85A FIG. 58A FIG. 56C FIG. 57A FIG. 57D FIG. 58C FIG. 53

FIG. 59A

KILNASAGGARTSKETCH PLAN OF GRAVES KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONES LOCATION OF LOUGHGILLY MULLAGHBRACK – CROSS-CARVED STONE LOCATION OF TERRYHOOGAN (‘RELICARN’) TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONES TYNAN - CARVED STONES PROMONTORY SITES – AGIVEY ALTAGHONEY – ROUGH CROSS SKETCH PLAN OF BALLYWILLIN CHURCH BANAGHER SITE PLAN BANAGHER CHURCH PLAN BANAGHER CHURCH: ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES BANAGHER ROUGH CROSSES CUMBER PROMONTORY SITE DUNCRUN - CROSS-CARVED STONE DUNGIVEN CHURCH SKETCH PLAN LOCATION OF ENAGH KILLELLAGH – STONE WITH HOLES SEEN IN PLAN LOCATION OF KILLIENAN MAGHERA CHURCH PLAN (DETAIL OF NORTH-EAST ANGLE PILASTER) MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE TAMLAGHT FINLAGAN SKETCH PLAN LOCATION OF TERMONEENY TULLYBRISLAND CROSS BANGOR – CROSS-CARVED STONE BANGOR – SUNDIAL DERRY – CHURCH PLAN DERRY- CROSS-CARVED STONES DOWNPATRICK – CROSS-CARVED STONE DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMSALLAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONES EDENMORE – CROSS-CARVED STANDING STONE KILKEEL – WEST SIDE OF CROSS KILLYGARTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILLYLEAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) KILLYLEAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE MAGHERA – SITE MAP AND MAP OF TRENCHES MAGHERA – CROSS-CARVED STONES

242

FIG. 51A FIG. 54B FIG. 51B

245 246 247

FIG. 60A FIG. 52C FIG. 58B FIG. 55C FIG. 59B

249 250 251 255 256 257

FIG. 60B FIG. 61 FIG. 55A FIG. 55B FIG. 72C

258 258 258

FIG. 65C FIG. 72A

262 266 269 270 272 274

FIG. 72B FIG. 66 FIG. 67

274 275

FIG. 69B FIG. 68

277 281

FIG. 73

282 283 286 286 290 290 295

FIG. 69A FIG. 85B FIG. 65B FIG. 70 FIG. 74D FIG. 74A

297 299

FIG. 65A FIG. 74C

300 FIG. 71 302 303

FIG. 74B

304

304

FIG. 79B FIG. 79A FIG. 78A FIG. 79C FIG. 82D

305

FIG. 84A

306

FIG. 82B

307

FIG. 82C

304

xiii

NENDRUM – PLAN NENDRUM – CHURCH PLAN NENDRUM – LOCATION OF CROSSCARVED STONES NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONES RAHOLP – PLAN OF SITE NEWRY – CROSS STONE RAHOLP – CHURCH PLAN RAHOLP – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) RAHOLP – CROSS-CARVED STONES (2-8) SAUL - CROSS-CARVED STONES AND SUNDIAL ST. JOHN’S POINT – CHURCH PLAN TEMPLE CORMAC – CHURCH PLAN AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE AGHAVEA – SITE PLAN CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES DERRYVULLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DEVENISH – SITE PLAN DEVENISH – PLAN OF ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE DEVENISH – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS DEVENISH – PLAN OF TEAMPULL MOR DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES DONAGH – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS DRUMBRUGHAS – ROUGH CROSS INISHMACSAINT – SITE PLAN INISHMACSAINT - CHURCH PLAN INISHMACSAINT – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILCOOCROSS-CARVED STONES (2 & 3) ROSSORY – SITE PLAN TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE WHITE ISLAND – SITE AND CHURCH PLAN WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONES (1 & 2) ARBOE – SITE PLAN ARDSTRAW – LOCATION OF SITE ARTDTREA – HILLTOP SITE BODONEY – LOCATION OF SITE BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE BODONEY – HOLE WITH STONE SEEN IN PLAN CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE CLONFEACLE – CROSS-CARVED STONE

311 311 313 314 318 318 319 320 320 322 324 325 327 329 332 334 335 336 337 338 339 342 342 348 349 350 351 358 359 360 362 364 366 367 367 368 368 371

377

FIG. 83D FIG. 83A FIG. 83E FIG. 78B FIG. 82A FIG. 83B FIG. 83C FIG. 84B FIG. 82E

CLONOE – CROSS-CARED STONE (LOST/DESTROYED) DESERTCREAT – CROSS-CARVED STONE DONACAVEY – CROSS SHAFT (AFTER DAVIES 1941) DONAGHMORE – HILLTOP SITE FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILLOAN – CROSS-BASE LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE

378 378 379 381 386 389 389 392 393

xiv

List of Figures (by Figure Number) FIG. 2

FIG. 3

FIG. 4 FIG. 5 FIG. 6 FIG. 7 FIG. 8 FIG. 9 FIG. 10 FIG. 11 FIG. 12 FIG. 13 FIG. 14 FIG. 15 FIG. 16 FIG. 17 FIG. 18 FIG. 19 FIG. 21 FIG. 21B FIG. 21C FIG. 22 FIG. 22A FIG. 22B FIG. 22C FIG. 23A FIG. 23B FIG. 23C FIG. 23D FIG. 24A FIG. 24B FIG. 24C FIG. 25A FIG. 25D FIG. 25E FIG. 26 FIG. 28

MAP OF SITES WITH EARLY MATERIAL NOT FOUND IN WRITTEN SOURCES SYMBOLS USED FOR THE HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAPS HISTOGRAM: SITUATION HISTOGRAM: ALTITUDE MAP OF ENCLOSURES MAP OF CHURCHES MAP OF ROUND TOWERS AND SOUTERRAINS. MAP OF BURIALS MAP OF CROSSES MAP OF CROSS-CARVED STONES SOME TYPES OF CROSSES MAP OF BULLAUNS MAP OF WELLS AT OR NEAR EARLY CHURCHES MAP OF ECCLESIASTICAL METALWORK CO. ANTRIM: HISTORICAL MAP. CO. ANTRIM: MATERIAL FINDS CO. ANTRIM: TOPOGRAPHY NORTH ANTRIM MAP (TOP); DRUMNAKILL SITE (BOTTOM). DRUMEENY: SITE MAP DRUMEENY SOUTERRAIN LOCATION OF KILLE ENAN AND GOBBAN SAER’S CASTLE CO. ANTRIM – ROUGH CROSSES BROUGHANLEA – ROUGH CROSS: NORTH FACE LAYD – HOLED CROSS - WEST FACE TULLAGHORE – EAST CROSS- NORTH FACE DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMEENY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DRUMEENY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) BROOMBEG - CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER OS MEMOIRS) DROMORE: CROSS CARVED-STONE TURRALOSKIN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DUNTEIGE – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER CREVILLY VALLEYCROSS-CARVED STONE LAYD - CROSS-CARVED STONE TRUMMERY- CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER GETTY 1855) CO. ARMAGH: HISTORICAL MAP CO. ARMAGH: TOPOGRAPHY

FIG. 29

14

15 FIG. 29A FIG. 29B FIG. 29B FIG. 29C FIG. 29C FIG. 29C

27 27 43 52 72

FIG. 29E FIG. 30

84 96 115 116 144 155

FIG. 31 FIG. 32 FIG. 33

161 FIG. 33G 15 16 28 35

FIG. 34A FIG. 34B

40 80; 207 206

FIG. 34C

111 202

FIG. 34E

FIG. 34D

213

FIG. 35A FIG. 35B

220

FIG. 35C

122; 205 129; 206 207

FIG. 36 FIG. 37

201

FIG. 39

131 123

FIG. 39A FIG. 39B FIG. 40

FIG. 38

210 134

FIG. 40A FIG. 40B FIG. 41

214 123; 220 17 28

FIG. 42 FIG. 43

xv

TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: LOUGHGILLY, KLLEVY, CLOGHINNY, KILDARTON, BALLYMORE, EGLISH LOCATION OF LOUGHGILLY LOCATION OF CLOGHINNY LOCATION OF KILLEVY LOCATION OF BALLYMORE LOCATION OF KILDARTON LOCATION OF TERRYHOOGAN (‘RELICARN’) LOCATION OF EGLISH ARMAGH CITY –SKETCH MAP

KILLEVEY – CHURCH PLAN. KILNASAGGARTSKETCH PLAN OF GRAVES. KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONES KILNSAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONES TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) KILLEVY – CROSS-CARVED STONE CLOGHINNY – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER DRUMCONWELL – CROSS-CARVED OGHAM STONE CARRICKCROPPAN – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER TYNAN – CARVED STONE. MAGHERNAHELY – CROSS-CARVED STONE MULLAGHBRACK – CROSS-CARVED STONE CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY – HISTORICAL MAP CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY: MATERIAL MAP CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY – TOPOGRAPHY. PROMONTORY SITES: AGIVEY & CUMBER PROMONTORY SITES – AGIVEY CUMBER PROMONTORY SITE TOPOGRAPHY OF SITESENAGH & TERMONEENY ENAGH – SITE MAP LOCATION OF TERMONEENY BANAGHER – SITE PLAN BANAGHER – CHURCH PLAN BANAGHER CHURCH ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

29

246 233 238 232 237 249 235 44; 170; 223 59; 239 90; 242 245 132 124; 250 129; 240 132; 234 121; 235 132; 233 69; 251 138; 246 134; 247 18 19 29 34 255 266 30 40; 272 282 47; 112; 258 60; 258 66; 258

FIG. 44 FIG. 44 FIG. 45A FIG. 45B FIG. 45C FIG. 46 FIG. 46A FIG. 46B FIG. 46C FIG. 47A FIG. 47B FIG. 47C FIG. 47C FIG. 48 FIG. 49 FIG. 50 FIG. 51A FIG. 51B FIG. 52 FIG. 53 FIG. 53B FIG. 54A FIG. 54B FIG. 55A FIG. 55B FIG. 55C FIG. 56A FIG. 56B FIG. 56C FIG. 56D FIG. 57A FIG. 57B

FIG. 57C FIG. 57D FIG. 57E FIG. 58A FIG. 58B FIG. 58C FIG. 58D

MAGHERA (CO. LONDONDERRY) – CHURCH PLAN. MAGHERA CHURCH PLAN (DETAIL OF NORTH-EAST ANGLE PILASTER) SKETCH PLAN OF BALLYWILLIN CHURCH DUNGIVEN CHURCH SKETCH PLAN TAMLAGHT FINLAGAN – CHURCH PLAN. CO. LONDONDERRY – ROUGH CROSSES TULLYBRISLAND CROSS ALTAGHONEY – ROUGH CROSS BANAGHER ROUGH CROSSES MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE DUNCRUN – CROSS-CARVED STONE MULLABOY AREA MAP LOCATION OF KILLIENAN CO. DOWN – HISTORICAL MAP. CO. DOWN – MATERIAL MAP CO. DOWN – TOPOGRAPHY NENDRUM – SITE PLAN NENDRUM – LOCATION OF CROSSCARVED STONES RAHOLP – SITE PLAN MAGHERA – PLAN OF EXCAVATED TRENCHES. MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) – SITE PLAN DERRY – CHURCH PLANS NENDRUM – CHURCH PLAN ST. JOHN’S POINT – CHURCH PLAN TEMPLE CORMAC – CHURCH PLAN RAHOLP – CHURCH PLAN. BANGOR – CROSS-CARVED STONE BANGOR – SUNDIAL KILLYLEAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DOWNPATRICK – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILLYLEAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) DERRY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMSALLAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONES KILLYGARTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE NEWRY – CROSS STONE LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE EDENMORECROSS-CARVED STONE

62; 191

FIG. 59A

275

FIG. 59B FIG. 60A

67; 257 FIG. 60B 61; 270 79; 281

FIG. 61

111 FIG. 62 283 256 262 277 129; 269 20 274 20 21 30 44; 311 313

FIG. 63 FIG. 64 FIG. 65A FIG. 65B FIG. 65C FIG. 66 FIG. 67 FIG. 68 FIG. 69A

47; 318 91; 306

FIG. 69B FIG. 70 FIG. 71

48 54; 290 59; 311 324 60; 325 59; 319 135; 286 137; 286 304

FIG. 71B FIG. 72A FIG. 72B FIG. 72C FIG. 73 FIG. 74A

134; 295 304

FIG. 74B FIG. 74C

124; 128; 290 138; 297 304

FIG. 74D FIG. 75 FIG. 76 FIG. 77 FIG. 78A FIG. 78B FIG. 79A FIG. 79B FIG. 79C

127; 299 303 129; 318 123; 305 131; 300

FIG. 80 FIG. 81A FIG. 81B xvi

MAGHERA (CO. DOWN)– CROSS-CARVED STONES RAHOLP – CROSS-CARVED STONE. NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONES RAHOLP – CROSS-CARVED STONES (2-8) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONES AND SUNDIAL CO. FERMANAGH – HISTORICAL MAP CO. FERMANAGH – MATERIAL MAP CO. FERMANAGH – TOPOGRAPHY ROSSORY – SITE PLAN INISHMACSAINT ENCLOSURE AGHAVEA – SITE PLAN DEVENISH – SITE PLAN DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE PLAN. DEVENISH – PLAN OF TEAMPULL MOR DONAGH – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. INISMACSAINT – CHURCH PLAN WHITE ISLAND – SITE AND CHURCH PLAN WHITE ISLAND – CHURCH PLAN (AFTER UJA 1959). CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES DERRYVULLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES KILCOOCROSS-CARVED STONES (2 & 3) WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONES (1 & 2) TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE INISHMACSAINT – CROSS-CARVED STONE CO. TYRONE - HISTORICAL MAP. CO. TYRONE – MATERIAL MAP CO. TYRONE – TOPOGRAPHY ARTDTREA – HILLTOP SITE DONAGHMORE – HILLTOP SITE ARDSTRAW – TOPOGRAPHY ARBOE – TOPOGRAPHY OF SITE BODONEY – TOPOGRAPHY OF SITE CHURCHES AND EARLY CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT IN EAST TYRONE. SITES IN LANGFIELD PARISH GRAVEYARDS AT CARRICKMORE

124; 307 85; 320 120; 314 320 128; 136; 322 22 22 31 358 45; 348 48; 329 335 63; 336 65; 338 68; 342 66; 337 56; 349 360 65 332 334 133; 327 126; 339 127; 351 127; 362 131; 359 350 23 24 32 367 381 34; 366 83; 364 33; 367 39; 46 188 94

FIG. 82A FIG. 82B FIG. 82C FIG. 82D FIG. 82E FIG. 83A FIG. 83B FIG. 83C FIG. 83D FIG. 83E FIG. 84A FIG. 84B

FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE CLONFEACLE – CROSS-CARVED STONE BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DESERTCREAT – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILLOAN – CROSS-BASE LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING CLONOE – CROSS-CARED STONE (LOST/DESTROYED) DONACAVEY – CROSS-SHAFT (AFTER DAVIES 1941) BODONEY – STONE WITH HOLE SEEN IN PLAN TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE

131; 386 125; 371 377

FIG. 84C FIG. 85 FIG. 85A FIG. 85B FIG. 86

126; 368 125; 393 378

FIG. 87 FIG. 88 FIG. 89

110; 389 143; 389 135; 378 112; 379 150; 368 392

FIG. 89 FIG. 90 FIG. 91 FIG. 92 FIG. 93 FIG. 94

xvii

KILLELLAGH – STONES WITH HOLES SEEN IN PLAN MISCELLANEOUS ROUGH CROSSES KILKEEL – WEST SIDE OF CROSS DRUMBRUGHAS – ROUGH CROSS SOME SITES CLOSE TO IMPORTANT ROUTES PAGANISM: MAP OF SOME EVIDENCE AT CHURCH SITES BISHOPS: FIFTH TO EIGHTH CENTURIES MAP OF PATRICIAN HORIZONS – WRITTEN SOURCES PATRICIAN HORIZONS – WRITTEN SOURCES SOME NORTHERN SAINTS: DEDICATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS EIGHTH-NINTH CENTURY REFORMS MAP SHOWING VIKING ACTIVITY TWELFTH CENTURY REFORM 1975: SITES IN STATE CARE AND EXCAVATED SITES

150; 274 111 302 342 37 173 177 45 176 178 181 183 185 193

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‘DATE STONE’ ON BANAGHER CHURCH DOOR TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: ERRIGAL KEEROGUE. TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: BODONEY. DEVENISH – AIR PHOTOGRAPH FROM SOUTH- EAST KILLEVY – WEST CHURCHWEST DOOR (EXTERIOR). INISHMACSAINT – WEST WALL OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR). KILLEVY – WEST CHURCHWEST DOOR (INTERIOR). KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH – EAST WINDOW (EXTERIOR) KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH – EAST WINDOW (INTERIOR) DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH. RAHOLP – WEST GABLE. ST. JOHN’S POINT CHURCHVIEW FROM SOUTH-WEST ST. JOHN’S PONT – WEST DOOR. DERRY – DETAILS OF MASONRY (SOUTH CHURCH – LEFT; NORTH CHURCH – RIGHT). ST. JOHN’S POINT – NORTH WALL OF CHURCH. KILLEVY – EAST CHURCH – NORTH DOOR BANAGHER – WEST DOOR (EXTERIOR –LEFT; INTERIOR – RIGHT) BANAGHER – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (EXTERIOR – LEFT; INTERIOR – RIGHT). DUNGIVEN – EXTERIOR WINDOW IN SOUTH SIDE OF NAVE. DUNGIVEN – EXTERIOR NORTH-EAST ANGLE OF NAVE MAGHERA – DETAIL NORTHWEST ANGLE. MAGHERA – WEST DOOR (INTERIOR VIEW) MAGHERA – WEST DOOR – DETAIL OF ARCHITRAVE ON SOUTH SIDE (EXTERIOR). ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE – GABLE STONES (RECONSTRUCTED). ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE – DETAILS OF NORTH WALL & NORTH-WEST ANGLE

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DEVENISH – VIEW EAST FROM ROUND TOWER. DEVENISH – SOUTH-WEST ANGLE OF TEAMPULL MOR. WHITE ISLAND – SOUTH DOOR OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR). BANAGHER – NORTH RESPOND OF CHANCEL ARCH (LEFT); AND NICHE IN EAST WALL OF CHANCEL (RIGHT). BANAGHER – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (INTERIOR). DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (EXTERIOR –LEFT; INTERIOR – RIGHT) BALLYWILLIN – AUMBRY IN EAST WALL (INTERIOR). BANAGHER – SOUTH-EAST (LEFT) AND NORTH-EAST (RIGHT) ANGLE PILASTERS OF CHANCEL. DERRYVULLAN – ROOF FINIAL. GALLOON – WINDOW HEAD. DONAGH –WINDOW HEAD. WHITE ISLAND – WINDOW HEAD. KILTIERNEY – ROOF FINIAL. CLOGHER - ‘ENIGMATIC STONE’ IN CATHEDRAL. TYNAN – FRAGMENT WITH WEATHERED INTERLACE. TYNAN – CARVED STONE. CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF NORTH-WEST ANGLE (LEFT); AND SOUTH-WEST ANGLE ROLL (RIGHT). DRUMBO ROUND TOWER MAGHERA ROUND TOWER NENDRUM ROUND TOWER. ANTRIM ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF DOOR ARMOY ROUND TOWER ROUND TOWERS: CONTRASTING MASONRY AT ANTRIM (LEFT) AND ARMOY (RIGHT). MAGHERA EXCAVATION. DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DOOR AND WINDOW DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF CORNICE ARMAGH – CATHEDRAL GRAVEYARD SAUL – MORTUARY HOUSE

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BANAGHER – MORTUARY HOUSE BOVEVAGH – MORTUARY HOUSE TAMLAGHTARD – GRAVE SHRINE CLONES (CO. MONAGHAN) – TOMB SHRINE. KILNASAGGART – REVETMENT AND SLAB FEATURE LOOKING EAST. GRAVE (F20) WITH LINTELS REMOVED, LOOKING WEST. KILNASAGGART – PART OF STONE KERBING LOOKING NORTH-WEST. KILNASAGGART – EXCAVATED GRAVES (F5 AND F31) LOOKING WEST. MAGHERA EXCAVATIONS – P2 (LOOKING WEST). CARRICKMORE – RELICKNAMAN (RELIG NA MBAN). AGHNAGLACK CROSS SHAFT GALLOON – EAST CROSS (NORTH SIDE –LEFT); WEST CROSS (EAST SIDE –RIGHT). INISHMACSAINT CROSS ARBOE HIGH CROSS ERRIGAL KEEROGUE CROSS (PROFILE) CLONFEACLE CROSS (FROM EAST) ERRIGAL KEEROGUE CROSS EGLISH – BROKEN CROSS. MULLABOY CROSS GLENARB –‘WELL CROSS’ TYNAN TERRACE CROSS. DONAGHMORE (CO. DOWN) CROSS (FROM NORTH-EAST) DOWNPATRICK CROSS (EAST FACE). CLOGHER CROSSES (EAST SIDES) GLENARB (CALEDON) CROSS. TYNAN – BASE OF VILLAGE CROSS BOHO CROSS BASE DONAGHMORE (CO. TYRONE) CROSS BASE. DONAGHMORE (CO. DOWN) HIGH CROSS (FROM NORTHWEST). DROMORE (CO. DOWN) BASE OF CROSS. BOHO CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE). DONAGHMORE (CO. TYRONE) CROSS – LOWER SHAFT FROM NORTH-WEST. CONNOR CROSS SHAFT

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DOWNPATRICK CROSS – EAST OF CATHEDRAL (SOUTH AND WEST SIDES) LISNASKEA – CROSS SHAFT (WEST SIDE). DROMORE (CO. DOWN) – LOWER SHAFT. LISNASKEA – CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE). TYNAN VILLAGE CROSS (FIGURE ON WEST SIDE) GLENARB – WELL CROSS (NOW AT TYNAN ABBEY –WEST SIDE) ARMAGH – BROKEN CROSS (EAST SIDE). EGLISH - NORTH CROSS (SOUTH SIDE & NORTH SIDE) TYNAN - VILLAGE CROSS (VIEW FROM NORTH SHOWING PROJECTING BOSSES) KILCOO – CROSS (FROM SOUTH-WEST) CLOGHER – CROSSES (WEST SIDE) TYNAN – CROSS-BASE BUILT INTO CHURCHYARD WALL RAHOLP – CROSS-BASE KILKEEL – CROSS AND BASE KILLADEAS – SOCKET STONE KILLOAN CROSS BASE CLONLEA – CROSS-BASE INISHMACSAINT – SOCKET STONE ARMOY – ROUGH CROSS AT ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH DONACAVEY CROSS-BASE HOLYWELL – ROUGH CROSS CROSSES OF UNCERTAIN DATE (LEFT-TO-RIGHT) BODONEY NO.1; TERMONAMONGAN (BOTH CO. TYRONE); ENAGH (CO. LONDONDERRY). TEMPLENAFFRIN – 1729 GRAVE STONE BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED CROSS BODONEY – GRAVESTONE (1747) KILLEVY – LATE CROSS TURROLISKIN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE CARRICKCROPPAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE TULLYVALLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (NO. 6) KILCOO – CROSS-CARVED STONE

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URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE DUNTEIGE – CROSS-CARVED STONE KIRKINRIOLA – CROSS-CARVED STONE EDENMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (5) DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) BRACKNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILLEVY – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONE DUNCRUN – CROSS-CARVED STONE KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE MOVILLA – CROSS-CARVED STONE DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES KILLADEAS – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMCONWELL – CROSSCARVED OGHAM STONE DRUMNACUR – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILNASAGGART – CROSSCARVED PILLAR STONE DRUMNACUR – CROSS-CARVED STONE MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE TEMPLASTRAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) DERRY – CROSS-CARVED STONE CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DEVENISH – LATE CROSS-CARVED STONE

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DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONE NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (7) NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DROMORE: CROSS CARVED-STONE CLOGHINNY CROSS-CARVED BOULDER EDENMORECROSS-CARVED STONE TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE CARRICKCROPPAN CROSS-CARVED BOULDER DESERTCREAT – CROSS-CARVED STONE RAHOLP – RECONSTRUCTED WEST GABLE: DOOR AND CROSS-SLAB AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE CREVILLY VALLEYCROSS-CARVED STONE NENDRUM – SIDE OF SUNDIAL NENDRUM –

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CLOGHER – SUNDIAL BANGOR – SUNDIAL MAGHERNAHELY CROSS-CARVED STONE ARDCLINIS – CROSS-CARVED STONE BOA ISLAND – CARVED FIGURE LUSTYMORE ISLAND– CARVED FIGURE KILLADEAS – FIGURE-CARVED STONE WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (GENERAL VIEW) INISHKEEN – CARVED STONE. LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING DRUMNAKILL – BULLAUN IN BASALT PILLAR KILNSAGGART – BULLAUN BANAGHER- BULLAUN STONE DERRY (CO. LONDONDERRY) BULLAUN STONE ERRIGAL BULLAUN STONE AGHALEE – BULLAUN STONE (1).

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KILROOT - BULLAUN STONE RACAVAN - BULLAUN STONE ST. JOHN’S POINT – BULLAUN STONE ARBOE – BULLAUN STONE INISPOLLAN – BULLAUN STONE TAMLAGHT – BULLAUN STONES DEVENISH – BULLAUN STONE PUBBLE - BULLAUN STONE CLOGHER – BULLAUN STONE DONAGHMORE – BULLAUN STONE TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE GLENOO – BULLAUN STONE INISHKEEN – CROSS-BASE WITH BULLAUNS AGHALURCHER – STONE WITH HOLES CONNOR – BULLAUN STONES: NO. 2 DUNGIVEN- THORN TREE WITH RAGS AT BULLAUN CHAPELTOWN – BULLAUN STONE DONAGHANIE – BULLAUN STONE RECENT ‘BULLAUN’ AT BALLINDERRY CLONFEACLE – MODERN BULLAUN STONE SOLAR - FONT CLONFEACLE – FONT STOUP FROM SEAGOE BALLYNASAGGART FONT (FROM ERRIGAL KEEROGUE?) AGIVEY - HOLE STONE AGHALURCHER – ST. RONAN’S WELL TAMLAGHTARD – HOLY WELL ARBOE – ‘PIN WELL’ DEVENISH – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH FROM SOUTH EAST CLOGHER – ‘ENIGMATIC STONE’ IN CATHEDRAL MAGHERA – GENERAL VIEW FROM WEST AGHALEE – BULLAUN STONE (1) ANTRIM: ROUND TOWER GENERAL VIEW AND DETAILED VIEW OF DOOR. ARDCLINIS – CROSS-CARVED STONE ARMOY - ROUND TOWER CO. ANTRIM ROUND TOWERS CONTRASTING MASONRY ARMOY - ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: ROUGH CROSS

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BULLAUN STONES BALLINDERRY 1 (TOP); BALLINDERRY 2 (BOTTOM). BONAMARGIE – ROUGH CROSSES. NO. 1. BONAMARGIE – ROUGH CROSSES. NO. 2 BRACKNEY - CROSS SLAB BROUGHANLEA – ROUGH CROSS: NORTH FACE CONNOR - CROSS-SHAFT CONNOR – BULLAUN STONES: NO. 1 CONNOR – BULLAUN STONES: NO. 2 CREVILLY VALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DROMORE – CROSS CARVED-STONE DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMNACUR – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMNAKILL - ROUGH CROSS DRUMNAKILL – BULLAUN IN BASALT PILLAR GLENAVY - BULLAUN STONE INISPOLLAN – BULLAUN STONE KILROOT - BULLAUN STONE KIRKINRIOLA - CROSS SLAB LAYD – HOLED CROSS - EAST FACE RACAVAN - BULLAUN STONE SOLAR – FONT TEMPLASTRAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE TULLAGHORE – EAST CROSS- NORTH FACE TURRALOSKIN – CROSS-CARVED STONE ARMAGH CATHEDRAL GRAVEYARD ARMAGH - BROKEN CROSS CARRICKCROPPAN – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER CLOGHINNY – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER DRUMCONWELL – OGAM STONE EGLISH NORTH CROSS - SOUTH FACE EGLISH – NORTH CROSS – NORTH FACE EGLISH - SOUTH CROSS KILLEVY - WEST CHURCH – WEST DOOR (EXTERNAL) KILLEVY - WEST CHURCH – WEST DOOR (INTERNAL) KILLEVY - WEST CHURCH – EAST WINDOW (EXTERNAL)

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251 252 252

PLATE 58B PLATE 54B

252 PLATE 50A 253 PLATE 50B 253 253

PLATE 50C

253 PLATE 51A 254 256

PLATE 59A xxii

ALTAGHONEY - ROUGH CROSS RECENT ‘BULLAUN’ AT BALLINDERRY BALLYWILLIN – WINDOW IN NORTH WALL (EXTERIOR) (LEFT); AUMBRY IN EAST WALL ( INTERIOR) BANAGHER CHURCH WEST DOOR (EXTERIOR) BANAGHER CHURCH WEST DOOR (INTERIOR) BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (EXTERIOR) BANAGHER – ‘DATE STONE’ ON CHURCH DOOR BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (INTERIOR) BANAGHER CHURCH – NORTH RESPOND OF CHANCEL ARCH BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (EXTERIOR) BANAGHER CHURCH – NICHE IN EAST WALL OF CHANCEL BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (INTERIOR) BANAGHER MORTUARY HOUSE (MAX. HEIGHT 7’ 3”) FROM SOUTH-EAST BANAGHER MORTUARY HOUSE (MAX. HEIGHT 7’ 3”) FROM NORTH-WEST BANAGHER CROSS NO.1 BANAGHER CROSS NO.2 BANAGHER- BULLAUN STONE BOVEVAGH – MORTUARYHOUSE (FROM NORTH-WEST) BOVEVAGH – MORTUARYHOUSE (FROM EAST) CAMUS CROSS – WEST FACE CAMUS CROSS – SOUTH SIDE CAMUS - BULLAUN STONE CHURCH ISLAND – BULLAUN STONE DERRY - BULLAUN STONE DUNCRUN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DUNGIVEN CHURCH – EXTERIOR WINDOW IN SOUTH SIDE OF NAVE DUNGIVEN CHURCH – ARCADE IN EAST WALL OF NAVE DUNGIVEN CHURCH – EXTERIOR NORTH-EAST ANGLE OF NAVE DUNGIVEN- THORN TREE WITH RAGS AT BULLAUN ERRIGAL - BULLAUN STONE

256 257 258

259 259 259

259 260

260 260

261 261

261

261

262 262 262 263 263 264 264 264 265 267 269 270

270

271

271 272

PLATE 132C PLATE 59B PLATE 138

ENAGH – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE KILLELAGH - BULLAUN STONE MAGHERA -

272

PLATE 69C

274 275

PLATE 68C PLATE 70A

GENERAL VIEW FROM WEST

PLATE 52A PLATE 52B PLATE 53A PLATE 53B

PLATE 53C

PLATE 54A PLATE 134C PLATE 55A PLATE 59C PLATE 56A PLATE 56B PLATE 57 PLATE 71B PLATE 82A PLATE 131A PLATE 60A PLATE 60B

PLATE 61A

PLATE 61B

PLATE 69B PLATE 62A PLATE 62B PLATE 63A PLATE 63B PLATE 64A PLATE 64B PLATE 68A PLATE 65A PLATE 70B PLATE 75B PLATE 69A

MAGHERA CHURCH – EXTERIOR NORTH WALL MAGHERA CHURCH – DETAIL NORTHWEST ANGLE MAGHERA CHURCH – WEST DOOR (INTERIOR) MAGHERA CHURCH – DETAIL OF ARCHITRAVE ON SOUTH SIDE (EXTERIOR) MAGHERA CHURCH – DETAIL OF ARCHITRAVE ON SOUTH SIDE (EXTERIOR) MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE MAGHERA – FONT MULLABOY CROSS TAMLAGHT -BULLAUN STONE TAMLAGHTARD – GRAVESHRINE TAMLAGHTARD – HOLY WELL TULLYBRISLAND CROSS BANGOR – SUNDIAL CLONDUFF – BULLAUN CLONLEA – CROSS-BASE DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH FROM NORTH-WEST DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH FROM WEST (MODERN WALL IN FOREGROUND) DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH – SOUTH WALL (DETAIL OF MASONRY) DERRY – NORTH CHURCH – NORTH-EAST ANGLE (DETAIL OF MASONRY) DERRY NORTH CHURCHCROSS-CARVED STONE DONAGHMORE CROSS (FROM NORTH-EAST) DONAGHMORE CROSS (FROM NORTH-WEST) DOWNPATRICK CROSS – EAST FACE DOWNPATRICK CROSS – SOUTH AND WEST FACES DROMORE CROSS – LOWER SHAFT (FROM SOUTHEAST) DROMORE CROSS – BASE DRUMADONNELL CROSS DRUMBO ROUND TOWER

EDENMORECROSS-CARVED STONE KILKEEL- WEST SIDE OF CROSS AND BASE KILLYLEAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE

(1)

276 PLATE 65B 276 PLATE 67A 276 PLATE 66A 276 PLATE 66B 276

PLATE 67B PLATE 71A

277 PLATE 72A 278 278 280 280 280 282 286 288 288 289

PLATE 72C PLATE 72B PLATE 73A PLATE 73B PLATE 74A PLATE 74B

289 PLATE 75A 289

PLATE 76A PLATE 77A

290 PLATE 77B 291

PLATE 78A

292

PLATE 78B

292

PLATE 80A

294

PLATE 80B

294

PLATE 81A

296

PLATE 81B

296 297 298

PLATE 83A PLATE 83B

300

PLATE 111A

302

PLATE 84A

303

PLATE 84B PLATE 85A xxiii

KILLYGARTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE MAGHERA ROUND TOWER (FROM EAST) F2 LOOKING SOUTH TO FOOT OF ROUND TOWER MAGHERA – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) MAGHERA – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) E4 WEST END – GRANITE REVETMENT MOVILLA – CROSS-CARVED STONE NENDRUM – ROUND TOWER (FROM EAST) NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (7) NENDRUM – SIDE OF SUNDIAL NENDRUM – SUNDIAL FROM SOUTHWEST RAHOLP CHURCH (FROM SOUTH-WEST) RAHOLP – RECONSTRUCTED WEST GABLE: DOOR AND CROSS-SLAB RAHOLP – CROSS-BASE (FROM SOUTH) SAUL – MORTUARY HOUSE (FROM SOUTHWEST) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (5) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) ST. JOHN’S POINT – CHURCH (FROM SOUTH-WEST) ST. JOHN’S POINT – DETAIL EXTERIOR WEST DOOR ST. JOHN’S POINT – NORTH WALL OF CHURCH ST. JOHN’S POINT – BULLAUN STONE AGHALURCHER – ST. RONAN’S WELL AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE AGHALURCHER – STONE WITH HOLES AGHANAGLACK – CROSS-SHAFT AGHANAGLACK – CROSS BASE AGHAVEA- INSCRIBED STONE

303 304 305 306 306 307 307 308 310 312 313 314 315 315 319 319

319 321 322 322 323 323 324 324 325 325 327 327 327 328 328 329

PLATE 110C PLATE 86A PLATE 88B PLATE 87A PLATE 87B PLATE 88A PLATE 89A PLATE 89B PLATE 90B PLATE 90A PLATE 91B

PLATE 3

PLATE 92A

PLATE 92B

PLATE 91A PLATE 93A

PLATE 93B

PLATE 94A PLATE 95A PLATE 95B PLATE 96A PLATE 96B PLATE 96C PLATE 94B PLATE 133B PLATE 99B PLATE 103B PLATE 97A PLATE 99A PLATE 97B PLATE 98A

BALLYHILL- BULLAUN STONE BOA ISLAND – CARVED FIGURE BOHO – CROSS BASE (DETAIL) BOHO CROSS (WEST SIDE) BOHO CROSS (FRAGMENT OF ARM) BOHO – CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE) CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DERRYVULLAN – ROOF FINIAL DERRYVULLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DEVENISH – GABLE STONES OF ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (RECONSTRUCTED) DEVENISH – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH FROM SOUTH EAST DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (DETAIL OF NORTH WALL) DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (DETAIL OF NORTHWEST ANGLE) DEVENISH – VIEW EAST FROM ROUND TOWER DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (EXTERIOR VIEW) DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (INTERIOR VIEW) DEVENISH – SOUTHWEST ANGLE OF TEAMPULL MOR DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DOOR AND WINDOW DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF CORNICE DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) DEVENISH – BULLAUN STONE DEVENISH – LATE CROSS-CARVED STONE DONAGH –WINDOW HEAD DRUMBRUGHAS – ROUGH CROSS GALLOON – EAST CROSS (NORTH SIDE) GALLOON – WINDOW HEAD GALLOON – WEST CROSS (EAST SIDE) GALLOON – BROKEN CROSS HEAD (WEST SIDE)

329 330 330 331 331

PLATE 98B PLATE 100A PLATE 100B PLATE 101A

331

PLATE 101B PLATE 102A

332

PLATE 102B

332

PLATE 103A

333 334

PLATE 104A PLATE 104B

335 PLATE 105B PLATE 106A 336 PLATE 105A 336

336

PLATE 110A PLATE 111B PLATE 107A PLATE 107B

337 PLATE 86B 337 PLATE 110B PLATE 85B 337 PLATE 112B 338

PLATE 108A

338

PLATE 108B

338

PLATE 106B

339

PLATE 109A

339

PLATE 109B

340

PLATE 113 PLATE 114B PLATE 114A PLATE 1B PLATE 115A

340 340 342 342 344

PLATE 127B PLATE 116A PLATE 116B PLATE 132A

344 345

PLATE 136A

345

PLATE 136B

xxiv

GALLOON – BROKEN CROSS HEAD (EAST SIDE) HOLYWELL – ROUGH CROSS HOLYWELL – BULLAUN STONE INISHKEEN – CROSS-BASE WITH BULLAUNS INISHKEEN – CARVED STONE INISHMACSAINT – WEST WALL OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR) INISHMACSAINT – SOCKET STONE INISHMACSAINT – ROUGH CROSS KILCOO – CROSS (FROM SOUTH-WEST) KILCOO – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) KILLADEAS – SOCKET STONE KILLADEAS – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILLADEAS – FIGURE-CARVED STONE KILLYDRUM - BULLAUN STONE KILTIERNEY – ROOF FINIAL LISNASKEA – CROSS SHAFT (WEST SIDE) LISNASKEA – CROSS SHAFT (EAST SIDE) LUSTYMORE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURE PUBBLE - BULLAUN STONE TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE TEMPLENAFFRIN – 1729 GRAVE STONE WHITE ISLAND – SOUTH DOOR OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR) WHITE ISLAND – WINDOW HEAD WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONE WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (GENERAL VIEW) WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (DETAIL) ARBOE CROSS –EAST SIDE ARBOE – BULLAUN STONE ARBOE – ‘PIN WELL’ BODONEY – TOPOGRAPHY BODONEY – ROUGH CROSSCARVED STONE BODONEY – SLAB WITH HOLES BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS (3) BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS (2) BODONEY – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF NORTH-WEST ANGLE CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF SOUTH-WEST ANGLE ROLL

345 346 346 347 348 349 349 349 351 351 352 352 353 354 354 356 356 356 358 359 360 361 361 362 362 363 365 365 366 367 368 368 369 369 369 370 370

PLATE 117A

PLATE 117B PLATE 118A PLATE 120B PLATE 118B PLATE 121A PLATE 119A PLATE 120A PLATE 121B PLATE 122A PLATE 122B PLATE 122C PLATE 134A PLATE 135B PLATE 131B PLATE 130A PLATE 123B PLATE 123A

CARRICKMORE – RELICKNAMAN (GENERAL VIEW) CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE CLOGHER – CROSSES (EAST SIDE) CLOGHER – ENIGMATIC STONE IN CATHEDRAL CLOGHER – CROSSES (WEST SIDE) CLOGHER – FRAGMENT OF CROSS-SHAFT CLOGHER – SUNDIAL CLOGHER – SUNDIAL IN CATHEDRAL CLOGHER – BULLAUN STONE CLONFEACLE – CROSS (FROM EAST) CLONFEACLE – CROSS (FROM NORTH-WEST) CLONFEACLE – CROSS (FROM SOUTH) CLONFEACLE – FONT CLONFEACLE – MODERN BULLAUN STONE DONACAVEY – CROSS-BASE DONAGHANIE – BULLAUN STONE DONAGHMORE – BASE (WEST SIDE) DONAGHMORE CROSS – LOWER SHAFT (FROM NORTHWEST)

371

PLATE 124A PLATE 124B

371 PLATE 1A 372 372

PLATE 125A PLATE 137A

373

PLATE 127A

373

PLATE 125B

374 374

PLATE 126A PLATE 126B

375 376

PLATE 130C PLATE 128A PLATE 128B

376 PLATE 132B 376 PLATE 130B 377 377

PLATE 129A

379 380

PLATE 129B PLATE 82B

380 381

xxv

DONAGHMORE CROSS – UPPER PART OF WEST SIDE DONAGHMORE – BULLAUN STONE ERRIGAL KEEROGUE – TOPOGRAPHY OF SITE ERRIGAL KEEROGUE – CROSS BALLYNASAGGART FONT (FROM ERRIGAL KEEROGUE?) FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE GLENARB CROSS (AT CALEDON) GLENARB – ‘WELL CROSS’ GLENARB – ‘ISLAND CROSS’ AT TYNAN GLENOO – BULLAUN STONE KILLOAN – CROSS-BASE LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING TERMONAMONGAN – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (WEST SIDE) URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (EAST SIDE) CHAPELTOWN – BULLAUN STONE

382 382 384 385 385 386 386 387 387 388 389 389 391 392 393 393 399

List of Plates (by Plate Number) PLATE 1A PLATE 1B PLATE 3

PLATE 4

ERRIGAL KEEROGUE CROSS (PROFILE) TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: BODONEY. DEVENISH – AIR PHOTOGRAPH FROM SOUTH-EAST ANTRIM: ROUND TOWER GENERAL VIEW (TOP) AND

36; 99; 384 36; 367

PLATE 16B

44; 162; 336 196

PLATE 17B

PLATE 17A

PLATE 18A PLATE 18B

DETAILED VIEW OF DOOR

PLATE 4B PLATE 5A PLATE 5B PLATE 6

PLATE 7A PLATE 7B PLATE 8A PLATE 8B PLATE 9A PLATE 9B PLATE 10A

PLATE 10B PLATE 11A PLATE 11B PLATE 12A PLATE 12B PLATE 13A PLATE 13B PLATE 14A PLATE 14B PLATE 15A PLATE 15B

(BOTTOM). ANTRIM – ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF DOOR ARMOY ROUND TOWER ARMOY – ROUGH CROSS AT ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH ROUND TOWERS: CONTRASTING MASONRY AT ANTRIM (LEFT) AND ARMOY (RIGHT). BONAMARGIE – ROUGH CROSSES. NO. 1. BONAMARGIE – ROUGH CROSSES. NO. 2 CONNOR CROSS SHAFT BRACKNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE CONNOR – BULLAUN STONES: NO. 1 CONNOR – BULLAUN STONES: NO. 2 DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE TURROLISKIN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE TEMPLASTRAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMNAKILL - ROUGH CROSS DRUMNAKILL - BULLAUN IN BASALT PILLAR DUNTEIGE – CROSS-CARVED STONE DRUMNACUR – CROSS-CARVED STONE KIRKINRIOLA – CROSS-CARVED STONE CREVILLY VALLEYCROSS-CARVED STONE LAYD – HOLED CROSS - EAST FACE BROUGHANLEA – ROUGH CROSS: NORTH FACE

PLATE 18C 74 PLATE 19A 74; 198 112; 199 74; 198

PLATE 19B PLATE 20A PLATE 20B

200

PLATE 21A

TULLAGHORE – EAST CROSS- NORTH FACE AGHALEE – BULLAUN STONE (1) BULLAUN STONES: BALLINDERRY 1 (TOP); BALLINDERRY 2 (BOTTOM). GLENAVY - BULLAUN STONE INISPOLLAN – BULLAUN STONE KILROOT – BULLAUN STONE RACAVAN – BULLAUN STONE SOLAR - FONT ARMAGH – CATHEDRAL GRAVEYARD ARMAGH – BROKEN CROSS (EAST SIDE). CARRICKCROPPAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE

200 PLATE 21B 104; 202 119; 201 203 151; 203 118; 131; 205 117; 221 117; 205 124; 219 208 145; 208 118 122; 207 118; 213 134; 203 213

PLATE 22

PLATE 22A PLATE 22B PLATE 23A PLATE 23B PLATE 24A PLATE 24B PLATE 25A PLATE 25B PLATE 26A PLATE 26B PLATE 27

PLATE 28A PLATE 28B

201 PLATE 29

xxvi

CLOGHINNY – CROSS-CARVED BOULDER EGLISH – NORTH CROSS (SOUTH SIDE – LEFT; NORTH SIDE –RIGHT) EGLISH NORTH CROSS - SOUTH FACE EGLISH – NORTH CROSS – NORTH FACE EGLISH – BROKEN CROSS. DRUMCONWELL – CROSS-CARVED OGAM STONE KILLEVY – WEST CHURCHWEST DOOR (EXTERIOR). KILLEVY – WEST CHURCHWEST DOOR (INTERIOR). KILLEVY – EAST CHURCH- NORTH WALL KILLEVY – EAST CHURCH – NORTH DOOR KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH – EAST WINDOW (EXTERIOR) KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH – EAST WINDOW (INTERIOR) KILLEVY CROSS CARVED STONE – FACE AND TOP (INSET) KILNASAGGART – CROSSCARVED PILLAR STONE KILNSAGGART – BULLAUN KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONES

220 146; 195 199

210 147; 211 146; 212 146; 215 153; 218 84; 227 107; 228 117; 132; 232 131; 234 107

236 236 100; 236 121; 235 56; 238 57; 238 239 60; 239 57; 239 57; 239 119; 240 122; 244 145; 245 245

PLATE 29B PLATE 30A

PLATE 30B

PLATE 31A

PLATE 31B

PLATE 32A PLATE 32B PLATE 33

PLATE 33A

PLATE 33B

PLATE 34A PLATE 34B PLATE 35A

PLATE 35B PLATE 36A PLATE 36B PLATE 36C PLATE 37A PLATE 37B PLATE 37C PLATE 38 PLATE 39

PLATE 39B PLATE 40

PLATE 40A

KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILNASAGGART- STONE SPREAD IN SOUTH PART OF EXCAVATED AREA KILNASAGGART – PART OF STONE KERBING LOOKING NORTH-WEST. KILNASAGGART – REVETMENT AND SLAB FEATURE LOOKING EAST. KILNASAGGART – EXCAVATED GRAVES (F5 AND F31) LOOKING WEST KILNSAGGART – GRAVE (F20) LOOKING SOUTH GRAVE (F20) WITH LINTELS REMOVED, LOOKING WEST. TULLYVALLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) (NORTH FACE (LEFT); EAST FACE (RIGHT)) TULLYVALLEN – CROSS CARVED STONE (2) – NORTH FACE TULLYVALLEN – CROSS CARVED STONE (2) – EAST FACE TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) MAGHERNAHELY – CROSS-CARVED STONE TYNAN VILLAGE CROSS (VIEW FROM NORTH SHOWING PROJECTING BOSSES) TYNAN VILLAGE CROSS- EAST SIDE TYNAN TERRACE CROSS TYNAN - FRAGMENT WITH WEATHERED INTERLACE. TYNAN VILLAGE CROSS (FIGURE ON WEST SIDE) TYNAN – CROSS RING FRAGMENT TYNAN – BASE OF VILLAGE CROSS. TYNAN – CROSS-BASE BUILT INTO CHURCHYARD WALL TYNAN – CARVED STONES BALLYWILLIN – WINDOW IN NORTH WALL (EXTERIOR) (LEFT); AUMBRY IN EAST WALL (INTERIOR) BALLYWILLIN – AUMBRY IN EAST WALL (INTERIOR). BANAGHER – WEST DOOR (EXTERIOR – LEFT; INTERIOR –RIGHT) BANAGHER CHURCH WEST DOOR (EXTERIOR)

119

PLATE 40B

242

PLATE 41

91; 243 PLATE 41A 90; 243 PLATE 41B 91; 243 PLATE 42 243 90; 244

PLATE 42A

117

PLATE 42B PLATE 43A

250 PLATE 43B 250 PLATE 44 124; 250 138; 247 107; 253

PLATE 45A

PLATE 45B

253 101; 254 70; 252

PLATE 46A PLATE 46B PLATE 47A PLATE 47B

106; 253 252

PLATE 48A PLATE 48B

102; 253 109; 252 70; 251 258

PLATE 49A PLATE 49B PLATE 50A

PLATE 50B

67

PLATE 50C

60

PLATE 51A PLATE 51B

259 PLATE 52A xxvii

BANAGHER CHURCH WEST DOOR (INTERIOR) BANAGHER – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (EXTERIOR – LEFT; INTERIOR – RIGHT). BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (EXTERIOR) BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (INTERIOR) BANAGHER – NORTH RESPOND OF CHANCEL ARCH (LEFT); AND NICHE IN EAST WALL OF CHANCEL (RIGHT). BANAGHER CHURCH – NORTH RESPOND OF CHANCEL ARCH BANAGHER CHURCH – NICHE IN EAST WALL OF CHANCEL BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (EXTERIOR) BANAGHER – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (INTERIOR) BANAGHER – SOUTH-EAST (LEFT) AND NORTH-EAST (RIGHT) ANGLE PILASTERS OF CHANCEL. BANAGHER MORTUARY HOUSE (MAX. HEIGHT 7’ 3”) FROM SOUTH-EAST BANAGHER MORTUARY HOUSE (MAX. HEIGHT 7’ 3”) FROM NORTH-WEST BANAGHER CROSS NO.1 BANAGHER CROSS NO.2 BANAGHER - ‘DATE STONE’ ON CHURCH DOOR BANAGHERBULLAUN STONE BOVEVAGH – MORTUARYHOUSE (FROM NORTH-WEST) BOVEVAGH – MORTUARYHOUSE (FROM EAST) CAMUS CROSS – WEST FACE CAMUS CROSS – SOUTH SIDE DUNGIVEN – EXTERIOR WINDOW IN SOUTH SIDE OF NAVE. DUNGIVEN CHURCH – ARCADE IN EAST WALL OF NAVE DUNGIVEN – EXTERIOR NORTH-EAST ANGLE OF NAVE DUNGIVEN- THORN TREE WITH RAGS AT BULLAUN AGIVEY – HOLE STONE MAGHERA CHURCH – EXTERIOR NORTH WALL

259 60

259

260

66

260 261 260

66; 261

67

261

87; 261

262 262 19; 259 145; 262 87; 263 263 264 264 61; 270

270

62; 271 151; 271 154; 256 276

PLATE 52B PLATE 53A PLATE 53B

PLATE 53C

PLATE 54A PLATE 54B PLATE 55A PLATE 55B PLATE 56A PLATE 56B PLATE 57 PLATE 58A PLATE 58B PLATE 58C PLATE 59A PLATE 59B PLATE 59C PLATE 60A PLATE 60B

PLATE 61

PLATE 61A

PLATE 61B

PLATE 62A PLATE 62B

PLATE 63A PLATE 63B

PLATE 64A

MAGHERA – DETAIL NORTH-WEST ANGLE. MAGHERA – WEST DOOR (INTERIOR VIEW) MAGHERA – WEST DOOR – DETAIL OF ARCHITRAVE ON SOUTH SIDE (EXTERIOR). MAGHERA CHURCH – DETAIL OF ARCHITRAVE ON SOUTH SIDE (EXTERIOR) MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE DUNCRUN – CROSS-CARVED STONE MULLABOY – CROSS ALTAGHONEY – ROUGH CROSS TAMLAGHTARD – GRAVE SHRINE TAMLAGHTARD – HOLY WELL TULLYBRISLAND - CROSS CHURCH ISLAND – BULLAUN STONE DERRY (CO. LONDONDERRY) BULLAUN STONE CAMUS - BULLAUN STONE ERRIGAL – BULLAUN STONE KILLELAGH – BULLAUN STONE TAMLAGHT – BULLAUN STONES DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH FROM NORTH-WEST DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH FROM WEST (MODERN WALL IN FOREGROUND) DERRY – DETAILS OF MASONRY (SOUTH CHURCH –LEFT; NORTH CHURCH – RIGHT). DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH – SOUTH WALL (DETAIL OF MASONRY) DERRY – NORTH CHURCH – NORTH-EAST ANGLE (DETAIL OF MASONRY) DONAGHMORE (CO. DOWN) CROSS (FROM NORTH-EAST) DONAGHMORE (CO. DOWN) HIGH CROSS (FROM NORTHWEST). DOWNPATRICK CROSS (EAST FACE). DOWNPATRICK CROSS – EAST OF CATHEDRAL (SOUTH AND WEST SIDES) DROMORE CROSS – LOWER SHAFT (FROM SOUTHEAST)

62; 276

PLATE 64B

62; 276

PLATE 65A

63; 276

PLATE 65B PLATE 66A

276 PLATE 66B 120; 277 119; 269 100; 278 256

PLATE 67A PLATE 67B PLATE 68A PLATE 68B PLATE 68C

87; 280 PLATE 69A 158; 280 282 265

PLATE 69B PLATE 69B

145; 267 264 145; 272 274

PLATE 69C

147; 280 289

PLATE 71A

57; 289

PLATE 72A

PLATE 70A PLATE 70B

PLATE 71B

DROMORE (CO. DOWN) BASE OF CROSS. DRUMBO – ROUND TOWER (FROM WEST) MAGHERA – ROUND TOWER (FROM EAST) MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) MAGHERA – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) F2 LOOKING SOUTH TO FOOT OF ROUND TOWER MAGHERA EXCAVATIONS – P2 (LOOKING WEST). DRUMADONNELL - CROSS MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE KILLYLEAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) DERRY – CROSS-CARVED STONE DERRY NORTH CHURCHCROSS-CARVED STONE KILLYGARTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE EDENMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE

MOVILLA – CROSS-CARVED STONE BANGOR – SUNDIAL

PLATE 73A

NENDRUM – ROUND TOWER (FROM EAST) NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (7) NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) NENDRUM –

PLATE 73B

NENDRUM –

PLATE 74A

RAHOLP CHURCH – (FROM SOUTH-WEST) RAHOLP – RECONSTRUCTED WEST GABLE: DOOR AND CROSS-SLAB RAHOLP – CROSS-BASE (FROM SOUTH) KILKEEL- WEST SIDE OF CROSS

PLATE 72B 58 PLATE 72C

289

SIDE OF SUNDIAL SUNDIAL FROM SOUTHWEST

290

PLATE 74B 101; 292 103; 292

PLATE 75A PLATE 75B

101; 294 104; 294 105; 296

AND BASE

PLATE 76A PLATE 76B PLATE 77A

xxviii

SAUL – MORTUARY HOUSE (FROM SOUTHWEST) CLONES (CO. MONAGHAN) – TOMB SHRINE. SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1)

103; 296 73; 298 73; 306 123; 307 307 72; 306 91; 308 297 123 119; 304 303 124 291 303 123; 305 118; 131; 300 119; 310 137; 286 73; 312 128; 314 128; 313 136; 315 136; 315 319 57; 133; 319 110; 319 110; 302 86; 321 87 118; 322

PLATE 77B PLATE 78A PLATE 78B PLATE 80A PLATE 80B PLATE 81A PLATE 81B PLATE 82A PLATE 82B PLATE 83A PLATE 83B PLATE 84A PLATE 84B PLATE 85A PLATE 85B PLATE 86A PLATE 86B PLATE 87A PLATE 87B PLATE 88A PLATE 88B PLATE 89 PLATE 89A PLATE 89B PLATE 90A PLATE 90B PLATE 91A PLATE 91B

PLATE 92

PLATE 92A

SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (5) SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (NO. 6) ST. JOHN’S POINT CHURCHVIEW FROM SOUTH-WEST ST. JOHN’S POINT – DETAIL EXTERIOR WEST DOOR ST. JOHN’S POINT – NORTH WALL OF CHURCH. ST. JOHN’S POINT – BULLAUN STONE CLONDUFF – BULLAUN CHAPELTOWN – BULLAUN STONE AGHALURCHER – ST. RONAN’S WELL AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE AGHANAGLACK – CROSS-SHAFT AGHANAGLACK – CROSS BASE AGHAVEA - INSCRIBED STONE TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE BOA ISLAND – CARVED FIGURE LUSTYMORE ISLAND– CARVED FIGURE BOHO CROSS (WEST SIDE) BOHO CROSS (FRAGMENT OF ARM) BOHO – CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE) BOHO – CROSS BASE (DETAIL) CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DERRYVULLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE DERRYVULLAN – ROOF FINIAL. DEVENISH – VIEW EAST FROM ROUND TOWER. DEVENISH – GABLE STONES OF ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (RECONSTRUCTED) ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE – DETAILS OF NORTH WALL (LEFT) AND NORTH-WEST ANGLE (RIGHT). DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (DETAIL OF NORTH WALL)

128; 322 118; 323 117; 323 57; 324

PLATE 92B

57; 324

PLATE 93B

PLATE 93 PLATE 93A

58; 325 PLATE 94A 146; 325 288 152; 399 157; 327 133; 327 98; 328

PLATE 94B PLATE 95A PLATE 95B PLATE 96A PLATE 96B

328

PLATE 96C

329 131; 359 140; 330 141; 356 331 331

PLATE 97

PLATE 97A PLATE 97B PLATE 98A PLATE 98B

103; 331 102; 330 120

PLATE 99A PLATE 99B PLATE 100A PLATE 100B

332 PLATE 101A 332 PLATE 101B 334 PLATE 102A 68; 333 PLATE 102B 65; 337 PLATE 103A 64; 335 PLATE 103B 64

PLATE 104A PLATE 104B

336

PLATE 105A PLATE 105B xxix

DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (DETAIL OF NORTHWEST ANGLE) DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (EXTERIOR VIEW) DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (INTERIOR VIEW) DEVENISH – SOUTH-WEST ANGLE OF TEAMPULL MOR. DEVENISH – BULLAUN STONE DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DOOR AND WINDOW DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF CORNICE DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) GALLOON – EAST CROSS (NORTH SIDE –LEFT); WEST CROSS (EAST SIDE –RIGHT). GALLOON – EAST CROSS (NORTH SIDE) GALLOON – WEST CROSS (EAST SIDE) GALLOON – BROKEN CROSS HEAD (WEST SIDE) GALLOON – BROKEN CROSS HEAD (EAST SIDE) GALLOON – WINDOW HEAD. DONAGH - WINDOW HEAD HOLYWELL – ROUGH CROSS HOLYWELL – BULLAUN STONE INISHKEEN – CROSS-BASE WITH BULLAUNS INISHKEEN – CARVED STONE INISHMACSAINT – WEST WALL OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR) INISHMACSAINT – SOCKET STONE INISHMACSAINT – ROUGH CROSS DRUMBRUGHAS – ROUGH CROSS KILCOO – CROSS (FROM SOUTH-WEST) KILCOO – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) KILLADEAS – FIGURE-CARVED STONE KILLADEAS – SOCKET STONE

336

66 337

337

65; 338 147; 340 74; 338 75; 338 119; 339 118; 339 126; 340 98

344 345 345 345 68; 344 68; 342 113; 346 346 150; 347 143; 348 56; 349 111; 349 98; 349 342 107; 351 117; 351 141; 353 110; 352

PLATE 106A PLATE 106B PLATE 107A PLATE 107B PLATE 108A PLATE 108B PLATE 109A PLATE 109B PLATE 110A PLATE 110B PLATE 110C PLATE 111A PLATE 111B PLATE 112B PLATE 113 PLATE 114A PLATE 114B PLATE 115A

PLATE 116A PLATE 116B PLATE 116C PLATE 117A

PLATE 117B PLATE 118A PLATE 118B PLATE 119A PLATE 120A PLATE 120B

PLATE 121A PLATE 121B PLATE 122A

KILLADEAS – CROSS-CARVED STONE WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONE LISNASKEA – CROSS SHAFT (WEST SIDE). LISNASKEA – CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE). WHITE ISLAND – SOUTH DOOR OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR). WHITE ISLAND – WINDOW HEAD. WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (GENERAL VIEW) WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (DETAIL) KILLYDRUM – BULLAUN STONE PUBBLE – BULLAUN STONE BALLYHILL- BULLAUN STONE AGHALURCHER – STONE WITH HOLES KILTIERNEY – ROOF FINIAL. TEMPLENAFFRIN – 1729 GRAVE STONE ARBOE CROSS – EAST SIDE ARBOE – ‘PIN WELL’ ARBOE – BULLAUN STONE BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED CROSS BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS (3) BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS (2) BODONEY – GRAVESTONE (1747) CARRICKMORE – RELICKNAMAN (RELIG NA MBAN). CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE CLOGHER – CROSSES (EAST SIDE) CLOGHER – CROSSES (WEST SIDE) CLOGHER – SUNDIAL CLOGHER – SUNDIAL IN CATHEDRAL CLOGHER – ‘ENIGMATIC STONE’ IN CATHEDRAL. CLOGHER – FRAGMENT OF CROSS-SHAFT CLOGHER – BULLAUN STONE CLONFEACLE – CROSS (FROM EAST)

120; 352 127; 362 104; 356 105; 356 65; 361

PLATE 122B PLATE 122C PLATE 123A

PLATE 123B PLATE 124A

68; 361 PLATE 124B 141; 362 363

PLATE 125A PLATE 125B

354

PLATE 126A

147; 358 329 150; 327 68; 354 114; 360 98; 365 158; 366 146; 365 114; 126; 368 369 369 114

PLATE 126A PLATE 126B PLATE 127A PLATE 127B PLATE 128A PLATE 128B PLATE 129 PLATE 129A PLATE 129B PLATE 130A PLATE 130B

94; 371 PLATE 130C 125; 371 101; 372 107; 373 136; 374 374

PLATE 131A

69; 174; 372 373

PLATE 132A

PLATE 131B PLATE 132

PLATE 132B PLATE 132C

147; 375 99; 376

PLATE 133A PLATE 133B xxx

CLONFEACLE – CROSS (FROM NORTH-WEST) CLONFEACLE – CROSS (FROM SOUTH) DONAGHMORE (CO. TYRONE) CROSS – LOWER SHAFT FROM NORTH-WEST. DONAGHMORE (CO. TYRONE) CROSS BASE. DONAGHMORE CROSS – UPPER PART OF WEST SIDE DONAGHMORE – BULLAUN STONE ERRIGAL KEEROGUE – CROSS GLENARB – CROSS (AT CALEDON) GLENARB ‘WELL CROSS’ (NOW AT TYNAN ABBEY – WEST SIDE) GLENARB – ‘WELL CROSS’ GLENARB – ‘ISLAND CROSS’ AT TYNAN FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE BODONEY – SLAB WITH HOLES KILLOAN – CROSS-BASE LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (WEST SIDE) URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (EAST SIDE) DONAGHANIE – BULLAUN STONE TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE GLENOO – BULLAUN STONE CLONLEA – CROSS-BASE DONACAVEY – CROSS-BASE CROSSES OF UNCERTAIN DATE (LEFT-TO-RIGHT) BODONEY NO.1; TERMONAMONGAN (BOTH CO. TYRONE); ENAGH (CO. LONDONDERRY). BODONEY – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE TERMONAMONGAN – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE ENAGH – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE KILLEVY – LATE CROSS DEVENISH – LATE CROSS-CARVED STONE

376 376 103; 381 102; 380 382 148; 382 99; 385 101; 386 100; 106 387 387 131; 386 368 110; 389 143; 389 125 117; 393 393 152; 380 148; 392 148; 388 110; 288 112; 379 113

369 391 272 114; 240 125; 340

PLATE 134A PLATE 134B PLATE 134C PLATE 135A PLATE 135B PLATE 136

PLATE 136A PLATE 136B PLATE 137A PLATE 137B PLATE 138

CLONFEACLE – FONT SEAGOE – STOUP MAGHERA – FONT RECENT ‘BULLAUN’ AT BALLINDERRY CLONFEACLE – MODERN BULLAUN STONE CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF NORTH-WEST ANGLE (LEFT); AND SOUTH-WEST ANGLE ROLL (RIGHT). CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF NORTH-WEST ANGLE CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF SOUTH-WEST ANGLE ROLL BALLYNASAGGART FONT (FROM ERRIGAL KEEROGUE?) ARDCLINIS – CROSS-CARVED STONE MAGHERA – GENERAL VIEW FROM WEST

153; 377 153; 248 278 152; 257 152; 377 70

370 370 154; 385 138; 197 191; 275

xxxi

[1]

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 AIMS AND PROCEDURE One of the pressing problems listed in the first volume of the third series of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology in 1938 was the need to discover more about the character of early ecclesiastical settlements in the north. Ulster occupied an important place in the early history of Irish Christianity: here were the nucleus of the paruchia Patricii and several monasteries of great importance including Bangor, centre of scholarship and base for missionary enterprise. The material remains of the early church in the north are, however, fragmentary and scattered and have been very unevenly studied. This work was undertaken in the belief that early ecclesiastical sites deserve more concentrated study than they have received in the past.

be said to be unfashionable and clearly needs some explanation. 1.

County studies include Co. Down 1966 and county volumes of the various Royal Commissions on Historical Monuments; a smaller area study is the survey of North Rona by Nisbett, H.C. and Gailey, RA., in Arch J. 117 (1962), 88-115; parish studies include those of Whiteparish, Wilts. by Taylor, C., in Wilts Archaeol. Mag. 62 (1967), 79102 and of Fyfield and Overton, Wilts, by Fowler P., in Current Arch, 16 (1969), 124-129.

[3] A wide geographical area - the six counties of Northern Ireland - was chosen in the belief that a broad approach would be helpful in our present state of knowledge. By considering sites over a large area and bringing scattered material together it was my hope that it would be possible to detect patterns, regional differences or similarities, and pinpoint areas and topics which, on the basis of the overall view, would seem to warrant more detailed work. Obviously this approach rules out the detail of a parish survey, or even of a county or diocesan study, but I believe that more concentrated work on more restricted areas will be made easier by the present survey.

My aim initially was to bring together the scattered notices of early sites and material, to visit the sites, record the material and look at the evidence as a whole. The search for material, however, led on to the written sources and the place-name evidence, and so the work has grown from a search for material to an exploration of the interrelationships between the different sources. But the emphasis remains on the material evidence. It has not been possible to explore the wide range of written and place-name evidence exhaustively, but I have sampled it in order to estimate its usefulness to the archaeologist, and this is the basis on which the evidence of written sources and place-names has been used throughout the discussion.

My area does not coincide with any early ecclesiastical or political unit. The larger monastic paruchiae were often far-flung, like Columba’s which extended from County Donegal and Derry to Durrow and Iona. Twelfth-century dioceses, like modern ones, extend across present county boundaries. My first intention was to consider the nine counties of ancient Ulster, but the smaller six county area turned out to be more practicable.

[2] The thesis is divided into three parts. The introductory section (I) explores the various approaches and the sources, including a discussion of procedure. Section II pursues the themes which emerge from the introduction. The numbers, distribution and topography of sites are considered, and the different classes of material evidence are discussed - enclosures, churches and other buildings, burials, carved stones, bullauns, wells, ecclesiastical metalwork and evidence of economy and technology. An attempt is made to relate this material to the broad historical development of the early Irish church. One chapter takes the history of the sites up to the present day, and another looks at needs for further work. The basis for all this discussion is the material presented in section III, the gazetteer and inventory, which includes 266 sites and is accompanied by a volume of illustrations.

The chronological span is from the introduction of Christianity into Ireland to the end of a distinctively insular church in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, when the Irish church was brought back into the mainstream of European Christianity. Changes at this time included the introduction of fixed dioceses, the beginnings of a parish system and the introduction of new religious orders. The reform movement and the AngloNorman invasion led to the appearance of certain distinctive kinds of material - glazed English-style pottery, coffin-lids with foliate cross designs, new building traditions - which help to define my upper chronological limit. [4] I have included material on early sites to about 1200 but have excluded the remains of the new monastic houses which are clearly in a quite different tradition (McNeill 1973, chap. 10). I have briefly pursued the history of the sites to the present day since this has an important bearing on the survival of the material.

Any worker has open to him the choice of whether to study a large or small area, a long or short time-span, a wide or more restricted subject. There is a strong preference among archaeological fieldworkers at present for intensive concentration on a limited area in all its aspects and periods.1 The approach I have adopted could 1

1.

A fundamental task is to find the early ecclesiastical sites. There are broadly three main ways of identifying sites: archaeological and topographical sources will lead to the sites themselves; written sources, if carefully used, can tell the student what sites were in existence at particular times, although the exact location of the site on the ground may not be straightforward; thirdly, distinctively early ecclesiastical place-name elements can be expected to indicate early church sites.

[6] But early written descriptions must, on the whole, be used with care, especially if the information is at second hand. The contrast between the second- or third-hand descriptions in Lewis’s ‘Topographical Dictionary’ (1837) and the eye-witness accounts by parish clergy in Shaw Mason’s ‘Parochial Surveys’ (1814, 1816, 1819) is very striking. Derived descriptions are sometimes garbled and can be quite wrong, for example Lewis’s account of a church site claimed to be in Ballymyre parish. Many mistakes and muddles derived from these early sources have unfortunately been repeated by later writers, such as Leslie (1911, 1929, 1937) and recently Gwynn and Hadcock (1970) and so are perpetuated.

My main emphasis has been on the archaeological and topographical sources, and the initial search was through these. The second edition Ordnance Survey six-inch cover (1850s) for the six counties was searched1 and sites of possible interest were marked on fieldwork maps. Features noted were ecclesiastical antiquities (churches, round towers, graveyards), churches and graveyards (whether marked as antiquities or not) in circular enclosures, holy wells, especially those near church 1.

Some of these sites were very difficult to find and had been places of worship in Penal times, usually without any earlier ecclesiastical connections: see, for example, Ó Gallachair, P., in Clogher Record. 2, 1 (1957), 97-130 on ‘Clogher’s Altars of the Penal Days’.

First-hand descriptions can be valuable. Wakeman, for example, has left many eye-witness accounts of sites in Co. Fermanagh. But his descriptions are sometimes frustratingly vague and more enthusiastic than critical. He described the site on Inishkeen as being surrounded by a lios (the graveyard wall?); the cemetery contained several fragments of early crosses (now one shaft only but many late cross-carved gravestones); traces of a church he thought dated from the sixth or seventh century (clearly medieval).

The different editions of the O.S. six-inch maps are to some extent complementary and to extract the fullest information it is necessary to use several editions. Some material appears only in the first edition (1830s), some only in the second (1850s), and much is omitted from more recent editions, which do, however, mark contours. My main search was through the second edition, but I have used the others selectively.

[5] sites, and miscellaneous features with names suggesting some ecclesiastical connection, such as children’s burial grounds, mass rock and priest’s chair.1 The Ordnance Survey letters and memoirs of the 1830s were used to supplement the information on the maps as far as was possible, but my use of the very detailed Antrim and Derry memoirs has been selective.

Similar provisos must be made about using illustrations in old publications. Many published photographs are surprisingly poor, such as the Mullaboy cross in the ‘Preliminary Survey’ (1940, pl. 46). The published photograph of the Clogher sundial is so poor as to be actually misleading (Roe 1960, p1. VI).

A rapid survey of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century maps suggested that the problems of using them, especially the identification of names, would be considerable and the information gained for my purposes very small. An important exception is the collection of early seventeenth-century maps by Bartlett; the detail in these was certainly drawn from life (Hayes-McCoy 1964). But the value of the pictorial detail of others is difficult to assess. The 1609 Escheated Counties maps, for instance, distinguish between roofed and unroofed churches, a distinction which is probably reliable, but is the drawing of Killevy with its detached round tower from life or is it conventionalised?

[7] Cross-carved stones have sometimes been published with only a photograph and not a drawing (Turraloskin, Drumnacur), and the published drawing of the Killevy stone was simply a schematic sketch and is useless (Davies 1938, 85). Wakeman’s drawings, which were used so much in publications of the second half of the nineteenth century, are aesthetically pleasing, as you would expect from a teacher of drawing, but they can often be seen to be wrong in proportions and detail when a check is possible. Examples include his illustrations of Eglish cross in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland for 1883-4 (p. 426) and the Inishkeen cross in the same journal for 1874-5 (p. 469). The drawing of the Banagher mortuary house in Petrie’s ‘Round Towers’ (1845, 454) is difficult to reconcile with what can be seen now and is almost certainly wrong.

Important in supplementing the information from the maps was a wide range of secondary sources. Inventories of archaeological material like the County Down Survey and the Preliminary Survey (Co. Down 1966 and P.S.A.M.N.I. 1940) were an obvious starting point. Most helpful and reliable of older sources were Reeves’s works (1847, 1850, 1857, 1860). Some of his information was derived from correspondents, but most of the archaeological detail is based on personal inspection (1847, xviii), and all his work stands up wonderfully well to the test of passing time and advancing scholarship.

Armed with this information - good and bad - from archaeological and topographical sources I made my first plans for visits to sites, and much of my fieldwork was done with this background. But the sources so far outlined help only to a limited extent in clarifying which, from the mass of sites extracted from the maps, were the pre-Norman sites, and this question led me on from the material to the written sources and the evidence of place2

names. It is a cause of regret to me that I have been able to pursue these sources only selectively.

of them seigneurial in origin (Herring 1936 and 1937 and McNeill 1973).1 My visits in Down and Antrim were limited to sites of known pre-Norman ecclesiastical activity.

The importance of written sources in identifying early sites is enormous. The first reference to a site provides a terminus ante quem for its establishment, and if the sources are used with care they can provide a directory of sites at particular periods - though not a complete one as the written sources never give a complete picture.

Finally there is a large and important group of Plantation records. These can include dedications, names of erenagh families, and can provide evidence of the physical state of churches. Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry took these sources as her starting point in her excellent study of Fermanagh churches (1919). Again I have been dependent largely on secondary sources.

[8] The four martyrologies (discussed further in chapter 2) provide check-lists of sites with the names of their patrons. They are not easy to use: many sites are unidentified; the identification of others is uncertain; in some cases even their authors were uncertain and offered more than one explanation. But the martyrologies are beyond question an important source and I have used the four main collections, the Martyrologies of Tallaght, Oengus, Gorman and Donegal (abbreviated as M.T., M.O., M.G., and M.D).

1.

Professor Otway-Ruthven found that the establishment of parishes in the rural deanery of Skreen (Co. Meath) was slow and continued into the sixteenth century. Some parishes there were based on early monasteries, but others originated from manorial churches. These latter tended to be smaller than the monastic parishes, corresponding to a tenant’s fee (Otway-Ruthven 1964, passim).

[10] Turning to the evidence of place-names, we find that they can help the fieldworker to locate early sites.1 Mrs Flanagan has investigated the occurrence of the different words for ‘church’ in a wide selection of early texts, and is able to suggest a date-range for particular words. ‘Cell’, for example, was the usual word for church in the pre-Norman entries in the annals, but from the late eleventh century it declined in favour of ‘tempul’. ‘Mainistir’ and ‘eclais’ appear only in the twelfth century (Flanagan 1967). Some of the church words are found as place-name elements, and if the date-range of a word is established, this may help in dating the formation of a place-name. ‘Temple’ and ‘Eglish’ names are not documented in pre-Norman sources, nor is ‘mainistir’, with the notable exception of Monasterboice. ‘Domnach’, on the other hand, is not a common word in the texts: it was used by the writer of the ‘Tripartite Life’ in a stereotyped way, as though it was not in current use. Other church place-name elements which seem to be distinctively pre-Norman are ‘llan’, and ‘both’, and ‘congbáil’ and ‘disert’ names are found in pre-Norman sources.

The annals I have searched less thoroughly than the martyrologies but I have used the ‘Annals of Ulster’, the ‘Annals of Inisfallen’ and the ‘Miscellaneous Irish Annals’ fairly fully, the ‘Annals of Tigernach’ and the ‘Annals of the Four Masters’ only selectively. Other written sources which I have used include litanies, rules, penitentials and some but not all of the ‘Lives’ of the saints with northern connections (see bibliography for these sources). Later written sources can also provide clues to the whereabouts of early sites. In the areas of Ulster less open to Norman influence the terminology of the pre-Norman monastic church continued to be used throughout the Middle Ages, and words like ‘erenagh’ (‘aircinnech’) and ‘coarb’ (‘comarba’) frequently appear as late as the early seventeenth century (Seymour 1932-4 and Barry several papers, especially 1958). It seems to be a reasonable working hypothesis that churches where these terms persisted were based on a pre-Norman monastic nucleus. Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry suggested that all of Fermanagh’s medieval parishes were based on earlier monastic establishments (1919, 39), and it seems likely that many if not all the parish churches in areas not under strong Anglo-Norman influence were based on early monasteries.

Place-names are thus potentially very helpful in the task of finding sites. I cannot claim to have explored this approach exhaustively, and it is an area in which the nonlinguist must tread with great care, but I have visited many of the places in my area with early ecclesiastical place-name elements which I have been able to recognise. One example is Teesnaghtan, which I would have failed to recognise without Mrs. Flanagan’s help; the first element there is ‘teach’, often used for church, which greatly strengthens the case for this being a ‘lost’ church site.

[9] The identification of medieval parishes is not altogether straightforward: it is not always clear from the 1306 Ecclesiastical Taxation whether a church was parochial. I have used this taxation and Colton’s 1397 visitation and rental of Derry diocese (Reeves 1850), but otherwise have relied on secondary sources for guidance over medieval parishes and the persistence of early terminology - Reeves whenever possible, otherwise mainly Leslie (1911, 1929, 1937).

1.

I am very grateful to Mrs Flanagan for much help and discussion.

[11] This discussion of the source material forms a necessary background for an explanation of the procedure adopted in the inventory (Section III). Numbered and included in the inventory are, first, certainly early sites

The position in areas under strong Anglo-Norman influence is more complicated. There were very many pre-Reformation parishes in Down and Antrim, some on early sites, but others dating from after the invasion, some 3

mentioned in early (broadly twelfth-century or earlier) written sources, or with distinctively early place-names, or where early ecclesiastical terms were used in the postinvasion period. These are listed in [bold capitals…thus]: BANGOR. In a few cases a ‘?’ indicates an element of uncertainty as to identification or location. Secondly sites are listed which must be regarded as certainly early on the basis of material, though they do not appear in surviving written sources. These are the sites which will tend to slip through a mainly documentary net, like Gwynn and Hadcock’s (1970). They are listed in capitals […] thus: KILLOAN. Thirdly a large number of sites are included which may be early but which do not qualify for inclusion in the first two categories. These include other pre-Reformation parish churches in the non-AngloNorman areas, sites where material occurs which is possibly but not decisively early, like a bullaun or a rough cross, and a few non-church sites where material exists of interest to the enquiry. All these names are in lower case and [bold] thus: Ballyhill.

the value of several visits to a site. I began to see the cross carved on the slab at ‘St. Lurach’s grave’ at Maghera (Co. Londonderry) only on my fourth visit, and I rarely revisit a site without noting something new. The basic task of finding a site in the field is not always easy. When there are clear surface traces, location from Ordnance Survey maps may be quite straightforward. But some sites are not marked, including Cloghinny and the Drumaqueran stone. All early topographical writers, even the best, fall short by modern standards in the matter of illustrations. Early descriptions of sites were rarely illustrated with maps and plans, and some verbal descriptions which must have seemed perfectly clear to their writers are now frustratingly difficult to follow: Reeves collected details about the substantial site at Dundesert, flattened in the late eighteenth century, but it is very difficult to reconstruct the site in detail, or even locate it at all precisely (Reeves 1847, 181-2). Local traditions and superstitions sometimes help a fieldworker to pinpoint a site. People are sometimes unwilling to cultivate certain areas or walk across land after dark. One example is the Killoan cross-base, which people avoid at night. This kind of attitude may perhaps indicate a lost church or graveyard site. Sites with slight traces may be difficult to see or to make sense of from a ground-level viewpoint.

Clearly within each group, particularly within the first, there are gradations of certainty and the quality of the evidence will vary greatly from site to site. [12] A single post-invasion reference to an erenagh has nothing like the same weight as good, early documentation or distinctively early material. Some attempt is made to indicate these differences in the maps, but I did not think it practicable to make further subdivisions within the inventory: the distinctions will be clear from the inventory entries.

[14] A field-worker will tend to see the more obvious features, like a church and graveyard, and may fail to recognise minor earthworks or significant field shapes and hedge alignments (Norman and St. Joseph 1969, plates 55, 60, 61 and 64). Careful use of large-scale maps is important, but most fruitful and exciting is the approach to early ecclesiastical sites through air photographs. The potential is vividly illustrated in Chapter 5 of ‘The Early Development of Irish Society’ (Norman and St. Joseph 1969, 90-121) and has recently been explored in detail by D.L. Swan (Swan 1971). I have used the R.A.F. post-war vertical cover in the Northern Ireland Record Office selectively, and Dr. St. Joseph’s low-level obliques in the same collection, but not the photographs in Cambridge.

A few sites which appear in early written sources have been located tentatively to a particular place or area, often by Hogan in his great ‘Onomasticon Goedelicum’ (1910). These suggestions will be found under the appropriate parish. It has rarely been possible for me to search for these possible sites and this is a task for further, more detailed work in particular areas. This leaves a number of sites of possible relevance to the enquiry which do not qualify for inclusion in the inventory. They include certainly early sites which are only very vaguely located, for example to a kingdom, and cannot be pinned down any more closely. These are included in appendices, as are various other ecclesiastical sites with no early material or documentation. The criteria for inclusion in the appendices vary a little from county to county and are explained at the beginning of each appendix. The hope must be that some of the unlocated sites will eventually be fixed, and it may be that some of the other sites in the appendices will in future be shown to deserve a place in the main inventory. Since much of the information in the inventory was collected by field survey some general observations on fieldwork are perhaps appropriate here.

The identification of sites in the field with sites mentioned in documents is not always straightforward.1 This problem can be illustrated by the case of Dungiven. The obit of Nechtan, associated with Dungiven in later sources, appears in 679 (A.U.), but the standing remains are all much later, traditionally ascribed to an Augustinian house of about 1100. It is impossible to be sure from fieldwork alone whether the early occupation was on this site or elsewhere, and this is a problem which excavation can help to solve.2 1.

[13] The problems of time of year and state of vegetation, light and weather are important but familiar and do not need discussion (Macalister 1945, ii). I would emphasise 4

A notorious case of mistaken identification is E.T. Leeds’s identification of the site of Faringdon Clump, Berks., with an adulterine castle known to have been built between 1144 and 1145. The excavation produced thirteenth-century pottery which Leeds, relying on the supposed documentary date, assigned to the first half of the twelfth century (Leeds, E.T.,

2.

in Ant. J. 16 (1936) and 17 (1937) and Bruce-Mitford, R.L.S., in Oxoniensia 4 (1939)). Excavation is in progress at Dungiven by A.E.T. Harper; it is clear that there is occupation on the site predating the standing church.

I have not been able to make plans of large features, like the earthwork at Kiltierney. When no early material remains I have noted the topography and present condition of the site. Finally I have whenever possible tried to discover local traditions about sites and material.1

[15] The contribution of excavation is considered in Chapter 3. Another general problem which runs through this thesis concerns dating. The particular methods and problems will be discussed in the sections in Chapter 6 on the different classes of material, and at this stage I want simply to underline the problem.

1.

Written sources can often provide a chronological framework of events, but it is remarkably difficult to place the material within the frame-work. Much material remains ‘floating’ chronologically within wide date limits, at least until some way can be found of anchoring it more firmly in time.

Not all local traditions have a long ancestry. When I visited Killydrum I was told it was a ‘holy place’. When I asked why, the answer was that two ladies from Enniskillen (probably Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry and a companion) had visited the site many years before and had told my informant that it was holy! But when traditions are used carefully in conjunction with other evidence they can contribute to an overall picture, as J.B. Arthurs showed at Derrynoose (Arthurs 1954).

[16] I have often felt, like Reeves compiling his 1860 account of Armagh city, more like a gleaner than a reaper. A study of medieval by-laws does, however, show that gleaning was a rewarding and worthwhile occupation (many papers by W. O. Ault), and it is my hope that this may be true of my work as it is true of Reeves’s done over a century ago (Reeves 1860, 3).

The thoroughness of my recording on the sites has depended on the amount and quality of previous recording if any has been done. Unpublished material I have recorded fully and earlier records have been checked and supplemented. In addition to the photographs included in the thesis I have a large collection of record photographs. Some of the church plans are from fresh surveys; others are based on published plans, and the distinction is clear in the figures.

5

[17]

Chapter 2 THE WRITTEN SOURCES The material remains of historic times ought never to be studied in isolation from the written records for, as Pantin reminded us, ‘the two kinds of evidence cross-fertilize each other and multiply’ (Med. Arch. 2 (1958), 158). Written sources for the history of early Irish Christianity are plentiful and have been much worked on (Kenney 1929 and Hughes 1972). I do not intend here to attempt a detailed survey of the sources but to indicate some of the ways in which they can help the archaeologist studying early Irish Christianity. Professor Thomas recently discussed the value of saints’ ‘Lives’ but did not deal with other written sources in any detail (Thomas 1971, chap. 7). I shall look in turn at the main types of sources and discuss their potential contribution to the archaeologist, and in the discussion chapters which follow many examples will be found of their use in practice. It must be repeated that these remarks are based on sampling and not on a systematic search of all sources.1

Annals record events which may leave some archaeological trace, such as raids, plundering, burning and violations of sanctuary (Lucas 1967, passim).

1.

[19] In 832 (A.U.), for example, the church at Maghera (Co. Londonderry) was plundered, and the erenagh of Nendrum was ‘burned in his own house’ in 976 (A.U.). The building, rebuilding or dedication of a church is sometimes recorded, such as the extensive building works at Derry in the 1160s. It is important to remember, however, that arguments from silence are not conclusive. The last mention of a site in the annals does not necessarily mean that activity on that site came to an end. Activity at Nendrum may have continued after 976 even though there are no further annal entries. The very wide coverage of the annals before 910 narrows after that date, and it is quite possible that an Uí Néill annalist may have dropped references to some houses, such as Bangor and Nendrum, which were on the periphery of his interests. As well as providing some chronological landmarks, the annals can indicate the general prosperity of some monasteries. Outstanding examples are Bangor (Henderson 1967, 166) and Armagh, especially prominent after about 790. But the annals as we have them are concentrated on certain centres, and again arguments from silence are dangerous since sites which received little or no attention were not necessarily inactive.

In the first place, annals provide a vast amount of historical information about ecclesiastical sites. Most important for the archaeologist is help in dating, since the material evidence is so rarely in itself closely datable. The reliability of dates in the annals has been much discussed, and some differences of opinion remain, especially about the value of early entries, such as the foundation of Armagh in 444 (A.U.). 1.

Dr Bannerman has argued that an Iona chronicle was incorporated into Irish annals in about 735-40 (Scot. Gaelic Stud. 11 (1968), 149-170). MacNeill, O’Rahilly, O’Maille and Kelleher have all contributed to the discussion of the sources of the annals. Main references and recent discussion in Hughes 1972, chapter 4, especially 115-128.

I am very grateful to Dr Hughes for much help and stimulating discussion of the written sources.

[18] But from the late sixth century sources become fuller, and the internal evidence of the annals, which has been discussed at length, suggests that from the mideighth century many of the annal entries are contemporary whilst earlier entries incorporate some early material.1

The annals sometimes refer to particular buildings, and these entries are valuable in showing what once existed, even if the features have now disappeared. The entry reporting the burning of the tower at Slane (Co. Meath) in 950 (A.U.), for instance, is our first reference to a round tower, though no sign of it can be seen now.

Entries in the annals can give the archaeologist some fixed chronological points. They will rarely date surviving material directly, but will help to provide a chronological framework within which the material evidence can be considered. Foundation dates and founders’ obits have, however, to be treated with care. It is likely that many dates were inserted much later than the event, but when the houses reappear in the late seventh and eighth-century annals it is clear that they were then flourishing. Later foundations, such as ‘Rechru’ in 635 (A.U.) and Applecross, founded by Mail Rubha who travelled to Britain in 671 and died at Applecross in 722 (A.U.), both of which must come to A.U. via an Iona chronicle, are probably reliable.

[20] Descriptions of fires and raids sometimes specify buildings which were burned or escaped damage, and sometimes make it clear whether the building was of wood or stone. A timber oratory was burned at Bovevagh in 1100 and a stone church at Ardstraw in 1099 (both A.U.). A good early example of the use of annals for building up a picture of former monastic topography is Reeves’s monograph on Armagh, for which the annals are fairly full (Reeves 1860).

6

Other information in the annals may give the archaeologist some help. Abbatial visitations are recorded, and there seem to have been particularly close links between certain houses, sometimes widely separated ones such as Connor and Lynally (Co. Offally). Some men served as abbot to more than one monastery and some houses seem to have supplied abbots to others. It is clear, for example, that there were close links between Comgall’s monasteries at Bangor and Camus (Co. Londonderry): in 938 Muircertach of Camus, abbot of Bangor, died (A.F.M.). The archaeologist should bear in mind connections recorded in the annals when considering local schools or styles and the diffusion of ideas and techniques.

the ‘Martyrology of Gorman’ but only 947 places. Many place-names have not been certainly identified, but some of these will doubtless be identified as work continues, including careful study of patrons, dates of ‘patterns’, and earlier forms of place-names.1 And some of the ‘unattached’ saints may be linked to particular sites, as Father MacDermott has done in the case of Kilcluney (MacDermott 1956). The archaeologist studying early ecclesiastical material which is apparently not at a church site, like the cross-carved stones at Tullyvallan, ought to remember these entries. It is possible that he may in a few cases be able to identify lost sites, through the name of the patron, or of the place, or through local traditions. Early Irish litanies supply similar information (Plummer 1925, especially numbers 7 and 8). ‘The Litany of Pilgrim Saints’, which may have been compiled at Lismore or in the Wexford area in about 800, mentions many saints and place-names (Hughes 1959 and 1972, 209-10). Again the archaeologist can discover the names of pre-Viking churches, though some saints are only vaguely located, such as Glunsalach from Slíab Fuait (Plummer 1925, 57). ‘The Litany of Pilgrim Saints’ is particularly interesting for a study of contacts between Ireland and elsewhere.

A second group of sources which the archaeologist can look to for help are martyrologies, litanies and other liturgical material. Martyrologies provide lists of saints venerated on particular days, and sometimes the name of the place associated with the saint. Especially useful are the two earliest, the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Oengus written about 800 (Stokes 1905; Best and Lawlor 1931; Hughes 1972, 205-9). [21] The glosses in the ‘Martyrology of Oengus’ are much later and the prose form of Tallaght makes interpolations difficult to detect (Hennig 1970). The ‘Martyro1ogy of Gorman’ was written between 1166 and 1174 (Stokes 1895) and the ‘Martyrology of Donegal’, ‘last and largest of the Irish calendars’ (Kenney 1929, 42 and 485) was compiled by Michael O’Clery between 1626 and 1642.

1.

The need for this kind of work was pointed out in Best and Lawlor 1931, xxvii, but not very much seems to have been done.

[23] It includes Britons, a Frank, Armenians and ‘seven monks of Egypt in Disert Uilaig’ (Plummer 1925, 65). Some of the other litanies published by Plummer give a clear idea of metaphors and visual images used in worship, and of certain Old and New Testament events which seem to have received special emphasis. Images include a vine, a gate, a flower, a rock, a corner-stone, a diadem and a sheep. It is very likely that some of these images and scenes would have been represented in the visual arts, in stone-carving, textiles, manuscripts and metal-work (Flower 1954, 91-4).

If they are used with care the martyrologies can provide a check-list of churches in existence by about 800 in the case of Oengus and Tallaght, and at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion in the case of Gorman. The important sites like Armagh, Bangor and Movilla are often mentioned, but they are also fully documented in other sources, and the martyrologies are particularly valuable for sites about which the other sources have little or nothing to say. For some northern sites the only preNorman reference is in one of the martyrologies, for example ‘Rathnat of Cell Rathnaite’ (9 August) in the ‘Martyrology of Tallaght’.

Other kinds of liturgical material can sometimes help the archaeologist. One example involves the cross-slab at Fahan Mura (Co. Donegal) which has along one edge a Greek inscription. This is part of an unusual doxology, sanctioned at the fourth Council of Toledo in 633. Father Grosjean argued that if the inscription were genuine and not a much later forgery the influence must have come from Spain, and Dr. Hughes pointed out that an Irish list of penitential commutations of about 800 recommended the use of this same formula, which clearly was known in eighth-century Ireland (Hughes 1966, 95-6). The decoration cannot be dated to the seventh or eighth century on this evidence alone, as has sometimes been done, but the inscription is clearly an important consideration in any attempt to date the slab. Saints’ Lives have been used a great deal by writers trying to reconstruct a general picture of early Irish monastic life. The problems of using these sources have been fully discussed by Kenney and recently by Dr. Hughes (Kenney 1929, 293-304 and Hughes 1972, 219247).

A common patron commemorated in the martyrologies may suggest links between sites, for example Mochua, listed by Oengus at 24 December and associated in a gloss with both Timahoe (Co. Laois) and Derrynoose. A few entries mention foreigners who had settled in Ireland: examples from the Martyrology of Tallaght include ‘Edilaldi saxonis’ (21 April), Lugan Saxo (21 July) and the place-name Tech Bretan (Tibradden (Co. Dublin) at 7 January). Oengus lists Nechtán of Alba at 8 January and the gloss associates him with Dungiven. These and similar entries are important for any study, whether historical or archaeological, of contacts between Ireland and Britain in the pre-Norman period. [22] Many saints are listed in the martyrologies without place-names: 3,450 people are included in the index to 7

[24] The most important point for my present purpose is that the ‘Lives’ give some idea of conditions in the time of their writers and not their subjects: in Kenney’s words. Primarily the acta sanctorum are sources for the times in which they were written and revised, not for those in which their heroes flourished’ (1929, 297). Late ‘Lives’ have often been used uncritically as evidence for sixth or seventh-century conditions, for example by O’Hanlon in his massive but uncritical compilation of saints’ Lives (10 volumes, 1873-1903) and by McKenna in studying Fermanagh churches such as Rossorry (McKenna 1920, I, 419).

[26] A ridge-piece, needed to complete the plank church, was brought down from the mountain by divine intervention, and a valuable detail is added, perhaps by Conchubranus himself: ‘And now that the church has been restored, this spine of which we have been speaking is held in honour as a relic’ (Esposito 1910, 237 and Kenney 1929, 68). Saints’ ‘Lives’ refer, often briefly, to monastic enclosures, gifts of land and forts to saints, churches of wood and stone, cells and other buildings, books and other material equipment, arable fields, herds, specialist craftsmen and much more (Plummer 1910, I, xcv-cxxix).

Very few Lives from the many available are early (Kenney 1929, 296). Cogitosus’s ‘Life of Brigid’ and Tírechán’s and Muirchú’s writings about Patrick tell us about seventh-century Ireland. Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’, written between 688 and 704 (probably between 688 and 692, Anderson 1961, 96) represents a continuous tradition at Iona. Other Lives, compiled later, can be seen to include early material, such as the Life of Monenna of Killevy by Conchubranus which was written in the late eleventh or early twelfth century. Esposito argued that it incorporates material written before the end of the first quarter of the seventh century (Esposito 1910 and Kenney 1929, 368), but Boyle has recently suggested that it need not be earlier than the early ninth century (Boyle 1971). Very many late ‘Lives’ are available, such as the ‘Life of Lasair of Aghavea and Killesher’; the ‘Life of Naile of Kinawley’; and the ‘Life of Colmán of Dromore’ (Co. Down), but these are

These are all subjects that the archaeologist is much concerned with, and no study of surviving material remains ought to be done without some reference to this information in the saints’ ‘Lives’. The ‘Lives’ must, however, be used with extreme caution as evidence for contacts between individuals, between monasteries, and overseas. The complex pattern of family relationships and social and scholarly contacts between saints revealed in the later ‘Lives’ is unlikely, often chronologically impossible. The story of Tigernach’s travels to Whithorn and Rome and his extensive contacts with other Irish saints is one of many examples in which the detail cannot be trusted (Plummer 1910, II, 262-9). Another group of sources which may give the archaeologist some help are penitentials, monastic rules, and ecclesiastical and secular legislation. The earliest of the penitentials is Vinnian’s dating from the mid to third quarter of the sixth century, and Cummean’s dates from the seventh century (Bieler 1963).

[25] very far removed from their subjects and the fabulous element is often prominent (Kenney 1929, 465-7 and Hughes 1972, 241-7).1

[27] Their interest for the archaeologist seems to lie in two main directions. First, they give information about regime since they are concerned with gluttony and drunkenness, fasting and abstinence, but they are not as helpful as monastic rules. Secondly, and more important, penitentials provide valuable evidence for contacts between Ireland and areas overseas (Oakley in Speculum 8 (1933), 489-500). Southern Gaulish writers of the fifth and sixth centuries, like John Cassian and Caesarius of Arles, influenced ‘Vinnian’s Penitential’ whilst Cummean’s (or a similar Irish source) influenced the ‘Penitential of Theodore of Tarsus’.

Saints’ ‘Lives’ usually include some information about monastic topography and about particular buildings. In a few cases the description is so detailed that it can form the basis for a reconstruction of the plan, such as Cogitosus’s description of the large timber church at Kildare with its internal partitions, textiles, pictures and monuments.2 Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ includes a great deal of information about the topography of Iona, and on the basis of this the Andersons attempted a (verbal) reconstruction of the monastery in the late seventh century (Anderson 1961, 105-118). But few ‘Lives’ give as much detail as this: buildings and material remains are more often mentioned briefly in passing as the background to an event or because they were involved in a miracle. Examples include Bede’s description of Chad’s house-shaped tomb (H.E. IV, 3) and a most interesting description of a miracle at Killevy in the time of the fourth abbess, included by Conchubranus in his ‘Life of Monenna’. 1.

2.

Monastic rules provide valuable information about the monastic regime of particular groups of houses. Of special interest to the archaeologist are details of diet and work, and (less common) buildings and topography. A good example is the ‘Rule of Ailbe of Emly’, written probably in the eighth century (O’Neill 1907). It includes detail about food including salt meat, mead, curds, warm milk, dry bread and cress (op. cit., 105); it specifies public confession at a cross (103); it describes the provision to be made for guests (107); it restricts the movements of monks outside the enclosure (105 and 109).

The main collections of Lives are Stokes, W., Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore (1890), O’Grady, S.H., Silva Gadelica (1892) and Plummer 1910 and 1922. Acta Sanctorum (Bollandists, 1658), 1 February, 135-141 especially chapters 37-8, p. 141. Professor Thomas has attempted a reconstruction (Thomas 1971, fig. 65, p. 145).

Several rules and similar texts survive from the late 8

eighth and ninth-century reform movement, associated particularly with the monastery at Tallaght (Kenney 1929, 468-475). The ninth-century ‘Rule of St Columba’ is a rule for anchorites. It demands solitude: ‘Let a fast place with one door enclose thee’ and ‘Be alone in a separate place near a chief city’ (Haddan and Stubbs 1878, 119-121).

field of corn or hay, and tending the sick (op. cit., 205). Information of this kind about everyday life can help the archaeologist to put flesh and clothes on the bare bones of his material. A vast body of early Irish secular law survives.1 The laws are probably less obviously and immediately useful to the archaeologist studying early Irish Christianity than many of the sources surveyed above, but they are potentially useful and are thought-provoking. Of great interest is the information about ‘manaig’ (Hughes 1966, 136-42). The ‘manach’ seems to have been a monastic client and tenant, owing the monastery labour, tithes of produce and children, receiving in return land, equipment, education for the eldest son, and general protection.

[28] The archaeologist could well find instructions of this kind illuminating when he considers the siting of Culdee houses in relation to other monasteries, as at Armagh and Devenish. Other rules from the reform period include the Notes on the customs of Tallaght, written between 831 and 840, and the Rule for the Cé1i Dé of similar date (Gwynn and Purton 1911 and Gwynn, 1917). The reformers paid great attention to diet and the correct observance of canonical hours.

1.

The Liber Angeli can be regarded as a piece of ecclesiastical legislation. It was written probably in the early eighth century, using seventh-century sources (Hughes 1966, 275-281). It gives us a valuable piece of information about the topography of Armagh at this early period, when the annals provide very little detail: two churches are mentioned, one in the north quarter for women, penitents and married people, and one in the south for bishops, priests and anchorites (loc. cit., 277). The annals mention ‘cána’ (‘laws’) of particular saints and the ‘Cáin Domnaig’, the ‘Law of Sunday’ (Hughes 1972, 80-2). The ‘Cáin Adomnáin’, which dates from the late seventh or eighth century, provides for the protection of women and children and non-combatants in warfare and lays down fines for violation of sanctuary. Of great interest is the distinction between the innermost sanctuary, the ‘faithche’, and the termon land beyond (Ryan in Thurneysen 1936, 269-76). The ‘Law of Sunday’ is reported to have been brought to Ireland in 887 (A.U.), but this is too late for its introduction (Kenney 1929, 476-7 and Hughes 1972, 82). It attempts to enforce Sunday observance, and in prohibiting certain activities gives fascinating glimpses of what happened on the other days: [29]

The six volumes of Ancient Laws of Ireland in the Rolls Series, Dublin, 1865-1901, represent about half the material. Modern work on the law tracts by Plummer, MacNeill, Binchy and Thurneysen supplements and partly replaces these editions: Hughes 1972, chapter 2.

[30] The existence of manaig is obviously a very important consideration in any study of the size of monasteries, of ‘extra-mural’ settlements, the exploitation of surrounding land and the composition of monastic cemeteries. The part of the ‘Senchas Mór’ known as the ‘Córus Béscna’ (Ancient Laws of Ireland, vol. III, especially 6579) includes discussion of grants to churches and the succession within monasteries. Distinctions are carefully made between different kinds of churches: the ‘annoit’ church, which seems to be the head of a ‘paruchia’, the ‘dalta’ church, the ‘compairche’ church, used to describe sister churches within the same ‘paruchia’, and the ‘cill’ church which is distinguished from the others. In another passage a ‘noble church’ is distinguished from a ‘humble church’ (op. cit., 71). There seems to be no agreement about what these distinctions mean; but when linguists and historians have worked more on the problem, it is possible that these passages may shed some light for the archaeologist on distinctions in size and material between different sites.

‘On Sunday there shall be no dispute, or lawsuit, or assembly, or strife, or bargain, or horsedriving, or sweeping the floor of a house, or shaving or washing, or bathing, or washing [clothes], or grinding in mill or quern, or cooking, or churning, or yarn-weaving, or adultery, or journeying by anyone beyond the border of his own territory, or racing or shooting with spear and arrow, or riding on horse or ass, or boiling food, or swimming, or horse-riding, or splitting firewood, or coracle on water’. (O’Keeffe 1905, 201-3)

Laws of inheritance and property may be found to have a bearing on the archaeological material. It is likely that land grants to the church were governed by the secular laws of inheritance. Dillon suggested that the laws can be interpreted as meaning that a woman could acquire only a life interest in land by inheritance, and that after her death the property would revert to the fine (Thurneysen 1936, 129-79, especially 178). This legal provision seems relevant when we observe how many holy women are recorded in the martyrologies (the editor of Gorman commented on this: Stokes 1895, xlix), and how few women’s houses achieved prominence (Hughes 1972, 234-5).

The lawful exceptions are also interesting: they include fleeing before pagans, warning of a raiding party or an army, answering a cry for help, seeking a priest for communion or baptism in extreme need, helping cows in a swamp or when attacked by wolves, helping at a burning house, helping to prevent the plundering of a

[31] This may have some bearing on the question of ‘lost’ church sites, to be discussed further in Chapter 4. It may be that some secular settlements were turned over to ecclesiastical use for a very short time, perhaps for only 9

one generation, and then reverted to the family and to secular purposes.

It is not possible for an archaeologist to be familiar with all the written sources. It is doubtful whether any scholar will equal the expertise which Reeves showed in handling both written sources and archaeological material. The important point seems to be that the archaeologist should be aware of the written sources and the ways in which they can and cannot help him. This will give added breadth and perspective to his vision.

Written sources can, therefore, be seen to help the archaeologist studying the early Irish church in many ways. They help to establish a chronological framework, and the annals are outstanding in this respect. Most of the sources give some clues to the whereabouts of early churches, but the martyrologies probably provide the fullest information. There is evidence for contacts between different monasteries and between Ireland and areas overseas, contacts which may be reflected in material remains. Information about archaeological material - buildings, equipment, economy and technology - is found, especially in saints’ ‘Lives’, rules and annals. But these references are sporadic and often brief, and the written sources do not give by any means a full or satisfactory picture of the archaeological material.

[32] Finally, some familiarity with the written sources will help the archaeologist to define those areas in which he can contribute, through his material, to the study of early Irish history. This contribution is examined in the next chapter.

10

[33]

Chapter 3 THE CONTRIBUTION OF ARCHAEOLOGY It is important in any study of the early Irish church to discover how many ecclesiastical sites there were, where they were, and how they were situated in relation to one another. Here, clearly, there is scope for an archaeological contribution: sites which are not mentioned in early sources but which produce early material can be added to the distribution map of historically attested sites.

Some early churches here can be certainly identified, such as Bodoney; others can be suggested on place-name evidence, including Donacavey and Donaghanie; but some do not seem to have survived as churches and may perhaps be found by archaeological fieldwork, as in the case of the Lettershendony area in Co. Derry, near the river Faughan. In approaching this important question of the number and distribution of early ecclesiastical sites it is clear that history and archaeology are largely complementary.

The written sources do certainly provide a great deal of information. The Ordnance Survey ‘Map of Monastic Ireland’ is based largely on documentary evidence. But the spread of written sources is uneven, both chronologically and geographically. Some areas and sites are well-documented, like eastern Ulster, Armagh, Bangor, Down and Movilla, whilst others are mentioned rarely if at all, and the whole of western Ireland is poorly documented. Dr. Hughes has suggested that the high mortality of the mid-sixth-century plague may have affected the reliability of traditions for the fifth and earlier sixth centuries (Hughes 1966, 66-7). Some early foundations may not have prospered: frequent references in the annals from the sixth century onwards remind us of the hazards of bad weather, poor harvests and plagues (for example in A.U. at 536, 539, 549-50, 664, 700, 764 and 777). We have seen that there are indications in the secular laws that grants of land or property for a monastery may sometimes have reverted to a lay member of the family in the case of women’s houses. All these strands of evidence together with the unidentified placenames and unlocated saints in the martyrologies, suggest that some early ecclesiastical sites may have had a short life and may have become ‘lost’.

1.

Very rough estimate of 30,000-40,000 was suggested in Ó Ríordáin 1964, 1.

[35] By finding and recording early material in the field the archaeologist can fill some of the many gaps which the written sources leave.1 When the distribution pattern of early sites has been reconstructed as fully as possible the archaeologist can turn to the subject of topography. By a detailed study of the topography of individual sites a fieldworker can suggest conclusions about the siting of churches in relation to landscape. This approach has been pioneered by geographers, who are experienced in assessing those factors which influence settlement, such as relief, drainage, solid and drift geology, communications, vegetation and the availability of raw materials. The position of sites can be plotted and studied in relation to these environmental factors as well as to human factors like the distribution of secular settlements. An important exposition of this approach was Professor Bowen’s ‘The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales’ (Bowen 1956). Earlier work on similar lines was done by Marstrander in the Isle of Man, and Professor Ravenhill has examined the siting of early churches in Devon and Cornwall.2 Oliver Davies included topographical observations in some of his articles on Ulster churches (for example on Carnteel in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 149-50).3

[34] In some cases it may be very difficult to identify these. Physical life in a small monastery can have differed little from life in a secular settlement, and it is likely that some of the large number of raths and cashels1 were used for ecclesiastical purposes. If no specifically ecclesiastical material survives these will be difficult to detect except by excavation. But some ‘lost’ sites may provide clues: place-name elements, traditions, continued use for burial, or material such as cross-carved stones may indicate a former church site.

1.

2.

Other sites which are known from written sources but which for some reason failed to survive and flourish can sometimes be identified on the ground by fieldwork. Churches west of Lough Neagh, for example, are not well-documented, but this is an area where Patrick was traditionally active. The ‘Tripartite Life’ mentions his work in the area of the rivers Moyola and Faughan (Stokes 1887, 155).

3.

Gwynn and Hadcook (1970) did recognise this but were able to include archaeological evidence only in a limited way mainly by reference to the Shell Guide to Ireland (1967). Marstrander, C.J.S., ‘Treen og Keeill’ in Norsk Tids-skrift for Sprogvidenskap 8 (1937), 287-500; Ravenhill, W.R., ‘The Settlement of Cornwall during the Celtic Period’ in Geography 40 (1955), 237-49 and ‘Rural Settlement in Devon and Cornwall’ in Advancement of Science 15 (1959), 342-5. The siting of secular settlements was studied by V.B. Proudfoot in Co. Down (1957) and recently E.M. Fahy has been analysing locational factors in the distribution of ringforts in Co. Cork (Bulletin G.S.I.H.S. 1 (1970), 5-6).

[36] The methods and problems of topographical study of early churches are fully discussed by Professor Bowen 11

(op. cit., 1-13). The fieldworker needs an eye skilled in the analysis of geographical forms and the factors influencing settlement. The most formidable problem is the historical one of deciding which are the early sites. It is dangerous to accept the evidence of dedications uncritically (Chadwick 1954), and complicating factors like late dedications, re-dedications and changes of site must always be remembered.

ground investigator can examine the techniques used in standing buildings, and the methods and materials of the makers of crosses and slabs. 1.

[38] Excavation can reveal earlier building phases and changing building methods, like the important change from wood to stone. Although the Nendrum excavation now seems so unsatisfactory, the rich finds remind us of the potential of such a site - workshops, moulds, trialpieces, unfinished objects and a wide range of tools and other equipment (Lawlor 1925). Material imported to a site can be distinguished from local resources, and it may be possible to estimate the degree of self-sufficiency of excavated sites. The recovery of pollen, mollusca, charcoal, grain, bones and other materials will help towards a reconstruction both of the natural environment and of men’s exploitation of it.

Even if no early archaeological material survives on an ecclesiastical site, the archaeological fieldworker can make these topographical observations. The siting of churches is one of the elements in the picture which he is trying to reconstruct. When we turn to the material remains of early ecclesiastical sites we enter an area where the archaeologist has a very important contribution to make. It is generally recognised that the prehistoric archaeologist can be most confident when dealing with subsistence, economy and technology because his evidence bears most directly on these aspects of life. The medieval archaeologist, too, has much to contribute here, and also something to learn from prehistorians about full exploitation of the evidence.1 1.

Lawlor, for example, based his chapter on ‘Internal Economy’ in the Nendrum report largely on Adamnan’s Life of Columba (Lawlor, H.C., 1925, chapter 2).

The excavation of cemeteries is potentially important in helping us to estimate the size of the population of sites and to see something of their relations with the surrounding population. This is a difficult area, as whole cemeteries need to be excavated, and even then there are many uncertainties, like the length of use. A normal sample of population or an abnormal spread in age or sex will show what kind of community a cemetery was serving. If the skeletal remains are well-preserved, valuable information about health and longevity should be forthcoming.

A fine example of the interpretation of prehistoric material in economic terms is G.J.D. Clark’s Prehistoric Europe: the Economic Basis (1952). M. Smith discussed ‘The Limits of Inference in Archaeology’ in Arch. News Letter 6, no. 1 (1955), 3-7, and there has been much discussion by Binford, Clarke and others, for example chapter 3 of D.L. Clarke’s Analytical Archaeology (1968).

[37] The fieldworker to a limited extent, and the excavator to a great extent, are able to reconstruct the environment of a site in terms of its natural surroundings and resources, its buildings, economy and technology. We have seen that the detail in the written sources is limited: the detail of Cogitosus and Adamnan is rare. More often we have at most brief references to buildings, craftsmen, tools, occupations, but very little detail. Any picture compiled from these sources alone is bound to be incomplete and hazy, built up from diverse sources, probably widely separated in time and space. This approach may have seemed adequate to earlier workers, but we cannot be satisfied with it today.1

The excavator can potentially help to resolve some of the dating problems which bedevil the archaeological study of the early Irish church. He can demonstrate relative sequences of buildings, and may also find reasonably closely datable material like imported Mediterranean or Gaulish Pottery or small metal objects. [39] Imported material and borrowed motifs and techniques will supplement the evidence of the written sources for contacts between the church in Ireland and areas overseas. Professor O’Kelly has demonstrated most impressively on Church Island (Kerry) the enormous potential of modern excavation (O’Kelly 1958). The small site was totally excavated; a sequence was established; changing building methods and materials were investigated; the cemetery was excavated; much evidence was found for the economy and technology and a link with the nearby settlement at Devenish, also excavated, was suggested. The excavated evidence was used as the basis for a pictorial as well as a verbal reconstruction (O’Kelly 1958, pl. XVIII).1

The archaeologist can attempt to discover the size and scale of sites. Total excavation is, of course, the ideal, demonstrated so fruitfully by Professor O’Kelly at the tiny Church Island (Kerry) site (O’Kelly 1958). But even without excavation progress will be made by the definition of enclosures and subdivisions within them. Field survey will reveal the range of surviving buildings and the sequence can be worked out as far as the visible remains allow. But the excavator is in a better position to disentangle a site, phase by phase, and achieve the chronological perspective which so often eludes the fieldworker.

The archaeologist, because of the nature of his evidence, is most closely concerned with these matters of material surroundings, economy and technology, but he is also concerned with wide historical questions. It must be part

Much of the archaeologist’s material provides information about economy and technology. The above12

of the medieval archaeologist’s task to look at his material against the background of the historical framework which the written sources provide, and to enquire what light his evidence can throw on historical problems, in the present case, on the historical development of the early Irish church.

[41] Is it possible to distinguish material effects of the Viking invasion on the church? What changes in the material evidence were brought about by the eleventh and twelfth-century reforms? Some of these are very difficult questions indeed and answers will emerge only after much more work, but they are ones which the archaeologist must ask.

Written sources suggest that early missionaries were often at pains to avoid a too-abrupt break with the pagan past.2 To what extent were churches in Ireland established at places of pagan worship? 1.

2

Archaeological information may also be useful to the student of place-names. Archaeological evidence of dating and of the size and scale of poorly documented sites will obviously be of interest to workers who are trying to establish a date-range for ecclesiastical placename elements and trying to define different shades of meaning for the different words used in early texts and place-names. Does early material occur on sites with domnach and lann names? Do sites with ‘late’ elements eclais, tempul and mainistir - lack pre-Norman material, and is there any other church site in the area which could have been an earlier centre of activity? The material evidence may suggest to the archaeologist common denominators which link places with the same placename element. Are all airecal sites high? Are prehistoric burial sites always close to tamlacht churches? Archaeological fieldwork and excavation may help to answer these and other questions arising from place-name studies.

This reconstruction, based on excavated evidence, is to be strongly contrasted with Ledwich’s reconstruction of Dun Aengus (Inishmore) as a monastery achieved by equipping it with churches, crosses and monks, all imaginary (Antiquities of Ireland, 1790)! Gregory the Great’s instructions to Augustine to adopt pagan sanctuaries to Christian use are recorded by Bede (H.E. I, 30).

[40] Material remains can provide clues: if, for example, distinctively pre-Christian carved stones are found on church sites, this can be added to the evidence from written sources and place-names. The juxtapositions of churches and settlement sites may tell us something about relations between the church and the surrounding population, and if sites are excavated, as at Clogher, the chronological relationships between the sites may be elucidated. Was the practice of granting secular enclosures for ecclesiastical use as common as some writers have claimed? Written sources certainly refer to gifts of enclosures, but have earlier workers seized too hastily on this possibility to explain the presence of very substantial enclosures around churches? Lawlor’s excavation unfortunately failed to resolve this problem at Nendrum, but this is something that excavation could help to show.

It is clear that the archaeologist has a great deal to contribute to, as well as learn from, historical and placename studies. [42] I have not been able to exploit all the approaches outlined in this chapter, but the archaeological contribution, as far as I have been able to pursue it, will be examined in detail in the discussion section which follows.1

We have seen that the variety of words for church in the written sources, especially in the secular laws, suggests great complexity, but it is by no means clear what differences in organisation, status and physical appearance lay behind the varied terminology. The archaeologist must ask what archaeologically distinguishes the different kinds of churches. Will it be possible to distinguish some material as characteristic of certain historical horizons?

1.

Does any material belong to a distinctively early, premonastic, phase? What material distinguishes a monastic site, and an important one, the head of a paruchia, from a smaller one or anchorite’s retreat? Can the material remains of late eighth and early ninth-century reformed houses be seen to differ from the ‘great old houses yonder’ against which they were reacting (Gwynn and Purton 1911, 137)?

13

A recent discussion of the problems of early monastic archaeology by P.A. Rahtz appears in Scottish Archaeological Forum 5 (1974), 125-35.

[43]

SECTION II: DISCUSSION Chapter 4 EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SITES: NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION

FIG. 2: MAP OF SITES WITH EARLY MATERIAL NOT FOUND IN WRITTEN SOURCES.

This chapter examines the archaeological contribution to building up a picture of the numbers and whereabouts of pre-Norman ecclesiastical sites in the six northern counties. The material will be considered in Chapter 6 and general historical development in Chapter 7, and these subjects will be treated here only in enough detail to illustrate the discussion of numbers and distribution.

the historical maps for each county an attempt is made to indicate the quality of the written evidence. The first broad distinction in the maps is between sites with some pre-Norman documentation, or good evidence from place-names or early ecclesiastical terminology (as discussed in Chapter 1), and other sites with no such evidence. The first category is shown in capitals, the second in lower case. Sites with very full documentation, referred to in several different kinds of written sources and over a long period, are indicated by ‘■’ and their names are underlined. Amongst the other sites a distinction is made between sites with some pre-Viking [44] documentation, such as the early Patrician sources, early annals and the main text of the early martyrologies, which are shown by ‘●’ and underlined, and sites which first appear in later annals, later martyrologies or glosses and late saints’ ‘Lives’. These are shown by ‘●’ and are not

The first stage is to produce maps of sites known from written sources. The quality of the evidence clearly varies enormously and we find a range from well-documented sites like Armagh and Bangor to sites of which the first written notice is in a late martyrology (M.G. or M.D.) or a gloss to an earlier one (M.T. and M.O.). Some saints are listed in the earlier martyrologies without place-names which are added only in later glosses. Some sites which appear in early sources disappear from the written record until after the Anglo-Norman invasion. It is not possible on a map to show the whole range of possibilities, but in

14

underlined. Sites with distinctively early place-name elements, or early ecclesiastical terminology - like erenagh and coarb - are marked respectively ‘PN’ and ‘e’.

bullaun stones. The maps seek to illustrate with symbols the kinds of material, and the concentrations of symbols will give an impression of the richer sites. [45] Detailed discussion of the material will be found in Chapter 6, but it should be noted now that rough crosses and bullaun stones are particularly enigmatic and unsatisfactory as pointers to early ecclesiastical activity. Each county will be considered individually and then the general points arising will be examined.

FIGURE 3: SYMBOLS USED FOR THE HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAPS.

Sites without clear pre-Norman documentation are shown either by ‘+’ indicating a pre-Reformation parish church site; or simply ‘-’ for other sites. A small number of sites which are unlikely ever to have had churches but which have material of interest to the enquiry are shown by ‘X’. In view of all the uncertainties it is doubtful whether any two people would come to exactly the same conclusions in compiling historical maps of this kind. The first edition Ordnance Survey ‘Map of Monastic Ireland’ (1959) showed very few early sites in the north. Gwynn and Hadcock’s lists are very much fuller (1970), as is the second edition of the ‘Monastic Map’ (1965), yet there are surprising omissions like Galloon. It is clear that the martyrologies and litanies were not used. I find only partial correspondence between my maps of early sites in Down and Antrim and Towill’s map in U.J.A. 27 (1964), 114-5, but it is not possible to pursue discrepancies in detail as he does not cite his sources.

FIG. 16: CO. ANTRIM: HISTORICAL MAP.

In Co. Antrim (Figure 16) the best documented sites are Antrim, Connor and Rathlin Island. Kilraghts, Kilroot and Rashee appear in pre-Viking sources, but several other places are less certainly identified with sites in these sources. Tírechán describes Patrick ordaining Olcan at Dunseverick (Stokes 1887, 329). He does not refer to a church there, though we can perhaps assume one, nor is it certain that the Templastragh site is the earliest church site in the area, so an element of doubt must remain. Aghnakilla in Craigs townland may be Achad Cinn where Cathub was bishop (A.U. 555), but this is not certain. Dundesert, a site which must have been of some importance, may be the Disert Uilaig of the ‘Litany of Irish Pilgrim Saints’ where there were ‘seven monks of

The second stage of the enquiry is to compile maps of the archaeological material, This, too, clearly varies greatly in quality, ranging from certainly early churches, crosses and cross-slabs to rougher crosses, cross-slabs and 15

Egypt’ (Plummer 1925, 65). No more likely site has been suggested, but again the identification is tentative.

Loo’, suggests an early church, a suggestion given some support by the bullauns and the probable enclosure.

Many more sites first appear in later sources, some in the ‘Tripartite Life’, such as Armoy, Culfeightrin, Drumeeny, Glenavy, Glore, Glynn and Racavan, others like Derrykeighan and Duneane in later martyrologies or glosses. How early was there a church on the spectacular rock of Skerry? The rock itself is mentioned in early Patrician sources, but the church first appears in a tenth or eleventh-century gloss on Fíacc’s ‘Hymn’. [46] How much earlier than the eleventh and twelfthcentury references to Ram’s Island in the annals was there a church on the island? Written sources can usually provide only terminus ante quem dates for the origins of sites: the specific reference to the foundation of Rathlin church in 635 (A.U.) is unusual. In this later group, too, there are some uncertain identifications. Drumtullagh may be ‘Telach Ceneóil Oengusa’ of the ‘Tripartite Life’, where Patrick left bishop Nehemiah; and St Cunning may be ‘Cell Conadain’ (Stokes 1887, 163 and 165). It is surprising to find that the early documentation for two generally accepted early foundations - Kells and Muckamore - is very poor. Kells appears in about 1190 as a house of Augustinian Canons. The ‘Life of MacNissi’ mentions a monastery ‘latine Desertum dicitur’ close to ‘fluvio nomine Curi’ (Heist 1965, 406) but this is a late ‘Life’ (post-Norman incorporating some early material). It is true that Augustinian houses were often based on an old monastic foundation, but the evidence from the written sources for an early monastery at Kells seems slight. Similarly Muckamore appears after the Anglo-Norman invasion as a house of Augustinian Canons and in Jocelin’s ‘Life of Patrick’, but not, as far as I can discover, in earlier sources. It will be interesting to see whether excavation produces clearly pre-Norman material there.

FIG. 17: CO. ANTRIM: MATERIAL FINDS.

But if documented sites are poor in material, the archaeological evidence points to several certainly early church sites unknown from written sources (Figure 2). The mound at Drumnacur is clearly a disused graveyard, the cross-carved stone is distinctively early, and the name Killyhurragh suggests a church. The Turraloskin site had been largely obliterated before the Ordnance Surveyors’ visit in 1838, but their information leaves no doubt that this was an extensive early church site, as do the inscribed cross-slab, the reported souterrain and bell at Kirkinriola. At Shankill the bullaun alone cannot be taken to confirm early activity but the crozier fragments suggest pre-Norman use of the site. The reported dimensions of the church at Dundesert do not suggest an early date but the large enclosure does. The finds sound very mixed, and the site may have been in use for a long time. We have seen that the site cannot confidently be identified with ‘Disert Uilaig’ of the litany, nor can the lost material be dated certainly. Neither kind of evidence can be used as proof of the other.

There are three round towers and some interesting crosscarved stones, but the material generally in Co. Antrim is not rich (Figure 17). There are no structural remains of early churches, simply tantalising references to buildings cleared in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries at Antrim, Drumeeny and Turraloskin. Crosses are all small and rough apart from the figure-carved fragment at Connor. [47] Antrim and Connor have some material; Kilroot has only a bullaun; whilst Aghnakilla, Kilraghts and Rashee have nothing. Of the sites with later documentation Drumeeny clearly was once rich; Glenavy and Kells have bullauns; Armoy and Ram’s Island have towers; but many sites are barren. Material unfortunately does not help to confirm the identification of uncertain sites: there seems to be no distinctively early material at Drumtullagh, Kells, Muckamore, Shilvodan and St Cunning. The alternative place-name for Ballinderry, ‘La

[48] But the case remains strong for this having been an important early church site, and if it can be traced its 16

excavation would be a very interesting research project. At other sites the likelihood of a church is less clear or the material is less clearly early. The Drumaqueran stone is certainly early, but there is no hint of a church here. References to a church at Dromore are very vague, and the cross may have been carved on the standing stone in fairly recent times. At Trummery the attached round tower is unlikely to be pre-Norman, but the lost crosscarved stone looks early. The Broombeg and Brackney sites, reported by the Ordnance Survey in the early nineteenth century, are potentially interesting but need more investigation than I was able to do. The Ardclinis evidence individually is not strong - a dubious cross-slab, a sherd of souterrain ware, and a late crosier - but collectively it suggests the possibility of an early church, as do the reported bullaun and souterrain and the bell at Kilmakevit.

Of the sites with early written material in Co. Armagh (Figure 26) Armagh is uniquely well-documented, and Killevy is one of the best-documented northern sites. None of the other sites, however, is well covered by the written sources. Ballymore, Killyman and Kilmore appear in pre-Viking sources, and though the name Kilnasaggart does not, the inscribed stone places the site firmly in this earlier group. Two sites are first mentioned in later source: Seagoe [49] and Tynan. The identification of Derrynoose with the site in Mochua’s ‘Life’ is not certain (Plummer 1910, II, 189), but a gloss to M.O. includes ‘Daire Mis in Slíab Fuait’, and there seems little doubt that this was an early site (Arthurs 1954). Tartaraghan is included on the basis of Arthurs’s analysis of the place-name (1957), but the identification of Kilcluney and Killuney with sites mentioned in written sources is tentative.

There remain sites with only that most enigmatic of objects; a bullaun stone, as at Aghalee, Drumnakill, Inispollan and Racavan; a bell at Solar; and problematic rough crosses at Drumnakill, Layd and Tullaghore. The cross-carved stone from a church site at Crevilly Valley is clearly from an altar, but it is not certainly pre-Norman.

Distinguished on the map from these documented sites are pre-Reformation parish churches for which I have found no written evidence for pre-Norman activity.1 The medieval pattern of parishes was not complicated here as further east by seigneurial foundations. It is clear from the archbishops’ registers that Armagh lay within that part of the diocese, inter Hibernicos, rarely visited by the primate and administered for him by Irish officials (Gwynn 1946). The medieval tenurial pattern was complicated by the landed possessions of Armagh’s many religious houses: many parishes were linked to the Armagh Culdees or the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. We are left in Armagh, as in other westerly areas inter Hibernicos, with the likelihood that many preReformation parishes were based on early ecclesiastical establishments, and material may sometimes help to confirm that this was the case. Armagh city is still not rich in early ecclesiastical material (Figure 27), though there is more than in Reeves’s day (see his complaint: 1860, 3). 1.

No search through medieval and Plantation sources has been made for Armagh, equivalent to Reeves’s for other northern dioceses (1847 and 1850). The need for such work remains.

[50] There is material at Killevy, Kilnasaggart and Tynan, but nothing at Kilcluney, Killuney and Seagoe. Material is reported but lost at Derrynoose and Killyman, and it is unlikely that the bell from Terryhoogan was associated in antiquity with Ballymore parish. Of the medieval parishes without early written references Eglish is probably the most interesting. There is the strong possibility of an early church site in the parish in Tamlaght townland, and it can be argued that Eglish is a ‘late’ name, usually Norman or later. Yet in the large oval graveyard are two crosses. Is the site earlier than its name suggests? or are the crosses later than has usually been claimed? Further discussion of this problem will be found in the section on crosses (Chapter 6, (v)). The material evidence at Mullaghbrack - an important medieval parish, its incumbent the senior prebendary of the cathedral - is not conclusively early: a possible enclosure and a broken altar stone. There is no early material from Creggan,

FIG. 26: CO. ARMAGH: HISTORICAL MAP.

17

Drumcree, Loughgall and Shankill, and none from Tartaraghan to supplement the place-name evidence, but the strong suggestion of a large enclosure at Loughgilly supports the case for the present parish church occupying an early site.

hedge at Carrickcroppan, still visited for prayer. No church traditions survive, but I discovered no Penal associations either. There was certainly a church at nearby Maghernahely, but most of the material is destroyed, the simple cross-slab is undatable, and this may be a medieval chapel site. The ring-fort in Cashel townland has burial associations, and a souterrain and an inscribed stone are reported but not now visible. What is in doubt here, as also at Kildarton, is the antiquity of the ecclesiastical traditions. They may be early church sites, but they could also be originally secular enclosures taken over for use for burial or a church. The best-documented sites in Co. Londonderry (Figure 36) are Derry itself and Coleraine which occur frequently in a wide range of pre-Viking and later sources. Apart from these the sites are not well covered, although this was an area in which, according to their biographers, Patrick and Columba were both active. Only Derry, Camus and Coleraine appear in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’. Maghera is well-documented; Lissan appears in the annals in 744 but not afterwards; Church Island and probably Dungiven are found in the earlier martyrologies. There is, however, one possible addition to this short list, not previously noted. Balteagh appears on the map on the grounds of its early terminology, but it may be identifiable with a church appearing in M.T. at 23 December: ‘Colmán of Clúain dá Fhíach’. [52] The late M.D. adds: ‘in Cíannachta of Glenn Geimin in Ulster’ and gives the alias ‘Both dá Fhíach’, from which Balteagh may be derived. Co1mán is a very common name, but it does seem that an early patron of the parish was a Colmán.

FIG. 27: CO. ARMAGH: MATERIAL MAP.

The two undocumented early church sites to emerge most clearly on the evidence of material are Cloghinny and Drumconwell (Figure 2). The cross-carved boulder alone would hardly be decisive at Cloghinny, but the fieldname, Shankill, and the reported souterrain strongly suggest a forgotten church site. The Drumconwell ogam stone was found in ‘Graveyard Field’. There is no reference to a church and nothing more is known of the site, but the ogam suggests very early activity there. [51] It lies in Lisnadill parish, in which the parish church seems to occupy a fairly recent site, and there is another abandoned graveyard in Ballymoran townland (Appendix B). There seem to be no ecclesiastical associations at Tullyvallan, but the presence of two cross-carved stones is noteworthy, and a lost church site is possible, even in this rugged, rocky landscape. Still less clear is the significance of the single cross-carved boulder in the

FIG. 36: CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY – HISTORICAL MAP.

Tamlaghtard, Duncrun and perhaps Clooney1 appear first in the ‘Tripartite Life’, which also includes collective 18

references to unnamed churches in the territory of the Fir Li, the Faughan and Moyola river valleys, and Ciannacht. It must have been a reference of this kind that led the eighteenth-century mason to cut the date 474 on the door of Banagher church (P1. 47a). We cannot be so confident!

All the remains at Skreen were ploughed up in the midnineteenth century. A small group of Lough Foyle sites appear first in 1197 Clooney (also 1179), Dergbruagh, Faughanvale and Enagh - but all except Dergbruagh have early terminology. ‘Erenagh’ and other early terms are found in use at nearly all the pre-Reformation parish churches in the county. We know this primarily from Reeves’s work in editing Colton’s visitation records, and it must be recognised that the absence of ‘e’ symbols in south-east Derry (Armagh diocese) and in the north-east, east of the Bann (Connor diocese), may reflect a lack of work rather than a real difference. Magherafelt was included on the grounds of the place-name (Arthurs, J.B., in B.U.P.N.S. V part I (1957), 34).

Although there are strong Columban connections at Ballynascreen the earliest reference I have found is in 1132 (A.L.C.). Cainnech was a native of the Drumachose area, but the church is not mentioned in early sources. The title ‘comarb of Cainnech in Ciannacht’ appears from at least the mid-eleventh century onwards, and persists through the Middle Ages, for example in the Armagh Registers. Aghadowey and Tamlaght Finlagan first appear in late glosses to martyrologies, and there is a marked clustering of annal references in the eleventh and especially the twelfth century. In addition to Ballynascreen and Drumachose we find that Church Island re-emerges from silence in 1129, Bovevagh appears in 1100, Banagher in 1121 and Skreen probably in 1165.

The material remains in Co. Derry (Figure 37) are, with the exception of a few sites, very poor indeed.

There is much confusion in the literature, and some in my mind, about Skreen. 1. This may be Domnach Min-cluane, one of Patrick’s seven churches near the Faughan (Stokes, W., 1887, 155). It appears first in annals in 1179, and erenagh land is found in 1615 (Reeves 1850, 32).

FIG. 37: CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY: MATERIAL MAP.

There is no early material from Coleraine and a solitary bullaun at Derry, but rather more at Camus and Maghera. The emphasis of twelfth-century annals on this area seems to be reflected in the material at Banagher, Dungiven and Maghera which forms a striking contrast to the general poverty of remains elsewhere in the county. Of the other sites with some early documentation there is no early material at Aghadowey, Ballynascreen (except for a possible bell), Drumachose, Lissan and Skreen.

PLATE 47A: ‘DATE STONE’ ON BANAGHER CHURCH DOOR.

[53] There is the danger of confusion with Ballynascreen in the south of the county, and many writers have failed to avoid this, sometimes making confusion worse confounded by involving Duncrun and Tamlaghtard too (recently Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 41). I think it likely that the shrines of Teampall na Sgrín violated in 1165 (M.I.A.) were from Skreen, whilst Scrin Colum-cille in Tir-Eogain plundered in 1204 (A.U.) was Ballynascreen.

[54] There is unfortunately no early material at Balteagh to support my suggestion about its early origins. Twelve of the ‘erenagh’ sites have no early material and Desertoghill, Errigal and Killelagh have only bullauns. It is not surprising, therefore, to discover from Figure 2 that the material does not suggest many ‘new’ church sites. There was clearly an early church somewhere in the 19

area of Lettershendony townland, not far from the river Faughan (Figure 47c). From a site in Oghill townland marked only by a well comes the large, plain but finely worked cross. But in Killennan townland, nearby to the south-west, is another church site, now a mound in a field. The Ordnance Surveyors recorded ‘Seinlis Fort’ nearby. It is always possible that names arise from antiquarian speculation, but one of these sites may be Domnach Senliss of the ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes 1887, 155).

Other sites appear first in later Patrician sources, including Bright, Comber and Raholp, in later martyrologies or glosses (many, including Killinchy, Rubane and St. John’s Point) and annals, such as Kilclief and Drumbo. The inclusion of Newry is perhaps anomalous: I have tried to exclude new monastic foundations, even if they are within my chronological limits - such as Savignac Erenagh in Co. Down - and Newry was a Cistercian foundation of 1153 (but the site had strong Patrician traditions, a cross-slab survives, and the possibility remains of a re-foundation on an earlier site).

The un-datable rough cross at Altaghoney may mark a lost church, but the church traditions are very vague. Agherton, east of the Bann, may be an early site: there is a large circular graveyard and a souterrain nearby. There seems no doubt that Ballywillin church dates from about 1200, but this coastal area was obviously exposed to early Anglo-Norman influence, and this may be an early medieval parish church. I have come across nothing to indicate pre-Norman activity. The significance of the hole-stone at Agivey and the bullauns at Tamlaght is uncertain.

FIG. 48: CO. DOWN – HISTORICAL MAP.

The well-documented early church sites all have some material (Figure 49), though the material from Bangor and Movilla is poor considering their former importance. Nendrum is outstandingly rich. Of the other sites with pre-Viking documentation there is material at Derry, Donaghmore, Down, Drumsallagh and Saul, but none at Annahilt, Inch, Magheralin and Tamlaght, and none is reported from Dunsey Island, Cranny Island and Gortgrib. There is unfortunately no material to support the place-name evidence at Donaghadee and only the line of a possible enclosure at Donaghcloney. We find a gradation amongst sites which appear in later sources, from those with no material, like Kilclief, to those with poor material, like the bullaun at Clonduff, or destroyed material (graves and an enclosure at Bright), to quite rich sites like Maghera, Raholp and St. John’s Point.

FIG. 47C: MULLABOY AREA MAP.

County Down is approached only by Fermanagh of the six northern counties for its wealth of documentation and material remains. The various strata of the Patrician story, Bangor’s rich scholarly and liturgical tradition, annals, martyrologies and litanies, all contribute to the historical picture (Figure 48). [55] Outstanding amongst documented sites is Bangor, followed by Movilla, Nendrum and Down. Thirteen other sites on the map have some pre-Viking documentation and they are well-distributed over the county.

The material evidence adds several certain sites to the documented churches and other possible ones (Figure 2 (above)).

20

[56] Lawlor’s small excavation on Chapel Island did not clarify its date, and the possibility remains that the enclosure is earlier than the ecclesiastical occupation. Excavation is needed to resolve the uncertainties, but it seems very likely that this was a pre-Norman church site. The cross-slab from Ardtole is certainly early, and the souterrain and traces of enclosure increase the likelihood of an early church on the hill. The cross-carved pillar at Legananny stands at the head of a small graveyard mound, and this is a likely church site, though there are no structural traces.

Kilhoran, a plain cross-shaft at Ballyorgan and a featureless ruined church in a walled graveyard at Temple Cormac, none of these is closely datable or conclusively pre-Norman. [57] Like Down, Fermanagh is rich in early ecclesiastical material, and many sites have some written references (Figure 62). ‘Multitudinous Devenish’ (M.O.) stands out for its good documentary cover, but no other site in the county approaches it. Aghalurcher, Clontivrin, Drummully, Galloon, Inishmacsaint and Monea are mentioned in preViking sources, mainly the martyrologies.

The Drumadonnell cross must be derived from an early site, but it is not clear from which one as there are several church sites in Drumgooland parish, a point which will be developed further below. The cross-slabs at Killyleagh are not closely datable, but the Romanesque fragment establishes the existence of a stone church there at about the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, and it seems very likely to be a pre-Norman site.

Several Fermanagh sites appear in the later saints’ ‘Lives’ which do not help very much in elucidating their early history: in the cases of ‘Lasair of Killesher and Aghavea’ and ‘Naile of Kinawley’, for example, in Kenney’s words: ‘it is impossible to say more than that the founders of these churches lived at some time in the heroic age of the old Irish Christianity’ (1929, 465). Galloon appears in the ‘Life of Tigernach’ and Cleenish in the ‘Life of Fintan Munnu’. Other sites are included on the basis of persisting early terminology, backed up in the cases of Donagh and Pubble by place-name evidence. Derryvullan may be identifiable with a place mentioned in the martyrologies, but this is not certain. Devenish is outstandingly rich in material (Figure 63) as in written sources. Of the other sites with pre-Viking documentation Galloon and Inishmacsaint have clearly early material, but Clontivrin, Drummully and Monea have nothing, whilst Aghalurcher has only the small cross-carved stone at St. Ronan’s well. None of the sites which appear first in later sources is rich in material: there is a large enclosure at Rossorry, a little material at Aghavea, Cleenish, Boho and Inishkeen, but little or nothing elsewhere. Of the sites with early terminology Derryvullan has a cross-carved stone, Donagh some architectural fragments, Kiltierney an impressive enclosure, and Pubble and possibly Templenaffrin bullauns. [58] The material evidence does help to fill out the distribution pattern considerably, even in this welldocumented area (Figure 2). Kilcoo must have been an important site, though much of its material is destroyed. The plain Aghanaglack cross is not closely datable, but there are reports of burials and a souterrain nearby. The different strands of evidence combine at Teesnaghtan in a similar way: the cross-carved stone alone would hardly be conclusive, but the vague burial traditions and especially the ‘teach’ element in the place-name suggest another lost church site. There is enough early material at Killadeas and White Island to add these to the list of certainly early sites.

FIG. 49: CO. DOWN – MATERIAL MAP.

The dates of the cross-carved stones at Killygartan and Knockavalley and the cross-base at Clonlea are uncertain; these remain possible early church sites, but the Penal traditions at Killygartan must be remembered. Although Kilkeel was an important medieval parish, I have found no pre-Norman references. The rough cross and base there are not distinctively early, but the graveyard lies within a rath. The destroyed slab from Seaforde was certainly an early grave-marker, but it was found in a souterrain and we do not know where it originated. The material which O’Laverty described at Kilmeloge has all disappeared except for the enclosure, and its ecclesiastical nature is not certain. Stone-built graves at

There are other sites in Fermanagh with less clearly preNorman material but which may have had early churches.

21

FIG. 62: CO. FERMANAGH – HISTORICAL MAP.

FIGURE 63: CO. FERMANAGH – MATERIAL MAP.

22

FIG. 75: CO. TYRONE - HISTORICAL MAP.

There are clear enclosures at Friar’s Island and Ballyhill (with a bullaun) but their ecclesiastical associations are uncertain, and there are slight enclosure traces at Kiltober and Tully. There are bullauns at Holywell, Killydrum and Drumgay Lough, but at none of these sites can a church be confidently suggested. There is unfortunately no material to fill the long gap between the carved figures and the recent use of the graveyard on Boa Island, but the graveyard is circular and there may be a trace of a larger enclosure in nearby hedge-lines.

[59] Dr. Hughes thinks this is late eighth-century, if not earlier (1972, 209). Errigal Keerogue and Trillick are first found (in the annals) at the very beginning of the Viking period (810 and 814). Other sites appear first in the ‘Tripartite Life’, especially the group west of Lough Neagh, in annals (Magheraglass in 952) or later martyrologies (Urney). Donacavey and Donaghanie are included on the basis of their place-names, and others on the grounds of early terminology. Amongst these it is rather surprising to find Carrickmore: the Columban traditions here are very strong, yet the first written reference I have found is at 1195 (M.I.A.) and the Columba connection is elaborated only in O’Donnell’s very late ‘Life’.

Written sources and material are disappointingly sparse in Co. Tyrone. Best documented are the two churches later to become episcopal centres, Ardstraw and Clogher (Figure 75).

The amount of material represented on the map (Fig. 76) is meagre apart from crosses and bells. Clogher’s importance is to some extent reflected in the material, but the absence of structural remains here as elsewhere in the county is striking.

Arboe, Ardtrea, Bodoney, Derryloran, Donaghmore and Glenarb first appear in pre-Viking sources, mainly the martyrologies. Ballyclog and Donaghenry have been included in the earlier group because they appear as ‘Domnach Fothirbe’ and ‘Domnach Fairne’ (for Fainre?) in the ‘Litany of the Seven Holy Bishops’ (Plummer 1925, 70).

At Ardstraw, however, there is no early material at all, nothing at Trillick and Derryloran and only a doubtfully associated crozier fragment from Ardtrea. 23

The Bodoney material is enigmatic - a rough crossshaped cross-slab and a possibly natural multiple ‘bullaun’. Carved crosses occur at other sites with early documentation - Arboe, Donaghmore, Glenarb and Errigal Keerogue - and a less clearly early cross at Clonfeacle. The two undocumented ‘donagh’ sites have bullauns and (at Donacavey) a rough cross. At sites with

early terminology we find a bell and rough cross at Termonamongan, bells at Cappagh and Drumragh, a bullaun at Glennoo, a cross-carved boulder at Desertcreat, and wells, a small enclosure and a rough cross-slab at Carrickmore.

FIG. 76: CO. TYRONE – MATERIAL MAP.

There are very few undocumented sites which, on the basis of material, can be added to the map of early sites (Figure 2).

must be content with a few dry crumbs’ (quoted in U.J.A. 4 (1897-8), 2-3). My searches have not produced very much ‘new’ archaeological material to supplement this meagre diet.

[60] The decorated cross base at Killoan, slight burial traditions and the name all suggest that a church once stood here. Tullyniskan is the only parish church in south-east Tyrone without written evidence to warrant inclusion on the map: a large bullaun and a fine bell from the townland strengthen the case for an early church hereabouts. Lackagh with its figure-carved stone and Sessagh of Gallan are possibly but by no means certainly early church sites. Reeves observed in a letter of November 1869: ‘The county of Tyrone is particularly barren in ecclesiastical records or authorities, so that one

Figure 2 brings together the strands of the discussion so far and pinpoints the archaeological contribution, mapping the undocumented sites which have material evidence of early ecclesiastical activity. The threefold distinction is clearly subjective, but it has been reached by weighing much evidence, and the map presents the picture which the evidence at present available seems to me to suggest. The number of sites with strong or reasonably strong evidence is thirty-three, a not inconsiderable addition to the documented sites. Of 24

the thirty-four sites with less clearly early material the possibility remains that some were early church sites, and it is to be hoped that future work will clarify their nature and date.

Corry pointed out that ‘Matthew MacCasey, Bishop of Clogher from 1287 to 1316, went to the church of Constans in Bo-Inis to translate the relics of the Blessed Constans and also those of Bishop Ferguiminth of Culmaine [Magheraculmoney], to the church of Culmaine, to Clogher Cathedral and elsewhere’ (LowryCorry, Wilson and Waterman 1959, 63). There are no traditions of a festival on 14 November or other indications to confirm this identification, but it remains a possible one.

The thirty-three sites do not significantly alter the distribution pattern of historically attested churches but they do supplement it. In Antrim they strengthen the remarkable concentration inland from Ballycastle and fill out the distribution in the valleys of the Lagan, the Main and the Braid.

Why have so many sites sunk into obscurity? We have seen in Chapter 2 that the written sources indicate some of the reasons behind the failure of churches to survive and flourish. There was serious mortality during periods of plague. The 549 and 664 outbreaks are best known, but the annals refer to many others, as well as famine and drought; one example from many comes in 764 (A.U.): ‘Great snow for nearly three months ... The great scarcity of famine ... Great drought beyond measure…The bloody flux in all Ireland.’ The economic stability of some early monasteries may have been precarious at periods of famine or drought. Written sources do not usually dwell on failure, but they can give us an occasional glimpse of adverse conditions.

[61] Material is sparse in north Armagh, but in the higher, less intensively cultivated south there are several previously unknown sites. The contribution in Derry and Tyrone we have seen is disappointing. The sites in Down are widely distributed, but the already marked coastal concentration is further emphasised. The clearly early sites in Fermanagh add to the Lough Erne concentration and fill some gaps in the south-west. Why do so many sites not find a place in the written sources? Some may not in fact be absent from documents, but the link between the site and the source may have been lost, for example by a change of name. There are many references to named and unnamed sites in particular areas which have not been firmly identified with sites on the ground. There is, for example, the saint listed in a pre-Viking litany ‘Glunsalach of Slíab Fuait’, the Fews of south Armagh (Plummer 1925, 57). There are collective references and unidentified churches in the ‘Tripartite Life’. There are many unidentified sites in the martyrologies and also un-located saints (Chapter 2, above).

1.

I am grateful to Mrs Flanagan for confirming this.

[63] The ‘Life of Colmán Elo’ is late, but it describes how Colmán sent four monks to a cell which he had founded, but they did not have enough to eat and drink and died, while elsewhere in the ‘Life’ we hear of monks begging in cases of need (Plummer 1910, I, 260 and 262). The annals show other ways in which churches could suffer. A great wind damaged Derry and killed people at Killevy in 1146 (A.F.M.). Armagh was consumed by several accidental fires. Such events were not necessarily disastrous, but they must have been debilitating and they may have been fatal to a weak establishment.

It may, with patient local fieldwork and documentary study gradually become possible to link some of the undocumented sites with unlocated places in the sources.1 The case of Balteagh has been mentioned. Another possible link involves the parish of Drumgooland. Here there are several graveyards - Drumgooland graveyard in Deehommed townland, Drumadonnell (with the cross), Legananny, Drumlee and Magheramayo. In the lastnamed Reeves reported a well, ‘Tober Donnagh’, at which stations were held on 24 June (1847, 315-6). In M.T. on 24 June appears ‘Cormac of Senchoimét’.

[62] The editor suggested no identification, but the placename clearly includes the same element as Deehommed,1 so the martyrology restores a lost (if obscure) patron to this area.

The fate of a monastic site was tied up with the fortunes of its founder’s kin. In the case of grants by women for a monastery it seems likely that the land might have reverted after the donor’s lifetime to the kin and so perhaps pass out of ecclesiastical use. It is difficult to point to particular cases, but Dillon’s study of the position of women in early Irish law strongly suggests that this may have happened (in Thurneysen 1936, 12979 and Hughes 1972, 234-5). Another late ‘Life’ describes a disagreement between brothers, one making a land grant to St. Molua, the other opposing it and breaking down what the saint had built (Plummer 1910, II, 215). Political events and family circumstances may have had repercussions which it is impossible for us to gauge but which may have caused some monasteries to contract or fail.

It has been suggested that White Island may be the lost ‘Eo Inis’. In M.G. at 14 November Constans of Erne is listed ‘who was a gracious chief of rule’ glossed ‘priest and anchorite from Eo-inis in Loch Erne’. Constans’s obit appears in A.U. at 777 and 778. Lady Dorothy Lowry-

A source of damage we know much more about was warfare. Although the extent of the Viking impact remains a matter of controversy (see further Chapter 7) it is likely that some church sites were abandoned as a result of severe raids. I have emphasised that arguments

1.

Some suggested identifications, especially Hogan’s, are listed in the inventory, but I have not been able to pursue many of these in the field.

25

from silence are dangerous, and it is not possible to be sure that activity ceased at Bangor and Nendrum after Viking raids, but it seems very likely that some of the weaker monasteries did not survive

pairs of sites on a local basis than I have been able to give, and excavation could help to resolve the chronological relationship between sites such as Banagher and Templemoyle.

[64]. When parish churches were built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in areas where the old monastic establishment had decayed a new site may have been chosen and the old site may have remained abandoned. It is unlikely that it will be possible to trace the decline of many sites in detail from written sources or assign the failure to a particular cause. But there are clearly many circumstances in which a church could have sunk into oblivion. As Bede observed in his ‘Life of Cuthbert’ (Chap. 8) ‘All the ways of this world are as fickle and unstable as a sudden storm at sea’, and it is in the light of these varied possibilities that the ‘undocumented’ early sites must be considered.

We are left with the possibility that some crosses and cross-carved stones were from the first isolated and not associated with any church. Crosses were used to mark the site of a noted event, for example where Columba rested on his last walk at Iona (Anderson 1961, 523), and those will not necessarily stand close to churches. [66] Crosses are known to have marked routes in southwest England.1 Cross-carved stones may have marked burials at an early period before graveyard burial was common. These and other possibilities warn us against assuming that ecclesiastical material necessarily marks a church site. The evidence in each case must be weighed up. We have seen that there are no church traditions at Drumaqueran; there are no accounts of burials and the place-name is not helpful. It could be on a route; it could mark an isolated burial or an event; it may mark an early church; all are possible explanations. The Drumbrughas cross lies on a north-south route across Slieve Beagh and the Tullybrisland cross at the boundary of townlands. In neither case is a church likely, but coffins may have been rested at these points. The Findermore cross, cut on a standing stone, marks an event, not a church, and the church traditions at Altaghoney are very slight.

If a site went out of ecclesiastical use what would have happened to it? If an enclosed site had not been in religious use for long and then reverted to secular occupation it may show little or no sign to distinguish it from ‘ordinary’ raths and cashels. We can only hope for stray finds, reports of burials and above all excavation to tell us whether some proportion of the estimated thirty to forty thousand ring-forts in Ireland were ever church sites. But some material trace may have remained, such as a cross-slab, or a place-name element, or some ‘odour of sanctity’ may have lingered, leading to the use of the site for burial (discussed further in Chapter 6).

There has been no attempt in this chapter to distinguish between Professor Thomas’s classes of ‘undeveloped’ and ‘developed’ cemeteries (1971, chap. 3). It is relying far too heavily on negative evidence to attempt such a distinction from surface inspection and the residual pattern of surviving remains. Only large-scale excavation can establish satisfactorily whether a church and other buildings once stood on a site. The only realistic approach in the northern counties seemed to be to distinguish sites with early material as possible early church sites. Further refinement must await excavation.

What lies behind the stories of a move associated with a number of northern churches? Sometimes an animal is involved: a deer took St. Fedbair from Killydrum, where she had started to build a church, to Monea; a stag led St. Muiredach uphill from Templemoyle, where he had started to build, to Banagher; two ravens flew from the old site to Balteagh. [65] The present site at Ballynascreen was chosen only after three previous attempts had been foiled by a monster. There is a tradition that the church begun at Drumagarner was never finished but transferred to Drumnacannon overnight (Tamlaght O’Crilly). Aghnakilla was said to be the intended site for Ahoghill church and there is alleged to be an unfinished church at Drumbolcan near Rasharkin. There is a townland called Armaghbreague south of Armagh where Patrick intended building a church, and a Savalbregach near Saul where stone-built graves are reported.

1.

It seems very likely that a move from one church site to another sometimes lies behind such stories. Dunraven and Reeves suggested this in the case of Banagher and Templemoyle. But the stories do not help us to date the move. They could have originated with an actual event, for example the abandoning of Templemoyle and the establishment of Banagher church in the late eleventh century, or they could have been made up to explain the puzzling circumstance of a long-disused church near a flourishing one. This question needs closer attention to 26

For example across Foxtor Mire on Dartmoor and in Cornwall: Hirst, F.C., The Ancient Crosses and Cross Sites of Zennor (no date).

[67]

Chapter 5 EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SITES - TOPOGRAPHY However poor the northern sites may be in material and however inadequate their documentation the sites themselves remain, and they invite questions. Why are the sites where they are? What locations were favoured, within what altitude range? What was the relationship between sites and the sea, rivers and lakes? How are they placed in relation to communications, soils, vegetation and past and present population patterns?

Hill-slope and valley side sites have been combined in the histogram because the two classes grade into each other and the distinction was often unclear. A certain number of sites are not easy to classify, as Oliver Davies also found (1943, 64): these are usually in flat or gently sloping ground and offer no particular features for classification.

The aim must be eventually to answer these questions and place early churches firmly in their topographical, ecological and cultural setting. It is, however, clear that this will be a major long-term task, requiring an interdisciplinary approach by geographers and palaeoecologists as well as archaeologists. In this chapter I offer simply the observations which I have been able to make during fieldwork about the topography of the sites in the inventory.1

FIG. 5: HISTOGRAM: ALTITUDE. 1.

My analysis of location is offered with some diffidence as I lack a geographical training, and I have usually had to rely on the one-inch rather than larger scale Ordnance Survey maps.

[68] Much of Co. Antrim (Figure 18) is a high, exposed basalt plateau falling abruptly to the sea. The coastal strip is narrow but does offer some level or gently-sloping areas for settlement. Opening out to the coast are the deep, wide-floored glens, whilst the rivers draining from east and north into Lough Neagh have cut valleys deep into the upland mass. There are low-lying areas along the

FIG. 4: HISTOGRAM: SITUATION

For each county a topographical map has been prepared showing the sites against the background of relief and drainage, and two histograms cover all the counties, one showing situation and the other altitude (Figures 4 and 5). 27

Bann valley, around the shores of Lough Neagh and beside the Lagan.

valley floor in Glenariff (area of Drumnacur and Ardclinis seen from the air in Common 1964, 25 and 23). Glore (28) is on the valley side a little inland and Glynn (29) on a ridge beside the river away from the coast. [69] Some sites are on the valley floor, as at Glenavy (27) and Muckamore (38), but more commonly the lower valley floors are avoided and sites cluster on the valley sides of the Bann, Main, Braid and Six Mile Water. Skerry’s basalt mass (46) is unparalleled in the county, but ridge- and hilltop-sites include Culfeightrin (15) Drumeeny (20) and Duneane (25). The dense clustering of sites inland from Ballycastle is remarkable and will be considered in more detail later in this chapter. There is a very marked contrast between the topography of north and south Armagh (Figure 28). The south is largely upland, with much inhospitable, mountainous country, whilst the north is much lower, now drained, fertile and well-populated, but formerly wet and heavily wooded (Coote 1804). Glacial drumlins (seen clearly in Common 1964, 20-1) provided better drained higher ‘islands’ for settlement. The mountains are dissected by the rivers which drain into Lough Neagh and Dundalk Bay.

FIG. 18: CO. ANTRIM: TOPOGRAPHY.

The altitude range in the county is from sea-level to about 1800 feet. The histogram (Figure 5) shows an even spread amongst the sites up to 300 feet, then a decline which is very marked after 400 feet. Only one site, not certainly early, lies above 600 feet, that is above the lowest third of the altitudinal range (Bowen 1956, 107-9). The emphasis in location (Figure 4) is on valleys followed by hilltops and coastal sites. Rathlin (44) and Ram’s Island (41) are the only true islands, though Inispollan (30), now on a slight eminence on the valley floor, must have been virtually an island, as must Ballinderry (7), a peninsula in Portmore Lough. The scatter of churches along the coast occupy varied sites. Templastragh (49) is high on an exposed sea-cliff, Drumnakill (22) on a level rocky spur above Murlough Bay and Kilroot (35) on the marl of the low-lying shore of Belfast Lough. Others are on the gently-sloping platform at the foot of the cliffs but well above the sea, as at Ardclinis (5), Solar (47) and St Cunning (48). Drumnacur (21) is low-lying, close to a stream on the

FIG. 28: CO. ARMAGH: TOPOGRAPHY.

28

The altitude range is from sea-level to nearly 1900 feet at Slieve Gullion, and the sites (Figure 5) cluster from 0 to 400 feet with a strong concentration between 300 and 400 feet, and only a scatter higher. Figure 4 shows a strong preference for hilltop locations. These are found in the more rugged southern half at higher altitudes, as at Cashel (57), Derrynoose (60) and Mullaghbrack (75), but very prominently in the lower north. Armagh (53) itself is a magnificent hilltop site (Figure 30, see the 200 foot contour, and many published air photographs including Common 1964, 93), and others include Killyman (68), Kilmore (69) and Eglish (63, figure 29). Loughgilly (73) must once have been virtually an island hilltop in the bog (Figure 29). Killevy (66) and Cloghinny (58) are on the lower slopes of Slieve Gullion and Kildarton (65) on a gentle hill-slope above a lough (all Figure 29).

Co. Derry (Figure 38) is largely mountainous, with the Sperrins in the south continued northwards in the upland masses of Carntogher, Craiggore, Keady Mountain and Binevenagh. The topography is also dominated by four major river systems, to the east is the wide valley of the Bann and its tributaries; the Moyola valley opens out to the north-west corner of Lough Neagh; the Roe runs through a fairly narrow valley to the Foyle estuary; the Faughan with its many tributaries bisects the mountains to the west.

[70] The valley floor churches are all sited on slight ridges or hillocks above the water level, as at Ballymore (54, Figure 29), Kilnasaggart (70) and Tassagh (79). Figure 28 shows a marked clustering of sites close to the rivers, including Creggan (59) on a river cliff, Seagoe (76), Tassagh (79), and Tynan (82) on a hilltop. The only possible island site, Annaloist on Oxford Island in Lough Neagh (77A) is not included in the histogram as the sites of the early churches of Shankill parish are so uncertain.

FIG. 38: CO. DERRY/LONDONDERRY – TOPOGRAPHY.

The altitude range in the county is from sea-level to 2,240 feet in the Sperrins, but Figure 5 shows a clear preference for the lower end of this range. There is a marked concentration of sites between 0 and 200 feet. They continue in some numbers to 400 feet, above which there are very few. Figure 4 shows only one island, Church Island in Lough Beg, now approached across mud flats (96, P1. 2). Hilltops are well-represented and widely distributed over the county. The hill on which Enagh (110) stands is rather like an island, surrounded by loughs and bog (Figure 40). Derry (102) is on a hilltop in a bend of the Foyle and Duncrun (108) on a ridge top overlooking the Foyle. [71] Banagher (93) is on a hilltop overlooking the Owenrigh river, Kilrea (117) near the Bann, Termoneeny (129) near a tributary of the Moyola (Figure 40) and Ballinderry (88) near the river of the same name. More marked in Derry than any other northern county are promontory sites. Tamlaghtard (125) is on a ridge in the foothills of Binevenagh, but more commonly the site lies in the bend of a river or at the confluence of two rivers. Dungiven (109) is high above the Roe, Cumber (100, Figure 39) high between the Faughan and the Glenrandal, and Bovevagh (94) on a steep-sided promontory between two tributaries of the Roe, whilst Agivey is lower lying in

FIG. 29: TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: LOUGHGILLY, KLLEVY, CLOGHINNY, KILDARTON, BALLYMORE, EGLISH.

29

a bend of the Agivey river (86, Figure 39). Hill-slope and valley side sites include Mullaboy (Oghill) and Killennan (121 and 115, Figure 47), Altaghoney (87) and Faughanvale (112), but valley floor sites are also prominent, again often on a slight shoulder or hillock above the river as at Ballynascreen (89), Drumachose (106) and Tamlaght Finlagan (126). The overall distribution is very clearly related to the rivers: few sites are far from one of the major rivers and their tributaries. Also marked is the clustering of sites around the fringes of the higher land, seen clearly, for example, around Binevenagh in the north-west. Clooney (98) and Dergbruagh (101) are close to the Foyle shore; several other sites are not far from the sea but are not truly coastal.

[72] The altitude range is wide, from sea-level to almost 2,800 feet, but the range amongst the sites (Figure 5) is markedly low, reflecting the strong easterly and coastal emphasis in their distribution. There is a dense concentration below 100 feet (many under 50), and a rapid falling-off above 200 feet (though Drumadonnell (148) has not been included because of the uncertainties already discussed).

FIG. 50: CO. DOWN – TOPOGRAPHY.

There are four island sites in Strangford Lough, and Inch (155) is an island in the Quoile marshes. Some sites are close to the shore, like Holywood (154), Kilclief (157) and St. John’s Point (175) and these are included in Figure 4 as coastal. But very common are sites a little up to a mile - inland. These include Bangor (134) on a gentle slope to the shore, Killinchy (160) on a hilltop, Ardtole (132) on a ridge over looking the sea, Kilkeel on a hillock (159; Common 1964, 78) and Kilbroney (156) on the valley side. These and others are conveniently close to the sea but not actually on the coast.

FIG. 40: TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: ENAGH & TERMONEENY.

Co. Down offers a wide range of possible locations (Figure 50). The east is low-lying and fertile, the west more mountainous. Over much of the county drumlins provide convenient modest hilltop sites, continued in the string of islands in Strangford Lough. The northern and western margins of the county are defined by the valleys of the Lagan, Bann and Newry rivers, whilst the upland mass rises from the Bann through Slieve Croob to the peaks of the Mournes, then drops quite steeply to Carlingford Lough.

Hilltops are prominent in Figure 4 and include Annahilt (131), Down (146), Killinchy (160) and Tullylish (178). Valley floor sites include Donaghcloney (144) in the bend of a river, Dromore (147) at a crossing, Drumsallagh (150) and Maghera (166). Other sites are on the valley sides such as Clonduff (138), Drumbo (149) and Kilbroney (156). The riverine emphasis is once again clear in Figure 50.

30

FIG. 64: CO. FERMANAGH – TOPOGRAPHY.

Co. Fermanagh’s topography (Figure 64) is dominated by the Erne with its numerous waterways, islands and tributaries. The land immediately around the loughs is low-lying and damp, but its tributaries rise in the higher land to the north-east and south-west.

The islands range in size from large (Boa, 184 and Galloon, 196), through medium (Devenish, 190, Figure 66, and Cleenish, 186) to small (White Island, 221, Figure 71) and very small (Friars’ Island, 195). The church site is usually quite near the island shore. There are a few prominent hill tops, including Derryvullan (189) and Rossorry (215, Figure 65) overlooking the Erne, Magheracross (210), Ballyhill (183) and Drummully (194). Most of the other sites are related to the rivers, some, like Clontivrin (187) and Magheraveely (212) on the valley floor, others on the valley sides, including Aghanaglack (181) and Pubble (214). There is a small upland concentration in Boho parish (185), and a cluster of sites along the valley of Lough MacNean in the south-west.

[73] Lough MacNean lies in a narrower valley, the welldrained, gently-sloping lower valley sites providing attractive sites for settlement. The altitude range in the county is from about 150 to 2,180 feet, and the sites lie largely below 300 feet, with a particular concentration below 200 feet (Figure 5). A scatter of sites continues to 500 feet, with the possibly early site at Killydrum over 600 feet. This is the only county to show an emphasis on islands (Figure 4). At least nine sites are on islands in Lough Erne, and others are on gently-sloping lough shores like Derrybrusk (188), Holywell (197), and Killadeas (201).

Co. Tyrone is very big and as McEvoy observed in his 1802 ‘Statistical Survey’ its surface is ‘wonderfully diversified’ (Figure 77).

31

FIG. 77: CO. TYRONE – TOPOGRAPHY.

Its range is from about 50 feet on the shore of Lough Neagh to 2,240 feet at the Derry border, and there is a sharp contrast between the low-lying, fertile areas of the east and the south-east and the more rugged west and north. The low area west of Lough Neagh must have been damp and wooded, but there are many ‘islands’ of higher land for settlement.

Clogher (232), Donacavey (238) and Errigal Keerogue (250, Pl. 1) are on prominent ridge tops. Most of these ridge and hilltop sites are close to rivers, and the general pattern of distribution (Figure 77) is clearly related to the river valleys. Bodoney is on the valley floor, close to the Glenelly River (227, Figure 79c) but Killeeshil (253) is on one of a series of glacial ridges along the valley and Kilskeery (257) is on a level shoulder just above the river.

[74] There are important river valleys: the Blackwater to the south and west, the Ballinderry and Killymoon rivers flowing east to Lough Neagh, and the numerous tributaries of the Foyle dissecting the high land in the west. The altitude range of the sites is fairly high (Figure 5) with a particular concentration between 300 and 400 feet, and a few sites still higher. Hilltop location appears very prominently in Figure 4.

Sites on the valley side include Ardstaw (224, Figure 79) and Termonamongan (263), and Camus (228), Derryloran (256) and Donaghedy (240) stand high on river cliffs. Arboe is on a rocky promontory beside Lough Neagh (223, Figure 79 and P1. 2) and Carrickmore, as its name indicates, is a rocky mass dominating the Camowen valley with the church site in the shelter of the rock.

Some of these hilltop sites are in the heavily glaciated south and centre of the county, such as Aghaloo (222) and Carnteel (230) on the north side of the Blackwater valley and Donaghanie (239) in the boggy valley of the Camowen river. Ardtrea and Donaghmore (225 and 242, Figure 78) are hilltop sites west of Lough Neagh, and

[75] Having looked at each county in turn we can now examine the kinds of locations which have emerged as prominent in the north.1 Islands bulk large only in Fermanagh and Strangford Lough. Elsewhere they are not common - Ram’s Island in Lough Neagh, Church Island in Lough Beg and Rathlin off north-east Antrim. 32

monastery, though the remains are admittedly sparse. Written sources provide one hint. Could Cranny Island in Strangford Lough have been a retreat from Down? It is referred to in a ninth-century gloss on an eighth-century gospel as: ‘the island called ‘Crannach’ of Downpatrick’ (full extract under Bangor in the inventory). I have unfortunately not been able to pursue this site in the field. The close proximity of the sites on Boa and Lustymore Islands is interesting, but their history seems impenetrably obscure. Nothing but excavation is likely to throw further light on this problem: it could show, for example, whether any of the island sites has structures appropriate to an eremitic monastery. Excavation showed beyond doubt that Nendrum had many of the material attributes of a major monastery. There seems to be no evidence for the building of early churches on crannogs. Oliver Davies suggested that this was because of the weight of stone buildings (1943, 63). This objection has little force for a period of largely timber construction, but crannogs would certainly have proved very inconvenient for burial.

FIG. 79C: BODONEY – TOPOGRAPHY OF SITE.

Generalisations about the choice of islands for monastic retreats have been all too common (e.g. Davies 1943, 63). A distinction made long ago by Westropp (in Cochrane 1904) and recently by Lucas (1967, 208) and Thomas (1971, 35) must be insisted on: between accessible and inaccessible islands and between important island monasteries and small eremitic monasteries or hermitages. In Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ we read about Iona, head of the great paruchia of Columba, and also the island of Hinba which was used as a retreat. In Northumbria the island of Lindisfarne was the episcopal see but there was also Cuthbert’s hermitage on Farne Island (Bede’s ‘Life of Cuthbert’, Colgrave 1940, 215-7). In Ireland the contrast is clear between Iniscaltra in Lough Derg and Inchcleraun in Lough Ree on the one hand and Skellig Michael and Inishtooskert in Co. Kerry on the other (dramatically illustrated in Pochin Mould 1972, pls 86 and 83 compared with 100 and 109).

We have seen that some sites are close to the sea shore, such as Kilroot, Kilclief and Clooney, but very striking is the positioning of churches a little inland, still easily accessible by sea but not immediately on the coast and sometimes not visible from the sea. [77] Professor Bowen found this was a feature of the siting of some Welsh coastal churches, such as Llanilltud Fawr (Glam., Bowen 1956, fig. 37, 125-6). Examples amongst my sites include Dunboe, Faughanvale, Layd, Glore, Glynn and Kilbroney. The conclusion seems to be that some measure of protection from unwelcome visitors by sea was sought as well as protection from the worst of the weather. We can note, however, that Inch, inland in the Quoile marshes, was devastated in 1001 as well as Kilclief on the coast (A.U.), and inland Enagh was plundered as well as coastal Clooney and Dergbruagh in 1197 (A.U.).

None of the northern island sites seems to be particularly inaccessible. Wakeman pointed out in his 1870 ‘Handbook to Lough Erne’ that there are over three hundred islands and fifty-two miles of unbroken navigable waterways in the Erne system, and John O’Donovan observed in the ‘Ordnance Survey Letters’: ‘from many passages in the Annals it appears that Lough Erne was the regular high-road through Fermanagh’ (O’Flanagan 1928, 26). 1.

Oliver Davies suggested that the main area for hilltop churches (including medieval churches) was Meath, Louth, Monaghan, east Cavan and north Armagh, with only a thin scatter elsewhere (1943, 62). He had in mind particularly churches on glacial drumlins and eskers, and even within these limits one must add sites like Donaghanie in mid-Tyrone which Davies thought was blank (apart from Aghaloo and Carnteel). And if other hill and ridge tops are included the distribution is seen, to be very wide, ranging from Duncrun overlooking the Foyle to Culfeightrin in north-east Antrim and Cashel in mid-Armagh. Hilltop sites are particularly common in Armagh, also in Tyrone and parts of Down. In damp surroundings hilltops provided dry ‘islands’ as at Loughgilly (Figure 29) and Enagh (Figure 40). Whether there was any element of symbolism, of ‘a city set on a hill’, it is impossible for us to decide, but we can note that hilltops were also much favoured for raths and cashels

The publish collections of air photographs provide an excellent pictorial introduction to this subject: Common 1964, Norman and St Joseph 1969 and Pochin Mould 1972.

[76] The low-lying lough shores would have been damp and heavily wooded, and it is clear that water transport would often have been easier than overland travel. Burial continued on Devenish until the eighteenth century and clearly water was no barrier. There are no material traces on any of the islands to suggest an ‘eremitic’ establishment rather than a larger 33

and church sites were certainly not peculiar in this respect.

A clear relationship between the sites and the river systems has emerged in the topographical maps, and river valley sites are particularly prominent in Antrim, Derry and Tyrone. Rivers provided lower, more hospitable sites in upland areas and were important lines of communication. When a church is low-lying on the valley floor it usually seems to be sited to take advantage of a crossing or a route along the valley floor. Oliver Davies noted some Norman and later manorial churches in this position (1943, 63), but it clearly was favoured also when earlier churches were established. Bodoney is a good example, on a valley route, close to the Glenelly River (Figure 79c). 1.

References and illustrations in Thomas 1971, 34-6, and discussion of Tintagel by Burrow, I.C.G., in Scottish Archaeological Forum 5 (1974), 99-103.

[79] A low-lying site close to a river might be in danger of flooding, and if a convenient level area was available just above the river bed this was used, as at Ballynascreen. But apart from sites on valley routes it seems that the lower valley floors were not favoured, and sites tend to cluster on the valley sides. The contrast is clear in Antrim between the river crossing sites and those on the valley sides on the fringes of the higher land. Ardstraw (Figure 79a) is a good example of a site occupying a fairly level platform on the valley side: the graveyard approximately follows the 150 foot contour well above but conveniently close to the river Derg and overlooking a crossing point.

Other sites are much higher on valley sides such as Termonamongan above the Derg and Drumbo above the Lagan, and Derryloran and Donaghedy are on river cliffs.

FIG. 39: PROMONTORY SITES: AGIVEY & CUMBER.

A small but striking group of sites, particularly marked in Co Derry, are set on promontories. [78] Figure 39 shows two promontory sites, Agivey and Cumber, and others include Armoy in Antrim, Donagh and perhaps Tully in Fermanagh and Bright and Ardtole in Down. Many of these promontories have very strong natural defences. Examples of monastic sites in Britain on promontories include the Brough of Deerness in Orkney; Old Melrose (Roxboroughshire); St Abb’s Head, Coldingham (Northumbria); and Tintagel (Cornwall, if Tintagel is a monastery).1 They recall in their siting promontory forts, like Lurigethan and Knock Dhu (both in Antrim), which must have been chosen with defensive considerations uppermost, and it seems inescapable that a few early churches were built in strong, defensible positions. Two other sites, both rocky heights, stand out as defensible: Skerry and Carrickmore both command wide areas and both would have been suitable sites for secular strongholds. It remains a possibility that churches in very strong sites were associated in some way with a secular fort, even if no clear trace of one survives. FIG. 79A: ARDSTRAW – TOPOGRAPHY.

34

We have seen in the maps that the sites tend to cluster around the edges of the higher land, a particularly striking feature of the map of Derry (Figure 38). Figure 5 underlines the conclusion that the lower altitudes were favoured. Nearly 89% of the sites lie below 400 feet: about 24% under 100 feet, 26% between 100 and 200 feet, 20% between 200 and 300 feet and 19% between 300 and 400 feet. Co. Down has a strong emphasis on sites below 200 feet and especially below 100 feet; Fermanagh’s main concentration is between 100 and 200 feet, the altitude range of the Erne islands and shores; Derry’s emphasis is from 0 to 200 feet; Antrim has a fairly even spread up to 300 feet, whilst Armagh and Tyrone have a clustering in the 300 to 400 feet region. Higher locations (about 11%) are far less common. Bowen concluded that ‘the founders of Celtic churches in Wales chose, on the whole, the lower lands in each of the counties irrespective of absolute altitude’ (1956, 109, and fig. 29), and the

chosen area in north Antrim is shown in Figure 19. The valleys of the Glenshesk and Tow rivers open out into Ballycastle Bay, flanking the great basalt dome of Knocklayd with its conspicuous cairn at 1,695 feet. In this small area of varied relief and geology we find a remarkable concentration of four documented early sites, three probably early sites and three sites with rough stone crosses.1

[80] conclusion must also be for the north of Ireland that churches were sited in the lower range of altitude offered by each county, and that high locations were generally avoided. One exception to this conclusion requires brief discussion. It seems that some mountain tops were used for retreats or hermitages. The most likely case in our area is not supported by early documentation but appears prominently in later sources. This is Slieve Donard, highest peak of the Mournes (2,796 feet, Common 1964, 18-9), where Colgan claimed St. Domongart consecrated a church ‘in vertice eiusdem editissimi montis longe ab omni humana habitatione posita’ (1645, 743). Later writers have described the site and recounted traditions about it (including Harris 1744, 121 and O’Donovan 1909, 73-4) and it has recently been recorded by the ‘Archaeological Survey of Co. Down’ (1966, 85-6). The saint is alleged to have re-used one of the two prehistoric cairns as a shelter. A parallel for the use of a megalithic chamber for a hermitage is found in the early eighthcentury ‘Life’ of the East Anglian saint, Guthlac, by Felix - the saint retreated to the fens, and found: FIG. 19: NORTH ANTRIM MAP (TOP); DRUMNAKILL SITE (BOTTOM).

‘a mound built of clods of earth which greedy comers to the waste had dug open, in the hope of finding treasure there; in the side of this there seemed to be a kind of cistern, and in this Guthlac … began to dwell, after building a hut over it’ (Colgrave 1956, chap. 28).

There is considerable variety in the location of the sites. Armoy, in the south-west, lies in a small area of Lower Basalt projecting eastwards into the general spread of schists. It is on a strong promontory close to a tributary of the River Bush. Nearby to the north-east are the two Tullaghore crosses on a rough ridge of schist overlooking the Well Water.

Could a similar use have been made of the passage grave high (1,894 feet) on Slieve Gullion which has two church sites at its foot (Figure 29)? Mountain top churches or hermitages are known elsewhere in Ireland, for example on Mount Brandon (Co. Kerry) and Croagh Patrick (Co. Mayo; Pochin Mould 1972, pls 64 and 62). These sites are fascinating but are by-ways rather than highways in our subject.

On the damp valley floor of a tributary of the Tow is the largely destroyed site of Turraloskin, just at the junction between Lower and Upper Basalt. Ramoan is a fairly flat site, on Lower Basalt, with the level sloping gently down to the sea about a mile away. On the lower slopes of Knocklayd overlooking the Tow valley somewhere in Broombeg townland (on schist) is a probable church site reported in the Ordnance Survey Memoir which I could

[81] If we turn now to a particular area we can look at the siting of a group of churches in rather more detail. The 35

not locate precisely. Drumeeny occupies a prominent north-south ridge top, just off the schist and on the Carboniferous area which continues northwards to Fair Head, including also Brackney and Culfeightrin. The Brackney site must be close to a tributary Of the Glenshesk and Culfeightrin is on a commanding, exposed hilltop. 1.

the importance of hospitality, and a story in the ‘Life of Cronan’ describes how the monastery was moved because it lay too far from the main road to offer travellers adequate hospitality (Plummer 1910, I, cxiii and II, 26). [83] So it seems that some, at least, of the early Irish monasteries were situated in places where they could minister to travellers. Clonmacnois, for example, which now seems remote, lay near the crossing point of two of the most important routes of Early Christian Ireland, the Shannon flowing from north to south and the great esker running from east to west.

Also in and near the area of the map are at least five children’s burial grounds which I have not been able to investigate but which may be abandoned church sites.

[82] Bonamargie and Broughanlea, both close to the sea, are unlikely to have been early church sites. None of the others is far from the sea, but none is right on the coast. In contrast, the church of uncertain date at Drumnakill on the east side of Fair Head (also Figure 19) is on a rocky platform by the sea, close to a good anchorage in Murlough Bay.

Colm Ó Lochlainn has discussed some of the roadways of early Ireland. Comparison between his map and my maps suggests that many of the sites in the inventory do indeed lie near or on the great northern routes (Ó Lochlainn 1940 and Figure 86). The Slighe Mhidhluachra running north from Drogheda passed through the Moyry gap, close to Kilnasaggart, through Newry and across fords at Banbridge and Moira so passing close to Donaghmore, Drumsallagh, Donaghcloney and Magheralin. Northwards it passed Trummery and Glenavy then divided at Antrim.

Many of the names in the inventory include topographical place-name elements – ‘druim’, ‘cluain’ and ‘inis’ for example - which occur commonly in church place-names throughout Ireland. But I have wondered whether any topographical common denominator lies behind two other place-name elements – ‘airecal’ (‘errigal’); and ‘dísert’ (‘desert’). Errigal sites seem to be high. Particularly clear is the case of Errigal Keerogue which is set on a ridge over 350 feet high, overlooked from the north but commanding a superb view southwards over the Blackwater valley (Pl. 1a). Errigal in Derry is not such a commanding site; it has wide but less spectacular views. Yet it is the highest certain early site in the county, between 500 and 525 feet, exceeded only by Altaghoney (525 to 550 feet). ‘Desert’ sites, on the other hand, do not seem to have any particular topographical feature in common. They are not in noticeably barren situations. All are close to rivers, but so are many other sites. Other explanations must be investigated, and a historical one will be examined in Chapter 7.

The northern branch led by Kells to Clogh, from where one branch ran via Armoy and the Ramoan area to Dunseverick, and the other close to Kilraghts to Coleraine and across the important ford at Camus (‘Fertas Camsa’ of the 1006 entry in A.U.) to Derry. From Antrim the main line of the Slighe ran west to the Toome crossing, close to Duneane, and on to Derry by a route probably similar to the modern one via Maghera and Dungiven. From Derry a route ran south by Ardstraw and probably Drumragh to Clogher. It is clear that early churches were sited also on routes other than those plotted by Ó Lochlainn. There seems to have been an overland route across the mountains of south Armagh, by Tassagh and the Callan valley to Armagh, which must have been an important route centre (Arthurs 1954, 38).

PLATE 1A: TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: ERRIGAL KEEROGUE.

It is clear that many sites are related to communication routes by land or water. The undoubted desire of some monks for solitude - Culdees and Cistercians for instance - has perhaps encouraged too great an emphasis on solitude by some Scholars. The guesthouse is prominent in written sources; several of the saints’ ‘Lives’ insist on

PLATE 1B: TOPOGRAPHY OF SITES: BODONEY.

[84] One route from there would have led to the Clogher Valley, Mag Lemna, which provided the main east-west 36

route through mid-Ulster. It led south-westwards, probably close to Ballyhill, to the Erne crossing at Portora and the crossing between Upper and Lower

Lough MacNean at Belcoo, close to Holywell and Templenaffrin. Another route probably led south, near to Kinawley and Teesnaghtan, to the Shannon.

FIG. 86: SOME SITES CLOSE TO IMPORTANT ROUTES.

The river valleys through the Tyrone uplands must also have provided important routes. Bodoney lies in the Glenelly valley, probably the main east-west route through the Sperrins, where it is joined by the north-south route through the Barnes gap (Figure 79c and P1. 1b). The Glenelly communicates with the Moyola valley, not far from Ballynascreen, and so with the Toome crossing. The absence of sites in the valleys of the Owenkillew and Owenreagh rivers is noteworthy. The Derg valley provides a westward route to Lough Derg, close to Ardstraw and Termonamongan, and Glennoo lies on a road through Slieve Beagh. It is striking how many of the valley sites are close to present-day river crossings. A bridge is recorded at Ardstraw as early as 1514 and this association of sites and bridges underlines the importance of routes in the siting of early churches.

an impressionistic not a detailed view, and it is certainly far from complete. [85] It is possible from fieldwork and map study to examine the relationship of early church sites to the present population pattern. Professor Bowen carried out an exercise of this kind for Welsh sites and suggested a fourfold distinction between churches with at most a single farm or rectory nearby, minor hamlets of up to ten houses, villages with up to thirty to forty houses, and semi-urban and urban settlements (1956, 146-57). My impressions are based on fieldwork and use only of small-scale maps, so there is scope for much refinement, but I hope that the general pattern will emerge clearly. In Antrim there is a strong contrast between the modern settlement pattern and the distribution shown in Figure 18. The lower valley floors, largely avoided by the early sites, are now intensively exploited, whilst poor upland sites like Aghnakilla, Deshcart, Racavan and Skerry are almost deserted. Sites which were on routes, especially at river crossings, are well-populated, such as Glenavy, Kells/Connor and, dramatically, Shankill (Belfast). But very prominent in other cases is the way in which

The coastal sites are obviously well-placed for water transport, and Rathlin Island was an important staging post between north-east Ireland and Scottish Dal Riata. Figure 86 attempts to indicate some of the sites which lay on or close to important overland routes. It is based on Ó Lochlainn’s map (though not including the itineraries) with some additions of my own. Its intention is to provide 37

settlement has developed not around a church site but at some distance from it, often at a river crossing: examples include Antrim, Aghalee, Armoy, Derrykeighan (Dervock), Kirkinriola (Ballymena) and Rashee (Ballyclare). At many of the sites where the church was a little inland the settlement has developed on the coast as at Layd (Cushendall), Inispollan (Cushendun) and Glore (Glenarm) and all the settlement has polarised at Ballycastle, leaving the sites in the hinterland isolated.

Tipperary) suggested an extension of farming in Early Christian times, with an emphasis on cereals and vegetables, the spread of pasture later (probably in the Viking period), and a horizon of further clearance and cereal cultivation, perhaps the result of Anglo-Norman exploitation (Mitchell 1965). At Beaghmore (Co. Tyrone) the period from about 350 to 1275 A.D. saw woodland clearance, and plantain suggested pastoral farming, whilst between 1275 and 1700 there was further clearance and more pollen of cultivated plants suggesting arable (Pilcher 1969). The aim must eventually be to view the early churches in their natural setting, of geology, soil and vegetation, and trace man’s impact on these resources, but this will be a long-term project.

The same patterns can be traced in the other counties, with slight variations. In Down, for example, more sites are in present population centres than elsewhere (though the modern focus is markedly different at Down and Movilla), whilst not one of the Fermanagh churches is in a substantial settlement.

The study of the relationship of churches to the Early Christian settlement pattern must also be a long-term investigation. It is possible to observe the whereabouts of Churches in relation to recognisable settlement sites -

[86] Churches at good points on communications often have a sizeable settlement around them, as at Armagh, Clogher, Maghera (Co. Londonderry) and Dromore (Co. Down). But it is also common to find the modern settlement some distance from the church site as at Seagoe (Portadown), Clonduff (Hilltown), Dungiven, Kilbroney (Rostrevor), Clonallan (Warren Point), Killyleagh and else where. By far the most common situation, however, is to find the church site isolated in a generally dispersed pattern of settlement.

[88] raths, cashels and crannogs - but only excavation will show what sites were in use at what periods, and an unknown number of settlements which leave no surface traces tend to be left out of distribution maps. Here I offer simply some observations on these relationships in counties Down and Armagh. A total of about 1,300 ring-forts is shown on the distribution maps in the ‘Archaeological Survey of Co. Down’ (1966, figs 72.1 and 72.2), and the pattern does differ in some respects from the distribution of churches in my Figure 50. Lecale is strikingly poor in raths but rich in early churches, the absence of raths does not, of course, imply necessarily a lack of settlements, and Professor Proudfoot has suggested open sites in Lecale. The churches south-west and south-east of the Mournes are matched by a concentration of raths, but in the centre and west of the county raths cluster thickly on hilltops whilst the churches are noticeably lower, at the fringes of the hills and in the river valleys. The altitude range of churches seems generally lower than of raths, and there is the considerable concentration of low-lying churches in the north-east of the county where forts are poorly represented.1

Reduced to percentages my observations suggest that about 72% of the sites are isolated or accompanied by a single house, 12% are in a hamlet, 10% in a village and 6% in a town. Professor Bowen figures are 44%, 22%, 9% and 25% for Wales (loc. cit, above). The conclusion must be that early churches did not generally act as powerful centres of nucleation. In Bowen’s words: ‘churches, as such, did not possess great nucleating power in the settlement pattern’; a church only became a settlement focus: ‘if later economic development found it a pivot conveniently located’ (op. cit., 160). The importance of communications is clear: a church wellsited in relation to routes, especially river crossings, may have a thriving settlement around it; a site a little distance from such a point is likely to be isolated but close to a settlement; churches with no such advantages tend to remain isolated.

The total of raths in Co. Armagh is much smaller, something over 300.2 Their distribution is dense in a wide east-west band running from just north of Armagh city south to the fringes of the highland mass, with only a thin scatter in the low-lying area south of Lough Neagh and the mountains of the south.

[87] An important problem, but one which it is very much more difficult to tackle, concerns the relationship of early church sites to Early Christian landscape and settlement. Building up a picture of landscape and changing vegetation, largely by pollen analysis, has made great progress in recent years, and the long-term prospects for this period are exciting (Smith 1970). Mitchell’s Zone IX is the horizon we are concerned with here, but this is a short time-span, a very small piece indeed of the pollen diagrams. When human handiwork is prominent, the pattern is likely to vary greatly from area to area and site to site; the building up of a broad picture will only come from the multiplication of many area and site investigations. No northern ecclesiastical site has yet been studied in detail, but work elsewhere indicates the potential. Professor Mitchell’s work at Littleton Bog (Co.

1. 2.

Churches are marked on fig. 35 in Proudfoot 1957 but there is little discussion of them. The Archaeological Survey are compiling an inventory of monuments in the county, and I am grateful to Alan Harper for discussing the work on raths with me.

[89] Near the Co. Louth border is a smaller concentration, south and south-west of Slieve Gullion. The distribution of churches (Fig. 28) does not show such marked concentrations. Certainly and possibly early sites occur in the low-lying north, with its hills, woods and bogs. As in 38

the case of Lecale one cannot argue from an absence of raths to a lack of settlement, and there are many possible explanations for the discrepancy. Perhaps a different form of settlement was called for in the damp north. But it is also possible that this area was less densely populated and in parts perhaps settled later than land further south, and some of the churches may have originated as isolated settlements in boggy or wooded surroundings on grants of less desirable land.

The raths shown in Figure 80 are plotted from the current six-inch Ordnance Survey maps. This is not necessarily a full picture, for I did not have access to earlier map editions, and a few symbols may be tree-rings but the general pattern should be reliable. Their siting is very markedly related to hilltops, with some emphasis on the prominent hills and ridges of the isolated masses over 300 feet (over 200 in the lower northern area of the Ballinderry and its tributaries). Raths are sparse in the low-lying area of Arboe, and indeed all along the lough shore, also in the upper reaches of the Ballinderry river, in the vicinity of Derryloran, Kildress and Magheraglass. The main point of contrast again seems to be that the churches show more emphasis on lower valley sites, whilst the raths occupy higher hilltops. Some, at least, of the valley sites, especially at river crossings, may have been on important overland routes. There are no particularly marked clusters of fort close to churches, and Arboe stands out as oddly isolated, perhaps cut off from inland areas by marsh or dense woodland.

In the central area of dense rath distribution churches are also well represented, though two sites stand somewhat apart - Ballymyre in a river valley and Loughgilly on a hill in damp surroundings (Fig. 29), with no raths close by, though they cluster thickly to the west, north and north-east. Killevy and Cloghinny lie to the north of the southern concentration of raths, and upland Tullyvallan is isolated, though the nature of the site there is uncertain. The altitude ranges of churches and raths seem rather different: raths avoid both low and high land and cluster strongly between 200 and 500 feet, whilst churches show a fairly even distribution from 0 to 400 feet, with a slight peak between 300 and 400 feet, but are rarely higher (Fig. 5). More than half the raths occupy hilltop locations and over three quarters are on hilltops or hill-slopes. Many churches are sited on hills (Fig. 4), but their distribution is more closely related to rivers and valleys than the raths.

[91] Again there is no evidence in this map for churches having acted as powerful agents of nucleation in Early Christian settlement, but rather the churches seem to be isolated in a generally dispersed pattern of settlement. These brief observations suggest in all cases a rather different distribution pattern for raths and churches. Churches tend to be lower in the altitude range and more closely related to rivers and valleys.1 The differences invite speculation about the factors influencing church siting. Professor Proudfoot concluded that the distribution of raths in Co. Down was related to the distribution of land which it was feasible to cultivate, whilst social conditions were probably important in determining individual siting (1957, 464). Churches certainly seem often to be sited on routes, but the picture is doubtless a very complex one, arising from political, sociological and economic factors.2 Ring-forts survive or are reported close to a number of sites in the inventory. There were, for example, raths in the field across the road from Killevy, near Agherton and Desertoghill and on Cleenish, and we have noted the report of ‘Seinlis Fort’ near Killennan.

FIG. 80: CHURCHES AND EARLY CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT IN EAST TYRONE.

1.

[90] An area chosen for rather more detailed discussion is the part of east Tyrone shown in Figure 80. Low-lying damp land, under 100 feet, borders Lough Neagh and rivers from higher ground to the west drain through it to the Lough. Further west the topography is much dissected by rivers and streams, leaving many ‘islands’ of higher ground in generally rather damp surroundings. Rivers, streams, loughs and small hills are prominent in this landscape. Ardtrea is on a commanding hilltop, Donaghmore on a hilltop promontory (Fig. 78), and Drumglass on a hill-slope, but the other churches in the area are sited in relation to river valleys, and Derryloran, Desertcreat, Kildress and Tullyniskan are close to river crossings.

2.

Lady Fox found a similar contrast between the siting of farmsteads and early churches in Radnorshire: Arch. Cambr. 100 (1948), 104-6. Pádraig Ó Riain has suggested that land grants for churches were often made at the borders of territories. He points out how many modern parishes lie in two or more baronies, which may represent the lands of tuatha (Ó Riain 1972). Whilst I have not pursued this in detail, I have discovered that over one-third of the sites in my inventory which are parishes are in more than one barony.

[92] But when the report is old and the site has disappeared it is not always clear whether the feature was a ring-fort or an Anglo-Norman motte. At Drumeeny for example, the Ordnance Survey Memoir refers to ‘forts’ beside both Gobban Saer’s Castle and Kille Enan (Fig. 21), but one at least could be a motte. 39

The mound at Trummery is also destroyed, but descriptions and an illustration (Dubourdieu 1812, 598) suggest a motte rather than a rath. O’Laverty listed churches in Down and Connor dioceses which stood beside mounds which he took to be ‘sepulchral’ and preChristian (1879), but many seem to have been mottes. It is possible to note juxtapositions of churches and raths, but less easy to explain them. Without excavation it is impossible to discover the period of use of the raths. They could in some cases have been the dwelling of the kin who donated the church site, and some could even have enclosed earlier churches, but these are merely speculations.

[93] Further south in Co. Antrim Rasharkin is near a triple-ringed fort, Drumnacannon in Drumack townland, and Camus (Co. Londonderry) is close to Mountsandel fort (Dún da Beann) though the dating of the mound is proving difficult. A fort near Dunboe has been suggested as a candidate for Dún Cethirn, whilst Maghera (Co. Londonderry) lies only three miles south-west of the great multi-vallate rath at Dunglady. Sites cluster near Tullahogue, but Donaghrisk and Desertcreat are particularly near. Clogher is within sight of Rathmore, one of the chief seats of Airgialla, and Armagh is only two miles east of Emain Macha. Discussion of the possible historical significance of such relationships will be deferred until Chapter 7, but the general point to be emphasised here is that some early churches do seem to be close to some important secular settlements. A few of the sites in the inventory are close to loughs with crannogs or islands used for Early Christian settlement, in the north Antrim area already discussed is the crannog inland from Fair Head in Lough naCranagh. The Loughgall area was the chief seat of the Uí Nialláin and the church is not far from Lough Gall with its crannog, whilst Carnteel and Donaghanie are near loughs with crannogs. One of the islands near Enagh church (Fig. 40a) was an O Cahan headquarters, and excavation produced Early Christian as well as prehistoric finds.

FIG. 21B: DRUMEENY: SITE MAP.

A number of churches stand out as being in the vicinity of a ring-fort of great size or a site known from written sources to have been an important secular headquarters (references to the sites in the following discussion will be found in P.S. 1940). Templastragh is close to Dún Sobhairce, and nearby to the east is the remarkable concentration of sites inland from Ballycastle (Fig. 19). This seems to have been a greatly favoured area for settlement over a long period. Ballycastle is a good port of entry to what is otherwise a difficult coast, and there was an important route to Rathlin and south-west Scotland. This is an area in which Patrick was traditionally active, and there is no similarly dense concentration of ecclesiastical sites elsewhere in the six counties.

FIG. 40A: ENAGH – SITE MAP.

The topographical information considered in this chapter is clearly susceptible to much more sophisticated analysis than anything attempted here, and it would certainly repay further study. But the features of location which have emerged from the discussion take their place as another element in the overall picture which this thesis is attempting to build up.

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[94]

Chapter 6 EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SITES: THE MATERIAL REMAINS The different classes of material will be treated individually and an attempt will be made in the final section of the chapter, on ‘Monastic Topography’ to bring together the strands of the discussion.1

he must do penance (ibid. 38), and one of the three aspects of mortification was ‘not to go anywhere with complete freedom’ (ibid. 34). The ‘Rule of Ailbe’ insisted ‘that [the monk] may not leave his enclosure’ (O’Neill 1907, 105); the ‘Rule of Columba’, dating from the Culdee reform period, specified: ‘Be alone in a separate place near a chief city’; and: ‘Let a fast place with one door enclose thee’ (Haddan and Stubbs 1878, 119). Giraldus Cambrensis in the twelfth century noted the hedge which men crossed at their peril enclosing Brigid’s fire at Kildare (O’Meara 1951, 65 and 71).

i) ENCLOSURES The enclosure seems to have been an important feature of early Irish ecclesiastical sites. Many early churches still have traces of enclosures, and written sources refer to their building, to control over access, and to special rules of behaviour within the circuit.

1.

There is no need to look for outside inspiration for monastic enclosures in Ireland.2 The estimated total of thirty to forty thousand ring-forts in Ireland and the proven total of one thousand three hundred in Co. Down underline the importance of enclosures in Early Christian Ireland (Ó Ríordáin 1964, 1 and Co. Down 1966, 108). The country was politically fragmented and small-scale warfare was endemic. As Plummer pointed out ‘the chief amusement was war, and a very brutal sport it was’ (1910, I, cviii). The monasteries were closely integrated into secular society (Hughes 1966, passim). Though they were protected by law, the ‘Penitential of Vinnian’ refers to despoilers of monasteries (Bieler 1966, 52) and Dr. 1.

2.

Compare medieval monastic precincts, like the wall and moat at Cleeve (Somerset) and walls and great gatehouses at Bury St Edmund’s (Suffolk).

[96] The enclosure must have defined the area within which the monastic rule prevailed and rights of sanctuary could be claimed. The termonn area seems sometimes to have been marked by crosses, and indications in early legislation of different grades of sanctity suggest subdivisions or multiple enclosures (Hughes 1966, 148). The gate would help to control access. Some visitors were welcome - when Columba visited Clonmacnois the monks came outside the vallum monasterii to greet him but in Aethelwulf’s ‘De Abbatibus’ we hear of paupers shut out of the gates (Anderson 1961, 215 and Campbell 1967, 38).

For the sake of economy detailed bibliographical references to the sites and their material which appear in the inventory will not usually be repeated in this chapter. Professor Thomas has suggested inspiration from the eastern Mediterranean homelands of monasticism, particularly for rectangular enclosures: 1971, 32.

It is clear, therefore, from the written sources that enclosures performed several functions and no single explanation is adequate. Security was an important consideration, but together with this went discipline of the mind, control over movement, segregation from the outside world, and definition of the area of the rule and sanctuary.

[95] Lucas has explored the extent to which churches were involved in warfare from the seventh to the sixteenth century (1967, passim). If single-family farmsteads needed the security of raths and cashels, so also did monasteries need some kind of enclosure.

References to enclosures in written sources are often brief, but sometimes the building material is mentioned. Apparently common was the digging of earthworks. In the (late) ‘Life of Enda’, for example, we hear of an enclosure dug for Fanchea: ‘terram enim, manibus propriis fodiendo, fossas profundas circa monasterium faciebat’ (Plummer 1910, II, 62). Stone enclosures are mentioned less often, but Cuthbert’s hermitage was surrounded by a stone wall: ‘digging down almost a cubit of a man into the earth, through very hard and stony rock, he made a space to dwell in. He also built a marvellous wall another cubit above it’ (‘Anonymous Life’); and Bede added: ‘It is a structure almost round in plan, measuring about four or five poles from wall to wall’ (Colgrave 1940, 97 and 217).

Written sources indicate other reasons for building enclosures. Cuthbert’s Farne Island hermitage was surrounded in such a way that: ‘he could see nothing except the heavens above’ (Colgrave 1940, 97). Enclosures were important not only to keep thoughts from wandering but also to emphasise the distinction between the monastery and the world outside.1 As the Old Irish ‘Table of Penitential Commutations’ pointed out: ‘there is a difference between laymen and clerics’ (Bieler 1966, 62); and this difference involved special rules of behaviour. The movement of monks was restricted. The ‘Rule of Columbanus’ was written for his Continental foundations but may reflect late sixth-century Bangor practice: if a monk ‘has gone outside the wall, that is, outside the bounds of a monastery without asking’

[97] Also in a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon context, the monastery at Oundle was surrounded by ‘a great hedge of 41

thorn’ (Eddius Stephanus’s ‘Life of Wilfred’, Colgrave 1927, 147). An enclosure built by Malachy in Scotland in the twelfth century may have been of wattle (Lawlor 1920, 79), and there was a withy hedge at Kildare (O’Meara 1951, 65). Such perishable enclosures will be difficult to detect archaeologically but may well once have been common.

forts (I, 176 and 184); Mochoemog built a church in a lord’s castellum for a church (II, 169); Aed was told by an angel that a local ruler would give a castellum for a church (I, 44). But these late ‘Lives’ show nothing more than that enclosures were familiar to their writers who either repeated traditions about their origins or recorded their own speculations. Caution must be observed in suggesting a secular origin for ecclesiastical enclosures, and late written sources must not be asked to bear too great a weight of argument.

The late ninth-century ‘Tripartite Life’ reports a tradition that Patrick marked out enclosures in a particular way, apparently adopting a standard procedure and units of measurement:

Turning from written sources to the material remains we encounter the problem of finding enclosures. They must once have been prominent features of sites, yet they are often surprisingly difficult to detect. In many cases there is no trace and no record of any enclosure, in the north for example at the important sites at Antrim, Ardstraw, Bangor, Connor, Killevy and Movilla. Negative evidence, however, is at best inconclusive and the possibility of discovering previously unknown enclosures remains.

‘The way in which Patrick measured the rath was this - the angel before him and Patrick behind the angel; with his household and with Ireland’s elders, and Jesu’s Staff in Patrick’s hand… In this wise, then Patrick measured the Ferta namely seven score feet in the enclosure, and seven and twenty feet in the great house, and seventeen feet in the kitchen, seven feet in the oratory; and in that wise it was that he used to found the cloisters [congbala] always’ (Stokes 1887, 237)

[99] Very slight traces can elude a field worker. His attention will be attracted by the more prominent features - the church and graveyard - and he will easily overlook slight changes of level, small banks and depressions, especially if they cover a large area and if the ground is overgrown or much cut up by field boundaries. Undoubtedly the most exciting and fruitful approach is from the air.1 Air photographs can provide spectacular views of well-known enclosures, like Illauntannig (Co. Kerry) and Nendrum (Norman and St. Joseph 1969, pls 52 and 54). But, more important, they help to make sense of the clues which so easily elude the ground worker. All traces can be seen in plan view and the relationship of one part to another should become clear. This is well illustrated by the photographs of Moyne (Co. Mayo) and Faughart (Co. Louth) where the full extent of the enclosures is only seen from the air (ibid. pls 58 and 64). Subdivisions within enclosures, sometimes clear on the ground, as at Kiltiernan (Co. Galway), can be seen far more clearly from the air: Inchcleraun (Co. Longford) is a good example (Pochin Mould 1972, p1. 83).

This is a difficult passage to interpret (recently discussed in Thomas 1971, 39-40). It may be a laconic description of a well-known procedure; it may be an uncomprehending repetition of an ancient tradition; it may represent an attempt to attach Patrician authority to a stereotyped plan of which the origins were distant and uncertain. But the enclosure was clearly an important feature, and some kind of ceremonial marking-out is implied. A ‘Life of Brigid’ describes how the saint: ‘went to Bishop Mel, that he might come and mark out her city’ (Stokes 1890, 194). [98] Written sources indicate that churches were sometimes built in already existing secular enclosures. In Britain we find that Fursa was granted Cnobheresburg (Burgh Castle, Suffolk) and Cedd built a church at ‘Ythancestir’ (probably Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex), both late Roman shore forts (Bede, H.E. III, 19 and 22). Columbanus established some of his Continental houses at Roman sites, including Annegray and Luxeuil. I have come across references to gifts of enclosures in later rather than earlier Irish sources. There is no mention of an enclosure at Armagh in Muirchú’s account, but the ‘Tripartite Life’, some two centuries later, shows Daire saying to Patrick: ‘I will give thee a site for the church in this strong rath below - the place where is the Ferta today’ (Stokes 1887, 229). Several late ‘Lives’ of saints published by Plummer (1910) mention gifts of enclosures: an ‘arx’ and its lands were given to Comgall’s successor (II, 21); Carthage received gifts of

Excavation can reveal enclosures where none was previously known and confirm suspected features, as at Armagh. If we are ever to discover enclosures of perishable materials like timber, wattles and turf it will be by excavation, and we must find whether the timber to stone sequence demonstrated for churches (section ii, below) applies also to enclosures. 1.

42

Explored recently in detail by D.L. Swan in The Recognition and Recovery of Ecclesiastical Enclosures by Aerial Observation and Air Photography, M.A. thesis, University College, Dublin, 1971.

FIG. 6: MAP OF ENCLOSURES.

[100] It must be recognised, however, that even at some excavated sites it has been difficult to date the enclosure and relate it stratigraphically to other structures, as at Ardwall Island (Kirkcudbrightshire) and Escomb (Durham).1 But at Church Island (Co. Kerry) Professor O’Kelly demonstrated that the enclosing wall was: ‘the last work of improvement done during the monastic occupation of the island’ (1958, 77).

multiple circuits is not always straightforward. Outer works of apparently single enclosures may have been obliterated or obscured - at Inishmacsaint, for example with further clearance and planning the oval enclosure may be shown to be complex. Not unmindful of these problems I have attempted a broad eight-fold subdivision on the basis of size and shape. The sites are mapped in Figure 6 and the site numbers in the rest of this chapter refer to the map and the inventory.

The northern evidence ranges in quality from a few clear enclosures to many circular and oval graveyards and even more enigmatic eminences standing in graveyards or alone. The classification of the wide range of Early Christian earthworks in Co. Down was difficult (Co. Down 1966, 108-9), and it has not been easy to subdivide the ecclesiastical enclosures. I have followed the Co. Down Survey in regarding smaller enclosures as those with a diameter of less than about 250 feet. Further than a broad distinction between larger and smaller sites I have not attempted any precise analysis or comparison of sizes; this calls for more detailed measurements than I have been able to make.

1.

Thomas 1967, especially 143; Pocock, M., and Wheeler, H., ‘Excavations at Escomb Church’ in J.B.A.A. 34 (1971), 1129.

[101] Large multiple and complex enclosures are not common. Two or perhaps three concentric circuits may be fossilized in the modern street plan of Armagh city (53, Fig. 30), with diameters of very approximately 330, 600 and 1,400 feet. References in annals to ‘the door of the rath’ (e.g. A.U. 1166) suggest either a single entrance or a principal one. The excavations in gardens behind Castle Street revealed a ditch, presumably encircling the hilltop. Carbon 14 dates suggest a pre-Patrician date: the ditch may date from the second century A.D. and have been largely filled in by the sixth. But further work here would be welcome,

Most of the dimensions in the inventory are taken from Ordnance Survey six-inch maps. Multiple or complex enclosures have two or three concentric circuits or more than one enclosure. The distinction between single and 43

[102] (Co Down 1966, 150, Fig. 89).1 The two concentric earth banks were stone-faced at the front, with a continuous glacis slope, and the entrances were paved. The loss of this major site is a very sad one; is there any hope of rediscovering it from the air?

and any opportunities to test the possible lines of the Armagh circuits should be taken.

Devenish is included as a probable complex enclosure, though the earthworks remain to be fully investigated and planned (190, Pl. 3). This will be a difficult task, requiring excellent conditions of light and vegetation. Wakeman noted a rath west of St. Mary’s in the 1870s, and air photographs suggest earthworks north and south of St. Mary’s and the round tower. They seem to be small, conjoined enclosures, mainly rectilinear in plan. FIG. 30: ARMAGH CITY –SKETCH MAP.

The enclosures on Friars Island (195) are not in doubt, but the ecclesiastical associations are uncertain. From the air a D-shaped bank is clear with an incomplete outer enclosure, possibly once concentric, but more likely to have been an annex attached to the inner circuit. The only hint of ecclesiastical associations is the island’s name, and it is by no means certainly an early church site.

The three concentric walls at Nendrum (169, Fig. 51a) enclose areas of about 240 feet north-south by 225 eastwest, 450 by 350 feet and 520 east-west by an unknown distance north-south. The three were clearly devoted to different purposes: in the innermost were the church, graveyard and round tower; in the second were workshops and perhaps living cells; the line of the large outer enclosure is less clear and the area within it has been little explored.

PLATE 3: DEVENISH – AIR PHOTOGRAPH FROM SOUTH-EAST.

Large single enclosures are also few in number. Ballinderry (Co. Antrim, 7) is surrounded on all sides except the east by water or bog, rather like a lakeside crannog, but it is clearly a peninsula. FIG. 51A: NENDRUM – SITE PLAN.

There is admittedly no surviving enclosure but there is a strong suggestion of one in the surrounding hedged bank and the odd concentric outer line of trees. The large graveyard at Loughgilly (73) is D-shaped; it may have been truncated to the west. Again there is no early enclosure, simply a hedge, but the shape is interesting.

The large rath at Dundesert (24) had been destroyed long before Reeves’s day, so it is not surprising that his hearsay description leaves some points in doubt. Figure 20 offers a tentative reconstruction based on Reeves’s information. Although it is uncertain in several respects, the impressive size of the enclosure is clear. If one accepts the area of nearly four Irish acres (hearsay, and perhaps exaggerated) the overall diameter must have been nearly 600 feet, larger than the triple rath at Lisnagade

1.

44

I have taken the Irish acre to be 7,840 square yards, compared with the 4,840 of an English acre: Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th ed., 1929), I, 136.

FIG. 89: MAP OF PATRICIAN HORIZONS – WRITTEN SOURCES .

[103] Another large D-shaped enclosure is suggested by field hedges and the townland boundary at New Mills. The parish church of Tullyniskan (265) is in Doras townland which the Ordnance Survey six-inch map shows is very small.

There are three large single enclosures at church sites in Fermanagh. The Inishmacsaint stone and earth enclosure seems to be oval, measuring about 170 feet north-south by 300 east-west (199, Fig. 65b), but it is partly overgrown and traces of other banks nearby suggest that the whole area would repay careful planning.

It is bounded to the north and east by the river, and to the south and west by a striking curved line of hedges. The chord of this circle is about 1,050 feet (Fig. 80). I have not yet been able to investigate this line on the ground, but the map evidence strongly suggests that Doras townland corresponds to a large monastic enclosure, not previously noted. Bright (135), like Dundesert, was levelled long ago and I have not been able to reconstruct it to my satisfaction from O’Laverty’s description. A bank and ditch enclosed about four Irish acres, making use of the steep sides of the rocky outcrop on which the modern church stands. The large hilltop enclosure at Downpatrick (146) measures about 650 feet north-south by 600 east-west. Excavation showed that the hilltop was first defended in the Iron Age and that the last phase of refurbishing belonged to the Early Christian period. Here, clearly, the church was established within an already existing enclosure.

FIG. 65B: INISHMACSAINT ENCLOSURE.

45

FIG. 80: CHURCHES AND EARLY CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT IN EAST TYRONE.

A clear bank defines a segment of a circle around the site at Kiltierney (204). The grass-grown buildings may belong to the Cistercian grange, but the penannular bank looks very much more like an early ecclesiastical enclosure than a medieval precinct boundary.

If the church at Rossorry was originally within this earthwork when and why did it ‘migrate’ to the present graveyard site? There is a reference in 1084 or 1085 to the ‘foundation’ of the church of St. Fainche at Rossorry (A.U.). This is puzzling because the original foundation was certainly much earlier. Could this early activity have come to an end, and could the late eleventh-century reference be to a refoundation on a slightly different site? This is a problem which only excavation can solve.

[104] Perhaps most interesting, but also most puzzling, is the sub-rectangular enclosure (about 300 feet north-south by 120 east-west) in a commanding position on Rossorry hill (215, Fig. 65). It is strikingly different from the more usual circular and oval circuits, and the bank and ditch were clearly once of impressive proportions. Field survey alone cannot clarify its relationship to early ecclesiastical activity in the area. It could be a secular headquarters beside which a church was established, but it could be an early ecclesiastical enclosure. Professor Thomas has detected rectilinear earthworks at several important early sites, including lona and Clonmacnois (1971, 29-31), but this is the only possible example I have come across in my area. Rectilinear enclosures were found to be rare in Co. Down compared with circular ones, and none had ecclesiastical associations (Co. Down 1966, 109 and 169-171).

Three church sites on promontories are enclosed by a line of earthworks or walling. The approach to the ridge-end on Chapel Island (136) is barred by a substantial bank and ditch. A penannular bank encloses the south-east corner of White Island (221), but this can hardly have been seriously defensive as the coastline is long, easy of access and apparently unprotected. [105] Tully (220) is another possible promontory enclosure, but I remained in some doubt about its location. Some line across the narrow neck of land at other promontories is likely, even if no trace survives, as at Armoy, Bovevagh and Dungiven.

46

1.

Skerry and Carrickmore are on commanding rocky hilltops; both are highly defensible sites, but no enclosure has been traced.1 Ardtole (132) and Raholp (171, Fig. 52) are on natural hillocks which show signs of artificial shaping - scarping and revetting with large stones.

2.

For a strong, defensible site with no excavated traces of defences see Rahtz, P., ‘Excavations on Glastonbury Tor, 1964-6’ in Arch. J. 127 (1970), 1-81, especially 12-22. These will be difficult to distinguish from early enclosures from maps or air photographs alone: a ground check is essential.

[106]. Written sources suggest secular headquarters at Bright (‘Tripartite Life’, Stokes 1887, 38-9), and Down Ráith Celtchair or Dún dá Lethglas - was certainly an important secular site. There is a marked clustering of large enclosures close to Lough Erne and in the Lecale Strangford Lough area, and in these areas the promontory enclosures also occur. Other areas are noticeably blank except for two south Antrim sites, two in Armagh and one in east Tyrone. There remain the many smaller circular or oval sites, less than 250 feet in diameter. Thirty-six sites in the inventory fall into this category. In some cases there are traces of a possibly early circuit; in many the graveyard is circular or oval within a modern boundary; in others there is a marked circular elevation within the graveyard or standing alone. This is clearly only a sample as several sites in the appendices are circular, and there must be others. Nevertheless I hope my sites will provide a useful basis for discussion.

FIG. 52: RAHOLP – SITE PLAN.

Macalister and Praeger found that the graveyard mound at Killeen Cormac (Co. Kildare) was a gravel esker which had been scarped and revetted with flat slabs (1929, 2501 and pl. 27). The ridge site at Duncrun looks artificially heightened but there is no trace of an enclosure. Natural oval hillocks offered attractive, prominent church sites, and the graveyards which developed on them tended to assume an oval outline. Examples include Banagher (Fig. 41), Clonfeacle, Drumachose and Glynn, but at none of these is there any trace of an early enclosure.2

At a few sites the enclosure seems to be an early feature. The graveyards at Derrynoose (60) and Kildarton (65) are in raths. There is no doubt that Ballyhill (183), Slawin (216) and Kilmeloge (163) are ring-forts; what is in doubt is the antiquity of their ecclesiastical associations. Ballyhill illustrates the problem clearly: it seems to be an ‘ordinary’ raised rath, yet the Ordnance Survey mark a church site there. There is no documentation, and at the site there is only that most enigmatic of remains, a bullaun stone. Was this an ecclesiastical enclosure, or was it a secular site appropriated for use as a church site? The evidence is inconclusive. The burial associations of the stone enclosure at Cashel (Co. Armagh, 57) are clear from its name, ‘the Relig’, and Relicknaman at Carrickmore (231) is an enclosed burial ground, but again the history of these sites is unknown. [107] A few sites have traces of earthworks in addition to their recent boundaries. There are segments of banks and ditches at Aghanloo (84), Desertlyn (103) and Aghaloo (222). Tullylish (178) is surrounded by a ditch and bank, and Aghavea graveyard (182, Fig. 65c) shows interesting features, not previously noted, even by Wakeman who saw enclosures on every side in Fermanagh, even where there were none!

FIG. 41: BANAGHER – SITE PLAN.

If we consider the four classes of enclosure so far defined (Fig. 6, above) we find that large enclosures occur at several important, historically attested sites - Armagh, Devenish, Down, Inishmacsaint and Nendrum. Though certainly early, Kiltierney and Rossorry are historically obscure, and there is only place-name evidence for Ballinderry (Co. Antrim), Dundesert, Friars’ Island; Loughgilly and Tullyniskan have no early documentation

The burial nucleus is raised and roughly circular (except where truncated). At its edge is a steep drop, then a flat berm, and finally a surrounding hedge and ditch. The ruined church and graveyard at Kilkeel (159) are clearly within a rath. The case of Maghera (Co. Down) calls for some discussion (166, Fig. 53b and Co. Down 1966, pl. 85).

47

eighteenth-century stones are usually prominent markedly higher than the surrounding area and often circular or oval in outline. When the modern enclosure has followed the edge of this eminence the result is the circular and oval walls already discussed; the modern circuit has sometimes followed it partially;1 but if it was ignored altogether the mound remains, as at Boho (185), Donacavey (238), Tassagh (79), Dunboe (107) and elsewhere, clear enough for the field worker to see, but not altogether easy to interpret.

FIG. 65C: AGHAVEA – SITE PLAN. FIG. 53B: MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) - SITE PLAN.

The ‘Preliminary Survey’ and ‘Co. Down Survey’ both pointed out traces of a revetment defining a smaller circuit within the present roughly circular graveyard wall. The level of the yard is very uneven: the central area around the ruined church is raised, but the level falls markedly to a flatter outer berm, especially clear to the north and west, within the graveyard wall. These features suggest that the present wall may represent an enlarging of the burial ground, though not necessarily a radical change of shape. The situation is further complicated by the finding of three orientated inhumations and possible traces of an enclosure near the round tower, some 250 feet north-west of the graveyard. One possible interpretation of the evidence is that the early monastic nucleus was near the tower and the ruined medieval church occupies a ‘new’ site, chosen after the AngloNorman invasion. But are all the cross-carved stones in the graveyard as late as the clearly Anglo-Norman slab (Co. Down 1966, pl. 111)?

There are also isolated circular or oval mounds with no sign of an enclosure, ancient or modern, but which may owe their shape to a lost enclosure. A ditch was reported around the oval eminence at Clooney (98), but it is no longer visible (P.S. 1940, 194). 1.

Good examples are provided by the graveyard on Lundy Island (Devon) (Current Arch. 16 (1969), 138-142) and Maughold, Isle of Man (Kermode and Bruce 1968, fourth report, fig. 7). It has been difficult to decide which of my sites to include: in addition to those mapped, for example, Ardclinis, Desertmartin and Errigal graveyards are partially rounded.

[109] Drumnacur (21) is an instructive site: Reeves reported a circular cashel, and it was possible in 1932 to give measurements of the outer and inner circumference (Reeves 1847, 299 and Crozier and Lowry-Corry 1938). All that can be seen now is an unenclosed, eroded oval mound.

[108] More excavation is needed to pursue this problem further, but the case of Maghera does perhaps warn us against arguing too far from surface features alone.

There remain, as always, miscellaneous enclosures which do not fit easily into any of these categories. The enclosure reported as having been built at Derry (102) in 1162 has disappeared. The Church Island (96) enclosure needs to be cleared and planned, and the present traces may not be earlier than the 1643 fortification of the church. The triangular enclosure at Clonlea (139) is of uncertain date, and the history of the site is unknown. Donaghmore (Co. Down, 145) graveyard seems to be enclosed within a bank, only partly visible. Earlier reports suggested an area of one and a half acres and a rectilinear outline. Nineteenth-century sketches indicate a rectangular earthwork at Magheraglass (261), but this is largely destroyed.

Many circular and oval graveyard walls are clearly fairly modern and perform a retaining function, as at Clogher (232), Donaghrisk (243) and Lissan (118). Other circular graveyards are surrounded by slight banks and hedges or fences, as at Boa Island (184), Ballyclog (226), Derrybrusk (188) and Drumglass (247). In none of these and similar cases can an early enclosure be said to survive, but the possibility must be considered that the distinctive shape reflects and perhaps preserves an earlier circuit. Other graveyards have within the present enclosure a nucleus of clearly earlier burials - seventeenth and 48

Where do rectilinear enclosures fit in this picture? Is it misleading to dwell so much on circular and oval circuits? At one certainly early site, Donaghenry (241), there are traces of a sub-rectangular revetment within the modern graveyard wall. There are squarish enclosures at Deshcart and Shilvodan (Kill-Boedain) (but these are only tentatively identified with sites in early written sources. The Ordnance Survey workers learned that Racavan was given its square graveyard wall in about 1790. They were also told of a rectilinear enclosure at Drumeeny, destroyed before their visit. The graveyard at Kilroot is square and walled, but this represents a contraction because the burial area was once much bigger.

appearance of forts’. But in other cases the present graveyard may be all that is left, or the most obvious remaining element, of a multiple or complex enclosure. More air photography and field study are needed to investigate this possibility further; the environs of every site need closer attention than I have been able to give them. The air photographs in ‘The Early Development of Irish Society’ certainly suggest that more work along these lines would be fruitful (Norman and St. Joseph 1969, chapter 5). Circular graveyards and eminences are not evenly distributed over the six counties (Fig. 6). They are surprisingly rare amongst the listed sites in Antrim. They are rather more common in Down, with a small concentration around the Mournes and in the north-west part of the county where raths are plentiful (Co. Down 1966, fig. 72.1). But it should be noted that inclusion of sites in the appendix would increase the distribution in Co. Down, and some of the many small graveyards in Antrim which I have not been able to investigate may be circular. In north Armagh circular graveyards are fairly common, particularly in hilltop locations (Fig. 29). The distribution in Derry is concentrated in the Bann valley and in the north-west, but not inland.

[110] It is my impression that early enclosures of a rectilinear outline do not occur at all commonly at early ecclesiastical sites in the northern counties, and this serves to emphasise the unusual nature of the large subrectangular enclosure at Rossorry. The case of Kilroot reminds us that although graveyards are enormously respected and not usually subject to much interference they are not static. A circular stone enclosure which is clearly smaller than the burial area is Temple Cormac (177), where burials have been ploughed up outside the wall. Several certainly early sites once had graveyards larger than the present enclosed area: they include Camus (Co. Londonderry), Kilmore, Kilroot, and Magheralin, and in these cases the extent and line of the earlier boundary remain unknown. Boa Island (184) graveyard is reported once to have been larger, and here there is a suggestion of an outer, larger enclosure in nearby hedge-lines. The polygonal wall at Aghalurcher is said to have replaced an earlier circuit; the stone from it was used in nearby farm buildings. A road was driven through the middle of Ardstraw graveyard in the late eighteenth century. All that survives now are two walled graveyards, but the topography strongly suggests a large ridge-top enclosure, following the 150 foot contour above the river.

[112] The hilly area west of Lough Neagh has many, and in Tyrone the distribution continues south-westwards in the Clogher valley, but more sporadically further north. Numbers are high in Fermanagh and the distribution extensive. Hilltop location is common, as Oliver Davies noted (1943, 62-3) but hill slopes, island and lough shores and coastal plains are all represented, so it cannot be claimed that circular graveyards are peculiar to, or result from, any particular topographical situation. Can it be claimed that a circular graveyard is one of the diagnostic features of early ecclesiastical sites? Of the thirty-six sites mapped as smaller circular or oval enclosures twenty are on certainly early documented sites, four at undocumented sites with early material, and twelve at sites of which the history is obscure and the ecclesiastical associations sometimes uncertain. Of nineteen sites with a circular or oval eminence in the graveyard thirteen are certainly documented, one is early on the grounds of material, and the remaining five have no early documentation or material.

Circular graveyards and burial nuclei pose several problems. What exactly is represented by the graveyard area? The circular wall often now performs a retaining function, but could there formerly have been a freestanding enclosure on the line of the modern wall, fence or hedge? Can the circle be taken to represent the whole monastic enclosure? The size-range of the sites is strikingly comparable to the size-range of smaller raths and cashels, although ovals are more prominent amongst my sites than the ring-forts of Co. Down.

Are circular graveyards common at certainly later churches, such as seigneurial foundations in Down and Antrim? My impression is that they are not, but close comparisons would have to be made between early and late sites before reaching any firm conclusions. Ballykelly (Co. Londonderry) church, built in 1640, has a circular raised area around it, but there is a suspicion of an earlier church on the site, so even this case is not clearcut (P.S. 1940, 190).

[111] The common range in diameter is between one and two hundred feet, sometimes more but rarely less (Co. Down 1966, especially 160). This seems appropriate for a small community on the analogy of a single household rath or cashel, and it seems likely that some circular graveyards may approximate to the area of the early enclosure. It is interesting that the Ordnance Survey Memoir of Ballymore parish refers to the two graveyards, Ballynaback and Relicarn (Fig. 29), as ‘having the

A few churches and graveyards in circular enclosures are undoubtedly modern. These must be noted and not confused with early foundations. Recent builders have sometimes built churches in raths because they occupy 49

prominent, commanding sites. An early example is Benburb church (Co. Tyrone) built in 1618 within a hilltop rath some distance from the early site at Clonfeacle.

scale amongst the sites, and a strikingly isolated eastern outlier in the Co. Down distribution of cashels (ibid. fig. 72.2). Other clear cashels are at historically obscure sites, Cashel (57) and Temple Cormac (177), but the Kiltierney enclosure (204) has stones poking through the turf, and where it has been cleared the Inishmacsaint enclosure (199) seems to be made of large stones. Other circular graveyard walls are less clearly early, for example Killyman (68), and some are certainly recent, such as Donaghrisk (243). Kilmeloge (163) belongs to small group, prominent at the foot of the Mournes, hybrid in materials with a stone-faced earthen bank (ibid. 171-3).

[113] The chapel at Camlough (Co. Armagh), separated from Killevy in about 1793, was built inside a rath; also the parish church of Eglish (Co. Tyrone) on a hilltop in Derrygortreavy townland in 1815; and the chapel at Craigavole (Co. Londonderry) in 1855. Although the rath does not survive round the chapel in Ballynagurragh townland (Co. Tyrone) the graveyard retains its shape, and the circular outline of the cemetery beside the church in Dervaghroy townland (Co. Tyrone) suggests a similar origin. The rath at Legar Hill in Corr and Dunavalley townland (Co. Armagh) has been used as a graveyard, traditionally since 1643 (P.S. 1940, 62). There is no reason to regard it as anything but a secular rath. What, then, of the graveyard within the rath at Slawin (216)? This site is undocumented and there is no helpful material. The question of its origin seems to remain open.

[115] Excavation might show this type to be more widespread than superficial inspection suggests: there are stones in the face of the bank at Derrynoose (60), for example. The front slopes of the banks and ditches at Dundesert (24) were stone-faced, presumably to stabilise the steep slope, but there is no mention of stone at the back. The damaged bank at Kilkeel (159) is made of earth. There are no stones showing in the bank at Rossorry (215), and this and others may be of earth.

We must also note that circular enclosures have been built in quite recent times. The Ordnance Surveyors were told that the graveyard enclosure at Aghagallon (Co. Antrim) had been built a century before their visit (1837). Perhaps it followed an earlier circular enclosure, but of this we cannot be sure. A strange case, admittedly not from an ecclesiastical context, appears in the Ordnance Survey account of Errigal Keerogue parish: in Glenchuil townland were two forts, one ancient and one recently (1830s) built and walled. A man was buried in the new one. He had first been buried in Ballynasaggart graveyard, but he returned several times to his house as he had wished to be buried in the fort which he had helped to build, and so he was removed to it.

The northern enclosures are not, on the whole, closely datable. Two important exceptions are the excavated sites at Armagh and Down, both, it must be noted, large sites and small excavations. The Iron Age origins of the Downpatrick enclosure are well-established. The sixth, last, and least formidable phase of the earthwork, a small bank and timber palisade, belongs to the Early Christian period. Unlike Armagh, the later development of the town was not on the hilltop within the enclosure but outside it to the east on lower ground. The C14 dates suggest a pre-Patrician date for the ditch around the hilltop at Armagh, perhaps the second century AD. Unfortunately the Nendrum evidence is inconclusive. The report on the 1922-4 excavations is violated by Lawlor’s preconceived idea that the cashel walls were premonastic, and the small 1954 exploratory excavation did not resolve the chronological problems, though it elucidated some aspects of plan. It remains possible that the enclosure is earlier than the monastic occupation, but there is no clear distinction amongst the excavated finds between pre-monastic and monastic material. The questions of re-used enclosures, gifts of forts and the historical context of enclosures will be discussed further in Chapter 7.

It would, therefore, clearly be rash to claim that all circular or oval enclosures with ecclesiastical associations are early church sites. [114] Some are certainly not, and it needs ground inspection as well as air photographic and map work to investigate each case adequately. But the fact remains that many early ecclesiastical sites do seem to be marked by a circular graveyard or graveyard nucleus. I would conclude that this feature alone can hardly be regarded as diagnostic of early ecclesiastical activity, but it is one of the traits which, when all the evidence is considered, may be found to characterise early church sites.

[116] Sixteen of the names in the inventory appear to include an enclosure element, and nine of these sites are found in Figure 6.1 Dundesert includes the ecclesiastical element ‘dísert’, and the full name of Maghera (Co. Londonderry) included the name of its patron, Lurach, but the others do not seem to include specifically ecclesiastical elements.

We have seen that written sources sometimes refer to the materials of which enclosures were built. What does field survey contribute to this discussion? The ‘Co. Down Survey’ pointed out the difficulties of distinguishing with certainty between raths and cashels without extensive excavation, and I have come across the same problem. There are amongst my sites representatives of each of the four classes distinguished in the ‘Survey’ (1966, 112), but in other cases the enclosures are eroded and grass-grown and their original form is unclear. Nendrum (169) is a clear example of an all-stone enclosure, outstanding in its

The northern enclosures must be seen in the context of ecclesiastical enclosures elsewhere in Ireland and in Britain. The compiling of a list or map of Irish enclosures would be a huge task, but writers have listed some of the more impressive examples (e.g. many in Cochrane 1904, also Leask 1955, 12 and Lucas 1967, 206-8). The best50

known are the west coast cashels including Inismurray (Co. Sligo), Duvillaun Mór, Caher Island and Inishglora (all Co. Mayo), Ardoilean and Kiltiernan (Co. Galway), and Illauntannig (Co. Kerry). In the WatervilleCaherciveen peninsula, Dr. Henry found by intensive area survey that early church sites were: ‘nearly always enclosed by a circular or roughly rectangular wall or rampart’ (1957, 46). At several sites, such as Loher and Killogrone (ibid. figs 25 and 8), an internal division is clear, separating the church from the rest of the area. There is a four-fold division within the cashel at Inismurray (Wakeman 1885-6, fig. 1), and a curious system of radiating walls at Kiltiernan, cutting the large circular enclosure into segments (Norman and St. Joseph 1969, pl. 57). At Killabuonia (Co. Kerry) the buildings are on stone-revetted terraces on a steep hill side (Henry 1957, fig. 18). 1.

[118] Recent fieldwork has revealed enclosures at several early monastic sites in Scottish Dál Riata, for example at Iona and Applecross (Thomas 1971, figs 8 and 15) and Lismore (Macdonald 1974, figs 3 and 4). In Orkney there is an earthwork across the promontory at the Brough of Deerness and parts of a curvilinear enclosure have been excavated at the Brough of Birsay (Radford, C.A.R., in Wainwright, F.T., ‘The Northern Isles’ (1964), chap. 9). In Wales there are enclosures on Ynys Seiriol (Anglesey) and Buryholm (Glam., Hague 1974), and circular graveyards appear in several of Professor Bowen’s maps (1956, figs 36, 39, 50 (segment of circle), 2 and 53). In south-west England the graveyard on Lundy Island is partly circular in outline. Many Cornish graveyards are circular or oval, including Merther Uny (Wendron), St. Buryan and Phillack (Thomas 1971, 81), and Dr Radford has excavated valla monasterii at Glastonbury and Tintagel.

Dundesert, Duneane, Racavan, Ramoan, Rashee, Cashel, Lisnadill, Dunboe, Duncrun, Dungiven, Lissan, Maghera (Co. Londonderry), Down (Dún dá Lethglas), Maghera (Co. Down), Raholp, Tullylish, Lisgoole (also Dunteige and Lisnaskea which are not church sites).

Ecclesiastical enclosures are prominent in Anglo-Saxon written sources but archaeologically have proved to be more elusive than in western areas. Some doubt surrounds the excavated vallum at Whitby, and the suggested Jarrow enclosure has been found only in a small area (Cramp 1974, fig. 3 and 121). Field survey suggests enclosures at Gilling (Yorks.) and Breedon (Leics.: Thomas 1971, 42-3). It is clear, therefore, that enclosures were prominent in the western insular tradition but they were not peculiar to the ‘Celtic’ churches. Wakeman’s instinct was sound when he searched energetically for enclosures round Fermanagh churches, even if his judgment was sometimes faulty (1874-5, 61).

[117] In the midlands and the east enclosures are often more elusive and have until recently attracted less attention. Some have left substantial traces, as at Inchcleraun (Co. Longford), Seirkieran (Co. Offaly), and Glendalough (Co. Wicklow) with its impressive stone gateway, but others are clear only from the air. Examples include St. Mullins (Car., Pochin Mould 1972, pl. 79), Rathcline (Co. Longford, Norman and St. Joseph 1969, pl. 60), Granard (Co. Cork, ibid. p1. 66) and Dunshaughlin (Co. Meath, Andrews 1974, fig. 2 shows the map). The street plan of Kells indicates the line of the former large enclosure (Roe 1966, 3). Air photography and map study thus help to redress the imbalance between surviving remains in the west and east, and clearly show that ecclesiastical enclosures were common all over Ireland.

Enclosures were important in the life of the early Irish church and they are important to its students today. [119] We shall be better able to interpret the scattered and fragmentary remains at a site when we can see them firmly within the context of the original enclosure. Further knowledge of enclosures will also help in the investigation of difficult but important questions of monastic demography. My fieldwork suggests that this stage has not yet been reached in the north, but air photography, map study, fieldwork and excavation all hold out hope for further advances.

Professor Thomas has recently reviewed the evidence for monastic enclosures in western Britain (1971, especially 27-47), and I will confine myself here to pointing out a few examples in the different areas. When site plans of Isle of Man keeills are available a circular or oval enclosure is often seen to be prominent (Kermode and Bruce 1968; the references are to individual reports, each independently paginated). The enclosure at Lag-nyKeeilley is circular with an annex (first report, fig. 18); at Cabbal Pherick, polygonal (third, fig. 7); at St. Patrick’s Chapel, Jurby, a pointed oval (third, fig. 20); at Maughold, polygonal but probably modified (fourth, fig. 7); Ronaldsway Keeill, Malew, roughly oval (sixth, fig. 4); and Ballygawne, Rushen, a segment of a circle (sixth, fig. 10). Keeill Vael, Balladoole, is within an Iron Age hill-fort (sixth, fig. 8 and pl. 9).

51

FIG. 7: MAP OF CHURCHES.

ii) CHURCHES 1.

‘We are hampered in Ulster by a deplorable lack of material’; Oliver Davies’s thirty-year-old observation remains sadly true for any discussion of early churches (1944, 61). There are small concentrations in Down, Derry and Fermanagh, and the material is eeked out by carved fragments, capitals and window-heads.1 The distribution is shown in Figure 7. But the northern material must be studied against the background of early Irish churches as a whole, and since the problem of dating is central to the discussion this will be examined first.

I have not included all the fragments so assiduously collected by Oliver Davies in the 1940s. I failed to find mouldings which he reported at Ardstraw, Ardtrea and Rossorry, for example.

[120] A different conclusion was reached some twenty years later by the eminent English architectural historian, John Henry Parker, who found: ‘very little evidence of stone buildings of any importance prior to the eleventh century’ (in ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ 134 (1864), 146). This later dating was favoured by Champneys: ‘stone churches in Ireland were for a long time most exceptional’ (1910, 27). He believed few could be earlier than the tenth or eleventh century. Leask adopted a position somewhere between Petrie and Champneys. He recognised the problems of dating, but allowed that Gallarus oratory might have ‘stood for perhaps more than 1,200 years’ (1955, 21); accepted St. Columb’s House, Kells, as belonging to the early ninth century; and attributed many other churches to the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries. Dr. Henry included corbelled oratories, Glendalough cathedral and some of the smaller stoneroofed churches in volume I of ‘Irish Art’ (1965, ‘before 800’). Recently Dr. Harbison has reopened the question, suggesting that a date of as late as the twelfth century is possible for Gallarus and other stone churches (1970).

Early Irish stone churches are notoriously difficult to date. Petrie, overreacting to the claim that stone churches appeared in the twelfth century, argued that: ‘The Irish erected Churches and cells of stone without cement at the very earliest period after the introduction of Christianity into the country’ (1845, 136). He confidently dated churches on documented sites to the time of their founders – so Killevy churches would belong to the fifth century. An assumption which strongly influenced his thinking was the pagan date of the great western cashels with their unmortared masonry.

52

This uncertainty arises from the lack of firmly dated churches and datable features. The problem is not peculiar to Ireland: Dr. Taylor has recently re-examined the problems of dating pre-Conquest churches in England.1 But it is particularly acute in Ireland where the earliest certainly datable churches are of the twelfth century. Early Irish churches are very simple in plan, elevation and details. Only in the twelfth century with the appearance of Romanesque forms does dating become less hazardous. 1.

References to timber churches are common in later ‘Lives’ (Plummer 1910, I, xcix): Samthanne, for example, sent carpenters to a nearby wood: ‘oratorium de lignis levigatis construere volens’ (op. cit. II, 254). As late as the twelfth century Bernard of Clairvaux regarded timber building as characteristically Irish: he described how Malachy built a wooden oratory at Bangor: ‘finished in a few days, made of smooth planks indeed, but closely and strongly fastened together, a Scottic work, not devoid of beauty’ (Lawlor 1920, 32). On a visit to Scotland he built an oratory of woven twigs (79), and later encountered strong opposition at Bangor when he built a stone church ‘like those which he had seen constructed in other regions’ (109-10). The interpretation of this passage is not without its problems, but it is tempting to take it at its face value as indicating that a stone church was something of a novelty in pre-Norman Co. Down.

In Anglo-Saxon England I (1972), 259-272, and Arch. J. 100 (1973), 141-166

[121] The study of churches has perhaps suffered from the desire to spread the available evidence - the surviving churches - over a long period. There certainly were churches in fifth and sixth-century Ireland - the canons of Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus regulated the consecration of churches (Bieler 1953, 50-4) - and late in the seventh century Tírechán listed church after church allegedly founded by Patrick (Stokes 1887, 302 f).

Annals are important in the discussion of dating. Particularly valuable is the distinction between ‘dertac’ (‘oak-house’ usually translated oratory), and ‘daimliac’ (‘stone church’). I have listed references from the Annals of Ulster1 from 700 to 1170, and the frequency of ‘dertac’ compared with ‘daimliac’ is striking.

It is obviously tempting to spread out the churches to fill this long span and to avoid too much ‘bunching’ in any one period. This difficult problem must clearly be approached from as many directions as possible. Written sources and excavation are both important, and typological dating should be checked and refined by all available means.

1.

[123] Oratories appear very prominently in the ninth century, and references continue through the tenth and eleventh, even into the twelfth century. Is it certain that all oratories were wooden? At Armagh in 789 we hear of a stone oratory, and in 1009 the oratory there was roofed with lead (in both cases the Latin ‘oratorium’ is used). But the roofing materials for an oratory carried across the frozen Erne in 818 were surely thatch or shingles and the blowing away of oratories in the great storm of 892 suggests strongly-framed timber structures. It seems reasonable to assume that most of the buildings described in the annals as ‘dertac’ were built of wood.

The written sources tell us that timber building was the Irish fashion, as distinct from the ‘Roman’ manner of building in stone. Bede made this distinction several times (H.E. III, 4, of the Britons; III, 25, ‘of hewn oak thatched with reeds after the Irish manner’; V, 21). Twice Tírechán specified a church built of earth (Stokes 1887, 317 and 327); in one case Patrick: ‘fecit ibi aeclessiam terrenam de humo quadratam quia non prope erat silva’, so clearly wood was the usual material. Outstandingly detailed is the description of the seventhcentury church at Kildare, recently rebuilt because of the growing congregation. The large timber church was subdivided by screens and richly decorated (Acta Sanctorum, Bollandists (1658), 1 February, 141 and Thomas 1971, 145). Parts of the ‘Life of Monenna of Killevy’ may date to the seventh century.1 Conchubranus described how a heavy timber for the ridge of the church was miraculously brought down from the mountain 1.

For a complete picture it would obviously be necessary to use and compare all the annal collections.

The Armagh 789 entry seems to be the earliest reference to a stone church in the annals, and it stands out as an isolated early example. In 920 stone churches are specified at Kells and Dulane and in 996 at Armagh. But only in the eleventh century do stone churches appear more commonly in A.U., for example at Kells (1006), Durrow (1019), Ardbraccan (1031), Kildare (1050), Lismore (1051), probably Emly (1058), Lusk (1089) and Ardstraw (1099). There are, of course, many general references to churches giving no indication of materials, but the specific references suggest that stone churches were distinctly unusual in the tenth century and only became more common in the eleventh, when they are found at important sites, mainly in the eastern half of the country.

Though a case has been made for a ninth-century date: Boyle 1971.

[122] The church was made: ‘tabulis dedolatis iuxta morem Scotticarum gentium, eo quod macerias Scotti non solent facere, nec factas habere’; and in the writer’s own day (probably between 1050 and 1150) that ridge was preserved: ‘et nunc illa domo renovata, illa supradicta spinata in reliquiis reputatur’ (Esposito 1910, 237 and Kenney 1929, 368).

Place-names can indicate building materials. There must have been a timber (hurdle) church at some time at Kilclief, though a stone church is mentioned in 935 in the late Annals of the Four Masters. The name Duleek (Co.

53

Meath) which means ‘stone church’ appears first in A.U. at 724, before the Armagh entry.

(Waterman 1967). How much later will be considered below.

[124] This remarkable name clearly demanded explanation, and the ‘Life of Mochua’ claims that Duleek was the first stone church in Ireland: ‘Interea sanctissimus vir Kyennanus ... ecclesiam cepit Domino edificare lapideam; quia ante illam in Hibernia non fuit usus construendi ex lapidibus ecclesias’ (Plummer 1910, II, 187). Could this explanation, written admittedly long after Cianan’s death (late fifth century), be based on a Duleek tradition? The early occurrence of the place-name does suggest an early and extraordinary stone church here, and a site near the east coast would have been exposed to influences from ‘Roman’ building traditions in Britain.

[125] This change from wood to stone has been discovered elsewhere in Ireland and in Britain. Professor O’Kelly found a tiny rectangular post-hole structure with associated burials under a corbelled stone oratory on Church Island (Co. Kerry: 1958, fig. 2), and at Ardagh (Co. Longford) Mr. de Paor has found post-holes under a stone church with antae. The sequence has been found on Ardwall Island (Kirkcudbrightshire, Thomas 1967) and Burryholm (Glamorgan, Hague 1974), and it can be inferred from the plan of graves at Keeill Woirrey, Isle of Man (Kermode and Bruce 1968, second report, 2-5). Lawlor recognised the likelihood of an earlier wooden church at Nendrum, and described how burials underlay the original east end of the stone church, but he gave no plan of the graves (Lawlor 1925, 133-4). There must be a strong presumption that under many stone churches earlier wooden churches remain to be found if subsequent use, especially for burial, has left the underlying layers reasonably intact. There are strong indications, therefore, that stone churches were for a long time exotic in Ireland and that most of the surviving stone ruins are likely to date from late in the Early Christian period. This was not because of ignorance: contacts between the Irish church and Britain and the Continent were active throughout the period. Irish travellers must have been familiar with major stone churches in Italy, Gaul, and Anglo-Saxon England: in Northumbria in the late seventh century, for example, monks from lona and Lindisfarne would have seen Wilfrid’s great churches at York, Ripon and Hexham, and Benedict Biscop’s at Wearmouth and Jarrow, The Irish preference for wood was clearly a matter of choice and tradition: the people near Bangor complained of Malachy’s stone church: ‘We are Scots, not Gauls. What is this frivolity? What need was there for a work so superfluous, so proud’ (Lawlor 1920, 110). These may be Bernard of Clairvaux’s words, but they surely reflect the strong, long continuing Irish preference for timber building.

FIG. 54A: DERRY – CHURCH PLANS.

[126] The argument for a late dating of Irish stone churches is strengthened by the evidence from western Britain. ‘There is ... no pre-Norman conquest church standing above ground in Wales’ (Hague 1974, 17), and the remains of Anglo-Saxon churches in England thin out markedly westwards (maps in end papers of Taylor and Taylor 1965). In Devon there are only two church sites with pre-Conquest stonework. The presumption must be that most churches were built of wood in these western areas and were only rebuilt in stone in the later eleventh or twelfth century, or even later.1

Excavation has an enormous contribution to make to this investigation, as two northern sites clearly show. The small White Island excavation demonstrated that the stone church succeeded a timber structure of two or three phases, on a similar alignment but separated from it by a thick layer, suggesting a period of disuse. It is not certain that the timber structure was a church, but if further excavation is possible the nature of the early occupation should become clearer (Lowry-Corry, Wilson and Waterman 1959). At Derry (Co. Down) the south church overlies burials and a dry-stone building with timber uprights, orientated approximately east-west, but eighteen degrees different in orientation from the standing church (Fig. 54a). A millefiori-decorated pin suggests that the site was in use by the eighth century. The early structure is not closely dated; it could be as early as the eighth century or later. The stone church above is certainly later

Before turning to the northern material we must consider what the written sources tell us about other aspects of early churches. References in annals to churches in the plural suggest the multiplication of buildings still to be seen at Clonmacnois and Glendalough. In 845 the Vikings burned Clonmacnois ‘with its oratories’ and 54

Glendalough ‘with its oratories’ was burned in 1020 (A.U.). Reports of large numbers of people suggest that these buildings were not always small: two hundred and sixty were burned in an oratory at Trevet in 850 and four hundred were taken from Killeshin oratory in 1042. The small size of excavated churches must not blind us to the likelihood of large and grand timber structures like the one at Kildare.

century Northumbrian churches, described in detail, for example by Aethelwulf in ‘De Abbatibus’ (Campbell 1967, e.g. 34, 48, 56). There is a rare hint of internal arrangements in the Culdee ‘Rule of Tallaght’: ‘It was not customary among them to pass between the altar and the transverse choir which is in front of the altar’ (Gwynn 1917, 11). We have already seen (in Chapter 2) that secular legislation used many words for church, indicating differences which are mostly lost to us (‘Ancient Laws of Ireland’, vol. III, especially 65-79). But a distinction which does emerge clearly is between larger and smaller churches: the ‘Rule of Patrick’, for example, refers to: ‘any church in which there is an ordained man of the small churches of the tribe apart from the great churches’ (O’Keeffe 1904, 223). There are indications that certain churches were reserved for the use of particular groups: at Armagh the ‘Liber Angeli’ tells us that bishops, priests and anchorites worshipped in the south church, ‘virgins and penitents and those serving the church in legitimate matrimony’ in the north church (Hughes 1916, 277). The written sources also indicate some of the uses to which churches were put. The ‘Rule of Ailbe’ insists of the monk: ‘Let him be constant at prayer; his canonical hours let him not forget’ (O’Neill 1907, 99), and the main activity was clearly the keeping of canonical hours.

The written sources have little occasion to mention church orientation, but there are indications of a few exceptions to the normal east-west rule. 1.

Timber churches have been found under stone churches in England, for example at Rivenhall (Essex): Rodwell, W. and K. in Current Arch. 36 (1973), 14-8, and Wharram Percy (Yorks.), in Beresford, M.W. and Hurst, J., Deserted Medieval Villages: Studies (1971), fig. 30.

[127] ‘Cell tarsna’, which appears in the ‘Martyrology of Gorman’ at 20 January, is explained as: ‘a transverse church whose orientation is north and south not east and west’ (M.G., p. 301). O’Donnell claimed that Columba’s church, ‘Dubh Regles’ at Derry, was visible to his day (1520), built north and south to avoid felling the oaks which Columba loved. The tradition that Saul church was orientated north-south is found only in late Patrician sources (Reeves 1847, 220). The name means ‘barn’, but in an ecclesiastical context it may indicate an unusual orientation. We know little about the ‘Sabhall’ at Armagh, but the possibility remains that it was oddly orientated. The only surviving Irish church with northsouth orientation seems to be Temple Benen on Inishmore (Leask 1955, 49). The difference in orientation between the excavated and standing structures at Derry and Church Island is striking, but the subject of orientation of Irish churches remains to be studied in detail.

[129] The community might be large like the mixed house at Kildare, or it might be small like the twelve companions in the ‘Hermit’s Song’: ‘Four times three, three times four, fit for every need, Twice six in the church, both north and south’ (Meyer 1959, 30, ninth century). A church offered to its manaig, ‘baptism, communion and the singing of the intercession’ (‘The Rule of Patrick’, O’Keeffe 1904, 222). Oratories were used for private devotions, so prominent in ‘Saint’s Lives’, and churches which had important relics would be frequented by pilgrims. Bede wrote that Cuthbert did not want to be buried on Lindisfarne because he feared the crowds of pilgrims would disrupt the life of the monastery (Colgrave 1940, chap. 37). It seems that churches were used in troubled times as places of refuge (as in the case of Derry, described by Adamnan: Anderson 1961, 251), and the church visited by Columba at Terryglass was locked, barred and bolted (ibid. 411).

There are occasionally indications that a church was slightly more complex in plan than a simple rectangle. Adamnan‘s ‘Life of Columba’ refers to an ‘exedra’ adjoining the oratory wall at Iona (Anderson 1961, 505), and in 1006: ‘The great Gospel of Columcille was wickedly stolen in the night out of the western sacristy of the great stone church of Kells’ (A.U.). In 825 Movilla was burned with its oratories (A.U.) (or its ‘erdamhs’ (Chron. Scot.)). The meaning of ‘erdamh’ is not altogether certain, but it may have been an appendage to a church, like a sacristy or, in an Anglo-Saxon context, a porticus (Petrie 1845, 437-44). The twelfth-century church at Rahan (Co. Offaly) has blocked doors in the chancel which must have led north and south to lateral chambers (Leask 1955, 90-1), but this is an oddly isolated example.

We must now examine the characteristics of the northern churches and assess their place in the sequence of early Irish churches. In a recent valuable analytical study of Ardmore cathedral, J.T. Smith has designated the earliest phase ‘pre-Romanesque’ and has not ventured a closer date (1972). There are in my area seven churches which show no distinctively Romanesque features and can be classed as pre-Romanesque: Derry (Co. Down), north and south, Inishmacsaint, Killevy, Nendrum, Raholp and St. John’s Point. The details of each will be found in the

[128] There are tantalising glimpses of interior fittings. Again the seventh-century Kildare description is outstanding: the monuments of Brigid and Conlaed were decorated with gems, gold, silver and hanging crowns, and the church fittings included painted pictures, screens and textiles (Acta Sanctorum, loc. cit.). This suggests a richness similar to the fittings of seventh and eighth55

inventory, and the Co. Down examples have received authoritative treatment in the Survey, so I shall attempt here to discuss the general characteristics of the seven churches.

clear from a change in masonry and a break in the offset (Pl. 102a and Fig. 70). The Nendrum door is rebuilt, but where doors survive they have inclined jambs, and two are lintelled.

The plan is invariably simple, single-celled and box like, strikingly different from the many-celled Anglo-Saxon churches with nave, chancel and porticus.

Killevy has a massive lintel (Pl. 24a) and St. John’s Point has two, a smaller granite lintel below and a large shale relieving lintel above (Pl. 80b). There are no architraves or embellishments, and no internally projecting pierced stones for door fittings as found at western sites including Caher Island (Co. Mayo), Oughtmama (Co. Clare) and Gallarus (Co. Kerry: Leask 1955, 24). Some of the Killevy door stones are rebated internally (Pl. 24b), but they are oddly jumbled. Windows are few and small, usually one to the east and sometimes one other. They are all of one light, internally splayed, usually with a steeply sloping sill. [131] Three ways of treating the head survive or are reported - flat lintels at Derry south (Pl. 60b), Raholp (rebuilt) and formerly St. John’s Point (south); a triangular head reported for St. John’s Point east window; and round-headed at Killevy. The inner and outer arches here are of carefully fitted voussoirs (Pl. 26a-b), and there is an external rebate, perhaps to hold a wooden frame. It is quite a large opening, hardly earlier than the eleventh or twelfth century.

PLATE 102A: INISHMACSAINT – WEST WALL OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR).

FIG. 70: INISMACSAINT – CHURCH PLAN.

[130] The churches on the whole are small, the most common length being between 20 and 30 feet, with Derry south church smaller (16 ft 3 ins by 11 ft 9 ins) and Derry north (39 ft by 16 ft 9 ins) and Killevy west church (about 41 ft by 22 ft 6 ins) larger. The length-breadth proportions are short, ranging as follows: Derry south (1.33:1); Inishmacsaint (1.5:1); St. John’s Point (1.54:1); Nendrum (1.62:1); Raholp (1.65:1); Killevy west (1.86:1); and Derry north (2.29:1). It would be unwise to draw firm chronological conclusions from these figures alone, but there does seem to be a tendency for later churches to be longer in relation to width than earlier ones (Leask 1955, 49-51). I do not detect any standard unit of measurement or ‘module’ in the dimensions of this small sample of churches.

PLATE 24A: KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH- WEST DOOR (EXTERIOR).

The door was western, except in Derry north church where it was probably southern (Fig. 54a, above). At Inishmacsaint the position of the blocked west door is

PLATE 80B: ST. JOHN’S PONT – WEST DOOR.

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Roscrea (Co. Tipperary), but may by then have been becoming less common. There are no examples of corbels or brackets at eaves level which may take the place of antae at Reefert and Trinity, Glendalough (Co. Wicklow.) and Temple Cronan (Co. Clare).1 There are few clues to the original roof pitch except for the steep west gable (about 55o) at St. John’s Point (Pl. 80a). Leask suggested that a steep pitch would be particularly appropriate for wooden shingles, to improve drainage (1955, 53-4).

PLATE 24B: KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH- WEST DOOR (INTERIOR).

PLATE 80A: ST. JOHN’S POINT CHURCH- VIEW FROM SOUTH-WEST.

The low pitch of the Raholp gable (Pl. 74b) is Bigger’s work of 1915. Elevation, like plan, seems to have been simple. Walls range in width from 2 ft 3 ins to 3 ft. PLATE 60B: DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH.

PLATE 26A: KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH – EAST WINDOW (EXTERIORLEFT) AND PLATE 26B: KILLEVY – WEST CHURCH – AST WINDOW (INTERIORRIGHT)

Churches are found with and without antae: Derry south, St. John’s Point and Nendrum (with); Derry north, Inishmacsaint, Killevy and Raholp (without). The date of the introduction of antae is tied up with the dating of early stone churches already discussed.

PLATE 74B: RAHOLP – WEST GABLE.

If the west wall of Tomgraney church (Co. Clare) can really be identified with the church of Cormac O’Killeen who died in 969, antae could be as early as the mid-tenth century (Leask 1955, 69 and fig. 31). They are found in several certainly twelfth-century contexts, for example at Clonkeen (Co. Limerick), Kilmalkedar (Co. Kerry) and

1.

Champneys (1910, 46) points out the isolated example of this feature in an Anglo-Saxon context, on the south porticus of Breamore church (Hants.).

[132] Inishmacsaint stands out as having thicker walls (Fig. 70, above): they are very irregular, but the gable is 57

about 4 ft thick and the side walls 3 to 3 ft 8 ins. A heavy roof-covering is a possible explanation, but the very thick gable does not suggest an all-stone roof. There is no direct evidence of the roofing of those churches, though we have seen that shingles are likely at St. John’s Point, and thatch is another possibility. With a roof of a flatter pitch thin stone flags would have been a suitable covering. There is no trace of all-stone corbelled oratories of Gallarus type which have a very limited westerly and coastal distribution (Harbison 1970, fig. 15).

The use of dressed granite in St. John’s Point door (Pl. 80b, above) is interesting as, unlike Killevy, granite does not occur locally and must have been brought from some distance (Co. Down 1966, 295-6). [133] Excavation showed that the two Derry churches had very different foundations. The south church walls were set directly on clay, whilst those of the north church had a substantial dry-stone footing. An externally and sometimes internally projecting foundation course or offset seems to be common (Pls 61 and 81a).

The nature of the masonry varies according to local resources, and Leask recognised that it is impossible to ascribe dates on stonework alone (1955, 53). The difference between the two Derry churches is striking (Pl. 61): the south church is built of small, flat, carefully fitted slabs of slate, whilst the north church is of rough rubble of variable size with many small pinnings.

The external offset at Inishmacsaint is of neatly cut sandstone, very different from the rubble walls above, and its extent provides the clue to the original size of the church (Fig. 70). The offset of the eastward extension is much rougher. The date of the introduction of mortar emerges as an important problem and potential link in the chain of argument about dating. The two Derry churches and Raholp were built with clay and not mortar. It is sometimes difficult to be sure because of modern repointing, but Inishmacsaint, Killevy, Nendrum and St. John’s Point wore probably mortared. Leask believed that mortar was used perhaps in the seventh, certainly in the eighth century (1955, 2), but it is possible that in Co. Down it became common only after the Anglo-Norman invasion which brought a great wave of castle and church building, for example at Grey Abbey not far from Derry churches. But did mortar rapidly oust other methods, or did the various techniques continue side by side? There are not yet clear answers to these questions, and one can only speculate. Mortar first appears at Derry in the alterations to the south church and in the dais in the north church, and similarly in the alterations at Raholp which brought the north and south doors and the small north window to light the altar (Fig. 55c).

PLATE 61: DERRY – DETAILS OF MASONRY (SOUTH CHURCH –LEFT; NORTH CHURCH – RIGHT).

PLATE 81A: ST. JOHN’S POINT – NORTH WALL OF CHURCH.

The St. John’s Point masonry is dressed and very carefully fitted (Pl. 81a, above). The feature of larger stones below and smaller above has been noted elsewhere (Leask 1955, 51). The present rough appearance of the Raholp stone-work is perhaps deceptive as pre-restoration photographs (in Bigger 1916) show neat quoins. Inishmacsaint is built of rubble of mixed sizes and the masonry at Killevy is very mixed and irregular, but the details are in carefully worked granite (Pl. 24a-b, above).

FIG. 55C: RAHOLP – CHURCH PLAN.

Derry south church has another feature which has implications for its dating. As well as putlog holes in the north, south and east walls it has transverse and longitudinal timbers in the east wall (Pl. 60b and Co. Down 1966, fig. 189).

58

[134] Timber was used to prop some stone roofs, for example on St. MacDara’s Island (Co. Galway), and there are timber cavities in the base of the vault of Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel (dedicated in 1134: Leask 1955, figs 10 and 17). The use of bonding timbers is well-attested in England from the late eleventh century, for example in the walls of Walmer Old Manor (Kent), and they are found in the probably thirteenth-century ruined church at Maghera (Co. Down).1 It could be argued that the use of timber in Derry south church indicates a post-invasion date for this ‘early’-looking building, which Leask put in the eighth century (1955, 61).

in the dating of the other churches: a certainly pre-976 date would strengthen the case for a tenth or eleventh rather than a twelfth-century date for Derry south and St. John’s Point. I find structural history of Killevy churches difficult to disentangle (Fig. 31).

There seem to be at least two reasonable dating schemes for Derry churches. The south church could be tenth or eleventh century, and the north early or mid-twelfth; in this line of reasoning the absence of mortar bulks large. Or, if the intra-mural timbers are emphasised the south church could be claimed to belong to the twelfth century and the north to the thirteenth. St. John’s Point has many points in common with Derry south church, and a similar date bracket, is likely. There is good reason to think that the church at Nendrum in its final form, with added chancel and sacristy (Fig. 54b), was the church of the Benedictine cell, founded in 1178 but parochial by 1306. But how much earlier is the nave?

FIG. 31: KILLEVEY – CHURCH PLAN.

Lawlor mentions a glazed jug sherd found during excavation of graves inside the church, some of which, from his account, should pre-date the church (1925, 137). But it is difficult to know with such a poor early excavation how much weight to attach to this point (the Co. Down Survey did not mention it). 1.

This subject has been studied in detail in a Queen’s University, Belfast, Ph.D. thesis by R. Wilcox but I have not yet been able to consult it. The dating of Derry south church is also referred to by T. McNeill in his Ph.D. thesis (1973, 211-2).

PLATE 25B: KILLEVY – EAST CHURCH – NORTH DOOR.

The massive trabeate west door fits uncomfortably into the west wall which itself is oddly aligned (Pl. 24a-b, above). The door and part of the west wall may indeed be incorporated into the present structure from an earlier church as Oliver Davies suggested (1938, 84). Killevy lay exposed to seaborne attack and was plundered in 923 (A.U.). A tenth or eleventh-century date seems possible for the door, and there seems to be a case for regarding the present west church as largely of the time of the restoration mentioned by Conchubranus, writing some time between 1050 and 1150.

FIG. 54B: NENDRUM – CHURCH PLAN.

[135] We cannot be sure that activity ceased on the site after the recorded 976 raid (A.U.) as Lawlor assumed. A fire would provide an excellent pretext for the building of a stone church. Yet Nendrum was an important monastery, open to influences from further east, and an early stone church here is quite possible. If a firm date can ever be fixed for the Nendrum church this would help

At first sight the east church at Killevy (also Fig. 31) looks medieval with its battered walls and large east window but its plan exhibits some odd features. If the line of the west wall is correctly located, the proportions are markedly short (about 1.36:1). The lower masonry is 59

massive and polygonal, the north door is oddly placed near the north-east angle (leading to a north cloister?) and is a pale imitation of the west door (Pl. 25b). Could the present church represent an extensive remodelling of an earlier stone church with a west door, now partially reconstructed in the north wall?

PLATE 40: BANAGHER – WEST DOOR (EXTERIOR –LEFT; INTERIOR – RIGHT)

This is a hybrid form of door, combining features of the trabeate tradition and the new Romanesque style. [137] It is paralleled at Maghera (below) and at Aghowle (Co. Wicklow), Britway (Co. Cork) and Temple Martin (Co. Kerry).1 The 464 date was carved on the north jamb between 1730 and 1735.2 The single remaining window in the south wall (Pl. 41) is round-headed with a deeply sloping sill. The inner arch is turned in six neat voussoirs; the outer arch is cut from two stones and the outer opening is framed by a projecting square-sectioned order, the sill being extended a little on either side.

FIG. 55B: TEMPLE CORMAC – CHURCH PLAN.

Temple Cormac (Fig. 55b) is ruined so low that it is difficult to say much about it. The length-breadth ratio is 1.62:1 and the walls seem to be of dry stone, with the foundation course stones distinctively laid on end. The Chapel Island church was found by Lawlor to have its stones set in clay, but it is long (about 2:1) and has a south door, both later rather than earlier features. We must took next at three remarkable churches in midDerry - Banagher, Dungiven and Maghera - which typologically occupy a midway position between preRomanesque and full Romanesque. The nave at Banagher (Fig. 42) was probably originally a single-cell church. The mortared rubble masonry is roughly coursed with dressed sandstone details. There are no antae but there is a neat, slightly chamfered external offset. The main feature is the west door (Pl. 40), square headed with inclining jambs and a massive lintel, framed externally by a boldly projecting moulded architrave. Internally the back of the lintel gives the impression of a tympanum as it is framed by radially set small voussoirs.

PLATE 41: BANAGHER – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (EXTERIOR – LEFT; INTERIOR – RIGHT).

This window is closely paralleled at the nearby church at Dungiven (Pl. 50a and Fig. 45b).

FIG. 42: BANAGHER – CHURCH PLAN.

FIG. 45B: DUNGIVEN – CHURCH PLAN.

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reminiscent of pilasters on pre-Conquest churches in England particularly the wide ones of, for example, Breamore (Hants.) rather than the narrow ones of Earls Barton (Northants.) and Barton-on-Humber (Lincs.: Taylor, H.M., in N. Staffs. Jnl of Field Studies 10 (1970), 21-47). The triple horizontal bands are less easy to parallel. Horizontal string courses usually mark some structural feature of Anglo-Saxon churches such as the stages of a tower or the base of a gable, as at Boarhunt (Hants.). At Milborne Port (Som.) and Bradford-on-Avon (Wilts.), however, decorative blind arcading stands on horizontal string courses of square section. It does appear that the closest parallels for this feature at Dungiven are in late Saxon churches in England (Taylor and Taylor 1965 for all examples cited, and others).1 I am uncertain whether the blocked arcade on the inner face of the east wall is a primary or secondary feature of the nave. It is likely to have been a blind arcade on either side of a central east window. Blind arcading is found in Romanesque contexts at Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel (Co. Tipperary), Ardfert (Co. Kerry), Ardmore (Co. Waterford) and Kilmalkedar (Co. Kerry), and the Dungiven details are clearly Romanesque - scalloped capitals and. reeded bases (Pl. 50). I have tended to regard the arcade as a remodelling of the east wall (as does A.M.S.C. 1962, 94). The south window is in a much simpler tradition and I prefer to regard it as earlier than the arcade. If, however, the east wall arcade is primary we have a mixture of features, some in an older tradition and some in a newer one. Discussion of the tower at the south-west angle will be postponed until Section (iii).

PLATE 50A: DUNGIVEN – EXTERIOR WINDOW IN SOUTH SIDE OF NAVE.

This seems also to have been a single-cell church in its first phase. The masonry is carefully worked coursed sandstone, badly weathered but clearly superior to the rubble at Banagher. The single window in the south wall of the nave has the same external order and distinctive sill as at Banagher (Pl. 50a). The west wall is largely rebuilt but I like to think that a grand west door once existed as at Banagher and Maghera and that traces of it may yet be found. Dungiven has a feature unique in the north, and perhaps all Ireland.

1.

This point has been made in McNeill 1973, 196-7.

At the angles of the nave are shallow, square-sectioned pilasters of very slight projection (not antae or buttresses), rising from a very carefully cut basal plinth. From the north-east angle along the east wall run three horizontal bands, soon obscured by the added chancel (Pl. 50c). 1. 2.

Aghowle: Leask 1955, 84-5; Britway: de Paor 1967, 136; Temple Martin: Dunraven 1875, 105. Ordnance Survey materials (R.I.A. Bundle 33, p. 213): ‘The late Archibald Buchanan of Magherymore was present when the late Archibald Sterling a stone-cutter and engraver by trade ... engraved the words and date which now appears on the old church ... The inscription was cut by Sterling some time between 1730 and 1735. B. asked S. at the moment why he was engraving on the old church. His reply was that he saw and read in an old manuscript the exact date at which the church was built, and he not finding it appear then on ...’ (conclusion missing).

[138] The vertical pilasters are similar to the decanted ones at St. Molaise’s House, Devenish, but they are also

PLATE 50C: DUNGIVEN – EXTERIOR NORTH-EAST ANGLE OF NAVE.

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[139] Dungiven is poorly documented. There are indications of a pre-Viking foundation, but then a long gap until the traditional 1100 date of the Augustinian foundation. The evidence for this date is uncertain; it seems too early for an Augustinian house, but the English late Saxon parallels suggest that the traditional date may not be far from the truth. Banagher cannot be very different from Dungiven in date: it appears first in a written source in 1121 (A.U.), and Reeves suggested an eleventh or early twelfth-century date for the shadowy St. Muiredach. A date of about 1100 again seems reasonable.1

The original fenestration is uncertain; none of the gaps in the north and south walls is clearly original. It is not altogether clear whether the grand west door (Pl. 53a) is of one build with the wall. The walling visible around the inside of the door is very rough, but if the rendering is removed the position may become clearer. 1.

Although attempts have been made to date Banagher door to the seventh or eighth century by analogy with Syrian work (e.g. Henry 1932, 75) there is now a wide measure of agreement for a date of about 1100 and a little later for doors of this distinctive type.

[140] If the door is primary it must date the nave, but if it is inserted, the dating of the nave is a separate problem.

Dungiven and Banagher are linked by their windows, and Banagher and Maghera by their doors. Maghera has had a stormy history as its patched appearance and complex plan suggest (Fig. 44).

The Maghera lintel is the only decorated lintel in my area, and is undoubtedly the most elaborately decorated one in Ireland. The form of the door recalls Banagher, with its bold architrave and pseudo tympanum inside (Pl. 53a), but the lintel has a crowded crucifixion scene and the jambs and architrave are decorated with geometric, floral and interlaced motifs. Suggestions of a very early date are now discounted (for example Sexton 1946, 16, confidently dated it to the eighth century). The decoration is best paralleled in fully Romanesque contexts, for example at Mona Incha church (Co. Tipperary) and Clonfert (Co. Galway; Leask 1955, fig. 74, pl. X and fig. 82). It must date to the twelfth century, and it is tempting to suggest documented historical contexts either the 1135 burning (A.F.M.) or the moving of the Cenél nEógain see from Ardstraw to Maghera in the mid-twelfth century. Could the two small figures on the door (Pl. 53b) represent the old order, the abbot, and the new, the bishop?1

FIG. 44: MAGHERA (CO. LONDONDERRY) – CHURCH PLAN.

The earliest part is the nave, originally a single cell. It had antae to the west, where the scars are clear (Pl. 52b shows the north-west angle). The masonry is large polygonal rubble with spalls, but the walls stand on a neat cut-stone offset (Pl. 52b).

PLATE 53A: MAGHERA – WEST DOOR (INTERIOR VIEW)

If the door is primary, the chancel must be an addition of later in the century. But if the door is itself an addition,

PLATE 52B: MAGHERA – DETAIL NORTH-WEST ANGLE.

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perhaps the chancel was added at the same time as part of a remodelling of the church in fitting episcopal style. If this were so, the nave remains to be dated, and should be included in my pre-Romanesque group.

1142, consecrated 1157). Finally the Anglo-Norman invasion brought a wave of castle and church building in the last third of the twelfth century. The second half of the twelfth century was a period of architectural experiment and change in England, with the older, highly-decorated developed Romanesque and the more austere early Gothic traditions side by side. The picture in Ireland, exposed to such varied influences, is unlikely to be simple, and the development in the north is difficult to trace because of the paucity of material. Our area figures miserably in published maps of Romanesque material (e.g. Henry 1970, 129 and de Paor 1967, fig. 2), though the amount increases gradually with finds of fragments, for example at Armagh, Devenish and Killyleagh.

Leask divided the Irish Romanesque into three phases, largely on the basis of decoration. He suggested an early phase (late eleventh, early twelfth century) with simple decoration, a mid-twelfth century phase, more elaborate, and a third over-elaborate period from the 1160s to 1200 (1955). 1.

Kingsley Porter interpreted the two figures as St Columcille and an archbishop; he claimed he could see a pallium which was not granted to Irish archbishops until 1152: 1931, 58-9 and fig. 101.

A common development of plan was the addition of a second cell, sometimes narrower as at Banagher (Fig. 42, above), sometimes by extending the nave walls eastwards, as at Maghera and Inishmacsaint (Figs 44 and 70, above).

[141] Champneys, however, emphasised the links with twelfth-century English work, and suggested that Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel came early in the sequence, arousing great interest and stimulating imitators (1910). Mr. de Paor has recently developed this point in detail, arguing that: ‘There are no cogent reasons for dating any Irish Romanesque building earlier than the 1130s if we accept broadly a twelfth century date for the whole series’ (1967, 142).

[142] There is no example of a chancel inserted between antae, well known elsewhere, as at Fore (Leask 1955, fig. 37). The Maghera chancel is clearly butted against antae or pilasters (Pl. 52b). The walls are much rebuilt but stand on a very similar offset to the nave, and there may have been three-quarter round engaged shafts at the eastern angles (Fig. 44), though only one stone remains at the north-east angle. Two loose scalloped capitals may come from the destroyed chancel arch. At Inishmacsaint (Fig. 70) there is no structural division between nave and added chancel; perhaps the long rectangular cell was divided by wooden screens. Probably at this time the west door was blocked and the south entrance created. The small window near the south-east angle has been partly rebuilt (its head is cusped), but a roll moulding partly surviving on an inner jamb suggests a late twelfth-century date - Transitional, perhaps, rather than Romanesque.1 The buildings that survive on Devenish belong to quite a late stage in the long history of the site. St. .Molaise’s House (Fig. 67) - sadly ruined early in the nineteenth century - is small (1.75:1 proportions) with very massive side walls (1 ft) and less massive gables (3 ft).

PLATE 53B: MAGHERA – WEST DOOR – DETAIL OF ARCHITRAVE ON SOUTH SIDE (EXTERIOR).

The second important line of development came with the new monastic foundations of the twelfth century - the Augustinians (for example Christ Church, Dublin in the 1170s); and the Cistercians (Mellifont founded about

FIG. 67: DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE PLAN.

63

There is a striking contrast between the walling and the details. The walls are of ‘sandwich’ type, large thin slabs set on end with a rubble core, common in the west, as at Temple Benen, Inishmore and Kiltiernan (Co. Galway), and found in a twelfth-century context at Mona Incha (Co. Tipperary). 1.

produce, emphasising the great attention lavished on this small building.

It is difficult to draw a firm dividing line between Romanesque and Transitional when so little survives, but roll-moulded jambs are found in Transitional contexts for example at Monasternenagh (Co. Limerick, Leask 1960, 367) and in a much more developed form at Banagher and Dungiven, discussed below.

[143] The general appearance (Pl. 92) is ‘archaic’, but some stone seems to be chisel-dressed, and all the details are finely worked in sandstone. The west door has a slight architrave, and McKenna and Bigger claimed a small, round-headed, splayed east window with four voussoirs. The angles are clasped by colonetted pilaster of slight projection (not antae or buttresses but reminiscent of the plain Dungiven angle pilasters) with beautifully decorated bases (Pl. 92). The motifs include acanthus forms, scrolls and interlace with distinctive interlaced pelleted bands (Leask 1955, fig. 69). The decoration suggests a date not before the mid-twelfth century, and it is tempting to link the building (as Dr Radford has recently done: 1970, 58) with the recorded burning of Devenish in 1157 (A.U.). I have wondered whether this is the rebuilding in stone of a greatly revered timber church, with some conscious attempt to produce an archaic appearance.

PLATE 91B: ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE – GABLE STONES (RECONSTRUCTED).

[144] If the suggestion of a timber model is pursued, the angle pilasters represent corner posts and the roof simulates barge boards and shingles. Two other fragments recently found on Devenish suggest a second, larger, Romanesque church. One is a voussoir with arris-chevron decoration in quite low relief, with no roll on the arris and no beading. The other, a capital or label-stop, has a chevron-decorated pointed rolled necking, and a finely detailed animal head, the snout and jaws bound with an interlaced pelleted band. Neither of these pieces seems to fit the style or scale of St. Molaise’s House. Further clearance may well produce more twelfthcentury fragments of a now-vanished building which must once have been very important.

PLATE 92: ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE – DETAILS OF NORTH WALL (LEFT) AND NORTH-WEST ANGLE (RIGHT).

The other remarkable feature is the formerly steeply pitched all-stone roof, partly reconstructable from fragments (Pl. 91b).

Other Romanesque remains consist of tantalizing fragments. The Downpatrick jamb stone has chevron and palmetto decoration in fairly low relief, whilst the Killyleagh stone has a boldly moulded beaded chevron and a small animal head. Two capitals recovered from the Presbyterian church at Armagh have lively decoration of high quality, including a handsome beaded fish and a bird. They may come from the church of SS. Peter and Paul, but are unlikely to be as early as its 1126 consecration. The dating of these and other northern Romanesque fragments revolves around a problem not yet satisfactorily solved. Is northern Romanesque work derived from Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel and other Munster models, or can one postulate independent contacts with twelfth-century work in England and on the Continent?

The massive side walls were clearly designed to bear its weight. The angle pilasters were carried up the gables and the roofing stones were cut to simulate overlapping shingles or tiles (Leask 1955, 37). It is not clear whether the roof stood alone or had a propping-arch below; Leask favoured the latter alternative (ibid. 37). The elaborate treatment is unusual but not unique. The ruined roof of the church on St. MacDara’s Island (Co. Galway) was clearly similar; Mr. de Paor has excavated roofing stones at Tihelly (Co. Offaly) which suggest a similar treatment; the Clones (Co. Monaghan) stone tomb shows antae or pilasters continuing up the gable to the ridge (ibid. fig. 22). This effect must have been very laborious to

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The church of SS. Peter and Paul may have been based on foreign models, and Malachy’s stone church at Bangor almost certainly was. It seems unlikely that Cashel provided the only source of inspiration in the north, but the details of the chronology and directions of influences remain to be worked out.

Though arguably not very much later than St. Molaise’s House, Teampull Mor on Devenish is very different (emphasised in Pl. 91a). The church is very long and narrow (Fig. 68), with no internal subdivisions. The western angles have three-quarter round engaged shafts (Pl. 94a), and the south window has elegant multiple rolls inside and out, including distinctive hooked forms (Pl. 93 and Fig. 69b). A date of a little after 1200 seems likely for these quite advanced mouldings.

[145] White Island church (Fig. 71b and Pl. 108a) provides a link between Romanesque and Transitional work. The general appearance of the door and details like the pellets on the abaci and the hood mould are still Romanesque, but the moulded bases, concave capitals and keeled rolls look forward to fully Gothic work. This door suggests a date not far from 1200 for the church. Work of Leask’s Transitional ‘Western School’ is well represented at Devenish, Banagher and perhaps Ballywillin. The main feature of the group is the framing of window openings with multiple roll mouldings, uninterrupted by capitals and bases. The rolls sometimes include keeled and hooked members (Leask 1960, chap. 4).

PLATE 91A:DEVENISH – VIEW EAST FROM ROUND TOWER.

FIG. 71B: WHITE ISLAND - CHURCH PLAN (AFTER UJA 1959).

FIG. 68: DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR PLAN.

PLATE 108A: WHITE ISLAND – SOUTH DOOR OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR).

PLATE 94A: DEVENISH – SOUTH-WEST ANGLE OF TEAMPULL MOR.

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been elaborate inside but oddly simple outside. The aumbry in the east wall is very simple: there are no roll mouldings (Pl. 42).

PLATE 93: DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (EXTERIOR –LEFT; INTERIOR – RIGHT)

FIG. 43: BANAGHER – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS.

FIG. 69B: DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR –ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS.

The added chancel at Banagher also has Transitional features (Fig. 42, above). Its sandstone ashlar, in places rebated (as in Pl. 43b), is greatly superior to the nave rubble. Recent clearance has shown how the chancel arch was cut through the nave east wall and the responds were fitted somewhat awkwardly into the rubble masonry. The moulded half round bases remain, but their shafts have disappeared (Pl. 42 and Fig. 43). The south window has multiple rolls inside and outside. The inner angle of the splay is emphasised by a filleted roll between quirks (Pl. 43b and Fig. 43).

PLATE 43B: BANAGHER – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (INTERIOR).

PLATE 42: BANAGHER – NORTH RESPOND OF CHANCEL ARCH (LEFT); AND NICHE IN EAST WALL OF CHANCEL (RIGHT).

It may be connected with later medieval liturgical arrangements. The exterior eastern angles (Pl. 44) have three-quarter round engaged shafts with very weathered capitals of concave profile.

[146] A late nineteenth-century drawing claims to present a reconstruction of the mouldings of the east window (Fig. 43); this must be regarded with suspicion as the window was ruined in Reeves’s day (about 1850), but rolls and quirks are clearly prominent. It seems to have

The decoration seems to be mainly foliage, with interlace and possibly small birds. At the south-east angle the square abacus turns through 90°, and it is possible that a string course ran across the east end, perhaps incorporating the east window. Engaged angle shafts 66

occur in both Romanesque and Transitional contexts (Mona Incha and Ardfert in Leask 1955, figs 71 and 89 and Devenish, Teampull Mor) and a date of about 1200 is likely for Banagher chancel.

PLATE 44: BANAGHER – SOUTH-EAST (LEFT) AND NORTH-EAST (RIGHT) ANGLE PILASTERS OF CHANCEL.

The little-known church at Ballywillin, now roofless, was used until the mid-nineteenth century. The feature which links it with Banagher and Teampull Mor is the rollmoulded aumbry in the east wall (Pl. 39b). This seems to be in situ and there is good reason to regard the main fabric of the church as Transitional. The church is long and narrow without internal subdivisions (Fig. 45a). The doors are to north and south; the windows are all lancet, some round-headed, some pointed, but all with drip-mouldings (Pl. 39). The treatment is clearly much simpler than at Banagher and Devenish but it seems consistent with a very early thirteenth-century date.

PLATE 39B: BALLYWILLIN – AUMBRY IN EAST WALL (INTERIOR).

[147] I have found no evidence for pre-Norman activity here, and this may be an unusual survival - a parish church built a generation or two after the Anglo-Norman invasion. It is possible that other churches and fragments will be found to belong to this c. 1200 horizon. Reports suggest Transitional or thirteenth-century features at Faughanvale, but the church is shrouded in dense ivy. Fragments at Kilcronaghan church include a tall roundheaded niche with sloping jambs, rebated and hollowchamfered, possibly a re-set window, and a roll-moulded jamb, but there is also a distinctively thirteenth-century capital. The long narrow proportions of Inishkeen church may indicate a Transitional date; the church needs clearance and the many carved stones need careful study. Mouldings built into the Caulfield bawn at Maghernahely include rolls, at least one of pointed bowtell form.

FIG. 45A: BALLYWILLIN – CHURCH PLAN.

There are no examples of the distinctive winged finials, best known from western sites (Crawford 1914 and Harbison 1970, fig. 18). Examples have been excavated at Church Island (Kerry: O’Kelly 1958, 94-6) and Ardwall Island (Kirkcudbrightshire: Thomas 1967, 1568) and they are clear in manuscript illustrations and stonecarving (Leask 1955, 46-7).

Other fragments, out of their structural context, are often difficult to place chronologically. There are windowheads, semi-circular and cut from single stones, at Donagh (the top of a tall lancet, sketched by the Ordnance Survey: Fig. 69a and Pl. 99b), Galloon (Pl. 99a), and White Island (Pl. 108b). All three are externally rebated and may be Transitional or late Romanesque. The tall round-headed window reset in the east window at Movilla is Romanesque in character (Co. Down 1966, Pl. 104). These and other fragments are listed in the inventory.

[148] Oliver Davies found a late example, probably of the fifteenth century at Corrick Abbey (Co. Tyrone: in P.B.N.H.P.S. 1.2 (1936-7), 17). What we do have are two examples of a puzzling type, not previously isolated, at Derryvullan (Pl. 90b) and Kiltierney (Pl. 111b). A very similar stone at Saggart (Co. Dublin) has been published as a finial with the socket end downwards and the forked end uppermost. It was suggested that this was 67

a very early type, closer to the ‘crossed rafters’ model than the better-known examples (J.R.S.A.I. 89 (1959), 205-6). I prefer to see these, however, as apex stones for a gable, providing a socket for a small cross or other ornament.

PLATE 108B: WHITE ISLAND –WINDOW HEAD.

FIG. 69A: DONAGH –ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS.

PLATE 90B: DERRYVULLAN – ROOF FINIAL.

PLATE 99B: DONAGH –WINDOW HEAD.

PLATE 111B: KILTIERNEY – ROOF FINIAL.

The socket seems far too small to attach the stone to a roof whereas the stone would sit firmly on the apex of a gable and provide firm seating for a small finial.1 This suggestion is supported by the Derryvullan example which does not bifurcate like the others. A similar stone lies close to the east gable of the ruined late twelfthcentury cathedral chancel at Kilfenora (Co. Clare). Small

PLATE 99A: GALLOON – WINDOW HEAD.

68

gable crosses are found in illustrations of late Saxon churches in England (e.g. the Chichester seal in Baldwin Brown 1925, 270), but they are well known also from later contexts, and it is not possible to suggest a close date for these fragments.

under the base of the village cross, with the cross apparently central, balanced by two panels of interlace (Davies 1944, pl. IVa). Now that the stone is fully exposed, however, this explanation is no longer satisfactory. At least three of the faces were meant to be seen, perhaps all four, and three angles retain traces of mouldings. The cross side is decorated with a simple key design and a panel of single-strand interlace. The other side is more complicated. The edge moulding turns into serpent necks, which are crossed, and the heads clasp a man’s head. He dangles between them, holding objects of uncertain significance. In the spaces between the beasts’ necks and the edge moulding are two all human heads in profile.

The sole fragment at Clogher which could be derived from an early church is the so-called ‘cloch óir’ published by H.C. Lawlor in 1931 as the lintel of a trabeate door (Pl. 120b). But his description is misleading, his photograph deceptively touched-up, and his claim cannot be upheld.

PLATE 120B: CLOGHER - ‘ENIGMATIC STONE’ IN CATHEDRAL. 1.

Many of the surviving finials have lost the tenon, but Church Island example has a tenon about 8½ ins wide and 3 ins deep. This is larger than the cavities in the Fermanagh stones (Derryvullan 3 ins square and 2 ins deep, Kiltierney 3½ by 3 ins and 2¾ ins deep), so a smaller tenon is indicated.

FIG. 35A: TYNAN –CARVED STONE.

[150] The function and date of this stone are both unclear. The design recalls the ‘man between monsters’ theme found in many contexts and over a long period (Roe 1945). A cross-carved stone at Gallen Priory (Co. Offaly) shows a man gripped by monsters, as does a brooch found near Pettigo (Co. Donegal: J.R.S.A.I. 59 (1929) 176), and it is possible to find many somewhat similar scenes but no very close parallels. Heads are found commonly in Romanesque decoration, for example at St. Saviour’s, Glendalough (between birds); Clonfert; and Cormac’s Chapel (Henry 1970, pls 101, 104, 105); and roll mouldings on a twelfth-century sill at Rath (Co. Clare) turn into beast heads (Leask 1955, fig. 97).

[149] There is no sign of the architrave which his illustration suggests; instead on two opposed sides are long, rectangular sunken panels, cut at the top diagonally. About 5 ft 9 ins high, it could be a short jamb stone, but the usual embellishment was a raised architrave, not a sunken panel and monolithic jambs are unusual. Reefert church at Glendalough provides an example of the former (Champneys 1910, pl. XVI) and Labba Molaga (Co. Cork) of the latter (Leask 1955, fig. 35) but these are distinctly unusual features. It could be a very massive respond, but again parallels are elusive. Lawlor did not believe that this was the stone referred to in the fifteenth-century gloss in the ‘Martyrology of Oengus’, but it is conceivable that it is, and that its original function was as obscure to the medieval glossator as it is to us now. The little-known stone at Tynan (Fig. 35a and Pl. 38) was reasonably interpreted as a lintel when it was obscured

The asymmetrical decoration does not seem appropriate for a lintel. The right hand panel of interlace (as previously illustrated: Roe 1955, pl. XI) is on a separate stone (Pl. 36b), and I think it was roughly pecked to balance the other (original) panel when the stone was set under the Village Cross base, the stone is also rather 69

slight, and decoration on two opposed faces is inappropriate for a lintel.

grooves in the long sides. We know very little about the internal fittings of early churches. The long rectangular Transitional plan requires screens, and isolated stone members may have performed some function of this kind which it is difficult for us now to visualise. [151] At some sites remains of early churches have been destroyed in fairly recent times. A ‘sculptured architrave of freestone’, found at Antrim, early in the nineteenth century, was used in repairs to the round tower. ‘Old walls and much loose stone’ were also cleared. The destroyed church at Kille Enan, Drumeeny, was described in 1835 as having been externally 30 by 21 ft, with drystone walls and an altar slab on columns at the east end. Accounts of the church at Dundesert do not suggest early proportions, and it could have belonged to a late stage in the site’s history. Churches are reported but no longer visible at Drumbo, Duncrun, and Turraloskin. Others are grass-grown (Drumsallagh, Kiltierney, Templastragh, Templemoyle), or featureless ruins which are undatable (Arboe, Glennoo, Kilcoo). Some of those churches, destroyed, obscured, featureless, may be early; others are probably later. The ruined and decaying church on the early site at Cappagh (Pl. 136) has a feature usually Romanesque but here probably later. Fat engaged shafts at the western angles die out at eaves height in a kind of stop-chamfers, somewhat reminiscent of late medieval door stop-chamfers (Leask 1960A, figs 29 and 72).

PLATE 38: TYNAN – CARVED STONE.

PLATE 136: CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF NORTH-WEST ANGLE (LEFT); AND SOUTH-WEST ANGLE ROLL (RIGHT).

The many doubts and uncertainties make it difficult to summarise this discussion briefly, but I would suggest that those stone churches come late in the history of the early church. They did occur earlier on important sites, notably Armagh, but stone churches are unlikely to have been at all common until the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and many parishes may not have had a stone church until the thirteenth century or even later.

PLATE 36B: TYNAN – FRAGMENT WITH WEATHERED INTERLACE.

It could be one of the jamb stones of a door of more than one order, so allowing both faces to be seen, or part of an impost, but no structural explanation seems altogether satisfactory. Professor Thomas suggests that 3 to 3 ft 3 ins was the usual height of an altar (1971, 185). This stone is 3 ft 4 ins high, and some purpose connected with an altar, screen, or some other internal church fitting is possible. At the interlaced end is a broken socket, rather roughly made and not certainly original, which could have held a tenon in a horizontal member. There are no

[152] An eleventh or early twelfth-century date seems likely for most of my pre-Romanesque group. The three Co. Derry churches must belong to the first half of the twelfth century. Maghera, the grandest, perhaps being the latest. St. Molaise’s House belongs to the mid-twelfth century, and other Romanesque work is characterised by scalloped capitals and chevron and pellet decoration. 70

They include the many pre-Norman churches of Armagh city, the churches of Derry (where there were major building works in the 1160s), Down, Clogher, Ardstraw (where there was a stone church by 1099) and Bangor the oratory spoiled in 824, Malachy’s wooden and later un-Irish stone churches. Nothing is known of all these. And beyond the stone churches are lost centuries of accomplished timber building. The main hope for recovering some of these losses is excavation, supplemented by careful recording and clearing of ruins, and vigilance during non-archaeological excavation close to early churches. When the structural sequence and chronological progression are clearer it should be possible to place some of the now ‘floating’ fragments, and these will assume a new importance.

Late in the twelfth century Transitional forms appear and the long, narrow plan, sometimes with a south door, and Ballywillin of the early thirteenth century may be an early parish church of Anglo-Norman Ulster. There are obviously many missing links in this story, many of them undoubtedly the most important buildings of the day, the models of which we have only fragments or pale reflections.

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FIG. 8: MAP OF ROUND TOWERS AND SOUTERRAINS.

[153] iii) ROUND TOWERS, SOUTERRAINS AND OTHER BUILDINGS

towers were stylite columns, sun temples, phallic symbols or penitentiaries.2

The enclosure was the outer limit of the monastery and the church the focal point within it. We must now turn to the other buildings and the fragmentary northern remains of round towers, souterrains and other structures.

1.

Round Towers: ‘No towers are more graceful than these upward-pointing stone fingers of Ireland’ (Conant 1966, 31). Round towers are a remarkable Irish phenomenon, a daring architectural achievement for a people whose building traditions were grounded in timber construction. Margaret Stokes suggested one hundred and eighteen surviving examples (1928, 42), and this number is increased by towers known only from written sources. Seven are still standing in our area, the destruction of two others is reported and one is known from written sources (Fig. 8). Three other towers attached to churches will be discussed after the free-standing examples.1

2.

The position at Killevy is not entirely clear. The 1609 map shows a detached tower, but this may be a conventional way of showing towers. A description published in 1866 described it as attached to the church near the south-west corner, but the tower was blown down late in the eighteenth century. It appears on my map as ‘Round Tower - destroyed’ but the possibility of it having been attached must be remembered. Perhaps the gap near the west end of the south wall provided access to the tower. Henry O’Brien in The Round Towers of Ireland (1834) spent 524 pages arguing that they were ‘primitive Budhist temples’. Petrie listed the many theories: 1845, 4.

[154] He demonstrated their constant association with ecclesiastical sites and showed that their architectural features were paralleled in stone churches. The Irish name - ‘cloictheach’ - indicated their use as belfries1 and Petrie insisted this was their main purpose, with secondary uses as refuges, safe storage places and lookouts. He saw no reason to doubt that they existed in Patrick’s time, but recognised that most were later, ninth and tenth century, especially from the Viking period.

The study of round towers is still dominated by George Petrie and Margaret Stokes. Petrie set the study for the first time on a sound footing (1845). He combatted the ‘erroneous theories’ which had proliferated, that the

In the 1840s and 1850s Getty excavated inside the Ulster towers, searching for burials and claiming towers were used for the depositing of venerated remains (1855 and 72

1856). The second major advance was made by Margaret Stokes. She collected references to towers in the annals and considered the structural characteristics of seventytwo towers, suggesting a four-fold classification. Her dating has not stood up to the test of later work, but her conclusions about influences and models still largely stand. She argued that the Irish towers were detached versions of Continental circular towers, common in Carolingian and Ottoman contexts (1928, 6-52). She emphasised belfry towers, however, whilst the most likely models are stair turrets, a point developed in more detail below.

to boulders, and the top few feet are carelessly built of small stones (Pl. 5a). The uppermost courses must result from recent use of the tower as a belfry, but is the middle part rebuilt, or is this a change of materials in an otherwise unitary piece of work? Marked changes of masonry in towers all over Ireland, including Clonmacnois (Co. Offaly), Drumlane (Co. Cavan.) and Timahoe (Co. Laois) are a feature not sufficiently noted and discussed. Most carefully cut is the Devenish masonry: the stones are of irregular size but are cut to the curve and batter and very carefully fitted, with some use of rebating (Pl. 95a). The marks of chisel-dressing are clear on some of the window jambs which have been protected from weathering.

The height range of the towers is very wide. Petrie suggested between 50 and 120 ft, and the two complete northern examples measure 92 (Antrim) and 81 (Devenish). An exterior circumference between 47 and 50 ft seems usual in the north (Petrie suggested 40 to 60) and an interior diameter of 8 to 9 ft (Nendrum smaller). 1.

O’Donovan, visiting Maghera (Co. Down) in 1834, reported that the old inhabitants ‘who know nothing about written theories’ and had never heard of any other round tower in Ireland told him that the tower there was the belfry. The full extract will be found in the inventory.

[155] The walls range from about 2 ft 8 ins at Ram Island to 3 ft 10 ins. Doors are raised - Devenish 8 ft 6 ins, Armoy and Drumbo about 5 ft - but there are no very high doors like those at Kildare and Kilmacduagh (Co. Galway).

PLATE 65A: DRUMBO ROUND TOWER.

PLATE 65B: MAGHERA ROUND TOWER.

The masonry in some cases seems to be undressed rubble: granite boulders and shale pinnings at Maghera (Pl. 65b), shale at Drumbo and Nendrum (Pls 65a and 72a). At Antrim some of the basalt boulders are roughly hammerdressed (Pl. 6). More carefully worked are the long schist slabs at Armoy, dressed to the curve of the tower (Pl. 6), But about twelve feet above the base these slabs give way

PLATE 72A: NENDRUM ROUND TOWER.

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The towers generally stand on one or two foundation offsets (one is clear in Pl. 72a), and Getty found deep stratification below ground level in some towers. At Armoy he excavated to 11 ft below the door sill and at Drumbo found four distinct layers in a depth of 9 ft, so clearly sometimes the tall superstructure had deep foundations (Getty 1856 and 1855). [156] But excavation at Maghera (Co. Down) showed that the tower stands immediately on a shale hummock with no foundation (Pl. 67a).

PLATE 6: ROUND TOWERS: CONTRASTING MASONRY AT ANTRIM (LEFT) AND ARMOY (RIGHT).

PLATE 67A: MAGHERA EXCAVATION.

The mortar ‘floors’ encountered by Getty may represent stages in the building, mixing floors or stone-dressing areas, and if Getty left any undisturbed stratification it would be interesting to see these in section. The masonry above ground level has usually been repointed: as the observant Mr Stokes pointed out in the Ordnance Survey Memoir of Antrim, the tower had been repointed externally, but the internal joints showed little mortar (O.S. 1969, 75-6).

PLATE 5A: ARMOY ROUND TOWER.

PLATE 4B: ANTRIM ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF DOOR.

Doors are well above ground level, with the possible exception of Ram Island, which I have not visited. The Maghera door is a featureless gap without dressings (Pl.

PLATE 95A: DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DOOR AND WINDOW.

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65b). The Antrim door has massive hammer-dressed jambs and a flat lintel (Pl. 4b) and the door is recessed internally for a frame.

on the intervening strips of cornice. But the motifs are oddly jumbled suggesting confusion at the time of assembly, or some undocumented later rebuilding. Elaboration of the northern towers is otherwise limited to the plain architraves already noted at Armoy and Devenish.

Drumbo door is also lintelled and the jambs are hammerdressed, as are the dressings at Armoy. Here the semicircular door head is worked from a single stone (Pl. 5a). Some of the jambs are through and at least two others are rebated through the wall thickness. The opening is tall and narrow with markedly inclining jambs and a plain architrave. Most sophisticated again is the Devenish door (Pl. 95a), its semi-circular head formed of three carefully fitted through-stone voussoirs. The opening is outlined by a plain architrave, and there are signs of door fittings internally. The two towers which stand to their full height, Antrim and Devenish, have four flat-headed windows in the top stage. A window above the door at Devenish has a triangular head made from two cut stones (Pl. 95a), but windows otherwise are simple, flat-headed, with no noteworthy features. [157] The conical stone roof at Antrim and Devenish rise from a slightly projecting square-sectioned cornice, and originally terminated in a carefully dressed moulded stone with a socket to receive a pointed finial. The Ordnance Survey Memoir pointed out marks of wicker centering under the Antrim roof, and timbers built into the wall under the cornice, which Mr. Stokes suggested were to support the wicker-work. Wicker centering is well known in Ulster buildings of fifteenth-century date such as Dundrum Castle, and in later tower-houses like Narrow Water. But as far as I know it is not found in preNorman contexts, and its occurrence at Antrim suggests either that the tower is as late as the fifteenth century or later, or that the roof has been reconstructed. The annals refer to towers damaged by lightning, and the Antrim cap was hit by lightning early in the nineteenth century, so the second alternative is perhaps the more likely.

PLATE 95B: DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF CORNICE.

Turning from the structural evidence to broad questions of function, date and origins we must consider the evidence of the written sources. In the first written reference1 a tower appears as a refuge for people and treasures: in 950 ‘the belfry of Slane was burned by the foreigners of Ath-cliath. The crosier of the patron saint, and a bell that was the best of bells, Caenechair the lector, [and] a multitude along with him were burned’ (A.U.). Here the largely stone construction failed to prevent a disastrous fire (and internally towers must have been highly combustible). The raised door must have been designed with security in mind, and it would be interesting to try to establish whether those few towers with ground-level doors (like Scattery Island, Co. Clare) are early or late in the series. We must imagine movable ladders and stout wooden doors.

Joist-holes indicate floor levels at Antrim and Drumbo, corbels at Ram’s Island, and corbels and offsets at Armoy. The walls at Devenish were ingeniously increased and decreased in thickness to provide ledges at intervals on which the joists must have rested, there was a basement with five stories above. The solid base of the Antrim tower dates from the early nineteenth century.

When a window is just above or just to the side of the door, as at Antrim and Devenish it could (at some peril to the defender) have been used for measures of counterattack, as were machicolations and murder-holes in medieval castles. The refugees must have hoped to sit out the siege. A 936 entry in A.U. allows us to imagine the circumstances of the towers’ use:

Decoration on round towers is not common. The lintel is occasionally decorated, as at Donaghmore (Co. Meath) where there is a crucifixion scene. At Antrim above the plain lintel is another large hammer-dressed stone with a ringed cross in low relief with a distinctive expanded foot and a diamond-shaped sinking at the centre (Pl. 4b).

1.

Devenish has a plain door, unlike the elaborately decorated Romanesque doors at Kildare and Timahoe (Co. Laois). All the Devenish decoration is lavished on the cornice at the base of the cap, and it is unique among round towers.

Margaret Stokes listed ‘Belfry of Castledermot’ at 919 in her chronological table (at end of 1928); this results from its traditional attribution to the dated abbot Cairbre.

[159] Clonmacnois was plundered by the Vikings ‘and they stayed two nights ... a thing that had not been heard of from ancient times.’ Towers could have served as watch-towers. They would also have attracted attention to

[158] The work is very accomplished: the less weathered masks are of high quality (Pl. 95b) as is the crisp carving 75

monastic sites, unwelcome in a Viking context, but perhaps a symbol in more peaceful times, like the church spires so popular in thirteenth and fourteenth-century England.

plan has a similar pair flanking a western apse (ibid. fig. 3). These turrets are very prominent in surviving eleventh-century churches, for example at Mainz, Hildesheim, Goslar, Worms, Nivelles and Dijon (ibid. figs 18, 20, 23 and pls 145A, 149B, 150).

Margaret Stokes tabulated the increasing number of annalistic references to round towers after 950 (in Dunraven 1877). There is a particularly marked cluster in the second half of the eleventh century, and towers continued to be built in the twelfth and even the thirteenth century (Annaghdown in 1238). It is clear, therefore, from the annals that round towers were in existence by the mid-tenth century and remained a familiar feature of the monastic scene, being built until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

1.

[161] If you ‘detach’ those turrets from their churches the similarity to Irish round towers is very striking. It can be argued (e.g. Henry 1967, 55-6) that the Irish towers are larger and had internal floors, whilst the suggested models contained only staircases. But it is possible to borrow a form and adapt it to a different function - to take the stair turret form and adapt it to the belfry tower function - and this I believe to be the origin of the Irish round towers.

Northern towers appear occasionally in the annals. Armagh is mentioned in 995 (A.F.M.), 1020 and 1121 (A.U.), Down in 995 (A.F.M.) and Drumbo in 1130-1 (M.I.A.). Devenish was burned ‘with its churches’ in 1157 (A.U.) but no buildings are specified. A king’s son was killed by his own kinsmen in Devenish tower in 1176 (M.I.A.).1 Although it would be wrong to rely too heavily on these two dates, the 1157 event provides a possible context for the building or rebuilding of the tower, and the 1176 incident suggests a date by which the tower was probably in existence. The archaeological evidence suggests the same period. 1.

This illustrates how Margaret Stokes’s ‘style’ classification breaks down as a chronological system, for Devenish is classed as third style and the others as fourth (1928, 43).

It is not possible to find close parallels in Anglo-Saxon England, even though towers are prominent in late Saxon churches. Most belfry towers are square, and the few preConquest round towers in East Anglia, like Forncett St. Peter (Norfolk) have quite different proportions from Irish towers (Taylor and Taylor 1965, pl. 465). The characteristic late Saxon double-light belfry window is unknown in Ireland (ibid. fig. 3). Staircase turrets are semi-circular or more nearly circular, as at Brixworth and Brigstock (both Northants.), again different in proportions from round towers in Ireland (ibid. figs 49 and 44). It may be that tall staircase turrets of Carolingian type would have been prominent in the elevation of some large late Saxon churches, but those are entirely lost or known only from excavation, as at Winchester.

A high king’s grandson was harboured in Kells tower in 1076, but killed by treachery (A.F.M.). Clearly they could be refuges for lay people as well as clerics.

[160] A date in the third quarter of the twelfth century seems appropriate for the head masks on the cornice. In all respects Devenish emerges as the most sophisticated of the northern towers, and it is probably the latest, firmly in the twelfth century, with Kildare, Timahoe (Co. Laois) and Ardmore (Co. Waterford) and perhaps as closely dated as between 1157 and 1176.1

The travels of Irish churchmen on the Continent, the existence of a series of Irish monasteries - Schottenklöster - and the presence of Irish scholars at Carolingian royal courts would create plentiful opportunities for Irishmen to see the great stone churches of Charlemagne and his successors. These contacts were active through the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries (Kenney 1929, 530-621). [162] We are left, therefore, with the first written reference to a round tower in 950, and the opportunity for Irish contact with potential Continental models from about 800. If towers were built during the first serious wave of Viking attacks they would have appeared during the 830s and 840s. But it is more likely that they began to be built in the period of recovery after the first onslaught, and the late ninth or early tenth century is the most likely time for the beginning of the series. If towers were at all common before 950 we might expect at least the occasional reference to them in the annals. Just as references to stone churches are rare in tenth-century annals but increase substantially in the eleventh, so the annals suggest a modest number of towers in the tenth century, increasing greatly in the eleventh.

Before trying to refine the dating of the other northern towers it is necessary to consider the question of origins and influences. Italian campanile have often been suggested as models for Irish round towers (e.g. by de Paor 1961, 151-2), but Margaret Stokes also pointed to models closer to hand, in the Carolingian empire, and I feel sure this is where the origins are to be found. The Irish do not seem to have followed the mainstream of tower development; this was the square belfry tower, placed axially or in pairs flanking the west end (Conant 1966, 54). Instead they took an element, of minor importance in the plan, but important in the elevation the tall, circular staircase turret, and developed it in an extraordinary, peculiarly Irish way. Small round staircase turrets were prominent in the elevation of Carolingian and Ottoman churches. One of the earliest examples may have been the lost St. Riquier, dedicated in 790, known only from a drawing. Here the eastern apse and ‘westwork’ were flanked by pairs of circular stair turrets (Conant 1966, pl. IIA). The St. Gall

In the north Devenish probably comes last, dating to the third quarter of the twelfth century. Armoy tower with its round-headed door, architrave, rebated ashlar jambs and 76

carefully dressed masonry must also be late in the group. The change from hammer-dressing to chisel-dressing may have come with the Romanesque, which we have seen Mr. de Paor argues arrived with Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel, in the 1120s and 1130s. I have detected chiseldressing only on the Devenish tower, and an early to midtwelfth-century date seems likely for Armoy. Drawings of the demolished tower at Down suggest neat ashlar, but pictorial sources are notoriously unreliable. Accounts of the demolition mention stone walls running beneath it, which would also support a later rather than an earlier date.

Getty discovered burials inside Armoy and Drumbo towers, and other excavators have found burials at Antrim and Ram’s Island. Getty claimed that the bones had been deposited in the towers, but a less forced explanation is that the towers were built in established graveyards. Some of Getty’s finds were fragmentary burials, for example a skull with the top vertebrae in articulation at Armoy, and these indicate disturbance by the tower builders. Margaret Stokes (and others) suggested that a northly position for towers could be explained by the preference for burial south of a church: building a tower to the north would involve less disturbance to graves (1928, 46).

Arguments about the dates of the others can rest only on the typological grounds which Margaret Stokes explored (1928, especially 43). Rubble masonry may be earlier than hammer-dressed stone, but the difference need not be one of date.

It is likely that a round tower came late in the structural history of some sites, even if it was one of the earliest stone buildings. Did other structures fulfil some of their functions before their introduction, or at sites which never had a tower? Souterrains may have been used as refuges, and these will be dealt with below. Timber watch-towers are quite likely. Bede’s ‘Life of Cuthbert’ describes how news of Cuthbert’s death was signalled to a ‘watchtower’ (‘in specula’) on Lindisfarne (Colgrave 1940, chap. 40). There is also the possibility that a surviving tower may not be the earliest tower on a site. This, like so much else, is something only excavation can show, and it is one of the many exciting prospects of large-scale work, like the present campaign on Inishcaltra (Co. Clare), that round towers will be seen more clearly in their proper chronological perspective in the development of a site as a whole.

[163] It could arise from differences in resources or available expertise. Flat lintelled doors may be earlier than round-headed ones. Doors embellished with an architrave may be later than those without. But such arguments do not take us far in the quest for dates. The Maghera and Nendrum towers are featureless apart from their rubble masonry, the Nendrum tower may date from before the 976 burning, but there is no certainty that the site was abandoned, and the tower could have been built or rebuilt following the attack. The low relief ringed cross on Antrim tower has a distinctive rolled base and a sunken diamond at the crossing. In the context of recumbent slabs Lionard found that ringed crosses cluster markedly in the ninth century, and several Clonmacnois ringed crosses have spiral-decorated or lobed bases somewhat reminiscent of the Antrim form (Lionard 1961, 117-27), but it is doubtful whether a dating scheme for recumbent slabs can safely be applied to other material. I would favour a tenth or eleventh-century date for the simpler towers, but it is only with Armoy and Devenish that we arrive at reasonably firm dates.

[165] How common a feature of monastic sites was a tower? Were they peculiar to vulnerable sites, or important sites, or were they widely built? Over Ireland as a whole the Ordnance Survey ‘Monastic Map’ shows that there are towers at many important sites, including Cashel, Clones, Clonmacnois, Glendalough, Kells, Kildare, Roscrea and Raphoe, and in other cases written sources attest the former existence of a tower, as at Emly, Lismore, Louth and Slane. In the north (Fig. 8, above) we know of Armagh tower only from annals, and of Down and Killevy from more recent sources, but there are no remains of, and no references to, towers at many important sites including Ardstraw, Bangor, Clogher, Coleraine and Dromore (Co. Down). References to towers at Connor and Derry are so problematic that I have not included them on the map. Yet we also find towers at sites of which little or nothing is known from written sources, like Armoy, Drumbo and Ram’s Island.

If we turn to the physical and chronological relationship of towers to other features we find that in at least five cases the tower is the earliest structure, Where a church survives or is reported the tower is usually nearby: it is 43 ft north-west of Nendrum church, 24 ft north-west at Drumbo (reported), 40 ft south at Down (reported), 28 ft west at Armoy and west of the earliest surviving churches on Devenish. Margaret Stokes discovered so many examples about 20 ft north-west of the church that she suggested this was a standard position, with the door facing the church (1928, 46). Reeves suggested a position 40 ft north-west of the cathedral for Armagh tower, destroyed long before without record.

There are at least two possible hypotheses. Towers may have been the mark of important sites. If this was so we must assume the former existence at important sites, even when no trace remains, and take it that sites which have towers were once important, even if they are not prominent in written sources. A second possibility is that towers were built both at important and less important sites, and this is what the surviving sample seems to suggest. Most of the northern towers are in areas vulnerable to Viking attack, directly by sea (Nendrum, Killevy), by river (Down, Drumbo) or by inland lough

[164] It is obviously important to confirm that a church is early, or on the site of an early church before making claims of this kind. At Maghera (Co. Down) the tower stump is isolated, about 250 ft north-west of the church ruin (Fig. 53, above), but the finding of burials near the foot of the tower suggests the possibility of an earlier church nearer the tower than the medieval ruin. 77

(Antrim, Devenish). Lord Dunraven’s map of Irish towers shows how many are in areas vulnerable to waterborne attack (1877, at end of volume).

been used as one of the four angle turrets of a late medieval church tower (Leask 1960A, fig. 7). All three1 northern towers are known only from their bases. Views are available of Trummery and Dungiven towers before their fall, but I can find no view of the Tamlaght Finlagan tower intact. The three have little in common. The tower at Trummery was north-east of the chancel; at Dungiven in the south-west angle of the nave; and at Tamlaght Finlagan north-west of the nave. Recent excavation at Dungiven, which I do not know about in detail, has shown that the tower base is of one build with the nave walls (Fig. 45b, above offers only a rough sketch-plan).

[166] But the Viking threat had passed by the eleventh century; defensive considerations may have receded and others (prestige? symbolism?) become more prominent. The case of Armoy suggests a question, not previously discussed. Were round towers peculiar to monastic sites? The ‘Tripartite Life’ (of about 900) describes Patrick quarrelling with Olcan and foretelling that: ‘his cloister would not be high on earth’ (Stokes 1887, 167). This suggests an early church which failed to flourish. Did activity cease altogether? Armoy next appears during the late twelfth-century invasion period, after which it emerges clearly as a parish church. Once again arguments from silence cannot be pressed too far, but if monastic life at Armoy had decayed by about 900, to what context does the round tower belong? Could the church have been re-established as a parish church during the reforms of the early twelfth century, and could the tower belong to that phase of use? It is worth considering the possibility that by the twelfth century round towers could have been built at parish church sites.

1.

See note 1 on p. 153 above.

[168] It is square below, and for the upper part we have only late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century views and descriptions. Shaw Mason tells us the tower ‘formed part of the building itself…the lower part was square until it reached the roof of the building, from thence to the extremity the tower was circular’ (1814, 302). His drawing suggests that at about ridge level the tower was corbelled inwards, and at the top slightly corbelled out, with perhaps a ruined parapet (ibid. facing 302). This upper part could obviously be later than the base. The corbelling is more reminiscent of sixteenth-century tower houses than anything earlier, and it is not impossible that the tower in its latest form dated from the Protestant reoccupation of the church in 1622. We do not know what the original superstructure was, and in view of the current excavations it would be unwise to speculate about it.1

Round towers attached to churches remain to be discussed, Petrie believed that those were later than the free-standing towers but he did not discuss them in detail (1845, 395). The best-known examples are St. Finghin’s at Clonmacnois (Co. Offaly) and St. Kevin’s ‘Kitchen’ and formerly Trinity church at Glendalough (Co. Wicklow). The tower at Clonmacnois is round from the base and is of one build with the church, datable to the mid or later twelfth century (Leask 1955, 147-50). The Glendalough towers are (were) round above roof level, but square below.

Trummery church is neglected and in its present state I found it impossible to work out the structural sequence satisfactorily. The tower fell in 1828. Dubourdieu’s illustration shows a rather rounded cap which several writers pointed out had been erected on wicker centering, which we have also come across at Antrim. The tower stood about 60 ft high and was square below but round above. A few steps of a newel stair survived after the fall, and the internal diameter was only 3 ft 8 ins. The outer walls were rubble built but the inner faces were of sandstone ashlar. A date before the Anglo-Norman invasion seems unlikely, and it could be considerably later.

[167] At Trinity church the tower was clearly an addition, involving the disuse of a west door and its replacement by a south door, a feature found in the late twelfth century and later (Leask 1955, 77, fig. 41). The round belfry tower seems also to have been added to St. Kevin’s ‘Kitchen’ but its date is not certain. The church at Killashee (Co. Kildare) has a tower square below but changing to round above by means of flags set like squinch arches across the angles. The circular part has a diameter of 9 ft 3 ins and tapers little if at all. Lennox Barrow comments:

1.

‘There seems to be no other tower in Ireland quite like Killashee - square base turning to round with parapeted top and built onto the west end of a church with its east side opening into the full height of the nave’ (1972, 193).

But I have wondered whether there were twin towers flanking the west front, with a corresponding one at the north-west angle.

[169] We know even less of the former state of the tower at Tamlaght Finlagan (Fig. 45c, again a very rough sketch). The projection at the north-west corner of the nave seems to be of one build with the church, itself featureless and undatable. An 1836 drawing by Du Noyer shows only the square projection still visible, and nothing of its superstructure. Sampson refers simply to a ‘tower’, but Tamlaght Finlagan appears with Dungiven and Trummery in Petrie’s brief discussion of attached towers

He suggests it is an attempt to superimpose the round tower idea onto an English-style west tower, but can only suggest the wide date range of twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth century (ibid. 193-4). All these towers are to be clearly distinguished from the tower at Lusk (Co. Dublin): here a formerly free-standing round tower has 78

(1845, 393). Petrie clearly took it to be a round tower, and Munn, Leslie and others have followed him. The circular form of the interior, presumably to accommodate a newel stair, must have led Petrie to assume a circular tower. It may have been, but we do not know what the superstructure was like.

Turraloskin. Some reports are less precise: souterrains are said to be ‘near’ Bovevagh, Desertoghill, Rasharkin and Tyrella, and in the same townland as Killelagh. They are clearly some distance away from the churches at Killesher and Temple Cormac. There are stories of underground passages at Donaghenry and between Maghera (Co. Londonderry) and Termoneeny, and ‘underground arches’ near Templemoyle. 1.

The English monastic equivalent is lost drains which come to light as ‘secret passages’.

[171] This map is probably far from complete. Souterrains are notoriously found by accident. Seven of the mapped sites are known mainly or solely from Lewis’s ‘Topographical Dictionary’ (1837)1, and I wonder how many have been found since then and have escaped record. I do not know of a map of all recorded souterrains to set against the ecclesiastical one, but entries in the ‘Preliminary Survey’ (1940) suggest a dense distribution in Antrim, fewer in Down and Armagh, and very few in Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone. Figure 8 shows a good scattering of sites in four counties, and inclusion of sites in the appendices would increase the numbers, especially in Antrim, but only two in Fermanagh and none in Tyrone.

FIG. 45C: TAMLAGHT FINLAGAN – CHURCH PLAN.

It is clear that these attached towers cannot be regarded as ‘normal’ round towers and must be kept quite distinct in any discussion of round towers. It is misleading to map or list them with the free-standing towers without comment (as in Gwynn and Hadcock 1970). They seem to belong more properly to the study of medieval parish churches than to the architectural history of the early Irish church.

Since souterrains, like enclosures, are not peculiar to ecclesiastical sites they cannot be taken to indicate early ecclesiastical activity in the absence of other evidence. At Cashel (Co. Armagh), for example, a souterrain is reported in the fort, which is known as the ‘Relig’. It may be an early church site, but it could be a secular fort taken over for un-consecrated burials. There is no certainty. But we must enquire what the function of souterrains was at church sites, and whether their presence strengthens the case for a pre-Norman date.

We have made progress since the time of John Frith who believed Devenish tower was built in 560 when Arthur was king of the Britons (1808, in Ordnance Survey records) and Shaw Mason’s informant who claimed that Armoy was built twenty centuries before his time (1816, 507-8). But no-one since Margaret Stokes has thrown very much new light on round towers, and it will probably be by excavation and detailed recording and comparison of structural features of standing towers that further progress will be made.

The question of function is closely bound up with their structural features. Details of these are often sparse: many souterrains have not been open for a century or more, and there are conflicting accounts of some. Errigal stands as being entirely rock-cut. It is large, roughly cruciform, with six chambers. The usual construction was dry-stone walling in a dug trench and a lintelled roof.

Souterrains: [170] Souterrains are a very common type of Irish field monument. Professor Evans suggested that the total may run into many thousands (1966, 28). They are often found in raths and cashels (many examples in P.S. 1940). Some are unassociated with any enclosure (as at Craig Hill (Co. Antrim): U.J.A. 19 (1956), 87-91), and they also occur at some church sites. Dr. Henry found many at early ecclesiastical sites in the Waterville-Caherciveen peninsula (1957), and they are reported at Glencolumcille (Co. Donegal), Killala (Co. Mayo), Kiltiernan (Co. Galway) and elsewhere.

1.

I refer in the inventory under Banagher to how mistakes can arise from misuse of this valuable source. Munn’s claim of a souterrain near the old church arose from a misreading of Lewis (Munn 1925, 72 and Lewis 1837, I, 177).

[172] Common proportions among the inventoried sites are passages about 5 ft high and 3 ft wide, with larger, higher chambers. Three subdivisions are commonly described. In the crescentic example these are marked by constrictions in the passages. Tyrella was described as being 43 yds long, with three chambers, and Kirkinriola also had three subdivisions, each 25 ft long. There are conflicting accounts of the Drumeeny souterrain. Figure 21b is reproduced from the ‘Ordnance Survey Memoir’ and shows the same triple division. The three chambers seem quite roomy but the narrow linking passages are very low.

Souterrains are found at or near twenty-three sites in the inventory, and in three cases stories of underground passages may indicate lingering traditions (Fig. 8, above.).1 The souterrain sometimes runs under the graveyard, as at Donaghmore (Co. Down), Kirkinriola and Saul. Others are close to the site, as at Agherton, Antrim, Ardtole, Drumeeny, Errigal, Killevy and 79

Harris 1744, 194-8, Ó Ríordáin 1964, 31 and Evans 1966, 29). It does not, however, seem that a souterrain was a universal feature of monastic sites. Twenty-three is a small proportion of the sites (about one-twelfth), even if some remain to be found. Lawlor worked a good deal on souterrains and would probably have found one at Nendrum if there had been one to find. In the case of souterrains some distance from the church or graveyard the problem arises as to whether they belonged to the monastic occupation or to a nearby ‘extra mural’ settlement. O’Laverty touched on this question, suggesting that ‘caves’ near churches indicated that those churches were once the centres of villages (1887, 96). 1. FIG. 21B: DRUMEENY SOUTERRAIN - PLAN.

‘St. Lasair’s Cell’ also has three chambers, two rectangular and one ‘beehive-shaped’, linked by small passages, all under an artificial mound (P.S. 1940, 176-7). The corbelled ‘cell’ at Dungiven (not surviving) could have been part of a souterrain, but this is not certain.

The name of the site was ‘Poll Ruadain’ (‘Ruadan’s hole’). Does this suggest that the ‘hole’ was unusual (compare Duleek, ‘stone church’), or was the name given to commemorate the event?

[174] At Killevy the six-inch map shows a fort and souterrain in the field south-east of the graveyard, but another report suggests that the souterrain runs under the road into the graveyard, and the likelihood is that it was within the monastic area. But at Connor the concentration of souterrains near the church suggests a neighbouring settlement of considerable extent. When the souterrain is some distance from the church, as at Temple Cormac and Killesher, there can be no certainty that the two were in any way associated.

One suggested function for ecclesiastical souterrains is that they served as retreats for hermits (O’Laverty 1879, 108 and Chadwick 1961, 92, 148). This does not seem very likely. If souterrains were peculiar to ecclesiastical sites one might argue for a specifically ecclesiastical use, but since they occur widely at secular sites a less specialised explanation seems preferable. We know from written sources that other provisions were made for anchorites (see below).

Can souterrains be taken to indicate pre-Norman activity? Their date-range is not easy to establish as they are so rarely found intact by excavators: the 1933 excavation at Errigal, for example, produced very mixed finds (U.J.A. 2 (1939), 82-8).1

The most satisfactory explanation, embracing Scottish earth-houses and Cornish fogous as well as Irish souterrains, is that they were safe, cool storage places for various kinds of food. Secular and ecclesiastical communities alike would need to store food. But it must be recognised that souterrains often exhibit features which to our eyes are markedly inconvenient: passages 1 ft 6 ins wide and 2 ft 6 ins high at Drumeeny and 2 ft 6 ins square at Killesher, for example.

Cornish fogous and Scottish earth-houses seem generally to belong to the Iron Age or Roman periods (Thomas 1972), but the evidence points to the Early Christian period in Ireland. Ogam stones re-used in the roof of souterrains indicate a date after the main fifth to sixthcentury floruit of ogam: an example comes from Carncomb, about half a mile south-east of Connor (J.R.S.A.I. 29 (1899), 121-5), but not from the souterrains near the church. The destroyed inscribed stone from the souterrain at Seaforde was clearly an Early Christian memorial stone, but the history of the site is unknown. The Drumeeny souterrain lies between the two church sites (Fig. 21) and has a cross-carved stone re-used as a lintel. The Ordnance Survey drawing suggests a neat rectangular slab with an outline Latin cross (fig. 25, no. 2).

[173] Souterrains elsewhere have features which strongly suggest hiding-places: at Donaghmore (Co. Louth) the passages are on two levels, with a secret entrance to the upper level through the roof of the lower (Evans 1966, fig. 76). It is difficult to assess people’s tolerance of inconvenience in the past, but these features suggest that defensive considerations were present. The single reference to something that sounds like a souterrain in a saint’s Life indicates its use for refuge. Ruadan harboured a fugitive: ‘in quadam fovea in terra’, under the ‘cella’, and the pursuing king had to dig the man out (Plummer 1910, II, 246).1 This does not mean that souterrains were built solely or primarily as refuges, but some may have served both as storage places and the underground equivalent of the soaring round towers (as suggested by

1.

Dr. Eogan’s recent excavations at Knowth have shown that souterrains form part of the extensive Early Christian reoccupation of the site: P.R.I.A. 66C (1968), 299-400 and 74C (1974), 11-112.

[175] The re-use of a slab from an active church nearby would be odd, and it may have been taken from Kille 80

Enan after its abandonment. Neither of these stones allows refinement of the dating beyond Early Christian or later. It remains possible that some souterrains are preChristian and some medieval, but the evidence strongly suggests an Early Christian date for most.

century poem (Meyer 1959, 30), or the mountain top cairns discussed in Chapter 5. It seems unlikely that Lawlor identified the living accommodation at Nendrum (Fig. 51a). The middle cashel is the most likely area, but the prolific finds from huts 15 to 20 suggest an industrial and craft complex rather than a dwelling area. The living quarters may have been kept clean and may therefore have been less obvious to Lawlor’s workmen than the workshops.

It can, therefore, be argued that the presence of a souterrain at a church site strengthens the case for early activity there. At Cloghinny the cross-carved boulder, the ‘Shankill’ field name and the souterrain combine to establish the existence of a church here. The souterrain close to the cross at Aghanaglack and reports of a building and bones also suggest a lost church. The souterrain reported near the circular graveyard at Agherton strengthens the arguments for an early church at this undocumented site.1

[177] Perhaps they were of wood and not stone. A corbelled structure west of Dungiven church recorded by the Ordnance Survey was known as the ‘cell’, but it does not survive. ‘Small buildings’ had already been cleared from Turraloskin before 1838; the Memoir mentions ashes and hearths. All the features described by O’Laverty inside Kilmeloge have been cleared; the ‘circles of stones’ may have been cell foundations but they could have been rick-bases like those I found at Shilvodan (Kill-Boedain).

The long discussion of the functions of souterrains will doubtless continue, and we must hope that future work will clarify the relationship between souterrains and early churches. Some known but lost souterrains may become available for further study, for instance Saul and Drumeeny, and previously unknown examples may be found at church sites. The written sources indicate a wide range of other monastic buildings (e.g. Anderson 1961, 105-18 and Plummer 1910, I, cxiii-iv). The northern evidence documentary and material - is sparse but we must survey the range of buildings and see how far they are represented at northern sites. 1.

It is only in western Ireland that cells survive at all commonly. These are corbelled stone clocháns, wellrepresented on coastal and island sites including Skellig Michael, Illauntannig, Inishkea and Inismurray. At Church Island (Co. Kerry) Professor O’Kelly found the same change in building materials for the circular hut as for the church: the first hut was of wood, the second of stone. The rectangular hut at the island’s edge was of stone from the start (1958, fig. 1). It seems likely that living cells would have been wooden, certainly in the midlands and east, and perhaps more often and longer in the west than has been assumed.1 We can also recall the mud-built hut at White Fort (Co. Down) in an area of plentiful stone (Waterman, D.M., in U.J.A. 19 (1956), 7386). In the north they will only be found by excavation. But how will they be recognised? A reasonable working hypothesis is that they should be fairly clean and without industrial debris if they were mainly used for sleep, study and private meditation, but even this is not certain.2

Souterrains are reported at seven sites in the appendices, five of them certainly church sites. These when further investigated may be found to warrant inclusion in the main inventory.

[176] There is clearly a distinction between buildings individually occupied and those communally used. Most important amongst the former must have been the living cells, occupied by brothers singly, or in twos and threes. There is no hint of the communal dormitories mentioned in Northumbrian sources: Cuthbert, for example, insisted on sleeping in the dormitory of the brethren, a sign of humility (Colgrave 1940, Bede’s ‘Life’, chap. 16). The late sixth-century ‘Rule of Columbanus’ forbade monks to talk to other brothers in their cells (Bieler 1966, 38), and the ‘Rule of Tallaght’, of about 800, enjoined penance first in public and then in the privacy of the monk’s own cell (Gwynn and Purton 1911, 133). The late ‘Life of Cainnech’ described the ‘custos monasterii’ going from cell to cell on Iona looking for Columba, and the anchorites on Cleenish lived ‘each in his own cell’ (Plummer 1910, I, 160 and II, 228).

1. 2.

Traces of oval timber huts have been excavated at Fursa’s Norfolk monastery in Burgh Castle: Cramp 1973, fig. 1b. Professor O’Kelly found an occupation layer with shells, animal and fish bones in the round stone house on Church Island (1958, 68).

[178] The abbot’s house is prominent in the written sources. The A.U. reference to the otherwise little-known site of Tullylish tells of a violent death beside the shrine of Patrick in the abbot’s house in 809, and in 975 the abbot of Nendrum was burned in his own house. There is an early reference to the abbot’s house at Armagh in 823 (‘forut n-abbad’); the name suggests it stood in its own enclosure. It can be argued that the large ruin shown north-west of the cathedral on Bartlett’s c. 1601 map was the medieval successor of the earlier abbot’s house. But in other cases the abbot’s hut may have been much like the other cells. Conchubranus described Monenna shut alone in her cell spending long periods in prayer (Esposito 1910, 232).

The cell of an anchorite might be in the monastery, as was the cell of Malachy’s master, Imar at Armagh (Lawlor 1920, 11). The ‘disert’ of Derry (A.U. 1122) may have been some such retreat within the monastery. Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ refers to Finan who was an anchorite ‘near’ (‘juxta’) Durrow (Anderson 1961, 319). But other anchorites’ cells may have been further away, the ‘hidden little hut in the wilderness’ of the ninth81

The refectory was one of the most important communal buildings. It seems clear that normal practice was to eat together, not in solitude like the later Carthusians. The ‘Rule of Ailbe’ includes the ringing of a bell for meals, and the practice of Tallaght was to read a gospel aloud at meal times (O’Neill 1907, 103; Gwynn and Purton 1911, 138). Refectories are referred to in annals and ‘Lives’ but only rarely is there any detail about the structure. The late ‘Life of Samthanne’ (associated with Urney) mentions a wooden refectory (Plummer 1910, II, 257). A.U. refers to a refectory at Derry in 1175 and 1192, but we do not hear of one at Armagh. One of the buildings south of the church at Jarrow, probably built soon after the monastery’s foundation in 682, may have been a refectory (Cramp, R., in Med. Arch. 13 (1969), 49-50), but I know of no clear example from an Irish excavation.

providing hospitality was very strong in Irish secular society (Hughes 1966, 6), and it was maintained in the monasteries. St. Molua’s first care in building a new house was alleged to be provision for visitors, and his dying instructions to his ‘family’ included ‘hospites semper propter Christum recipite’ (Plummer 1910, II, 216 and 223). The ‘Rule of Ailbe’ insisted on ‘a clean house for guests and a big fire, washing and bathing for them, and a couch without sorrow’ (O’Neill 1907, 107). The guesthouse is prominent in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’: guests’ feet are washed, bundles of wattles are collected to build a guesthouse, and hospitality is even offered to a stray crane (Anderson 1961, 221, 329 and 313-5). The guesthouse on Cuthbert’s Farne Island retreat was close to the shore, some distance from the hermitage (Bede’s ‘Life’, Colgrave 1940, chap. 17).

The kitchen can be assumed to have been somewhere near the refectory. It is one of the buildings alleged in the ‘Tripartite Life’ to have been measured out by Patrick (‘…and seventeen feet in the kitchen’, Stokes 1887, 2367).

The earliest reference to a northern guesthouse in A.U. is at Armagh in 1004 and 1016. Its name - ‘Lis-oigedh’ suggests that it had its own enclosure, and it was clearly outside the main ‘Rath’. It had its own endowment, and the ‘Life of Molua’, already quoted, refers to the land set aside to provide for pilgrims and guests. It does emerge clearly from the written sources that the guesthouse was set apart from the main monastic buildings, perhaps outside the enclosure: in Bede’s ‘Life of Cuthbert’ for example, we hear how Cuthbert as guestmaster went from ‘the inner buildings of the monastery to the guests’ chamber’ (Colgrave 1940, chap. 7). The position of the rectangular hut on Church Island suggests a guesthouse, but Professor O’Kelly points out this would be rather big for such a tiny community (1958, 124-5).

[179] ‘Columbanus’s Rule’ forbade monks to visit the kitchen after nones (Bieler 1966, 38); and a kitchen was burned at Armagh in 916 (A.U.). One would expect signs of fires, perhaps ovens, burned stones if food was cooked by heating stones as described in the ‘Life of Munnu’ (Plummer 1910, II, 228), and middens not far away. Lawlor found middens at Nendrum, but no clear cooking places. In Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ several terms are used which seen to indicate a common room. The ‘major’ or ‘magna domus’ at Durrow is mentioned twice (Anderson 1961, 264-5 and 494-5), and the texts ‘domus’ and ‘monasterium’ are sometimes used to indicate a common house (ibid. 113). One of the buildings measured out by Patrick, according to the ‘Tripartite Life’ was the great house - the ‘tech mór’, ‘seven and twenty feet’ (Stokes 1887, 236-7). This could mean a church, in addition to the oratory (and this is the meaning chosen in Thomas 1971, 40); but it could mean a common room, used for many activities, like Adamnan’s monasterium where Columba sat by the fire, with Lugbe reading nearby and a ewer of water close to hand (Anderson 1961, 257-9).

[181] But when any monastery is excavated on a large enough scale for the relationship of buildings to one another to be seen, the guesthouse is likely to stand somewhat apart. Lawlor called one of the Nendrum buildings the ‘school’, but I wonder whether it is necessary to envisage a distinct, rebuilding for this purpose except at major sites. The 1169 endowment of cows for the Armagh ‘fer leginn’ (A.F.M.) may have been to maintain a separate establishment, but the impression given by the (admittedly late) ‘Lives’ is of instruction given in cells, in the open air, wherever the master was. Similarly though scribes are prominent, scriptoria are not, and again one wonders whether it is necessary to envisage a distinct building. Scriptoria have been suggested at Ardoilean (Co. Galway, in Cochrane 1904) and Tintagel (Cornwall, Radford, C.A.R., Department of Environment Guide (1939) 19, site F), but the evidence is not strong. The A.F.M. account of the great 1020 fire at Armagh gives more detail than A.U. and refers to a ‘library’ or ‘scriptorium’ (‘teach screaptra’) and also books in the students’ houses. Again it is not surprising to hear of specialised buildings at a major site like Armagh, but we need not expect them everywhere.

Caedmon died at Whitby in ‘a house to which all who were sick or likely to die were taken’ (Bede, H.E. IV, 24). There is much about sickness in the Irish written sources but little mention of infirmaries specially devoted to the care of the sick and elderly. Perhaps we should assume sick care in individual cells. A 921 reference in A.U. to ‘the houses of prayer with their companies of Celi-De and of sick’ at Armagh does not make it clear whether a specialised building is involved. Could the strange sunken feature beside the ‘school’ at Nendrum have been a sweat-house? There is a sweat-house at Inismurray just outside the cashel (Wakeman 1885-6, 211-3).

Lawlor’s ‘school’ is best seen as the monastic workshop where various specialised crafts were carried out. The rectangular plan distinguishes it from the other buildings,

[180] Most prominent in the written sources apart from the church is the monastic guesthouse. The tradition of 82

and from most excavated buildings except churches on Irish monastic sites. The walls were of stone bound with clay, and the finds suggested a plank door with iron fittings. Burned timbers and thatch survived from the fallen roof. The finds included stone trial pieces, iron styles, knives, needles, worked bone and a small mortar, perhaps for crushing pigment.

It remains to mention a few miscellaneous buildings on northern sites which have not found a place in the discussion so far. The ‘Abbey’ at Banagher is about 50 ft north-north west of the church (Fig. 41). It is badly ruined and overgrown and I was not able to examine it very closely, but it seems to have no closely datable features. The entrance was raised, according to earlier descriptions. This recalls first the round tower tradition, secondly the first-floor hall tradition of medieval domestic architecture, and thirdly keeps and tower-houses. Banagher was the base for Archbishop Colton’s metropolitan visitation of Derry diocese in 1399, so presumably there was adequate domestic accommodation. Could it have been in this ‘vicar’s pele’?

[182] The circular and oval foundations to the south (Fig. 51a) are probably stone-revetted platforms rather than the lower parts of corbelled huts. They may have been partly of stone, or entirely of wood. Crucibles, moulds, tongs and other finds suggested that no. 19 was a bronzeworking hut, and no. 17 produced some noticeably fine metalwork.

A building is reported south of Maghera (Co. Londonderry) church, running southwards. Was the bishopric centred on the site long enough for a cloister or bishop’s palace to have been built? Traces of the Augustinian conventual buildings are being excavated south of the nave at Dungiven, and it remains to be seen what traces of earlier activity excavation will reveal.

Common to all, according to Lawlor, were iron nails and ‘cooking pot fragments’, which sound like Lawlor’s ‘B’ group, now considered as of local, Anglo-Norman manufacture. The implications are that the huts were in use after Anglo-Norman pottery became available, though perhaps only as middens. But in view of the lack of record of stratification and association this point must remain in doubt. The large midden north of the church in the middle cashel included iron-smelting debris, suggesting a forge in the vicinity. Huts have occasionally produced evidence of specialised industrial activities elsewhere in Ireland, for example iron-working at Ballyvourney (Co. Cork, O’Kelly 1952) and dyeing on Inishkea North (Co. Mayo, Henry 1952). There must have been a range of agricultural buildings, similar to (though probably simpler than) the buildings in the outer court of a medieval monastery - barns, byres, stables, cart sheds, stores, and perhaps kilns and brewhouses. Very little is known of these archaeologically. They must often have been slight buildings, leaving few substantial traces. Clearly at important houses we must imagine a large population and a wide range of activities. But at these and smaller sites I do not think we need necessarily expect a wide range of specialised, functionally distinct buildings nothing like the elaborate provision made in the St. Gall plan, where even the keepers of geese and hens find their place (Conant 1966, fig. 3).

Fig. 79b: Arboe – Topography of Site.

[183] Reading, writing, crafts, instruction, meditation, none of these activities demands particularly elaborate accommodation. A distinction should emerge between individually used and communal buildings, and the guesthouse may, as we have seen, be distinguished by its position, but beyond this I suspect the key to functional differences will lie more in finds than plan. The more one ponders these problems the more one must deplore the sadly wasted opportunity of Lawlor’s work at Nendrum, but further work there, and excavation elsewhere may yet reveal the answers to some of these questions.

[184] Finally there are the puzzling structures north of Arboe graveyard (Fig. 79b). There is an east-west building - ‘the Abbey’ - near which burials are reported, and the ‘cellar’ in the cliff edge, both sadly featureless and undatable. No Augustinian refoundation is known at Arboe but it appears in twelfth-century annals: ‘a master of learning, liberality and poetry’ died in 1103 and the site was burned in 1166 (A.U.). Perhaps these buildings belong to this late pre-Norman activity, but the position is obscure and it is to be hoped that here and elsewhere future work will resolve some of the uncertainties.

83

FIG. 9: MAP OF BURIALS.

iv)

BURIALS

The strong Irish preference for burial in an ancient cemetery is well known (Plummer 1910, I, cxiii and Chapter 8 below), and the recent graves at many early sites form one of the most effective barriers to excavation (Pl. 20a).1 But burials are also one of the archaeologist’s most important sources of information, and when it is possible to investigate early burials a great deal can be learned from them (Fig. 9). Burials can help in the identification of church sites. Reports of graves strengthen the case for ‘lost’ churches at Aghanaglack and Teesnaghtan, and it will be interesting to see whether burials are ever found close to apparently isolated stones, as at Dromore (Co. Antrim) and Drumaquern. 1.

As Macalister and Praeger observed at Killeen Cormac in 1929 ‘We left the enclosure convinced that much remained, which [because of burials] for many generations will continue to be inaccessible’ (p. 249).

PLATE 20A: ARMAGH – CATHEDRAL GRAVEYARD.

Burials may throw some light on the progress of the conversion and lingering pagan practice, and on demography, the size and composition of the community served by the cemetery, and the health and longevity of the people. The full potential of post-Roman cemetery

[185] Excavation can reveal something of early graveyard topography - the relationship of the cemetery to a church or other focus, and the way in which graves were constructed, marked and arranged. 84

excavation has rarely yet been exploited in Ireland or Britain, but burials remain central to any study of the early church.

1.

The Clonmacnois church was partly undermined by pious visitors removing the clay. The Ordnance Survey Antrim Memoir refers to clay taken from the tomb of St. Mologe at the west end of Drumnakill church (O’Laverty 1887, 487).

Important burials appear prominently in written sources whilst ordinary burials were of much less concern to early writers. In 569 the body of Dermot, killed at Rathbeg, was taken to Connor for burial (A. Clon.). The royal burials at Clonmacnois were celebrated in a poem (Best, R.I., in Ériu 2 (1905), 163-71). In 935 an Uí Neill prince was buried ‘in the cemetery of the kings’ at Armagh, and Brian Boru’s body was taken to ‘a new tomb’ at Armagh in 1014 (A.U.). The right of a particular monastery to provide burial for members of a royal family was often emphasised in later saints’ ‘Lives’: a king of Midhe whose wife was barren offered Colmán Elo, if he were granted a son: ‘ut sepeliatur ipse et semen suum post se apud te usque ad finem seculi’ (Plummer 1910, I, 267 and other examples cx). This must have been one of the main signs of royal patronage, bringing substantial burial fees.

[187] dating remains controversial, and we must envisage early burials in timber churches, as at Kildare or outside. If founders were later brought into stone churches it would have been in the form of relics. Professor Thomas has traced the likely development of altars and relic cavities (1971, chaps 5 and 6), but I have come across nothing in the north similar to the relic cavities in the altars at Inismurray, Ardwall Island, St. Ninian’s Point, Bute and St. Helen’s, Scilly (op. cit., 179-81). Two burials found in the north-east corner of Derry south church (Co. Down) belonged to the period of the church’s use. One was disturbed by the other, which had its head to the east (Waterman 1967, fig. 1). Bigger discovered that the Raholp altar was arched over a stone grave, the head to the east, clearly occupying the most prominent position in the church. Three other stone-built graves lay with the heads against the east wall, the feet to the west (Bigger 1916, 124). The recumbent slab with a cross at the east end probably covered a grave just inside the (medieval) south door (Fig. 59b). Lawlor found a large male skeleton ‘with the feet in front of where the altar had stood’ in the stone church at Nendrum, and a burial on either side with heads to north and south and feet towards the altar (1925, 133).

Even more important, because a continuing object of veneration, were burials of greatly revered churchmen. Malachy went by night round ‘the memorials of the saints of which there are many in the cemetery of St. Patrick’ at Armagh (Lawlor 1920, 115). The remains of a saint would bring a site spiritual and material rewards, and the whereabouts of important burials were sometimes controversial. [186] By the seventh century both Armagh and Down (or Saul) claimed Patrick’s body, and the addition to Muirchú’s ‘Life’ describes contention over his remains between the Uí Neill with Airgialla and the Ulaid (Stokes 1887, 295-9). One of John de Courcy’s early acts of policy was to engineer the discovery of the remains of Patrick, Brigid and Columba at Down (O’Meara 1951, 89-90). Important burials are reported both inside and outside the church. Cogitosus described the graves of Brigid and Conlaed to right and left of the altar in the seventhcentury wooden church at Kildare, their monuments decorated with gems, gold, silver and hanging crowns (Acta Sanctorum (Bollandists, 1658), 1 February, 141). Seventh-century Anglo-Saxon sources suggest that burial close to the altar, especially to the right, was common, for example Cuthbert’s tomb at Lindisfarne and Cedd’s at Lastingham (Bede’s ‘Life’, Colgrave 1940, chap. 40 and H.E. III, 23). In 1010 a distinguished churchman was buried before the altar in the great church at Armagh (A.F.M.).

FIG. 59B: RAHOLP – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Special burials are also found outside churches. Cuthbert’s instructions were very specific (though not actually followed): ‘Bury me here, outside the oratory on the south side, close to that cross which I myself have erected’ (Bede’s ‘Life’, Colgrave 1940, chap. 37). During intensive field survey in the Caherciveen-Waterville peninsula Dr Henry found many specially marked graves close to churches (1957, 155), and examples can be multiplied, especially at west coast sites. [188] These special graves take several forms. There can be simply a cross-carved stone, like the slab north of the oratory at Kildreelig (Co. Kerry: op. cit., fig. 19). There may be a pair of slabs with another between, as at Kilcummin (Co. Mayo: Henry 1937, 268), or a rectangular enclosure defined by slabs, sometimes called a saint’s ‘bed’, as at Killabuonia (Co. Kerry: Henry 1957, 102). There are also several kinds of graves or shrines made of slabs, as at Kildrenagh, Illaunloughan and Killoluaig (op. cit., 89, 97, 99). At Killabuonia a cross-

It has been claimed that Irish monastic founders were buried under the floor of their oratory, for example in Temple Declan at Ardmore (Co. Waterford) and Temple Ciaran at C1onmacnois (Co. Offaly: Gougaud 1932, 171).1 This suggestion arose when many small stone churches were thought to date from the founder’s own day. There can be no doubt now that they date from several centuries later, even if their exact 85

carved stone, a slab enclosure and a slab shrine occur close together on the uppermost terrace (op. cit., pl. II).

[190] The same date-range is favoured by Professor Thomas (1971, 144), but we must note the lack of direct dating evidence, and the gap in time before the northern mortuary houses.

Cross-carved pillar stones will be discussed in Section (vi) (below). Single cross-carved stones could be derived from a monumental tomb of several slabs, but no such structure survives in my area. St. Molaise’s ‘bed’ was one of the Devenish antiquities listed by John Frith in 1808. In Wakeman’s time it was a rectangular earthwork with a stone coffin inside, and McKenna and Bigger found loose roofing stones from St. Molaise’s House inside it. Some kind of ‘bed’ was clearly in existence by 1808, but how much further back it can be taken is uncertain. ‘Beds’ or ‘leabaí’ occur at several western sites, and three at Temple Brecan on Inishmore have recently been surveyed. One is a dry-stone enclosure and another, a low stone-revetted platform. People are said to have slept in ‘Leaba Bhreacáin’ if their prayers for recovery from illness were answered (Waddell 1972-3, fig. 1, 26). Such features are very difficult to date, but they are not necessarily very early. Some may result from undocumented pilgrimages and similar practices over many generations. Excavation would show whether superficial features bear any relationship to underlying structures, and this would be helpful.

No other clear examples of slab-shrines are known from Ireland or Britain. Professor Thomas has suggested that a sunken, slab-lined area at Ardwall Island was the lower part of such a shrine (1967, fig. 27, 167-9), but evidence for its superstructure is entirely lacking. I was disappointed not to find examples on the sites I investigated: single stones are occasionally suggestive, but I saw none I felt confident in identifying. Instead in the north is a series of somewhat analogous structures, called mortuary houses by D.M. Waterman, who has recorded and discussed them in detail (1960). Their distribution does not overlap at all with the slab-shrines (Fig. 9). The six structures1 are all small, house-shaped, of mortared stone, in a prominent position in a graveyard, and close to the church when this survives. Most have traditional burial associations, usually with the church’s founder. Of the points of contrast the most important is the difference in form between the structures at Saul and Moville (Co. Donegal) and the Derry examples. The better preserved of the two Saul ‘houses’ is a small room, its east end gone but with a shelf to the north and an opening to the south (Pl. 76a).

[189] Tombs and shrines built of slabs have been studied in detail by Professor Thomas (1971, chap. 5). Cornerpost shrines with grooved uprights into which side slabs are slotted, are found in Shetland (Papil and St. Ninian’s Isle), Iona, St. Helen’s, Scilly and Church Island (all references in Thomas 1971, and distribution in fig. 68) and Kildrenagh (Co. Kerry: Henry 1957, 89-90). There may be other examples to be found in Ireland, or old finds to be rediscovered1, but I have found no traces on northern sites. No examples of the simpler, tent-like ‘slab-shrines’ appear in my inventory, but some discussion of them may be appropriate as an introduction to the northern mortuary houses. There are eight examples in three areas – Co. Meath, Co. Kerry and the limestone of Co. Clare and Aran (map in Thomas 1971, fig. 68). They are simple structures of four large slabs. Their length (between 3 ft 6 ins and 5 ft) suggests that they were designed to receive exhumed bones rather than complete bodies, and a hole in the western gable of the Killabuonia shrine was clearly for access to the relics. These very simple structures are not in themselves datable. They are the earliest visible features at Slane and Donaghmore (both Co. Meath). At Temple Cronan (Co. Clare) they flank the east end of the altered ‘early’ church, symmetrically to north and south. Dr. Henry believes that the floruit of the Co. Kerry sites was pre-Viking, suggesting a seventh to eighth-century date on the basis of the cross slabs (1957, 165). 1.

PLATE 76A: SAUL – MORTUARY HOUSE.

At Moville there is a tiny west door and an east window. The three Derry structures were designed to hold a body: Bovevagh has a body-shaped cavity (Pl. 48a), whilst Banagher and Tamlaghtard presumably incorporate a cavity for the body (Pls 45b and 56a). 1.

This total includes the example at Moville (Co. Donegal) but not the rather different structure at Clones (Co. Monaghan).

[191] Access to the remains is provided by a hole in the east gable at Bovevagh and in the north side at Tamlaghtard.

Perhaps the grooved stones at Killeen Cormac performed some such function (Macalister and Praeger 1929, 254)?

86

They vary also in construction. Banagher is built of cut stone throughout; the others are mainly of rubble. The Banagher roof is of horizontally bedded stones cut to the slope whilst at Bovevagh there are large thin flags.

PLATE 56A: TAMLAGHTARD – GRAVE SHRINE.

The other rubble-built mortuary houses have no datable features, but as a type they are close to the Banagher example, and there is no reason to regard them as anything but a late group. A relative classification is not appropriate: there are too many imponderables. The sophisticated Banagher structure could be a model; it could represent the culmination of a development; it could simply be a prosperous example of a type current in the area. It is interesting to note these ‘houses’ in Derry, where we have also found a concentration of twelfthcentury churches. The Saul and Moville structures, oddly distant from one another, though similar in general form to the Derry examples, seem to have been designed for a different purpose. Perhaps they were used as charnel houses for exhumed bones. There seems no reason to suggest a substantially different date from the others.

PLATE 48A: BOVEVAGH – MORTUARY HOUSE.

The Banagher structure is the most sophisticated and only clearly datable member of the group. The carefully fitted cut stone with the occasional rebate is very like the masonry of the added late twelfth-century chancel. The carved figure of the ecclesiastic on the west gable lends some support to a date not far from 1200 (Pl. 45b and Waterman 1960, 85-6). It must be later than the time of the obscure St. Muiredach. Perhaps his remains were moved from inside the church or from a tomb east of the single-celled church when the chancel was added.

PLATE 76B: CLONES (CO. MONAGHAN) – TOMB SHRINE.

[192] There is one other somewhat similar structure, within the ancient province of Ulster, though just outside my area. The Clones ‘sarcophagus’ (Pl. 76b and Fig. 9) is broadly related to slab shrines and mortuary houses. Early

PLATE 45B: BANAGHER – MORTUARY HOUSE.

87

reports suggest that it is at least partly hollow, though later writers have claimed that it is solid.1 It is carved from a huge stone (broken) and is house-shaped with weathered carvings including an ecclesiastic on the east gable and antae continuing up the gable to a winged finial at the apex. The structure is about six feet long, suggesting that it covered or enclosed a complete burial.

Sarcophagus’ occur in late Viking contexts in Sweden (Jansson 1962, pl. 67). 1.

Examples include Cedd at Lastingham (Bede, H.E. III, 23), Cuthbert at Lindisfarne (H.E. IV, 30), Guthlac at Crowland (Colgrave 1956, 161-3) Ultan in ‘De Abbatibus’ (Campbell 1967, 20-2).

[194] Small house-like structures were built over graves in Sweden and Ireland as late as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Jansson, op. cit. 92 and Ferguson 1882, 57).

The background to these practices of enshrining relics, making them available to pilgrims, and covering graves and relies with house-shaped structures must be sought in Roman and Early Christian practice, as Lynch and Champneys long ago realised (Lynch 1902, 47 and Champneys 1910, 108), and the subject has recently been discussed by Dr Henry (1957, 160-1) and Professor Thomas (1971, chap. 5), so there is no need for extended treatment here. The access holes at Killabuonia, Bovevagh and Tamlaghtard recall the fenestella through which pilgrims would touch the relics, perhaps with brandea, pieces of cloth which would take on the healing properties of the saintly dust. Bede’s description of Ceadda’s tomb at Lichfield indicates both the form and the means of access:

We must recall also that portable reliquaries sometimes took the form of small houses or oratories, such as the probably eighth-century Lough Erne Shrine. The only surviving example which seems to reproduce the slabshrine form is the twelfth-century St. Manchan’s Shrine (Raftery 1941, pl. 104 and Thomas 1971, 165-6). In this long history of the veneration of important burials the northern mortuary houses take their place. They seem, like the stone churches and round towers, to belong to a late stage in the history of the early church in the north. Bede’s description of the Lichfield tomb reminds us of the wooden tombs and shrines which must once have been common, but which will always prove more elusive than stone structures. Again it is likely to be by excavation that further progress will be made.

‘Est autem locus idem sepulchri tumba lignea in modum domunculi facta coopertus, habente foramen in pariete, per quod solent hi, qui causa deuotionis illo adueniunt, manum suam inmittere, ac partem pulueris inde adsumere’ (H.E. IV, 3, Plummer 1896, 212)

‘And be the earth that covers me hallowed earth of monastery, a tiny place with gleaming tombs, I lying there alone’ (Bieler 1966, 58)

1. Wakeman in J.R.S.A.I. 13 (1874-5), 335-7; compare Waterman 1960, 86-7 and Thomas 1971, 77.

[193] Written sources, Irish and Anglo-Saxon, show that certainly from the seventh century onwards it was common for burials to be exhumed and reburied in a more accessible place, and it is clear that physical contact with bones or dust played an important part in many miraculous cures.1 Very much later we find holes in the sides of tombs, for example the thirteenth-century tomb of St. Wite at Whitchurch Canonicorum (R.C.H.M. West Dorset (1952), pl. 210).

So wrote a ninth-century poet, but in the written sources ordinary burials are far more elusive than special ones. They also tend to be less obvious in the field, but if they can be found they are likely to survive in large numbers for the excavator. The first ‘Life of Brendan’ mentions a monk who had spent fifty years ‘cimitherium fratrum custodiens’ (Plummer 1910, I, 131). He must have been an important member of the community, in charge of the care of the graveyard and grave digging.

The practice of erecting a house-like structure to cover or enclose a burial or relics seems to be widespread in space and time. Sir Samuel Ferguson pointed out Roman houseshaped tombs (1882, especially 60-1), and very similar monuments to slab-shrines were formed by covering inhumations with pairs of large flat roofing tiles (tegulae). These tombs were cheap and easy to make and are found over the poorer burials in the Isola Sacra cemetery at Ostia. An example from a Christian context is reported from the Vatican necropolis near St Peter’s shrine, and there is an excavated example at York (Toynbee 1971, 101-2, pls 19 and 24). Salian Frankish law imposed a fine on those who damaged ‘the house in the form of a basilica which has been set up over a dead man’ (quoted in Ferguson 1882, 59). Solid stone gravecovers in the form of a house are found at Peterborough (Hedda’s stone) and St. Andrews (Radford 1955, appendix 1), and gabled tombs like the ‘Eskilstuna

[195] Bernard’s ‘Life of Malachy’ shows Malachy in Scotland enclosing a plot with a hedge and blessing it for a cemetery (Lawlor 1920, 79). But we also hear of disturbances and murders in graveyards, for example at Banagher in 1121 (A.U.). Written sources sometimes refer to particular graveyards, such as St. Patrick’s cemetery at Armagh, where Malachy walked at night (op. cit., 115), and St. Martin’s at Derry (A.U., 1204). A gospel of St. Martin was associated with Derry, one of the wells was dedicated to him, and it seems likely that a church or cross of Martin also existed to serve as a focus for the graveyard. Burials have been reported from several of the Armagh church sites but none were properly recorded, and we can only note their existence and the likelihood that graveyards grew up 88

around some of the churches, though the main graveyard, presumably near the present cathedral, must have remained the most important and prestigious one.

distribution is markedly eastern and south-eastern (Stevenson 1951-2; Henshall 1955-6, 278-81 lists 54 cemeteries; Thomas 1968, especially 104 and 107). The distribution is strong in north-west Wales with some in the south-west (White 1971-2, fig. 4). They have been excavated at several sites in Devon and Cornwall, including Lundy Island and Mawgan Porth (Current Arch. 16 (1969), 140-1; Bruce Mitford, R.L.S., Recent Archaeological Excavations in Britain (1956), pl. xxxvb), and the distribution extends to Brittany (Gallia 9 (1951), 1-19).

When graves have been adequately recorded a clear distinction emerges between stone-built and dug graves. Professor Thomas has suggested the term ‘cist-grave’ for those with side slabs and ‘lintel grave’ for those with side and covering slabs (1971, 49). Although it is possible to make this distinction for recently excavated sites many early reports do not make the distinction clear. Stone-built graves are prominent in the north-east, reported at fourteen sites in Figure 9, at two others in Appendix D, and an uncertain but large number in Co. Antrim and

The date-range of these graves is clearly very long. Some Irish examples are probably Iron Age, but most recorded examples are surely Early Christian, despite Dr. Raftery’s doubts (1941). There is a cemetery beside the inscribed Catstane (probably early sixth century) at Kirkliston (West Lothian, Thomas 1971, 54), and a late fifth or early sixth-century memorial stone was re-used as a lintel at Arfryn (Anglesey: White 1971-2, 34-5). A sherd of imported E-ware was found during the excavation of graves in Slievegrane Lower townland near Saul (Waterman 1967, 69), and Derry south church (Co. Down) overlay stone-built graves (ibid. fig. 1). The early eighth-century Kilnasaggart stone stands in a cemetery of lintel graves. The ninth-century Viking boat grave at Balladoole covered lintel graves (Bersu, G., and Wilson, D.M., ‘Three Viking Graves in the Isle of Man’ (1966), fig. 5). These are all pointers to an Early Christian date for many stone-built graves.

[196] particularly Co. Down.1 The distribution is markedly eastern with a coastal emphasis. This is the area in which Reeves and, O’Laverty were active, and it is difficult to be sure that this easterly distribution is a true one until similarly detailed local studies have been done elsewhere. But no stone graves were reported at Ardstraw, Drumconwell, Glenarb or Skreen during roadworks and agricultural clearance, and I think it likely that further work will confirm the general pattern of Figure 9. A poem written at the time of Brian O’Neill’s death in 1260 suggests in the poet’s view stone tombs characterised a particular group:

[198] But it is also clear that similar graves were built in medieval and recent times. The Limoges enamel altar vessel found at Grangewalls (Bright) seems to have come from a cemetery of stone-built graves (U.J.A. 2 (1884), 192-4), and a coin of Edward I was found in a stone grave on Island Magee (U.J.A. 6 (1858), 346). Cists near Quintin Castle are likely to date from the castle’s occupation and not earlier (Co. Down 1966, 130). In these and other cases a medieval date is likely (Scottish examples in Henshall 1955-6, 269). But lintel graves were built in the Isle of Man until recent times (Kermode and Bruce 1968, sixth report, 72-3) and Dr. Henry noted recent stone-built graves at Cloonlaur (Co. Mayo: 1947, 35). It is clear, therefore, that cist and lintel graves cannot be regarded as diagnostically Early Christian, though they are found at many early church sites. They may have developed from prehistoric cists and they continued to be built long after the Early Christian period.

‘In Ard Macha are the interments of the Ulaid with their lime-stone tombs’ (Carney 1965, 97) The distribution does coincide strikingly with the area of reduced Ulidia, east of the Bann, the territories of the Dál Riata, Dál nAraidi and Dál Fiatach. Armagh itself is strikingly west of this concentration, in the Airgialla kingdom of Airthir, and Kilnasaggart is a south-western outlier. Although stone graves may have a restricted distribution in Ulster their distribution generally is wide. They have been found at several sites in Co. Wicklow.2 1.

2.

O’Laverty 1879, 105, lists fifteen sites in Down diocese where they are found and thought it likely that they would be found at every ancient cemetery in the diocese (compare 1878, 154: ‘stone-lined graves have been found at nearly all the ancient churches of the diocese of Down.’). A thorough search through O’Laverty 1878, 1880, 1884 and 1887 would produce other examples. E.g. Kilbride near Bray (J.R.S.A.I. 69 (1939), 173-6) and Killegar, which is surely a Christian graveyard (Raftery 1941A, 305-8).

Excavation has provided information about the form of graves and graveyards. In Co. Down graves were built of slabs of Silurian slate, for example at Derry (Co. Down: Waterman 1967, figs 1 and 3). Here all were lintelled and one only had a slab floor, as also at Kilhoran. Lawlor found burials in a surprising number of places at Nendrum, and one of the many deplorable aspects of his report is the lack of detailed plans of burials. Slab graves west of the church were much disturbed, as though the site was long in use. Two had recumbent cross-slabs in situ (numbers 9 and 10 in the inventory). Lawlor does not specifically mention stone-built graves elsewhere. Burials

[197] They are common at the Co. Kerry sites investigated by Dr. Henry (1957, passim) and at other western sites such as Caher Island (Co. Mayo: Henry 1947). They are very common at Isle of Man keeill sites (Kermode and Bruce 1968, passim). The Scottish 89

(of what ever form) were found in regular rows inside the church and running under the original east gable wall. [199] It seems clear that some or all of these burials predate the stone church and were made either in an open cemetery or a larger timber church. Two oddly isolated burials west of the church in the middle cashel had the same orientation as the cists immediately west of the church. The neatly arranged burials in the rectangular walled enclosure east of the church have a rather different orientation and could belong to the Benedictine cell (Co. Down 1966, 294). A few other burials, south-east of the church, have a similar orientation. The mounds of skeletons south of the church are difficult to explain. One overlay mortared walling - piles of bones could have come from the graveyard when the stone church was built or extended, but heaps of articulated skeletons do indeed suggest hasty burial in troubled times, as Lawlor suggested (1925, 73-4). Nendrum had a long life as an ecclesiastical establishment, monastic and parochial, and there seems to be a complex series of graves, stratified both vertically and horizontally. The planning and further investigation of the graves must have high priority in any future work.

PLATE 31A: KILNASAGGART – REVETMENT AND SLAB FEATURE LOOKING EAST.

[200] In a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon context St. Dunstan seems to have made a raised cemetery at Glastonbury; William of Malmesbury describes how he built a wall round the monks’ cemetery and raised the level of the ground to make a fair meadow where the bodies of the saints could rest undisturbed by the noise of passers-by (Stubbs, W., ‘Memorials of St. Dunstan’ (1874), 271-2).

The full extent of the Kilnasaggart cemetery was not discovered, but it was bounded to the north by a revetment of large stones, against which was a collapsed stone slab feature of uncertain significance (Fig. 32 and Pl. 31a).

The Kilnasaggart graves were dug into the dumped material and the cut could sometimes be traced by a hard, vertical iron-pan deposit. The graves were built of mixed granite and shale (Pl. 32b). All were lintelled, and when the lintels were small the sides were corbelled to bridge the gap (Pl. 31b). There were no sockets for markers, but the graves did not impinge on one another and some kind of marking can be inferred. On the surface were traces of kerbing of thin slabs on edge (Fig. 32b and Pl. 30b). This corresponded with the orientation of the graves below but not with the position of individual graves.

FIG. 32: KILNASAGGART: SKETCH PLAN OF GRAVES.

The revetment supported a dump of mixed glacial material which had been imported to raise the general level. In places it clearly overlay a buried soil horizon. Perhaps the process of ‘making’ a graveyard was more common than we have imagined. Clearly on rocky Skellig Michael the small grave patch is artificially raised, but at Killeen Cormac Macalister and Praeger found that the glacial mound had been carefully shaped for graveyard use (1929, fig. 1).

PLATE 32B: GRAVE (F20) WITH LINTELS REMOVED, LOOKING WEST.

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At Derry and Kilnasaggart simple dug graves have been found as well as stone-built ones. They would have been less obvious to past observers and have generally attracted less attention than lintel graves and cists. At Derry (Co. Down) they clustered in the northern part of the excavated area, and may have been peripheral to the main concentration of lintel graves, but the full extent of the graveyard was not defined (Waterman 1967, fig. 1 and 56). Of the three at Kilnasaggart one was peripheral to the south (Pl. 32b, against far section) but the others were near the pillar stone. Three dug graves of uncertain date were found near the foot of Maghera (Co. Down) round tower, and burials were reported during the 1843 tower excavations (Fig. 53 and Pl. 67b).

at Gallen with the knees slightly drawn up. At Gallen bones disturbed by later burials were stacked in the new grave, a practice recently recorded at Clonmacnois (Howells 1941, 109). At Derry (Co. Down) three graves contained loose skulls or fragments with the burial and another had a skull and long bones. These may have been from disturbed burials, but the cemetery was not as crowded as at Gallen.

FIG. 53: MAGHERA – PLAN OF EXCAVATED TRENCHES.

PLATE 31B: KILNASAGGART – EXCAVATED GRAVES (F5 AND F31) LOOKING WEST.

PLATE 67B: MAGHERA EXCAVATIONS – P2 (LOOKING WEST).

Within the general framework of east-west orientation there is considerable variety. The orientation at Derry (Co. Down) may vary partly because of local differences in the under-lying slate, but this is hardly the complete answer. Such plans as Lawlor published suggest two main orientations at Nendrum. The two groups at Church Island clearly relate to the wooden and stone chapels (O’Kelly 1958, fig. 2) and at Ardwall the burials belong to the wooden phase II structure and the stone phase III church.

PLATE 30B: KILNASAGGART – PART OF STONE KERBING LOOKING NORTH-WEST.

Although far from our area the 1935 Gallen Priory (Co. Offaly) excavation illustrates both some of the potential and some of the problems of cemetery excavation. Though the 1941 report deals exhaustively with the skeletal material the plan is schematic and there are no detailed grave plans or sections (Howells 1941, fig. 1).

[201] The excavated graves at Derry, Kilnasaggart and Nendrum provided no evidence for coffins.1 The bodies were usually extended with the head to the west and the arms at the sides (Ardwall Island), or the hands crossed over the pelvis (Church Island, Co. Kerry), or the arms crossed at the wrists above the abdomen (Derry, Co. Down). There are some oddities like one burial face downwards and three on their side at Ardwall and some

1.

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In the following discussion reference is made to sites further afield: Church Island (Co. Kerry: O’Kelly 1958), Ardwall

Island (Kirkcudbright: Thomas 1967) and Gallen Priory (Co. Offaly.: Kendrick 1939 and Howells 1941).

A much more recent excavation has revealed an extraordinary graveyard of which written sources gave no hint. When Professor O’Kelly excavated a small rectangular enclosure in the vast complex of earthworks at Knockea (Co. Limerick) he expected a house site. But it turned out to be a graveyard with a bank, square in plan with rounded corners, topped by a fence, with an external ditch. The interior was crowded with inhumations, mostly east-west, and though there were no closely datable finds and no ecclesiastical traditions an Early Christian date seems likely (O’Kelly 1967 especially 74-83).

[202] Burials covered a very large area but were particularly dense south of the church. There was a clear edge to the west, suggesting some boundary which the excavators did not locate. There were three main orientations. In a prominent position south of the church, in an area otherwise crowded with burials, was a space without graves but with a block of masonry, corresponding in orientation with some of the burials. The excavators recognised that this was probably the base of some kind of focus, but it could have been the site of an early wooden church (compare Keeill Woirrey, Isle of Man, in Kermode and Bruce 1968, second report, 5).

Burials can throw some light on the obscure, ambivalent area between paganism and Christianity though this is at present easier to illustrate in Anglo-Saxon contexts than Irish ones.

It is important to try to establish what kind of community a graveyard was serving. A monastery provided its manaig with sacraments; according to the ‘Rule of Patrick’: ‘baptism and communion and the singing of the intercession’ (O’Keeffe 1904, 222 and Hughes 1966, 140), and presumably burial. One of the secular law tracts, the ‘Córus Bréscna’ lays down funeral fees to the church (Hughes 1972, 77-8). But we do not know whether separate cemeteries were reserved for manaig and lay people, or whether part of the monastic graveyard was set aside for them. Only large-scale excavation can answer these questions, but there are some hints from excavated sites. The skeletal material at Derry (Co. Down) was fragmentary, but of seventeen skeletons for which sex determination was possible twelve were male, one probably and three possibly female, and one child. This is a small sample, but it is interesting to find that there were at least one woman and one child, though adult males preponderated. The individuals seem mostly to have died between forty and fifty-five (Waterman 1967, 74).

[204] A series of late sixth-, and seventh-century, cemeteries have sparse grave-goods, including some which are best explained as amulets and charms. Burials were occasionally decapitated, or the head covered with a pile of heavy stones. It can be argued that these cemeteries, like Winnall (Hants.) and Chamberlain Barn (Beds.)1, reflect a stage of superficial Christianising with much lingering superstition and uncertainty, a stage glimpsed in Bede’s ‘Life of Cuthbert’ when the country folk abused the monks: ‘may God have no mercy on any one of them, for they have robbed men of their old ways of worship, and how the new worship is to be conducted, nobody knows’ (Colgrave 1940, chap. 3). In an Irish context cairn burial seems to have had pagan connotations. Adamnan tells how a recently converted pagan was buried by his companions under a cairn, clearly an unusual event (Anderson 1961, 275). Mr. Paterson suggested that Relicarn graveyard was on the site of a pagan cairn, but there is no sign of one now (P.S. 1940, 68). The Irish ‘fert’ means a mound over a burial place, and the name of Patrick’s first church in Armagh, ‘Na Ferta’, suggests the possibility of a pagan burial place on the site. Another practice with pagan associations is recorded at Na Ferta: in the seventeenth century Patrick’s sister Lupita, was allegedly found there, buried standing, with crosses behind and before (Stuart 1900, 17). In a heroic warrior context this was apparently to face the enemy (examples in Stokes 1887, 75, 308, 567).

[203] At Ardwall Island two children were present in phase II and at least one female in phase III (Thomas 1967, 184-7). Children could be at a monastic house for fosterage, but the occurrence of women suggests manaig families or lay people. At Gallen Priory children were confined to the upper layers and later contexts, and women were comparatively few but not accorded much attention (Howells 1941, 113-4). The attempt made by the excavator to work out the monastic population illustrates the difficulties of this important but problematic calculation: has the whole cemetery been uncovered? For how long was the site in use? Was its use restricted to the monastic population? It is not yet possible to make population estimates for any northern sites.

1.

Meaney, A.L. and Hawkes, S.C., ‘Two Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries at Winnall’ (1970) and Hyslop, M., ‘Two AngloSaxon Cemeteries at Chamberlain Barn, Leighton Buzzard’ in Arch. J. 120 (1963), 161-200.

[205] Dr. Henry found a tradition at Kilmore Erris (Co. Mayo) that people were always buried standing (1937, 270). Crouched burials are not often reported from Christian contexts, but there was one in the burial ground at Knockea (Co. Limerick: O’Kelly, 1967, 77), just as there was one at Winnall in a seventh-century AngloSaxon context (Meaney and Hawkes, op. cit., grave 17, p. 13).

The Gallen report concluded: ‘the burials on the whole shed little light on the history of the Priory’ (op. cit., III) yet looking at the 1935 plan with hindsight, it is possible to say confidently that a good present-day excavator would glean far more information than Howells and Kendrick did in 1935.

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1.

It has been suggested that a radial arrangement of graves may reflect pagan practice (e.g. Reade 1857, 316-7). The Kilnasaggart excavation showed beyond doubt that the graves are orientated east-west in neat rows and are not radial (Fig. 32, above). Reade’s 1857 plan of two concentric circles of graves should always have been suspect in view of Reeves’s 1853 description of the graveyard and Reade’s own comment that it was ‘nearly obliterated’ (Reade 1857, 316-7 and Reeves 1853, 221). Reade must have extrapolated from very slight evidence, perhaps the superficial kerbing (Pl. 30b, above) or the sight of a few widely separated graves. There is no doubt that Kilnasaggart must take its place as another cemetery of lintel graves, remarkable for its datable stone but not for the plan of the graves. This must cast doubt on Wakeman’s claim for a radial plan at St. John’s Point (1848, 97). I have found no reference to it beside Wakeman’s, and cannot discover the evidence on which it is based.

2.

Dickinson, T.M., ‘Cuddesdon and Dorchester-on-Thames’ (1974), discusses the Stanton Harcourt example and other claimed radially arranged cemeteries, especially 19-21. The most spectacular example is Cuthbert’s burial: Battiscombe, C.F., ‘The Relics of St Cuthbert’ (1956).

[207] In the north they have been reported at Drumeeny (Kille Enan), Saul (where they apparently numbered three, seven or ten) and Ballynacraig in Inch parish (O’Laverty 1879, 107). Except for finds from carefully controlled excavations there must be some doubt about the antiquity of the practice. Dr. Henry reported white quartz at two Co. Kerry sites, but these were superficial finds (1957, 70 and 133), and Professor O’Kelly found 6,800 quartz pebbles on Church Island, but none with early burials, and he concluded: ‘It appears likely that the practice developed in comparatively recent times’ (1958, 93-4). But at Knockea (Co. Limerick) one child burial was in a stone-lined pit and covered with 111 waterrolled pebbles (83 of them white) (O’Kelly 1967, 77). This sounds rather like a case of ‘shutting in the spirit’, like the heavy stones at Winnall (Meaney and Hawkes, op. cit., pl. I), but the general depositing of white pebbles can hardly be interpreted in this way. All one can say is that the practice may go back to Early Christian times but it is certainly found in later contexts. O’Laverty also noted ferns to cushion the head in graves at Lisban (Co. Down: 1879, 105).

I have come across no other certainly early radial burials in Ireland. At Kildrenagh (Co. Kerry) Dr. Henry found small graves radiating from a pillar-stone, but these may be quite recent (1957, 88-9, fig. 13). Radial graves are reported in a circular graveyard at Killeevan Abbey (Co. Monaghan U.J.A. 3 (1940), 72). Certainly recent examples are found around the chapel at Ballynagurragh (Co. Tyrone) and beside the motte at Inverurie (Aberdeenshire).

We have considered important and ordinary burials, but it is also clear from written sources and recent practice that special provision has long been made for the burial of particular groups. Carrickmore provides a remarkable example of the survival of separate graveyards. At the old church site below Termon Rock were cemeteries for slain men (Relig na Far Gunta) and children (Relig na Leanabh or Relig in Paisde), whilst to the south-west is the women’s graveyard (Relig na mBan) with a cemetery for suicides nearby (Fig. 81b). For all these groups special treatment must have seemed appropriate.

[206] Radiating graves, probably Early Christian, were reported from a mound at Town-y-Capel, Anglesey (Arch. J. 3 (1846), 223-8). Richard White has recently excavated a cemetery at Arfryn, Anglesey, where the lintel graves vary a great deal in orientation, but within a generally east-west range. He points out that a partial view of these ‘quasi-radial’ burials could have suggested a fully radial reconstruction (1971-2, 36-7, Pl. II). Anglo-Saxon secondary inhumations inserted into a barrow ditch at Stanton Harcourt (Oxon.) were radially arranged, but here the form of the mound would invite such an arrangement.1 The evidence for radial graveyards in the Early Christian period is therefore slender. Where they do occur the explanation is more likely to be found in local topographical conditions than in lingering paganism.

[208] Slain men died usually without the last sacrament, and there was clearly some reluctance to bury them in consecrated ground, as an incident in ‘Mochoemog’s Life’ shows. Cainnech objected to the burial of a slain man in the monastery: ‘Hunc hominem, qui repente occisus est, non debes sepelire inter monachos tuos’. By an elaborate device Mochoemog first buried the man ‘in extremo loco’, then when the murderer died brought the slain man back to life gave him the last rites, ‘et sepultum est corpus eius digno honore inter monachos’ and the murderer was buried in the distant, dishonorable grave (Plummer 1910, II, 173). There is a tradition that slain men were buried on the north side of a graveyard. This is quite likely, as the north was the less favoured side, but I do not know if the tradition is based in anything other than likelihood.1

The persistence of grave goods in seventh-century AngloSaxon graves suggests an unwillingness to do away altogether with goods, but the sparse finds from Early Christian Irish graves are objects which could have been included by accident, such as the sherds of souterrain ware at Derry (Co. Down). An important ecclesiastic was sometimes buried with some of his equipment, such as a chalice and a portable altar2, but no such burials have been found in the north.

As Plummer pointed out, one of the ascetic characteristics of the saints whose ‘Lives’ he edited was ‘their rigorous avoidance of the other sex’ (1910, I, cxxi). At Kildare screens divided the women from the men in the church described by Cogitosus (Thomas 1971, 145).

A practice reported from widely separated areas of Ireland and western Britain is the depositing of white pebbles in and near graves (Macalister 1928, 205-6). 93

Western Island’ (1944), for example, describes a procession to: ‘an unkempt space of dank, clinging grass, with stones scattered over it here and there’ to bury a dead baby, ‘leaving the lonely, unfledged soul to its eternity’ (p. 85). There was no consecrated cemetery on Great Blasket and the usual practice was burial in one of the mainland graveyards.

FIG. 81B: GRAVEYARDS AT CARRICKMORE.

The ‘Life of Ciaran of Glendalough’ links cows and women: ‘mulieres et vacce longe erant a suo monasterio’ (Plummer 1910, I, 250). Giraldus Cambrensis encountered an island in Munster: ‘No woman or animal of the female sex could ever enter the larger island without dying immediately’; and a mill at Fore which no woman could enter (O’Meara 1951, 42 and 73). But we have seen that manaig were married men and provision must have been ‘made for the worship and burial of their womenfolk. Whether there was really a separate cemetery we shall hardly know until enough large scale cemetery excavation has been done to show how often mixed graveyards occur and how frequently there is segregation of the sexes. 1.

PLATE 117A: CARRICKMORE – RELICKNAMAN (RELIG NA MBAN).

[210] Special burial has also been extended to strangers, including shipwrecked sailors, and suicides and idiots. This provision includes burial on the north side of a graveyard, just outside the cemetery, at disused church sites, in rock clefts, and in special unconsecrated graveyards known by several names, including ‘cillín’, ‘ceallúrach’ and ‘calltrach’ (Ó Súilleabháin, S., in J.R.S.A.I. 69 (1939), 143-51). Ó Ríordáin posed a question in 1942 which has never been satisfactorily answered: what was the difference between cillíni and ordinary ecclesiastical sites (1964, 23)?

Stuart 1900, 54 and 56 gives Brian Boru’s burial place as on the north side of the church at Armagh, but A.U. 1014 has simply ‘in a new tomb’.

[209] The Carrickmore Relig na mBan is popularly explained by Columba insisting that a woman of bad repute should be buried out of earshot of his bell, but there is also a tradition that particularly devout women asked to be buried there. There is an irregular, grassgrown stone enclosure, about 60 feet in diameter, surrounding small mounds with rough unlettered stones and a single rough cross-carved stone (Pl. 117a). This could have originated as a burial ground outside a large monastic enclosure (not yet defined) for those not entitled, for whatever reason, to be buried inside. It could be the graveyard of a house for women at a distance from the main establishment. It could be simply a small cemetery sited in this rugged spot in fairly recent times for unconsecrated burials. If the nearby quarrying (on the horizon in P1. 117a) ever seriously threatens the site it ought to be excavated. At Inismurray the Teampull na mBan (or Teampull Muire) stands north-west of the enclosure, and the women’s cemetery is presumably nearby. As at Carrickmore no men were to be buried there, and no women in the men’s graveyard (Wakeman 1885-6, 224). A women’s church is also reported outside the cashel on Inishglora (Mayo: Cochrane 1904).

Although numerous in many parts of Ireland, children’s burial grounds are rather elusive in the north, few being marked on Ordnance Survey maps. Writers with local knowledge, however, have searched them out, for example the concentration in north Antrim recorded by Reeves and O’Laverty, and it is clear that children have been buried at several different kinds of sites in the north. Disused church sites have been used, including Turraloskin for stillborn children and Drumnacur for unbaptised infants and strangers. The excavation at Derry (showed that the site had been used for infant burial in recent times (Waterman 1967, 53). A children’s cemetery is remembered close to the church at Glennoo, and Skreen was used for the burial of suicides, idiots and bodies washed up on the Foyle shore. At these church sites, and doubtless others some traditions of sanctity must have persisted. This was clearly so at many of the cellurach sites investigated by Dr. Henry. But Dr. Henry also suggested that other sites, where field work revealed no evidence for ecclesiastical activity, may have been

Separate burial for unbaptised infants is well documented in recent times. A passage in Robin Flower’s ‘The 94

used for infant burial simply because they looked like church sites (197, 165). These could have been secular enclosures; and we can recall here the Relig at Cashel (Co. Armagh) already discussed in Section i.

The Irish evidence cannot be said either to support or clearly refute Professor Thomas suggested sequence of development from enclosed burial grounds (‘the primary field monument of insular Christianity’: 1971, 50) to developed cemeteries with a church and perhaps other buildings (1971, chap. 3). At Church Island (Co. Kerry) the earlier burials were contemporary with the small wooden structure. The earliest burials at Derry (Co. Down) could be, but are not certainly, earlier than the building under the south church. The church which must have existed at Kilnasaggart remains to be found. I am reluctant to designate a graveyard as ‘undeveloped’ unless the presence or absence of a church has been tested by excavation. The remarkable enclosed cemetery at Knockea is indeed undeveloped but it is unique.

[211] What is the nature of Drumshanbo or Caldragh in Foremass Lower townland (Co. Tyrone: Appendix F and Fig. 9)? The irregular polygonal enclosure is about 150 ft in diameter and the interior has been used for infant burial, but there are no ecclesiastical traditions. At Sessagh of Gallan the children’s burial ground is a small, overgrown rectangular stone enclosure in an arable field, and the traditions are ‘gentle’ not ecclesiastical. It has been argued that some children’s burial grounds were pre-Christian enclosures taken over for burial (Ó Súilleabháin, op. cit.). Ogam stones are found at some, and there was formerly a strong belief that ogams indicated pre-Christian occupation (clear in the Killeen Cormac report: Macalister and Praeger 1929, 251). But ogams would be appropriate in very early Christian contexts and the rectangular foundations sometimes visible suggest churches (Ó Ríordáin 1964, 22). Far more likely is the explanation that some were very early church sites which went out of use but retained some ‘odour of sanctity’ and were subsequently used for burial. The enclosure is usually less regular and well constructed than secular ring-forts and ecclesiastical enclosures. This could result from a period of disuse or lack of regular upkeep of sites for which probably no-one took responsibility. We have seen that written sources suggest that some early churches failed to survive, and children’s burial grounds may indicate some of these sites.

1. 2.

I owe this suggestion to the kindness of Father P. Gallagher and have not yet been able to follow it up on the ground. The subject of megaliths and the early church will be discussed in Chapter 7.

[213] Many sites I suspect are not undeveloped but decayed. Professor Thomas’s model needs to be tested by more excavation in Ireland and Britain. The large-scale excavation of Christian cemeteries is not an easy or immediately rewarding occupation1, but it is by excavation that our knowledge of early burials will be increased and through them our knowledge of many aspects of the development and life of the early church. 1.

[212] Is the lost early site of Trillick, for example, in the field called ‘Caldragh’ in Trillick townland?1 The sites of prehistoric megaliths have sometimes been used for infant burial. Dr. Henry found two stone circles used as cellurachs (1957, 140-2) and Professor Thomas has suggested that the site of the prehistoric cists at Killygony (Co. Down) should be regarded as ‘an enclosed but undeveloped cemetery’ (Co. Down 1966, 93 and Thomas 1971, 55). At two ecclesiastical sites megalithic structures have been reported: at Gortfad in Ahoghill parish a ‘vault’ of large flags and at Donaghmore (Co. Down) a stone enclosure close to the graveyard wall, containing cremated bone and small bars resembling silver.2

95

Of some 350 graves excavated at Cannington (Som.) only two had associated finds (Med. Arch. 8 (1964), 237).

FIG. 10: MAP OF CROSSES.

v) CROSSES Crawford listed Irish crosses in 1907, including the Ulster material (1907, especially 190-201), and Lawlor discussed the small, rough crosses of Co. Down and Co. Antrim in 1936-7, but the northern crosses have received little recent attention, except for the figure-carved examples. The state of the northern material is admittedly unhelpful: some are badly weathered - like the fine cross at Arboe - and others are mutilated as well as weathered. The figures on Downpatrick cross are very difficult to make out and the angle mouldings seem to have been hacked off, whilst the sad fragments at Bangor and Connor may have suffered, like many others, in sectarian troubles. The Camus shaft was used as a gatepost and Dromore cross was the base of the town stock in the late nineteenth century. Several crosses are composite, the head of one being set up on the shaft of another, as at Tynan, Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) and Clones, and in reerection the head has sometimes been reversed (Donaghmore (Co. Down) and perhaps Downpatrick).

They were used to mark notable events, even if some explanations included an element of hindsight (Anderson 1961, 21). According to Muirchú the spot from which Patrick watched the burning of his master’s house was marked by a cross, and in the ‘Tripartite Life’ we find a cross at the site of a miraculous event (Stokes 1887, 276 and 73). Adamnan wrote of a cross which ‘stands even today’ where Columba’s uncle died and the spot where Columba rested shortly before his death was marked by a cross, also visible in Adamnan’s time (Anderson 1961, 307 and 523). A late ‘Life of Cainnech’ mentions a cross at the roadside where a king had been killed (Plummer 1910, I, 163-4). Crosses were set up to mark burials. There is an example in the ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes 1887, 125-7), and Acca’s grave at Hexham was marked by two crosses (Taylor and Taylor 1965, 305). They also served as a focus for devotions and perhaps preaching. Cuthbert’s instructions for his burial suggest a cross of this kind on Farne Island: ‘Bury me close to the oratory, on the south side, beside that cross which I myself set up’ (Bede’s ‘Life’, Colgrave 1940, chap. 37). Before the battle of Heavenfield, Oswald set up a wooden cross as a focus for his army at prayer

[214] Despite their fragmentary and tattered condition they do deserve attention, for it is clear from written sources that crosses were important in early monasteries and fulfilled a variety of functions. 96

(Bede, H.E. III, 2). The ‘Rule of Ailbe’ indicates that a cross was used as a place for penance: ‘At the cross in the presence of the head of the monks ... with humility, without disputes, let each confess his faults there’ (O’Neill 1907, 103).

All the functions indicated by the sources could have been, and probably were, fulfilled by cross-carved stones as well as three-dimensional crosses. Turning to the northern material, we find that the surviving crosses are unevenly distributed over the six counties (Fig. 10). In Co. Antrim, for example, there are only small rough examples, apart from the Connor fragment, whilst there is a marked cluster near the river Blackwater in west Armagh and east Tyrone. Including fragments and dividing composite crosses into their parts, there are seventeen with figure decoration, on fourteen of which the figures are prominent. There are twelve with geometric or other non-figure decoration and nine plain examples, as well as two small figure-carved crosses at Down, and some fragments.

The bounds of the monastic termonn were sometimes marked with crosses. The seventh-century ‘Collectio Canonum Hibernensis’ specifies: ‘Terminis sancti loci habeat signa crucis circa se ... Ubicumque inveneritis signum crucis Christi, ne laeseritis’ (quoted by Lawlor 1897, 175, and see Hughes 1966, 148). [215] One possible interpretation of the crosses in the eighth-century ‘Book of Mulling’ drawing is that they indicated different areas of sanctuary within the termon (Hughes, loc. cit.). The poem on Aengus the Culdee may refer to termon crosses: ‘a pious cloister behind a circle of crosses’ (Meyer 1959, 88); and traditions of seven crosses once near Derrynoose church and at Glenarb, and three crosses from different parts of Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) parish, may preserve some memory of boundary crosses.

It is clear that whilst there are crosses at some important northern sites, other major sites have none, such as Antrim, Coleraine, Derry, Devenish and Killevy. [217] Crosses are also found at churches which are not at all prominent in the written record, including Glenarb and Eglish.1 This is the pattern which Dr. Henry has traced all over Ireland (1964, 21) and Miss Roe has described as ‘unequal and sporadic’ (1956, 80). How far the surviving material fairly reflects the original distribution and how far it is simply a pattern of survival is always difficult to decide. Miss Roe believed the distribution never was even and a cross was not a ‘standard’ feature of all monasteries. We must, however, note that there are reports of lost crosses from at least six northern sites – Derrynoose, Dromore (Co. Tyrone), Killyman, Maghernahely, Monea and Straidarran.2 These were not necessarily early, but they do remind us that we are studying a residual pattern which may or may not fairly reflect the original distribution.

There may also have been crosses at the roadside. Muirchú claimed that Patrick used to stop and pray at every cross he passed (Stokes 1887, 293). These could of course, have marked events or burials, but some could have been on routes or served as a focus for prayer at the road side. Sometimes the function of a cross is not made clear, like the ‘cross of the sacristy door’ at Kells (A.F.M. 1156), but it emerges clearly from the written sources that crosses performed many functions, and this should lead as to expect variety and complexity in their study. Written sources sometimes tell us the names of crosses. In the ‘Book of Mulling’ drawing are crosses marked with names: Christ with the apostles; the Holy Spirit; evangelists; Old Testament prophets; and Daniel (Lawlor 1897 and Thomas 1971, 39). The annals mention five named crosses at Armagh: crosses of Brigid, Columcille, Bishop Eogan, Sechnall, and the ‘Cross at the Gate of the Rath’. There were churches dedicated to Brigid and Columba at Armagh, but we hear of no church of Eogan (presumably of Ardstraw) of Sechnall, probably Secundinus of Dunshaughlin (Bieler 1953, 57-65).

The majority of the large northern crosses are made of sandstone. This was the preferred material all over Ireland when it was available, and there is no shortage in the north. In Co. Down, however, there are six granite crosses. Kilbroney, Donaghmore and Drumadonnell are all on or close to granite, but Dromore is about seven miles from the nearest outcrop and Downpatrick ten (a longer but perhaps easier journey by water). 1.

[216] A grant by John de Courcy in 1182 indicates a cross at St. Monenna at Down (Reeves 1847, 229), but I have come across no other reference to a cross or church with this dedication at Downpatrick. The material of the cross is sometimes specified. Bede described cures from splinters of Oswald’s wooden cross (H.E. III, 2), and a wooden cross marked the place where the water used for washing Wilfrid’s body was poured (Eddius’s ‘Life’, Colgrave 1927, 143). But usually the material is taken for granted and we are left in doubt. Perhaps the Iona cross set in a millstone was wooden, but we cannot be sure (Anderson 1961, 523). Another area of uncertainty arising from the written record is whether a free-standing cross or a cross-carved stone is intended.

2.

Eglish is a difficult case: the place-name is normally found in Norman and later sources (Flanagan 1967, 384) and there may have been an early church at Tamlaght (bo), a townland in Eglish parish, mentioned in the ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes, W., 1887, 232-3). The name alone might suggest a post-invasion use of the Eglish site, but if the crosses can be regarded as pre-Norman they provide evidence for earlier use of the hilltop. The case of Kilskeery should be noted: P.S. 1940, 250 claimed two ‘Celtic crosses’ here, repeated by Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 395), but these are without doubt postmedieval gravestones.

[218] It would not be surprising to find that the Bangor fragment is sandstone, but I was unable to identify the stone there and at Connor because of layers of paint and whitewash. The sandstone of Tynan Terrace Cross is very 97

fine and the carving remains remarkably sharp. The Mullaboy cross stands apart as it is carved from local schist. There was no shortage of water transport for sandstone in Co. Fermanagh.

It is difficult to make detailed technological observations on badly weathered and mutilated material, but certain points can be noted. Some of the smaller crosses were clearly carved from a single piece of stone, including those at Kilbroney, Tynan Island and Tynan Well. But in many cases a cross was made of two stones, joined with a mortice and tenon. The very tall Arboe cross is jointed at the base of the head, the point being marked by the collar (Pl. 113). The large Inishmacsaint cross is also made of two stones, the tenon being partly visible where the mortice hole is broken away (Pl. 103a), and the Aghanaglack shaft has a mortice hole for the missing head (Pl. 84a).

PLATE 113: ARBOE HIGH CROSS. PLATE 84A: AGHNAGLACK CROSS SHAFT

PLATE 97: GALLOON – EAST CROSS (NORTH SIDE –LEFT); WEST CROSS (EAST SIDE –RIGHT).

The frequency with which headless crosses occur and illmatching heads are set on shafts encourages the belief that the head was often carved from a separate stone. This was clearly the case at Galloon, where the sockets for the heads survive (Pl. 97). I have found no clear evidence of more complex jointing of stone crosses which Dr. Stevenson studied at Iona (1956). The wide, shallow sinkings in the granite fragments in Downpatrick Cathedral, only three-quarters of an inch deep, do not

PLATE 103A: INISHMACSAINT CROSS.

98

seem suitable for holding other stone members, and they are out of harmony with the decoration, so I prefer to see them, like the sinkings on Dromore cross, as the result of some comparatively recent misuse of the stones. [219] Signs of stone dressing rarely survive, but I have noted pecking marks on the plain Mullaboy cross, and the Aghanaglack shaft seems pecked whilst the exterior of the base is probably chisel-cut. The west side of the Clonfeacle cross (Pl. 122a) is roughly hammer-dressed, whilst the east side is carefully smoothed, and this must represent two stages in the finishing process. Tooling often provides a clue to recent restoration work, as on all three crosses at Tynan Abbey, where chisel marks are clear.

PLATE 125A: ERRIGAL KEEROGUE CROSS.

PLATE 122A: CLONFEACLE CROSS (FROM EAST)

There is reason to think the Clonfeacle cross is unfinished, and unfinished crosses provide valuable information about their manufacture. There is nothing in the north as instructive as the unfinished cross at Kells, but Errigal Keerogue shows a cross at an interesting stage of partial completion. It has been called ‘primitive’ and ‘archaic’, and to represent the typological stage of the cross ‘emerging’ from the slab, but all these judgments fail to take into account its unfinished state. On the east side of the head the line of the ring and the hollowing of the intersections have been lightly marked out, and to the west a large flat boss has been left in relief, presumably to be decorated, and there are rather rough marking-out lines (Pl. 125a). The shaft is much thicker at the base than the head, which would have given scope for relief work on the shaft, though there is no sign of a start having been made (Pl. 1). The vein of hard quartz in the sandstone on the south side may have caused the work to be abandoned. The different treatment of the two faces of the Clonfeacle cross also suggests the work is unfinished, and again a quartz vein may be the reason. A cross at Upper Lockstown (Co. Wicklow) seems to have been abandoned during manufacture when one of the arms broke (J.R.S.A.I. 95 (1965), 249). It is interesting that unfinished crosses have survived and sometimes still occupy a prominent position in a graveyard (Pl. 1).

PLATE 1: ERRIGAL KEEROGUE CROSS (PROFILE)

[220] There is considerable variety of form. Ringed heads are common, though not universal, and the ring can be open or solid, with or without discs on the inner circumference. In Co. Down a preference seems to emerge for an unperforated ring without discs, though Donaghmore stands apart with open ring and discs. The crosses from Eglish, Glenarb and Tynan show all the combinations and no ‘type’ emerges. The three Glenarb heads are all different: Caledon solid without discs, Tynan Well solid with discs and Tynan Island pierced without. Both Eglish heads are solid with discs and Tynan Village and Terrace crosses have open rings with discs. The impressive figure-carved crosses seem usually to have open rings with discs, as at Armagh, Arboe and Donaghmore. At Clogher the heads are solid with very prominent discs and the odd Clonfeacle cross has a rather angular ‘ringed’ head, the ring continued up and down the shaft (Pl. 122a). The form is paralleled amongst the many plain, undatable crosses at Glendalough (e.g. Leask, Guide, fig. 19, g and fig. 22, 12). Un-ringed heads occur only at Down, Kilbroney, Mullaboy and Inishmacsaint. In all cases the intersections of arms and shaft are hollowed, but the exact form varies.

99

The arrangement of the three in Downpatrick Cathedral is uncertain, but two seem to belong to an unringed head. At Kilbroney the angles of the Latin cross are not hollowed on the east side, but to the west they are carefully hollowed. The effect produced is very distinctive, with the straight shaft visible behind the hollows (Co. Down 1966, pl. 73). Though the arms of the Mullaboy cross are broken, the hollowed angles survive and it is clear there was never a ring (P1. 55a).

The top of the head is often damaged, but where the original form can be seen it is again found to vary considerably. At Arboe the finial is a separate stone, very weathered but decorated and probably ‘house-shaped’, like the better preserved examples at Monasterboice and elsewhere. The house-shaped finial at Donaghmore (Co. Down) is of a piece with the top member, not separately carved. The stub of a tenon on the Eglish south cross probably held a finial (Pl. 23a). In other cases the edge mouldings run abruptly off the top member of the cross in such a way that a missing finial seems certain (e.g. Pl. 126a). The outline of the Inishmacsaint head requires a finial to complete the top member and it would be interesting to know if there is a mortice hole in it.

PLATE 55A: MULLABOY CROSS.

[221] The arcs of the hollowing at Inishmacsaint are very shallow and the outline is difficult to parallel. The unringed cross with hollowed angles is common on slabs at Nendrum and seems to occur on recumbent slabs from the eighth century but a freestanding cross of this form on Iniscaltra is dated by an inscription to 1111, so it had a long life (Lionard 1961, 117 and Henry 1970, pl. 50).

PLATE 126A: GLENARB –‘WELL CROSS’

The ends of the arms could be flat, plain or decorated, or treated in a more individual way, such as the prominent roll mouldings of Monasterboice West Cross or the convex ends at Durrow (Henry 1967, pls 87 and 98). The arm ends of Tynan Village Cross are chamfered, leaving a small triangular area for decoration underneath. Tynan Well Cross arm ends are chamfered into a rectangular panel, and the arms of Clogher (south) and Drumadonnell crosses are also chamfered. With very few exceptions there is reason to think that most crosses had more or less elaborate edge mouldings, even if these are now battered and defaced (Pl. 63a). [222] A common treatment was an edge roll, varying in outline from squarish to round, with an inner small roll or fillet. This could be defined by two grooves, leaving the main faces of the cross at the same level as the mouldings, or the faces could be worked back below the level of the mouldings providing scope for relief decoration, seen very clearly at Clogher (Pl. 118a: but note that the faces of the shaft of the North Cross are sunk whilst those of the head are not, possibly a sign that

PLATE 23A: EGLISH – BROKEN CROSS.

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this is a composite cross). Standing out from the familiar angle roll and inner fillet are a few crosses with more elaborate mouldings.

may indicate the bottom of the head and the start of the shaft (Pl. 36a). The crosses in Armagh Cathedral graveyard and at Drumadonnell have very wide, flat edge mouldings, at Drumadonnell leaving only narrow strips for decoration on shaft and arms a treatment closely paralleled at Dromiskin (Co. Louth), which is also a granite cross.

PLATE 36A: TYNAN TERRACE CROSS.

A feature of some shafts is a prominent collar. At Arboe (Pl. 113, above) this is elaborately moulded and decorated and marks the base of the head, as well as the point where the two stones are joined. The lost Galloon heads fitted into sockets in prominent collars (Pl. 97, above), and a collar is a marked feature of the Clones shaft, only seven miles from Galloon. The very short, squat shafts at Caledon and Lisnaskea have heavy collars (Pls 125b and 107a, below); their present outline is not very pleasing, and it is interesting to speculate about their original upper parts.

PLATE 63A: DOWNPATRICK CROSS (EAST FACE).

PLATE 118A: CLOGHER CROSSES (EAST SIDES)

Arboe has two inner fillets and Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) has very complex mouldings with prominent strings of pellets, found also on the Clones shaft (Co. Monaghan). Tynan Terrace Cross relies for much of its effect on complex mouldings, and the constriction in the mouldings about three-quarters of the way up the shaft PLATE 125B: GLENARB (CALEDON) CROSS.

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[223] The Donaghmore (Co. Down) head joins the small collar very abruptly, and I suspect the lowest member of the head was once longer (Pl. 62). This feature of prominent collars does not seem to occur at all commonly outside Ulster.

function on the ring, unless they are derived from rivetheads holding a metal casing over a wooden core, as Ó Ríordáin suggested (1947), but in the angles of the intersection they may recall pegs to hold jointed arms. [224] Most common amongst cross-bases is some form of the truncated pyramid, with or without a step and edge mouldings. The isolated decorated base at Killoan will be discussed below, and otherwise decoration is rare. There is a roughly blocked-out but probably unfinished horseman at Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone, Pl. 123b) and slight traces of decoration at Boho (Pl. 88b). The somewhat hog-backed outline of the Dromore (Co. Down) base is interesting and difficult to parallel. The present east face is very carefully worked (Pl. 64b), but the west side is incompletely trimmed, and perhaps was not easily visible in its original position. The very rough base of Tynan Village (Pl. 37b) may not be finished. When crosses have been moved the base may be a new one, as at Tynan Well, but it is difficult to tell with rough, mossy boulders, as at Caledon.

PLATE 62A: DONAGHMORE (CO. DOWN) CROSS (FROM NORTH-EAST)

At the base of the shaft the edge mouldings often die into a small basal plinth which can be prominent or unobtrusive. Miss Roe noted a similar feature on the base of crosses in Western Ossory where in three cases ‘the shaft expands to form a sort of butt with parallel or trapezoidal sides’ (1962, 8). The bases of the Clogher shafts are of this form, but are undecorated (Pl. 118a, above) whilst the prominent plinth at Donaghmore (Co. Down) has rectangular panels of weathered decoration (Pl. 62a), and when crosses bear inscriptions they are often in this position.

PLATE 123B: DONAGHMORE (CO. TYRONE) CROSS BASE.

The treatment of mouldings, collar and plinth at Donaghmore strongly suggests to me influence from materials other than stone - wood panels let into sturdy corner posts, or metal sheets held in tubular angle rolls. The very different treatment of the Kilbroney cross, flat and plank-like, also recalls woodwork, and the intricate, low-relief decoration hardly seems appropriate to stone, especially to intractable granite. Another possible echo of woodwork may be the discs on the cross heads. In the north these all occur on the inner circumference of the ring; there are no examples, as at Monasterboice, Clonmacnois, Kells and Drumcliff, of discs in the ‘armpits’. They seem to have nothing but a decorative

PLATE 88B: BOHO CROSS BASE

Within the edge mouldings there are two main ways of treating the shaft, either as a series of framed panels, or as a single, long, rectangular panel without structural sub102

divisions. Panels can be defined by the inner fillet turning through ninety degrees and running horizontally.

as the geometric work at Kilbroney and the figures at Donaghmore (Co. Down), or the mixed motifs at Boho (Pls 62b and 88a).

PLATE 37B: TYNAN – BASE OF VILLAGE CROSS.

PLATE 123A: DONAGHMORE (CO. TYRONE) CROSS – LOWER SHAFT FROM NORTH-WEST.

PLATE 64B: DROMORE (CO. DOWN) BASE OF CROSS.

At Armagh (sides), Camus, Connor and Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) the frames are linked in a very distinctive way (clear, for example, in Pl. 123a), found also at Monasterboice, Durrow, Clonmacnois, Kells and elsewhere. The panels can also be defined by wide horizontal bands, attached to or independent of the edge mouldings, as at Arboe and Armagh, and the treatment could vary on two sides of the same shaft, as at Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone). The general impression of these crosses with well-defined frames is controlled and well-organised, and the lay-out lends itself to coherent iconographic schemes. If there is no such subdividing of the faces by frames the decoration can, nevertheless, be arranged in panels, such

PLATE 62B: DONAGHMORE (CO. DOWN) HIGH CROSS (FROM NORTH-WEST).

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PLATE 88A: BOHO CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE).

[225] But in other cases the decoration of the long panels is freer. The south side of the cross at Downpatrick, for example, is decorated with rather loose, untidy interlace (Pl. 63b). Long, undivided panels are ideal for decoration with individual medallions, but the Lisnaskea treatment of a decorative panel occupying the whole of a stubby shaft is unique in the north (Pl. 107a).

PLATE 107A: LISNASKEA CROSS SHAFT (WEST SIDE).

Most important and best-studied are the figure-carved crosses. Dr. Henry and Miss Roe have both analysed the various schemes of figure decoration and I largely follow them here and in the inventory. There is usually a clear Old Testament/New Testament distinction between the two main faces, and, when the head survives, between the Crucifixion side and the Christ in Majesty or Judgment scene. The Old Testament scenes often illustrate occasions when God has helped people in trouble: Daniel and lions, Noah and the ark, children in the fiery furnace, the sacrifice of Isaac. Robin Flower pointed out how these and other incidents appear in a prayer, the commendatio animae in the Roman Breviary, and a version of it appears in the early ninth-century ‘Stowe Missal’, in the epilogue of the ‘Martyrology of Oengus’ and in other ninth-century texts, leading to the conclusion that: ‘the prayer was widely current in the Irish church of the ninth century’ (Flower 1954, 91-3). He argued that the figure-carved crosses can be regarded as prayers in stone, asking for help, just as the Lorica hymns seek help. It is also interesting to note that many scenes on the crosses are events which, according to the ‘Cáin Domnaig’, took place on Sunday: the saving of Noah, the visit of the Magi, the Birth of Christ, the Baptism, the feast at Cana and the miracle of the loaves and fishes. [226] The ‘Cáin Domnaig’ with the other cána probably belongs to the eighth and early ninth centuries, though it was revived in the late ninth century (O’Keeffe 1905, 199-201; Hughes 1972, 80-2). The purpose of the ‘Law of Sunday’ was to encourage Sunday observance. There are other strands in the figure carving on the northern crosses. Miss Roe has shown that many of the New Testament scenes illustrate events commemorated in the Office for the feast of the Epiphany, including the

PLATE 63B: DOWNPATRICK CROSS –EAST OF CATHEDRAL (SOUTH AND WEST SIDES)

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annunciation to the shepherds, the adoration of the Magi, the Baptism, and the wedding at Cana (1966, 27). At Arboe and Armagh are scenes from the David cycle, which Miss Roe has also examined (1949), and other incidents have Eucharistic significance, such as Paul and Antony receiving bread in the desert and the miracles of the loaves and fishes. There seems to be a parallel with later medieval wall paintings in churches: the carved crosses would keep important themes constantly before the viewer.

other figure groups are too worn for confident identification. A similar repertoire of scenes is found on the two small Galloon crosses (Pl. 97, above), but they are unframed and the treatment is generally less tightly organised than in the Armagh group. The Lisnaskea treatment of Adam and Eve is very distinctive (Pl. 107b), naïve, lively and bold. The Boho Adam and Eve scene is closely paralleled at Drumcliff and is characterised by the ‘jumping’ figures and interlaced serpent and tree (Pl. 88a, above).

In its fragmentary and mutilated state the Armagh cross is still impressive, and drawings show that it once had a very full series of figure scenes, including all the elements outlined above. It is reasonable to assume that Armagh was an important centre of manufacture and that this and the other lost crosses provided models for crosses elsewhere. Links are close, as Miss Roe has shown, with Arboe (which has some exceptionally rich iconographic scheme), Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) and Camus to the north, and Killary and Kells (broken cross) to the south. The fragment at Connor also suggests a very grand cross: the framed panels are linked, and the figure carving is on a large scale and in quite high relief (Pl. 8a). There may be a link with the Armagh orbit, but an independent centre of influence at such an important site as Connor is not impossible.

PLATE 107B: LISNASKEA CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE).

PLATE 8A: CONNOR CROSS SHAFT.

[227] The Donaghmore (Co. Down) figure scenes (Pl. 62a-b, above) include familiar ones like Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark and David the harpist, but others are less easily identifiable. The Crucifixion is clear at Downpatrick (Pl. 63a, above) and the horseman may indicate the entry to Jerusalem scene as at Arboe, but the

PLATE 64A: DROMORE (CO. DOWN) – LOWER SHAFT.

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Geometric decoration is used quite sparingly at Arboe and Armagh to fill spaces on the head and (at Arboe) the collar. At Camus and Donaghmore figures are confined to the main faces and geometric decoration is used on the sides. At Galloon the geometric and figure scenes are not strictly separated.

its most sophisticated form. The cross is tall and well proportioned, though probably lacking a finial. All the parts are carefully moulded, and each main face is decorated with six medallions, on the east side all circular and on the west circular, diamond and D-shaped, all linked by a thin ‘thread’.

In other cases geometric decoration is not combined with figures. The Kilbroney cross stands apart from the others with its all-over fine, low relief fretwork, more reminiscent of metal or manuscripts than stone. Though broken and restored, the Dromore cross is still imposing, relying for its effect on the massive proportions and the play of light on its different planes. The individual motifs of interlace and fret are rather too fine to do more than add texture to the general impression, though they are rewarding to close inspection (Pl. 64a).

On Tynan Village Cross and Well Cross the figure carving takes its place as one of the ways of filling these medallions: Adam and Eve in a rectangular panel on the Well Cross and Adam and Eve and an unidentified figure, also in rectangular panels, on the Village Cross (Pls 36c and 126a). The Island Cross has double-framed circular medallions at the cross with rich bossed spiral decoration, and the bosses on the bead of the Village Cross are in particularly high relief (Pl. 35a) The broken stump in Armagh Cathedral yard shows this treatment of linked medallions on a very grand scale, whilst Eglish north cross has circular medallions at the crossing with bosses and all-over fine interlace (Pls 20b and 22).

[228] The tantalising fragment from Bangor is part of a shaft with all-over double strand interlace. Its history is unknown, but a 1623 map of Bangor marks a cross on Cross Hill, perhaps a tenon cross.

PLATE 126A: GLENARB WELL CROSS (NOW AT TYNAN ABBEY –WEST SIDE)

[229] Further west, the Clogher crosses have panels of quite high relief decoration in geometric shapes, larger and more prominent than the medallions further east, and lacking the linking ‘threads’ (Pl. 118b).

PLATE 36C: TYNAN VILLAGE CROSS (FIGURE ON WEST SIDE)

The high relief bosses on the head of the south cross recall Eglish and Tynan Village, but the device on the east side of the head of Clogher north cross is not easy to parallel: it is diamond-shaped, made up of interlaced lines with ‘crocodile’ heads to left and right and animal heads top and bottom.1

Very distinctive are the crosses decorated with framed medallions on otherwise plain surfaces. This ‘studied and sophisticated use of plain surfaces’ (Roe 1955, 108) seems peculiar to the north. The medallions are circular, square, diamond-, and horseshoe-shaped, filled with individual decorative motifs of bosses, spirals, and interlace, and occasionally linked by a fine raised moulding (seen clearly in Pl. 123a, above). Tynan Terrace Cross (Pl. 36a, above) shows this decoration in

Animal motifs are not prominent in the north. The curled figures in frames at Armagh and Donaghmore (Co. 106

Tyrone) may be animal; and at Donaghmore and Galloon are the odd upside-down animals found commonly on crosses elsewhere, but not well understood. Typologically the Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) cross reminds us that the figure and geometric medallion traditions are not distinct, because here they occur side by side (Pl. 123a, above).

PLATE 22: EGLISH NORTH CROSS (SOUTH SIDE –LEFT; NORTH SIDE –RIGHT).

PLATE 35A: TYNAN VILLAGE CROSS (VIEW FROM NORTH SHOWING PROJECTING BOSSES).

PLATE 118B: CLOGHER CROSSES (WEST SIDE).

As with all the classes of material discussed in this chapter, the dating of crosses is difficult. Reeves wrote in 1883-4: ‘for the present ... we must be content with the wide liberty of conjecture, and the hope that extended comparison will presently furnish materials for estimating the age of these and similar productions’ (427-8). Since his time many dates have been suggested and a sequence has been built up, based on extensive comparisons between crosses and other materials. But it is worth stressing that the fixed points are no more secure than in Reeves’s day. Muiredach’s cross at Monasterboice, much used as an early tenth-century chronological anchor, is hardly a reliable one. Not only are there two known abbots, but the name is a very common one and could be a craftsman’s or patron’s and not an abbot’s (Macalister in J.R.S.A.I. 64 (1934), 16-21). 1.

PLATE 20B: ARMAGH – BROKEN CROSS (EAST SIDE).

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The best parallels I have found are at Killamery (Co. Kilkenny) and Dromiskin (Co. Louth), but they are not very close (Henry 1932, pl. 27).

[230] Crosses are difficult to date securely by context: Kells was not necessarily a new foundation of the early ninth century (Roe 1966, 1-3); the foundation of Castledermot in 812 may give a terminus post quem for the crosses but does not tell us how long after the foundation they were made; annal references to crosses at Armagh in 1121 and 1166 similarly provide only a terminus ante quem for crosses there, even if the crosses in the written source can be linked with surviving material. As with churches, the first firm dates for crosses are no earlier than the twelfth century - Iniscaltra by 1111 and Tuam between 1126 and 1156. Dating before these fixed points is, as Miss Roe points out, ‘little more than a balancing of conjecture against conjecture’, and there is much scope for varying conclusions (1966, 9).

131-5). This cross form is, however, rare amongst northern cross-carved stones. There are similarities between linked medallions, especially lozenges, and the treatment of some arches and responds, as at Annaghdown (Co. Galway) and Kilmalkedar (Co. Kerry: Leask 1955, pl V and Henry 1970, pl. 107). Medallions form an element in the decoration of Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel, especially in the pediment of the north porch (Leask 1955, pl IX), and linked lozenges are also paralleled in the decoration of the Inisfallen crosier which probably dates to the twelfth century (Henry 1970, pl. 21). [232] The beading which is so prominent on Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) cross (also Clones) is a common feature of Romanesque decoration.

The most widely accepted sequence, broadly that proposed by Dr. Henry, is that the brilliant crosses at historically obscure sites like Ahenny in western Ossory belong to the eighth century, whilst those at Bealin, Clonmacnois (south) and Kells (Tower Cross) date from the later eighth and ninth centuries.

The northern crosses with medallion decoration are admittedly not like the crosses known to belong to the twelfth century, the limestone crosses of Co. Clare, the crosses at Iniscaltra, Cashel, Tuam, and elsewhere. They do not resemble the decoration on the Maghera (Co. Londonderry) door, but other twelfth-century comparative material in the north is scarce.

Most of the figure-carved crosses are assigned to the ninth and early tenth centuries, especially the period of peace in the struggle with the Vikings, from 875 to 915. Thereafter Dr. Henry sees a halt in the making of crosses for over a century until the late eleventh and twelfth centuries (Henry 1964, 59-60).

The north was less affected by Viking invasions in the tenth century than other parts of Ireland, and we cannot be sure that there was any break in traditions of stonecarving. The surviving crosses may cover a period of a number of generations, as Reeves believed, perhaps from the late ninth or tenth to the twelfth century, with Armagh figure-carved cross near the beginning of the series and Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) and Tynan Terrace near the end.

Within this general scheme the northern figure crosses have been dated to the late ninth or tenth centuries. It is unfortunate that the two inscriptions which Macalister read at Galloon are no longer visible. He identified names of abbots of Clones who died in 879 and 914, but this can hardly be considered firm evidence for their date.

Two small fragmentary crosses at Downpatrick seem to stand apart from the rest. The main decorative feature of each is an ecclesiastic in quite high relief against an unpierced ringed cross-head. A prominent ecclesiastic is a feature of a group of twelfth-century limestone crosses in Munster and south Connacht (de Paor 1956), and though the Downpatrick examples are much smaller than the well-known examples at Dysert O’Dea, Cashel, Roscrea, Tuam and elsewhere, they do seem to be related to this twelfth-century horizon.

[231] The dating of the crosses without figure decoration has, in the past, either been ignored or very varying dates have been suggested. The eighth or ninth centuries were suggested for Tynan and Clogher in ‘Belfast in its Regional Setting’ (1952), whilst Oliver Davies believed: ‘some of the smaller high crosses ... such as Eglish ... may well be as late as the Norman period’ (1943, 68). Sexton thought the diamond-shaped panels on the Armagh cathedral yard stump indicated a medieval date, but did not consider the implications of this for other crosses (1946, 63). Reeves appears to have favoured a very late date: twelfth or thirteenth century for Tynan Island Cross, and the other Tynan and crosses rather later (1883-4, 428).

Is it possible to detect any regional groupings amongst the northern crosses? The common factor in Co. Down is the use of granite, and there is a preference for unpierced heads without discs, though the Donaghmore and Kilbroney crosses stand apart. The Co. Down crosses cannot be regarded as a homogenous group, and the clearest link is between the crosses at Drumadonnell and Dromiskin (Co. Louth).

Certainty is impossible when fixed points are lacking, and all I will venture to do is point out some similarities between them and other material which may have a bearing on their date. Geometric framed settings for millefiori glass or enamel are common in fine jewellery, for example the Tara Brooch (Henry 1965, pls 40-1). Medallions with linking lines, as on Tynan Terrace and Well Crosses, are reminiscent of the expansional crosses so common at Clonmacnois on recumbent slabs, certainly dated to the tenth and eleventh centuries (Lionard 1961,

[233] The tradition of well-organised, coherent figure carving centred on Armagh has long been recognised. The crosses in the Blackwater area with little or no figure work are varied in form but linked by their preference for medallions enclosing small decorative motifs set in blank areas with well-defined edge mouldings. Circular motifs are popular on cross-heads, particularly tall bosses and 108

spiral-decorated roundels. The odd curled forms in ‘D’ frames at Armagh and Donaghmore may be animals, but the decoration is usually within the range of spirals (‘C’ and ‘S’ spirals, bossed and unbossed) frets and interlace. Again the centre of influence may have been Armagh.

Ireland (e.g. in J.R.S.A.I. 89 (1959), 206-7), but have not received much attention. 1.

O’Laverty (1887, 231) reported that a cross ‘pedestal’ from a site at Gorticloghan (Co. Antrim) had been made into a grinding stone in the nineteenth century.

Further west we find medallions at Clogher, but they are larger and the decoration is in higher relief. Boho’s links are clearly with Drumcliff (Co. Sligo) to the west, but the Lisnaskea shaft is not like anything else. The same figure scenes as further east are found at Galloon, but the arrangement is quite different, the range of scenes narrower, and the crosses smaller. Miss Roe has suggested that this varied pattern could result from the work of peripatetic craftsmen, moving about to execute commissions and relying on a particular ‘pattern book’ or range of models, not attached to any one monastery (1956, 80-1).1 The northern crosses certainly do not indicate uniformity within a particular monastic paruchia: the Clones cross does not closely resemble the ones at Galloon, and the Camus shaft is quite unlike the Bangor fragment. 1.

Group III crosses in Wales have inscriptions suggesting the emergence of a professional class of stone-carvers attached to particular monasteries (Nash-Williams 1950, 43).

[234] It does, however, seem likely that Armagh provided influential models and perhaps craftsmen, for Armagh influence can be traced north to Camus, west to Clones and south to Kells. There must have been other centres: Connor and Clogher are possible ones, but the paucity of material makes firm identifications hazardous.

PLATE 104A: KILCOO CROSS (FROM SOUTH-WEST).

[235] The northern examples vary greatly and require brief individual discussion. The only one of the seven which is of the common high cross stepped pyramidal form is the broken base built into the graveyard wall at Tynan (Pl. 37c), but its original position is unknown. The isolated Killoan base is tall and rectangular, with a socket only 5 inches thick. The south face bears quite sophisticated false relief decoration of an equal-armed cross potent in a frame, embellished with angular spirals (Pl. 128a and Fig. 83b). It is difficult to find good parallels in stone carving, but metalwork analogies suggest a tenth or eleventh-century date.

Parallel to the decorated crosses a series of plain examples seem to have been produced. Whether their plainness is the result of modest means, less skilled craftsmen or different functions is impossible to tell. Some resemble the decorated crosses in scale and shape, such as Eglish North cross and the broken shaft at Kilcoo (Pls 23, above and 104a). The Aghanaglack head is missing, but the base and shaft are carefully worked (Pl. 84a. above). Inishmacsaint cross is impressive in size but oddly shaped: the shaft is flat and board-like, with no angle mouldings, and the armpits are hollowed in long, shallow segments of large circles (Pl. 103a, above). The head probably lacks a finial. Although the general impression is of a sternly plain cross, close inspection reveals traces of rectangular panels on the arms and armpits. This is so insignificant that one wonders whether a more extensive scheme of decoration was contemplated but abandoned. Another puzzling example is the Co. Derry outlier at Mullaboy (Pl. 55. above). It is fully shaped, of local schist, and there is no sign of a ring. If it could be dated it would cast a gleam of light on this interesting but obscure area (p. 54, above), but a plain cross of this kind is not closely datable. Figure 10 also marks seven sites where cross bases occur without shafts.1 Isolated bases are reported elsewhere in

PLATE 37C: TYNAN – CROSS-BASE BUILT INTO CHURCHYARD WALL.

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PLATE 128A: KILLOAN CROSS BASE (LEFT); AND FIG. 83B: KILLOAM CROSS BASE (RIGHT)

The granite base at Clonlea is also decorated, with bold spirals and a key pattern (Pl. 131a). The socket is bigger than the nineteenth-century shaft which now fills it, but there is no clue to what it originally held. It is not certainly pre-Norman, but the work is quite unlike that of the two nineteenth-century crosses on the site. The granite font in Downpatrick cathedral, once used as a cattle trough in English Street, may have been a crossbase: the decoration includes broad channels and mouldings with some fret and interlace, but the faces are partly recut.

PLATE 75A: RAHOLP – CROSS-BASE.

Other bases are rougher and undecorated. The irregular slab east of Raholp church (Pl. 75a) has a socket right through the stone, measuring 8 by 12 inches. At Killadeas (Pl. 105b) a large boulder set upright and half buried, is pierced by a socket 8½ by 17 inches, and if the stone were set flat this would accommodate a shaft. It is difficult to see what other purpose it could have served. A rough base of this kind would probably have been let into the ground, like the example at Kilkeel (Pl. 75b). The most problematic socket stone may not be a cross-base at all.

PLATE 105B: KILLADEAS – SOCKET STONE.

PLATE 75B: KILKEEL – CROSS AND BASE.

[236] Built into Inishmacsaint church is a dressed sandstone slab with a neatly cut rectangular sinking 19 by 8 ¾ inches and 4 ½ inches deep (Pl. 102b). This is clearly PLATE 131A: CLONLEA – CROSS-BASE.

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too shallow for a tall shaft, but what else could it have held?

PLATE 102B: INISHMACSAINT – SOCKET STONE.

These bases do not form a homogeneous group: they range from carefully-worked decorated examples to plain rough ones and from certainly early to doubtfully early. Some may have held stone shafts which have disappeared (Tynan), but it is likely that others held wooden crosses which have perished. Small rough crosses remain to be discussed. Figure 10 (above) shows that they are widely distributed, eighteen being listed, and in Co. Derry and Co. Antrim they make up the bulk of the known crosses. Some are at certainly early church sites, some at possibly early sites and a few are probably not at church sites at all. Figures 22, 46 and 85 show the range of shapes.

FIG. 46: CO. LONDONDERRY – ROUGH CROSSES.

FIG. 85: MISCELLANEOUS ROUGH CROSSES.

FIG. 22: CO. ANTRIM – ROUGH CROSSES.

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The crosses range from a very simply shaped rectangle, like Altaghoney (Fig 46b), where the arms are indicated merely by notches and equally simple slabs like the one at Termonamongan (Fig 85d), where the arms are suggested by concavities in the outline, to more carefully worked crosses. The heads at Tullaghore (East) and Tullybrisland (Fig. 22c and Fig. 46a) are somewhat mushroom-shaped, and there are disc heads at Bonamargie and Layd, both perforated (Fig. 22e and Fig. 22b). Where the arms and head are carefully worked they can be squared off, rounded or pointed (Fig. 46c and Fig. 22d) and it does not seem realistic to attempt a classification of what are, on the whole worked pieces. The stone used, more varied than for the larger crosses, is, as one would expect, derived from local sources granite, for example, at Kilkeel, sand stone at Layd, and schist at Banagher.

Culfeightrin; but it is straining the evidence to suggest this, and it is more likely that both Bonamargie crosses date from the Friary period or later. The small granite cross set beside the base at Kilkeel (Fig. 85a) was alleged to be the gravestone of a priest (O’Laverty 1878, 11-12), whilst Lawlor reported a tradition that it was erected by a Spanish noble in gratitude to the people of Kilkeel who had buried his drowned son (1936-7, 296-7). The Altaghoney cross (Fig. 46b), which now stands alone in a hedge, traditionally marks a grave. The history of the perforated cross at Layd (Fig. 22b) is confusing: it seems unlikely that it was brought from Scotland and it may always have been at Layd. [238] It was used as a grave marker in 1861, but the inscription is clearly added. This may also be the case with the small cross at Armoy (Pl. 5b) which stands out so starkly in a yard of recent headstones. It may perhaps have been moved from the early site at Armoy, though there is no reason to claim great antiquity for it.

[237] A closer look at some examples may indicate some possible functions. The two Banagher crosses are traditionally the survivors of five termon crosses: number 1 is symmetrically placed in relation to the church and may have been reset, but number 2 is north-west of the church and may be in situ (Fig. 41). Though the termon explanation is likely, it does not help in their dating. Wooden crosses could have been replaced by stone ones at any period. The Ordnance Survey workers believed that the small, cross at Drumnakill (Fig. 22d) was a termon cross, and the traditions collected by J.B. Arthurs about Derrynoose included ‘there were seven crosses on the hill beyond the old church’ (1954, 36), which sound like boundary markers.

PLATE 5B: ARMOY – ROUGH CROSS AT ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Other rough crosses have no burial associations. The Donacavey base, carefully chisel-dressed, stands beside the lane which approaches the graveyard (Pl. 131b). The shaft has disappeared, but a drawing suggests crude decoration (Fig. 83e).

FIG. 41: BANAGHER – SITE PLAN.

Where only a single rough cross remains it is very difficult to suggest a purpose. The disc-headed Bonamargie example traditionally marks the grave of ‘the Black Nun’, and some rough crosses may indeed mark burials. The Bonamargie stone is carefully-shaped, clearly pecked, perforated at the centre with only slightly projecting arms (Fig. 22e). The Friary is a foundation of about 1500, and Lawlor, unable to accept a date as late as this for the cross, claimed it must have been brought from

PLATE 131B: DONACAVEY CROSS-BASE (LEFT); AND FIG. 83E: DONACAVEY CROSS-SHAFT (AFTER DAVIES 1941- RIGHT).

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The plain shaft at Ballyorgan shows no features except a thickening at the base (where it was buried) and knifesharpening scores. A few simple crosses are found at sites which are unlikely ever to have had churches. The mushroom-shaped Tullybrisland cross (Fig. 46a) stands near a road and a townland boundary: one story involves a mishap with a cart whilst taking the cross to Faughanvale. Funerals are said to have stopped at Drumbrughas cross (Fig. 85b), which stands on an old route across Slieve Beagh. The eighteenth-century date may be added, but there is nothing closely datable about the angular shaft and stubby arms. These two may be wayside crosses. Medieval and post-medieval examples are known elsewhere in Ireland, for example in Co. Louth and Co. Meath (L.A.J. 2 no. 1 (1908), 83-4 and 2 no. 2 (1909), 259-61), and in chapter 4 we have encountered crosses marking routes in Devon and Cornwall.

[240] They are not reliable pointers to early ecclesiastical activity; rather, like bullauns (Section viii, below), they are one of the less satisfactory classes of evidence and must be treated with caution.

Two sites with rough crosses in north Antrim remain to be discussed, though the nature of both sites is obscure. The Broughanlea cross (Fig. 22a) in its present roadside position is probably not in situ, but reports of its former whereabouts vary.

For purposes of comparison the inventory includes a little information about crosses which are certainly not early. The small example at Holywell (Pl. 100a) is not included in the pilgrimage rounds and has commercial rather than ecclesiastical associations.

PLATE 132 – CROSSES OF UNCERTAIN DATE (LEFT-TO-RIGHT) BODONEY NO.1; TERMONAMONGAN (BOTH CO. TYRONE); ENAGH (CO. LONDONDERRY).

[239] Carved in low false relief are what appear to be a round-headed and a tau crosier with a shaft between. Lawlor believed it came from Culfeightrin church and wrote ‘we are faced with the extreme possibility, if not certainty, that this crude and manifestly very ancient cross was erected in the fifth or early sixth century to commemorate St. Fiachrius [of Culfeightrin]’ (1936-7, 294). The east cross at Tullaghore (Fig. 22c) has a false relief design in a similar technique, difficult to make out but somewhat like a pair of pincers grasping a ring. The possibility must be considered that these two crosses, far from being very early as Lawlor claimed, are in fact of the Penal period. An alternative reading of the Broughanlea design is a pair of pincers and a hammer, two of the passion symbols so common on eighteenthcentury tombstones and Penal crucifixes. This was O’Laverty’s interpretation of the Broughanlea stone. These two cases underline the difficulty, often the impossibility, of dating rough crosses at all closely. Lawlor’s confident attempts at dating were impressionistic and subjective: simplicity, crude workmanship and weathered stone were equated with great antiquity (1936-7, passim). Even when a date is carved on a cross, we are confronted with the problem of whether it has been added. Some occur at certainly early church sites and some are almost certainly early, like the simple cross on Inishkea North (Henry 1945, no. 7, pl XI.3), whilst others could be quite recent, as Dr. Henry recognised in her intensive Kerry fieldwork: ‘Some of them seem to be of fairly recent date and may even be practically modern’ (1957, 160 and pl. 35).

PLATE 100A: HOLYWELL – ROUGH CROSS.

A reasonable parallel for the angular form with its short top member is provided by a 1729 gravestone in nearby Templenaffrin graveyard (Pl. 112b), and an eighteenthcentury date for the Holywell cross is possible. A granite cross at Killevy (Pl. 133a) has a longer top member, and the shaft splays out towards the rough base, which must have been buried. The inscription is difficult to read but seems to be eighteenth-century, and in this case cross and inscription are probably contemporary.

The northern examples could cover a very long period, and some, like the rough crosses illustrated in Pl. 132, may be quite recent grave-markers. 113

PLATE 115A: BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED CROSS. PLATE 112B: TEMPLENAFFRIN – 1729 GRAVE STONE.

PLATE 116C: BODONEY – GRAVESTONE (1747).

[241] Time has not dealt kindly with the material discussed in this section, but I think it likely that crosses of some sort were a common, perhaps universal, feature of early Irish monasteries.1 There were obviously variations in the resources for patronage and in the materials available for use, and there may have been regional preferences for free standing crosses or crosscarved slabs. These and other factors have combined to produce the fragmentary pattern of surviving stone crosses in the north. The loss of wooden crosses is impossible to estimate, but they must not be forgotten, and the bulk may have been considerable. We have a few hints in the written sources and one salutary reminder in the form of the tattered wooden cross surviving north of Cranfield church (Co. Antrim) in the late nineteenth century (U.J.A. 4 (1897-8), 49).

PLATE 133A: KILLEVY –LATE CROSS.

There are rough crosses in Bodoney graveyard. One which may be early (Pl. 115a) will be dealt with in Section (vi), but the others are all probably fairly recent. A small schist cross has a 1714 date and another, larger and undated, has a distinctively splayed top, paralleled on a 1747 gravestone (Pl. 116c). Another small cross (Pl. 132, above) has no distinctive features and could be of any date. It is necessary to consider the range of post-medieval grave markers in an area before trying to arrive at conclusions about the antiquity of particular cross forms.

1.

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Sexton (1946, 23) made no allowance for wooden crosses and did not think many crosses had completely vanished: ‘Probably almost as many of the monuments remain as were originally made.’ His confidence seems surprising.

FIG. 11: MAP OF CROSS-C ARVED STONES

vi) CROSS-CARVED STONES Just as freestanding crosses were erected for several purposes, so crosses were carved on stones for a variety of reasons. Some clearly marked burials; some could be dedicatory, such as the ‘Sti Fintani’ stone at Kilfountain (Co. Kerry); some, like the Kilnasaggart stone, could record an event or grant. They might, like crosses, have marked boundaries or routes, or served as a focus for outdoor worship. Crosses were also carved on altar stones, sundials and architectural fragments. Ireland as a whole is rich in these stones, but there is nothing like the Scottish and Welsh publications by Allen and Anderson (1903) and Nash-Williams (1950). Crawford’s lists are useful but are unclassified and unillustrated (1912, 1913, 1916). They are supplemented for inscribed stones by Macalister’s work (1945 and 1949) and for recumbent slabs by Lionard’s paper (1961: not a complete corpus).

Some 20 of the listed stones are lost or destroyed, and an uncertain number at Kilcoo. At least 27 are unpublished and many have been described very briefly without illustrations, whilst some 70 have been illustrated. 97 stones bear one cross only, 13 are carved on two or more faces, and the total of crosses is about 180. Of the 14 inscribed stones, 10 have crosses. Although the northern total has grown since Crawford’s time, it is still small: there are no northern concentrations to compare with those at Clonmacnois (400 to 500 recumbent slabs) and Gallen (about 200), and Lionard pointed out that midUlster had the fewest recumbent slabs of the 800 to 900 in Ireland (1961, 96). The largest group is the 17 at Nendrum, followed by 9 at Raholp and Saul, 7 at Kilnasaggart and 6 at Maghera (Co. Down). The cross forms found in the north are, on the whole, simple, and these are very difficult to date. Fixed chronological points are most reliably provided by identifiable individuals mentioned in inscriptions. If a stone is excavated the archaeological context may provide a date, but this is not common. Datable manuscripts and metalwork help to establish the period of currency of particular cross types. The aim is to build up a picture, by these various means, of the currency of cross

[242] More or less detailed descriptions of individual stones have appeared in journals, and Dr. Henry’s work, especially in the western counties, has thrown much light on the subject (1932, 1937, 1940 etc.). Crawford listed 49 cross-carved and inscribed stones in the six northern counties. 125 are listed in my inventory as four sundials, and the county totals are, with Crawford’s in brackets, Antrim 17 (4), Armagh 15 (3), Derry 3 (1), Down 61 (29), Fermanagh 22 (12) and Tyrone 7 (0). 115

types, and such attempts have inevitably centred round the large collections, particularly at Clonmacnois.

limbs ending in bars, sometimes with a central square expansion, the ‘cross potent’ form, and ten examples of a distinctive outline Latin cross without a ring but with the arms and shaft hollowed at the intersection, which could be called ‘the Nendrum type’.

[243] Lionard has suggested the likely time-range of the six main classes of crosses found there on recumbent slabs (1961). The more elaborate and distinctive the cross type, the more reliable are comparisons likely to be; simple crosses, on the other hand, may have been current over a long period, even to recent times, and close dating will be hazardous, perhaps impossible.

1.

On cross forms see Wakeman 1890-1 and Macalister 1909, 51-74, for Ireland, Allen and Anderson 1903, II, chap. 6, for Scotland, and Nash-Williams 1950, figs 5, 6, 7, for Wales.

[244] Linear and outline crosses can be enclosed within a circle, an equal-armed cross can fill the whole of a circle, and when the stem projects outside the circle the form approaches the true ringed cross. Eight examples occur of the distinctive cross of arcs, freehand or compass-drawn, within a circle, but there is only one ‘marigold’ design. True ringed crosses appear about sixteen times in linear and outline and variations included the hollowing of the angles of intersection and semi-circular expansions on the inner circumference of the ring, both ‘high cross’ features. The expansional cross, so common at Clonmacnois, is rare in the north (three only). Apart from those in circles, few crosses are enclosed by a frame, and decoration beyond the structural elaborations described is rare. In this respect the northern material resembles the collections at Iniscaltra and St. Berrihert’s Kyle rather than Gallen and Clonmacnois. Dr. Henry has noted other regional variations in the amount of decoration: the slabs of the Iveragh peninsula, for example, are rather plain, whilst stones in the nearby Dingle peninsula and at more distant Co. Mayo sites have elaborate spiral and pelta decoration (1957, 158). It is possible to outline the range of northern decoration fairly briefly. Human forms are confined to a lost stone at Maghera (Co. Down) and the slab from Drumgay Lough. Stones are decorated with interlace at Killadeas and Devenish (no. 5); there are interlaced tripartite knots at Killadeas, Nendrum (no. 14) and Ardtole, and interlaced crosses at Cleenish (no. 2), Mullaghbrack, Derry (no. 2, bungled) and Templastragh. Saul no. 3 has saltire crosses on the shaft, and crosses at Kilcoo (no. 1) and Tullyvallan (no. 1) are decorated with circular hollows. Circular sinkings in the four cantons between the limbs occur at Dromore (Co. Down), Kilcoo (no. 3) and Mullaghbrack, and pellets at Templastragh.

FIG. 12: SOME TYPES OF CROSSES.

The main forms of crosses found in the north are in Figure 12, where the numbers refer to the inventory.1 The prominence of simple Greek and Latin linear and outline crosses contrasts strongly with the Clonmacnois collection where simple forms are rare, except for initial crosses with inscriptions, and ringed and expansional types predominate. The crosses at Iniscaltra and St. Berrihert’s Kyle are simpler, but even there the range is wider than on northern sites (Macalister 1916-7 and Ó hÉailidhe 1967). The cross could be elaborated in several ways. The limbs could end in seriphs, triangles, spirals, bi- or trifid lines, whilst the arms could be multiplied and the crossing expanded in a diamond or a square. There are twelve examples of linear or outline crosses with the

[245] Tight spirals and running S spirals are found on the Saul cross of arcs (no. 4), and spirals and chevrons on the Drumgay stone. Local materials seem to have been used. Basalt and schist are common amongst the Antrim stones, with sandstone at Ardclinis and perhaps Drumeeny (the stones are lost). Granite is prominent in south Armagh, with some shale, and local slates and shales are used in Down, with some sandstone at Nendrum and granite in the south. The few stones in Tyrone are of locally available basalt, schist and sandstone, and sandstone is prominent in Fermanagh, perhaps transported there by water. Transport of stone has been noted elsewhere: the sandstone used at Gallen was 116

obtained locally, but the fine sandstone at Clonmacnois may have been brought up the Shannon from a source in Co. Clare (Lionard 1961, 145). Many of the stones have been shaped to some extent. Large erect pillars may have been dressed on the decorated face, whilst medium-sized erect slabs, like those at Maghera (Co. Down) and Saul, were sometimes trimmed to a rectangular outline. Most of the small slabs at Kilnasaggart and Raholp are broken, but some have a roughly gable-shaped top. Rough stones at Bodoney and Carrickmore are cross-shaped. The large trapezoidal stones at Killevy and Duncrun are carefully dressed, as is the rectangular recumbent stone at Devenish (no. 6). The recumbent stones at Derry (Co. Down), Kirkinriola, Movilla and Nendrum, on the other hand, are dressed on the flat face but left with an irregular outline. The shape of stones and the amount of preliminary working varies very much locally elsewhere in Ireland. Lionard concluded that shape alone was not a reliable chronological indicator for recumbent slabs, but some long, trapezoidal slabs can be shown, from inscriptions or on stylistic grounds, to be late (Lionard 1961, 97).

PLATE 11A: DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-C ARVED STONE (LEFT); AND PLATE 129A: URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

Tullyvallan (no. 2) shows the two techniques on adjacent faces, the north side clearly pecked, the east probably pecked and rubbed (Pl. 33).

[246] Dr. Henry has suggested a typological development for erect pillars from rough, unshaped stones, to more carefully dressed and finally to rectangular, plank-like slabs (1965, 54-7 and chap. 6), but at sites like Caher Island and Inishkea North (both Co. Mayo) fairly rough cross-carved pillars co-existed with, and may have been contemporary with, rectangular slabs (Henry 1947, 1945 and 1951).

PLATE 33: TULLYVALLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) (NORTH FACE (LEFT); EAST FACE (RIGHT)).

The simplest way of forming a cross was by linear incision with the line either left narrow or widened and deepened to form a groove. The most common method was clearly pecking, and where pock marks can be seen, as at Bodoney (Pl. 115a, above), Saul no. 6 (Pl. 78b), Inishmacsaint and Kilcoo no. 2 (Pl. 104b), the pecking was presumably not followed by abrasion.

It is less certain how deep and wide grooves, like those at Carrickcroppan, Turraloskin and Saul no. 5 (Pls 21a, 10b and 78a) were made, but pecking or hammering followed by abrasion seems likely.

PLATE 21A: CARRICKCROPPAN - CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); AND PLATE 10B: TURROLISKIN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

PLATE 78B: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (NO. 6) (LEFT); AND PLATE 104B: KILCOO – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (RIGHT).

Occasionally the cross has been incised lightly with a sharp point, for example at Dunteige and Edenmore, both perhaps quite recently (Pls 13a and 70b). The very sharp Devenish expansional cross may be chisel-cut (no. 6, Pl. 96b). Simplest and crudest of all is the cross at Dromore (Co. Antrim) gouged out of the coarse stone (Pl. 10a).

In other cases the marks are not visible but the profile of the lines suggests pecking followed by rubbing, as at Dromore (Co. Down), Drumaqueran and Urney (Pls 11a and 129a).

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the circle at Kirkinriola and Movilla (Pls 77a, 14a and 71a).

PLATE 13A: DUNTEIGE – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT); AND PLATE 70B: EDENMORE – CROSS-C ARVED STONE (RIGHT).

PLATE 78A: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (5).

PLATE 96B: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) (LEFT); AND PLATE 10A: DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (RIGHT).

PLATE 77A: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1).

False relief is achieved by working back parts of the background, leaving the design standing proud, but not the whole as in true relief work. [247] A small element of the design can be hollowed out, like the circle at the crossing of Saul no. 1 or the inside of

PLATE: 14A: KIRKINRIOLA – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

118

The small stones at Brackney and Knockavalley (Pls 8b and 68c) and the obscured slab at Layd are in true relief, but the dating of all these is uncertain.

PLATE 29B: KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONE. PLATE 71A: MOVILLA – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Crosses in circles provided opportunities for false relief treatment as at Devenish no. 1 and Kilnasaggart no. 7 (Pls 96c and 29). False relief can result in some ambiguity in the cross form, an effect which designers seem to have enjoyed.

PLATE 54B: DUNCRUN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); AND PLATE 27A: KILLEVY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

PLATE 96A: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1)

The Tullyvallan no. 2 east cross (Pl. 33, above), for example, can be read as an outline equal-armed cross in false relief or as two concentric crosses defined by grooves. The design is, of course, both of these, just as a cross of arcs in a circle is both a Maltese cross and a fourpetalled flower. True relief work is not common. It is found on the trapezoidal stones at Duncrun (Pl. 54b), Killevy (P1. 27a) and Saul no. 3, and the re-cut Newry slab.

PLATE 8B: BRACKNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); AND PLATE 68C: KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

119

Certainly late in our period is the fine, chisel-cut relief work on the two stones at Cleenish (Pl. 89).

therefore, that particular techniques cannot be regarded as diagnostic of date any more than the shape of slabs alone.

PLATE 89: CLEENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES.

Though true relief work seems more common on later stones than earlier ones it is not absent from earlier work. It is present, for example, at Killadeas and Maghera (Co. Londonderry) (Pls 106a and 54a), and, together with false relief and linear incisions, on the Kilnasaggart pillar. FIG. 60A: NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONES.

The different classes of northern cross-carved stones will now be discussed in the following order: ogam stones, erect slabs, recumbent slabs, inscribed stones, standing stones, rocks and boulders, architectural fragments, altar stones and sundials. [248] Ogam Stones: Irish ogam stones are concentrated in Munster, especially Co. Cork, Co. Kerry and Co. Waterford, areas in close touch with south-west Wales where the bulk of the British examples occur. Macalister listed only six in the six northern counties, from an Irish total of over 300 (1945 and map in MacWhite 1960-1), and the only one from an ecclesiastical context is from the otherwise obscure site at Drumconwell (Pl. 23b and Fig. 34d). The linear equal-armed cross in a circle, with the stem prolonged outside the circle, is at the top of the stone, and cross and ogams do not impinge on one another, nor have the ogams been defaced. Professor Jackson has suggested on linguistic grounds that most Irish ogams date from the later fifth and sixth centuries, with some spread into the seventh (1953, 153). The Drumconwell inscription contains no characteristically late features such as forfeda, and the formula is a common one; it could be as early as the fifth century, but the sixth or even seventh are possible. There is no certainty that the cross is contemporary, but equally no sign that it is not.

PLATE 106A: KILLADEAS – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

MacWhite has pointed out that the problem of ogams in a Christian context has not received much recent attention: ‘the intricate relations between Christianity and paganism reflected in the Irish ogams have yet to be worked out’ (1960-1, 303). Long ago MacNeill insisted on the essentially pagan character of ogams: the dichotomy between pagan and Christian was complete (1909). Study of Macalister’s ‘Corpus’, however, suggests that MacNeill’s case was overstated. Of some 320 Irish stones listed by Macalister, about 110 (34%) are at sites

PLATE 54A: MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE.

The Nendrum stones show the same variety (true and false relief, for example, on no. 6 in Fig. 60a). It is clear, 120

revered as a god (Macalister 1945, xi-xiii), and some crosses may have been added to ‘Christianise’ pagan stone. But it is clear from Welsh bilingual inscriptions that ogam was not repugnant to the Christian Irish in south Wales in the fifth and sixth centuries (Richards 1960, 144-5), and there seems little reason to postulate active hostility in Ireland between an ogam and a Christian tradition. We know that by the early seventh century clerics in north-east Ulster were concerning themselves with Irish vernacular as well as Christian Latin learning (Flower 1947, chap. 1). It seems likely, therefore, that some cross-carved stones, including perhaps the Drumconwell example, date from the earliest centuries of Christianity in Ireland, the later fifth and sixth centuries, and originated in a Christian milieu. With the spread of Latin scholarship and the half-uncial script the cumbersome ogam alphabet became obsolete, but the Church Island (Co. Kerry) stone illustrates the persistence of ogam in an undoubtedly Christian context to the seventh century or even later.

PLATE 23B: DRUMCONWELL – CROSS-CARVED OGHAM STONE (LEFT); AND

FIG. 34D: DRUMCONWELL – CROSS-CARVED OGHAM STONE (DETAIL) (RIGHT).

[249] with some ecclesiastical associations.1 But very few are sites of known early importance; many are disused graveyards and children’s burial grounds (Section (iv) above). In Wales 33 of 50 ogams or stones with Irish names in Roman capitals occur in or close to ecclesiastical sites (Richards 1960, 140, fig. 2). About 44 Irish stones (14%) are carved with one or more cross, half of them at sites with no ecclesiastical connections, and in at least two cases the ogam was later than the cross (Macalister 1945, no. 180 and O’Kelly and Kavanagh 1954). The Church Island (Co. Kerry) cross was a sophisticated compass-drawn design which may be later seventh or eighth century, and the ogam is later (Henry 1957, 159-60 and O’Kelly 1958, 77-81). In at least ten cases, on the other hand, the cross was an addition, for example when it encroaches on the ogams (Macalister 1945, no. 135), or when it is cut on the original base of the stone (no. 185). But often there is no indication of the priority of either ogam or cross, as at Drumconwell, and they may be contemporary. The cross forms are varied: many are simple linear and outline forms, but crosses potent, crosses of arcs and equal-armed crosses in circles also occur. A close parallel to the Drumconwell cross is found at Trallwng (Brecon: Nash-Williams 1950, 80-1, fig. 56), where the cross was added to the base of a bilingual stone.2 Most clearly Christian are those few stones which refer to a cleric by his title: ‘Ronan the priest’ at Arraglen (Kerry: Macalister 1945, no. 145), perhaps bishops at Tulligmore (Co. Cork: no. 127) and Ardmore (Co. Waterford: no. 263), and an abbot at Ballyhauk (Co. Cork: no. 100).

1. 2.

Erect Cross-Carved Pillars Erect cross-carved pillars are common in the western counties, but their distribution elsewhere in Ireland is thinner and more sporadic. Some 33 stones in the inventory were probably originally upright, though it is not always [251] certain whether an example was erect or recumbent.1

These figures are based on Macalister 1945, not on detailed study of individual examples. Nash-Williams dated group II cross-carved stones to the seventh to ninth centuries, but there are no certainly dated group II stones and their chronological spread may be wider as he recognised (1950, 17-20).

[250] Professor Jackson suggests that the ogam alphabet may have been developed in Ireland or western Britain late in the fourth century, and it is likely that the practice of erecting ogam stones was well established in Ireland before Christianity spread to any large extent. Some inscriptions seem to have been deliberately defaced, perhaps to remove the name of an ancestor who had been

PLATE 28A: KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED PILLAR STONE.

121

The Kilnasaggart inscription records a land grant and is unique in Ireland, but land grants are recorded on Welsh stones (Nash-Williams 1950, 100, no. 124 and 101, fig. 98 and 41). No stone is clearly part of a composite tomb, but many probably marked burials, like the inscribed slab at Killadeas. Others may have served other purposes, but it is seldom possible to be sure of the original function.

without the rho, is found on the Voteporix memorial stone from Castell Dwran (Carms.), datable to the midsixth century (Nash-Williams 1950, 107, no. 138). The duplication of the cross and the reversed rho on the eastern side are unusual and suggest an uncomprehending copy of an unfamiliar original, or a model with some inherent ambiguity, such as a seal, signet ring or engraved glass. The function of the Drumaqueran stone is unknown: it stands alone at the side of a lane and there are no ecclesiastical traditions except that Patrick traced the crosses with his finger!

The northern examples range in height from about 7 feet to 1 foot 6 inches. The taller stones, like those at Kilnasaggart, Legananny and Turraloskin, are not always easy to distinguish from cross-carved standing stones, discussed further below. Some are unshaped and some partly worked. In a middle size range are shaped rectangular slabs at Maghera (Co. Down), Saul, Urney and elsewhere. Small, roughly-shaped stones at Kilnasaggart and Raholp may have stood upright at the head or foot of a grave: small erect stones are in situ at Glendalough (Lionard 1961, pl. 26). Most important in the north is the Kilnasaggart pillar (Pl. 28a), dated by its inscription to the early eighth century (Reeves 1853). Its thirteen carefully-worked linear crosses include Latin and Greek forms with wedge terminals and without rings, and equal-armed crosses in circles, some with spiral terminals. Similar spirals occur on the Kilmalkedar (Co. Kerry) ‘alphabet stone’, dated on epigraphic grounds to the sixth century (Bieler, quoted in Lionard 1961, 108), and tight spirals decorate the cross on the recumbent Berichter slab at Tullylease of about 700 (Lionard 1953).

FIG. 23A: DRUMAQUERAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

[253] The cross of arcs in a circle, found on the small pillar at Drumnacur (Pl. 13b and Fig. 25b), occurs frequently at western sites (Henry 1937, passim) but more sporadically elsewhere.

[252] Spirals are prominent in the decoration of pillars at Kilvikadownig and Reask (Co. Kerry), Inishkea North and South (Co. Mayo), Inismurray (Co. Sligo) and elsewhere, but there are no other examples amongst the erect stones in the north. Another early example is the chi-rho-carved stone at Drumaquern (Pl. 11a, above and Fig. 23a), the only north-eastern occurrence of the monogram in Ireland (Hamlin 1972, fig. 3). 1.

Double-sided and cross-shaped stones certainly were upright, but doubt must remain in some cases.

The continental flourit of the symbol was from the fourth to sixth centuries (Cabrol-Leclerq 1913, 1515), and it is found on memorial stones in western Britain from the fifth to the seventh or eighth centuries. Professor Jackson sees it as one of several fifth and sixth-century borrowings from Gaulish epigraphy (1953, 163), and a more distant source of models is suggested by a sherd of imported Mediterranean A-ware, stamped with a chi-rho in a wreath with alpha (missing) and omega under the arms, excavated at Dinas Emrys (Caern.: Arch. Cambr. 109 (1960), 61).

PLATE 13B: DRUMNACUR – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); AND FIG. 25B: DRUMNACUR – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

The stem and short cross-bar are paralleled at Caherlehillan (Co. Kerry: Henry 1932, pl. 61), and the ‘handled’ form has been linked to the flabellum or liturgical fan (Henry 1957, 159). A seventh-century date has been suggested on epigraphic grounds for the ‘Peter the Apostle’ stone at Whithorn with its handled cross of arcs (Radford l957, 39). Dr. Henry would place most of the western pillars, with this and other cross types, in the pre-Viking period, but Lionard suggested that the cross of arcs could date from ‘any time from the seventh to the twelfth century’ (1961, 112). The large Killadeas slab (Pl. 106a, above) is carved in quite high relief with an

The Drumaqueran stone is closest geographically and in form not to the other Irish chi-rhos but to the (admittedly much more sophisticated) Galloway group at Whithorn and Kirkmadrine (Radford 1957). The same cross form, 122

elaborate cross of arcs on a thick stem which bifurcates (an unusual feature) and rests on an anchor-shaped base, paralleled on Inismurray (Wakeman 1885-6, 308, fig. 68). The inscription read by Macalister is no longer traceable, but if his ‘BENDACHT’ reading is correct a date not much later than 850 is indicated, as this form was then giving way to ‘BENNACHT’ (Lionard 1961, 98).

[254] The large Latin cross at Turraloskin (Pl. 10b, above and Fig. 24b) can be paralleled at Inishkea North (Henry 1951, nos 10 and 11) and elsewhere, but the form is very simple and not datable.

PLATE 70A: LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT) & FIG. 58C: LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

FIG. 24B: TURRALOSKIN – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

FIG. 25E: TRUMMERY: CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER GETTY 1855).

The tall pillar at Legananny has a well-worked equalarmed linear cross potent (Pl. 70a and Fig. 58c) and the destroyed Trummery stone also seems to have had crosses potent (Fig. 25e). The earliest dated cross of this form is on a Clonmacnois recumbent slab of 781-4 (Lionard 1961, 115, fig. 10 no. 11), but they are found on ogam and pillar stones and were probably current long before this first dated occurrence. Lionard suggests an eastern Mediterranean origin (ibid. 113-5), but once introduced this simple cross could have had a long life.

PLATE 66A: MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) (LEFT); AND. PLATE 68B: MAGHERA (CO. DOWN) – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6) (RIGHT)

123

The multiplication of the arms at Maghera (Co. Down: Pl. 66a and Fig. 59a) is not common, but parallels can be cited at Inismurray (three bars: Wakeman 1885-6, fig. 52) and Duncrun (Pl. 54b, above).

be easily paralleled at Iniscaltra and St. Berrihert’s Kyle, but with simple forms the date must remain uncertain.

Two small crosses above the arms of Maghera no. 6 (Pl. 68b and Fig. 59a) are reminiscent of the slabs on Inismurray which have four crosses in the four cantons (Wakeman 1885-6, figs 48, 49 etc.). The Latin cross with hollowed angles at Saul is common on recumbent slabs at Nendrum and will be discussed below, as will ringed crosses, seen (dimly) on an erect slab at Maghera (Co. Londonderry).

PLATE 11B: TEMPLASTRAGH – CROSS-C ARVED STONE.

FIG. 59A: MAGHERA (CO. DOWN)– CROSS-CARVED STONES.

The reset Templastragh slab (Pl. 11b) was probably erect: its pleasing double interlaced cross in a circle is decorated with pellets in the ‘spandrels’.

PLATE 69B: DERRY – CROSS-C ARVED STONE (LEFT); AND FIG. 57B: DERRY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

A much smaller and rougher slab at Derry (Co. Down, Pl. 69b and Fig. 57b) has a cross of apparently bungled simple interlace. The erect Tullyvallan slab (Pl. 34a and Fig. 34a) has a cross, elaborate by northern standards, with circular ‘settings’ at the crossing and in each of the arms, and this jewel-like decoration is paralleled on a recumbent stone at Kilcoo (no. 1) and at Inismurray (especially the Crux slabs: Wakeman 1885-6, figs 39-40). The remaining erect slabs are carved with simple linear outline crosses, not distinctive enough to be closely datable. Once introduced, these forms would enter the available repertoire to be used at any time thereafter (Lionard 1961, 108-10). The context suggests that the simple slabs at Kilnasaggart and Raholp may be early, and outline crosses at Nendrum, Saul and Killygartan can

PLATE 34A: TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) (LEFT); AND FIG. 34A: TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) (RIGHT).

124

[255] It is very dangerous to call any simple form ‘primary’ and postulate for an early date (Thomas 1971, chap. 4). Wakeman, who was not always cautious, judiciously observed that these simple crosses could have been carved at any time, even very recently (1890-1, 351). Suspicion must indeed remain that some of the crosscarved stones in the inventory are not early. The simple stone no. 2 at Devenish may be early, but I suspect no. 7 is quite recent (Pl 96b, above and Pl. 133b).

PLATE 129: URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (WEST SIDE –LEFT; EAST SIDE - RIGHT).

Other erect stones of uncertain date are the roughly crossshaped slabs at Carrickmore and Bodoney. The Carrickmore stone (Pl. 117b and Fig. 82b) is doublesided and the crosses are roughly worked, but it is unlike the other stones, as is the cross at Bodoney (Pl. 115a and Fig. 82d). Here the linear cross is inscribed in a very unsteady circle and is embellished with a saltire. These stones clearly illustrate the problems of distinguishing early from later work with confidence, for in no case is the decision clear-cut. Lionard’s 1961 study of recumbent slabs forms a sound basis for further discussion. These slabs are clearly gravestones, covering all or part of a grave, and some remain in situ at Glendalough and elsewhere. In some cases at Glendalough and at least two Scottish sites (Allen and Anderson 1903, III, 273 and 304) a slot is cut at one end of the slab to hold an erect stone or cross, whilst at Heysham (Lancs.) sockets are cut at the west end of graves in the solid rock. [256] This occurrence of both erect and recumbent stones on some graves suggests that an over-rigid distinction between the two is misleading, but Lionard’s work indicates that after the introduction of recumbent slabs, probably in the seventh century, they were the preferred type of grave right through until the twelfth century. From the four to five hundred stones at Clonmacnois the currency of certain cross forms has been worked out: inscriptions suggest that ringed crosses were most popular in the ninth century, for example, and expansional crosses of differing types and degrees of elaboration from the tenth to the twelfth (Lionard 1961, 117-36).

PLATE 133B: DEVENISH - LATE CROSS-CARVED STONE.

FIG. 82E: URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

The double-sided Urney slab (Pl. 129 and Fig. 82e) has a rather rustic ringed cross, carefully worked but clumsily laid out. It is quite different from anything else in the large graveyard and must be considered as possibly early.

PLATE 117B: CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); &. FIG. 82B: CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (RIGHT)

125

The severe expansional design at Devenish (no. 6, P1. 96c and Fig. 73) has two cross-bars and is elaborated only by small sinkings in the expanded parts and projections at top and bottom of the frame. It is notable for its large size and strictly rectangular outline. The tendency at Clonmacnois was towards less elaborate expansional crosses in the eleventh century, and I would place the Devenish slab in the eleventh or twelfth century.

PLATE 115A: BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT), & FIG. 82D: BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

Recumbent Stones: There are grounds for thinking that about 28 of the stones in the inventory were recumbent, and their distribution is mainly confined to Co. Down and Co. Fermanagh. Many are not in situ but Devenish no. 6 and Kilcoo no. 1 may be, and slabs at Nendrum and Raholp were found covering graves. The early nineteenth-century description of the destroyed graveyard at Kille Enan, Drumeeny, suggests that some recumbent slabs were in place there: ‘the tombs and headstones were from 1½ to 5½ feet in length, and the figure of the cross [was] engraven on many of them’ (O.S. Memoir of Ramoan, 21). Expansional crosses, so common at Clonmacnois, are rare in the north. The only example which approaches the midland form is at Chapeltown (from Ardtole). The small slab has a simple, three-line cross with elementary fretwork in the central expansion and tripartite knots at the limb ends, not enclosed by any frame. The form is generally similar to crosses at Clonmacnois and elsewhere, but the Ardtole knots are a variant on, or a bungling of, the usual treatment: semi-circular expansions at the arm ends require the broader side of the

PLATE 96C: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6).

[257] knots to be outermost, against the frame, whilst the point is outermost on the Ardtole stone (Co. Down 1966, pl. 75). All except one of the datable Clonmacnois examples combining interlace and fretwork decoration were tenth century (Lionard 1961, 131-4), and this is a reasonable date for the humble Ardtole version. Two expansional crosses occur in Fermanagh. Kilcoo no. 1 has circular expansions with circular sinkings, somewhat resembling jewelled settings. A similar treatment has already been noted at Tullyvallan, and more distant parallels can be found at Clonmacnois (Macalister 1949, pl. XXVI, 165), Caher Island (Co. Mayo: Henry 1947, C, G, L, M) and elsewhere. The ‘OR DO’ inscription is accompanied by a small initial Latin cross. This formula is rare at Clonmacnois with the simpler crosses and is almost universally used with the more elaborate and later ones (Lionard 1961, 99). The Kilcoo stone is unlikely to date to before the ninth century and it may be later.

FIG. 73: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES.

126

There are several other inscribed cross-slabs from Fermanagh which were presumably recumbent. An unknown number destroyed at Kilcoo in the nineteenth century, but we have details of two others. One (Pl. 104b, above and Fig. 74a) has a ringed Latin cross potent inverted in relation to, but not interfering with, a damaged inscription.

Clonmacnois (Macalister 1909, pl. XI, no. 82) and at Maughold, Isle of Man (Kermode 1907, pl. X, no. 28), but there are no northern examples of the simple sixpetalled ‘marigold’ design, popular at Gallen Priory (Kendrick 1939, class xi).

FIG. 74A: KILCOO- CROSS-CARVED STONES (2 & 3).

[258] Several Iniscaltra slabs have this feature of an inverted inscription (Lionard 1961, 114, fig. 11). Another slab, now lost, had the beginning of an ‘OR DO’ inscription with a ringed cross with triangular terminals and four dots in the cantons (Fig. 74a). A small slab at White Island may have been recumbent (Pl. 106b and Fig. 74b): the cross, of very lightly cut lines, may have had a pointed base, but the bottom of the stone is broken. J.B. Arthurs suggested that the ‘DELMNE’ could be a sept name, or a verb meaning ‘we form’ or ‘we shape’, but a personal name is possible. A small broken slab from Inishmacsaint bears a tiny fragment of an inscription and a cross of arcs in a circle with a short stem (Fig. 74b).

PLATE 106B: WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

FIG. 57E: DRUMSALLAGH - CROSS-CARVED STONES.

There is an unusually elaborately decorated cross of arcs, and part of a second, on a stone from Saul whose original function is also uncertain (Co. Down 1966, pl. 75). The lines of the cross interlace at the crossing as at Killadeas, in a group of five elaborately decorated crosses of arcs at Iniscaltra (Macalister 1916-7, pl. XVI, 8-12), and in Wales and Scotland (Nash-Williams 1950, no. 308, fig, 201 and Allen and Anderson 1903, III, 7, fig. 4A). I have come across no good parallels on recumbent slabs for the tight spirals in the spandrels of the Saul cross which recall metalwork rather than stone-carving, such as the filigree of a medallion on the Ardagh chalice (de Paor 1961, pl. 27).

FIG. 74B: WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONES (1 & 2).

Four stones with crosses of arcs occur in Co. Down. One at Drumsallagh may be an architectural fragment (Fig. 57e). Nendrum no. 17 is incomplete and no. 7 is a multiple marigold design on a thick stone, whose original purpose is uncertain (Pl. 72b). This is paralleled at 127

and a fairly early date (eighth century?) is possible for the Saul stone. An important group of at least eight slabs, probably originally recumbent, survives at Nendrum. Most are fragmentary, but they seem to be unsquared and unframed. All have an un-ringed Latin cross with hollowed ‘armpits’ (Pl. 72c and Fig. 60a); decoration is rare (nos 11 and 14) and there are no inscriptions. An erect slab at Saul has this type of cross (Pl. 77a and Fig. 61a), as does a small slab re-used in Derry south, in a probably thirteenth-century alteration to the west door (Fig. 57b (1)).

PLATE 72B: NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (7).

FIG. 57B: DERRY- CROSS-CARVED STONES.

PLATE 77B: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) (LEFT); AND FIG. 61A: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) (RIGHT).

This distinctive cross form has a somewhat restricted distribution in Ireland. The closest parallels to the Co. Down group are at Iniscaltra (Macalister 1916-7, pl. XXII) and at St. Berrihert’s Kyle, some on erect stones (Ó hÉailidhe 1967, e.g. fig. 4). The decorated Iniscaltra examples have a diaper background and seem to be late, perhaps twelfth century, and a freestanding cross there of this form is dated by an inscription to 1111 (Macalister 1916-7, pls XXIII and XVII).

PLATE 72C: NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1)

[259] Running ‘S’ spirals are unusual on grave slabs, but are found on freestanding crosses and in metalwork. We have seen that Lionard suggested a period of currency for the cross of arcs from the seventh to the twelfth century, 128

Isolated examples occur elsewhere including Glendalough (Leask Guide, fig. 19d and f, both erect), Clonmacnois (Macalister 1949, no. 625, pl. XIII) and St. Patrick’s, Dublin (J.R.SA.I. 71 (1941), 1-8 and pl. I). The same cross type is carved on one of the bases at Ahenny, which may be eighth century, so we seem to have a wide potential date range, from the eighth to the twelfth century.

Two stones, at Duncrun and Killevy, are markedly trapezoidal in outline and may once have been recumbent. Both are thick and both have carefully shaped crosses in true relief. The Duncrun stone has a doublearmed cross (Pl. 54b, above and Fig. 47b) and at Killevy the cross is in a circle with a short stem, and a small linear cross on the top of the stone suggests that it may not have been completely buried (Pl. 27a, above and Fig. 34b).

It is a form found also in Britain, though it is apparently almost unknown on the Continent (Lionard 1961, 115-7).

The ringed Newry cross (Fig. 58b) is also in true relief and may once have had a trapezoidal outline, but the edges have been re-cut.

[260] In Scotland it is common both for slabs and freestanding crosses (Allen and Anderson 1903, II, 51, no. 101A), and also in England for the latter. Peers and Radford suggested a ninth-century date for freestanding crosses of this type at Whitby, and the recorded 867 Viking sack of the monastery provides a possible terminus ante quem (1943, 36). The excavators suggested that a recumbent slab with this kind of cross may have been earlier than about 700 (ibid. 33-5). It is not possible to be sure that activity ceased at Nendrum after the violent incident of 974. The Nendrum stones may date from before then, but we have seen that the form was popular on Iniscaltra as late as the twelfth century. Inscriptions at Clonmacnois and elsewhere make it very clear that the ninth century was the most popular period for the ringed cross on recumbent slabs (Lionard 1961, 117-27 on the type). The inscribed Kirkinriola stone (Pl. 14a, above) has a ringed cross potent, and Lawlor’s claimed seventh-century date cannot be upheld. A ninthcentury date is far more likely, and this is the probable date of the fine inscribed Movilla slab (P1. 71a, above), which has the added refinement of semi-circular expansions on the inner circumference of the ring, like freestanding crosses.

FIG. 58B: NEWRY – CROSS STONE (LEFT); AND FIG. 23B: DRUMEENY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) (RIGHT) (AFTER OS MEMOIR).

[261] I have emphasised that shape and technique alone are not reliable chronological guides, but there are indications that trapezoidal slabs are late (eleventh and twelfth century). Some tapering stones can be shown by inscriptions to be late (Lionard 1961, fig. 7 and Leask’s ‘Glendalough Guide’, fig. 11a) and some are clearly late on stylistic grounds (Macalister 1949, pl. XXXIV, no. 746). The tapering form is somewhat reminiscent of Anglo-Norman grave-slabs of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It seems likely that the stones at Duncrun, Killevy and perhaps Newry are late, eleventh or twelfth century, and Drumeeny no. 2, probably still built into the souterrain, may be another of this period (Fig. 23b). Inscribed Stones: Inscriptions occur on ten northern stones with crosses and on four alone. They are potentially valuable, as on epigraphic, linguistic or historical grounds they may help in close dating of stones (Lionard 1961, 98-9), but unfortunately, with the outstanding exception of Kilnasaggart, the northern inscriptions are not particularly illuminating.

FIG. 47B: DUNCRUN CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); AND FIG. 34B: KILLEVY CROSS-CARVED STONE – FACE (RIGHT).

129

There is a marked westward emphasis in their distribution, eight occurring in Co. Fermanagh and the rest in Co. Antrim (2), Co. Armagh (1) and Co. Down (3). In four cases the inscription consisted of a single word, perhaps a personal name. The single name formula, in the nominative or genitive, occurs on Clonmacnois stones except for expansional crosses. The surviving White Island stone has already been mentioned and the other is lost (Fig. 74b, above). The reading of Kilcoo no. 2 is dubious, and the lost Rubane inscription may have been incomplete. A request for a prayer, ‘OROIT DO’ (or ‘AR’), variously abbreviated, is the formula most commonly found on Irish slabs, and at Clonmacnois it was used with the more elaborate, particularly expansional, crosses.

worked, stand in prominent positions, solitary or in groups of two or three, like the group on the hilltop above the church at Straidarran (Ó Ríordáin 1964, 81-3 on the type). Stones were clearly important in Christian religion and the written sources suggest that missionaries may sometimes have carved crosses on stones to ‘Christianise’ them. The seventh-century ‘Life’ of the sixth-century Welsh saint Samson of Dol describes an incident in Cornwall when the saint found pagans dancing round a stone. After a miraculous cure they were converted, and Samson cut a cross on the stone with an iron implement. The writer emphasises that he has been to the spot himself and has touched and revered the cross.1 The ‘Tripartite Life’ mentions Patrick cutting a cross on a stone at a site identified with Kilmore Moy (Co. Mayo) though we are not told what kind of stone it was (Stokes 1887, 137).

[262] In addition to the examples already encountered (Kirkinriola, Kilcoo 1 and 3 and Movilla), the destroyed Seaforde stone, re-used in a souterrain, had ‘OROIT’ in full with the preposition ‘AR’ followed by an illegible name. The mention of the calling of the individual, ‘DUNCHAD PSPIT’ - from Latin ‘presbiter’ (‘priest’) on the Aghavea stone is not common.1 By analogy with the Clonmacnois stones a wide bracket from the ninth to the twelfth century would be possible for these inscriptions. The Connor stone is unique in the north in bearing an inscription in Latin,2 though the formula is clearly related to the Irish ‘OROIT DO’. The original use of the Connor stone is uncertain: a lintel is one possibility.

Problems can arise in distinguishing a standing stone to which a cross has been added from a cross-carved pillar. Size alone is not decisive, since large stones were clearly used as cross-slabs when they were available. 1.

[264] The context will be important: a stone far from signs of ecclesiastical activity may sometimes be clearly identifiable as a standing stone, but if a stone is at a church or graveyard, claims for its originally pagan character must be scrutinised very closely. The large cross-carved pillars at Turraloskin and Legannany (Pl 10b, above and Pl 70a, above), for example, have been taken to be ‘Christianised’ standing stones, but the more likely explanation is that they are large cross slabs.

The request for a blessing – ‘BENDACHT AR’ (and variants) - already encountered at Killadeas, is rare compared with the request for a prayer (Macalister 1949 index, 11 occurrences compared with passim). A slab found close to the sacristy at Nendrum provides one of the rare Irish examples of runes (Co. Down 1966, pl. 81). A fragment remains of a design in a circle, probably related to the ‘marigold’ theme, and below are two lines of runes which Macalister read as ‘BRIMA[O?]BO[A?]TA’ (Old Norse, ‘of the chief abbot’?) (Lawlor 1925, 70-1). Runes occur in a certainly Christian context at Killaloe (Macalister 1945, 58-9), and perhaps at Beginish (Kerry: O’Kelly 1956, 171-5), though the small cross there may have been added. This scarcity of runes in Ireland is in marked contrast to their common occurrence on stone carvings of the Viking period in the Isle of Man (Kermode 1907, passim and de Paor 1961, 162-4). 1.

2.

‘In quo monte et ego fui, signumque crucis, quod Sanctus Samson sua manu cum quodam ferro in lapide stante sculpsit, adoravi et mea manu palpavi’, Baring-Gould and Fisher, ‘The Lives of the British Saints’ (1913), IV, 157.

The Findermore stone (Pl. 127a and Fig. 82a) stands on a prominent hilltop within sight of another stone on a neighbouring hill. This townland is probably ‘Findabair’ where, according to the ‘Tripartite Life’, Patrick preached for three days and nights (Stokes 1887, 177). There is no reason to date the well-worked outline cross in false relief to Patrick’s time: it could have been carved at any time after the fifth century to mark the site of this celebrated event. The position at Teesnaghtan is rather different since the stone probably stands at a lost church site, but the large slabby stone with its small cross (Pl. 85b and Fig. 74c) does not look at all like a cross-slab. The equal-armed cross is carefully worked in false relief and seems to have been placed to coincide with a crack in the top of the stone. A site nearby may be a prehistoric cairn, and I think it likely that this is a standing stone with a cross added after the establishment of a church.

Macalister 1949: no. 951 ‘ardebscop’; no. 535 ‘canoin’; ‘comarba’ (and variants) 7 examples; nos 552, 620, 640, 805, 897 ‘epscop’ (and variants); no. 899 ‘sagart’. For Wales Nash-Williams 1950, 14, 27, 43. The Berichter slab at Tullylease is inscribed in Latin, as are some fragments at Inismurray, but examples are rare.

Standing Stones: [263] The next class we have to consider is cross-carved standing stones. These somewhat enigmatic prehistoric monuments are numerous in Ireland: there are at least 40 single stones and several groups in Co. Down (Co. Down 1966, 95-6). Standing stones, usually rough and un-

The tall Kilnasaggart pillar (Pl. 28a, above) has been claimed as a ‘Christianised’ standing stone, partly 130

because of its great size, and partly because of the ‘ogam’, now recognised as knife scorings (Macalister 1949, 114). Excavation near it produced prehistoric flints and a Neolithic pottery sherd, suggesting early activity on or near the site, but excavation at its foot did not resolve the problem. The area around is disturbed, as the stone has fallen and been re-erected, but the very fine dressing of the un-weathered stump would tend to support an Early Christian rather than an earlier date.

though it is in a graveyard (Henry 1940, 30, fig. 11c). Other examples include Knock Drum (Co. Cork) at a cashel with no ecclesiastical associations and Kilgowan (Co. Wicklow both in J.R.S.A.I. 61 (1931), 10, pl. 3 and 134, pl. 2). A cross has been carved at some time on the Hag’s Chair, one of the kerb stones of cairn ‘T’ at Lough Crew (Co. Meath). There is a cross-carved standing stone at Ford (Argyll: Allen and Anderson 1903, 403, fig. 422), and Hobajons Cross is a Dartmoor example (Worth 1967, pl. 93B). Some writers have suggested that crosses were often added to standing stones in Early Christian times and it is indeed likely that the Findermore and Teesnaghtan crosses date from the Early Christian period, but the northern evidence does not suggest that the practice was at all common.

PLATE 127A: FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT); & FIG. 82A: FINDERMORE – CROSS-C ARVED STONE. (RIGHT)

PLATE 70B: EDENMORE- CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT); AND FIG. 58D: EDENMORE – CROSS-CARVED STANDING STONE (RIGHT).

PLATE 85B: TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); & FIG. 74C: TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

[265] Another problem arises from the possibility of crosses having been cut on standing stones in recent times. The Edenmore stone (Pl. 70 and Fig. 58) stands alone and there are no early ecclesiastical associations. In addition to the roughly cut linear cross are the letters ‘IHS’ and ‘JG’. The stone is kept whitewashed and was almost certainly frequented in Penal times (Evans 1951, 90-1). The simple cross at Dromore (Co. Antrim) is very crudely hacked (Pl. 10a and Fig. 24a). O’Laverty thought letters were faintly visible, ‘seemingly IHS’ (1887, 62), but they cannot be seen now. There are vague church traditions, but the cross may be a late one.

PLATE 10A: DROMORE: CROSS CARVED-STONE. (LEFT); AND FIG. 24A: DROMORE: CROSS CARVED-STONE (RIGHT).

Rocks and Boulders: [266] Crosses are found carved on rocks and boulders, some-times in the living rock, like the dramatic freestanding cross on Skellig Michael (Henry 1957, pl. 37a), sometimes on large boulders. Some were perhaps cut to commemorate events. If there was a large rock near a church it may have seemed appropriate to carve a cross on it to signify the sanctity of the spot, and Dr. Radford has suggested that crosses on the walls of St. Ninian’s cave, near Whithorn, may have been cut by pilgrims (1957, 8).

Cross-carved standing stones have been reported elsewhere in Ireland and in Britain. The huge pillar at Doonfeeny (Co. Mayo) is taken to be a standing stone, 131

The crosses on the huge granite boulder at Cloghinny are certainly one of the pointers to a lost church site (Pl. 21b and Fig. 34c). The ringed cross crossletted is not closely datable but can be an early form.

They are not compass-drawn but are related to crosses of arcs in circles (Lionard 1961, 110-2). An early report claimed that the stone was moved from the farmhouse, but this seems unlikely.

PLATE 21B: CLOGHINNY CROSS-CARVED BOULDER (LEFT); AND FIG. 34C: CLOGHINNY CROSS-CARVED BOULDER (RIGHT).

The cases of the two other Co. Armagh sites with crosscarved boulders are less straightforward. Tullyvallan no. 2 (Pl. 33a, above and Fig. 34a, above) has a very carefully worked equal-armed cross in false relief on the east face, very similar to one within a circle at Cooscroneen (Co. Cork: J.C.H.A.S. 72 (1967), 69, pl. III). On the north face is a pecked complex ringed cross for which I have found no close parallel. The Co. Cork stone also has a second, less carefully worked cross on another face, and it stands near a ringfort and possible cillín, but I can discover no traditions, early ecclesiastical or later, surrounding the Tullyvallan stone. The presence of two cross-carved stones in this rough, rocky landscape remains puzzling.

FIG. 33G: KILNSAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONES.

Bigger believed that the small boulder with three pecked outline crosses potent in Maghera (Co. Down) graveyard (Fig. 59a (4) – see p. 131 above) was a ‘Christianised’ pagan stone, but I prefer to see it as a boulder (which are plentiful in the area) used as a grave marker instead of the more usual slabby stones. The crosses are earlier than the nineteenth-century inscription, but I am uncertain how much earlier: pecking seems to have remained a popular technique at Maghera to recent times. The basalt boulder known as ‘Columbkill’s stone’, now at Desertcreat church, is highly polished from much kneeling in its former roadside position some distance from the church (Fig. 83a). The rough linear cross potent is once again too simple to be closely datable, and the date and function of this stone remain uncertain.

The Carrickcroppan cross is deeply cut and has a distinctive diamond-shaped expansion at the centre (Pl. 21a, above and Fig. 34e). This granite boulder lies in a hedge close to a former path towards Maghernahely, and it is still occasionally visited for prayer (offerings can be seen on its top in Pl. 21a, above), but there are no traditions or features in the vicinity to throw light on its significance.

PLATE 21A: CARRICKCROPPAN CROSS-CARVED BOULDER (LEFT); AND FIG. 34E: CARRICKCROPPAN CROSS-CARVED BOULDER (RIGHT).

[267] The large flat granite slab in the graveyard at Kilnasaggart (no. 7) has two Maltese crosses within circles, very worn but clearly in false relief (Fig. 33g).

FIG. 83A: DESERTCREAT – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

132

It is clear that crosses were also carved on rocks and boulders in recent, particularly Penal, times. Mass rocks were usually undecorated flat rocks in suitable situations with shelter and good visibility, but a few were carved with crosses.

relief (no. 1, Pl. 96c and Fig. 73, see above) may possibly have been built into a church, for example over a door. It would be interesting to know whether Bigger found clay or mortar on the stone now set over the west door of Raholp church (Pl. 74b); it is somewhat different in technique and proportions from the other Raholp stones, but the lack of a detailed record of Bigger’s restoration leaves the matter in doubt. It is possible that a few of the stones which I have not been able to classify were once in the fabric of a church, over a door or in some other prominent place: the relief cross potent at Aghalurcher well is one candidate (Pl. 83b and Fig. 72c).

In Co. Down, for example, two crosses are reported on the rock in Ryan townland, and a mass rock at Dernaflow, Dungiven parish, has a carved cross (Carey 1957, 104 and 106). There is clearly some danger of confusion here: a Penal stone could be mistakenly taken to be early, yet in a few cases an early site was re-used for Penal worship. The various possibilities must be borne in mind, and sometimes certainty will remain. [268] Of the seven cross-carved boulders in the inventory, the Dunteige stone is very likely to have been a Penal altar. Its position is admittedly very exposed, but the area is remote and the stone is ideally shaped for use as an altar (Pl. 13a and Fig. 24c, see above). There is some confusion about its name, but the ‘Mass Rock’ and the ‘Priest’s Grave’ both suggest Penal associations. The two Latin crosses with prominent triangular terminals are lightly cut with sharp but shallow incisions, markedly different from the pecked lines of most early crosses. A large flat stone with a simple incised cross lies at the roadside in Tullybrisland townland near the cross. It has been described as an altar (P.S. 1940, 195), but its position seems odd for secret services. It could have been used for resting coffins upon during the journey to Faughanvale graveyard, but whatever the use of the stone, it to be a late cross.

PLATE 83B: AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE.(LEFT), & FIGURE 72C: AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (RIGHT)

Architectural Fragments: Cross-carved architectural fragments have rarely been described in accounts of early Irish ecclesiastical sites. This may reflect their rarity, but I suspect a thorough search would produce more. A stone with an equal-armed cross was re-used as a quoin in the medieval church at Ballyvourney (Co. Cork: O‘Kelly 1952, pl. VIII) and the small stone carved with a ringed cross at Fahan (Co. Donegal) may also be an architectural fragment. At least five of the cross-carved stones in the inventory may have been architectural fragments. The clearest case is the two pieces of ashlar from Cleenish, one of which has mortar adhering (Pl. 89b and Fig. 72a, see above). The crosses seem to be in relief in very hard, fine sandstone and their fresh condition suggests they were not exposed to long weathering. The Annals of Ulster record that a church was on Cleenish in 1100, and the stones are likely to come from that church rather than an earlier stage of the site’s history, together with some of the ashlar scattered around the graveyard and re-used in nearby cottages.

PLATE 74B: RAHOLP – RECONSTRUCTED WEST GABLE: DOOR AND CROSS-SLAB.

Cross-carved stones do occasionally appear as decorative features in the exterior walls of Anglo-Saxon churches, for example at Earls Barton (Northants.), but crosses are not common in the fabric of Irish pre-Romanesque churches and seem largely confined to lintels (Section (ii) above). This is one possible context for some of the stones. The practice of carving and painting consecration crosses is well attested in the British Isles in the medieval period. A fully chisel-cut equal-armed cross in the north

[269] The Cleenish ringed cross with expanded terminals and expansions on the ring is paralleled on a recumbent slab at Glendalough (Leask, ‘Guide’, fig. 8d), but I have found no good Irish parallels for the interlaced cross. A Scottish one occurs on a freestanding cross at Barrochan, Renfrewshire (Allen and Anderson 1903, 298, no. 775). The cross of arcs at Drumsallagh seems to be worked on ashlar, and the Devenish cross of the same form in false 133

wall of the ruined thirteenth-century church at Drumachose may be a consecration marker, and it is possible that crosses were carved for this purpose in earlier times.

mentioned size, firmly fixed in the wood’ (quoted in J.R.S.A.I. 16 (1883-4), 118-9).

[270] The lack of weathering of the Cleenish stones invites speculation about the setting of cross-carved stones inside a building. Decoration for an altar frontal is one possibility, and we must turn next to stones associated with altars. Altar Stones: Professor Thomas has recently surveyed the evidence for altars in the British Isles (1971, chap. 6), and the scant northern material does not call for long discussion here. In some cases only reports survive. Kille Enan at Drumeeny had an altar, ‘a long flat stone supported about 4 feet above the surface by a number of columns placed beneath ... of well cut freestone’ (O.S. Memoir, 21). Gone, too, are the three altars of well-shaped stones reported by the Ordnance Surveyors between the church and the pillar-stone at Turraloskin. These have been like the series of structures on Inismurray, known as ‘leachta’ ,and more familiar on western sites than in the east. They are poorly understood and need study, but it does not seem that the northern counties have much to contribute. No certainly pre-Norman altars have been found in the churches discussed in Section (ii). Frequently when it is possible by excavation to establish the date of an altar it is found to be later than the church fabric, for example at Banagher and in Derry north church (Co. Down), and this may be the case at Drumnakill. The inventory contains no examples of cavity altars for relics and no slabs which can be confidently identified as parts of altars. The northern material is confined to five stones carved with five crosses which may have had some connection with altars.

FIG. 56D: DOWNPATRICK – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

PLATE 14B: CREVILLY VALLEY: CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); FIG. 25A: CREVILLY VALLEY: CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

[271] It seems that simple wooden altars rapidly gave way to stone structures in some parts of the Christian world: in 517 the Council of Epona forbade the consecration of wooden altars: ‘Ut altaria nisi lapidea chrismatis unctione non sacrentur’ (Cabrol-Leclerq 1924, 3158-61); and Bede described how a stone altar survived the burning of a timber church at Catterick (H.E. II, 14). Yet it is clear that wooden altars remain in use in the British Isles in pre-Norman times and even later: in the late eleventh century Wulfstan of Worcester destroyed all the timber altars in his diocese, ‘altaria lignea jam inde a priscis diebus in Anglia’ (William of Malmesbury, ‘Gesta Pontificum’ III, 14); and in about 1186 John Comyn, archbishop of Dublin, prohibited the saying of mass on a wooden altar: ‘according to the usage of the Irish’, and decreed: ‘if a stone of sufficient size to cover the whole altar cannot be had, that in such cases a square, entire and polished stone be fixed in the middle of the altar, where Christ’s body is consecrated, of a compass broad enough to contain 5 crosses, and also to bear the foot of the largest chalice. But in chapels, chantries and oratories, if they are necessarily obliged to use wooden altars, let the mass be celebrated upon plates of stone of the before-

FIG. 35C: MULLAGHBRACK – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Three of the stones listed in the inventory could have been set in the top of either a wooden or a stone altar. None of them is certainly pre-Norman: they could be twelfth century or even later (Thomas 1971, 197-9). The Downpatrick stone with its ambiguous five or nine cross design (Fig. 56d) is lost. The Crevilly Valley stone is carved with a cross potent inside a rectangular frame, with four small crosses in the four cantons (Pl. 14 and Fig. 25a). The Mullaghbrack piece is incomplete, but there are traces of two small crosses flanking the pelletdecorated interlaced cross, and there may have been two others (Fig. 35c). 134

[272] Five cross designs, achieved in a variety of ways, are found at Clonmacnois and Gallen, and sporadically elsewhere (Lionard 1961, 136-7).

Sundials: The last group of stones to be discussed are sundials. Macalister claimed, in the ‘Guide to Monasterboice’ (1966, 8), that ‘sundials are frequent in Irish monastic sites’, but my work suggests that this generalisation is not well-founded. Though they are to be seen at some sites they are not common, and the northern total is only four. [273] Two of these, at Bangor and Saul1, are little known, the Nendrum dial has received little notice since Lawlor’s publication (Lawlor 1925) and the well-known Clogher example has not usually been acknowledged as a sundial. Written sources make it clear that the monastic day revolved around the canonical hours and the offices of prayer. The ‘Rule of Ailbe’ says of the monk: ‘Let him be constant at prayer; his canonical hours let him not forget them’; and the bell is to be struck to mark the hours so that the brothers may wash their hands and dress (O’Neill 1907, 99, 101). In order to maintain this round, some kind of time-keeping must have been necessary. Perhaps it was the duty of one member of the community to keep time: ‘Columbanus’s Rule’, which may reflect Bangor practice of the late sixth century, envisages the porter not keeping the hours well (Bieler 1966, 38). But how was this done? The only material clues we have are the sundials, though this cannot have been the only way, and I have come across one early reference in the ‘Life of St Moling’: the saint wanted to make a horologium out of a broken stone which was mended miraculously, ‘et signum fractionis, quasi circulus, in ipso lapide manet adhuc; et ille lapis factus est horologium honorificum’ (Plummer 1910, II, 195-6). Some, at least, of the material in this ‘Life’ dates from the twelfth century.

FIG. 56A: BANGOR – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

1. FIG. 83D: CLONOE – CROSS-C ARED STONE (LOST/DESTROYED).

To be distinguished from stones set into the tops of fixed altars are the small portable altars used by clerics during missionary work, when mobility was important. In the late seventh century, for example, the two Hewalds working amongst the Old Saxons carried: ‘vascula sacra et tabulam altaris vice dedicatam’ (Bede, H.E. V, 10), and a portable altar was amongst the relics in St. Cuthbert’s coffin at Durham (Battiscombe 1956).

Neither is listed in Co. Down 1966. Du Noyer drew the Saul example shortly before his death, but later workers seem to have forgotten it, and it is not visible in the graveyard now.

[274] Early Irish sundials are freestanding pillars, unlike the Anglo-Saxon series which are individually carved stones usually built into the fabric of churches, in turn different from the simpler ‘mass clocks’ or ‘scratch dials’ of medieval churches (Green 1928 and Taylor 1966). Whilst a number of the Anglo-Saxon examples are in situ and a few have datable inscriptions, like the stone at Kirkdale (Yorks.) which belongs to the decade between 1055 and 1065, the Irish sundials are rarely if ever in situ and none is closely datable.

Only one of the northern stones can be said to be easily portable, but its identification as an altar is tentative. It comes from Bangor and is an accomplished piece of carving (Fig. 56a). On the main face is a ringed cross, probably on a stepped base, flanked by two small crosses, and there is a similar simple, equal-armed cross on each of the other three main faces, as well as a four-petalled motif. The stone is trapezoidal in outline and the ringed cross in its enclosing frame was clearly meant to be set upright, but in this position the stone could not have held the chalice. What other purpose could this finely-worked stone have served? The fifth stone has six crosses but is known only from a nineteenth-century sketch and its size is uncertain: it was found in the parish of Clonoe (Fig. 83d).

The ‘usual’ Irish type has a semi-circular or D-shaped dial at the top of the shaft. It can be the same width as the shaft as at Saul (Fig. 61), slightly wider, as at Nendrum (Pl. 73), or considerably wider as at Clogher (Pl. 119a). The lost Saul shaft may have been longer than the part exposed in Du Noyer’s drawing and there are no traces of edge mouldings. The Bangor shaft (Pl. 71b and Fig. 56b) has two fairly lightly pecked lines framing the faces, and on the front are three simple crosses. The Nendrum treatment is far more elaborate: above the plain hammerdressed base the shaft is framed by a complex triple moulding which exhibits a raised fillet, more familiar in 135

thirteenth-century mouldings than on Early Christian crosses or slabs. The main face was decorated with fret designs, now very fragmentary, whilst the side has a running key pattern interlace.

PLATE 73A: NENDRUM – SIDE OF SUNDIAL (LEFT), AND PLATE 73B: NENDRUM – SUNDIAL FROM SOUTHWEST (RIGHT).

The Clogher example is different from the others in a number of important ways. The shaft is wider and thinner, the edge mouldings are very pronounced, the main faces are elaborately decorated, the head is larger and from it extends a small rectangular projection. Miss Roe considers this stone is a ‘cross’, equating the dial area with the arms and the small projection with the head (1960), but I see it as a decorated sundial. On one side the shaft is plain, apart from the edge mouldings, but on the other it is carved with a graceful interlaced design above a beautifully detailed fish. [275] The broad, loosely interlaced bands seem to have a textured surface and narrow hem-like borders. At the base the corner knots are rounded, but at the top elongated on either side of the dial. This is large, with three radii from the gnomon hole, each ending in a shallow circular hollow. The projection above is filled with a loosely interlaced knot in quite high relief. On the other side the dial area is occupied by an interlaced motif around a central linear cross and the projection carries a large head, the features unfortunately badly mutilated.

FIG. 61: SAUL - SUNDIAL.

The treatment of the dials of the other three is somewhat different in each case. The Saul dial is, unusually, shieldshaped, with the stone cut back at the edges instead of a defining moulding. The drawing shows seven rays, and if the damaged upper part originally had two more, in line with the gnomon hole, there would have been eight subdivisions. The rays are not elaborated in any way, again an unusual feature in an Irish context. The Bangor head is damaged but as semi-circular or D-shaped, defined by two sunken lines. The perpendicular from the gnomon hole is a triple line, expanded in a V-shape at the circle. Two other rays are clear and another is dimly visible. Again the most likely subdivision is an eight-fold one, with nine radii. The Nendrum dial is D-shaped, elaborately framed with nine rays. The six main ones end in stirrup-shaped expansions against the moulding whilst the intermediate three have circular terminals.

PLATE 119A: CLOGHER – SUNDIAL.

136

that the expansions were not merely embellishments but indicated short divisions of time, and he carried out some tests (Way 1868). [277] I have wondered whether they have anything to do with the variations in the length of the offices at different times of year, expounded in some detail in ‘Columbanus’s Rule’ (Bieler 1966, 33). Once again we encounter the problem of dating these sundials. The earliest datable example in Anglo-Saxon England is probably the dial on the Bewcastle cross, variously dated from the late seventh to the mid-eighth century (e.g. Cramp, R., ‘Early Northumbrian Sculpture’ (1965), 8-9), and we have seen that the Kirkdale stone dates from the decade before the Norman Conquest. The problem of the dating of the Clogher example is probably the most acute. The decoration of broad ribbon interlace has been compared with the Inishowen group of crosses and slabs, and a seventh-century date suggested (Roe 1960, 205-6), whilst another line of argument leads to the tenth or eleventh centuries (Bailey 1963). I am not convinced by the arguments for an early date and would prefer a later one, but I cannot offer any grounds for firm dating within the long span suggested. Though the fish does not help in dating, the fish symbolism is most interesting, unique in the north and unusual in Ireland generally. A solitary fish occurs on a ninth-century slab at Fuerty (Lionard 1961, fig. 15, 1), but it is far more stylised than the fine Clogher example, which is surely a member of the salmon family.1 The fish is prominent in Early Christian symbolism, but fishes were also important in Celtic myth and legend (Ross 1967, 436-7), and the thirteenth-century poet, Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe, addressed God as ‘O Salmon of Knowledge!’ (Carney 1965, 91).

PLATE 71B: BANGOR – SUNDIAL (LEFT); AND FIG. 56B: BANGOR – SUNDIAL (RIGHT).

The Clogher four-fold subdivision is found elsewhere in Ireland, for example at Monasterboice (Macalister 1966, title page), on Iniscaltra (Macalister 1916-7, pl. XXIV), and at Kilmalkedar (Way 1868, fig. II), and on a pillar sundial of very Irish appearance at Clynnog (Caerns.: Nash-Williams 1950, as well as on a number of AngloSaxon dials (Green 1928). [276] It is generally agreed that these indicate four three hour periods, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., four of the eight ‘tides’ into which the day was divided under the octaval system followed by the Irish and Anglo-Saxon churches (Green 1928, 492-4). The simplest form of further subdivision, seen at Saul, Nendrum and probably Bangor, is the insertion of a line between each of the main rays, the segments then indicating one-and-a-half hours. This is also found in Anglo-Saxon contexts, including the mideleventh-century dial at Kirkdale (Yorks.). In terms of the round of offices, the main radii indicate the canonical hours of matins, terce, sext (at noon), none and vespers. These hours are prominent in the written sources: in the first Life of Brendan, for example, we read of prayers ‘ad tertiam’, ‘ad sextam’ and ‘ad nonam’ (Plummer 1910, I, 114). Certain times of day were reserved for particular activities (Hughes 1966, 180-1) and certain things were forbidden at certain times: Columbanus orders that no brother is to go to the kitchen after nones (Bieler 1966, 38).

1.

This includes trout as well a salmon. These can be difficult to distinguish in life, so they may well be impossible to tell apart in stone-carving.

[278] Incidents described in the ‘Tripartite Life’ involve fish: Patrick left two salmon in a well and they lived for ever, and he helped fishermen in the region of the Bann (Stokes 1887, 113 and 161). The significance of the Clogher fish remains uncertain, but these references indicate some of the possibilities. There were two periods of reform in the Irish church when great emphasis was placed on the strict observance of canonical hours. The Culdee rules deal in detail with the liturgy and the daily round (e.g. Gwynn and Purton 1911), and Bernard of Clairvaux complained that, amongst other things, the Irish had not observed the hours properly: ‘to this day there is chanting and psalmody in [the churches] at the canonical hours after the fashion of the whole world. For there was no such thing before ...’ (Lawlor 1920, 17-8). Whilst Bernard’s account is likely to be exaggerated or perhaps over-simplified, the twelfthcentury changes may indeed have encouraged the proper observance of the hours and the round of services. It is at least possible that sundials were much used at one or

Two further features of the dials call for comment. The horizontal line above the gnomon hole at Nendrum, paralleled at Monasterboice, could have had some function apart from decoration, for example indicating a division of time outside the main twelve hours. Peculiarly Irish are the various kinds of expansions at the ends of the rays. In Anglo-Saxon dials these are absent, though there is sometimes a crosslet on the main radii (e.g. at Winchester: Taylor 1966, 20, fig. 8). Du Noyer suggested 137

other, or both, of these reforming periods. After the Norman Conquest in England, and presumably after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, the duodecimal twenty-four hour division of the day took the place of the octaval system, and sundials which show hourly divisions are probably medieval or later, such as the circular dial of Kells (Way 1868, fig. IV) and the second dial from Nendrum (Lawlor 1925, Pl. XV).

The rounded stone at Dromore (Co. Down: Fig. 57c) is somewhat reminiscent of the carved pebbles found on the ‘cloca-breaca’ at Inismurray (Wakeman 1885-6, figs 2631), but the type seems rare elsewhere in Ireland and their significance is uncertain.1 The form of the Drumgay stone (P.S. 1940, pl. 38) is unusual, and so is its decoration, of pairs of heads and spirals within a circular frame of chevrons, and no good parallel has been found. The tenon may have fitted into a shaft, or into a gable socket if the stone served as a finial.

Miscellaneous: A few stones in the inventory do not fall into any of the classes so far examined. It is possible that some small stones were included in the graves themselves (Lionard 1961, 100): one example could be the Maghernahely slab, the smallest of the stones under review (Pl. 34b and Fig. 35b), but the cross is very simple and the church is not certainly pre-Norman.

PLATE 34B: MAGHERNAHELY CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT); AND FIG. 35B: MAGHERNAHELY CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

[279] The Ardclinis stone (Pl. 137b) has been re-cut, and the cross is incomplete. The lines are very lightly pecked and could be simply marking-out lines rather than a deliberate cross.

FIG. 57C: DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Summary: The distribution of cross-carved stones in the north is oddly uneven (Fig. 11). The absence of them in Armagh city is striking. If Armagh had been a centre of production of carved slabs on anything like the scale of Clonmacnois or Gallen some would surely have been found in gravedigging and other earth moving. The lack of recumbent slabs invites speculation about other forms of grave markers - plain stones, perhaps, or wooden markers. Nendrum, on the other hand, could well have been a centre of production of slabs, characterised by its distinctive cross type. But it is likely that many of the simpler slabs were made at the sites where they are found: little skill would be needed for the small stones at Raholp and Kilnasaggart. 1.

PLATE 137B: ARDCLINIS: CROSS-C ARVED STONE.

138

An account of the overthrowing of the Kilnasaggart pillar in the first half of the nineteenth century mentions ten roundish stones marked with crosses under and around it (L.A.J. no. 2 (1905), 92).

[280] They may have been made for the less important members of a community, or their roughness may indicate poverty in a house, or the disruption of accustomed sources of skilled craftsmen. County Down is generally rich in stones, and the number in south Armagh, some at historically obscure sites, serves to underline their absence in the north of the county. Striking indeed is the concentration of stones in Co. Fermanagh, where

inscriptions are well represented, but the distribution in Co. Tyrone and Co. Derry is thin. In north Antrim is a concentration of erect pillars, some of them probably quite early, yet there is only one recumbent slab from the county. The reasons for these variations must be complex and some are lost to us, but some historical factors will be considered in Chapter 7.

139

difficult to isolate, and if the practice of carving heads had strong pagan associations, it may have been discouraged by the church, but on balance it is unlikely that their production stopped altogether.

vii) FIGURE-CARVED STONES With the notable exception of the high crosses, figurecarving is not very prominent in the early Irish stoneworking tradition, but this section gathers together the northern material. A few stones have features allied to Continental Iron Age work and these are generally agreed to be pre-Christian. It is unfortunate that the circumstances of finding of the important group of stones in Armagh cathedral are so cloudy. The best-known, the so-called ‘Tandragee idol’, is often said to have come from the cathedral, but ‘a bog near Newry’ is its reported find-spot. Still less is known of the origin of the others. Some may have been found during the extensive nineteenth-century restoration of the cathedral when, apparently, many stones were dispersed, but the cathedral may also have attracted stone carvings from elsewhere.

The two-sided stone in Caldragh graveyard on Boa Island, close to the shore of Lower Lough Erne, is in an area rich in prehistoric sites and finds (the work of the Archaeological Survey in progress). Excavation on Round Island nearby produced rather undistinguished finds, but a date around the turn of the first centuries B.C. and A.D. seemed likely (O. Davies in U.J.A. 3 (1940), 122-6). Though difficult to parallel in detail, the back-toback figures (Pl. 86a) recall the double heads from Roquepertuse (MacCana 1970, 21) and the Janus statue from Holzgerlingen (Powell 1958, pl. 63). The texturing between the two heads on the south - perhaps indicating hair - recalls the ‘basketry hatching’ prominent in some British Iron Age metalwork decoration (many examples in C. Fox ‘Pattern and Purpose’ (1958), especially on mirrors). The history of Caldragh graveyard seems impenetrably obscure, and the smaller, weaker Lustymore Island figure (Pl. 86b) comes from an equally obscure site, now obliterated. I see nothing to support the claim that it, too, was double sided (e.g. Rogers 1967, 80-1).

[281] The division between pre-Christian and Christian work is difficult to make, but at least four stones (apart from the ‘idol’) are probably pre-Christian, perhaps more. As Dr. Anne Ross observes: ‘the bear played its part in the animal mythology of the Celtic world’; and the element ‘bear’ occurs in some early Irish personal names (1974, 434-5), and this may help to explain the otherwise unexpected occurrence of three bears amongst the Armagh stones (Rynne 1972, pl. VII). The standing figure with radiating ‘hair’ is seen by Dr. Ross to be the ‘Sol Invicta’ tradition (1974, 477 and pl. 54), and at least one other head has very similar hair. Other heads from the county, not from church sites, which can also be argued to be pre-Christian are known from Cortynan and the Newtownhamilton area (Rynne 1972, 83-4). The problem of stone heads in Ireland, especially in Ulster, is a difficult one, and though heads are certainly not confined to church sites, the student of the early church inevitably encounters them. The preoccupation of Celtic-speaking peoples with the human head is wellknown, vividly illustrated at the southern French Iron Age sanctuaries at Entremont and Roquepertuse (both often illustrated, e.g. MacCana 1970, 104, 106-7). ‘The motif of the severed head figures throughout the entire field of Celtic cult practice, temporally and geographically, and it can be traced in both representational and literary contexts from the very beginning to the latter part of the tradition’ (Ross 1974, 94-5), and if some Irish heads are certainly pre-Christian, others are certainly quite recent.1 Between the two extremes stretches a long, little-studied and poorlyunderstood tradition of head-carving. 1.

PLATE 86A: BOA ISLAND – CARVED FIGURE.

Helen Hickey tells me that she has seen a concrete head!

[283] The particular interest of these figures in the present study is, first, the hint they provide that Iron Age ritual sites may have been re-used for churches, and secondly, in the case of the Fermanagh stones, they occur in an area which later sees a remarkable flowering of figure-carving.

[282] Whether the recent folk art heads are in a direct and unbroken line of succession from the Iron Age ones is uncertain. Stone heads appear in Irish Romanesque contexts, for example profusely in Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel, and in the Clonfert door (Leask 1955, pl. XI) whilst others built into medieval churches may be medieval (Derrybrusk?) and some post-medieval (Derryvullan?). Certainly Early Christian examples are

Though caution is obviously needed in postulating any link between pre-Christian and Christian stone-carving in 140

Co. Fermanagh because of the very long time-span involved, it is indeed remarkable how rich the county is in figure-carving compared with other parts of Ireland.

was worked when the body belonging to the face was removed (1949, 123). The face has even been claimed to be pre-Christian (albeit tentatively: Rynne 1972, 86). The face is certainly in a different technique and style from the bustling ecclesiastic on the south face, but it is surely possible, and a less strained explanation than Macalister’s, to regard the two as contemporary, full face and profile. The general impression of the Killadeas full face is coarser than the White Island faces (below), but some features are similar including the ‘collar’ under a rounded chin, small straight nose and round eyes, and perhaps the brows, though these are largely chipped away. The small moulding from the corner of the mouth is puzzling; there seems no clear explanation unless it was an odd convention for linking the full face to the profile. The wide-band interlace provides another link with White Island (Pl. 109a) though the Killadeas bands are flatter and more tightly interlaced. The ecclesiastic carries a crozier and a tongued bell and wears shoes. The figure is curved to fit the available space, the nose and back flattened against the edge mouldings and the shoulders hunched. [284] The battered state of the top of the stone leaves its original shape in doubt and increases the difficulty of suggesting the stone’s function. The battering may have resulted from re-use in a structural context. If it was originally a free-standing pillar, the small stelae at Carndonagh (Co. Donegal) come to mind for comparison.

PLATE 86B: LUSTYMORE ISLAND– CARVED FIGURE.

PLATE 109A: WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (GENERAL VIEW).

Not far from Killadeas is White Island with its remarkable series of carved figures, unique in Ireland (Pl. 109). Six seem to be related in form and function, one is unfinished, and the isolated head is different in style and probably later. Though the grotesque cross-legged figure stands somewhat apart, it is linked to the others by the socket in the head and the treatment of the nose and brows, and it is only slightly smaller than the figure set next to it. The features which all six share are the rectangular sinkings in the tops of the heads (double in the case of no. 2), distinctive faces with emphatic oval chins, long hemmed garments with full or half front seams, and short, simplified arms and hands. Numbers 5 and 6 are further linked by their size and distinctive curly

PLATE 105A: KILLADEAS – FIGURE-CARVED STONE.

The main problem which still surrounds the ‘bishop stone’ at Killadeas (Pl. 105a) is whether the carving is of one or two periods. Macalister insisted that the relief face was earlier than the profile figure, and that the interlace 141

hair, Only number 3 is specifically ecclesiastical, with bell and crosier, fringe over the brows and apparently a hood, whilst 5 and 6 are clearly not - 5 with its confronted winged quadrupeds, very odd creatures; and 6 with short sword, round shield and penannular brooch. It is less clear whether the remaining two figures are ecclesiastics or laymen: the rectangular muff-like object held by number 2 could be a shrine but this is only one possibility, and the interpretation of number 4’s objects as a bell and crozier seems very forced. The treatment of the face and head of number 4 is very distinctive. The symbolism of these figures is impossible to reconstruct with certainty.

Monkwearmouth’s porticus ingressus come to mind, standing on low walls and supporting the responds of the arch (seen, for example, in Fisher ‘An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Architecture and Sculpture’ (1959), pl. 14B). Such a position would be possible if, as Dr. Henry suggested, the figures made at White Island were destined for distribution to other churches in the area (1967, 192), but if a context has to be found in a single structure for all six, this explanation is less likely. Is it possible to imagine these stone figures in a timber building? The seatings are hardly deep enough to have provided a secure hold for vertical wall posts, though it is just possible to see them supporting the feet of cruck trusses in a structure of raised cruck construction. The different heights could then be explained by different lengths of trusses, or perhaps by some seeking after an aesthetic effect of perspective. The figures could also have been elements in a substantial shrine, a very special grave, perhaps a focus in the monastic graveyard. But with all these suggestions we are in the realm of speculation and imagination; proof will be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to achieve.

[285] It may relate to the particular history of this church or to widely-known stories, like incidents in the Patrician story, as Mrs. Ettlinger has suggested (in Man 53 (1953), 33-4). There is also uncertainty over the two related questions of their function and date. Lethbridge suggested they were elements of a pre-Christian stone circle, but this unlikely theory is undermined by the patently ecclesiastical number 3 and the general similarity of the whole series (J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. 83 (1953), 175-82). Other suggestions have included supporters for receptacles (Wilson in Lowry-Corry, Wilson and Waterman 1959), corbels (Lowry-Corry, ibid.) and supports for the steps of a preaching chair (Henry 1967, 192). The clues on which suggestions must depend are the seatings in the heads, the rough stumps of some of the figures, and their graded size, numbers 5 and 6 clearly forming a pair. But in pursuing these clues we immediately encounter the problems that the figures are unique and surviving stone churches suggest no clear functions which they could have served.

Lady Dorothy Lowry-Carry inclined towards a date before the recorded Viking raid on Lough Erne churches in 837. [287] Small-scale excavation did indeed indicate a period of burning and disuse of the site, though the nature of the early occupation was not certainly established. Despite the attractions of the arguments for an early date, figure carving is surely more likely to date from the period of developed figure work on high crosses, the ninth and tenth centuries, rather than earlier, though no striking similarities with the crosses can be detected. Dr. Henry is convinced of this date-range by the crosier form (1967, 193), though the same form appears, together with tau and spiral-headed crosiers, on the eleventh or twelfthcentury ‘Doorty’ cross at Kilfenora (Co. Clare). The possibility of a structural function in a Romanesque context must not be ignored, but the building of at least some of the stones into a late twelfth-century church does suggest an earlier date, and the ninth and tenth centuries seem likely. We must hope that when renewed excavation makes possible the further disentangling of the site’s history the date and original context of the figures may become clearer.

Looking further afield, it is possible to find figures in high relief or in the round serving a number of purposes in Romanesque contexts. At Rochester (Kent), for example, they take the place of one order of pilasters in the west door, after the French fashion, and figures supported capitals in Durham chapter house in the midtwelfth century (Zarnecki 1953, pls 85, 36 and 37). Figures are prominent in the façade of St. Trophîme at Arles and also in the cloister, where they support capitals, and in Orviedo cathedral pilasters supporting the arches of the roof vault are decorated with figures (Conant 1966, pls 87, 88 and 23). The arcading at the west end of Worms cathedral rises from human and animal figures, and figures occur profusely in a number of positions in the portal of St. Zeno at Verona and the Schottenthor of St. Jakob at Regensburg (Focillon 1969, I, pls 78 and 88 and Clapham 1936, pl. 44).

Two other stones at Co. Fermanagh sites show figure carving, though in neither case is the carving at all clear. In Devenish upper graveyard the outline of a figure in relief is dimly visible on a slab (Wakeman 1874-5, fig. 17), whilst the broken slab or shaft on Inishkeen has a face, which I have never been able to see clearly, as well as two fleurs-de-lis and a small cross (Pl. 101b). If the head is indeed horned, as Mrs Rogers claimed (1967, 107), it could be example of the Celtic ‘Cernunnos-type’ god which occurs occasionally in Christian contexts (Ross 1974, 190-201).

[286] These examples show how widespread was the use of figures in various Romanesque contexts in Europe, but again the objection arises that no such features are known in Irish Romanesque churches, still less in preRomanesque ones, and their general scale would not lead us to expect such grand architectural members. In an earlier, Anglo-Saxon, context, the squat columns of 142

1.

It occurs on Kells Market Cross (Co. Meath), Killamery and Kilree (Co. Kilkenny), Castledermot (Co. Kildare), Clonmacnois and Durrow (Co. Offaly) and St Berrihert’s Kyle (Co. Tipperary): Hamlin 1971, 80-1.

[289] The coarse work at Lackagh may be a sign of lateness or of rustic, unskilled craftsmanship, and the stone remains an interesting oddity.

PLATE 128B: LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING (LEFT); & FIG. 83C: LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING (RIGHT).

PLATE 101B: INISHKEEN – CARVED STONE.

A cross-shaped slab at Kilbroney has simple incised human features in its circular head (P.S. 1940, pl. 33), but there is a wide divergence of opinion about the date of this stone.

This section has brought together admittedly disparate material, widely distributed in space and time, but linked by the stone-carvers’ use of the human figure.1 The problems of dating, ever-present in this chapter, are especially acute in this section: reliable dating criteria are difficult to arrive at, and most of the stones are out of context, removed from their original function. The preoccupation with the human head certainly has its roots in pre-Christian tradition, but it has persisted into the folk art of quite recent times, so causing great problems of interpretation. Figure-carved stones could have been freestanding, parts of elements of furnishings, structural members or architectural embellishments, but it does not yet seem possible to fit many of the northern stones into a firm chronological framework or to assign certain functions to them.

[288] I took it to be a post-medieval, probably eighteenth century, grave-marker, and was reassured to find myself not alone in this opinion (Co. Down 1966, 303), yet Miss Roe regards it as perhaps a thousand years earlier, at the beginning of the series of crosses to which she attributes the Clogher sundial (Section vi, above and Roe 1960, 206) and this early date has been accepted by Professor Thomas (1971, 128-30). This difference of opinion will probably persist until some less subjective criteria for dating can be agreed upon. The figure-carved stone at Lackagh (Pl. 128b and Fig. 83c), a historically obscure site, bears a version of a scene familiar from the high crosses.1 The struggling figures are usually interpreted as Jacob wrestling with the angel. Though the subject is unmistakable, and the crossed heads are particularly characteristic, the treatment is crude: the proportions are odd and the necks grossly elongated. Function and date are again uncertain. It is not part of a cross; it could be a small free-standing pillar, and though no mortar is adhering it could be an architectural fragment.

1.

The far more sophisticated carving on the west front of Ardmore cathedral comes to mind as do the reset jamb stones from a Romanesque arch at Kilteel (Co. Kildare), where this scene again occurs. There were clearly models available on crosses, perhaps as early as the eighth century, certainly by the tenth, and Romanesque examples are known from Irish (Kilteel) and Continental contexts, for example at St. Marie, Souillac (Lot: Focillon 1969, I, pl. 105) and Notre-Dame-la-Grande, Poitiers (Henry 1967, fig. 38).

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It seems unlikely that the two sheela-na-gigs from northern sites (Aghalurcher and Errigal Keerogue) belong to the preNorman tradition, and I do not discuss them here.

FIG. 13: MAP OF BULLAUNS.

[290] viii) BULLAUNS AND OTHER STONES Despite an appeal in 1938, no complete list of bullauns has ever been made (Hewson 1938, 151). Liam Price believed ‘there must be hundreds of them’ (1959, 161), and he recorded about thirty at Glendalough and twentyfive nearby. Any student of early church sites is immediately confronted by them and they cannot be ignored. They attracted a good deal of early attention. Nineteenth-century publications have many notes on bullauns by Kinahan, Crawford, Westropp and others, and Wakeman was particularly fascinated by them. Recently two wider studies have been made, by Mrs. Crozier and Miss Rae on the Ulster material (1940), and by Liam Price on the Glendalough collection (1959). This is a particularly full treatment, and it is difficult to add much to its conclusions, but I have looked once again at the problem in the light of the northern material.

Crozier and Rae suggested bullaun should be reserved for stones with little or no shaping, apart from the hollow (1940, 104), and I have used it in this way. Price used rock-basin or basin-stone as alternatives for bullaun, but they have not yet found wide acceptance (1959). As in the case of wells (Section ix) I have concentrated on bullauns at church sites, and the map (Fig. 13) does not claim to show the complete distribution of bullauns. [291] It maps the stones at the two hundred and sixty-six sites in the inventory.1 I have found bullauns (or reports of them) at fifty sites, just under one-fifth of the total, of which thirty-four are certainly early sites, three are sites with no written references but early material, and the remaining thirteen are not certainly early. There is nothing like the great concentration at Glendalough; they commonly occur singly, though a few sites, like Aghalee and Ballinderry, have two. The total of stones is about sixty-three. There remain elements of uncertainty. There are, for example, reports of ‘hollowed stones’ now lost, or which I failed to trace, and these possible bullauns are indicated on the map with ‘?’. There are also references to fonts and stoups, some of which may turn out to be bullauns, but which need to be pursued further. These have not been included on the map. The total of stones which I have seen and recorded is thirty-eight, and on these the discussion of form and characteristics is based.2

The word bullaun is not found in early written sources. The Irish ‘ballán’ has been used in some western limestone areas for a hole in a rock, and seems to have been borrowed by antiquarians in the eighteenth century to describe an artificially-made basin in a stone (Price 1959, 169-70). It has been applied to a wide range of material, from shallow prehistoric cup-marks to well-shaped fonts and stoups, and the use of the word has probably blurred distinctions which ought to be made. 144

The stones appear to be local, as one would expect: often basalt, sandstone in Co. Fermanagh, granite in south Down and south Armagh, and schist in north Antrim. Some bullauns are in earthfast boulders, such as the granite glacial erratic at Kilnasaggart (Pl. 28b), and there is no reason to doubt that these stones are in situ.

(Co. Londonderry) stone set in a Calvary group (Pl. 58b); and smaller stones set on or in walls at Aghalee, Kilroot and Racavan (Pls 17a, 18c, 19a). It is possible that the Arboe boulder has rolled down the cliff from the churchyard above (Pl. 114).

PLATE 28B: KILNSAGGART – BULLAUN.

But a stone can quickly become partially buried and give a false impression of being earth-fast: the Ordnance Survey description suggests that the Banagher stone may not be in its original position (Pl. 47b).

PLATE 12B: DRUMNAKILL - BULLAUN IN BASALT PILLAR .

PLATE 59A: ERRIGAL BULLAUN STONE.

PLATE 47B: BANAGHER- BULLAUN STONE. 1. 2.

There are a few examples in the Appendices, such as Dunsfort (Co. Down) and Ballycassidy (Co. Fermanagh). The balance is made up of lost and destroyed stones, and some which I did not find or follow up.

[292] The Drumnakill bullaun is unique: it is in the top of a basalt column (Pl. 12b), and it is noteworthy that neighbouring columns show incipient weathering hollows. Far more common than bullauns in earthfast boulders or living rock, are hollows in other stones, some large like the boulders at Antrim and Arboe, but often in the range of three to four feet across. Although such stones are heavy and not easily portable it is clear that many have been moved, including the huge Antrim boulder; the stone at Errigal (Pl. 59a); the large Derry PLATE 58B: DERRY (CO. LONDONDERRY) - BULLAUN STONE.

145

Of forty-nine stones for which I have satisfactory details forty-three have holes in one face of the stone whilst six are double-sided, and four of these are perforated. Ten (perhaps eleven) have two hollows in a surface, three have three, and the Inishkeen and Bodoney stones have four. [293] None of the holes is in a sunken rectangular area as noted at Glendalough (Price 1959, pl. IX, 1). There is a marked tendency for the depression to be oval rather than truly circular. The very markedly oval shape of the St. John’s Point hollow (a difference of eight and a half inches: P1. 81b) is unusual, and a difference of one to two inches in the diameters is common – as many as twothirds of a sample fifty-one holes were oval (34:17). PLATE 17(A): AGHALEE - BULLAUN STONE (1).

PLATE 81B: ST. JOHN’S POINT – BULLAUN STONE.

The size-range of the holes is wide, with diameters from four to twenty-one inches.

PLATE 18C: KILROOT - BULLAUN STONE.

There is a small peak at seven to eight inches, another at ten to thirteen and a marked concentration at fourteen inches. Then there is a rapid drop, and larger holes are found only occasionally. The depths also range widely, from one to fourteen inches. After a peak at two to three inches there is a fairly even spread until nine inches, after which there is a sharp fall, and deeper holes are rare. PLATE 19A: RACAVAN - BULLAUN STONE (LEFT); AND PLATE 114B: ARBOE – BULLAUN STONE (RIGHT).

The wide range in the dimensions can be explained in several ways. It may point to differences of origin. The lower end of the scale, for example, is heavily weighted by the small holes of the three somewhat unusual stones at Killelagh, Inishkeen and Bodoney, discussed further below. There may be differences of function involved, and it surely indicates that exact dimensions were not important. A reasonable inference seems to be that holes of greater diameter than about fourteen inches and deeper than nine were undesirable, perhaps inconvenient to use.

The possibility of stones having been moved must be remembered when their relationship to other features is considered. The pattern is varied. Many are in graveyards, close to the church as at Dungiven and Holywell, or further away, as at Ballinderry (Co. Antrim). They are also commonly found just outside the graveyard, as at Errigal (possibly moved), Clonduff at the roadside and Killelagh beside the path which leads to the graveyard. Less often they are some distance away, as at Errigal Keerogue, Saul and Templenaffrin.

The chief distinction in profiles seems to be between steep-sided holes, usually the deeper ones, sometimes showing slight undercutting, and more gradually shelving sides producing sometimes a hemispherical profile (like the broken Pubble hole in Pl. 110b) and sometimes a slightly pointed one.

The original site of some of the smaller stones which have been moved seems completely lost, as at Connor and Pubble. 146

[294] The deep hollow at Kilroot (Pl. 18c, above) has an unusual profile, with steep upper sides shelving sharply towards the base which is somewhat pointed.

again until the increasingly thin basin has broken through. This is the explanation Liam Price favoured for the Glendalough examples (1959, 170).

PLATE 94B: DEVENISH – BULLAUN STONE. PLATE 110B: PUBBLE - BULLAUN STONE.

The Inispollan stone is instructive (Pl. 18b): the deeper hole is steep-sided and partly undercut, whilst the shallower one has gradually shelving sides and a rather pointed profile. These hollows suggest to me two stages of growth, the shallow one an early stage and the deep a later one. Another feature of the profile is the distinction between sides which slope in symmetrically (where the deepest point is the middle of the hole) and those which do not (seen very clearly in the Derry stone: Pl. 58b, above). My records suggest that about three-fifths were symmetrical and two-fifths asymmetrical in a sample of fifty-one holes (31:20).

PLATE 59C: TAMLAGHT - BULLAUN STONES.

The double-sided stone in Derry has presumably been used in the same way but has never been perforated. The Clogher stone is very different: the perforation is more carefully formed and it breaks out to the stone’s edge (Pl. 121b). The reason for this is not clear. At Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone), Glennoo and Tullyniskan the edge seems to have been broken away at a later period than the making of the hollow (Pls 124b, 130b-c), but the second hollow in the Pubble stone never seems to have been a complete circle (Pl. 110b, right (above)).

PLATE 18B: INISPOLLAN - BULLAUN STONE.

In a few cases the hollow has broken through, either to a depression on the other side, or to the edge of the stone. The Devenish double-sided stone has an irregular oval perforation through one of the sloping sides (Pl. 94b), and the Tamlaght stone a sub-rectangular perforation at the base (Pl. 59c, back left). In neither case is the hole particularly carefully worked. It looks very much as though the stones have been used, tuned over and used

PLATE 121B: CLOGHER – BULLAUN STONE.

147

will show explanations ranging from the strictly utilitarian to the fanciful. The sexton at Tullyniskan tells visitors that the stone there is two thousand years old and was used by the pagans for mixing blood. McKenna and Bigger had similar ideas about the Devenish stone and knew better than the local guide; they thought it ‘may have been used in the celebration of Druidical mysteries before Molaise discovered the island. 1.

Close study would involve much baling, clearance of moss, lichen and silt which I have not usually been able to undertake.

PLATE 124B; DONAGHMORE – BULLAUN STONE.

[295] When it is possible to examine the sides of the holes carefully1 they are often seen to be fairly smooth with no clear indications of how they were made. A few holes stand out, however, as having noticeably rougher sides. These include the shallow holes at Connor; the two shallow scoops at Tamlaght; and the four holes at Bodoney, to all of which I shall return. The Clogher stone (Pl. 121b) shows clear pecking marks, and this stands out as unusual, as do the scorings along the long axis of the St. John’s Point stone (Pl. 81b, above). It looks as if this hollow has been used for knife-sharpening and tool grinding, though it can hardly have been made for this purpose.

PLATE 130B: TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE.

[296] The local guide will tell you that it is part of a quern used by the monastery in grinding corn, but it is no such thing’ (1897, 79). The Desertoghill bullaun was thought to be for receiving exposed children (J.R.S.A.I. 18 (1887-8), 332), and the two hollows in the Antrim stone were either a witch’s footprints or receptacles for oil and water (O.S. 1969, 83-4). Many have been explained as a saint’s knee-prints, and others as fonts and stoups. This variety suggests the conclusion, arrived at by Lacaille (1953) and Price (1959), that the original purpose or purposes of bullauns have been lost sight of for a very long time. What light does the northern material throw on this vexed question? The impression which I have gained of holes at different stages of manufacture, well illustrated by the Inispollan stone, seems strongly to support the practical purpose which Liam Price favoured, that the depressions were mortars used with a stone, iron or wooden pestle, for crushing various substances.1 These stones would be steady in use. The asymmetry suggests that some may have been used in a particular direction, leading sometimes to slight under cutting, whilst the neatly circular holes suggest a stirring motion. Holes would gradually be enlarged by abrasion. The smaller holes could have been in use for a short time, or they could have been used for different substances. Deep holes might prove inconvenient, hence perhaps the rarity of holes more than nine inches deep. The unusually elongated surface at St. John’s Point resembles a saddle quern, and it may indeed have been used as a quern with a stone rubber.

PLATE 130C: GLENOO – BULLAUN STONE.

In very few cases have I detected any working apart from the hollow. The sides of the Glennoo stone seem dressed (Pl. 130c), and the flat tops of the Kilroot and Tullyniskan boulders may have been dressed (Pls 18c, above and 130b) but such indications are rare. It seems appropriate that a discussion of form should have preceded speculation about the original function of bullauns, the aspect which has attracted most attention. A brief outline of popular traditions about Ulster bullauns 148

1.

This explanation has been favoured by many writers, including Kinahan (1883-4 and later papers), Dr. Martin of Portlaw (J.R.S.A.I. 13 (1874-5), 438-9) and Dr. Raftery (1951, 50).

Liam Price suggested that bullauns were in use from the fifth century, adopted by Irish churchmen in imitation of Roman and sub-Roman mortaria, but were superseded by querns and their original use was forgotten (Price 1959, 179-84). I find this explanation rather strained. Recent studies place less emphasis than Ryan (whom Price follows) on the early Irish church’s role as the borrower from Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries (such as Hughes 1966). The history seems to be of parallel development. The growth of monasticism in the sixth and seventh centuries may well have brought about some dietary changes and the use of mortars may have become common. But querns have surely a rather different range, and the two methods of preparing food are likely to have continued side by side.

[297] The range of substances which could have been crushed is wide. They include grain (for hulling barley, for flour or meal or for brewing), vegetables, fruit, nuts, herbs whins, acorns and other mast for stock, pigments and metal ores. ‘Knocking stones’ for crushing grain are well known from western Scotland (Lacaille 1953). Kinahan discovered hollowed stones used for illicit distilling in Ireland (1883-4, 174) and Hewson published stones in Rathlin Island used recently for bruising cereals and whins, especially for stock (1938, 150-1). A hollowed stone found at Gallen Priory (Co. Offaly) was interpreted as for crushing iron ore (Kendrick 1939) and stones with hollows are found near gold workings at Gogofau (Carms.: Price 1959, 169) and at many tinning mills on Dartmoor (Devon).1

[299] But in view of the respect shown towards stones and water we can well imagine that some hollowed stones attracted stories about monastic founders and that disused, water-filled hollows became famed for cures. At least one of the later traditions associated with bullauns involves not food but drink. Some bullauns, like the Deer Stone at Glendalough, were alleged to be receptacles into which miraculous animals (deer or cows) were milked. A stone at Kilmalkedar (Co. Kerry) with several hollows is known as ‘beistí’ – ‘milk tubs’ (Price 1959, 167-8). Perhaps ‘ignorant’ people have never been in serious doubt as to the original use of these stones. We have heard the opinion of the Devenish guide, and in 1906 we find a report from near Warrenpoint: ‘The opinion of the people of the locality about the use of these stones is that they were used for pounding grain’ (J.R.S.A.I. 36 (1906), 81). It may be the ‘learned’ who have looked for other explanations, in the twelfth as well as the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

What we know of dietary requirements from Irish monastic rules suggests austere regimes in which meat and fish were usually not unknown but eaten in moderation, cereals and vegetables were prominent and items like nuts were used. The austere regime on Cleenish is described in the ‘Life of Munnu’. Food consisted of a kind of gruel, of unsieved flour together with husks mixed with water in a basin (‘in peluim’) and cooked with stones heated in the fire (Plummer 1910, II, 228). Could the basin be a bullaun? In the absence of pottery stone would surely be one of the materials used. The monastic economy is discussed further in Section x, but it is clear that there would be many uses for mortars. 1.

The ‘Life of Kevin of Glendalough’ refers to a smith grinding a stone in a mortar (mortella) (Plummer 1910, I, 241).

The other commonly suggested function is as fonts or holy water stoups. If bullauns could be shown to have been for specifically ecclesiastical purposes this would enhance their value as indicators of early churches, but this is not what the evidence suggests. Little is known about the details of baptism in Ireland until the AngloNorman period, when legislation ordered the provision of piscinas and fonts of stone or of wood lined with lead (Champneys 1910, 205, referring to a synod in 1186). It is assumed that streams and wells were used for baptism in the conversion period.

[298] If this was their main purpose, why should their original function have become so obscured by legend? As early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries writers of saints’ ‘Lives’ offered miraculous explanations for hollowed stones. A northern example comes from the ‘Life of Molaise’ (Lasrian) of Devenish: the saint lacked a boat to carry him to Ireland, but a heavy stone arrived and took him safely there, ‘Unde in huius miraculi indicium petra prefata in modum peluis [basin or font] facta, in ecclesia Daminensi usque in presens tempus manet’ (Plummer 1910, II, 137). This may be the doublesided Devenish stone, or another stone now lost.

[300] Miss Roe points out that the Bobbio and Stowe Missals (seventh to ninth centuries) show that an Irish ‘Ordo Baptismi’ existed and was apparently administered inside the church, but there is no clue to the form of the vessel (‘Medieval Fonts of Meath’ (1968), 6). No fonts in Ireland can be certainly identified as pre-Norman1, and there is no excavated evidence for baptisteries comparable to the excavated Anglo-Saxon example at Potterne (Wilts.: Davey, N., in Wilts. Archaeol. Mag. 59 (1964), 116-23). Double-sided and multiple bullauns are not easily explained as fonts, and the variety in size and shape would be odd in a baptismal context.

During his last illness Ciarán of Clonmacnois had a stone pillow (though we are not told it was hollowed: ibid. I, 215). More explicitly the ‘Lives’ of Aed and Declan refer to hollows made in stone by a baby’s head at birth, and to cures from water in the hollows: the head ‘fecit concauum in [lapidem] secundum similitudinem capitis: et usque hodie ille lapis ita cauatus manet, et aqua que sit in eo concauo, languores omnium credencium sanat’ (V.S. Declani, ibid. II, 36).

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In strongly favouring a practical function as mortars for many bullauns I do not want to imply that all the hollows listed in the inventory were used as mortars. The Inishkeen cross base hollows, for example, are best explained as resulting from patterns or rounds (Pl. 101a). They may have started with natural weathering. The tops of sandstone cross bases collect rainwater and this encourages small solution hollows.

result from some stone-turning ritual during longforgotten rounds. Stone-turning in bullauns for cursing has achieved undue prominence through the well-known cursing stone at Killinagh (Co. Cavan) with its ten hollows and stones (often illustrated including Wakeman 1857-5A, 459). The only cursing associations I have come across are with a lost stone, not certainly a bullaun.

There are ‘incipient bullauns’ on the cross bases Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) and Boho. The holes can be improved by turning stones. Sand and water form an excellent abrasive, and the holes will be scoured deeper. Stone-turning in bullauns during the course of rounds is attested at several sites including Temple Feaghna (Co. Kerry: J.R.S.A.I. 28 (1898), 314) and Holywell where there are several incipient bullauns. There are two circular hollows in the base of the post-medieval roadside cross at Dunsany (Co. Meath: J.R.S.A.I. 24 (1894), 2279) and the cross base at Iniskeel (Co. Donegal) was scraped for holy dust (I.N.J. 5 (1934-5), 20-1). 1.

St. Mochua’s stone at Derrynoose was buried because of superstitious practices associated with it, particularly cursing, but there is no description of it. It may have been flat, like the slab in Kilcummin graveyard (Co. Mayo) used for cursing, and the flat top of the clocha breaca altar on which ‘cursing stones’ were turned on Inismurray (Co. Sligo: J.R.S.A.I. 28 (1898), 297 and Wakeman 18856, 233-42). I have suggested that some hollows may have started with natural weathering. The flag at Bodoney with four small hollows may be water-worn (Fig. 84a). Pebbles scouring under pressure of flowing water could have formed the hollows which have fairly rough sides. I suspect natural weathering rather than human handiwork also for the second (broken) stone at Tamlaght (Pl. 59c, above). There seems to be a tendency for oddly-shaped, weathered stones to be collected in graveyards and around the base of crosses.

Ang1o-Saxon fonts are very rare in England compared with Norman ones; some examples in Fisher, E.A., ‘An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Architecture’ (1959), pl. 48.

FIG. 84A: BODONEY – STONE WITH HOLE SEEN IN PLAN (LEFT); AND FIG. 84C: KILLELLAGH - STONES WITH HOLES SEEN IN PLAN (RIGHT).

PLATE 101A: INISHKEEN – CROSS-BASE WITH BULLAUNS.

[301] The Ordnance Survey records refer to cures for warts and headaches in Iniskeen graveyard, and it seems likely that the cross base formed one of the stations during rounds. Could a similar explanation lie behind the odd sinkings in the broken cross head at Eglish (Co. Armagh)? These are out of keeping with the rest of the decoration, confined to edge mouldings, and one of the hollows is markedly off-centre in relation to the crossing (Pl. 23, above). They seem to be secondary and they may

PLATE 111A: AGHALURCHER – STONE WITH HOLES.

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[302] Plate 111a shows a twisted, weathered piece of sandstone in Aghalurcher graveyard with hollows from which inclusions, perhaps small pebbles, have weathered out. There are similar weathered fragments at Arboe and in Eglish (Gort) graveyard (Co. Tyrone, Appendix F). There is no human handiwork involved, but some of them could be considered ‘false bullauns’ and stories could well grow up around them.

also with wells and places where water collects, like the empty socket of a cross base. The cure in all these cases is associated with the water; the source or receptacle is a secondary consideration (see Section (ix)).

The hollows in the large slab at Killelagh (Fig. 84c) may possibly be prehistoric cup-marks. There are several big stones nearby which could have been part of a megalithic tomb. The two hollowed stones at Connor (Pl. 9b) are rather different from the others. The holes are shallow and rough and suggest a fairly recent industrial or domestic use. The two stones near Clondermot graveyard have outlet holes and this probably indicates a later date. Their original provenance is unknown: Clondermot graveyard was Oliver Davies’s suggestion, but they may come from the large house close to their present position.

PLATE 51A: DUNGIVEN - THORN TREE WITH RAGS AT BULLAUN.

The stones have been used in rounds and patterns. The Ordnance Survey account of Donaghanie describes the August pattern during which ‘Patrick’s knee’, probably the bullaun (Pl. 130a), was visited. Many hollows have been attributed to the sites’ patrons, particularly double bullauns or ‘knee tracks’, like Columbkille’s at Desertoghill, Patrick’s at Inispollan and Kieran’s at Errigal Keerogue. Some of the stones may have found a new use as holy water stoups at sites which continued in occupation, particularly the smaller, more easily portable stones. Some may have been used for cursing, fertility rituals and other magical practices, as claimed by Crozier and Rea (1940), but the evidence is slight and these possible associations must not be exaggerated.

PLATE 9B: CONNOR: BULLAUN STONES: NO. 2 .

George Kinahan long ago warned students against accepting a single explanation for bullauns (1883-4, 174 and later papers), and no single explanation will serve for all the stones in my inventory. But for most of them the most likely reason for their making is for use as mortars. As Liam Price has emphasised, a conclusion of this kind is reached by informed guesswork and is hardly susceptible of proof (Price 1959, 177), but in our present state of knowledge it seems to be the most acceptable one. The subsequent use of bullauns is a subject I have already touched on and will consider only briefly. They have been visited most for wart cures, a practice recorded all over Ireland and further afield (Price 1959, 171). The Dungiven one is still much visited, as the rags and bandages testify (Pl. 51a).

PLATE 130A: DONAGHANIE – BULLAUN STONE.

[303] There are a few rags beside the bullaun on Church Island, and cures are reported from many other sites including Ballinderry (Co. Antrim); Kilnasaggart; Camus (Co. Londonderry); Clogher (warts and headaches); and Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone, using pins). Cures are not, of course, confined to water in bullauns, but are associated

It is clear that holes which strongly resemble bullauns have been made in recent times and are perhaps still being made. The clearest cases I have come across are in two table tombstones, at Ballinderry (Co. Londonderry) and Clonfeacle, the former stone dated to 1707, the other 151

of eighteenth or nineteenth-century date, and neither as far as I know previously noted (P1. 135b). In the Clonfeacle slab is a very well-formed, smooth-sided hemispherical depression, seven and a half inches in diameter and three inches deep.

1874-5A, 461, fig. 15), and another at Chapeltown (Co. Down), probably from Dunsfort (Appendix D). This unshaped boulder with two hollows has a lightly incised linear cross potent on one edge (Pl. 82b, but not easy to see). Dunsfort was a medieval parish church, but I have found no earlier evidence of activity there than the fragmentary Anglo-Norman grave-slab. There is a carved cross beside a bullaun at the church site on Illaun tSenaig (Co. Kerry: Dunraven 1875, pl. facing 38) and another near a bullaun in an earthfast boulder at Carrowmore (Co. Donegal: J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 300). But these crosses cannot be said to help in dating the holes, and bullauns are commonly unadorned.

PLATE 135B: CLONFEACLE – MODERN BULLAUN STONE.

PLATE 82B: CHAPELTOWN – BULLAUN STONE.

[305] If they could be shown to belong to a very early stratum of the church, as Liam Price suggested (1959, 179-80), they would become valuable pointers to early activity, but it remains a suggestion and nothing more. One approach is to enquire whether bullauns are found on certainly early sites and sites which were abandoned early and not re-used, and whether they occur too at certainly later churches such as Anglo-Norman seigneurial foundations.

PLATE 135A: RECENT ‘BULLAUN’ AT BALLINDERRY.

Thirty-seven of the fifty sites at which I have found bullauns are certainly early churches, but none can be shown to have been abandoned early and not reoccupied; most were used for medieval parish churches. Banagher may be a late foundation, of the eleventh or early twelfth century, but this is not certain. We have seen that there is no pre-Norman evidence for a church at Dunsford, but again arguments from silence cannot be pressed far. The date of the thirteen sites in the inventory at which bullauns occur but for which there is no clear evidence of pre-Norman activity must remain uncertain.

[304] The slab has broken across the hole, and its section is clearly visible in Plate 135b. It has been visited for wart cures within recent memory, the cures being effected with pins and moisture from the hollow. Perhaps this hole started with natural weathering, but I could discover nothing about its origins. The Ballinderry stone has not one but many hollows (Pl. 135a) on the surface and round the sides. They are shallower and more diffuse than the Clonfeacle hole and in some there are clear striations from knife sharpening. The sandstone tombstone gives the impression of a huge whetstone. It is the grave of a rector who died in 1707. I discovered no traditions of cures, and this treatment of the stone does not suggest great respect!

The second general problem is to decide whether bullauns are peculiar to ecclesiastical sites. Liam Price’s extensive study of Co. Wicklow stones showed that they were usually at sites with ecclesiastical connections (1959, 161-6). The general impression of many writers is that they are usually found on church sites1, but it must be recognised that some studies (including my own) have an ecclesiastical bias, and it may be that bullauns on church sites have attracted undue attention.

To assess the historical importance of bullauns it is necessary to inquire how far they are datable and whether they are peculiar to church sites. They are clearly not closely datable except by context and association. A few examples are carved with a cross: in the north there is one at Drumgay Lough which I failed to find (Wakeman 152

1.

Raftery 1951, 50: ‘The percentage of associations of bullauns and early monastic sites leads one to believe that they were mainly for use in connection with the grinding or pounding of herbs or roots in such establishments . . .’

To be distinguished from bullauns are the well-shaped fonts and stoups found at some of these sites (F on Fig. 13). Irish fonts are not, on the whole, well studied (with a few local exceptions, such as Roe, H., ‘Medieval Fonts of Meath’ (1968)) and so it is difficult to point to parallels and offer firm dates. But I take the well-shaped fonts at Killevy, Maghernahely and Agivey to belong to the medieval use of the sites, also the stoups from Seagoe (Pl. 134b), Solar (Pl. 19b) and Blaris (Appendix D). The fonts at Maghera (Co. Londonderry) and Clonfeacle (Pl. 134a) are roughly hammer-dressed externally but carefully shaped inside, and these also probably lie outside my date limits.

[306] They do not seem to occur often in northern raths and cashels, but Westropp (whose studies did not have an ecclesiastical bias) discovered several in Co. Clare ringforts (J.R.S.A.I. 34 (1904), 191). They are also found at inauguration sites. Westropp noted two bullauns in a boulder near the ‘Mound of the Inaugurations’ at Magh Adhair (Co. Clare: loc. cit., above), and I have seen bullauns at Altadaven (Co. Tyrone) and Dunmull (Co. Antrim) which both seem to have been inauguration sites (Appendices F and A). A further problem is posed by the hollowed stones used for domestic purposes in recent times, such as the stones in Rathlin published by Hewson (1938) and those that adorn the rockeries of many large houses including Tynan Abbey (Co. Armagh) and Favour Royal (Co. Tyrone). Until more area studies have been done, examining hollowed stones from all contexts, this problem will remain. A few cases will illustrate these two general problems of date and context. Holywell has a ruined medieval church, a greatly revered well, and very strong traditions, but no early written references and no certainly early material. There is one bullaun, a boulder with two cup-marks and another stone with two incipient hollows, all visited during rounds. We have already noted the enclosure at Ballyhill (Section (i)). There are no written sources, an Ordnance Survey report of a church, a raised rath with no ecclesiastical features and a bullaun. Another Co. Fermanagh site which has only a bullaun is Pubble, but here there is written evidence for pre-Norman activity. I come reluctantly to the conclusion that in our present state of knowledge we cannot regard a bullaun as proof of early activity or of specifically ecclesiastical activity at a site, but the presence of a bullaun, together with other evidence, may be found to characterise early ecclesiastical sites.

PLATE 134B: STOUP FROM SEAGOE (LEFT); AND PLATE 19B: SOLAR - FONT (RIGHT).

[307] ‘Bullauns are found everywhere’ (Crozier and Rea 1940). The distribution shown in Fig. 13 suggests that this is not entirely the case. Bullauns are less easily destroyed and lost than many kinds of material, and it is possible that the blanks on the map are true gaps in the distribution. Co. Down is rather empty, except for Lecale and the Mournes, and so is Co. Armagh with the solitary exception of Kilnasaggart. They are plentiful in Co. Antrim and parts of Co. Londonderry, Co. Tyrone and Co. Fermanagh, but noticeably absent from north Fermanagh, west Tyrone and north-west Derry. This can hardly arise from lack of stone, except perhaps in north Armagh: stone supplies are never far away. Were the functions of bullauns fulfilled in some other way in these ‘blank’ areas? This, too, must remain a puzzle on which future work may throw some light, either by filling the gaps, or confirming them and considering further the possible reasons, including differences of resources, diet and traditions.

PLATE 134A: CLONFEACLE – FONT.

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when the free ration was one panful.1 A stone which I could not find at Drumglass is said to bear the print of St. Patrick’s knee and crosier, and a stone at Maghernagaw (Appendix A) St. Patrick’s knees and elbows. Hole-stones, which occur on two of my sites, were discussed a good deal by nineteenth-century writers but have not attracted much attention recently. The list published in 1896 (Frazer 1896, 158-69) included several stones which can now be clearly distinguished as different types - in the north the holed cross at Layd and the Devenish pierced bullaun; and elsewhere a sundial at Monaster Kieran (Aran), a holed cross-carved stone at Castledermot (Co. Kildare), and a possible slab-shrine stone at Kilcananagh (Aran). But there are also simple upright slabs pierced by a hole. Some are found near churches, including Agivey (Pl. 51b) and Dungiven (which I have failed to find), Roscam (Co. Galway) and Inishkeen (Co. Monaghan).

PLATE 137A: BALLYNASAGGART FONT (FROM ERRIGAL KEEROGUE?).

[308] The Clonfeacle one has recently been brought back into use, but severely mutilated in the process. An old find of a rectangular hollowed stone at Movilla may be a font, but I did not trace it. The lower part of the font in Ballynasaggart church (Pl. 137a) may come from Errigal Keerogue, but this is not certain. Its decoration - pecked dots in circles with linking lines - looks more megalithic (like nearby Sesskilgreen) than Early Christian or later medieval, but the font form is medieval. It remains a little-known oddity, disclaimed by prehistorians and presumably medieval.

PLATE 51B: AGIVEY - HOLE STONE.

[310] Others seem to have no ecclesiastical associations, like the well-known Doagh example (P.S. 1940, 38). Early writers, such as Wakeman and Wood-Martin, strongly favoured a prehistoric origin - ‘unquestionably of prehistoric origin’ (Wood-Martin 1887-8, 76) - pointing to holed slabs in megalithic tombs. When traditions are recorded they are concerned with fertility and healing. On Inismurray (Co. Sligo), for example, there are two cross-carved slabs with perforations, one at Teampull-na-mban, the other at Teampull-na-Bfear; the second stone was visited by pregnant women (Wakeman 18856, 250-3: the perforations are rather different from the simple Agivey example).

Finally we turn from bullauns and fonts to other stones found at early churches. It is clear from the written sources especially the later saints’ ‘Lives’, with their strong fabulous element, that stones were important and stories were woven around them. Adamnan wrote of Columba’s stone pillow, still to be seen beside his grave (Anderson 1961, 527). Stones are prominent in the ‘Tripartite Life’ - stones on which Patrick’s tooth fell; on which his nose bled; which had been turned to harmless stones from poisoned cheeses (Stokes 1887, 141, 145 and 183-5). The later ‘Lives’ refer to the marks of crosiers in stone, as well as kneeling saints and heads (Plummer 1910, I, clv-clvii).

1.

References to stones on northern sites or connected with northern saints include the imprint of the angel’s feet - ‘vestigio saxo impressa’ - at Skerry, much revered and visited (‘Tripartite Life’, Stokes 1887, 19-21), the ‘Cloch óir’ at Clogher (a very late gloss in M.O.), a stone at Nendrum associated with Colmán of Dromore (Heist 1965, 358) and a pointed stone set up to mark the site of a miracle by Colmán Elo (Plummer 1910, I, 258). These, and many other examples, illustrate the strong hold which stones had in popular imagination and the kinds of stories woven around them.

This is a version of a story found elsewhere, for example explaining the Deer Stone at Glendalough (Price 1959, 161).

Sick babies were passed through a holed stone in Co. Carlow (J.R.S.A.I. 37 (1907), 90); and troths may have been plighted at the Doagh stone (P.S. 1940, 38). But it is worth noting that a story in the ‘Life of Fechin of Fore’ points to a practical purpose - the tethering of an animal (Plummer 1910, II 78). This is admittedly a laborious way of achieving secure tethering, but in an excavated twelfth or thirteenth-century longhouse at Garrow Tor on Bodmin Moor (Cornwall) the slabs forming the sides of the stalls were pierced for tethering ropes (Dudley, D., and Minter, E.M., in Med. Arch. 6-7 (1962-3), pl. XXVIII C).

[309] I could not see the footprint claimed by the Ordnance Survey on the rock of Skerry. The architectural fragment at Clogher may be the stone described by the fifteenth-century glossator as the ‘Cloch óir’. It is unlikely that the cross-carved stone known as St. Colmán’s pillow at Dromore (Co. Down) is the stone mentioned in the ‘Life’. But there are other stones which find no place in written sources. At the base of the Kilnasaggart pillar-stone is a small weathered stone which looks like the stamp of a cloven hoof. This is alleged to have been made by a miraculous cow, angry at being milked into a sieve

We have seen that stones bulk large in the later written sources, but that the sources tell us very little about how and why our surviving bullauns and other shaped stones were made. Stones are also prominent in the inventory of material, but there is a limit to what can be deduced from them. Some of the ways in which the study of bullauns could progress further are outlined in Chapter 9.

154

FIG. 14: MAP OF WELLS AT OR NEAR EARLY CHURCHES.

[311] ix) WELLS ‘Probably there cannot be less than three thousand [holy wells] throughout Ireland’ (Wood-Martin, W.G., ‘Pagan Ireland’ (1895), 143). The only practicable approach for detailed study is a local one, concentrating on a restricted area.

Many were at church sites whilst others were apparently far from ecclesiastical remains. It was impossible to pursue all these wells, and I have attempted no such detailed study or full inventory as those already mentioned. I have concentrated on wells at and near church sites. The very presence of wells at the sites demands attention, and they have led me to ask what the archaeologist and historian of the early church can hope to learn from wells.

W.S. Cordner investigated wells in Co. Antrim and Co. Down (1940, 1942 and 1946) and T.G.F. Paterson collected information about Co. Armagh wells (1948), but the most detailed work has been done in Co. Limerick and Co. Kerry by Caoimhín Ó Danachair who examined the sites on the ground and also called upon the vast resources of the Ordnance Survey and the Folklore Commission. This intensive local study produced lists of wells with their dedications and details of observance and traditions, and also a valuable general discussion of many aspects of holy wells (especially 1955, also 1958 and 1960).

Important as the background to this question is the reverence shown by Celtic-speaking peoples for water (Plummer 1910, I, cxlvii-clii). [312] Archaeological material suggests that Iron Age peoples revered springs and other water sources: examples of apparently votive deposits include the hoard from Llyn Cerrig Bach, Anglesey, the trumpet and other metalwork from Loughnashade (Co. Armagh), and the remarkable wooden figures from the source of the Seine.1

It became clear during my initial Ordnance Survey map search that amongst the antiquities were many wells, marked as ‘Holy Well’, or with a saint’s name, or as ‘Sunday Well’ or ‘Toberdoney’.

155

Classical writers testify to Celtic worship of springs, wells and water deities (for example Posidonius who travelled in Gaul in the first century B.C.). There are a few indications in early ecclesiastical written sources of this pagan background. Patrick observed in his ‘Confessions’ that: ‘the Irish always worshipped idols and things impure’ (Bieler 1953, 34), though not referring specifically to water; and the very much later ‘Tripartite Life’ described a well honoured by the heathen as if it were a god (Stokes 1887, 123). One of Columba’s miracles involved the casting out of demons from a well venerated by the pagan Picts (Adamnan’s ‘Life’, Anderson 1961, 349).

Water was also needed for liturgical purposes. Patrick used a well for baptism (‘Tripartite Life’, Stokes 1887, 135), and water was miraculously produced for baptism, for example for Comgall’s (Plummer 1910, II, 5). In Adamnan’s time the water which Columba had produced from a rock for baptism was still potent in Columba’s name (Anderson 1961, 347-9). We also hear of water mixed with wine for the eucharist in ‘Tigernach’s Life’ (Plummer 1910, II, 264). [314] It is clear, therefore, that early churches and monasteries needed a good water supply, just as did later monastic orders, even if the later provisions were very much more elaborate.1 There were pressing practical reasons for siting a church close to a good water supply, and it is surely this source which has sometimes come to be regarded as a holy well.

Many of the references to water in the written sources involve miraculous happenings, particularly prominent in the Saints’ ‘Lives’. Saints produce water from nothing, for example Naile of Kinawley with a cast of his crosier (Plummer 1925A, 131-3). They produce rich harvests of fish from it in times of hardship (‘Ruadan’s Life’ in Plummer 1910, II, 245). Water is used for pious austerities and for cures: the well of Monenna of Killevy combined these two functions. Conchubranus, writing between about 1050 and 1150, reported the tradition: 1.

In a few cases northern wells are referred to in early written sources. The ‘Liber Angeli’ describes how Patrick baptised, taught and healed multitudes: ‘beside the spring which is close to the eastern part of [Armagh]’ (Hughes 1966, 276); but this is not easily identifiable with either of the two holy wells in the city. It has been suggested that ‘Slán, in the region of Benna Boirche’ of Fíach’s ‘Hymn’ was Struel Wells (Co. Down), but even the glossator was uncertain about the position of the well (Stokes 1887, 409 and 423). The ‘Tripartite Life’ notes wells at Templastragh (‘and Patrick’s well is there, and he left a blessing thereon’) and Tamlaghtard (‘Patrick’s well is there’) (ibid. 163 and 161). If Glenavy is rightly identified with ‘Lathrach Pátraic’ in the same source, ‘Patrick’s well, Slán’ should be there, though I have not come across it (ibid. 165).

Fox, C., ‘A Find of the Early Iron Age from Llyn Cerrig Bach, Anglesey’ (1946); Martin, R., ‘Wooden Figures from the Source of the Seine’ in Ant. 39 (1965), 247-52; Ross 1974, chap. 1 and passim.

[313] ‘Et accessit sancta Monenna ad frigidum fontem suum, quo solitus noctibus sedens usque ad mamillas in aque totum decantare solebat psalterium, et imposita benedictione cum baculo suo ... Deinde usque ad hunc diem multi habentes infirmitatem, in nomine sancte virginis, per balneum recipiunt sanitatem’ (Esposito 1910, 214-5).

Later sources also mention northern wells. In the ‘Life of Naile’ - a late and poor one - Disert na Topar is given as an alternative name for Cell Naile (Kinawley) and the well appears prominently in the text (Plummer 1925A, 131). The ‘Life of Ailbe’, also late and poor, describes how the saint produced water for the new church at Kilroot:

But to balance the undoubtedly strong miraculous elements it is appropriate to consider some practical aspects of water. A church or monastery needed a good water supply for domestic and liturgical purposes. The ‘Cáin Domnaig’ lists everyday activities including: ‘shaving or washing, or bathing, or washing clothes’ (O’Keeffe 1905, 201-3). No beer was drunk at Tallaght in Maelruain’s life-time (Gwynn and Purton 1911, 129), presumably only water, and obviously cooking, cleaning and all kinds of domestic and industrial activities called for water.

1.

Such as the water supply at Christ Church, Canterbury, shown in a drawing of about 1165: Willis, R., ‘The Architectural History ... of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury’ (1869), and the provision at later Carthusian houses, including Mount Grace, Yorkshire.

[315] ‘Cumque locus non haberet aquam, sanctus Albeus quendam ibi lapidem benedixit ... et ex eo aque riuulus statim prorupit ... et riuulus eternus erit usque ad finem mundi huius’ (Plummer 1910, I, 54). The twelfth-century ‘Martyrology of Gorman’ has a later gloss on ‘Ross Glanda’ (Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone): ‘‘Glan’ (‘pure’) was the name of a well that was there before Patrick’, and the Annals of Ulster mention the ‘Well of Adomhnan’ in Derry in 1204. Finally Carrickmore, oddly elusive in early sources, appears in O’Donnell’s early sixteenth-century ‘Life of Columba’: ‘and he struck three strokes with his staff upon the

The ‘Life of Colmán Elo’ describes a sad case of a newly-founded cell which had poor resources. The first four brothers died for lack of food and drink but Colmán remedied the situation by striking the rock with his crosier and water flowed, conveniently at the gate of the cell. The supplies: ‘usque hodie non deficiunt’ (Plummer 1910, I, 260-1). Water, too, could supply fish. The Lives dwell on the miraculous element (for example in ‘Ruadan’s Life’ already referred to), but the regular supply of a valuable item of food was important. 156

ground, and a well sprung from each stroke thereof’ (O’Kelleher and Schoepperle 1918, 127).

[317] St. Columbkille’s Well at Carrickmore is a waterfilled rock cleft. Very many wells are now abandoned, forgotten and sometimes entirely lost (Clontivrin, Galloon). Some are used by grazing animals, as at Derryvullan, or for domestic purposes: at Maghera (Co. Londonderry) a pump was set up over the formerly holy well.1 Some are remembered and occasionally visited (a solitary rag on the thorn tree at Aghalurcher: Pl. 83a) and a few are well cared for, venerated and frequented. These include Derrynoose, Killevy, Holywell, and Tamlaghtard.

These references indicate that the wells and streams at these sites were well known to the writers or their informants. The wells had attracted to themselves stories and traditions and some enjoyed a reputation for healing powers. The recent and continuing respect for wells is part of the same tradition. I have found wells, or traditions of wells surviving into recent times, at or near sixty-six sites in my inventory, a quarter of the total. There are wells at some of the sites in the appendices, and the name of Tartaraghan graveyard - Toby Hole - may indicate a well there (Arthurs 1957, 41). I hesitate to call them all ‘holy’ wells. Ó Danachair suggests that ‘a holy well may be defined as a well or spring at which prayers and ceremonies of a Christian religious nature have been performed in recent times’ (1955, 193). Whilst such observances are recorded at many of my sites, in other cases the report is simply of a ‘spring well’. Lawlor discovered three wells at Nendrum, but for none of them could he find evidence of ‘holy’ traditions. [316] Of the sixty-six sites, forty-eight are certainly early on the evidence of written sources; four have certainly early material but no early written references; and the remaining fourteen are possibly but not certainly early sites. The wells are shown in Figure 14, but it must be emphasised that this is simply a map of wells at sites in my inventory. The distribution in Co. Antrim, for example, would be considerably denser with the inclusion of sites from Appendix A. There is no well recorded at Ahoghill, but there are at least two at small graveyards in the parish.

PLATE 83A: AGHALURCHER – ST. RONAN’S WELL.

A distinction is made on the map between wells at or near churches (up to about 100 yards away) and those further away.1 They rarely occur inside the graveyard the case of the Arboe pin well is unusual - but are often just outside it. A position at the foot of a hill is clearly an appropriate one for springs, as at Derrynoose, Errigal Keerogue and Tamlaghtard, or on a hill slope, as at Maghernahely. But wells are also found some distance from the graveyard - 600 yards up the mountain at Killevy; three furlongs away at Ramoan; five and a half at Antrim; quarter of a mile away at Bright; and half a mile at Kilrea. Obviously there is no certainty that a well has any connection with a distant church, but this point is discussed further below.

I have not come across the rich and varied traditions of Co. Limerick and Co. Kerry (Ó Danachair 1955 etc.), but the Ordnance Survey records include descriptions of elaborate rounds at Dungiven, and further research would certainly fill out the picture. Reports of cures are most prominent: wells sometimes have general beneficial effects, but sometimes offer more specialised cures. At Maghernahely the four wells were visited for ears, eyes, knees and backward children, and the three at Templemoyle (Co. Fermanagh, Appendix E) for ague, jaundice and scurvy. Clontivrin was famed for jaundice; Devenish for sore eyes and ‘back-going children’; Clonfeacle for eyes; and Errigal Keerogue for warts. Less beneficial, the lost well on Galloon turned users’ hair grey.

The wells usually seem to be springs, sometimes isolated ones - Aghalurcher in a meadow, Derryvullan on a hillside - but usually the source of a stream or a pool in a stream complex, as at Holywell and Tamlaghtard. 1.

It would be wrong to discuss cures at wells without some reference to other water cures. A note at the end of the ‘Litany of Irish Saints (II)’ shows that it was used with water as a charm: ‘Recite this [i.e.] the seven bishops, over water against boils, and jaundice, and every pestilence’ (Plummer 1925, 75).

The distinction has been attempted as a general guide and may well be defective in some respects. Reports of wells often do not give the location very precisely and my fieldwork on wells has been less thorough than for other features.

157

1.

The Isle of Man provides a good example of a holy well put to domestic use: Kermode and Bruce 1968, pl. XIV shows a pump over St. Catherine’s Well, Port Erin in the nineteenth century.

here the water element is more prominent than at Arboe (Ó Danachair 1955, 204). The practice of leaving an offering at a well is recorded from many parts of the world (Plummer 1910, I, clii). The most common offering at those wells which I have visited are rags tied onto nearby trees or bushes (Pl. 56b).

[318] It is clear that cures were not confined to water in holy wells. We have seen that water in bullaun stones has often been used for cures especially for warts (Pl. 51a, above). The empty socket in the cross-base at Kilkeel (Pl. 75b, above) collects water and is known as a wart well. Another cross-base, at Donacavey (Pl. 131b, above), collects rainwater, and though I have not heard of cures there, the coins and other offerings in the water suggest that it is visited for cures. The Ordnance Survey Memoir of Inishkeen refers to an empty crossbase: water from it was considered infallible for curing tooth-ache. In all these cases the water is the important element, regarded as potent for cures; the receptacle seems to be of secondary importance.

PLATE 56B: TAMLAGHTARD – HOLY WELL.

[319] These can be regarded as gifts, or the leaving may play some part in the cure. I came across nothing as spectacular as Doon well in Co. Donegal which is decked with crutches as well as bandages. The late Saxon poet Aelfric described how St. Swithun’s shrine at Winchester was hung about with crutches and cripples’ stools by grateful pilgrims (Quirk, R., Arch. J. 114 (1957), 42). Gifts also include coins, rosaries and religious pictures, and a wide variety of small objects that one might have in a pocket or bag. When the patron of the well is known it is commonly the patron of the parish – St. Bline at Killevy; St. Ronan at Aghalurcher; St. Lasser at Killesher; St. Naile at Kinawley; St. Kieran at Errigal Keerogue and so on. Sometimes, however, the name seems to have been changed or corrupted to a better-known figure; examples include Malachy for Mochua at Derrynoose; Aedan for Cadan at Tamlaghtard; and Brigid for Bronach at Kilbroney. Patrick dedications may well obscure an earlier patron, as at Holywell, Derryvullan and Termonamongan. A name may have been corrupted past recognition, such as at St. Kyrne-naGort of Kilmore (Co. Armagh), or perhaps simply made up in ignorance – St. Loona of Kilcluney. NonIrish patrons suggest re-dedications, such as St. Agnes at Maghernahely and St. Margaret at Mullaboy. When a site has several wells each has its own dedication. Armagh has St. Patrick’s, visited on the eve of the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, and St. Brigid’s; Derry had wells of Columba, Adamnan and Martin; Carrickmore shows greatest variety with at least five wells of SS. Columba, Stephen, Eugene, Brigid and Tobar na gConnallach.

PLATE 114A: ARBOE – ‘PIN WELL’.

The pin well at Arboe is unique in the north and deserves discussion. It is a beech tree – long dead – in the corner of the graveyard, struck with hundreds if not thousands of pins and pennies (Pl. 114a). These are hammered into the trunk and branches in the hope of favours and cures. It is said to catch moisture in the fork of trunk and branches, and this may be why it is called a ‘well’. But I suspect that we are concerned here not so much with water as with the equally well-known Celtic veneration for trees (discussed further in Chapter 7). In Rathkeale parish, Ballyallinan townland (Co. Limerick) St. Bernard’s well has arching over it a large ash tree into which nails are driven as offerings, but 158

Some knowledge of past or present observances at wells may throw some light on a site’s history, especially its patronage and perhaps links between sites.

Holy wells may in some cases, help to indicate the bounds of monastic lands. The potential is well illustrated by the Ordnance Survey map extract of Dunshaughlin chosen by J.H. Andrews, in which the holy well is clearly seen to lie on the northern edge of the great monastic enclosure (1974, 15, fig. 2). I have no clear case of this amongst my sites, but this may be one of the pieces of the jig-saw to fall into place when early ecclesiastical boundaries are more fully investigated and better understood.

[320] If we knew the dedication of the well and date of stations formerly held at Deshcart, for example, the doubts surrounding its early history would probably be resolved. We do have a report of the day on which stations were held at Toberdonnagh, Magheramayo townland, Drumgooland parish, and by reference to the ‘Martyrology of Tallaght’ we can restore a lost patron to the parish (discussed further in Chapter 4).

Can wells provide any clues to the origins of churches? This is an area where great caution is needed. The gloss to ‘Ross Glanda’ in the ‘Martyrology of Gorman’ indicated a tradition that the well was there ‘before Patrick’, and there is a reference in the ‘Tripartite Life’ to a church founded at the site of a well revered by pagans (Stokes 1887, 123).

The well at Galloon was traditionally linked with a well in Drummully parish. All the present associations of Holywell are with Patrick, and the church is in Cleenish parish, but the report of stations on the last Sunday in July suggests a possible link with Colmán of Galloon (28 July). The Patrick dedication of Kilcoo well cannot, unfortunately, be said to clarify the history of this obscure but interesting site as re-dedications to Patrick are very common.

1.

Of 163 holy wells listed by Ó Danachair in Co. Limerick only about 24 are described as being at or near churches (1955, 202-17). Others may be, but it would require a map search to pursue this further.

[322] Plummer believed firmly that wells and water were ‘one of the departments in which the christianisation of localities and customs originally heathen can be most clearly traced’ (1910, I cxlix). Petrie, Wakeman and other nineteenth-century scholars assumed that churches were founded at wells by pagans (Wakeman 1885-6, 296-300). This is difficult to prove or disprove. It may have happened in some places, and in the north Holywell and Struel (Appendix D) seem to me possible cases. But on the whole I prefer to see not a 1arge scale Christianising of pagan places of worship but the persistence within the church at a popular level of a deeply engrained veneration for water. This is the level of the later saints’ ‘Lives’ with their strong magical, wonder-working elements, rather than the earlier sources in which water does not seem to bulk so large. We have seen that a good water supply was necessary to a church, and I see this as one of the principal factors in the choice of sites.

Wells can sometimes provide a clue to the whereabouts of lost churches. A well may continue to be remembered long after other traces have disappeared. The mound close to the well in Kiltober townland is a possible church site, as is the site of Tober Saint Feber in Killydrum townland, marked also by a bullaun stone. At Mullaboy the only clue to the field in which the church probably stood is St. Margaret’s well, alleged never to run dry. Could a well be a pointer to the moving of a church? There are indications that Drumbulcan may be an earlier, church site than Rasharkin village: burials, a souterrain and a holy well are reported at Drumbulcan. It cannot be claimed, however, that a holy well necessarily indicates an early church site. We have seen that some wells are quite far from churches, and detailed area studies show that whilst many do have ecclesiastical connections,

Finally exploration of wells can lead to the discovery of archaeological material. If there are structural remains these are likely to be recent, like the grotto at Derrynoose, but built into the modern surround of the well at Aghalurcher is an early cross-carved stone (Pl. 83b, above), perhaps brought from the church site a quarter of a mile away. Hollowed stones, marks of ‘knees’ and ‘crosiers’ are reported beside some wells, for example at Magheramesk (Co. Antrim, Appendix A).

[321] ‘many others are not in any way associated with ancient remains’ (Ó Danachair 1955, 196).1 St. Lowry’s well, for example, on a rough hillside in Ballycrum townland (Co. Londonderry, Appendix C), is traditionally the spot where Lurach baptised Cainnech, but there is no sign at all of it ever having been a church site. Ó Danachair has discovered several dedications in the south west which appear to be medieval, though re-dedications cannot be ruled out (1955, 198-9).

Holy wells, once common in the field, are rapidly disappearing. They have been the target of legislation in the distant past, against pagan practices (Cordner 1946, 24-5) and more recently against ‘riotous and unlawful assembling together of many thousands of papists to the said wells and other places’ (VI Anne 3, quoted in Ó Danachair 1955, 200).

Friars’ Well at Donaghrisk and the Nun’s Well at Layd may belong to this group, but what is one to make of St. Finnian’s Well at Erenagh (Co. Down), a Savignac foundation of 1127? Stone-lined graves nearby suggest the possibility of an earlier church, but it is equally likely that the devotion to the well dates only from the twelfth century. 159

[323] Neglect is now their enemy. Since the work of the Ordnance Survey in the 1830s and 1840s very many have disappeared. Joseph Skillen in 1938 pointed out how few of the wells mentioned in O’Laverty’s volumes survived (in U.J.A. 1 (1938), 83), and identification of wells often calls for long search and enquiry. For this reason it is important to preserve what can still be gathered about wells and their cults.

I hope I have demonstrated that wells do deserve a place in any study of the early church, even if there are, and will probably remain, many areas of uncertainty. They are one of the many strands of evidence which must be considered in building up as full a picture as possible of the early Irish church.

160

FIG. 15: MAP OF ECCLESIASTICAL METALWORK.

x) THE MONASTIC ECONOMY: SUBSISTENCE, SCHOLARSHIP AND TECHNOLOGY The ‘Life of Molua’ describes how the saint, approaching death, advises his monks ‘Vacate semper orationibus mane, postea lectionibus; deinde operamini (sic ipse diuidebat diem in tres partes) usque ad vesperam; vacantes ad opera Dei et alias necessitates ’ (Plummer 1910, II, 223); and the ‘Rule of Columba’ similarly envisages three activities in the day, prayer, reading and labour (Haddan and Stubbs 1878, 120).

vegetables, beans, flour mixed with water, together with the small bread of a loaf’ (Bieler 1966, 35). ‘Ailbe’s Rule’ mentions a more palatable diet of salt meat, mead, warm milk, dry bread and cress (O’Neill, 1907, 105), and the customs of Tallaght allowed beer (though not for the most austere), mead, milk, whey and water, and bread, butter, porridge, bacon, meat, kale, blackberries, nuts and the flesh of wild deer and swan (Gwynn and Purton 1911, passim). It is likely that the regime of most monasteries approximated to the general Early Christian pattern, admirably reconstructed by Dr. Ó Corráin (1972, chapt. 2), involving a wide range of milk products, cereals, vegetables, apples and a certain amount of meat and fish.

We have seen how sundials indicated divisions of the day and the main hours of prayer, and now the northern evidence for the other two activities will be reviewed, together with some information from written sources.1 1.

Vast areas of specialist study are involved here, of manuscripts, artefacts, technology, and I have attempted to do no more than assemble the evidence in the inventory and review it briefly here.

Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ allows a few glimpses of arable farming and the topography of the fields (all page references are to Anderson 1961). When Columba visited Clonmacnois: ‘all those that were in the fields near the monastery came from every side, and joined those that were within it’ to greet him (215). On Iona the monks travelled some distance to work on the harvest (283), and they built stone enclosures in the western plain, though we do not learn what they were for (391).

[324] Turning first to subsistence, we find that the rules include some details of food and drink. ‘Columbanus’s Rule’, probably based on late sixth-century Bangor practice, insists: ‘Let the monks’ food be poor and taken in the evening, such as to avoid repletion, and their drink such as to avoid intoxication ...: 161

At Tallaght, Maelruain and his companion: ‘came in front of the brethren out of the garden over the stile into the field’ (Gwynn and Purton 1911, 130). On the ground, however, traces of fields and other agricultural enclosures tend to be elusive near monastic as well as ring-fort sites.

vi). Iron ploughshares and coulters have been excavated in raths and cashels (Duignan 1944 and Co. Down 1966, 137-8), and the monasteries are not likely to have lagged behind contemporary secular technology; indeed they may have been in the van of agricultural advances (Mitchell 1965, 129; Ó Corráin 1972, 49).

[325] The impressive complex of banks at Ardpatrick (Co. Limerick) includes small rectangular terraced features, perhaps fields, as well as the main curvilinear enclosure (Norman and St. Joseph 1969, pl. 61). In the north the only site at which possible fields have yet been recognised is Devenish (Pl. 3), but these are difficult to trace on the ground and not always clear even from the air.

[326] Cereal grain impressions have been noted on souterrain-ware sherds from Nendrum and Maghera, and querns have been excavated at those sites and Kilnasaggart. They may have been ubiquitous at monasteries: they occur as loose finds at many, including Killevy, Killyman, Devenish, Inishmacsaint, White Island and Clogher. The likely function of some bullauns as mortars for crushing and grinding a wide variety of foods has already been discussed (above, Section (viii)). The farming economy of Early Christian Ireland was clearly mixed, but all written sources, secular and ecclesiastical, attest the importance of stock (e.g. Plummer 1910, I, cxv-vii). The ‘Triads of Ireland’ link with ‘the swish of a plough’, ‘the lowing of a cow in milk’, as ‘sounds of plenty’ (Meyer 1959, 103). Oxen were used for ploughing and draught and cows for breeding and milk. Sheep seem to have been kept primarily for wool and secondarily for milk and meat. Pigs were important for meat, and a major item in their diet seems to have been mast, for the annals record years of abundance of mast, and Dr. Ó Corráin points out that mast was sold as a cash crop at Armagh in the eleventh century (1971, 56-7 and 73-4). Skin, bone, wool, hair and horn would all have been put to good use. Stock farming and dairying leave little trace above ground, but excavation can uncover food remains. Animal bones have been recovered in huge quantities from some secular settlements (references in Proudfoot 1961), but there has not yet been any detailed study of a large sample of bones from a northern ecclesiastical site. The bones from Armagh (Castle Street) included deer as well as cattle and pig, whilst at

PLATE 3: DEVENISH – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH FROM SOUTH EAST.

There seems to be an area of small rectangular enclosures with rounded corners, rather reminiscent of ‘Celtic fields’, north of St. Mary’s, the round tower and Teampull Mór, and to the south are other ill-defined enclosures and a hint of two segments of a large circle. Though the excavation of arable fields is not very rewarding, some investigation of these slight banks would be useful. There are two small rectangular fields with massive embanked hedges north-west of the church on Inishmacsaint and a squarish enclosure to the west, and it is not impossible that these have some connection with the monastery. In the case of very large or multiple circuits, like Nendrum, I think it reasonable to imagine vegetable plots, orchards, paddocks and even hay or arable fields in the outer most parts of the enclosure. Air photography clearly offers the best hope of advancing our scanty knowledge of monastic fields and other agricultural enclosures.

[327] Nendrum animal bones and shells of locally available seafood were common1, and some of the perforated stones could have been net-sinkers. Stranded whales and other large sea creatures must have been used for food and oil. A.U. describes a dramatic event in 753 when a whale was washed ashore in Bairche (the Mourne area). It was found to have three gold teeth ‘and one of the teeth was taken to and was on the altar of Bennchair this year.’ There are, however, indications that the monastic food supply was not always secure, and I suggested in Chapter 4 that economic failure could have led to the abandonment of some foundations. It would be interesting to know what lies behind the story that milk and butter were sent from Drummully to Galloon on a flag-stone each morning. Could it have been in a time of shortage, or is it an echo of transhumance? One of Columba’s last acts before his death, described in great circumstantial detail by Adamnan, was to satisfy himself

Saints’ ‘Lives’ refer to all the stages in the arable year, to ploughing, spade cultivation, sowing, harrowing, reaping, corn-drying, and milling with water-driven mills and by hand (Anderson 1961, passim and Plummer 1910, I, xcv162

that the barns were well enough stocked with grain to see his ‘family’ through until the next harvest (Anderson 1961, 521); and shortly before his death Molua urged his monks ‘Bene colite terram, et bene laborate, ut habaetis sufficientiam cibi et potus et vestitus’ (Plummer 1910, II, 223). A small community in poor agricultural land could have experienced difficulty: bad weather is always a hazard, and the exceptions allowed to the ‘Law of Sunday’ included saving a crop of corn or hay from plunderers and helping a cow in a swamp or cattle attacked by wolves (O’Keeffe 1905, 209). 1.

way. The set of waxed wooden tablets is tied together with a leather strap and inscribed with parts of two psalms in the Vulgate version. A seventh-century date has been suggested for the cursive minuscule (Bischoff, cited in Hillgarth 1962, 184).1 Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’, written probably between 688 and 692, mentions writing on a tablet and in a book, an ink horn and book satchels, and Columba is shown writing in his special writing hut and carefully checking a text (Anderson 1961, 379, 259, 343-5, 257). The ‘Life of Molaise of Devenish’ describes how the saint, finding himself without a writing instrument lifted his hands to birds flying overhead and, of course, ‘penna una cecidit’ (Plummer 1910, II, 135).

A rich midden excavated on Iona contained large quantities of bones from ‘prime cuts’ of beef also venison, sheep, pigs, goats, seals, domestic fowl, seabirds, shell-fish and deepwater fish: Reece, R., in Scottish Archaeological Forum 5 (1974), 42-4. Ó Corráin 1972, 58-61 discusses the importance of fishing in Early Christian Ireland.

The Nendrum ‘school’ produced iron styles which would have been used with waxed tablets like those from Springmount Bog, and a possible stylus was amongst the excavated Armagh finds. Lawlor’s identification of an iron point from Nendrum as a compass arm is doubtful, but several small mortars stained red may well have been used for grinding pigments. Styles are known also from excavated Northumbrian monasteries, including Whitby and Jarrow (e.g. Peers and Radford 1943, fig. 15).

[328] The impression given by Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ is that the monks themselves were responsible for the agricultural round, but it is also clear from written sources that manaig were important in the economy of Irish monasteries. The ‘Rule of Patrick’ deals with the rights and duties of the manaig: any church which fails in the spiritual care of its clients is not to receive ‘tithes or the heriot cow’; and the manach’s services include ploughing (O’Keeffe 1904, 222-3). The secular law makes similar stipulations.

1.

It is now widely agreed that the inscribed waxed tablets from a bog near Maghera (Co. Londonderry) are late medieval or even sixteenth-century: Hillgarth 1962, 184.

[330] Three of the great centres of Irish monastic scholarship were Bangor, Movilla and Armagh. Robin Flower showed how already in the late sixth and seventh centuries Bangor had emerged as a lively centre of learning in which both the Latin and vernacular traditions were valued and studied (1947, chap. 1). The Latin element is illustrated by the hymns collected in the ‘Antiphonary of Bangor’, a manuscript written probably between 680 and 691, and the vernacular by active historical studies which almost certainly included the keeping of an annual chronicle, later to be incorporated in the Annals of Ulster. Bangor clerics were active during the seventh-century controversies over Easter and other matters. An abbot of Bangor who died in 610, Mo Sinu maccu Min, was famous as the first Irishman to lean the computus, the method of working out the dates of festivals. Three Bangor scribes appear in eighth-century annals more than any other Irish house (Hughes 1958). References to scribes do continue after the 823-4 Viking raid, but the last mention is in 929 when ‘Ceile, comarb of Comgall, a scribe and anchorite, and Apostolic doctor of all Ireland, rested happily at Rome on his pilgrimage’ (A.U.). Bangor was clearly vulnerable to sea borne attack, but Dr. Hughes (op. cit.) points out another factor: though it was the chief house of the Dál nAraidi, this was a minor kingdom, without the resources to ensure the monastery’s continued prosperity, and so Bangor declined in importance after its brilliant start.

The impression I have gained is that the manaig both helped with the monastic lands and stock, and also had their individual holdings from which tithes of produce were due; that is, they owed what an English medieval villein owed both to his lord and to the parish church, for the monastery was the lord of the manaig in all matters. The role of their wives emerges less clearly from the sources, but it is likely that they cared for stock. In some saints’ ‘Lives’ women are associated with keeping cows and sheep, and, by an unkind piece of ascetic reasoning, with sin: ‘In hoc loco non ero; ubi enim ovis, ibi mulier, ubi mulier, ibi peccatum, ubi peccatum, ibi diabolus, et ubi diabolus, ibi infernus’ (Plummer 1910, I, cxxi). Manaig families also owed the church their first-born son, who would receive a monastic education, and it is to education and scholarship that we must now turn. Christianity brought a rich written tradition of Latin learning to add to Ireland’s own rich oral inheritance of scholarship and legend. Although the ‘Tripartite Life’ is late, its picture of Patrick distributing alphabets and gospel books (Stokes 1887, e.g. 139 and 191) reminds us that early missionaries must have taught reading and writing, and Professor Dillon has pointed out how many Irish words connected with literacy are Latin borrowings (1954, 16). [329] Though far from our area, the Kilmalkedar (Co. Kerry) alphabet stone, which may on epigraphic rounds be dated to the sixth century (Lionard 1961, 108), shows one way in which a knowledge of the alphabet could have been passed on; and a precious find from Springmount Bog (Co. Antrim) indicates another, more perishable

Another famous scholarly centre was nearby Movilla, chief monastery of Ulidia. Its founder, Finnian, who died in 579 or 580 (A.U.), was believed to have brought St. Jerome’s Vulgate to Ireland, and he may have been the author of the ‘Penitential of Vinnian’, the earliest of the 163

Irish penitentials. Movilla monks were also active in the Easter controversy and a Latin hymn has survived by an eighth-century abbot.

how many English were in Ireland at the time of the 664 plague, seeking either learning or a more ascetic life: ‘the Scotti willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food, as also to furnish them with books to read, and their teaching, free of charge (H.E. III, 27). But it was not a one-way traffic: in ‘De Abbatibus’ we hear of the scribe, Ultan, ‘a blessed priest of the Irish race, and he could ornament books with fair marking’ (Campbell 1967, chap. VII), and the founder of the cell had been to Ireland to study and take advice about its foundation in about 700 (ibid. chap. VI). It is surely contacts of this kind that lie at the root of continuing controversies over the place of production of many Hiberno-Saxon illuminated manuscripts.

[331] Much later, it was from Movilla that the scholar Marianus Scottus travelled to the Continent in 1056. Though Armagh emerged as a scholarly centre later than Bangor and Movilla, it had gained pre-eminence by the ninth century - when scribes’ obits are numerous - and never lost it. The scriptorium and school clearly survived the fierce Viking attacks on Armagh, and in 1162 the Synod of Clane decreed that every ‘lector’ of an Irish church was to have studied at Armagh. The Trian Saxan may have been named after English students, but the name first appears only in 1092, and other English elements, for example commercial ones, could have been involved. Much Armagh scholarship was devoted to providing good historical credentials for a far-flung paruchia Patricii: the early eighth-century ‘Book of the Angel’, using seventh-century sources is partly directed to this end, and the ‘Book of Armagh’, dated by its colophon to 807, brought together the main Patrician texts with the ‘New Testament’ and the ‘Life of Martin of Tours’. The script is handsome but the decoration restrained, largely confined to modest elaboration of initials.

[333] Dr. Henry suggested Derry as a possible source for the ‘Book of Durrow’ (1965, 173), but opinion now strongly favours Northumbria (Brown 1972 for a recent discussion of the problems). Giraldus Cambrensis was full of admiration for a decorated gospel book at Kildare: a casual observer will see ‘mere daubs ... nothing subtle where everything is subtle. But if you take the trouble to look very closely … you will notice such intricacies, so delicate and subtle, so close together and well-knitted, so involved and bound together, and so fresh still in their colourings that you will not hesitate to declare that all these things must have been the result of the work, not of men, but of angels’ (O’Meara 1951, 67). Fine books were precious possessions, treated with great veneration, and used not just for reading, but sometimes as mascots in battle (St. Columba’s ‘Cathach’, the ‘Battler’); or for solemnising oaths (the ‘Book of Armagh’ in 1196: A.U.); and the ‘Gospel of Martin’ was carried off from Dunboe by the English in 1182 (A.U.) as a prize of war.

These three were the most important but certainly not the only centres of scholarship in the north. Though no scribes are attributed to Killevy in the annals, the surviving written sources suggest a scholarly tradition there: parts of Conchubranus’ ‘Life of Monenna’ may be as early as the seventh century; hymns in Monenna’s honour were composed in the seventh or eighth; and a list of her successors was compiled in the ninth. Scribes appear in the Annals of Ulster at Derry (724); Errigal Keerogue, which is otherwise poorly documented (810); Clogher and Devenish (869); Nendrum (873); a ‘learned bishop’ at Down (955); and a ‘master of learning’ at Arboe (1103).

It seems to have been common practice to protect books in leather satchels, and according to a gloss in the ‘Martyrology of Oengus’, when a certain scholar died ‘all the book satchels of Ireland fell down that night’ (Stokes 1905, 198). Perhaps they fell from the projecting stones in some round towers and corbelled huts. Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ describes miracles involving books and satchels (Anderson 1961, 343-5); and satchels are especially clear in some Scottish stone-carving, including two stones from Papil, Shetland (Wainwright 1964, pls 13-14). The leather satchel of the ‘Book of Armagh’ seems designed for a larger book and was not certainly made for the Armagh volume. The date of its manufacture is also uncertain: Waterer inclines towards an eleventh or twelfth-century date for its crowded decoration (1968, 80-1), but it could be later.

[332] According to the ‘Life of Fintan Munnu’, there was a famous but harsh school on Cleenish under Sinell (full quotation in the inventory). The ‘Life of Molua’ shows him travelling from Munster to Ulster to study at Bangor with Comgall, who taught him the alphabet (Plummer 1910, II, 210), and Colmán of Dromore studied at Nendrum (Heist 1965, 358). Even though the detail of these late ‘Lives’ is often suspect, the general impression of extensive travel for study at distinguished centres may well be trustworthy (Plummer 1910, I, cxv). Bangor was the base from which Columbanus, well versed in both Christian and secular Latin leaning, left for his missionary work in France and Italy at the end of the sixth century (Bieler 1966, especially 84-92), and the ‘Antiphonary of Bangor’ was among the manuscripts that found their way to his foundation at Bobbio. There must have been constant travel between the north of Ireland and Scottish Dál Riata, especially Iona, and in the early seventh century at least, to Northumbria. Bede records

[334] Precious books were also enshrined. A shrine was made for the ‘Book of Armagh’ in 939 (A.U.) but it does not survive. The shine for Molaise’s gospel book, ‘Soiscél Molaise’, is dated by its inscription to between 1001 and 1025, but it incorporates a possibly eighthcentury fragment, perhaps from a different kind of shrine (Raftery 1941, 120). The eleventh-century work exhibits fragments of the ring-chain motif, popular in Viking 164

stone-carving in the Isle of Man (Kermode 1907), but not common in Ireland. The ‘Soiscél Molaise’ was used for swearing as late as the mid-nineteenth century. The other surviving northern book shrine was made for the gospels given, according to the ‘Tripartite Life’, to Mac Carthinn by Patrick, ‘the Domnach-Airgit which had been sent to Patrick from heaven when he was at sea coming towards Ireland’ (Stokes 1887, 175-7). The shrine is late medieval but it incorporates two clearly earlier panels, of roughly worked interlaced knots against a hatched ground (Henry 1965, pl. 55). Opinion is divided between an eighth and ninth-century date (Henry 1965, 98 and Raftery 1941, 119-20).

was melted down and spread on all the iron tools of the monastery (Anderson 1961, 393). An iron smith appears using tongs in Molua’s ‘Life’ (Plummer 1910, II, 211), and in an Anglo-Saxon monastery - but one with strong Irish connections - brother Cwicwine ‘could control and shape metals of the iron variety. His hammer under wise guidance crashed onto the iron placed under it in different positions on the anvil, while the forge roared’ (‘De Abbatibus’: Campbell 1967, chap. X). Archaeologically the production of this material raises many interesting but difficult questions. There is the problem of contacts between pagan craftsmen, their types and techniques, and the early generations of churchmen and ecclesiastical craftsmen. Did the young church have to rely on secular suppliers? How soon did monasteries support specialist craftsmen, and when there were craftsmen in monasteries, what was their relationship with craftsmen working in secular contexts? Did monasteries employ peripatetic workers? There is also the question of how far workers specialised in a particular medium - stone, iron, bronze, wood, manuscript illumination - or practised several skills. I have found no answers to these questions in the written sources, and the material evidence available in the north gives only a little help. The Dublin excavations have greatly increased our knowledge of secular crafts in the Viking period and later (Ó Ríordáin, B., in Med. Arch. 15 (1971), 73-85), and more excavation of monastic sites is needed to carry the enquiry further. Here I will simply outline the excavated northern material.

Craftsmen of many kinds were highly regarded in Early Christian society, members of the aes dána, privileged for their skills rather than their birth (Dillon 1954, 57).1 Secular legislation allows us to imagine a great variety of crafts: ‘wrights and blacksmiths and brasiers and whitesmiths… the wright of oaken houses, of ships and hide-covered vessels ... the millwright, the master in yew carving…workings in wood, cloth, shields, leather, fetters, wool’ (MacNeill 1923, 277, 279, 280). 1.

The ruined church at Drumeeny is called ‘Gobban Saer’s Castle’ after the mythical ‘wright’ of literature and folk-tales (Plummer 1910, I, clxiii-iv and MacCana 1970, 35-7).

[335] Evidence for iron-smelting had been found at at least two-thirds of excavated ring-forts to 1955 (Proudfoot 1961, 112), and more recent excavations have confirmed that iron-working was widespread. More specialised manufacturing was carried out at Garranes and Ballycatteen (both Co. Cork), including fine bronzeworking and the making of enamel and millefiori glass, and crucibles have been found at Castle Skreen 2 and elsewhere (ibid. 115-6).

[337] Debris from iron smelting seems common at churches as at raths and cashels. Slag and other smelting waste and an unfinished axe or wedge suggest an iron smith’s workshop at Nendrum, and a wide variety of iron products included ironwork from the timber parts of the ‘school’ (Lawlor 1925). Armagh (Castle Street) produced slag and other debris and I finished pieces including knives and shears. Slag has also been found at Co. Londonderry churches, Downpatrick and Maghera, where there were also ‘furnace bottoms’ similar to those excavated at St. Gobnet’s House, Ballyvourney (Co. Cork). Here there was much evidence of iron smelting but this phase could not certainly be attributed to the ecclesiastical use of the site (O’Kelly 1952), and the same doubt must remain about the Armagh and Downpatrick material until further excavation clarifies the early settlement and topography of those two important hill tops.

The church must have been a massive consumer and, presumably, also producer of metalwork and other manufactured goods. Well-organised centres of population, receiving tributes and fees, farming successfully, they could have supported skilled craftsmen. The ‘Tripartite Life’, looking back from the viewpoint of the late ninth century, envisages Patrick travelling with a substantial household of craftsmen and domestics - his cook, brewer, waiters, artisans including Tassach of Raholp, a copper smith and others (Stokes 1887, 265, 267, 97). We know from the ‘Confession’ that he gave presents to local rulers to win support (Bieler 1953, 37) and the ‘Tripartite Life’ describes liberal gifts of bells, croziers, pattens, chalices, book-covers, altar cloths to churches (Stokes op. cit. e.g. 251-3), to the writer clearly important items of ecclesiastical equipment. The ‘Rule of Patrick’ stipulated: ‘there should be fittings on each altar and portable altar and consecrated linen cloths, for the church which has not its proper equipment is not entitled to the fine of God’s church, and it is not a church’ (O’Keeffe 1904, 223).

There is much evidence at Armagh and Nendrum for fine bronze working including slag, crucibles, clay moulds for fine castings, stone moulds for ingots (at Armagh) and an unfinished brooch (Nendrum), and both produced stone moulds or formers for small lamps or ladles, presumably for use with thin sheet metal. Fine finished products from these sites included brooches, pins and strap-ends (e.g. Co. Down 1966, fig. 80). We have already come across the likely bronzeworking hut at Nendrum (above, Section (iii)) and here

[336] Written sources also show craftsmen at work in monasteries. The metal of a dagger blessed by Columba 165

we can recall that one of the three worst welcomes, according to the ‘Triads of Ireland’, was ‘a handicraft in the same house with the inmates’ (Meyer 1959, 102), which adds a little support to the suggestion that the living quarters at Nendrum were somewhere else. There is no evidence of gold or silver working, but two sticks of enamel were found at Armagh.

suggest that the pots were used for cooking directly on a fire. Other vessels must have been made of perishable materials like wood, leather, cloth, basketry and straw, and these will survive only in exceptional conditions. The finds of amber and German glass indicate overseas contacts, and another exotic material is sub-Roman imported pottery. Finds are still very sparse on excavated church sites in the whole of Ireland, and the northern material is confined ‘to E-ware at Downpatrick, single sherds of E-ware at Nendrum and Slievegrane Lower, near Saul, two sherds at Armagh and a possible sherd (lost) from Chapel Island. The absence of other finds of imported pottery at Nendrum is noteworthy, as is the lack of A and B-ware at excavated sites, and though E-ware points to some kind of Gaulish contacts in the sixth and seventh centuries, the significance of such small quantities

[338] One of the designs on the Nendrum stone ‘trial pieces’ is for a penannular brooch, presumably to be made in bronze, perhaps with enamel settings in the terminals. The Nendrum stones show a wide range from rough, unskilled work to quite elaborate and sophisticated designs, including compass work, and the range of motifs is also varied (Co. Down 1966, pls 79-81). The Armagh trial pieces are rough, as are two littleknown stones from the River Bann (near Culbane, Co. Londonderry). One is a whetstone with lightly scratched knots, a pelta, a triskele and some rather random interlace and aimless lines. The other stone has more accomplished designs including more complicated knots and triskeles, a lozenge, a pelta and compass-drawn circles. Although in the inventory I have mentioned the nearest church sites, trial pieces are not a specifically ecclesiastical type.

1.

The sites are Antrim, Ardclinis, Armagh (Castle Camus (Co. Londonderry: U.J.A. 8 (1945), 60-2), Island, Derry (Co. Down), Downpatrick, Drumbo, (from the souterrain), Kilnasaggart, Maghera (Co. and Nendrum.

Street), Chapel Errigal Down)

[340] of sherds remains rather problematic.1

The mound at Gransha (Co. Down), recently produced some impressive examples, and that is certainly not a church site. Unskilled designs suggest tentative sketches by ‘apprentices’, more elaborate ones perhaps serious schemes contemplated by experienced craftsmen. Both are appropriate in a monastic workshop, housing specialists and ‘learners’.

Figure 15 shows the ecclesiastical metalwork objects that survive and some sites where material is reported.2 The quantity is considerable, especially the number of bells, and the concentration of bells in Co. Tyrone is in contrast to the meagre remains of the other types of material already discussed in this chapter. Bells seem to survive more commonly than crosiers. Of all the items of equipment crosiers seem to have been most venerated, and so they could have been particularly vulnerable to destruction by hostile forces. Bells could also have remained in liturgical use, and this could have aided their survival.

The Nendrum finds included a stone mould for making glass beads and Armagh produced one stick of blue glass and a piece of an imported Germanic beaker. Glass beads have also been excavated at Kilnasaggart, Maghera and Raholp. An amber bead is reported from Cashel (Co. Armagh), and one of the Shankill crosier mounts, discussed below, has amber settings. Stone objects were found in quantity at Nendrum, including weights, probably for fishing nets and looms and perhaps for thatch roofs, also spindle whorls, whetstones, strike-alights and moulds, and Armagh produced a similar range, as well as waste material from the manufacture of jet or lignite objects.

A practice which helped to ensure the preservation of much ecclesiastical metalwork was the entrusting of precious items to a family of ‘keepers’. The three most precious Armagh objects were in the keeping of prominent local families - the ‘Book of Armagh’ by the MacMoyers; the ‘Bachall Iosa’ by the Clann Sionaich; and the ‘Clog-Phadruig’ by the O Maelchallons (Reeves 1877). These arrangements left their mark on placenames, for the keepers of the ‘Book’ were resident in Ballymyre, and the keepers of the bell had lands in Ballyclog. Some confusion can arise over the original location of objects when they have been moved, perhaps because the keeper family has moved.

[339] Good stone for querns may have been transported, as granite was for use in St. John’s Point church, and an unfinished quern from Kilnasaggart suggests that the stone was being worked on the site.

1.

Souterrain-ware is common at excavated church sites in the east, as in raths and cashels, though the westerly limits of its distribution remain to be clarified. It has been found at or very close to at least twelve sites in my inventory, though some doubt remains about finds which cannot be traced, like those from Antrim and Chapel Island.1 This simple pottery requires no advanced technology and could easily have been made on the sites. Carbonised remains inside and heavy sooting outside

2.

166

Study of this pottery in the British Isles and its home lands is active, and recent work on dating and sources has not yet reached print: Thomas 1971, 23-5 is one of the most recent statements of how things stand, with references to earlier publications, and Thomas and Peacock discuss E-ware in Cornish Archaeol. 6 (1967), 35-46. I hope it is complete for provenanced material, but there are some other objects from the Bann which I have not been able to pursue, as well as un-provenanced items in the Ulster Museums, especially bells, which may have come from northern sites.

[341] There is little problem with famous relics, like the ‘Domnach Airgid’, which was kept at Aghavea in Co. Fermanagh, because the Clogher connection remained well-remembered; but the so-called ‘Bell of Clogher’ associated with Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) presents a problem, and the ‘Ardclinis Crosier’ is not entirely certainly from Ardclinis. Other material is reported from sites with no ecclesiastical associations, like the bell from near Ballymoney, and two bells in the National Museum Dublin are provenanced no more closely than ‘a Newry scrap metal dealer’. So our material ranges from famous, well-preserved and fully documented pieces, like the Armagh bell shrine, to poorly recorded, un-provenanced and lost objects.

(1967, 115) and this would again be early in the series. The Ardclinis Crosier, on the other hand, is late: Dr. Raftery suggests it is perhaps ‘the latest Irish crosier conforming to the old pattern’ (1941, 59). The general impression is fully medieval, but the earliest decoration may be twelfth-century. A fragment, acquired from the rector of Ardtrea and once used for storing tobacco, is a crosier drop. [343] The decoration of interlace and feathered hatching is rough but it is possible that a piece of amber, reported to have been sold separately, was the missing central setting. Dr. MacDermott’s detailed analysis of several crosiers has shown how many are composite works, a later shrine often incorporating earlier panels (1955 and 1957). The eleventh and twelfth centuries were clearly a period when many crosiers were enshrined or reenshrined, but none of the impressive examples of that time has a northern provenance. In the twelfth century the Continental form of spiral-headed crosier superseded the older kind (e.g. Raftery 1941, pl. 100). In stone-carving we have already come across the earlier type at Killadeas and White Island (Pls 105a and 109a, see above) and the later one on the Maghera (Co. Londonderry) west door (Pl. 53b, above).

Probably the most revered relic in all Ireland was the ‘Bachall Iosa’, Patrick’s staff, said (in the notes on Fíacc’s ‘Hymn’) to have come from overseas and to have been encased by Tassach (Stokes 1887, 421, 425). It appears in the Annals of Ulster in 789, when it was dishonoured, and there are frequent references thereafter, showing that the staff was used for swearing, carrying into battle and peace-making, and the ‘Tripartite Life’ shows Patrick using it against a stone idol and for marking out churches (Stokes op. cit., 91 and 237). Its dishonouring was a serious offence, and its burning by the English in 1538 must have been a grievous loss, bitterly resented. Other northern crosiers known only from written sources are Comgall’s at Bangor; Bronach’s at Kilbroney; Monenna’s at Killevy (which appears in her ‘Life’ as a wonder-working instrument, but then was thought to have been taken overseas (Esposito 1910, 214, 235)); and a staff at Donaghedy.

There seems to be no map of ecclesiastical bells in Ireland, but Figure 15 shows that they are widely distributed in the north. Many writers have noted the special veneration of the churches of the Celtic-speaking peoples for bells, and an early witness was Giraldus Cambrensis: ‘I should not omit to mention also that the people and clergy of both Wales and Ireland have a great reverence for bells that can be carried about, and staffs belonging to the saints’ (O’Meara 1951, 100). Their primary purpose was to summon people to prayer: in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ we find a bell struck to call the monks to church (Anderson 1961, 227) and a poet writes of the ‘sweet little bell that is struck in the windy night’ (Meyer 1959, 101). But, like crosiers, they were also used for swearing and other purposes, and they bulk large in saints’ ‘Lives’, especially in accounts of miracles (Plummer 1910, I, clxxvii-viii). Lasair of Aghavea used her bell for holding water and for collecting money, whilst Naile of Kinawley used his wonder-working bell for baptising, and his ‘Life’ includes a long poem in its praise.

[342] The ‘Tripartite Life’ describes how Machaoi’s crosier, the ‘Etech’ (‘Winged Thing’) fell to his bosom from heaven (Stokes 1887, 41), and the ‘Life of Samthanne’, associated with Urney, mentions a wooden staff being covered with gold (Plummer 1910, II, 258). Of all these there seems to be no surviving trace. The earliest crosier fragments from a northern site are probably the three from Shankill (Belfast), and unfortunately the circumstances of their finding are very obscure. One is a terminal for the head; another, a ferrule lacking the point; and the third, a mount probably for the shaft. The decoration includes interlace in a kerbschnitt style and handsome spirals, and two of the pieces have amber settings. They markedly lack the features which characterise the surviving eleventh and twelfth-century crosiers, and on the grounds of their decoration an eighth or ninth-century date seems likely. This would make them amongst the earliest Irish crosier fragments (Raftery 1941, 57-9), which must increase our regret at the obscurity surrounding the site. The almost complete crosier from the Bann at Toome illustrates well the basic elements - wooden staff, sheet bronze casing, fastened with rivets, with moulded knops, ferrule, drop and crest. The decoration is simple, incised lines, mouldings and perforations in the crest, again lacking the refinements of the later crosiers. These features and the general shape suggest to Dr. Henry a date in the ninth or tenth centuries

[344] In quite recent times some bells have been used for swearing, plighting troth and at funerals. Carrickmore (Termonmaguirk) bell was known as ‘God’s Vengeance’ because of its use for swearing, and the ‘Bell of Armagh’ was rung at funerals in the Seagoe area until the early nineteenth century. It has long been recognised that the ecclesiastical bell in its simplest form is the same as a cow bell1, of an iron sheet or sheets, folded, mitred at the top, riveted at the sides, with a handle separately riveted on. Technologically an advance on this was to coat the iron with bronze (often now surviving only in patches). This process would improve the appearance, covering joins in 167

the iron sheeting, and it might have improved the sound as well. A further technological stage was to cast the bell in bronze, and the smooth surface could be inscribed or decorated. This is likely to be a chronological as well as a technological progression, but iron bells probably continued to be made, for a heavy bronze casting was clearly more difficult and costly to produce than a riveted sheet iron bell.

The weight of the larger bronze examples is considerable: the 20 lbs 6 ½ oz. of the Bangor Bell, compared with the 3 lbs 11 oz. of the iron ‘Bell of St. Patrick’s Will’, which is easily and comfortably portable. Dr. Raftery has noted that nearly all the surviving bell shrines belong to his periods IV and V, largely the eleventh and twelfth centuries (1941, 56-7), and this is the range he preferred for the fragment from the River Bann (Co. Antrim). This is an instructive case of toodogmatic provenancing, for Reeves insisted that it was no more closely located than north-east Ulster, though it was reported to have been found on the Bann shore. The inscription mentions Maelbrigte, a common name, and an abbot of Connor with this name died in 954. The patron of Ahoghill in medieval times was Colmán Elo and be was in some way connected with Connor. The shrine arch is usually now provenanced to Ahoghill (though Dr. Henry is cautious: 1967, 126), but other early churches near the ‘Bann shore’ include Coleraine, Camus, Agivey, Church Island and Duneane. Dr. Henry and Dr. MacDermott both incline towards a tenth-century date on the basis of the foliage decoration (Henry loc. cit. and MacDermott 1954, 39), and attempts at dating must rest on the decoration alone. The finest of all bell-shrines was made probably at Armagh for the ‘Bell of St. Patrick’s Will’ and is dated by its inscription to between 1094 and 1105.

Beyond this relative sequence it is difficult to date bells closely2, and here I merely point out some features which I have noted among the northern material. There are no examples of iron alone: all the sheet iron bells of which there is any record have traces of a bronze coating, and this is true of what is arguably the oldest surviving ecclesiastical bell in Ireland. 1.

2.

The National Museum, Dublin, has an iron bell from Maghera (Co. Londonderry) which is thought to be a cow bell. The National Museum offers a wide time-span from 500 to 1000 for some of the bells on show.

[345] The ‘Clog an Edachta’ or the ‘Bell of St Patrick’s Will’ may well be the bell alleged to have been found in Patrick tomb in 553 (A.U.), and I see no reason why such an early bell, treated always with great respect, should not have survived. The features of sheet iron bells which would repay closer investigation include the shape and proportions, the number of rivets, methods of mitring the top, the shape and method of attachment of the handle and clapper (if present), signs of wear and use, and evidence for mending and patching. Despite the widely held view that ‘Celtic’ bells were tongueless, many surviving examples to have clappers, and a clapper is clear on the Killadeas stone (not very clearly visible in Pl. 105a).

[347] It illustrates how Armagh workshops had survived the Viking onslaught, and how Viking art motifs had been adopted: the crest of the shrine is a fine example of the Urnes style, and the whole piece testifies to the vigour of Armagh craftsmanship in the generations before the Anglo-Norman invasion. The northern bells (and bells elsewhere in Ireland) badly need further study. They are poorly studied: some in museums are unpublished.1 Some are still treasured in churches; some are in private possession; some which seem to be lost may be recovered, and some lost provenances could be restored. Above all, close technological and typological study are badly needed.

The cast bronze ‘Bell of Armagh’ (from Terryhoogan) has an iron handle and iron clapper. Its inscription dates the bell to about 900, but the value of this date is somewhat limited because the bell is markedly different from most others. Its outline is rounded and the mouth flaring, like more recent bells, whilst nearly all the other cast bronze examples follow the iron shape, tall, angular with a rectangular mouth which flares little or not at all. The only similarly rounded bell I have seen illustrated is St. Buadan’s of Clonca (Co. Donegal: Morris 1931, 64).

No other early liturgical equipment survives in the north, though some pieces are reported. The chalice found in Patrick’s tomb in 553 was given to Down and this must have been a treasured relic. Four ‘goblets’ were robbed from the altar of the great church in Derry in 1197 (A.U.), and the poem about a collection at Dromore (Co. Down) early in the last century (quoted in full in the inventory) suggests other material which has been lost sight of or lost altogether.

Cast bronze bells of angular shape show considerable variations in size, weight, outline and shape of handle. The so-called ‘Bell of Clogher’ from Donaghmore, for example, is tall and rather narrow, whilst the bell from Cappagh flares sharply from a wide mouth, and has a tall rounded handle.

We have noted bronze strap-ends at Armagh and Nendrum which could have been the ends of bookmarkers, and another northern find could have decorated a book cover. It is one of a group of openwork crucifixion plaques studied by Dr. MacDermott. It was in the Bell Collection and for that reason was often provenanced to Dungannon, but Bell’s unpublished notes make it clear that the plaque was found close to Tynan.2

[346] The fine Bangor Bell is decorated with an unringed cross on the front (the ‘Nendrum type’) and a fretwork border round the mouth, generally similar to, though different in detail from, the Lough Lene bell, for which Dr. Henry suggests an early ninth-century date (1967, 125) and Dr. Raftery tenth-century (1941, 144). The height of the bells ranges from about 5 to 14 inches. 168

1. 2.

I have come across no published reference to the bell from Doras in Dublin, which must come from Tullyniskan. I owe this information to Richard Haworth and the detail will be found in the inventory.

There is a tantalising brief reference in 809 to the ‘shrine of Patrick’ at the otherwise poorly documented site at Tullylish (also A.U.), and Ballynascreen and Skreen are both named from some precious shrine. Relics would bring prestige and rewards to a monastery; they would attract pilgrims and burial fees. We have seen that they were used for oath-making, and Plummer points out that the Irish verb ‘minnaim’ (‘to swear’), is from ‘minn’, (‘a relic’) (1910, I, cxxix).

[348] Though Dr. Henry prefers a ninth or tenth-century date, I would follow Dr. MacDermott (1954) in suggesting the twelfth century: the elongated arms seem a late feature, and the rather mechanical fold-over symmetry indicates a later rather than an earlier date.

[349] They were taken on circuit during the promulgation of a saint’s ‘law’, taken into battle and used in peacemaking. The violation of relics or the breaking of an oath made on them was a serious offence, and the more important the relic, the more grave the crime: I know of no more dramatic example than the event described in the Miscellaneous Irish Annals when in 1165 the son of the king of Ulidia was blinded at ‘Inis Aonaigh’ (probably Enagh) ‘in violation of the protection of Patrick’s coarb, the ‘Bachall Iosa’, ‘Clog an Udhachta’, ‘Soisgéala Mártain’, ‘Míosach Cairnigh’, the three shrines in Teampall na Sgrín, together with the relics of the north of Ireland’. The perpetrator was later defeated and beheaded ‘for the outraged honour of Jesus and Patrick’.

It is clear from the written sources that a wide range of other relics was venerated and these were presumably often given coverings and shrines. They were not always precious things: quite ordinary objects associated with a saint were treasured, like St. Monenna’s comb and tools at Killevy (as well as the ridge-piece of an earlier timber church) and St. Domongart’s shoe at Maghera, and we can recall the exquisite eighth-century shrine of a leather belt from Moylough (Co. Sligo: O’Kelly in J.R.S.A.I. 95 (1965), 149-88). The Lough Erne shrine is an early example of a small house-shaped reliquary which may date to the eighth century, but it is uncertain what it was made to house. Though the number of surviving reliquaries from the north is small, there are many pointers in written sources to the importance of relics. Armagh claimed a wide range: the ‘Liber Angeli’ mentions relics of Patrick, Peter, Paul, Stephen, Laurence, the Holy Blood and pilgrims from overseas. The precious relics of Comgall were apparently taken to Antrim, another house in Comgall’s paruchia, after the 824 Viking raid on Bangor, when the relics were shaken from their shrine (A.U.).

The monastic economy spanned the wide range from corn and stock, ploughs and mills, apples and bees, to the production of fine metalwork for the liturgy and for enshrining precious relics. Only a fraction survives of what we know from written sources once existed, but there is scope for progress in further study of the surviving objects, and air photography and excavation will both be needed to increase our knowledge of fields, crops, stock, technological processes and the finished products.

169

xi) MONASTIC TOPOGRAPHY

‘MacNissi with thousands from great Connor’ (M.O. at 12 Sept. and 3 Sept.). Even though such totals must have included scattered houses in a saint’s paruchia, and even allowing for some poetic licence and pious exaggeration, these sources do indicate that some monasteries were considerable centres of population already in the preViking period.

The treatment of this chapter so far has been fragmented, each class of material receiving individual discussion. [350] There seemed no alternative to this procedure, since the material is scattered, and only Nendrum in the north offers scope for the discussion of general monastic1 planning which is possible at many well preserved sites elsewhere, especially in the western counties. I hope in this last section to pull together some of the threads of the chapter as a whole.

Armagh (Fig. 30) is the only northern site for which the written evidence is sufficient to allow some reconstruction of the early topography (e.g. Reeves 1860 and Henry 1965, 1967 and 1970). The annals make a clear distinction between ‘the Rath’ and ‘the Trians’ (thirds) which were clearly outside it. The rath enclosure is taken entirely for granted and never described; for knowledge of it we depend on recent topography and further excavation.

First, a cautionary word is needed about generalisation. We are concerned with a wide range of sites over a long period of time, from great monastic ‘cities’ to small houses with a tiny population. No general account of monastic topography is likely to be appropriate for the whole range. Most published accounts have been based, understandably, on those sites which survive best, and so there has been some emphasis on the smaller, more remote, monasteries like Skellig Michael and Inismurray. To redress the balance, it is necessary to consider the written sources as well as the visible remains. There is certainly evidence to suggest that some monasteries were sizeable communities. Cogitosus, writing about Brigid probably in the mid-seventh century, describes Kildare as ‘maxima haec civitas et metropolitana est’ (‘Acta Sanctorum’ (Bollandists, 1658), 1 February, 141, chap. 39). But in generally non-urban milieu, what did the writer understand by civitas? The word is used quite often in Latin sources of monasteries: for example Connor appears as ‘civitas’ in the ‘Life of Colmán Elo’; Movilla in the ‘Life of Comgall’ (Plummer 1910, I, 259 and II, 13); and Antrim, Armagh and Coleraine in Bernard of Clairvaux’s ‘Life of Malachy’ (Lawlor 1920, 88, 11 and 85) 1.

FIG. 30. ARMAGH CITY SKETCH MAP

[352] The only feature mentioned in annals is the gate or door, suggesting a single entrance or at least a principal one, marked by a cross. A concentric street plan is admittedly the most practicable one round a steep circular hill, but it would be carrying scepticism too far to doubt that the present remarkable street pattern in some way reflects earlier monastic planning. There is no indication in the annals of subdivisions in the rath. The main circuit could have been round the hilltop, enclosing the present cemetery area, or it could have been a little down-slope somewhere on the Castle Street-Callan Street line. It is not entirely clear whether the ditch excavated north of Castle Street in 1968 marks this innermost line, but further excavation should make the position clearer. An outer line must be followed by Abbey Street, English Street and property boundaries. From these concentric circuits it is likely that several roads radiated, and settlement may have spread along these in ribbon fashion.

The word ‘monastic’ is used in this section as the archaeology of the early episcopal phase of the church is almost unknown, and the north can offer no structural remains of the earliest period. All the structural remains can with some confidence be attributed to the monastic church.

[351] These writers presumably envisaged a considerable concentration of people, and buildings, and it seems that the word may have taken on the specialised ecclesiastical meaning of a large monastery. Other sources suggest that some communities were indeed very large. The prologue to the ‘Martyrology of Oengus’ (about 800) contrasts deserted pagan places with flourishing Christian centres, including Armagh ‘with a multitude of champions’; Kildare with its multitudinous cemetery; ‘multitudinous Glendalough’; and ‘the cells that have been taken by pairs and by trios, they are Romes with multitudes, with hundreds, with thousands’ (Stokes 1905, 24-6). A pre-Viking litany mentions ‘four thousand monks ... under the yoke of Comgall of Benchor’ and ‘nine times fifty under the yoke of Mochoe of Noendruim’ (Plummer 1925, 61, 67). Pre-Viking martyrologies refer to ‘multitudinous Devenish’ and

From the annals it is possible to gain some idea of which structures lay within the rath and which were outside, and when this is not clear, post-medieval sources can sometimes help. The principal church, the north church (probably the ‘Sabhall’), the round tower and the ‘Toi’ lay within the rath, and also burned during rath fires were the abbot’s house, other houses and the ‘kitchen’. It seems likely that all these were inside the Castle StreetCallan Street line, as well as the principal graveyard, and perhaps the Culdee church. It is also clear from the annals that several churches were not in the rath. Muirchú’s 170

story emphasises that the ‘Na Ferta’ site was not the desired ‘Dorsum Salicis’, but was some distance from it on lower ground. It is absent from nearly all the frequent accounts of fires, and the traditional site in Scotch Street seems eminently likely, some distance from the rath and on one of the probably early radial roads.

successor of the Iron Age hillfort, but excavation has not been on a large enough scale to show how the church and the secular occupation were related. Giraldus Cambrensis described Down as a ‘city’ in the 1180s (O’Meara 1951, 89), and an 1182 grant by John de Courcy suggests a sizeable settlement with walls (Reeves 1847, 229). Perhaps we should imagine a situation similar to Armagh, with the rath, the main church and graveyard, one or more other churches, crosses and an ‘extra-mural’ settlement. By the twelfth century Derry had clearly grown from small beginnings, Columba’s ‘oak grove ... dwelling … little cell’ (Meyer 1959, 87), to a substantial settlement. Eloquent demonstration of this is the clearing of about eighty houses for the construction of a new ecclesiastical enclosure in 1162 (A.U.), an operation which recalls the destruction of houses for Norman castles in England, as at Exeter, Cambridge and Huntingdon (Renn, D.F., ‘Norman Castles in Britain’ (1968), 32).

[353] Tradition receives support from Bartlett’s pictorial map of about 1600, which shows a road approximately on the Scotch Street line and the ruined Na Ferta in its own enclosure. St. Brigid’s and St. Columba’s seem also to have lain outside the rath. The trians were apparently residential areas outside the main ecclesiastical enclosure. The written sources give no indication of how they were demarcated and enclosed, though crosses clearly acted as topographical landmarks, and we know there were several streets in each. In 1166, for example, a fire consumed Armagh: ‘from the Cross of Columcille, the two streets, to the Cross of Bishop Eogan, and ... one of the two streets, up to the Cross at the door of the Close, and all the Close with its churches, except the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul and a few of the houses besides, and a street towards the Close on the west’ (A.U.). The numbers of houses burned and people killed or captured give some idea of the scale of the settlement, even if numbers were rounded up: ‘many houses’ were burned in the rath in 912; a hundred near Na Ferta in 1090; and twenty near the abbot’s house in 1116; whilst a thousand people were killed or captured by Vikings in 869 and over seven hundred in 896 (all A.U.). By 807 the king of Tara had a house in Armagh (A.U.), so there must have been a range from large and substantial houses to small and humble ones. In a settlement that was probably quite crowded and also largely built of wood it is not surprising that fire was such a serious hazard.

[355] Another aspect of this major building scheme was the construction of a house of Augustinian Canons, ‘Teampull Mor’. In addition to this church, we hear of the old foundation, ‘Dubh Regles’, and its refectory; the disert; the ‘small church’; the ‘Cemetery of Martin’; and the ‘Well of Adomhnan’, but this is meagre information for a reconstruction of pre-Norman Derry. Coleraine was described by Bernard as a civitas in the twelfth century (Lawlor 1920, 85), but as far as I know there are no clues to the topography of the early monastery. What general points about monastic planning have emerged from this chapter? The first, long recognised, is the absence of any regular or stereotyped planning in early Irish monasteries. Excavations at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow have suggested that there was already regular planning and perhaps some kind of claustral arrangement in late seventh-century Northumbria (Cramp 1974), and the plans of twelfth-century Irish Cistercian foundations like Inch and Grey Abbey are similar to Cistercian houses all over Europe. In early Irish monasteries, on the other hand, there is no sign of any ‘standard’ plan, despite the claim in the ‘Tripartite Life’ that Patrick always marked out monasteries in a particular way (Stokes 1887, 237). It is useful in this connection to recall the multiplicity of monastic rules in early Ireland: practice may have been unified within a paruchia, or amongst members of a reformed group like the Culdees, but otherwise seems to have been great variety.

Other buildings and features are less clearly located. The ‘grove’ (‘fidnemed’) was probably in a central position, but the guesthouse may have stood towards the edge of the ecclesiastical area, perhaps on one of the postulated radial approach roads. [354] It seems to have stood in its own enclosure, as did the abbot’s house and Na Ferta, where a rath was visible in Bartlett’s day. There must have been many subdivisions in such a large and complex settlement, but again excavation is needed to reveal their physical form: banks, ditches, walls and fences are all possible. Although many uncertainties remain, we do know a remarkable amount about the early topography of Armagh, and we can recognise in the battered ruin of Bartlett’s map and the gracious eighteenth and nineteenth-century redeveloped town the outlines of the early ecclesiastical ‘city’.

[356] But even if no kind of regular plan can be detected, several features have been found to occur commonly at pre-Norman ecclesiastical sites and a few cautious generalisations can be offered. Some kind of enclosure was probably present, even if no trace of one can now be seen though enclosures were certainly not peculiar to church sites, and some later churches were also surrounded by enclosures. We have come across considerable variety in the size, plan and materials of ecclesiastical enclosures. There were clearly different subdivisions within the larger settlements, marking areas of differing degrees of sanctity and different uses. At

No other important northern site has comparable records, but there are some hints about the topography of Down and Derry at the end of our period. St. Brigid’s church at Down appears in 1007, and in 1111 an accidental fire consumed ‘both Close and Third’ (rath and trian A.U.). The rath here may have been the Early Christian 171

Nendrum the church occupies the innermost subdivision, and even if there are no visible signs of divisions within an enclosure it is likely there were some, and particularly that the area of the church and graveyard was marked off in some way. There were several churches at many important sites, and there may have been more than one church even at sites of modest size. Was there ever more than one church at Nendrum? Excavation is tending increasingly to suggest that stone churches were usually preceded by wooden ones and round towers were usually built in established graveyards, and further excavation will test these propositions. The graveyard will generally be near the church, or, if some cemeteries can be shown to be the earliest feature on a site, the church will be in or near an existing graveyard. It is likely that a special grave or some other important landmark was the focal point of many cemeteries, and excavation may help to reveal this focus and trace the sequence of burials. These elements church or churches, round tower and graveyard - formed the core of many settlements, and associated with them were often cross-carved or inscribed stones, crosses and perhaps a sundial.

One of the most difficult but potentially interesting questions, to which attention has only recently been directed, concerns the settlement around a monastic site. We have seen that the largest monastic centres clearly did have a substantial ‘extra-mural’ population, and even quite modest foundations are likely to have had manaig settled nearby, but we know almost nothing about the detailed arrangements on the ground. In an enclosure as big as the outer cashel at Nendrum there would be room for manaig houses: Lawlor found out very little about the outermost enclosure. Professor O’Kelly has made the interesting suggestion that the small settlement on Beginish (Co. Kerry) was linked with the monastery on nearby Church Island and supplied it with produce (1974), and the possibility must be considered that there was some economic link between a rath or raths and a nearby church. [358] Professor O’Kelly showed the way by excavating both Beginish and Church Island on a large scale, and extensive excavation would probably be needed to test the suggestion satisfactorily. Also likely, but difficult to detect, are open settlements near the monastery, from where people and stock could have sought shelter in the main enclosure in times of insecurity. In some cases souterrains could provide clues to settlements near churches, for example at Connor.

[357] Less is known about the whereabouts of the living quarters. If any house or cell was nearer the church than the others it may have been the abbot’s, and this was sometimes within its own subdivision. It seems likely that the main living area was separated off from the church, perhaps some distance from it, for example in the middle enclosure at Nendrum. The refectory and kitchen may have been nearby, but craft workshops and other specialised activities may have been housed in a different area again. Agricultural buildings, stock pens, orchards and gardens may have been still more remote from the church, and there are hints that the guesthouse was often at the edge of the site, perhaps near the gate. If the original entrance can be located and investigated, there may be signs of a gate and a ‘porter’s lodge’. Crosses performed many functions but some were topographical landmarks, marking the edges of precincts, the entrances to enclosures and perhaps the areas of particular sanctity.

There is some scope for studying early monastic topography by further work on air photographs, maps and in the field, but the main hope for substantial advances lies in excavation. Mr. Fanning’s recent work at Reask (Co. Kerry) has turned the site from a rough patch of waste land with two cross-carved stones and some stone foundations to an extensive complex of enclosure, subdivisions, paths, drains, cells, church and graveyard, And even if Lawlor excavated Nendrum like potatoes, and discovered little about stratification and sequence, his work did illustrate the potential of excavation for uncovering plan (Lawlor 1925). Despite the problems and inaccuracies Nendrum, with its enclosures, buildings, graves, paths and other features, still provides the fullest picture in the north of early monastic topography.

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[359]

Chapter 7 HISTORICAL DISCUSSION

FIG. 87: PAGANISM: MAP OF SOME EVIDENCE AT CHURCH SITES.

The fragmentary material evidence does not lend itself readily to historical synthesis, but an attempt will be made here to relate it to the main historical horizons in the development of the church described in the written sources.

Gregory the Great advised Augustine in 601 not to abandon pagan temples but turn them to Christian use, and Raedwald, king of the East Angles in the early seventh century, kept Christian and pagan altars in his temple (Bede, H.E. I, 30 and II, 15).

In a field beset by chronological uncertainties it will not be possible to fix all the material within the historical frame work, but as work progresses it should be possible to achieve greater certainty.

Similar ambivalence is found during the conversion of the Vikings: one tenth-century warrior believed in Christ except in matters of sea-faring and great moment, when he preferred to rely on Thor (Brøndsted, J., ‘The Vikings’ (1965), 306). Macalister claimed ‘that most if not all of the ancient Irish monastic sites were founded in places previously occupied by pagan sanctuaries’ (in Lawlor 1925, vi), and a similar assumption was made by Wakeman, McKenna and others, but is it well-founded? None of the early sources refers to Armagh as a pagan sanctuary, but several strands of evidence suggest that it may have been one.

The break between paganism and Christianity in Ireland is unlikely to have been sudden, rapid or complete (Fig. 87). Although Patrick is shown in the sources emerging triumphant from trials of strength with pagan priests (e.g. White 1920, 89-91), the church clearly existed first within a predominantly Pagan society and only gradually achieved dominance (Hughes 1966, 44-56).

173

[360] The name means the height of the pagan goddess Macha, and the great prehistoric site of Emain Macha is nearby. The carved stones are not first-class evidence: their provenances are uncertain, and it would be wrong to accept them as a group, but some may have come from the cathedral site.

An 1178 annal entry suggests that this is not merely a poetical play on the name ‘Doire’: a storm prostrated ‘six times twenty or more’ oak trees (A.U.); and O’Donnell’s ‘Life of Columba’ shows that the tradition of the oak grove was still alive in the sixteenth century (O’Kelleher and Schoepperle 1918), but it is not clear what the significance of the trees was. ‘Derry’ townland names are common in some formerly heavily wooded areas, like north Armagh, and the oak element of church names like Derrybrusk, Derryvullan and Derryloran may simply mean that these areas were once wooded, but other names suggest a particularly important tree. The ‘Tripartite Life’ tells how Patrick founded ‘Domnach-bile’ (‘The church of the tree’, Moville in Inishowen: Reeves 1850, 122). ‘Movilla’ is the ‘Plain of the tree’; and ‘Billy’, an important medieval parish in north Antrim, means simply ‘The tree’. In Crevilly Valley townland is an undocumented church site; and a tree was felled in the eighteenth century in a graveyard known as ‘Columb’s Thorn’ in Ahoghill parish. In 1162 the yew tree believed to have been planted by St Patrick at Newry was burned (A.F.M.). It is indeed possible that some churches with tree associations occupy pre-Christian cult centres, but this will be difficult to prove.1

The 14C samples from the Castle Street ditch suggest that the hilltop may have been enclosed in pre-Patrician times. It is a long jump in time to the burning of the ‘fidnemed’ in 996 (A.U.), but this word has pagan connotations: the Greek ‘nemeton’, ‘one of the key words of religious ritual ... “a sacred place”, often used more particularly of a sacred grove, is attested in place-names throughout the Celtic world’ (MacCana 1970, 16). Can we envisage a sacred grove in the late tenth century, and could there be any connection with an earlier cult centre on the hill? None of this evidence is decisive; it suggests the possibility of a pre-Christian sanctuary at Armagh, but it does not prove that there was one. Patrick observed that the Irish ‘always worshipped idols and things impure’ (‘Confessio’, Bieler 1953, 34). Although doubts remain, the Boa Island site may have been a pagan cult centre taken over for Christian use (p. 282). Clogher was believed to have been the home of a pagan stone oracle, the ‘cloch óir’, but the source is very late and it may have been a hindsight story to explain a stone which no-one understood (pp. 148-9 and P1 120b).

Church place-names also include animal elements, such as ‘Arboe’, the ‘Height of the cows’, and ‘Raholp’, the ‘Rath of the colt’. A cow is said to have come to give milk to the builders of Arboe church, and a ‘hoof-print’ is pointed out in a stone there and at Kilnasaggart, where a similar story survives. 1.

[362] Three of the Armagh carvings seem to be bears, and although this point cannot be developed very far, the association of animals and churches is worth noting. We have already considered the importance of springs and wells in Celtic religion and the early church (Chapter 6, (ix)). It is possible that some churches were established at a pre-Christian sacred water source, but this will again be difficult to prove. A strong magical element associated with fire is found in the ‘Life of Molaise of Devenish’, and in the late twelfth century Giraldus Cambrensis noted the importance of fire in Brigid’s cult at Kildare (O’Meara 1951, 64-5, 71). From the world of preChristian mythology we find the ‘Church of Maeve’ (‘Bovevagh’) and the ‘Fort of the sidhe’ (‘Rashee’). There are, therefore, hints from many directions that some pre-Christian sanctuary sites may have been used later for Christian worship, but this is a dark and difficult area in which it is far easier to speculate than to achieve certainty.

PLATE 120B: CLOGHER – ‘ENIGMATIC STONE’ IN CATHEDRAL.

Place-names suggest that trees were prominent at some churches, or that some churches occupied the site of an important tree (Lucas 1963, especially 27 f.). Kuno Meyer dated ‘Columcille’s Greeting to Ireland’ to the twelfth century (1959, 87 and 114): [361]

Richmond, I, ‘Roman Britain’ (1955), 144: ‘sacred groves are archaeologically unresponsive.’

Another line of investigation is suggested by the church ‘Tamlaght’ names, for the word ‘tamlacht’ has pagan rather than Christian connotations, meaning a plague burial place.1 Apart ‘from Tallaght (Co. Dublin) the distribution is northern, and there are ten ‘Tamlaght’ names in my inventory (Fig. 87). Looking for a common denominator, I find that there are megaliths close to some

‘All full of angels, Is every leaf on the Oaks of Derry. My Derry, my little oak-grove’. 174

of these sites. West of Tamlaght (Coagh) is the impressive ‘Cloghtogle’ dolmen and there are other prehistoric sites nearby (Lewis 1837, II, 590 and P.S. 1940, 213). Lewis reported a ‘sepulchral cave’ and ‘Druidical circle’ in Tamlaght O’Crilly parish (op. cit. II, 593). Tamlaght townland (Eglish parish, Co. Armagh) is about one mile west of Navan fort, and the Ballybrolly cairns are also near (P.S. 1940, 64). 1.

litany was used with water as a charm against boils and jaundice (p. 317). A reverence for wells has persisted to this day (Pl. 56b, see chapter 6) and the Arboe pin well may represent a lingering survival of a popular veneration for trees (Pl. 114a, see chapter 6). The magical element is very strong in the later saints’ ‘Lives’ (Plummer 1910, I, cxxix f. and Hughes 1972, 239-47): in the ‘Life of Naile of Kinawley’ the well and the ‘wonder working bell’ are prominent. As late as 1397 Primate Colton legislated against superstitious practices, like cures from wild animals’ blood, during his visitation of Derry diocese (Reeves 1850, xvii).

Again I gratefully acknowledge Mrs Flanagan’s help with this word.

[363] There are standing stones about a quarter of a mile south-east of Drumsallagh (‘Tamlacht Menainn’) and a group of megaliths about a mile west and west-north-west of Tamlaght near Kilkeel (O.S. one inch sheet 8; Co. Down 1966, fig. 11). The name of Relicarn graveyard at Terryhoogan in Ballymore parish (‘Tamlacht Glíadh’) suggests a cairn, but no megaliths are reported near Tamlaghtard, Tamlaghtfinlagan, Tamlaght (Derryvullan) and Church Tamlaght (Rasharkin). For a full enquiry non-church Tamlaght names would have to be investigated, but it is at least possible that churches received this distinctive name because of proximity to prehistoric megaliths.

We can only speculate about how Christianity first reached Ireland. Prosper of Aquitaine recorded that Pope Celestine sent Palladius in 431 ‘ad Scottos in Christe credentes’; and several saints according to Irish traditions were working already before Patrick’s arrival (Kenney 1929, 159-60 and 309-11). There are many ways in which Christian contacts may have come about before the midfifth century - through Irish settlers in western Britain; trading and raiding in Britain; the capturing of slaves; and trade with Gaul. Does the reverence shown to St. Martin in the early Irish church suggest contact with late fourthcentury Christianity in Gaul? The ‘Gospel of Martin’ at Dunboe, Martin’s cemetery and well at Derry, and the inclusion of ‘Martin’s Life’ in the ‘Book of Armagh’ all testify to the importance of the Gaulish saint. But the contact need not have been during his lifetime or immediately after his death.

These are not the only churches close to megaliths. Megalithic structures are reported at Gortfad (Ahoghill) and Donaghmore (Co. Down), and the burials near prehistoric cists at Killygony have already been mentioned (p. 212). Other churches and graveyards are within a mile or so of megaliths: this list may be far from complete but it includes Galgorm in Ahoghill, Culfeightrin, Deshcart, Agherton, Dungiven, Killelagh, Kilkeel, Clonduff, Raholp, Temple Cormac, Kiltober, Straidarran and Bodoney, whilst Kiltierney lies close to a remarkable concentration of prehistoric sites (P.S. 1940, 146).

[365] The dedication of St. Martin’s church in Canterbury may have resulted from its use by the Frankish queen Bertha and her chaplain two centuries after Martin’s death, and the cult could have reached Ireland at any time, perhaps through Whithorn.

Stones appear in church place-names at Leckpatrick and Trillick and a cairn at Carnteel. The name of Patrick’s first church at Armagh - ‘Na Ferta’ - suggests a pagan rather than Christian burial place, and the back of the large cross-carved slab at Killadeas is covered with cupmarks. Again it is difficult to base firm conclusions on scraps of often problematic evidence, but the relationships between prehistoric monuments and early churches would probably repay further study (compare White 1971-2 on the Welsh evidence).

If we look more particularly at the north of Ireland, it is important to consider how far and how quickly Christianity penetrated northern Britain in Roman times. There is evidence in Tertullian’s writings that Christians were amongst the troops on the Antonine Wall in about 200 A.D.1 Professor Thomas has argued for the existence of several dioceses in northern Britain in the late and sub-Roman period (1971, 13-8), and of these the clearest is in Galloway. Ninian’s date is uncertain, but the traditional one of about 400 is reasonable, and he is most convincingly seen as bishop of a diocese centred on Whithorn. If there was an organised diocese in Galloway in the early fifth century there are likely to have been contacts between Scotti in Scottish Dál Riata and northeast Ireland and these British Christians. It must, however, be admitted that the extent of pre-Patrician Christianity remains uncertain and its archaeology is unknown.

[364] ‘The mind of the Irish people during the early Christian era was, fundamentally, the product of countless ages of paganism’ (Kenney 1929, 301), and we can expect to find traces of paganism persisting long after the introduction of Christianity. Patrick’s ‘Lorica’ seeks protection against: ‘incantations of false prophets, black laws of heathenry, false laws of heretics, craft of idolatry, spells of women, smiths and wizards’ (Bieler 1953, 71). We have seen that an early

175

FIG. 89: PATRICIAN HORIZONS – WRITTEN SOURCES.

‘It would be tedious to give a detailed account of all my labours or even a part of them’ wrote Patrick in his ‘Confessio’ (Bieler 1953, 31), and it was left to later writers to fill the gap. Figure 89 is based on those later sources, for Patrick’s own writings are silent about the topography of the fifth-century church. The uncertainties involved in compiling the map are similar to those encountered in Chapter 4, and a number of unidentified and unlocated sites are omitted, but I hope the general picture is reliable. The number of places mentioned in the late seventh-century works by Tírechán and 1.

Armagh’s successful attempts to gather churches into her sphere, into the paruchia Patricii, and the growth of the Patrician story. ‘Domnach’ place-names are prominent in the north, especially in Co. Down and Co. Tyrone (Fig. 89 includes just the ‘domnach’ names from my inventory). The ‘Book of the Angel’ claimed a special union between Armagh and ‘every tree church and (its) city ... founded by episcopal authority ... and every place which is called domnach (Hughes 1966, 278); and Mrs. Flanagan points out that the writer of the ‘Tripartite Life’ used the word as though it was then obsolete (1967, 386). Professor Binchy suggested that ‘domnach’ churches might relate to a pre-Patrician horizon (in Studia Hibernica 2 (1962), 166-7), but Sean MacAirt, developing the Patrician connection, wondered whether they were non-monastic and unattached to any great monastic family, churches which Armagh would be particularly anxious to claim (1958, 79). ‘Domnach’ churches could then be seen not as Patrician foundations, as the ‘Tripartite Life’ claimed, but as early churches belonging to the first episcopal phase of the Irish church.

I owe this information to my colleague, Dr Valerie Maxfield.

[366] Muirchú is limited, but with the inclusion of names from the ‘Tripartite Life’ the distribution is much more extensive. The ‘domnach’ place-names add sites in Co. Down and Co. Tyrone and one in south-east Fermanagh. Also included, with some diffidence, are churches with traditional Patrician links, some strong (Dungiven, Cumber), some slight (Dromore, Co. Tyrone - where Patrick is said to have rested on the way to Lough Derg). The ‘traditional’ sites in Co. Derry are in areas where Patrick was active, according to the ‘Tripartite Life’, but in some cases the traditions could be a much later growth. Figure 89 does, therefore, portray not Patrick’s work but

[367] Another of MacAirt’s points is interesting in the light of recent work on the early organisation of the church: he observed how many of the clerics associated 176

areas:1 between Donaghmore and Dromore and Uí Echach Cobo; Down, Raholp and Bright and Leth Cathail; Movilla and Nendrum and Dál Fiatach; Connor, Rashee and Antrim and Dál nAraidi; Armoy and Culfeightrin and Dál Riata; Coleraine was in the area of the Fir Chraíbe; Lissan and Derryloran the Uí Tuirtri; Ardstraw the Uí Fiachrach Ard Sratha; Clogher and perhaps Trillick the Uí Cremthainn; and Armagh was in Airthir.

with ‘domnach’ churches in the martyrologies were bishops (loc. cit.). Dr. Hughes has demonstrated that the earliest Irish church was organised on the same late-Roman lines as the young church elsewhere in the British Isles, with bishops administering fixed dioceses and a regular hierarchy of clergy. One of the canons of Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus, for example, forbids a bishop to officiate outside his diocese without the permission of the bishop of the diocese (Bieler 1953, 50-4). The earliest church in south-west Scotland seems to have been episcopal (Thomas 1971, 13-7); the earliest reference to Christianity in the Isle of Man is to bishops (in Muirchú’s account of Patrick: White 1920, 94) and the early Welsh memorial stones imply a hierarchy with the bishop at the apex (Nash-Williams 1950, 14).

If we look at the case of Ardstraw in more detail we find Tírechán claiming an Armagh connection, Patrick ordaining MacErc bishop there, but he also admits to hostility between Armagh and Ardstraw (Stokes 1887, 314), and the patron of Ardstraw in the calendars is not MacErc but bishop Eogan. Does this indicate hostility between protagonists of Armagh, claiming a far-flung paruchia for Patrick, and an independent episcopal foundation resisting those claims? Bishops appear at Ardstraw until 707, but then abbots are prominent, and it looks as if Ardstraw succeeded in building its own paruchia. Dedications and traditions give some idea of its sphere of influence, though much of the evidence is late (Fig. 90). Eogan was patron of Cappagh; there are vague Ardstraw traditions at Drumragh, and the erenagh land of Langfield in the seventeenth century included Killoan and Drumowen. These parishes, together with Ardstraw, lie wholly or partly in the barony of Omagh and form a compact block of land. Patrick wrote that he gave presents to kings to win favour for his mission (Bieler 1953, 37), and there is no reason to suppose that early missionaries in Ireland differed from workers elsewhere in seeking support from rulers.

FIG. 88: BISHOPS: FIFTH TO EIGHTH CENTURIES.

Figure 88 assembles the evidence from my inventory for this early stage of episcopal organisation, before the growth of the great monastic paruchiae. Again the quality of the evidence varies, from Tírechán’s reference to a bishop at Ardstraw to a reference in the late ‘Martyrology of Donegal’ (Maghera).

1.

Shown, for example, in Byrne 1973, 120-1, where the date is about 800, admittedly at the end of the period we are concerned with.

[369] They could have granted sites close to their own settlements, or on less desirable land, perhaps at the edge of their territories (Ó Riain 1972). Many saints are claimed by their biographers to have been of royal birth (examples in the inventory include Ronan of Aghalurcher, Tigernach of Clones and Lurach of Maghera) and in these cases a prestigious church is surely more likely to have been close to the royal seat than banished to the margins.

Before the 549 plague, information is scarce and the chronology likely to be suspect: Ardstraw, Clogher and Connor emerge clearly, followed, after the plague by Movilla, Down, Rashee, Nendrum, Armagh and Lissan. Other references to bishops, in later sources, are less valuable but help to fill out the picture. There was clearly no sharp break between an episcopal and a monastic church: territorial bishoprics co-existed with monastic paruchiae in the sixth and seventh centuries. We hear only of abbots at Bangor and Devenish, for example, but bishops were prominent at Armagh until the early eighth century (Hughes 1966, 69).

We do, indeed, find a few well-documented early churches with bishops close to some secular headquarters. The chronological relationship between Emain Macha and Armagh is still unclear, but it seems likely that the choice of the church site was influenced by the Ulidian headquarters nearby.

[368] It is recognised that in the absence of urban centres in western Britain and Ireland the territorial unit of Episcopal jurisdiction would have been tribal, in Ireland the area of the tuath. Some equations can be pointed out between the churches shown in Figure 88 and tribal

The church at Down is inside a great prehistoric and Early Christian hillfort, surely a Leth Cathail political centre, and Bright seems to have been the seat of a ruler.

177

FIG. 90: SOME NORTHERN SAINTS: DEDICATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS.

Clogher is another clear example of an important early church close to a major royal site, and excavation by R.B. Warner has confirmed that occupation continued in Rathmore to the fifth and sixth centuries. Other large enclosures close to churches have already been noted (pp. 92-3). It does certainly appear that some early episcopal centres were sited close to important secular settlements, but this could also be true of monastic sites. A few churches may be close to royal inauguration sites. There is a rock with ‘footprints’ near the church at Temple Douglas (Co. Donegal) and rock footprints west of Errigal church. Could the angel’s print at Skerry also mark an inauguration site? A stone chair at Daisyhill, Findermore, is close to Clogher and Rathmore, but its date is uncertain.

earliest cross-carved stones (Drumaqueran?) could date from this early horizon, but there seems to be no material characteristic of the episcopal as distinct from the monastic church. There certainly was material: the canons of Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus deal with the consecration of churches (Bieler 1953, 50-4) and Patrick’s earlier biographers write of churches and crosses. But the material remains of the first two centuries of the Irish church are likely to have been sparse and often perishable, very different from the vision of writer of the ‘Tripartite Life’, and it is not surprising that they have not survived, or have so far eluded our grasp. Monks and nuns were not unknown in the fifth-century Irish church. Patrick wrote in the ‘Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus’: ‘the sons and daughters of kings were monks and virgins of Christ. I cannot count their number’ (Bieler 1953, 44); and the canons of Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus are concerned with monks and virgins as well as bishops and priests (ibid. 50-4). Monenna probably died in the early sixth century, so perhaps Killevy was a late fifth-century foundation. Was it a nunnery from the start? Trea of Ardtrea is brought into association with Patrick in the much later ‘Tripartite Life’ and her date is uncertain, but another early nunnery is possible. But fifth-

There is a notable concentration of churches near the Uí Néill inauguration site at Tullahogue, but I am not sure whether this was used for inauguration before the battle of Leth Cam in 827. [370] There is very little surviving material even possibly attributable to this early episcopal phase. The Drumconwell ogam stone could date from the fifth, sixth or seventh centuries. Crosses could have been carved on standing stones in the early missionary period, and the 178

century monks and nuns were ascetics within the church; the church was not yet monastic. With the growth of monastic paruchiae from the sixth century onwards the balance began to change until by the eighth century the monastic church had emerged supreme;

Cambas’ (Anderson 1961, 318-9). Antrim, refuge for Bangor monks and Comgall’s relics in 824, is likely to have been part of Comgall’s paruchia, and if Ballyclog parish in Co. Antrim is indeed ‘Baile Cluig Comhghaill’ (M.I.A., 1164), this too was in Bangor’s orbit. Perhaps the keeper of the Bangor Bell had land here. The late ‘Life of Comgall’ claimed an extensive paruchia: ‘et inde [from Bangor] plurimas cellas et multa monasteria, non solum in regione Vltorum, set per alias Hybernie provinchias [construxit]. Et in diuersis cellis et monasteriis tria milia monachorum sub curia sancti patris Comgalli fuerunt’ (Plummer 1910, II, 7).

[371] its units were not dioceses and parishes but monastic paruchiae, and its leading figures were abbots. Some early episcopal centres continued to flourish, presumably by building up their own monastic confederacies, like Conner and Ardstraw but others seem to have dropped from prominence. There is a hint of decay at Armoy in the ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes 1887, 167); Rashee disappears from the sources until medieval times and the annals do not mention Down after the late sixth until the mid eighth century.1

Eogan’s area in west Tyrone has already been discussed, and we have only to note a cross at Armagh and a possibly Anglo-Norman church, Killowen, near Coleraine.

A wide range of written sources, especially annals, early saints’ ‘Lives’ and the earlier martyrologies (M.T. and M.O., but not their glosses) name at least some of the churches established in the pre-Viking period (marked on the maps accompanying Chapter 4). Some northern monasteries are well documented. The succession of early abbesses at Killevy and abbots at Bangor is recorded - Comgall of Bangor, and Cainnech, a native of Cianacht in Co. Derry, are listed in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ as ‘monasteriorum sancti fundatores de Scotia’ (Anderson 1961, 500-1). Certainly sixth-century foundations in our area include Bangor, Derry, Devenish, and Movilla.

1.

[373] Further south-west the importance of Clones is clear - Tigernach’s paruchia extending to the Galloon area, probably to Clogher and Glennoo, on a route from Clones to Clogher, and Kiltierney, a northern outlier. Churches with Fedbair associations occupy a small, compact area around Boho and Monea, whilst Lasair’s two churches (Killesher and Aghavea) are widely separated. The evidence used in this discussion is of very uneven quality; the associations of all the sites would be well worth studying in greater depth, and it remains to be seen if the impressionistic view given in Figure 90 will stand up to further investigation. It seems to show a pattern of some large, discontinuous distributions, notably of Columban associations, and some smaller, more compact groupings, like those connected with Eogan and Fedbair. Northern sites associated with monasteries in other parts of Ireland include Connor (Lynally, Co. Offaly), Derrynoose (Timahoe, Co. Laois) and perhaps Ballinderry (Co. Antrim: a link with Molua?).

Rathlin was founded in 634, and many other founders, less certainly dated, flourished probably in the sixth or seventh century, such as Guare of Aghadowey, Colmán of Arboe, Ronan of Aghalurcher and Lasair of Killesher. 1.

Reeves 1857, 276-85, lists Columban churches in Ireland but does not discuss in detail his grounds for including sites. Of his 37 sites, only five appear in Fig. 90. The only one in my area omitted from Fig. 90 is Knock (Co. Down: Appendix D).

The multiplicity of early bishops and their subsequent disappearance from the records greatly puzzled earlier writers (even Bishop Reeves) who did not appreciate the difference between early episcopal and later monastic organisation.

[372] Figure 90 attempts to show which sites in the inventory were associated with eight prominent saints. Most numerous and widespread (after Patrician) are Columban associations, particularly in Co. Derry and Co. Tyrone.1 The evidence ranges in quality from early written sources (Derry), through later ones (Carrickmore) to fairly recently recorded traditions, like the extensive Columban claims in the Ordnance Survey Memoir of Ballynascreen. Also in Co. Derry, but less prominent, are Adamnan associations, clearest at Errigal. Cainnech, Columba’s contemporary, is best-known for his foundation at Aghaboe (Co. Laois), but his paruchia seems to have embraced a group of churches in his native Co. Derry, centred on Drumachose, and Father Gallagher has suggested the possibility of a Cainnech church in Dromore parish (Co. Tyrone).

Written sources also provide evidence for contacts overseas Traditionally several northern saints studied at ‘Candida Casa’ (Whithorn), including Eogan, Finnian of Movilla and Tigernach (Plummer 1910, I, cxxxvi), and these travels could have led to, or increased, the veneration for St. Martin of Tours, already touched on. We have seen that Bangor was the base for Columbanus’s mission to the Continent at the end of the sixth century, and Applecross (W. Ross) was founded probably from Bangor in 673, whilst Finnian of Movilla was credited with bringing the Vulgate to Ireland and may have written the earliest Irish penitential which shows the influence of Continental works (p. 27). A gloss in the ‘Martyrology of Oengus’ remembers ‘three saints of Britain’ at Tamlachta (Drumsallagh) and the ‘seven monks of Egypt in Disert Uilaig’ of a pre-Viking litany suggest more distant contacts.

Bangor was the chief monastery of the Dál nAraidi. Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ establishes a link with distant Camus (Co. Londonderry) on the Bann, ‘monasterium sancti Comgil quod scotice dicitur 179

[374] What surviving material can be attributed to this period, from the sixth to the eighth century, and does it throw any light on these links between monasteries in the north, further afield in Ireland, or overseas? Most closely datable are manuscripts and metalwork. The Springmount Bog tablets and the ‘Bangor Antiphonary’ date from the seventh century and the ‘Book of Armagh’ from the end of this period (807). The surviving evidence is meagre, and problems still surround the place of origin of manuscripts, but there seem no grounds for suggesting any great flowering of manuscript illumination in the north.

prehistoric (e.g. Stokes 1928, 30), secondly on the claim that monasteries would not have needed nor have had the resources to build large enclosures, and thirdly on the evidence of late saints’ ‘Lives’, which report gifts of enclosures, such as the gift of a rath to Patrick for his first church at Armagh (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 229 and Plummer 1910, I, xcviii-ix). These considerations obviously weighed heavily in Lawlor’s interpretation of Nendrum. Though the great western cashels are very difficult to date, the bulk of dating evidence from excavated cashels indicates the Early Christian period. [376] Monasteries did need enclosures (pp. 94-6), and a major house would have been able to call on correspondingly large resources. Finally it is clear that the late saints’ ‘Lives’ are of limited use for anything except their writers’ time (Hughes 1972, 219-20). It is likely that some monasteries were indeed established in existing enclosures, as at Downpatrick, but the onus is on the excavator to investigate the possibility, and again this will not be an easy question to settle.

The Nendrum finds may date from the seventh century onwards, but the report indicates sparse finds in the lower ‘layers’ and rich material nearer the surface. A decorated bronze buckle from Derry (Co. Down) may belong to the eighth century, and the excavated Castle Street, Armagh, material may be pre-Viking. The Lough Erne shrine, the Shankill crosier fragments, the earliest part of the ‘Soiscél Molaise’ and the ‘Bell of St Patrick’s Will’ may also belong to this period. No northern freestanding stone crosses are clearly as early as this, but some cross-carved stones must be.

Perhaps some of the ‘failed sites’ discussed in Chapter 4 belong to this period. Not all early foundations can have flourished, and we have reviewed some of the factors which could have threatened a monastery’s security (pp. 62-3), but excavation is needed to test the possibility further. The dearth of surviving structures I have argued results mainly from the use of wood and other perishable materials (pp. 121-5). The 724 appearance of the name Duleek, and the reference to the stone oratory at Armagh in 789 are isolated early references, and these two sites may well have been in touch with areas of Britain where stone churches were being built in the seventh and eighth centuries. But the Irish custom of building in wood seems to have persisted, and I see no reason to attribute any of the standing stone churches in the north to the pre-Viking period.

The Kilnasaggart pillar provides a valuable chronological anchor at about 700, and the mention of a non-Irish saint, Peter the Apostle, is so unusual that it must invite comparison with the ‘Peter the Apostle’ stone at Whithorn, dated to the seventh century on epigraphic grounds. This stone also bears a chi-rho cross, and the geographical closeness of the Drumaqueran chi-rho to the Galloway group has already been noted (p. 252). Bangor and Movilla clerics were active in the seventh-century Easter controversy, and the northern monasteries and Columba’s paruchia conformed in about 700 and 716 (Hughes 1966, 107). [375] Bede’s account of the Synod of Whitby emphasises St. Peter’s authority (H.E. III, 25), and the appearance of his name at Kilnasaggart, truly extraordinary in an Irish context, suggests some link with the ‘Roman’ cause. Macalister pointed out this possibility (1935, 185) and I would support his suggestion, whilst recognising that it will be difficult to prove. Other early stones may be the crosses of arcs at Drumnacur and Saul, and some of the Nendrum recumbent slabs could be pre-Viking, though this is not certain. Slab graves must have been in use during this period, and it will be interesting to see whether further excavation will confirm that their distribution is largely confined to Dál Riata, Dál nAraidi, Dál Fiatach and part of Airthir (p. 196).

We have seen that by the eighth century some monastic settlements were very large, and the monastic church enjoyed a peak of power and prosperity (Hughes 1966, 134). The northern material does not reflect this, partly because of losses and the use of perishable material, and partly perhaps because of the difficulties of dating surviving material. It does not yet seem possible to detect any material links between different members of a paruchia, or to suggest what may have distinguished churches with particular place-names. [377] It has been suggested that ‘lann’, not a common word for church in Ireland, may belong to an early stage of monasticism (Flanagan 1967, 386-7), but the bullauns at Glenavy and Ballinderry are not helpful, and there is no early material at Lambeg or Magheralin. Churches with ‘ceall’, ‘both’ and ‘tech’ names may have originated in this period, but again the surviving material does not allow any distinctions to be made on archaeological grounds. Imported pottery, E-ware, indicates some kind of link with western France, but the quantity is small, and A- and B-wares of Mediterranean origin are so far absent from excavated northern church sites.

Some enclosures must belong to this period, and the question of the re-use of enclosures, already touched on (pp. 97-8), again arises, acutely in the case of the Nendrum cashels. Many writers have assumed that the practice of granting enclosures to clerics was common (e.g. Petrie 1845, 466-7 and Norman and St. Joseph 1969, 96). This assumption seems to rest on three lines of argument, all unsound. It is based, first, on a nineteenthcentury belief that unmortared stone cashels were 180

FIG. 91: EIGHTH-NINTH CENTURY REFORMS.

In the late eighth century a reform movement developed in reaction against the slack ways of the ‘old churches’, the long-established monasteries. A wide range of sources – rules, penitentials, martyrologies, poetry reflect the reformers’ pre-occupations: strict observance of canonical hours and performance of the liturgy; emphasis on ascetic practices; and strict separation from the world and its temptations (e.g. Gwynn and Purton 1911).

The early history of Tassagh, traditional burial place of the Armagh Culdees, is unknown. It was later held with the rectory of Derrynoose by the Culdees, but the significance (if any) for the pre-Norman period of medieval links between the Culdees and various vicarages and rectories in Co. Armagh and Co. Tyrone is uncertain. The presence of Culdees in the Devenish area is clear but poorly documented. Culdees are not mentioned on Devenish until 1479, but the Culdee church must date to soon after 1200 and a late eighth or ninthcentury origin for the Devenish community seems likely.

The monks were known as ‘céli-de’ (‘Culdees’, ‘servants of God’), and there were some new Culdee foundations whilst other groups developed close to older houses. The written sources suggest the movement was strongest in the Southern Half of Ireland (Hughes 1966, 182 and chap. 16, passim). It was especially associated with Maelruain (died 792) and the two Co. Dublin monasteries at Tallaght and Finglas, and it is interesting to note that Fergus of Rath Luraig (Maghera, Co. Londonderry) died as abbot of Finglas in 817 (A.U.). Figure 91 assembles the northern evidence. The only pre-Norman reference to the Armagh Culdees is in 921, when they were untouched in a Viking raid.

At the Dissolution the prior of the Culdees acted as vicar of the great church of the parish of Devenish (Reeves 1864, 22-3). Killadeas is absent from pre-Norman sources but the material indicates an early church, and the name suggests a Culdee connection. Nothing need be earlier than the eighth or ninth century, so the possibility arises that Killadeas was a new Culdee foundation, whilst the Devenish community was established beside the ‘great old monastery’. In 1603 Pubble was listed as ‘chappell de Pobull, alias Collidea’; and the reference to ‘corbes’ in the same inquisition suggests a pre-Norman foundation (Reeves op. cit., 24), but the nature of the Culdee connection is uncertain and the material (bullauns) is unhelpful.

[378] Reeves traced their later history and survival as vicars choral, and located their holdings north of Castle Street, in the general area of the 1968 excavation (Reeves 1864 and Scott 1896). 181

As well as specific references to Culdees there are mentions of anchorites in the annals. They appear both before and after the main reforming period, but references do cluster in the eighth and ninth centuries. Anchorites appear in the Annals of Ulster at the following sites: Armagh (731, 733, 812, 852, 862, 893, 903 and 936); Bangor (839, 929); Clontivrin (745); and Devenish (870), sometimes combined with the epithet ‘scribe’.

raids, hit-and run plundering in coastal areas. Early northern references are to Killevy (823), Bangor (823, 824), Down (825) and Movilla (825), all vulnerable to waterborne invaders. Bangor must have been an obvious early target, large, probably wealthy and near the coast. It does not disappear from the records, but clearly declined in importance. In the 820s and 830s larger fleets appeared and more permanent bases were established, for example on Lough Neagh by 837, making possible penetration further inland. Armagh was plundered three times in one month in 832 and frequently thereafter. The 869 and 896 entries indicate one of the prizes the Vikings were seeking - not just treasure, stock and supplies but ‘booty of men’ to sell as slaves, probably to Islamic areas. Connor, Devenish, Maghera (Co. Londonderry) and Coleraine suffered also in the 830s and Clogher in the 840s. References thereafter are sparse in the north but continue sporadically to the beginning of the eleventh century.

[379] The ‘Rule of Columba’, which seems to belong to this period, urges - ‘Be alone in a separate place near a chief city’ (Haddan and Stubbs 1878, 112-21) - and I have wondered whether any pairs of sites can be seen as an older foundation with a reformed community nearby. Kells was known in the medieval period as ‘Desert of Connor’ but its early history is obscure and the material scanty. Figure 91 marks churches where ‘Desert’ placenames occur. We have seen that these are not in remote or barren areas, as far as it is now possible to judge this (p. 82).

1.

It has been suggested (recently in Ó Corráin 1972, 49) that these names indicate land won from the waste, but another possibility is that ‘Desert’ sites were hermitages or reformed houses of the late eighth and ninth centuries. One, at least, was a new foundation of the period, ‘Dísert Díarmata’ (Castledermot, Co. Kildare), established in 812 (A.I.). A district of Armagh is known as the Desert whilst the dísert of Derry is mentioned in 1122 (A.U.), and a retreat or hermitage close to the monastic city seems a reasonable explanation.

Fig. 92 does not show raids on areas, such as Lough Erne in 824 and 937, nor raids by unknown attackers, like that on Tullylish in 809. A.U. is again the source.

[381] Also shown in Figure 92 are find-spots of some Viking material in the north (based on Bøe 1940, with additions). Finds of distinctively Viking objects are still quite sparse, but the coastal and riverine distribution is clear, and the juxtapositions of Bangor and Ballyholme; Tynan church and silver hoard; and Ballymoney and Kilraghts are worth noting.

Robin Flower suggested that the reformers’ emphasis on liturgy may have influenced the development of figurecarved crosses (1954). It is an attractive hypothesis, but on the grounds of likelihood I prefer to see the older houses as the main centres of artistic production. The arts have not usually flourished in a puritan milieu, and though the reformed communities were centres of scholarship, they were not necessarily also artistic centres. It is, however, possible that some sundials belong to this period. The insistence of the reformers on the correct observance of canonical hours suggests that the older monasteries may have been slack in this respect, and sundials were a reminder of the hours as well as an aid in time-keeping.

The hoard found in 1843 in, or close to, Derrykeighan graveyard contained at least 260 coins, mostly of tenthcentury Anglo-Saxon kings, but including coins of Eric of York, probably of Pippin II of Aquitaine (839-858), and perhaps of Trajan. Professor Dolley sees the hoard as the possession of an Irishman, interested in the coins for their silver bullion value (1965, 35), and it testifies to contact of some kind between north-east Ireland, Viking York, Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian France in the ninth and tenth centuries. It is not easy to investigate Viking damage by excavation: slight structures would easily be made good, and destruction levels are difficult to trace with confidence except in large-scale work. Lawlor was so clearly looking for evidence to fit his preconceived interpretation at Nendrum that his observations are suspect.

[380] Soon after the beginning of the reform movement the first Viking raids on Ireland are reported (from 795). There has been much discussion about the extent of Viking damage in Ireland and Britain. Dr. Lucas and Professor Sawyer have tended to play it down, pointing to the clerical bias of the documents and to the Vikings’ trading and settling rather than their more warlike activities (e.g. Lucas 1967), whilst Dr. Hughes has argued on the evidence of the annals that the Vikings did violently disrupt the life of church and society (1972, 148-59).

There were traces of burning, but these do not necessarily mean Viking damage or the end of the monastery’s occupation. Vikings were active in Strangford Lough (e.g. A.U. 877 and 924), but the annals do not tell us who was responsible for the burning of the erenagh in 976. If monastic life at Nendrum survived to the last quarter of the tenth century it may well have continued into the eleventh and perhaps the twelfth. The round tower and stone church could date to either before or after 976, but the runic slab is certainly eleventh century, not earlier (de Paor 1961, 164).

The annals indicate some of the damage to northern churches (Fig. 92).1 The two, to three, decades after the 795 attack on ‘Rechru’ (Rathlin or Lambay) saw sporadic 182

FIG. 92: MAP SHOWING VIKING ACTIVITY.

[382] Irish plunder in the Viking homelands cannot be localised very closely, and recent work by Professor Wilson on the St. Ninian’s Isle treasure has suggested that some material thought to be Irish is of Pictish manufacture, so this class of evidence will need reconsideration. But it is tempting to see the Lough Erne shrine as booty from one of the Viking raids on island and coastal monasteries, in 837, for example, or 924 when a fleet ‘plundered the islands of the lake and the territories round it’ (A.U.).

stronger ones, and powerful houses extended their influence in troubled times. But Dr. Ó Corráin points out that abbacies were held in plurality at least as early as 742 and traces its origins to ‘the increase of wealth and power in the larger monasteries at the expense of the smaller and ... the expansion of professional ecclesiastical families’ (1972, 85). The period of Viking raids saw a further exodus of Irish monks to the Continent, including the great scholars Dicuil, Sedulius Scottus and Johannes Scottus (Eriugena).

A practice which the annals suggest was common during the period of Viking pressure was the holding of abbacies in plurality. There are many references from 778 onwards to the abbots of Connor and Lynally, and obits in the Annals of Ulster suggest links between the following houses (Fig. 92): Devenish and Clonmacnois (869 and 896); Drumcliff and Ardstraw (923); Clones, Clogher and Armagh (930); Bangor and Dromore (Co. Down: 952); Movilla and Dromore (1019); and Movilla and Bangor (1025). Some links may be traced to a common origin or longstanding friendship between monasteries (Clogher and Clones, Connor and Lynally), others to geographical proximity (Bangor, Movilla and Dromore), but more distant contacts are difficult to explain. Dr. Hughes sees this practice as another sign of disturbed times (1966, 213-4): weak monasteries perhaps sought a link with

[383] The only certain northern instance I have come across is late: Marianus Scottus was banished from Movilla in 1056 and lived as an inclusus at Fulda and Mainz (Kenney 1929, 614-6), but it is likely that Bangor maintained contacts with Columbanus’s Continental paruchia, and some refugees from Comgall’s paruchia may have reached Luxeuil, Annegray, Bobbio or elsewhere, perhaps taking manuscripts. I have argued in Chapter 6 that the Viking period saw an increase in the use of stone by Irish craftsmen. Round towers were probably first built in the tenth century (Fig. 92), and some stone churches must have been built then, though annal references only become common in the eleventh. Whatever the exact dating of freestanding 183

crosses and cross-carved stones, many must belong to the two centuries between about 800 and 1000. It does seem likely that conditions of great insecurity encouraged craftsmen to turn from wood and other perishable materials to stone.

with changing circumstances the old site had become inconvenient, a new church would be established. [385] In areas of intensive Anglo-Norman settlement, like parts of Co. Down and Co. Antrim, seigneurial churches were founded, but elsewhere the older system may have remained largely intact (pp. 8-9).

The initial Viking impact was destructive and disruptive, but by the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Viking settlers were contributing in a positive way. We have noted the shrine of the ‘Bell of St. Patrick’s Will’ as a fine example of Irish Urnes-style decoration probably from an Armagh workshop, and some Viking churchmen took a leading part in the reform movement which brought the Irish church back into line with western Christendom. Bishops of the Viking towns, Dublin and Waterford, were consecrated in England in the late eleventh century (Hughes 1966, 257-8) and the first reforming synod was held at Cashel in 1101, but with the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111 the north took the lead in the person of Cellach, abbot of Armagh. A member of the Clann Sínaich, whose members had held the abbacy continuously since 965, he was consecrated bishop in 1106 and so combined the two offices (Ó Fiaich 1969).

The 1129 obit of Cellach recorded ‘the consecration of many churches and cemeteries’ (A.U.), and the creation of parishes clearly made necessary the provision of parish churches, but to what extent were churches newly built and how far were already existing churches used? We are here confronted with the problem that we know very little about the state of the old-established monasteries on the eve of reform. The annals suggest continuing monastic life at some sites: in 1031, for example, ‘Cill-combair’ (Comber) with its oratory was burned, four clergy were killed and thirty captives taken; a ‘master of leaning, liberality and poetry’ died at Arboe in 1103, and churches and a refectory were burned at Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) in 1195. But the picture derived from written sources is fragmentary and far from clear. At a surviving monastery a church might continue in use, unaltered or modified, and it would be unrealistic to try to draw a firm distinction on architectural grounds between ‘latest monastic’ and ‘earliest parochial’.

[384] A series of twelfth-century synods established a framework which provided a basis for all later organisation: two provinces, Armagh and Cashel (later four), each with twelve suffragen bishops. In our area (Fig. 93) were Ardstraw (later Maghera and finally Derry), Clogher, Down, Connor, and Dromore, probably a post-Norman creation which appears first in 1197 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 47-54). In this way a system of government swept away by the sixth and seventhcentury monastic paruchiae was re-established, a church under episcopal control, within which monasteries existed but were no longer dominant.

Was the eastward extension of Inishmacsaint church built for twelfth-century parish worship, and was Derry south church monastic in origin and the north church parochial? Was Banagher ever monastic, and did monastic life continue on White Island until the end of the twelfth century? Without help from written sources and further excavation it is difficult to answer such questions. Ballywillin was probably built as a parish church in about 1200, but some churches were doubtless still built of wood in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The northern dioceses were established at ancient, prestigeous monastic centres, but material traces of twelfth-century cathedrals at these sites are rare. There is a single twelfth-century carved fragment at Down, but nothing at Ardstraw, Clogher, Connor, Derry and Dromore. Maghera was the episcopal see from the midtwelfth century for about a century: it is likely that the ground plan which survives (except the tower) is the cathedral church, and the grand west door could be as late as the move from Ardstraw (p. 140).

[386] Another aspect of reform which had important archaeological implications was the introduction of new monastic orders (Fig. 93). Probably earliest, and numerically most important, were the Augustinian Canons. In England pre-Conquest minster churches often became Augustinian houses, and about half of the 120 or so Irish abbeys and priories occupied early monastic sites (based on Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 146-200).

Another important reform was the creation of fixed parishes. I am uncertain how far the earlier system of manaig persisted to this late date, but the monasteries must have ministered to the surrounding lay population. To critical outside observers, however, this provision was inadequate: Bernard of Clairvaux praised Malachy for improving the church’s pastoral work (Lawlor 1920, 178). Although early parish development has been studied in some areas (Otway-Ruthven 1964 and Nicholls 1971) in general it remains little studied and imperfectly understood. Old monastic foundations must often have provided a suitable focus for parish churches, but if a monastery had not survived to the twelfth century, or if

Cellach consecrated the church of SS. Peter and Paul at Armagh in 1126 and this is referred to late in the century as an Augustinian house. The twelfth-century fragments from Abbey Street may come from SS. Peter and Paul. Malachy was responsible for the introduction of the Augustinian rule at many northern sites including Down, Bangor and Saul. Muckamore appears by 1183; Kells by 1190; Derry by the early thirteenth century, but firm dates are lacking for the foundation of Clogher, Devenish, Killevy, Lisgoole and Movilla. A twelfth-century date is likely, but it is interesting that no features earlier than the fifteenth century have been found during recent work at St. Mary’s, Devenish by Mr. Waterman. 184

FIG. 93: TWELFTH CENTURY REFORM.

The traditional 1100 foundation of Dungiven by the O Cahans is difficult to reconcile both with ecclesiastical and political history. 1100 is surely too early for Augustinian Canons here and the O Cahans did not control this area until later in the century (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 174). Excavation may eventually show whether monastic life survived at Dungiven to the end of the eleventh century and whether we have a reformed community or a new foundation. If the building does indeed date to about 1100 it must have been taken over by the Augustinians under the patronage of the O Cahans later in the century; but if this was a new foundation on a decayed early monastic site, and if it was Augustinian from the start, a date nearer the mid-century is more likely.

at Kiltierney and Agivey may have occupied early sites. Another pre-invasion foundation was Savignac Erenagh (Co. Donegal), colonised from Furness in 1127, but the buildings here as at Newry are quite unknown. Erenagh was destroyed after it was fortified against John de Courcy, and northern churches were involved in much warfare during the last three decades of the twelfth century. Examples of damage and destruction during war include Arboe (1166); Ardstraw (1199); Armagh (1189); Armoy (1177); Coleraine (1171, 1177); Devenish (1157, 1176); Down (1177); Enagh, Clooney and other coastal churches (1179, 1197); and Derryloran and Desertcreat (1195). All these developments suggest that building and rebuilding were active in the twelfth century: building new parish churches and abbeys, modifying inherited buildings, making good damage. Contacts with Britain and the Continent encouraged new ideas and styles, and events would have tended to bring about a divide between strongly English-influenced areas and others less exposed to English contacts. We can only view this complex period through the ruins of buildings and other fragments, lacking the major structures and models of the time, and it is not surprising that our vision is still defective.

[387] The second important order was the Cistercians, introduced by Malachy to Mellifont in 1142. Newry was founded from Mellifont in about 1153, and the crosscarved stone there could be as late as this, but the possibility remains of an earlier church at Newry. Other northern Cistercian abbeys date from after the invasion and were colonised not from Mellifont or Newry but from English and Welsh houses. I shall not pursue their history further here except to point out that the monasteries at Inch and Comber, and granges 185

[388] The Banagher tomb must date from about 1200, and the other simpler examples may not be much earlier. The two small figure-carved crosses at Down can reasonably be related to the twelfth-century changes which brought bishops into such prominence, like the more impressive examples further west. Some large cross-carved slabs may be as late as the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Duncrun, Killevy, Devenish 6) and some sundials may belong to this reforming period.

Again when a church with an ‘ecla(i)s’ name is mentioned in early sources it is by another name, including ‘Tamlachta Gíladh’ for Aughlish townland (Ballymore) and ‘Tartaraghan’ for Eglish townland. It seems unlikely that Eglish was the early name of Eglish parish (Co. Armagh): the crosses suggest that the graveyard was used in pre-Norman times (pp. 50 and 217), and one possibility is that the site was called Eglish when it was designated the parish church in the twelfth century or later. My evidence, as far as it goes, seems to support Mrs Flanagan’s conclusion that ‘temple’ and ‘ecla(i)s’ place-names are unlikely to be pre-Norman, though they were later used of pre-Norman sites.

Mrs. Flanagan has observed that ‘mainistir’, ‘temple’ and ‘ecla(i)s’ place-names are not documented in pre-Norman sources (1967, 384-5). No ‘mainistir’ names occur in my inventory, but ‘temple’ names appear as parishes, townlands and local names. In all cases when a site is found in pre-Norman sources it is known by another name: at Derry, for example, the church built in 1164 gave its name to the parish of Templemore, but ‘DaireCalgaich’ and ‘Daire-Columcille’ are earlier names; and the parish Killevy, not the townland, Ballintemple, is the early name. Other ‘temple’ churches do not appear in early sources and have no clearly pre-Norman material.

Attempts at archaeological and historical interpretation can only be based on the available evidence, and this is only a fraction of what once existed. Having, like Reeves, gleaned as much as possible (p. 16), I turn finally to the causes of loss and damage, and some of the ways in which this study could be further advanced.

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[389]

Chapter 8 THE SITES FROM 1200 TO THE PRESENT DAY My work has been mainly concerned with the material remains at the first eight hundred years of Christianity in the north of Ireland. Almost eight hundred years have passed since the Anglo-Norman invasion, and it seems appropriate to examine briefly how early ecclesiastical sites have fared as the events of these centuries have vitally affected the survival of the material. There will be no attempt to trace the general ecclesiastical history as this has been done by Leslie, Gwynn and Hadcock and others (Leslie 1911, 1929, 1937; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970); my emphasis will be on the light that the history of the sites can throw on the material and its survival.

The remains of the Augustinian church at Dungiven were repaired for Protestant worship in 1622 and remained in use until the early eighteenth century. Many more early sites continued in use for medieval parish churches. The difficulties of studying the origins of parishes have already been touched on, but without going into further detail it will be clear from my inventory that many parishes were based on an old monastic nucleus and the parish church was often built on the old sites. Parish church building must have been active in the twelfth century, but it is unlikely that all parishes built a stone church at once.

Some early sites continued in the monastic tradition, though in a very different form from early Irish monasticism. We have traced the foundation of monastic houses to about 1200, some of them on early sites. Many were occupied throughout the Middle Ages and appear in dissolution records of the 1530s and 1540s, like Killevy and Inch, but a few, like Nendrum by 1306, seem to have become parochial. The case of Lisgoole illustrates the possible complexity: the early establishment was refounded, probably in the twelfth century, as a house of Augustinian canons but by the late sixteenth century this was ruinous and was taken over by the Franciscans. The friars held it until the seventeenth or eighteenth century and finally a large house was built on the site, the cemetery was tuned into a garden and the remains were shovelled into Lough Erne (McKenna, ‘The Friaries of Lisgool and Gaula’, Enniskillen, no date).

[391] Some may have built the first stone church in the thirteenth century, and to judge from the mass of late medieval churches surveyed in Co. Down there was much building and rebuilding in the later Middle Ages. The churches sometimes provide clues to a complicated structural history: there are fourteenth-century mouldings built into Ballynascreen church; re-used material in the late medieval church at Derryloran; and possibly twelfth, certainly thirteenth-century fragments in Kilcronaghan church, built or remodelled in 1806. Sometimes it is simply dressed stone in the graveyard wall which reminds us of the lost church, as at Desertmartin and Donacavey. Some early sites have remained in use as the church site until recent times, or to the present day. Sometimes the church has been rebuilt, perhaps several times, exactly on the old site, as at Armoy, sometimes nearby, in the same graveyard, as at Ardtrea, Kilrea and Bodoney. At Tynan the exact site of the early church is unknown, but fragments of crosses and other carved stones in and about the graveyard show that the present Church of Ireland church is on or close to the ancient site. In other cases the modern church is some distance away from the early one: Ballinderry (Co. Antrim) has no fewer than three church sites (P.S. 1940, 58). It is not always clear exactly when the change of site occurred; the parish name in written sources is rarely accompanied by any clue to the location of the building. Very many churches were ruinous in the early seventeenth century (further discussed below) and this is one possible context for a move, but in some cases the move was as late as the nineteenth century, as at Ballywillin and Maghera (Co. Londonderry).

[390] A number of churches on early sites in Armagh diocese were linked as vicarages, rectories or granges to the Armagh Culdees or the Augustinian house of SS. Peter and Paul at Armagh. References in annals suggest that some churches on early sites were not simply parochial but performed other functions, some perhaps supporting a community. Guesthouses or hospitality are mentioned at Cleenish, Derrybrusk and Magheracross and a guesthouse and member of the community (‘muinntir’) at Rossory in the fifteenth century (all references in Gwynn and Hadcock 1970). The structural remains at sites which continued in use for monastic or collegiate establishments usually belong to the medieval and not the earlier occupation, such as Movilla, Kells and probably Kiltierney.

[392] Langfield parish in west Tyrone (Fig. 81a) illustrates the problems. There are at least four church sites in the parish. The 1306 Taxation lists Langfield but which was the parish church site in 1306?

It is one of the many problems surrounding Nendrum to decide what elements belong to the Benedictine cell rather than the earlier occupation.

187

There are seventeenth and eighteenth-century reports on the church fabric, but which church? The parish was divided early in the nineteenth century and Lewis refers to parish churches in Magharenny townland and at Lackagh (Lewis 1837, II, 244). The 1306 church may have been in the old graveyard in Maghareeny townland, and still earlier may be the church site in Killoan townland (Hamlin 1971, passim).

been used for un-consecrated burials, mainly of unbaptised infants, for example in Drumnacur and Sessagh of Gallan townlands. Sadly for the archaeologist this continuing use of sites for burial has been thoroughly destructive, as the fragmentary remains found at Derry (Co. Down) clearly show (Waterman 1967, passim). Recent burials form one of the most effective of all barriers to excavation: Armagh cathedral graveyard, for example, is archaeologically badly disturbed and probably largely inaccessible. Even more voracious are the huge municipal cemeteries which have grown up over the early sites at Kirkinriola, Movilla and Seagoe. 1.

This is clearly seen, for example, in the plan of the subRoman cemetery at Cannington, Somerset, excavated by P.A. Rahtz: brief report in Barley and Hanson 1968, 193-6.

[394] It is true that chance finds occasionally result from grave-digging, as at Clonfeacle, Mullaghbrack and Seagoe, but these only serve to underline the loss and in no way compensate for it. A few sites have probably been completely or almost forgotten in medieval and post-medieval times. Because of their very obscurity these are the most difficult of all to find and date. Some sites were doubtless completely abandoned well before 1200, but the desertion of others may be more recent. We do not know when the sites at Trillick, Killoan, Teesnaghtan, Aghanaglack, Cloghinny and Drumconwell were abandoned. We are not even sure that Altaghoney and Kiltober were church sites. But Drumcath’ and Drumfadd’ seem to have disappeared since 1306, though Drumcraw townland provides a possible site for Drumcath’.

FIG. 81A: SITES IN LANGFIELD PARISH.

Old endowments usually passed to the Protestants, and if a church stands on an early site it is usually the Church of Ireland parish church or a chapel of ease. In a few cases when the Protestant church is sited elsewhere the old site has been taken over for the Roman Catholic parish church, as at Clonfeacle, Tamlaghtard and Inispollan. Use by non-conformists, as at Drumbo, is rare. Glimpses of the medieval history of some churches can be caught through the Armagh Registers, and we see that the rector or vicar responsible for the upkeep of his chancel did not always keep it in good repair. It is likely that some erenaghs were negligent also in the upkeep of the nave. There are several fifteenth-century entries authorising an official to sequester a rector’s tithes because of his neglect of the chancel, for example at St. Mochua’s church, Derrynoose, in 1427 (Chart 1935, 556).

During the period of Penal legislation Roman Catholics worshipped in all kinds of plates: at mass rocks in the open, at small shelters (‘scathlán’ or ‘bohog’), in poor chapels, and it is clear that early ecclesiastical sites were sometimes used. Glennoo is remembered as a place of worship in Penal times, and other abandoned but still revered church sites must have been obvious foci for worshippers. The Penal period does, however, pose some problems for the archaeologist. Some cross-carved stones may date from those years and not earlier, including some simple crosses which could be taken to be typologically ‘primary’ and early. This problem has already been discussed and it is sufficient here to recall that the Dunteige cross-carved stone is probably a Penal altar and the Edenmore standing stone may have been carved with a cross in Penal times.

[393] Very many early sites have continued to be used for burial. There has been a strong desire among Christians, throughout the history of the church, to be buried in a holy spot, preferably close to a revered founder or saint.1 The Irish have always shared this desire for burial in an ancient cemetery which helps to explain the dense graveyards which cover many early sites. Ledwich’s drawing of Devenish in the late eighteenth century shows a burial party from the mainland approaching the island cemetery (1790, pl. XIII facing p. 183 and in Henry 1970, pl. IV).

[395] Other carved stones which may be similarly recent include those at Broughanlea, Carrickcroppan, Dromore (Co. Antrim), Killygartan and Tullaghore.1

Some graveyards have come to be restricted to the use of one denomination (Ballymore for Protestants and Relicarn for Roman Catholics) but others, like Donacavey, are mixed. A few probably early sites have

Early sites have continued to be visited for a variety of other purposes. Numerous wells at church sites (as well as elsewhere) have been frequented for cures. The practice at many is disused but some are still much used 188

(Pl. 56b (see chapter 6) shows the well at Tamlaghtard). A few rags at the well near Aghalurcher (Pl. 83a (see chapter 6)) and the bullaun at remote Church Island, Lough Beg, and a Brigid’s cross at the Kilnasaggart bullaun show that these are not forgotten. Although the elaborate round of ‘stations’ described by the Ordnance Surveyors in the 1830s at Dungiven is no longer performed the rag-decked thorn above the bullaun shows that this site still has many visitors in search of cures (Pl. 51a (see chapter 6)). Gifts in the socket of the cross-base at Donacavey and on the cross-carved stone at Carrickcroppan also provide evidence of recent visitors. The amount of wear on the hand-hole of the Bovevagh mortuary house suggests many generations of visitors, as do the thousands of pins and pennies in the Arboe pin well (Pl. 114a (see chapter 6)). 1.

There is an interesting eye-witness account of the transformation of the church on Church Island, Lough Beg, into a fortress in 1643, including the digging of surrounding earthworks, and a further event in the chequered history of this site was the addition of a tower and steeple by the Earl of Bristol in 1788 to improve the view from Ballyscullion House. Sectarian troubles since the Plantation period have sometimes involved early ecclesiastical sites and material. Visitation books, like Bishop Downham’s survey of Derry diocese in 1622 (U.J.A. I (1895), 165 f. and following volumes), show that the vast majority of churches were then ruinous and unfit for use. Further damage seems to have occurred during the 1641 troubles, although some accounts of this may be exaggerated (such as Harris 1744, 98). The visitation books tell of attempts to refurbish churches. Some were repaired and continued in use, like Clonoe, but on the whole the preference was for building a new church, either close to the old one, as we have seen, or some distance away, and allowing the old one to decay.

O’Laverty included information about Penal worship in his volumes on Down and Connor, and there are several papers in volumes of the D.C.H.S. Sites in Clogher diocese are discussed in C.R. and Dr Lucas produced a N.M.D. Booklet on Penal Crucifixes in 1958.

[396] But not all the visitors have come in search of cures. Sand from Muiredach O’Heney’s tomb at Banagher is alleged to bring good luck to race-horses, whilst a stone in Derrynoose graveyard was used for cursing until buried by the priest in the 1920s. For what purpose were the recent ‘bullauns’ made at Clonfeacle and Ballinderry (Co. Londonderry)? Who can say? But once again, whether for blessing or cursing or curing or simply grinding or sharpening, they show that the sites have been frequented.

Crosses have sometimes been regarded as offensive ‘popish relics’ and have suffered grievously in sectarian troubles. McEvoy dismissed the fine crosses of Co. Tyrone with scorn: ‘There are other monuments to be met with, held in great veneration by the lower class, and particularly those of the Roman Catholics, such as stone crosses, many of which are filled with hieroglyphic figures’ (1802, 205). [398] The cross at Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) was thrown down during early seventeenth-century sectarian troubles. The now fragmentary crosses at Armagh and Connor were broken during religious quarrels, and crosses at Downpatrick, Dromore (Co. Tyrone) and Drumadonnell suffered similarly. Damage to cross-carved slabs, less obvious and so perhaps less offensive, is not so clear, but in areas of substantial Protestant plantation little sympathy can have been felt for relics of the old religion. The bullaun from Desertoghill disappeared as a result of sectarian trouble: it was said to have been detested by the Protestant parishioners ‘almost to a man’ (J.R.S.A.I. 22 (1892), 435).

Causes of damage to early sites are sadly numerous and must be briefly discussed here since they have an important bearing on the inventory and go some way towards explaining the scattered and fragmentary nature of the material. Lightning and fire were serious hazards especially in the case of timber buildings. References to church fires, both accidental and deliberate, are frequent in the annals before 1200 (Lucas 1967, 183), and later fires are recorded too. In 1405, for example, the archbishop appealed for funds after an accidental fire (Lawlor 1912, 101, no. 2), and in 1414 the church at Armagh was maliciously burned (ibid. 160, no. 236). Churches continued to suffer in wartime as in the preNorman period. The annals show that the conquest campaigns in the north were extremely destructive. Edward Bruce’s east Ulster campaigns involved damaged to churches, as at Bright and Saul in 1316. Churches suffered raids during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, for example Clogher in 1380 and 1395 and Aghavea in 1487 and 1507 (Lucas 1967, passim). Churches were fortified and damaged during sixteenth and seventeenth-century wars: Sussex built a rampart round Armagh cathedral in 1561, and this can be seen with the ruins of churches and houses in Bartlett’s Map of about 1601 (Hayes-McCoy 1964, III).

Another possible source of damage was the practice of harbouring fugitives and accepting goods for safekeeping within the church precinct. Dr. Lucas has gathered much evidence together and the practice certainly seems to have been common in medieval times (Lucas 1967, passim). Giraldus Cambrensis reported that before the English invaders arrived the Irish had stored some provisions in underground chambers and burned the rest, together with the churches (‘Expugnatio Hiberniae’ V, 346). This may be a reference to the practice of storing food in churches. In 1322 Archbishop Joyce was accused of allowing the church at Armagh to become more like a barn than a church (quoted in Stuart 1900, 117), whilst in 1432 English and Scottish raiders were paid for burning the food taken from the churches out of doors and not harming the churches themselves (A.F.M.).

[397] The great church at Derry was used as a powder magazine and largely destroyed in an explosion in 1568. 189

Some of the disturbances at churches recorded in the annals must have resulted from personal and family quarrels (Reeves 1850, 93-106 on the pollution of churches).

Some damage has been done by the re-use of stones for other purposes: the fate of crosses has included use as a gatepost (Camus, Co. Londonderry), as a water trough (Downpatrick), and as the base for the town stocks (Dromore, Co. Down).

[399] Local rulers were killed, for example, in the graveyard at Banagher in 1121 and at Killeeshil (graveyard not specified) in 1257 (both A.U.). It seems likely that churches would have been used as focal points for meetings and perhaps markets as well as services, and that quarrels might arise during such gatherings and damage result. Devenish was certainly much used in the seventeenth century for parleys, and Donaldson, writing about the Fews of Armagh in about 1818, reported that fairs were held on saints’ days in churchyards and sometimes inside the churches themselves (Donaldson 1923, 81-2).

The moving of stones can save them from damage and loss, for instance the moving of crosses from Glenarb to Caledon and Tynan, but more often moving has led to complete loss, loss of provenance, or confusion. Reeves deplored the wide dispersal of worked stones from Armagh at the time of the cathedral’s restoration (1860, 53). The inscribed cross-slab from Rubane, removed by O’Laverty, cannot now be traced, and there is doubt about the original position of several crosses including Broughanlea, Drumadonnell and Lisnaskea, and crosscarved stones at Aghalurcher well, Drumgay Lough and Burrendale near Newcastle.

Ecclesiastical remains have been destroyed by intensive later secular occupation. Armagh is the most striking northern example: the material is exceedingly sparse when compared, for example, with Clonmacnois and Glendalough where there has been little later development. The position in Armagh was vividly described by Reeves in 1860:

1.

There was an appeal against this practice in J.R.S.A.I. 10 (1868-9), 143-4.

[401] The deep-rooted Irish respect for archaeological sites of all kinds must have saved many from serious interference, but some church sites have, nevertheless, been damaged in a more thorough-going and ruthless way. A road was driven through Ardstraw graveyard in the early nineteenth century and a railway cutting between Camus (Co. Tyrone) church and cemetery later in the century. More common have been agricultural improvements, usually levelling the site for tillage or pasture.

‘St. Patrick’s first church in Armagh is now represented by the Bank of Ireland; the Provincial Bank comes close on St. Columba; St. Bride’s shares its honours with a paddock; St. Peter and St. Paul afford stabling and garden produce to a modern rus in urbe; St. Mary’s is lost in a dwelling house; and the Culdee Society can only be traced by head rent and bones to a region of the city, whence their successors are content to derive income.’ (1860, 3 and U.J.A. 2 (1896) 197)

Much damage had clearly been done before the Ordnance Survey visits in the 1830s, for example at Dundesert, Drumeeny and Turraloskin, and we can surely assume that the process was active, even if not rapid, in earlier, less well-documented, times. Glenarb was levelled in the mid-nineteenth century; Skreen was ploughed up in 1845; many cross-carved and inscribed stones from Kilcoo were broken up for road-making in the 1860s; the remains at Bright were levelled during O’Laverty’s lifetime. In the case of Magharenny graveyard in Langfield parish we can trace from the successive editions of the Ordnance Survey map how the enclosed area was gradually encroached on by agriculture until now it appears on the map as ‘site of graveyard’ and on the ground as nothing more than a grassy field.1 Sites which have been extensively landscaped include Antrim and Ram’s Island.

The cases of Bangor, Coleraine, Derry, Downpatrick and Newry are similar: pre-conquest structural remains have disappeared and other material is very scarce. Some material has been re-used; some has been removed from its context, and unrecorded dispersal can lead to confusion or outright loss. [400] The ruins of Maghernahely church were used in building the Caulfield bawn in the early seventeenth century. In 1744 twelfth-century carved stones were built into the first Presbyterian Church, Abbey Street in Armagh, and early in the nineteenth century the bishop of Clogher ordered the re-use of stone from Devenish in Enniskillen (Wakeman 1874-5, 64-5). Buildings near Antrim round tower were demolished in about 1825 and a stone architrave was used to repair the tower roof (Reeves 1847, 63-4). The re-use of stone in graveyard walls has been a common practice.1 At Tynan this was done deliberately to preserve loose stones, but elsewhere crosscarved and inscribed stones have been found by chance, built probably in ignorance into walls, as at Aghavea, Devenish and White Island.

1.

The first (1834) edition of the six inch map shows an eggshaped graveyard; the second edition (1857) shows only part of the enclosure; the current map (revised 1936-7) shows no enclosure at all (Hamlin 1971, 82).

[402] Less deliberately but no less sadly sites and material are damaged by neglect and the passing of time. I was only able to trace some of the cross-slabs noted by the Ordnance Survey in the l830s in north Antrim Brackney but not Broombeg, for example. Neglect must have led to the fall of towers at Maghera (Co. Down) in about 1710; at Killevy late in the century; at Trummery in

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1829; and the fall of Dungiven tower was hastened by treasure hunters burrowing at its foot.

The building shows many alterations and additions (Fig. 44): parts may be pre-Norman; parts are certainly twelfthcentury; there are several phases of medieval and postmedieval alterations. It is now in state charge and well cared for after some thirteen centuries of eventful and stormy history.

It is unfortunate that some excavation and restoration work of fairly recent times must be mentioned as a cause of damage. Getty dug out the interior of most of the northern round towers in the mid-nineteenth century, though the owner of Ram’s Island had already cleared the tower there. Rogers mentions otherwise unrecorded excavation at Kildarton in 1861, and it was clear from my work at Kilnasaggart that there had been much earlier unrecorded digging there. Lawlor’s 1925 work at Chapel Island is inadequately recorded, and despite the ambitious scale of the publication the same is true of the extensive work at Nendrum between 1922 and 1924. Lawler and Bigger were responsible for extensive, poorly-recorded restoration at Nendrum and Raholp. Lawlor’s Nendrum restoration is in places misleading and it is impossible now to be sure of the extent of the original work (Co. Down 1966, 293).

PLATE 138: MAGHERA –GENERAL VIEW FROM WEST.

[403] The recent record of excavation is very much more satisfactory: the importance of the excavations at Derry (Co. Down) and White Island has been emphasised, and the south church at Derry was saved by a bold and successful ‘straightening’ of the leaning north wall. Work is in progress, or has recently been done, at Antrim, Aghalurcher, Banagher, Devenish, Dungiven and Inismacsaint, and it is reassuring that after the vicissitudes surveyed in this chapter many of the important sites listed in the inventory are now safely in state care (A.M.S.C. 1966). The history of these sites has been long, varied and often troubled and in conclusion let us look at one site which I have chosen as the tailpiece of my illustrations - Maghera in Co. Derry (Pl. 138). In the graveyard is a weathered cross-carved stone marking the traditional grave of the church’s founder, St. Lurach, who probably lived in the sixth century. The site was plundered by Vikings in 832 and burned in 1135. For a brief period from the midtwelfth to the mid-thirteenth century it served as the seat of the bishop of the Cenél nEógain, then it reverted to parochial use. It was damaged several times in the seventeenth century, in good repair in the eighteenth, and used until the building of the nearby Church of Ireland church in the nineteenth.

FIG. 44: MAGHERA (CO. LONDONDERRY) – CHURCH PLAN.

[404] Early ecclesiastical sites have occupied and continue to occupy an important place in Irish life and in the Irish landscape. Many of them remain centres of worship; many more are still used for burial. Some remain the site of rounds or patterns and the goal of pilgrims; others are visited for cures. But during their long and often troubled history many factors have conspired to work against the survival of the material remains, at least above ground. The events and causes outlined in this chapter do help to explain why the material is often sparse and fragmentary, and why the entry ‘no early material’ appears with such sad regularity in the inventory.

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[405]

Chapter 9 THE FUTURE It is in the nature of research to produce problems as well as solve them, and this final chapter considers some ways in which my work has suggested that the study of early ecclesiastical sites could progress.

likely that some souterrains reported at churches but not left open will in due course be revealed again and made available for study. Structures and artifacts can be encountered during grave-digging.

There is clearly a need for more detailed recording than I have been able to attempt. Enclosures remain to be cleared and planned, and as this work progresses it will become possible to compare their areas. There is scope for more detailed recording of masonry structures and for close comparison of the features of churches and round towers. The study of crosses and slabs will progress not just from continued study of typology and iconography but from technological and geological investigations, and a complete record of stone figure carving should make possible its discussion on a less subjective basis than at present. There seems little point in more work on bullauns without detailed recording of the profiles of the holes, and hollowed stones at sites other than churches could usefully be brought into the discussion. The study of wells can increase our knowledge not just of their lore but in some cases of the ecclesiastical history of the area. Further typological and technological study of metalwork is also needed, and bells stand out as a potentially rewarding subject for intensive research. All these approaches could usefully be directed to the material which is already known and accessible.

[407] Walls are reported in graves at Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone), Drumbo and Clonfeacle; and material has been found during grave-digging at Seagoe, Movilla and elsewhere. When burial continues at ancient sites some liaison with clergy and sextons would be desirable: emphasis on the interest of the site might encourage vigilance and the reporting of material. Some control should be exercised over graveyard extensions at early sites as well as infilling on vacant sites near churches; the visible nucleus of church and graveyard must often occupy a smaller area than the maximum extent of early ecclesiastical activity, and the archaeological potential of the surroundings must not be ignored. It is clear that much work can, and should, be done without excavation, but it is also clear from the preceding discussion that many problems remain which will only be solved by excavation. Excavation will help in dating all classes of material and structures; it will increase our knowledge of timber and stone buildings, of burials and demography, of economy and technology; it will gradually make possible a reconstruction of the early environment of sites. Study of the broad historical questions touched on in Chapter 7 will be furthered by excavation, and investigation of buried features will fill out the picture of numbers and distribution. Chapter 6 reviewed many classes of evidence, some certainly pre-Norman and ecclesiastical, some not. There is no doubt about the identification of sites with diagnostically early material, like a pre-Romanesque church, a round tower, early crosses and slabs, but we have reviewed the uncertainties which surround rough crosses, bullauns, souterrains and circular graveyards.

Secondly, ways of discovering new material should be pursued to the full. The importance of air photography has already been stressed: it opens the way to progress in [406] discovering enclosures, associated fields and other features, especially when used in conjunction with map evidence and field walking. Air photography would be valuable for all the sites in my inventory, but at the end of this chapter are listed a selection of sites which I think would repay aerial survey.

If several of these ambivalent features occur together at a site the arguments for early occupation are strengthened, but in some of the doubtful cases it is reasonable to hope that excavation will resolve the uncertainties.

In studying a large area it has obviously been impossible to pursue all sources and approaches for every site, and my work has indicated how important it is to narrow down the focus to smaller areas. These could be early historical units, if these can be defined, such as the area of a tuath; or the members of a monastic paruchia, geographically scattered but linked by foundation and allegiance to a mother house. Groups of parishes or a single parish could also be subjected to intensive study. In a small area it is possible to do intensive field survey, enquire after traditions, investigate field and place-names, in short to pursue all potential sources of information. In 1910 Plummer pointed out the need for people with local knowledge to check on the ground the topographical information in saints’ ‘Lives’, as he had tried to do at Ardmore, Lismore and St. Mullins (1910, I, xcv), and the editors of M.T. urged the collecting of information about patrons, days of rounds and frequenting of wells which could throw light on obscure figures in the calendars (Best and Lawlor 1931, xxvii). My work on the numbers and distribution of sites has shown how much remains to be done in detail on limited areas.

[408] It is not realistic to look for rapid advances from excavation in the near future, but opportunities should be taken when they present themselves, whether in the context of rescue work, conservation or research. If research excavation is possible, the choice of site should be made with clearly defined objectives. Sites which are long disused and perhaps unencumbered by prolonged burial are promising in that early abandonment may have allowed features to remain reasonably intact. Many sites, on the other hand, will show a complex history. At Church Island, Lough Beg, for example, there would probably be traces of seventeenth-century fortifications as well as the Earl of Bristol’s handiwork; Kiltierney was a Cistercian grange, and the Patrician site at Duncrun, which looks promisingly free of later disturbance, was a medieval parish church and graveyard. The excavator must be prepared to find a complex sequence at such sites, confusing and fragmentary, perhaps, where the early occupation is concerned, but rewarding in terms of the total picture.

Some material will be found by chance. Souterrains tend to be uncovered during cultivation or other earth moving, and it is

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FIG. 94: 1975: SITES IN STATE CARE AND EXCAVATED SITES.

in a very bad state - Cleenish for example, where many stones are covered by soil, moss and lichen. Most vulnerable of all are almost forgotten church sites often now unenclosed in rough pasture, like the mounds at Drumnacur, Kiltober and St. Cunning. They are gradually eroded by grazing, but the main danger is agricultural improvement by levelling, draining or deep ploughing. Lingering reverence for such sites cannot be relied on to protect them for ever, and though slight and often unimpressive in the field, these long-abandoned sites may be archaeologically very important. At the end of this chapter I list slight remains of this kind which seem to me to need the statutory protection of scheduling.

At the end of this chapter I have listed some sites where excavation might be illuminating, though this is not to claim that excavation would not be valuable at all the others. Chapter 8 reviewed some of the ways in which early church sites have suffered damage in the past, and it is important that what does remain is protected and safeguarded to the best of our ability. Twenty-eight1 of the sites in the inventory are in state care and forty-six1 other sites or individual monuments are scheduled (Fig. 94). 1.

These figures are based on the Historic Monuments Branch list updated to 30 September 1974 and do not include subsequent acquisitions or cases of scheduling.

[410] Careful clearance of graveyards, under supervision, may be rewarding archaeologically, as well as beneficial to the sites. Reports of lost material, like the crosses at Monea and Killyman, suggest that much remains to be found or rediscovered. As well as loose finds such work could uncover structural remains of buildings and enclosures. Overgrown graveyards which might repay careful clearance include Killyman, Cleenish and Caldragh on Boa Island. The sheep and goats which I have encountered in some graveyards indicate one cheap and effective way of keeping the growth in check.

[409] But this statutory protection does not mean that these sites are necessarily secure. The protection given by scheduling is limited, and, more serious, what is scheduled or in state care is often an individual monument or part of a larger site. Examples include the bullaun at Errigal; the crosses from Glenarb at Tynan and Caledon (but not the site at Glenarb); and Inishmacsaint and White Island churches (but not the extensive earthworks). There is a strong case for extending statutory protection to cover whole sites and potentially important areas as well as individual monuments. Many others are graveyards still or until recently in use, and these are usually reasonably well cared-for, though the provision made by different local authorities varies considerably, and continuing burial is itself a cause of damage. Some remote and long-disused graveyards are

In view of the formidable problems of weathering and of keeping a disused site in a reasonable state, a case can be made for removing stones either to a shelter on the site or away from the site altogether. If the original location is recorded there seems to be no scientific objection to this procedure: the danger of loss would be avoided and damage from weathering would

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Drumeeny; Dundesert (if located); Turraloskin. ARMAGH: Armagh City; Cashel; Drumconwell (if located); Killevy (to elucidate plan, and outside graveyard); Kilnasaggart. DERRY: Ballynascreen (outside graveyard); Church Island; Duncrun; Derry City; Killennan; Maghera (to elucidate plan and outside graveyard); [412] Mullaboy cross in Oghill townland; Templemoyle. DOWN: Chapel Island (further work); Derry (further work); Down (further work); Drumsallagh; Maghera (further work); Nendrum (despite undoubted problems); St. John’s Point (especially to investigate graves). FERMANAGH: Aghanaglack; Devenish (of large extent and major importance); Friar’s Island (to clarify nature, of occupation); Inishmacsaint; Kilcoo; Kiltierney; Rossorry; White Island (both church and area). TYRONE: Arboe; Ardstraw (area outside graveyard); Glenarb; Killoan; Magheraglass.

be halted. This is an emotive subject, however, and each case must be treated on its merits. Stones removed in the past from their original position without record are all too easily lost. Material found built into walls at Devenish, White Island and Aghavea serves as a reminder of the need to examine walls for re-used stones. On Cleenish there is a real danger that worked stones from the church built into farm buildings may be lost when the buildings decay. All except one of the many buildings on Cleenish are empty, and much dressed stone is re-used in the older ones. If the study of early Christianity in the north of Ireland is to progress, work must continue in many directions, using all the available sources of evidence. Further study of written sources will advance our historical, knowledge and help to establish links between the documents and the material remains. Locational analysis could advance the topographical study, and palaeoecological investigations will gradually fill out the picture of the early environment of the sites. [411] Material must be searched out, recorded and protected, and opportunities for excavation seized, whether on a rescue basis, in connection with site conservation, or in carefully selected cases for research. If the present work proves to be of some use in furthering this study and encouraging more research its author will be well satisfied. List 1: Some sites where air photography might be rewarding (potentially ALL) ANTRIM:

ARMAGH:

DERRY:

DOWN:

FERMANAGH:

TYRONE:

List 2: ALL) ANTRIM:

Aghnakilla; Armoy; Drumeeny; Dundesert; Skerry; Ram’s Island; Trummery. Cloghinny; Killevy; Kilnasaggart; Loughgilly; Maghernahely. Duncrun; Dungiven; Mullaboy cross in Oghill townland; Skreen (though much interfered with) Bright; Chapel Island; Donaghmore; Drumsallagh; Maghera. Boa Island; Devenish; Inishmacsaint; Kilcoo; Kiltierney; Rossorry; White Island. Arboe; Ardstraw; Carrickmore; Tullyniskan.

List 3: ANTRIM:

ARMAGH:

deep

Drumeeny; Drumnacur; Drumtullagh; Solar; St. Cunning; Turraloskin. Cloghinny; Tullyvallan.

DERRY: Killennan; DOWN:

FERMANAGH:

TYRONE:

Some sites which might repay excavation (potentially Antrim (though Culfeightrin;

Sites with slight remains in need of protection

overburden);

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Mullaboy cross in Oghill townland; Templemoyle. Ballyorgan; Clonlea; Drumsallagh; Killygartan; Knockavalley; Legananny. Inishmacsaint (enclosure); Kiltober; Rossorry (enclosure); Teesnaghtan; White Island (enclosure). Carrickmore (Relicknaman); Drumcraw; Glenarb; Glennoo; Sessagh of Gallan.

[413]

CO. ANTRIM: Sites are in Connor diocese except those marked (D) which are in Down diocese. 1.

Aghalee parish and townland (D). O.S. 62; J/128654.

2.

Chapel at time of 1306 Taxation - earlier history and patron unknown. Overgrown ruined church, featureless, in graveyard.

Ahoghill parish and townland. O.S. 37; D/049014.

Medieval parish church; patron probably Colmán Elo. Reeves gives fourteenth century reference to ‘Church of St. Colmanellus of ‘Atholrill’ (1847, 88). ‘O.S. Memoir’ reports traditionally fourth church founded in Co. Antrim.

SITE: Over 100 ft southwest-facing hill-slope overlooking Broad Water, with crossings about ½ mile to south and southwest.

SITE: Over 200 ft in generally flat surroundings.

MATERIAL: BULLAUNS (Pl. 17a). 1) Cemented onto stump of south wall of church at east end. Polygonal stone, maximum 2 ft north-south. by 1 ft 9 ins east-west and 9 ins high. Hollow 11 to 12 ins diameter, 5 ins deep, sides uneven slope.

NO EARLY MATERIAL, but many GRAVEYARDS reported (not visited): [414] i) Gortfad townland: graveyard known as ‘St. Columb’s Thorn’, raised, unenclosed 22 by 11 yards, with ‘vault’ 6 by 3 ft of large flags (Reeves 1847, 301). ii) Ballylummin townland: Killvaltagh, church site, cemetery and holy well (ibid.). iii) Finkiltagh townland: ancient burial ground (ibid.). iv) Tullynahinnion townland: altar green, believed to be church site (‘O.S. Memoir of Ahoghill’). v) Killycoogan townland: graveyard and church site (ibid.). vi) Galgorm townland: in Galgorm Park, graveyard with souterrain, holy well and standing stone (O’Laverty 1884, 383-4). ‘O.S. Memoir’ gives information about church sites and map of parish showing graveyards.

PLATE 17A: AGHALEE: BULLAUN STONE (1).

FRAGMENT OF SHRINE often said to have been found in River Bann near Ahoghill, see RIVER BANN.

2) Double-sided bullaun, which I did not see. O’Laverty reproduces O.S. description: stone 1 ft 10 ins by 1 ft 8 ins, 1 ft high, one hollow 12 by 10 by 4 ½ ins, the other 9 ins diameter, 2 ½ ins deep (1887, viii).

Refs: Reeves 1847, 88-9 and 301; O’Laverty 1884, 380-4.

3.

Crozier and Rea illustrate both sides (1940, 111, fig. 3b and d), and give location as ‘in the garden of Mr Joseph Moffet ... (ibid. 112). O’Laverty (1880, 287-8) refers to two holy water stoups in graveyard.

Identification not certain. Suggested by Colgan may be ‘Achad Cinn’ where Cathub bishop (A.U. 555). Cathub at 6 April in M.T. (not located), M.G. glossed ‘bishop of Achad Cinn’ and M.D. Colgan also speculated Cathub same as Cathbad of ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes 1887, 163). Reeves insisted these are speculations, not certainties and identification must remain uncertain (1847, 89). ‘O.S. Memoir’ of Ahoghill reported graveyard in Craigs, once bigger, still used for infant burial, but no church. Local tradition was intention to build Ahoghill parish church here.

‘O.S. Memoir’ mentions ancient spring. WELL: 40 yards west of church, on west side of road. No patron or traditions given. Refs:

AGHNAKILLA (Aughnakeely), Craigs townland and parish (formerly Ahoghill). O.S. 32; D/033082.

Reeves 1847, 49; U.J.A. 2 (1939), 210-1 on medieval sherds from graveyard.

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[415] SITE: Still remembered as ‘graveyard’, just over 400 ft, rocky hilltop with thin soil cover and no sign of structures or graves. Traditional church site to southwest near present farm. Area available for excavation but site does not look promising.

at ground level 49 ft 6 ins; internal diameter 9 ft at door decreasing to 6 ft at base of roof. Conical roof 12 ft high, of which top 6 ft solid. Masonry very varied in shape and sizes (P1. 6): mostly basalt with a little granite. Many boulders, some rectangular stones, many spalls and thick mortar courses (though externally repointed). Some of rectangular blocks probably roughly dressed and some attempt at coursing. Large stones occur through whole height. Door (P1. 4) faces north, its sill 7 ft 4 ins above upper offset. All dressings of greenstone (according to Dunraven pitchstone porphyry): massive sill, four jambs either side (grooved inside for frame), lintel, all undecorated, with stone above lintel carved with ringed cross in low relief. Cross has curling base, diamond sinking at centre.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 89-90; Archdall 1873, 89-90, lacks Reeves’s caution; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 372.

4.

ANTRIM parish, Steeple townland. O.S. 50; J/154878.

Founder uncertain, but possibly Comgall as later close links with Bangor: 613 ‘The repose of Finntan of Oentraibh, abbot of Bangor’ and 728 ‘Flann of Ointrebh, abbot of Bangor, died’ (both A.U.). When Bangor plundered by Vikings in 824, relics of Comgall taken to Antrim (A.U.). Plundered 1018 (A.U.); burned 1147 (A.F.M.); plundered 1164 (M.I.A.). Visited by Malachy according to Bernard’s ‘Life of Malachy’ (Lawlor 1920, 88). Possibility of confusion with Nendrum in written sources because of similar name. Uncertain when early site abandoned for town. SITE: Over 100 ft, generally flat surroundings, now landscaped parkland. MATERIAL: i) Reports of BUILDINGS: ‘O.S. Antrim Memoir’ (O.S. 1969; 80) reports garden of Steeple House traversed until seven years previously (before 1838) by old walls and much loose stone, cleared at great expense. In 1819 large block of freestone, believed to be architrave, found when demolishing outbuildings, used in repairing cap of tower. Reeves (1847, 63-4) recalls ‘the testimony of those who removed the foundations of adjacent walls and who cleared away vast quantities of human remains from the surrounding space’ and of the mason who reused the ‘sculptured architrave of freestone’. [416] EXCAVATED EVIDENCE: In 1950s R. R. Inskeep did small-scale trial trenching north and east of tower. To east was found possible kitchen area with walls, midden and pottery; running north from near tower were stone footings, and sleeper beam trenches close to east of tower. Unpublished and unfortunately I could not trace material. Very promising for future research excavation, though likelihood of deep overburden from landscaping. ii) ROUND TOWER (Pl. 4). Several good accounts including Getty 1856 and Dunraven 1877, but none of later accounts has yet bettered ‘O.S. Memoir’ for description and illustrations (O.S. 1969, 74-79, plates 5-9). 92 ft high above ground; 4 ft to base of foundations with two offsets. Dunraven found burials against lower offset (probably outside).

PLATE 4: ANTRIM: ROUND TOWER - GENERAL VIEW (TOP) AND DETAILED VIEW OF DOOR (BOTTOM).

Lower part, below door, solid masonry, apparently filled early nineteenth century to give stability. Circumference

[416A] Dunraven suggested from internal appearance door was inserted; does not appear so front outside (I was 196

not able to go in). Four windows at top and four others, two to south, one west, one northeast. All simple, lintelled with straight or only slightly inclining jambs. Greenstone dressings. At base of cap slightly projecting square-sectioned cornice. O.S. 1969 gives description and illustrations from before 1819 repairs. Conical roof apparently not itself pointed but ended in double moulding and socket into which fitted a pointed, eightsided ‘spear’ (cf. Devenish, Co. Fermanagh). O.S. describes this as of ‘composition’ stone, cast not cut. (Could this be a light stone like tufa?) O.S. reports marks of wicker centring inside cone. Getty 1856, 131-4 (excavated site 1843); Dunraven 1877, 1-3, pls LXVILXVII; O.S. 1969, 74-9 with plates 5-9 of plans and section, three views, details of all openings, masonry, cap stones, and cross over lintel.

pecked cross, double lines crossing at centre. Lines of arms more widely spaced than stem. Cross interrupted by later re-cutting of slab (edge to south neatly chamfered). Cannot be regarded as certain cross-slab or certainly early: lines very shallow, possibly simply marking-out lines, and ‘cross’ very simple and un-distinctive. Not previously noted.

iii) BULLAUN. Locally known as ‘The Witch’s Stone’. Huge polygonal basalt boulder (not earth-fast). Maximum dimensions 7 ft 6 ins southeast-northwest by 5 ft and 3 ft 4 ins high. Two hollows in flat upper surface. Rather diffuse hollow to east, 7 ½ ins east-west, by 6 ½ ins and 2 ins deep. Hollow to northwest well-defined oval with steep slope to west, 1 ft 3 ins north-south by 1 ft 1 ½ ins and 7 ins deep. Stood 120 yards north of tower in 1838, but now close to (east-northeast of tower). Description and drawing in O.S. 1969, 83-4, which reports traditions: 1) marks left by witch jumping from tower and 2) hollows for water and (smaller) oil. Stations made to stone and well (see below). iv) HOLY WELL in Holywell townland, 5 ½ furlongs north of tower. O.S. reported formerly used for stations but by 1838 already long disused (1969, 83).

PLATE 137B: ARDCLINIS: CROSS-CARVED STONE.

ii) POTTERY. From rabbit scrape north of church, near northwest corner, small rim-sherd of ‘souterrain ware’ with applied frilled cordon.

[417] v) SOUTERRAIN. ‘In the townland of Steeple within 70 yards of the round tower a small cove [cave?] was discovered but was destroyed about 8 years ago’ (O.S. 1969, 87). Refs:

O.S. 1969 (Memoir by J. Boyle, 1838) very full, especially 74-8; Reeves 1847, 63-4 and 277-8; O’Laverty 1884, 249255; other references as above.

5.

ARDCLINIS parish and townland. O.S. 20; D/272250.

iii) CROSIER known as the ‘Ardclinis Crosier’. [418] In 1861 in possession of farmer, Mr Daniel Calvin of Glenarm. Family formerly near Cushendun and crosier in their possession for several generations. Traditionally believed from Ardclinis church. Acquired by National Museum, Dublin, no. 1961:210 (J.R.S.A.I. 93 (1963), 126-7 with description and pl. XIV). Staff of yew (curved piece) and pine (shaft), about 1 ft 8 ins surviving, covered with bronze sheeting. Two knops: lower original, cast bronze with simple silver in-filled lines, upper replaced. Crest missing. Original bronze human and animal heads on crook, but all other decoration, silver plates, glass studs late (thirteenth to fifteenth century).

Medieval parish church, but earlier history unknown. O’Laverty (1887, 549) reports founder locally ‘St McKenna’, perhaps corruption of Mo-name. Material, admittedly not very substantial, suggests early activity. Featureless church ruin in neglected graveyard.

Raftery (1941, 165) ‘a date in the twelfth is probable for the original fabrication of the crosier’, and ‘The Ardclinis Crosier is the latest Irish crosier conforming to the old pattern’ (op. cit. 59).

SITE: About 50 ft, at foot of steep scarp, on fairly level shoulder (old shore line) above sea, with stream nearby to east. MATERIAL: i) CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 137b). Close to graveyard gate, west of church ruin, erect rectangular slab, coarse red sandstone. Maximum height visible 1 ft 2 ins, 11 ins wide, 3 ½ ins thick. On east face very lightly

Refs:

197

O’Laverty in U.J.A. 9 (1861), 51-6, especially 51 and fig. facing 51; Crawford 1923, 163-4; Mahr 1932, pls 73 and 77; Raftery 1941, 59 and 165; Reeves 1847, 86-7 (another graveyard, Killycrappin in Nappan South townland) and 299; O’Laverty 1887, 549-53.

6.

ARMOY parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 13; D/078332.

at head. Some dressings replaced but, where surviving, are sandstone. Semi-circular head cut from single stone with plain architrave 6 ins wide, projecting 1 inch. Slight traces of architrave on worn sill and lower left and two lower right jambs. Some jambs are through-stones, others rebated through wall thickness.

‘Airthir Maige’ (‘Eastern Plain’); several places with this name and some doubts over identification, but generally believed to be ‘Airthir Maige a noble city of Dál Riatai’ where Olcan bishop (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 163). Several rather garbled stories about Olcan: quarrelled with Patrick (ibid. 165-7) who foretold ‘his cloister would not be high on earth’ (167). Does this indicate early foundation which failed to flourish? Does not appear in calendars. Olcan mentioned in earlier Patrician writings (Tírechán), ordained at Duin Sebuirgi (Dunseverick), but no reference to Armoy (ibid. 329).

[420] Internally rebated as for door frame. Wall here 3 ft 10 ins thick. No windows. Corbels to support two floors and offset for third near top (may be rebuilt). Two days of excavation in September 1843 by Getty to depth of 11 ft below door sill; report gives much excited detail about finding skull with some articulated vertebrae in ‘rude niche’ in wall in interior (presumably burial disturbed by foundations), with remains of fire, antler pins, twisted hair rope nearby.

[419] Armoy next appears during Anglo-Norman invasion period: burned 1177 and raided 1247 (A.U.). Medieval parish church; modern church and graveyard on early site. SITE: Over 300 ft, commanding promontory with river to north and southeast. Promontory extends south of road and site may have continued south, where slight traces of earthworks in rough pasture. MATERIAL: i) Reports of earlier CHURCH, though date uncertain. Reeves reported new church built 1820 on foundations of old except east where 23 ft 6 ins shorter. Suggests old church measured 73 ft 6 ins by 27 ft (1847, 80). O.S. 1838 Memoir: old church had lancet windows and square door. ii) ROUND TOWER (Pl. 5a). The only certainly early material here. Reeves, Getty and P.S. 1940 give dimensions. 28 ft west of northwest corner of present church, 35 to 40 ft high, circumference 47 ft 6 ins. Original height unknown: several courses at top recent (was formerly wooden belfry; broken stones of cap found during Getty’s 1843 excavation). Partly obscured by ivy. Lower masonry neatly fitted, long, narrow slabs of schist with some spalls, dressed to curve (P1. 6).

PLATE 5A: ARMOY: ROUND TOWER. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 80; Getty 1856, 173-7 with plan p. 176; Kirker, S.J., in J.R.S.A.I. 29 (1899), 121-5, in ‘Miscellanea’, with useful detail, p. 123 section and plan, and p. 124 details of door.

iii) CROSS (P1. 5b). In Armoy Roman Catholic Chapel graveyard (D/085335), possibly moved from old church, or perhaps from Tullaghore (q.v.). Crawford (1908, 181) mentions small, rude cross here but gives no details. Only likely candidate is small cross north of west end of chapel marking grave of John Craig of Foxhill, 1830. Thick whitewash over schist. 2 ft 2 ins high, 1 ft 11 ins across arms, about 3 ins thick. East face flattish, west rougher. Top of cross pointed, ends of arms rather oval. Quite different from all other gravestones in this modern cemetery; certainly older cross appropriated for later burial, but rough, undatable and unlikely very early. Not

PLATE 6: CO. ANTRIM ROUND TOWERS CONTRASTING MASONRY. ANTRIM (LEFT) AND ARMOY (RIGHT).

From about 12 ft above ground stone less evenly sized, more polygonal stones, and top 6 ft or so less careful work with many rounded boulders. Door to southwest, about 4 ft 6 ins from present ground level, 5 ft 9 ins high, narrow, decreasing from 1 ft 8 ins wide at sill to 1 ft 5 ins 198

previously illustrated. Alexander Johns’s Ms., vol. 2, 196: ‘In the churchyard of Armoy there are, or were, within a few years, two very rude stone crosses’.

ii) Two BULLAUNS (P1. 17b). 1) 27 ft 6 ins southwest of southwest corner of church. Basalt boulder 3 ft 3 ins by 2 ft 4 ins and 10 ins high (O.S. reports 1 ft 3 ins). Very well worked hollow near north edge, slightly oval, 1 ft 1 in. northwest-southeast by 1 ft and 6 ins deep. To southeast slight depression from top of hole to edge, obviously acting as overflow channel when hole full. Reported visited for wart cures. 2) About 100 ft southwest of southwest corner of church, basalt, roughly triangular, 2 ft 9 ins northwest-southeast by 1 ft 8 ins, and O.S. reports 11 ins high, but now much encroached on by grass.

PLATE 5B: ARMOY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: ROUGH CROSS.

Also in Armoy parish ALCROSSAGH (Appendix A) and TULLAGHORE (q.v.). iv) FONT from old church moved to present church, but I have not yet seen it and have no details. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 80 and 243-5 O’Laverty 1887, 443-50; P.S. 1940, 15, and other references as above.

[421] 7. BALLINDERRY parish and townland (D). O.S. 62; J/117682. History before 1306 Taxation (when parish church) unknown, but name and site suggest early origins. ‘O.S. 1838 Memoir’ reported church traditionally founded by ‘St. Lau’, and known as ‘Laa Leu’ (and variants, La Loo etc.), patron day 4 August. Then much frequented for stations. Name still remembered locally. Probably preserves early place-name element Lann - church. ‘St. Lau’ may be Molua, at 4 August in calendars. Gloss in M.O. associates Molua with Comgall of Bangor, and one of his churches was Drumsnat, Co. Monaghan. He died 609 (A.U.) (Kenney 1929, 397-9). Ruined church in large, crowded oval graveyard.

PLATE 17B: BULLAUN STONES: BALLINDERRY 1 (TOP); BALLINDERRY 2 (BOTTOM).

[422] Hollow diameter 1 ft 1 ½ ins north-south, broken out to west side of stone, and 5 ins deep. Earlier reports suggest two hollows: O.S. gives second one, broken, diameter 7 ins and 8 ins deep. I could not see this. Is stone broken (is now badly cracked)? O.S. found these stones locally called ‘St. Patrick’s knee-stones’. ‘O.S. 1838 Memoir’; Bigger and Fennell, op. cit. below, give drawings of bullauns (p. 15).

SITE: Promontory (island in wet weather) reached by causeway, in southeast corner of Portmore Lough, under 100 ft. MATERIAL: i) Graveyard has appearance of early ENCLOSURE rath or perhaps crannog. Graveyard high mound above damp surroundings, surface very uneven, surrounded by bank with bushes, and outer line of trees and bushes about 10 ft away. Does this mark line of outer enclosure?

Refs:

199

Reeves 1847, 49; O’Laverty 1880, 284 f. and 1887, xiii; Bigger, F.J. and Fennell, W.F., ‘The Middle Church of Ballinderry and Bishop Jeremy Taylor’ in U.J.A. 3 (1896-7), esp. 14-5; Paterson, T.G.F., note on ‘Portmore’ in U.J.A. 1 (1938), 112; P.S. 1940, 58.

8.

?BALLYCLOG.

1) Set in centre of nave at west end, traditionally marking burial of ‘the Black Nun’. Sandstone, surfaces rough from pecking, though west smoother than east face. Form is stone disc on straight shaft with small circular hole at centre and small, only slightly projecting arms and head (all damaged). Hole carefully made, straight-sided. Heavy lichen cover. 2 ft 2 ins high, maximum width 1 ft 7 ins, and 5 ins thick. Seen in foreground pl. 3 of ‘A.M.S.C.’ 1962.

‘A hosting by Muircheartach son of Niall Ó Lochlainn ... into Ulaidh. They destroyed ... Newry, plundered [Saul], Downpatrick, Aointreabh, Baile Cluig Comhghaill, all Ulaidh, and almost all Dál nAraidhe’, M.I.A. at 1164. Most likely area is Ballyclog parish, O.S. 38. Present Church of Ireland parish church in Ballymarlagh townland, but graveyard and older church site in Ballylesson townland. I have found no reference in secondary sources to early site here or to Comgall connection and have not been able to pursue identification any further. Not visited. Reeves 1847, 84-5 rather surprisingly does not discuss the bell.

2) Set against north wall of nave, 21 ft from northwest corner. Schist. Surfaces carefully dressed where intact, but edges badly chipped. Very simple form: head and arms pointed. 2 ft 4 ins high (partly buried), 1 ft 8 ½ ins across arms, irregular thickness, 3 to 4 ins. Drawings of both crosses in Alexander Johns’s Ms., vol. 1, 91 and 95, by J.H. Burgess, 5 May 1843. Lawlor (1930-1) suggested crosses older than Friary, brought from earlier church, perhaps Culfeightrin.

Ballymoney parish. Reeves (1847, 375) lists ecclesiastical BELL ‘found in the stream that divides the townlands Craigatempin and Glenlough, in the parish of Ballymoney, in a pool commonly called Bannat-a-linn, is now in the possession of James Bell, Esq., of Prospect in the same parish.’ I have not pursued this further. [423] 9. Bonamargie townland, Culfeightrin parish. O.S. 9; D/127408. No evidence early site here, but included because of two small, rough crosses. Friary of Third Order Franciscans, founded about 1500 and in use until seventeenth century (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 269). MATERIAL: i) CROSSES (Pls. 7a & 7b).

PLATE 7B: BONAMARGIE - ROUGH CROSSES. NO. 2 .

ii) BELL. Ulster Museum, 481:1927, marked ‘probably ecclesiastical, dug up in vicinity of Bonamargie Abbey, July 1908’. Small sheet iron bell with considerable traces of bronze coating inside and outside. Sheets joined at sides with only one rivet and mitred over at top. Flares widely: side view almost triangular. High rectangular handle. [424] Loop (very worn) inside to hold clapper which is square-sectioned with expanded squarish head. Ring of wear around inside from action of clapper. Overall height 5 ins, without handle 3 ¾ ins and 3 ½ by 3 ins at mouth. I have found no published material on this bell.

PLATE 7A: BONAMARGIE - ROUGH CROSSES. NO. 1.

200

10.

BRACKNEY townland, Culfeightrin parish. O.S. 9; at about D/136393.

cross ‘tolerably well executed’. Stone nearly 4 ft long by 2 ft 6 ins by 1 ft 6 ins, and cross 9 ins long, 6 ins across arms and ¼ inch deep. Prostrate, formerly standing. Relationship to i) church not stated. Drawing of stone (‘Memoir’ p. 90) shows Latin cross, probably outline, with ends of limbs rounded. I visited townland and enquired but could not find church site or stone.

SITE: Under 100 ft, near tributary of Glenshesk river, half way between Drumeeny and Culfeightrin (q.v.) which are only ¾ miles apart. MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 8b). At house of Mrs. R. Chamberlain, Brackney, now loose. Reported in ‘O.S. Memoir’ (1838) built into gable of barn, formerly at small graveyard on hillock where stone-lined graves and foundations of building. I did not trace graveyard site. Slab of pinkish schist (traces of whitewash). 1 ft 10 ½ ins long, 8 ½ ins maximum width, 2 ½ to 3 ½ ins thick. Roughly trapezoidal shape. Back and right side rougher than left and cross-carved surface. Cross in relief, about ½ inch above surface, carefully cut. Latin cross, all four members splaying widely with slightly hollowed ends of arms and head. Cross stands on triangular ‘base’ also in relief but dying out into edges and main surface of stone. My photograph suggests small circle at crossing; I did not see this on my visit and have not been able to return to look again. Brief reference only in O’Laverty 1887, 462, from O.S. materials.

FIG. 23D: BROOMBEG - CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER OS MEMOIRS). Ref:

O’Laverty 1887, 407-8.

12.

Broughanlea townland, Culfeightrin parish. O.S. 9; D/137408.

Cross not in situ: this is not a church site. CROSS (Pl. 15b & Fig. 22a). Possibly brought from ancient site of Culfeightrin church (q.v.) in late eighteenth century (Lawlor, op. cit. below, 294) but some uncertainty. Note in Alexander John’s Ms. vol. 2, 171, with two drawings of Broughanlea cross: ‘Some suppose it to be of very ancient date, but others declare that it was not long ago cut from a stone found in the valley by the owner of the farmhouse opposite it, and placed there as a fanciful milestone.’

PLATE 8B: BRACKNEY - CROSS SLAB.

11.

BROOMBEG townland, Ramoan parish. O.S. 8; area of D/110392.

SITE: Lower slopes of Knocklayd, about 300 ft, overlooking valley of Tow river. [425] MATERIAL: In ‘O.S. Memoir’ of Ramoan (1 Jan. 1839) Thomas Fagan reports: i) ruins of supposed CHURCH, internally 30 ft by 20 ft, walls 2 to 5 ft thick and 3 to 5 ft high; and ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 23d) at farm of Loughlin McCurdy large whinstone, weathered, with PLATE 15B: BROUGHANLEA - ROUGH CROSS: NORTH FACE.

201

400). 1111: chosen as centre for see of Dál Riata at Synod of Rathbreasail; Malachy bishop in 1124. United with Down in 1453 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 66, for later history). [427] Parish church and graveyard now occupy site of cathedral and probably of early monastery. SITE: Under 300 ft, on south-facing valley side of tributary of Kells Water. MATERIAL: i) ‘ROUND TOWER’. O’Laverty quotes man who removed parts of round tower which stood 50 ft east of east window of church (1884, 285). No trace now visible and uncertain whether this was an early round tower or not. Nowhere else mentioned except P.S. 1940, 32, which must draw on O’Laverty. FIG. 22A: BROUGHANLEA - ROUGH CROSS: NORTH FACE

ii) CROSS (Pl. 8a). Sad, mutilated fragment of what must have been large and grand cross. About 1886 seems to have been grave-marker. Claimed by rector, taken away but smashed by aggrieved ‘owner’. Mended with cement and set in rectory basement. Stone hidden under coats of paint. Shaft fragment about 3 ft 10 ins high, 1 ft 1 in. wide and 1 ft thick. Edge roll, badly broken, and prominent inner fillet, half-round section, outlining panels. Fillet continuous, turning to link panels. Figurecarving in panels in quite high relief, but detail hidden under paint.

O’Laverty (1887, 478) gives different account of origins: found ‘many years ago’ buried a little south of present position and refers to disused graveyard beside Carey river. Schist, chipped at edges. 2 ft 10 ins high visible (Lawlor 3 ft 1 inch), 3 ft across arms and thickness varies from 1 ½ to 5 ins. North face carved: good light needed to see all details, and difficult to draw. Main features, on left, round-headed crosier, and right, T-shaped staff. [426] To right of crosier seems to be another shaft, and possibly something over hook of crosier. Motifs in false relief, outlined by wide pecked lines. Lawlor confident of very early date. Refs:

Lawlor, H.C., 1936-7, 294 and ‘measured sketch’ 295; O’Laverty 1887, 478, interprets carving as passion symbols pincers and hammer? P.S. 1940, 12 (‘basalt’?), poor photograph p1. 4.

13.

CONNOR diocese, parish and townland. O.S. 38; J/149969.

Founder probably Mac Nisse, died 507 or 514 (A.U.). At 3 September in M.O.: ‘Macnisse with thousands, from great Conderi’; and other calendars. Mac Nisse’s (late) ‘Life’ claims baptised by Patrick and foretold to Patrick Colmán Elo’s foundation of Lann-Ela (Lynally, Co. Offaly.) (Kenney 1929, 350-2). Does not appear in earliest Patrician sources, but ‘Tripartite Life’ reports: ‘Macc Nisse of Condire read his psalms with Patrick’ (Stokes 1887, 161). Several other Connor clerics appear in calendars (6 January, 20 January, 15 May) and Connor many entries in annals. All following references from A.U. 617 burned; obits of bishops 659 and 726; 832 plundered (also Maghera, Co. Londonderry) by Vikings; 962 plundered; 970 destroyed. Obits of ‘abbot of Connor and Lann-Ela’ or ‘comarb of Mac Nisse and Colmán Ela’ in 778, 867, 901 (also Lathrach-Briuin, Co. Kildare), 954, 956, 976 and 1038. Obits of erenaghs 1063 and 1081. ‘Life of Colmán Elo of Lynally’ emphasises link with Connor: ‘et ipse [Colmán] est secundus patronus eiusdem civitatem’ (Plummer 1910, I, 259, and Kenney 1929, 399-

PLATE 8A: CONNOR - CROSS-SHAFT.

202

Front: probably base of shaft; 4 ½ ins plain below lower panel. Framing fillet, externally 11 ins by 1 ft 6 ½ ins, contains three figures, centre with large head. Figure on left: feet pointing to right and right arm touching shoulder of central figure. Figure on right: feet pointing left, left arm over body, right probably to central figure who seems to hold up long object towards head of figure on right. Buick (op. cit., below) suggested Judgment of Solomon. Possibly Cain killing Abel (cf. Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone). Upper panel incomplete at top. Top tall figures flank third with knees bent. Flankers hold his shoulders, probably holding his arms up. Aaron and Hur supporting Moses? Top roughly rounded over.

and 1 ft 3 ins high. Shallow hollow in upper surface, 8 ins diameter, only 1 ½ ins deep. Both unpublished.

[428] Side on right seems shaved off at level of inner fillet; back also cut smooth, but both difficult to see against wall.

Side to left: half of lower panel survives, same mouldings as front. Another panel above, incomplete. Framing fillet continuous, linking panels as on front. Have been decorated, but too damaged to make out (Sexton’s ‘containing figures which have not been described’ is too sanguine). Refs:

PLATE 9A: CONNOR - BULLAUN STONES: NO. 1

Buick G.R. in U.J.A. 9 (1903), 41-2, photograph 41 (same as J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 243); Sexton 1946, 116.

iii) INSCRIBED STONE. In Ulster Museum. Formerly belonged to Canon Grainger. Mentioned by O’Laverty as having been exhibited in 1852: ‘Ancient tomb-stone from the ruins of the Abbey of Connor, Co. Antrim, with an inscription in the Irish language [mistake for script]’. Had been built into a bridge at Connor and kept in garden of Presbyterian manse. Basalt, very abraded, with high polish from wear. 3 ft long by 1 ft 3 ins by 5 to 7 ½ ins, roughly trapezoidal section. Inscribed surface flat, others rougher. Very faintly scratched half-uncial inscription: ‘FRATRES ORENT PRO NOBIS’. I found remaining letters impossible to read, but Macalister suggests ‘OGRECHU ET UGEN’. Refs:

PLATE 9B: CONNOR - BULLAUN STONES: NO. 2 .

v) SOUTERRAINS. Several reported in area. Lanyon (1858), with map p. 98. Shown impinging on graveyard, and local tradition run under church. Souterrain with two much-discussed re-used ogham stones from Carncomb townland, ½ miles southeast of Connor (Macalister 1945, 297-8, gives bibliography and readings).

O’Laverty, loc. cit. above; D.C.H.S. 7 (1936), 73-4, account with good photograph; Macalister 1949, 115, surprisingly lists under ‘Locality Unknown’, probably Co. Armagh.

(Stone with Romanesque ornament O’Laverty, but I could not trace it.)

iv) Two BULLAUNS (P1s. 9a & 9b). Both movable, set outside rectory; original whereabouts unknown. O’Laverty (1884, 285) mentions ‘holy water font’ found near site of west gable of cathedral, but uncertain whether this refers to one of these two. 1) Polygonal (shale?), maximum dimensions 2 ft 10 ins by 2 ft 7 ins and 9 ins high. Upper surface flat, lower convex and rough.

reported

by

Refs: 290.

Reeves 1847, 85-6, 237-43; O’Laverty 1884, 270-8, 285-

14.

Crevilly Valley townland, Connor parish. O.S. 37; area of D/1097.

CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 14b). In Ulster Museum (U.M. 1332). In 1880s in possession of Robert Brown of Kildrum; used as stand in cottage. Reported found at Chapelfield, ancient church site opposite the ridge of Kildrum in Crevilly Valley townland. Coffins and headstones found but site obliterated and HOLY WELL dried up. Townland mostly under 200 ft on north bank of

[429] Hole in flat surface, roughly circular, diameter 10 ½ to 11 ins and 2 ½ ins deep. Edges of hollow quite rough - not smoothly rounded. 2) Basalt boulder: upper surface flat, perhaps dressed, polygonal. Other surfaces rough. 2 ft 4 ins by 2 ft 1 in. 203

Kells Water. Not precisely located. Rectangular slab of basalt, 1 ft 1 in. by 11 ins and 4 ½ ins thick. Upper surface flat, carefully dressed; edges and base rather uneven.

many SMALL GRAVEYARDS in parish, many called ‘keels’ possibly early church sites, but I have been unable to visit them. Refs:

[430] Top abraded (see above for domestic use). Crosses defined by lines ½ inch wide, probably pecked and smoothed. Cross potent (rectangular expansions at centre and ends of arms) within rectangular frame, with four small equal-armed crosses in corners. Very heavy; not easily portable. Probably altar slab.

Reeves 1847, 79, 251, 281-4; O’Laverty 1887, 458 f.; Bigger, F.J., and Fennell, W.J. ‘Culfeightrin Church, Diocese of Connor’ in U.J.A. 4 (1897-8), 178-80, give plan of medieval church and refer to bones ploughed up; P.S. 1940, 12.

[431] 16. DERRYKEIGHAN parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 12; C/963337. Colman Mulind at 1 January in M.T., not located, but in M.G. ‘Co1mán [glossed] of the Mill from Daire Caecháin in Dalriada’ also M.D. with biographical details. Not listed by Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, and history unknown until medieval parish church. Church ruin (much obscured, probably post-medieval) occupies marked oval elevation in graveyard. No sign now of older church mentioned by Reeves and O’Laverty. SITE: Under 200 ft, slight local eminence in generally flat, damp surroundings, 1mile east of river Bush. MATERIAL: COIN HOARD. Reeves 1847, 79: ‘A few years since, a hoard of silver coins, 280 in number, was found in a field outside the churchyard.’ Another account gives find spot as ‘in the burying ground’ (Dolley 1965, 32). Date of find - March 1843 - seems well established. Hoard dispersed but at least 260, including coins of Athelstan, Eadmund, Eadred, Eadwig, Eadgar, Eric, Viking coinage of York, fragment of denarius of Pippin II of Aquitaine (839-58), and probably coin of Trajan.

PLATE 14B: CREVILLY VALLEY - CROSS-CARVED STONE. Refs:

Patterson 1883-4, 117-8, fig. 1 (impression too regular); O’Laverty 1884, 289-90; Crawford 1912, 219; good photograph in D.C.H.S. 4 (1931), 106.

15.

CULFEIGHTRIN parish, Churchfield (formerly Magherintemple) townland. O.S. 9; D/139398.

‘Tripartite Life’ records how Patrick left bishop Fíachra in ‘Cúil Echtrann’ (Stokes 1887, 163). Colgan suggested was Fíachra in M.T., M.G. and M.D. at 28 September, but calendars give no location. Later history unknown until emerges as medieval parish church. Not certain whether late medieval ruined church occupies pre-Norman site.

Refs:

Seaby 1958-9, 248-54; Dolley 1965, 32-6; Reeves 1847, 789; O’Laverty 1887, 127-9; P.S. 1940, 15.

17.

Deschart graveyard, Cargan townland, Dunaghy parish. O.S. 24; D/165167.

Small rectangular, dry-walled enclosure, strewn with boulders and stones, some loose, some headstones. Much grown with moss and lichen. Reeves points out site corresponds geographically with ‘Druim Breccain’ described in gloss to Breccán at 7 May in M.O. as at ‘the border of Dalaradia and Dalriada’.

SITE (of medieval church): Between 100 and 200 ft, hilltop with extensive views, ¾ mile east of Glenshesk river. Site unenclosed in rough grazing land. Excavation would be possible.

[432] In M.T. Breccan of Echdruim; M.G. and M.D. similar to M.O. But patron of Deshcart not recorded, so this must remain speculation. Reeves was told stations formerly held there but gives no date, and O’Laverty reported HOLY WELL and STANDING STONE nearby, but I found NO EARLY MATERIAL.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Broughanlea cross (q.v.) may come from here but only one of several suggestions. O.S. reported a cross found at site in about 1790 (O’Laverty 1887, 464). Lawlor (op. cit. under Broughanlea) equates this with Broughanlea cross, but O’Laverty gives different account of origin (op. cit., 478).

SITE: Over 600 ft on W. bank of Ballsallagh Water, here flowing south to Glenravel Water. Refs: Reeves 1847, 72 and 334-5 O’Laverty 1884, 461-2.

Two STANDING STONES in graveyard of modern parish church, ¾ mile to northeast. Reeves points out

(Domnach Mór Maige Damoerna - Appendix A) 204

18.

DROMORE townland, Rasharkin parish. O.S. 27; D/048137.

side this forms rho of monogram chi-rho but on east side loop reversed. Both sides top of cross extended in groove to edge of stone. Part of ring on both sides broken away. Lines probably pecked and rubbed, but detail difficult to see under dense white lichen.

CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 10a).

Locally called ‘Old Patrick’ or ‘Patrick’. No ecclesiastical associations; no reports of bones when field to east ploughed. Two useful accounts of stone in ‘O.S. Memoir of Kilraghts’ parish. Stokes gave height as 3 ft 6 ins: ‘it has been removed from its original position ... It formerly stood upon a bank a very little way off.’ O’Laverty (1887, 57) must have drawn on O.S. material but gives misleading description of stone (‘crosses formed by the intersection of circles’) and does not mention rhos. Passing reference in D.C.H.S. 4 (1931), but not previously illustrated or recognised as chi-rho.

PLATE 10A: DROMORE - CROSS CARVED-STONE.

Isolated on local hillock. Stone basalt, 4 ft 3 ins high, maximum width 2 ft 4 ins and 1 ft 6 ins to 2 ft thick. Triangular in plan; face to southeast, flattish, perhaps slightly dressed, with extremely rough cross, crudely hacked, Latin form but otherwise un-distinctive. O’Laverty (op. cit. below) mentions faint letters (? ‘I H S’) above cross. I could not see them, but surface very irregular. ‘O.S. Lists’ (49) report standing stone on site of supposed ancient chapel; no authority given. No surface traces, though hillock would accommodate buildings.

FIG. 23A: DRUMAQUERAN - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

SITE: Under 300 ft, on west valley side of river Main, ⅓ mile west of river with stream close by to east. This and other mounds in valley of glacial origin. Excavated rath nearby to south at D/047135 produced Early Christian structures and finds, though nothing closely datable. Refs:

O’Laverty 1887, 62; Collins, A.E.P., ‘Excavations at Dromore Ring-Work, Co. Antrim’ in U.J.A. 31 (1968), 5966 (stone marked on fig. 1, 60).

[433] 19. DRUMAQUERAN townland, Kilraghts parish. O.S. 17; D/016271. SITE: Stone stands on east side of deep lane running along north-south ridge, over 300 ft, with land falling to stream valleys to east and west. MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 11a and Fig. 23a). Large basalt stone, at least 3 ft 8 ins high, 2 ft 3 ins wide at base decreasing to 1 ft at top, and 1 ft 6 ins thick. East and west faces fairly smooth: perhaps some preparation of surface. These faces carved with equal-armed cross within circle, with open loop on top member; on west

PLATE 11A: DRUMAQUERAN - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Refs: Unpublished drawing in O.S. Memoir. Hamlin, A., in U.J.A. 35 (1972), 22-8.

205

[434] 20.

DRUMEENY townland, Ramoan parish. O.S. 9; D/132387.

columns placed beneath, on the top, it measured about 5 by 2 feet, and the entire of well cut freestone’ (p. 20-1). I did not locate exact spot and could not find a local guide.

Probably to be identified with ‘Drumman Findich’ (or Indich) where Patrick left Enán (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 163). Reeves, following Colgan, suggested same as Enán son of Muadan at 25 March in M.T., M.G. and M.D. (not located). History otherwise obscure.

iii) GRAVES. Enclosure ‘well occupied by graves’, described as built of slabs and lintelled. ‘Many of them were also covered on the top with white pebbles brought from the seashore’ (p. 20). ‘The tombs and headstones were from 1 ½ to 5 ½ feet in length, and the figure of the cross engraven on many of them (p. 21).

SITE (Fig. 21c): General area between 100 and 200 ft, fairly level ridge top. Land falls to Glenshesk to east and stream valley to southwest.

iv) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 23b). 1) ‘... found head of a grave in the Kille and at present in Mr. Laverty’s dwelling house’ (p. 23, with sketch and details). Whinstone, 1 ft 6 ins long, 9 ins wide, 4 ins thick. Rough outline Latin cross with thick shaft 7 ins long.

FIG. 21C: LOCATION OF KILLE ENAN AND GOBBAN SAER’S CASTLE. FIG. 23B: DRUMEENY - CROSS-CARVED STONE (1)

MATERIAL: Reports suggest area formerly rich in material but little now visible. Since surface traces disappointing I have included considerable detail from Thomas Fagan’s full 1838 ‘O.S. Memoir’ (page references given). Potentially promising for excavation. The two church sites discussed separately; sometimes confused in published sources.

v) FONT. ‘O.S. Memoir’ p. 22, gives rough sketch of ‘font stone’ still [1838] on site: of mountain freestone, 2 ft 8 ins by 1 ft 6 ins and 9 ins high, with hollow 1 ft 4 ins by 11 ins and 4 ins deep. vi) MOUND. ‘About 60 yards southeast of this place stood a round mound of earth raised for some particular purpose, but it is now nearly destroyed’ (p. 21). Marked as ‘fort’ in sketch on p. 29.

1) Kille Enan (O.S.) or Killeena (Reeves): ‘on a gentle elevation contiguous to the River Shesk’ (p. 20). ‘Contiguous to the graveyard on the northwest side, and over a small stream, stand the ruins of a bridge that accommodated an ancient paved road’ (p. 22).

Most of this 1838 description based on hearsay: ‘The whole is now destroyed and the site under tillage. And nothing left to denote their existence at any period, but the ruins of the church, a font stone and traditions of the people’ (p. 21). Fagan speculates that this was the earlier site, abandoned in favour of the site to the northwest (p. 28).

i) ENCLOSURE. Graveyard ‘contained about 2 roods of ground. It was enclosed by a thick stone and clay fence’ (p. 20; sketch on p. 29 shows rectangular enclosure). ii) CHURCH. ‘About the centre of the graveyard stood the ruins of some ancient building supposed to have been a church. It stood 30 by 21 feet on the outside. The walls were built with well shaped stones but no appearance of lime having been used in building them. A portion of the walls is still extant [1838] and vary from 1 to 4 feet high, but grown over with scrag and nettles etc.

[436] 2) Gobban Saer’s Castle or Clough Seir Gobban (O.S. 1838): ‘situated on a handsome eminence about 150 yards northwest of [Kille Enan]’ (p. 27). No mention of any enclosure, burials or structures other than the church. i) CHURCH. O.S. gives 28 ft 8 ins by 15 ft 2 ins internally, and Reeves reports walls 10 ft high, 3 ft wide. ‘There seems to have been a narrow window in the east gable, as also in the north wall, near the altar end, and in the south wall’ (1847, 284). Some dressed facing stones

[435] At the east end of the supposed church, stood either a raised tomb or an altar, composed of a long flat stone supported about 4 feet above the surface by a number of 206

still in place with spalls and rubble core, all well mortared. Door in west wall. Badly ruined except northeast angle. Featureless and nothing distinctively early. ‘O.S. 1838 Memoir’ records tradition of nuns here.

executed double cross engraven on its under surface’ (p. 31). Measurements given as about 5 ft 6 ins long, 2 ft 6 ins wide and 1 ft thick, with head of cross to west. Sketch with measurements (p. 32 reverse). Langtry sites slab (sandstone) in roof over entrance to ante-chamber: ‘It is very regular and extremely well executed ... The lines are so even and regular, one would almost imagine they had been ruled’ (loc. cit. below).

ii) FORT. ‘About 10 yards distant from the east end of the latter church, stood a circular earthen mound, raised for some particular purpose connected with the church. But it is now nearly destroyed’ (O.S. 1838, p. 28). Cannot now be traced. iii) FONT? Reeves, writing of Gobban Saer’s Castle, reports ‘The font, together with the dressed sandstone quoins, was carried away to a field at some distance’ (1847, 284). But could this be the Kille Enan Font? I did not find it. 3) SOUTERRAIN between the two church sites but I could not trace its position. ‘O.S. Memoir’, p. 29, gives plan and dimensions of souterrain and marks church sites but schematised and not to scale (see Fig. 21b). Description by Langtry (op. cit. below) seems to be from personal inspection but differs considerably from O.S. His account of orientation seems different. [437] He gives main east-west chamber as 31 ft long, 4 ft 2 ins wide and maximum 5 ft 4 ins high. Ante-room half way along at ninety degrees to S., 24 ft 5 ins long, 3 ft 3 ins wide and 4 ft 4 ins high. Ends blocked by roof falls. West section already destroyed by 1838. ‘Memoir’ describes floor as firm, level and clean; walls nearly perpendicular, of dry stone with flat lintelled roof.

FIG. 23C: DRUMEENY - CROSS-CARVED STONE (2).

3) Langtry refers to another cross-carved stone removed and used as a flagstone in a nearby kitchen. ‘It is extremely rudely cut in a block of trap rock measuring 15 ½ by 8 ins; the cross measures 6 ins by 5 ins, and the cross beam ... is not at right angles with the shaft’ (p. 573). O’Laverty (1887, 423) gives provenance as Kille Enan. Just possible 3) is same as 1), described under Kille Enan above, but dimensions and description do not correspond closely. I visited the only house nearby with no success. Refs:

Published accounts tend to be confusing: distinction between two church sites not always clearly made. Fullest is (unpublished) O.S. Memoir of Ramoan (1838), 20-32; Reeves 1847, 284-5, seems independent of O.S.; Langtry, G., in J.R.S.A.I. 11 (1870-1), 571-4 (drawings ‘annexed’ but not printed); O’Laverty 1887, 420-4, based on O.S. and Langtry; P.S. 1940, 13.

[438] 21 DRUMNACUR townland, Ardclinis parish. O.S. 20; D/243241. FIG. 21B: DRUMEENY SOUTERRAIN.

O.S. marks ‘Killacur graveyard for children’ with dotted circle. Name according to Reeves: Killyhurragh. ‘It is a circular space, about twenty-one yards in diameter, and enclosed by a low cashel’ (1847, 299). Crozier and Lowry-Corry (1938, 222) give details of cashel, external diameter 84 ft, internal 61 ft. Is now raised oval area, 2 to 3 ft above surroundings, probably encroached upon at edges.

CROSS-CARVED STONES (Fig. 23). 2) O.S.: ‘In the roof of this cave, immediately opposite and partly over the entrance door from the north and south section into the west section stands a large and handsome mountain freestone, with a large and well

207

SITE: Below 50 ft on wide valley floor where Glenariff opens out to sea, ½ mile to east. Stream nearby to north.

top measuring 2 ft 8 ins east-west by 3 ft 6 ins. Nothing datable or distinctively early.

MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 13b). Dismissed briefly by Reeves: ‘... a large boulder bears the inscription of a rude cross’, but of great interest. Towards northeast side of raised area, 26 ft from edge of mound. Small stones surround erect basalt pillar, 2 ft 9 ins high, 1 ft 1 in, wide and 1 ft 1 in. to 1 ft 3 ins thick. Rubbed by cattle and cracked. Southwest face dressed smooth, with cross of intersecting arcs within circle, defined by shallow pecked lines. Single line stem with short cross-bar (not very clear in Pl. 13).

ii) SMALL ROUGH CROSS (P1. 12a). Loose. Schist, 2 ft 4 ½ ins high, 1 ft 1 inch across, arms, 2 to 3 ins thick. Shaft narrows slightly towards arms; arms short and rounded, head rather pointed. Head and arms chipped. One side (photographed) slightly smoother than other. Ref:

PLATE 12A: DRUMNAKILL - ROUGH CROSS.

PLATE 13B: DRUMNACUR - CROSS-CARVED STONE. Refs:

O.S. 1832 Memoir reports used for burial of strangers and unbaptised infants; Reeves 1847, 299; O’Laverty 1887, 549; Crozier and Lowry-Corry 1938, 222-5, pl. XXVI, 2 and rubbing p. 224.

22.

Drumnakill, Bighouse townland, Culfeightrin parish. O.S. 5; D/194424.

Lawlor 1936-7, 295-6, with drawing.

1615 Terrier lists as ‘the chappell of St. James in Mowllocke’. Earlier history unknown. [439] SITE: Between 50 and 100 ft, flat spur on rocky promontory, west side of Murlough Bay. Harbour nearby to southwest. MATERIAL: NONE CERTAINLY EARLY i) CHURCH of uncertain date. Different sources give different dimensions. Mine are externally about 33 ft by 15 ft 6 ins, internally 27 ft 5 ins by 10 it 6 ins. Inner wall face 2 to 3 courses (2 ft 9 ins) high. Outer face more ruined and overgrown. Neat squared stone, very varied size, some spalls, recently repointed. Ashlar altar at east end may be recently rebuilt (for Roger Casement anniversary). Offset at base, 4 ins wide, 3 ins high, 1 ft 8 ins high above offset (2 ashlar courses). Sides incline to

PLATE 12B: DRUMNAKILL -BULLAUN IN BASALT PILLAR .

iii) BULLAUN (P1. 12b). In one of mass of tumbled basalt pillars north of church (O’Laverty 45 yds northwest.). Flat surface of stone 2 ft 6 ins north-south by 208

2 ft 7 ins; hollow in centre 1 ft 1 inch north-south, by 1 ft 5 ins east-west and 3 ins deep. Other rocks in area tending to weather into small holes. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 282-3; O’Laverty 1887, 487; P.S. 1940, 8.

23.

?DRUMTULLAGH Grange of, [name missing] parish.

refers to ‘two complete entrances, one north-west, the other south-east’ (op. cit. below). Reeves continues ‘The two entrances ... were of about the same breadth as the fosse, and were paved with large flat stones, but they had no remains of a gateway’. ii) CHURCH. Reeves: ‘… on the area enclosed by this [enclosure] stood the church, east and west, ninety feet long, and thirty wide (Dubourdieu 60 ft by 25 ft). The ruined walls were about six feet high, and five thick.’

Not certainly identified, but may be site of church where Patrick left bishop Nehemiah in ‘Telach Ceneóil Oengusa’ (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 163).

iii) CEMETERY. Reeves: ‘The burial ground was principally at the east end of the building, and the whole space outside the walls was covered with loose stones.’ Dubourdieu refers to burials to a high level inside church.

[440] One townland in Drumtullagh called ‘Manister’, also in Kilmoyle townland burial-ground at D/043365. Small uncultivated area in cornfield. In good conditions reported some graves visible - low mounds with field stones for headstones. Last burial reported about 100 years ago.

iv) FINDS mentioned by Dubourdieu and Reeves included iron bow, steel arrow-head, gold brooch, several pieces of silver with cross on one side (coins?), three stone basins, probably fonts, one perforated, pieces of stained glass, ‘coins of the Edwards’, oak boards, large iron handles, stone hatchets, and a small bell. Could be a mixture of prehistoric, Early Christian, medieval and post-medieval finds, secular as well as ecclesiastical. Whereabouts of material unknown.

SITE: Between 300 and 400 ft, hilltop with extensive views. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 251 and 322; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 382.

24.

DUNDESERT town in (modern) parish of Killead (Reeves 1847, especially 180 on parish), (D). O.S. 55; area of J/185775.

Refs:

Dubourdieu 1812, 593-4 and Reeves 1847, 181-2, give tantalising glimpses of rich site, sadly lost; O’Laverty 1880, 312-4 and 1887, xix.

[442] 25. DUNEANE parish, Lismacloskey townland. O.S. 42; D/012908.

Site now in aerodrome and I was unable to locate it very precisely. Reeves and others suggest may be site referred to in ‘Litany of Irish [Pilgrim] Saints’ (Plummer 1925, 65 and Hughes 1959, 325): ‘Seven monks of Egypt in Disert Uilaig’, but identification not certain.

Two saints with similar names associated in calendars with Duneane. Similarity suggests confusion. In M.O. at 8 January: ‘Ercnat a virgin splendid [glossed] of Dún dá én in the Finbad in Dál Araidi’ (also at 8 January in M.T., M.G. and M.D.). But at 30 October in M.O.: ‘Ernach a virgin, a lofty pillar [glossed] ... or in Dún dá én in Dalaradia’. Early history unknown. Medieval parish church. Present parish church in rectangular graveyard probably occupies early site.

SITE: Over 300 ft, generally flat area (probably modified by airport construction), ¼ mile north of Crumlin River. NO EARLY MATERIAL or surface traces but much material reported by Dubourdieu and Reeves. Reports suggest site levelled for agriculture about 1785 and stones reused in nearby buildings. Fig. 20 offers attempt at reconstruction of plan based on descriptions. Reeves wrote of field (Churchfield or Kirkfield) in 1845 that it was ‘now as even as if it had never been disturbed by any other instrument than the plough’ (1847, 182).

SITE: Over 100 ft, low hilltop in gently hilly surroundings with extensive view to Bann Valley (1 ½ mile to west) and beyond. Important Bann crossing at Toome nearby to west. See pp. 459-61 for ecclesiastical finds from RIVER BANN. NO EARLY MATERIAL. O’Laverty mentions ‘NUN’S WELL’ at foot of hill, ‘now filled up’.

i) ENCLOSURE ‘... a space of nearly four Irish acres, enclosed by a large and nearly circular fosse. This trench was of about the breadth of a moderate road; and the earth which had been cleared out of it was banked up inside as a ditch [that is, a bank], carrying up the slope to about the height of sixteen or twenty feet from the bottom. [441] The whole face of the slope was covered with large stones, embedded in the earth. Concentric with this enclosure, and at the interval of about seven yards, was another fosse, having a rampart on the inner side, similarly constructed’ (Reeves 1847, 182). Dubourdieu

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 86 and 300-1; O’Laverty 1884, 332-4.

(Dunseverick see TEMPLASTRAGH.) 26.

Dunteige townland, Tickmacrevan parish. O.S. 35; D/322079.

Not a church site. SITE: Barren moor-land, just under 900 ft, in slight hollow northeast of gallery grave. 209

MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 24c). Polygonal flattopped basalt boulder, 2 ft 4 ins high. Two decorated faces may be smoothed. Top: faint outline Latin cross with arms and top expanded in triangles. Bottom of shaft unclear but apparently plain. North face: outline Latin cross with ends of arms and shaft expanded in 3 and 4 line triangles. Crosses defined by very narrow, in places faint, sharp but shallow incisions. Very rough, irregular work. May be fairly recent. No church traditions here. Seems to be some confusion over name of stone.

[444] Basalt boulder, at least 2 ft 1 ½ ins east-west by 2 ft 1 inch north-south, irregularly shaped, unknown thickness. Hollow 12 ½ ins diameter, 7 ins deep. Sides to north and northeast steep, to southwest more gradual. Known locally as ‘Wart Well’. Probably stone referred to by O’Laverty (1880, 304) ‘stoup from a black stone, still preserved in the graveyard’.

FIG. 24C: DUNTEIGE CROSS-CARVED BOULDER.

[443] O’Laverty knew it as ‘The Priest’s Grave’. Local people told me ‘The Mass Rock’. Boyle’s drawing (see below) calls it ‘The Headless Cross’; Evans applies this name to a standing stone (1966, 47), and O’Laverty to a cairn ½ mile away. O’Laverty 1887, 582, gives incomplete description; drawing by J. Boyle 1843 with caption ‘The Headless Cross’, omitting triangular expansion on top limb, in Alexander Johns’s Ms., vol. 1, 154, presumably derived from ‘O.S. Memoirs’. Refs:

Unpublished.

27.

GLENAVY parish and townland (D). O.S. 59; J/155733.

PLATE 18A: GLENAVY - BULLAUN STONE. Refs:

Shaw Mason 1816, 236 and 365; Reeves 1847, 47-8 and 236-7; O’Laverty 1880, 302-4.

28.

GLORE, Glebe townland, Tickmacrevan parish. O.S. 29; D/296132.

This may be ‘Gluare in Latharna’ of ‘Tripartite Life’: ‘and Macc Lessi is therein’, one of Patrick’s foundations in Dál nAraidi (Stokes 1887, 165). Probably site of parish church of Tickmacrevan, listed in 1306 Taxation as ‘The Church of St. Patrick of Glenarum’. Small rectangular graveyard, densely used and very confused, with featureless ruined church of mortared rubble (Reeves 1847, 87, gives 45 ft by 15 ft), popularly ‘St. Patrick’s’.

Place-name - ‘Lann-abhaich’, ‘Church of the Dwarf’ suggests identification with church Lathrac Pátraic: ‘Therein is Daniel [who is called from his purity] “the angel” and [from his small size] “Patrick’s dwarf”. By him is Patrick’s well, ‘Slán’ is its name’ (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 165). Gloss in M.O. at 6 January: ‘... and Aedán son of Colca from ‘Land Abaich’ in Ulster here’, also Aedán at 6 November in M.G. and M.D. ‘from Lann Abbaich in Ulster’. Reeves suggested may also be ‘Leitir’ referred to in M.O. gloss at 22 January (1847, 236-7). But early history obscure. Medieval parish church. Present church and graveyard occupy level site, above 200 ft, close to east of Glenavy River. But not certain this is early site: Shaw Mason (1816, 365) mentions old cemetery at angle of Glenavy and Pigeonstown roads (at about J/154731).

SITE: Over 200 ft, east facing valley side ¼ mile above Glenarm River, with small stream along edge of site to south. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 87 O’Laverty 1887, 569-70.

29.

GLYNN parish and townland. O.S. 40; J/408997.

Whilst in Dál nAraidi Patrick founded ‘Glenn Indechta’, but no cleric mentioned (T.L.P. Stokes 1887, 165). This is suggested site - Medieval parish church of which substantial ruins remain. Two-cell; Reeves (1847, 56) gives dimensions of nave and added chancel and plan in Oulton (op. cit. below), but nothing distinctively before about 1200.

MATERIAL: BULLAUN (P1. 18a) 73 ft southwest of west-end of parish church on edge of graveyard perimeter path. Uncertain whether in situ or moved. Now embedded firmly in ground; not fully exposed.

210

[445] SITE: Fine one, under 50 ft, on knoll beside Glynn River with steep slope down to river on north, ¼ mile inland from Larne Lough.

[446] Sides very gradual slope - section almost pointed. Traditionally marks of St Patrick’s knees. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 251; O’Laverty 1887, 528-63; Smith, J., Inispollan and Layd’ in D.C.H.S. 9 (1938), 50-61; P.S. 1940, 17. Site with altar to west of church clearly Penal and outside scope of present work.

31.

KELLS townland, Connor parish. O.S. 38; J/141970.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 56; Oulton, R.C., ‘The Old Church and Parish of Glynn’ in U.J.A. 2 (1896), 180-3 (plan and drawings); P.S. 1940, 33-4.

(Gobban Saer’s Castle, see DRUMEENY.)

In Middle Ages known as ‘Desert of Connor’ e.g. 1306 Taxation, and was house of Augustinian Canons (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 180-1). Assumed to be early foundation, but written evidence very unsatisfactory. Reeves cites passage from ‘Life of Mac Nisse of Connor’ (post-Norman but incorporating earlier material: Kenney 1929, 352) which may refer to Kells and deed of about 1190 attested by Abbot of Disert (1847, 96). Reeves also discusses possibility Kells not Connor was earlier foundation (ibid. 95-6). Ruined, overgrown late medieval church known as Templemoyle or Kells Abbey in crowded, neglected graveyard.

(Imlech Cluane (Cluain), see Appendix A) 30.

Inispollan, Grange of [name missing] parish, Ballure and Ardicoan townlands. O.S. 15; D/234322.

Roman Catholic church and graveyard occupy old graveyard site called Killyvallagh. History of site unknown; strong local Patrician traditions and attempts to equate site with places mentioned in Patrician sources (O’Laverty and Smith below), but unconvincing. Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 387) give P.S. 1940, 17, as source: ‘Said to have been visited by St Patrick’! Roman Catholic church dedicated 1865.

SITE: Under 300 ft, valley of Kells Water, on slight westward slope to river. MATERIAL: report of BULLAUN which I did not find. Skillen (1908), 27, mentions hollow stone said to be font from Kells or Connor, used as corner stone in cottage in Kells. No dimensions given.

SITE: Marked hump close to north of Glendun River, between 50 and 100 ft, above general level of surroundings and presumably once an island. 1 mile inland from Cushendun Bay. MATERIAL: DOUBLE BULLAUN (P1. 18b) North of church, opposite side of road, on east bank of small stream. Very large boulder, schist, partly buried, roughly triangular with apex to south.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 95-7 and 261; Skillen, J., U.J.A. 14 (1908), 27, and I.N.J. 1 (1925-7), 245 and p1. XIII; P.S. 1940, 31; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 180-1 and 388; Heist 1965, 406.

32.

?KILL-BOEDAIN

Colgan (1645, 728) gives ‘Life of Boedan’, abbot of ‘Kill-Boedain’ (23 March). Reeves suggested possible identification with Grange of Shilvodan (1847, 302-3), though other possible sites like Ballywodan, Co. Down. [447] O.S. 43 marks Shilvodan old graveyard, Drumkeeran townland, J/126934. Small enclosure, about 30 ft square, partly embanked, partly stone-faced. No clear sign of graves but surface very rough and many stones poking through turf. Circles of boulders, about 12 ft diameter, are bases for hayricks. SITE: Just under 200 ft, fairly flat surroundings, but slight slope eastwards to River Main 2 ½ miles away. Refs: PLATE 18B: INISPOLLAN: BULLAUN STONE.

Reeves 1847, 302-3 O’Laverty 1884, 291-2; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 388.

(Kille Ennan, see DRUMEENY.)

At least 4 ft 3 ins long, 3 ft wide and 5 ins high. Larger hole to north, 1 ft 2 ins diameter, 8 ½ ins deep with maximum depth northwest of centre. Very steep sides, slightly undercut on west. Smaller hole 6 ins south of larger, much less well-formed. Edges ill-defined, about 1 ft northeast-southwest by 9 ins, depth 2 ½ ins.

33.

KILMAKEVIT (Kilmachevet), Markstown, Cullybackey townland, Craigs parish O.S. 32; approximately D/061059.

Now housing estate with older houses, uninhabited cottages and farm-buildings to north. Vague church 211

traditions still remembered, but I could not locate exact spot.

‘certainly late, and very artificial’) as disciple of Ailbe and founder of Kilroot, and in ‘Life of Mac Nisse of Connor’.

SITE: Over 200 ft. level site near stream, about ½ mile east of River Main.

[449] Likely late-fifth/early-sixth century. Early history otherwise obscure until 1122 laid waste (A.U.). Medieval parish. Small graveyard, once larger, close to bawn. Reeves reported church foundations about 66 ft by 24 ft, but impossible to trace now except fragment of rubble walling.

MATERIAL: i) BULLAUN. O’Laverty reports ‘font’ built into wall of house. No details given, I did not find it. ii) SOUTERRAIN. O’Laverty also reports souterrain under village, again no details given.

SITE: About 100 ft, graveyard slight eminence above flat surroundings, from shore of Belfast Lough, with stream close by to west.

iii) BELL according to O’Laverty (1884, 384-5) exhibited in 1852 by John Bell (with 9 other bells); reported found 1745 in a ‘moss called Cullybackey’. Ulster Museum no. 530:1924. O’Laverty’s informant was Knowles who found bell about 1890 with pots and pans in yard of house at Cullybackey.

MATERIAL: BULLAUN (Pl. 18c). Mortared onto fragment of rubble walling southwest of graveyard gate. Polygonal basalt boulder, un-worked except upper surface. Maximum dimensions 2 ft 8 ins east-west by 2 ft 5 ins and 1 ft 2 ins high. Hollow slightly oval, 1 ft 2 ins north-south by 1 ft 1 in., 10 ins deep. Sides slope gradually near top, then steeply to point of maximum depth. I have discovered no traditions about stone. O’Laverty 1884, 85, gives dimensions, also mentions WELL south of church site which I did not visit (ibid. 81).

[448] Local people told him it was cow bell brought from America, but Knowles preferred to associate it with church site nearby. Of sheet iron folded over at sides, mitred at top, and attached with three small rivets. Small patch riveted on at mouth. Traces of bronze coating survive. Undecorated. Outline angular with rectangular mouth and angular handle of iron bar of rectangular section riveted on to top of bell. Clapper square sectioned bar with heavy circular knob; top attached to hook inside head, and rivet for this visible under handle. Overall height 7 ins, without handle 6 ins at mouth 5 by 3 ins, at top 4 by 1 ¼ ins. Easily portable. Refs:

Knowles, W.J., ‘Recently Discovered Finds in the County Antrim’ in J.R.S.A.I. 22 (1892), 48 and p II; Reeves 1847, 181; O’Laverty 1884, 384-5.

34.

KILRAGHTS parish and townland. O.S. 17; D/017258.

‘Rathnat of Cell Rathnaite’ at 9 August in M.T., ‘Ratnat [glossed] of Cell Rait’ at 5 August in M.G. and M.D. Medieval parish. Part of west gable of ruined church in graveyard, featureless. SITE: Over 300 ft, slight eminence in gently hilly country, on important east-west route from Ballymoney to Bush Valley.

PLATE 18C: KILROOT - BULLAUN STONE. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 59-60 and 245-7; Patterson 1870-4, 276, on two Anglo-Norman grave-slabs; O’Laverty 1884, 81-5.

36.

KIRKINRIOLA townland and parish. (More correctly ‘Kilconriola’: Reeves 1847, 301-2.) O.S. 32; D/114068.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Drumaqueran ¾ mile to north Refs:

Reeves 1847, 73; P.S. 1940, 18.

35.

KILROOT townland and parish (now united with Ballynure). O.S. 53; J/452896.

Early history unknown. Seems to have been medieval parish, though not listed in 1306 (Reeves, loc. cit. discusses possible reasons).

‘Colmán from that Cell Rúaid’ at 16 October in M.O., glossed ‘... on the shore of Loch Lóig in Ulster, and he was a bishop’, also M.T., M.G. and M.D.

Early site occupied by parish church until early eighteenth century when moved to Ballymena. Very large graveyard, still much used, with ruin of former parish church.

Ussher dated foundation to 412, but too early. Colmán mentioned in ‘Life of Ailbe of Emly’ (Kenney 1929, 314, 212

SITE: Over 300 ft, hill-slope in small valley opening out to Braid valley to south.

O’Laverty (1887, 576) describes ‘another square iron bell in the Benn Collection, Belfast Museum, labelled “Found in a bog near Ballymena” ... Height 9 ½ inches, circumference at [451] mouth 23 inches, at top 17 inches, breadth across the top 6 inches, the mouth measures 7 ½ by 5 ½ inches, breadth between the staples of the handle 4 inches.’ This does not sound like bell described by Milligan.

[450] MATERIAL: i) CROSS SLAB (Pl. 14a).

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 90, 301-2, and 287 (on place-name); Petrie 1872, 73 and pl. XXVIII; Crawford 1912, 219; Lawlor, H.C., ‘Degen of Kilconriola’ in U.J.A. 1 (1938), 32-5; P.S. 1940, 26; Macalister 1949, 112, pl. XLV, no.943; Lionard 1961, 127.

37.

Layd parish, Moneyvart townland. O.S. 15; D/245289.

Medieval parish church, but early history obscure. Patron traditionally Kieran (Reeves 1847, 298). Believed to have been religious house, traditionally Fransiscan, but no evidence (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 279, 367). Used as parish church until late eighteenth century. Extensive ruin of medieval and later church (recently into state care) in crowded graveyard.

PLATE 14A: KIRKINRIOLA - CROSS SLAB.

SITE: Over 100 ft, steep-sided valley running east down to sea with fast-running stream to north.

Reported found 1868 when grave-digging or (another version) levelling part or grave-yard enclosure bank. 1927 built into interior porch wall of parish church in Ballymena. Slab of basalt (?), 1 ft 9 ins high by 1 ft 6 ins, unknown thickness. Irregular rectangle, cracked, edges chipped and perhaps some of base missing. Ringed cross potent: arms extend far outside ring, arms at intersection slightly hollowed, rectangular expansions ends of arms and top of shaft. Defined by shallow pecked lines; spaces within ring hollowed out. Inscription pecked flanking cross: ‘ORT/DO DEG/EN’.

MATERIAL: NONE CERTAINLY EARLY. i) HOLED CROSS (Pl. 15a and Fig. 22b). In southwest corner of graveyard near gate, set east and west as gravemarker with added inscription on east side (1861). Long, carefully dressed shaft of rectangular section, slightly thicker and wider at base, narrowing upwards. Head now roughly circular, but battered and probably head and arms would have projected more. Central perforation, irregular circle, about 4 ins by 4 ½ ins. On both faces from edges of perforation roughly pecked lines forming cross, not extending to edges of circle. Maximum height 3 ft 11 ins, shaft 9 ½ to 11 ins thick, head diameter about 1 ft 4 ins, 4 to 6 ins thick. Red sandstone, dense lichen.

Probably recumbent grave slab. Lawlor (op. cit. below) identified with a Degan of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica II, 4, who died 639 (A.F.M.), and dated stone to seventh century. Suggestion has found little favour; Dagan of Historia Ecclesiastica probably from Leinster (Kenney 1929, 219). ii) SOUTERRAIN. P.S. 1940, 26, gives details of souterrain ‘of 3 chambers runs deep under the church; its roofing stones are 6 ft below ground level, and each chamber is 6 ft clear in height, 5 ft wide and 25 ft in length; in the third chamber under the church is a passage leading to another, but blocked up. The souterrain was last opened in 1884.’ iii) BELL known as the ‘Bell of Ballymena’. Reported found in 1870 in Cabragh townland, Kirkinriola parish, but alleged originally from ruined church of Kirkinriola. Early in this century in possession of Professor Wright of Trinity College, Dublin. Present whereabouts unknown to me. Reported 11 ½ ins high, mouth 7 ½ by 4 ins. Undecorated. Milligan 1903, 57 and p1. on p. 47.

PLATE 15A : LAYD - HOLED CROSS - EAST FACE (LEFT); AND FIG. 22B: LAYD - HOLED CROSS - WEST FACE (RIGHT).

213

[452] Some doubt about original whereabouts. D.P.J. 1832-3, 340, mentions hole-stone on hill above Cushendall, and listed in article on hole-stones in J.R.S.A.I. 26 (1896), 162. According to Alexander Johns’s Ms., vol. 2, 212, in 1840s in possession of F. McDonnell, parish of Dunaghy, brought there from Cushendall, where it had been for a long time, but owner believed stone originally came from Scottish Highlands. Now serves as tombstone for Frank McDonnell, d. 1861. Did it originally come from Layd? Sources inconclusive. Refs:

38.

Muckamore townland and Grange of Muckamore parish. O.S. 50; approximately J/166855.

Confidently accepted as early site by many (e.g. Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 188-9) but early history very obscure. ‘It is generally supposed’ (Reeves 1847, 97) that Colmán Ela (or Elo) founded monastery here in late sixth century. His death at 611 in A.U. Colmán patron of Lynally (Co. Offaly), but seems to have been native of this part of Co. Antrim. Latin Life ‘fairly early’ (Kenney 1929, 399-400, and Plummer 1910, I, 258-73) mentions visit by Colmán to Connor, and Connor and Lynally often linked in sources (see Connor, above). Colmán also mentioned in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ (Anderson 1961, 222-3, and elsewhere). But Muckamore nowhere mentioned in these sources. Jocelin’s ‘Life of Patrick’ (1185-6) chap. 96, links Colmán Ela with Muckamore. But Kenney on this ‘Life’ says ‘... [it] does not appear to have made use of any earlier sources not now preserved’ (1929, 347-8).

Fennell, W.J., in U.J.A. 6 (1900), 183 with sketch; D’Arcy in J.R.S.A.I. 60 (1930), 192-3 and pl. III.

ii) possible CROSS SLAB (Fig. 25d).

Monastery first appears clearly 1183 when prior witnessed a charter. House of Augustinian canons, assumed refoundation on early site. Joint patrons SS. Mary and Colmán Ela. Reeves (1847, 98): ‘The churchyard is still used; but the greater part of the site of the priory is under the garden of Muckamore House, and all that remains of the building is a portion which stands in the range of the garden wall.’ FIG. 25D: LAYD - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

[454] O’Laverty and McKeown (op. cit. below) report finds made at various times, but whereabouts of these unknown and none sound distinctively early.

Reused as inner of two lintels of door from west end of nave into ground floor of west tower. Much obscured by surrounding masonry: drawn only with great difficulty, possibly wrongly. Rectangular schist slab, 3 ft northsouth by 1 ft 6 ins east-west and 2 ins thick. Upper surface decorated but abraded. Under surface rough. Stone pecked back (clear marks) leaving design in low relief. Main element may be cross shaft, central northsouth stem narrowing southwards, decorated with at least two saltire crosses. From stem to west edge is double chevron; corresponding part to east very worn. Near south end of stem two lines branch southwards enclosing further worn decoration. Clear edge moulding west side; east very abraded. Needs to be cleared or removed before any certainty possible about date: may possibly be AngloNorman or later medieval rather than earlier. Kindly mentioned to me by D.M. Waterman. Refs:

SITE: About 100 ft, valley floor, close to and in bend of Six Mile Water, about 2 miles from Lough Neagh, at important river crossing. Excavation would be possible in gardens of Muckamore House. Ref:

Reeves 1847, 97-8 very helpful; O’Laverty 1884, 240-6; McKeown, L., ‘The Abbey of Muckamore’ in D.C.H.S. 9 (1938), 63-70.

39.

Racavan parish and townland. O.S. 33; D/199054.

Medieval parish (1306, ‘Church of Rathcona’) Early history unknown, though area very strong Patrick traditions (Slemish Mountain in this parish). Graveyard presumably church site, though no walls visible. ‘O.S. Memoir’ reports graveyard wall built about twelve years before, and near centre foundations of wall 20 ft long, 3 ft wide; some said part of church, others wall for upright gravestones.

Shaw Mason 1819, 22-4; Reeves 1847, 83 and 298, mentions ‘an adjacent well’ called ‘The Nun’s Well’, and four other graveyard sites, all Kil-names; Bigger, F.J. and Fennell, W.J., ‘Layde, Cushendall, Co. Antrim’ in U.J.A. 5 (1898-9), 35-45; P.S. 1940, 17-8.

SITE: Just under 500 ft, on northwest slopes of Slemish, overlooking Braid valley to north. Hill slopes also west and south. Spring outside southeast corner of cemetery.

[453] (Linn listed by Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 397) on authority of Archdall (1786, 9 and 1873, 16) as nunnery near Carrickfergus where Patrick’s sister, Darerca, abbess. I have found no evidence for this house. Lewis (1837, I, 664) sites it at Glynn.)

MATERIAL: BULLAUNS 1) (Pl. 19). Built into graveyard south wall, close to southwest corner, 2 ft 6 ins above ground level

(Magheramorne, see Appendix A) 214

and 3 ft 2 ins below wall top. Basalt. Broken across bowl. Stone measures 1 ft 9 ins across, 10 ½ ins high, unknown thickness. Rather less than half bowl left; chord of circle 1 ft 1 in. and 5 ins deep. This may be ‘broken font’ reported by O.S. built into south wall of adjacent farm, though dimensions smaller (8 by 4 ins).

present one) cut freestone engraved with cross found about middle of south side wall of church. Also ancient tombstone with inscription found (uncertain whether Latin or Irish). This may have been hearsay; he gives no drawings, and nothing known now of these stones. ‘Memoir’ mentions font, and font of old church now broken in rectory basement.

I did not have this information for my visit and did not look in walls of farm.

[456] I have not yet managed to see it. None of this material certainly ‘early’. ii) WELL. 3 furlongs to north, reported by O.S. as closed (Jan. 1839); ‘it was formerly visited by many people suffering from bodily diseases’, until about 20 years before. iii) BELL of Ramoan, mentioned briefly by O.S., said to be very ancient, from the old church. No further information about this. ‘O.S. Memoir’ (very useful detail), Reeves and O’Laverty list several graveyard sites in parish, including Broombeg townland (q.v.). Refs:

Reeves 1847, 79 and 284-5; O’Laverty 1884, 397 f., especially 408-9.

41.

RAM’S ISLAND Glenavy parish (D). O.S. 58; J/096721.

PLATE 19A: RACAVAN - BULLAUN STONE.

[455] 2) O.S. and O’Laverty mention another, partly buried in adjacent field ditch. No details given. This may be bullaun built into wall, but clearly there are two.

Early history unknown until obit in 1056 ‘Gormgal, chief soul-friend, of Inis-Darciargrenn’ and 1121 InisDarcarcrenn taken, ‘wherein fell five and forty persons’ (A.U.). Seems safely identified with Ram’s Island through place-names and early maps (e.g. ‘Enis Garden’ on Speed’s ‘Map of Ulster’). May be ‘capella’ listed with Glenavy in 1306 Taxation.

3) Triple bullaun removed before O.S. to St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic church, the Braid, Ballymena. Not visited but illustrated by Crozier and Rea 1940, 107, fig. 2A. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 84; O’Laverty 1884, 435-6.

40.

RAMOAN parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 8; D/101402.

SITE: Towards southwest tip of elongated island of 7 acres, now wooded. Not visited: my details derived from secondary sources.

Not listed as early site by Gwynn and Hadcock, but seems safe to identify with Patrician foundation ‘Raith Mudain’. ‘He left Presbyter Erclach therein’ (Stokes 1887, 163). Colgan put his festival at 3 March (1645, 455). Ereclach appears at 3 March in M.T. and M.G. but not located. Early history otherwise obscure. Medieval parish church site was graveyard west of present Church of Ireland church (built 1847-9) marked by O.S. ‘Site of Ramoan church’. Crowded graveyard; sunken area may be church site.

MATERIAL: i) CHURCH. Barton ‘Lectures on Lough Neagh’ (1751) mentions ‘the ruins of a church’ with round tower. His frontispiece shows the site but it is a very distant view. ii) ROUND TOWER. Measurements from Shaw Mason (brackets Getty). Height 43 ft (42), circumference 30 ft 5 ins (nearly 40 ft), internal diameter (8 ft 3 ins), walls 2 ft 8 ¼ ins (2 ft 6 ins) thick. [457] Door according to Shaw Mason to southwest, 6 ins from ground, but Getty believes this is secondary and original door to south-southwest, 8 ft above ground. Entrance now a ragged hole. Three stories, first with door, second with window to southeast, third with window to north. Corbels to support joists (? not very clear). Shaw Mason reports owner dug 5 ft below surface inside; found human bones and coffins. Getty excavated September 1844 found previous disturbance and adds little.

SITE: About 200 ft, slight eminence in undulating countryside; general level falls eastwards to valley of Tow River, opening northwards to Glenshesk and sea. MATERIAL: No early material now, but reports of some. i) CROSS-CARVED STONE, INSCRIBED STONE and FONT. ‘O.S. 1838 Memoir’ by Thomas Fagan reports in rebuilding old Ramoan church (predecessor of 215

iii) CEMETERY. Shaw Mason and Getty report burials found near tower and elsewhere. Excavation would be possible, but in early nineteenth century owner: ‘greatly beautified the surface, by planting trees and shrubs of various kinds’ (Shaw Mason, op. cit. below, 221), and Getty reports site much filled in when pleasure grounds laid out around tower. Refs:

Shaw Mason 1816, 238-241; Reeves 1847, 48; Getty 1856, 135-6 (no illustrations); P.S. 1940, 54-5.

42.

Rasharkin parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 26, C/974127.

‘Life of Columba’, I, 5, Anderson 1961, 222-3). History difficult to disentangle from Lambay Island (Co. Dublin), because names very similar (Rechra, Rechrann etc.). ‘Life of Comgall of Bangor’ refers to local opposition to foundation of ‘cella’ on Rathlin (Plummer 1910, II, 18). Columba visited Rathlin, but no church mentioned (Anderson 1961, 436-7). Church of Rechru founded 635 (A.U.), by Segene, abbot of Iona. Burned by Vikings 795 and erenagh killed by Gentiles 975 (A.U.). [459] Several eighth century obits may refer to Rathlin. ‘Reachru was plundered by the foreigners’ 1038 probably refers to Rathlin (A.F.M.). Later history obscure, but at Dissolution rectorial tithes appropriate to Bangor. I have not been able to visit Rathlin. Reports of several church sites: fullest by O’Laverty but not eye-witness, drawing on ‘O.S. Memoirs’. Main sites seem to be:

Medieval parish church, but earlier history unknown. On basis of name of nearby mound, Drumbulcan or Drumbolcan, Colgan and later writers have suggested connection with Olcan of Armoy. Ruined post-medieval church in graveyard near present church.

i) Present parish church site at D/145511. Site of earlier church, and large area reported covered with stone-lined graves.

SITE: Under 300 ft, on west-facing lower slopes of Long Mountain overlooking wide valley of river Bann 2 miles to west.

ii Kilvoruan in Carravindoon townland. P.S. 1940, 1, on authority of O.S., refers to square stone enclosure of about 40 yds, said to be ancient graveyard.

NO EARLY MATERIAL at church site but Lewis (1837, II, 486) reports SOUTERRAIN nearby: ‘an artificial cavern was discovered near the church.’ I did not visit Drumbulcan, northeast of church; reports of site and finds (including bones) by Reeves and O’Laverty. O’Laverty also mentions holy well and allegedly unfinished church site near the mound. Refs:

iii) Kilvoruart in Knockans townland. Circular cashel with smaller circular stone settings inside, and pillarstone, said to be ancient graveyard. Some details in U.J.A. 17 (1911), 39-46, Henry Morris ‘Some Antiquities of Rathlin’.

Reeves 1847, 90; O’Laverty 1887, 68-71; P.S. 1940, 23.

iv) Kilbride in Ballygill Middle townland. Marked by O.S. as ‘old graveyard’. O’Laverty reports stone graves found there.

[458] 43. RASHEE parish and townland. O.S. 45; J/273931. Listed in ‘Tripartite Life’ amongst Patrick’s foundations in Dál nAraidi: ‘Raith Sithe, and in this he left two of his household [unnamed]’ (Stokes 1887, 165). Obit of Bishop Eogan of Rath-sithe 618 (A.U.), but subsequent history obscure. Medieval parish church. Crowded graveyard probably occupies early site.

v) Portcam. O’Laverty mentions but gives no details of small graveyard here. MATERIAL: Stone-lined GRAVES reported (see above). Two BULLAUNS in non-ecclesiastical contexts, described by Hewson (1938), both used for bruising cereals and whins.

SITE: Between 400 and 500 ft, south-facing hill-slope, level falling gently south to valley of Six Mile Water, and west to Doagh River.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 248-50 and 288-92; O’Laverty 1887, 351-85; P.S. 1940, 1.

NO EARLY MATERIAL: in Reeves’s day ‘the churchyard is much used, but no traces of the church remain’ (1847, 69). O’Laverty reports field north of graveyard called ‘Fort Hill’ and spring a few perches to south said to be holy (1884, 194-5).

River Bann. Much archaeological material of all periods has been dredged from the river Bann or found on its shores. Two ecclesiastical items are listed here, not under particular church sites, since they are strictly unprovenanced.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 68-9 and 250; O’Laverty 1884, 194-5.

44.

RATHLIN ISLAND. O.S. 1.

[460] Fragment of a BELL SHRINE. Important to emphasise this is no more closely provenanced than the Bann shore. In 1860s in collection of Robert Day who bought it from Ballymena dealer, together with gold bulla, allegedly found with it. Reeves in cautious publication (op. cit. below) suggested probably from one of churches in Antrim or Derry near Bann: Duneane, Ahoghill, Coleraine, Church Island, Aghadowey or

Important staging-post between Northeast Ireland and West Scotland, despite terrors of ‘coire Brecain’, whirlpool between Rathlin and mainland (e.g. Adamnan’s 216

Camus. Later writers have tended to attribute find to Ahoghill (Crawford 1923, Aboghill [sic]!), partly influenced by inscription (see below). Danger of a circular argument here, and no grounds for precise location. Arched upper part of bell shrine, 2 ¼ ins high, 3 ½ ins wide, 1 inch thick, bronze with gold and silver insets. Openwork cresting with head at centre. Arch decorated with silver, niello, and inset silver panels with interlace and leaves allied to acanthus. Along upper surface half uncial inscription cast and filled with silver, read by Macalister (1949, 112) as ‘OR DO MAELBRIGTI LASIND ERNAD 7 DOĀCENI DORIGNE’, ‘a prayer for Mael-Brigte under whose auspices it was made, and for Maceni who made it’. M. Stokes (1928, 53) and others have associated this with ‘Maelbrigte… comarba of MacNisse and of Colman-Ela’ who died 956 (A.U.), but this identification not certain. Bulla, allegedly found with shrine fragment, of gold sheet around ball of clay. Unlikely to be truly associated and Raftery prefers Bronze Age to Early Christian date. Refs:

[462]ii) Three CROSIER MOUNTS from Shankill graveyard in N.M.D:1) 1895: 19 ferrule (lacking point). Cast bronze. Three raised bands divide piece into four zones for decoration. Two upper panels interlace (single strand) in kerbschnitt technique; two lower panels lively trumpet spirals. Probab1y ninth century. Refs:

2) 1893:20 found with 1), crosier drop. Cast bronze. Front rectangular panel of double strand interlace in quite high relief within raised border. Border decorated with interlace and formerly L-shaped settings at lower angles. At centre of panel rectangular amber stud, also with interlace. Refs:

CROSIER found during dredging below Toome Bridge; Lough Neagh and River Bann drainage scheme. Now in Ulster Museum. Oak staff encased in thin bronze sheets: vertical joins formerly covered with strip which survives only in fragments. Lowest knop and ferrule 5 ½ ins long; pointed ferrule octagonal, with knob near base, attached with two rivets. Horizontal mouldings have simple vertical hatching. Knop 1 ½ ins high, 1 ft 3 ½ ins above point. Decorated with two roughly incised lines at top, bottom and round waist. Another knop 1 ¾ ins high, 1 ft 10 ½ ins above point; traces of diagonal hatching. Knop at base of head 1 ¾ ins high, elaborately moulded with diagonally hatched bands. Bronze casing of head largely missing. Drop attached by two rivets. Decoration of incised lines and hole at front for (missing) setting. Crest slightly scalloped outline, decorated with twelve punched holes, welded onto strip, segmental section to fit casing of head, to which formerly riveted. Lawlor, H.C., in J.R.S.A.I. 62 (1932), 208-11, especially 209-10 and p1. VI; Henry 1967, 115 and pl. 52.

45.

SHANKILL parish, Edenderry townland (D). O.S. 60; J/320750.

Crawford 1923, 173; Raftery 1941, pl. 93 and 124.

3) 1955:5. Circumstances of finding uncertain. Cylindrical cast bronze mount from shaft of crosier; surface formerly gold plated. Outer surface divided by beaded horizontal and vertical lines into four squares, with square amber settings in beaded surrounds at intersection of lines. Panels around circumference decorated with single strand interlace in kerbschnitt technique. As far as I know unpublished. Henry 1967, 116, refers briefly to 1 and 2.

N.M.D. No. 1918:354. Reeves in J.R.S.A.I. 10 (1868-9), 353 f.; Armstrong in J.R.S.A.I. 48 (1918), 180-2; Crawford 1923, 163 (locates far too precisely); M. Stokes 1928, 53-5; Mahr 1932, p1. 36; Raftery 1941, 140 (bulla) and 156; [461] Macalister 1949, 111-2; Henry 1967, 126-7, p1. 56 and 1970, 80, 86.

Refs:

Raftery 1941, p1. 93 and 124.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 6-7, 183-5; O’Laverty 1880, 400-5; Scott, C., ‘The Parish of Shankill’ in U.J.A. 1 (1894-5), 11-19; P.S. 1940, 57.

(Shilvodan, see KILL-BOEDAIN.) 46.

SKERRY parish, Magheramully townland. O.S. 33; D/189089.

Identified with place mentioned in earliest of Patrician ‘lives’ where Patrick visited by angel Victor who left angelic footprint in rock. Tírechán’s ‘Collections’ speak of [463] ‘montis Scirte iuxta montem Miss [Slemish]’ and of how Patrick went ‘ad montem Scirte ad locum petrae super quam vidit anguelum Domini stantem, et uestigium pedis illius usque nunc pene adest ...’ (Stokes 1887, 302 and 330). Muirchú’s ‘Notes’ refer to Skerry and footmark (idem. 300) and Fíacc’s ‘Hymn’ to footmark. Glosses to ‘Hymn’, ‘probably of the eleventh century ... the Patrick Legend in full growth’ (Kenney 1929, 340), include ‘...Arcal, that is the name of a large valley in the north of Dalaradia by Slemish, and in Scirit especially he [Victor] was wont to come to him. That is a church now in that valley, and the trace of the angel’s feet still remains on the stone’ (idem. 415). ‘Tripartite Life’ refers to place as ‘Schirec Archaile’. ‘Schirich’ taxed as parish church in 1306. Now graveyard with ruin of late- or post-medieval church. O.S. reported detached steeple north of north wall. Grass-grown traces of walls north of church, but nothing distinctive or interesting. Northeast of northeast angle flat rock outcrop with natural, somewhat foot-like depression ‘which the Ordnance Survey, agreeably to the

Medieval parish; early history unknown, but material shows without doubt there was an early church here. In 1615 Terrier called ‘Ecclesia de Sti. Patricii de vado albo’. 1) BULLAUN from site of old church, now set up at door of St Matthew’s parish church. Stone 3 ft 3 ins by 2 ft 3 ins and 1 ft 4 ins high, with oval hollow 1 ft 2 ins by 1 ft and 7 ins deep. Drawing by Scott (op. cit. below. 11). 217

ancient tradition, notices as “St. Patrick’s footmark”’ (Reeves 1847, 84), more correctly, Victor’s.

ii) BELL OF SOLAR presented by James Boyle to Ulster Museum (no. 1911-149). Iron (badly corroded) with traces of bronze 9.2 ins high; flattened oval mouth, 7.3 by 5.1 ins. Front view outline rectangular but rounded at top in side view. Flaps at ‘shoulders’ visible, but joins at sides largely obscured by repair. One rivet only visible at bottom on each side. Stump only of handle and roots of clapper loop.

SITE: Over 500 ft, dramatic rocky basalt hill, extension of mountain mass to north, overlooking and dominating Braid valley. Highly defensible site: suggested as suitable place for Miliuc’s fort. NO EARLY MATERIAL despite rich traditions. Refs:

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 83-4; O’Laverty 1884, 440-3; Dawson, A., ‘St. Patrick’s View of the Braid Valley and the Burning of Milchu’s Homestead’ in U.J.A. 3 (1896-7), 113-9; P.S. 1940, 27.

Reeves 1847, 52; O’Laverty 1887, 575-6.

Springmount Bog, Ballyhutherland townland, West of Clogh but not precisely located. N.M.D. 1914:2. Six yew wood tablets, waxed and inscribed on both sides (outermost tablets inner side only). Raised plain border round waxed surface. Each leaf pierced with two holes in upper margin; held together with leather strap which served also for carrying. 8 ¼ ins by 3 ins and 1 ¾ ins thick. Psalms 30 and 31, Vulgate version, in a form of cursive minuscule.

[463A] 47. Solar parish and townland. O.S. 30; D/343122. Small medieval parish; earlier history unknown. Church site traceable in pasture as area of grass-grown rubble uneven but no distinct outline. Reeves (1847, 52) reports foundations 48 ft by 20 ft.

[464] Seventh century date suggested on epigraphic grounds (Bischoff cited in Hillgarth 1962, 184). Armstrong and Macalister refer to church site Drumakeely on bank of Clogh river, less than ½ mile away. Reeves no mention of this site (1847, only Dundermot, 73) but O’Laverty lists Drumakeely, site on hill Drumnacross, with font at nearby farm. Not yet visited. Bog has also produced flints, other wooden objects, etc.

SITE: Between 100 and 200 ft on gentle slope eastwards to sea, ¼ mile away, with stream close by to north. MATERIAL: i) FONT (Pl. 19b) probably medieval, unlikely earlier. Reported from church site; kept at farm nearby to southeast. Sandstone carefully shaped internally and externally. Vertical striations, probably chisel marks, inside. 11 ¼ ins square and 10 ins high. Sides slope in slightly and a little concave; base only slightly concave. Hollow diameter 8 ½ to 9 ins and 8 ins deep. No traditions.

Refs:

Armstrong, E.C.R. and Macalister, R.A.S., ‘Wooden book found with leaves ... near Springmount Bog, Co. Antrim’ in J.R.S.A.I. 50 (1920), 160-66, p1. XIV; Hillgarth 1962, especially 183-4.

48.

?St CUNNING townland, Carncastle parish. O.S. 35; D/352092.

Possible site for Patrician foundation in Dál nAraidi, ‘... Telach, that is Cell Conadain’ (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 165). Conaing, son of Lucunán at 23 September in M.T., M.G. and M.D. but not located, and no evidence except placename to locate him here. Was medieval chapel, decayed by 1622. Reeves reported foundations 48 ft by 20 ft.. Now sunken area of similar dimensions with rubble in general area. SITE: just over 200 ft, level platform on steep east-facing hill slope down to coastal plain, with fast-flowing stream on south. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 52-3; O’Laverty 1887, 577-8.

49.

TEMPLASTRAGH townland, now Ballintoy, formerly Billy parish. O.S. 3; D/005442.

Church site possibly to be identified with place mentioned in Patrician sources, Dún Sobairci (Dunseverick). Tírechán: ‘in Duin Sebuirgi sedit super PLATE 19B: SOLAR - FONT.

218

Refs:

petram quae Petra Patricii usque nunc. Et ordinavit ibi Olcanum ...‘ (Stokes 1887, 329).

[466] 50. TRUMMERY townland, Magheramesk par. (D). O.S. 67; J/171623.

[465] ‘Tripartite Life’: ‘and Patrick blessed Dún Sobairci and Patrick’s Well is there, and he left a blessing thereon’ (ibid. 163). But these sources do not mention church here. In A.U. at 871 ‘The taking by force [by Vikings] of DunSobhairce, which had not been done before’, and destroyed by Vikings in 926 (A.U.). These clearly refer to fort. Seems to have been medieval chapel in Billy parish. Ruined post-medieval church with two graveyards. In larger (northern) yard, near northwest corner grass-grown walls; Reeves’s ‘faint traces of the foundations of a small quadrilateral building’ (1847, 285). East wall about 17 ft, and north and south walls traceable for about 20 ft westwards, then unclear. Nothing datable.

Early history seems quite unknown. Material suggests early use of site. Ruined church now in oval graveyard. SITE: Over 100 ft, fairly level, with slopes down to streams to east and southwest, flowing southwest to River Lagan. MATERIAL: i) CHURCH and ROUND TOWER not certainly early. Church ruin very heavily re-pointed. Nave of split basalt rubble; one sandstone quoin at southeast, all other dressings gone. West window and gap to south, door. No distinctive features; certainly not early. At east end chapel of very rough, mixed masonry later than main body of church. Base of tower projects north from this, but relationship of one to other not at all clear in present state. According to early descriptions, square below (externally about 11 ft by 10 ft) but round above, about 60 ft high with not conical cap but rounded cupola made on wicker centring. One entrance (red sandstone arch) reported from south (from church), another 6 ft above. ‘Loopholes’ in tower to east and west. Outer walls rubble, inner sandstone ashlar. Internal diameter only 3 ft 8 ins, and external circumference hardly smaller at top than bottom. At base of tower newel stair. Beneath this Getty, excavating in 1842, found ‘burial chamber’, un-mortared stone-lined area, 6 ft 6 ins by 2 ft 3 ins by 2 ft 6 ins deep. Tower fell 1828. Area of tower now much obscured by growth and rubbish. Inspection did not help me to clarify confusing earlier descriptions. Dubourdieu 1812, 598, writes as from personal inspection, and fig, facing 598 shows tower intact and mound (see below); Shaw Mason 1816, 3-4; D.P.J. II 64 (September 1833) 89, useful description by John Roggan soon after fall;

SITE: Under 100 ft, cliff-top, very exposed, with stream nearby to southeast. Area around cultivated; would be possible to excavate. MATERIAL: CROSS SLAB (P1. 11b). Not in situ. Built into west wall of church, exposed to prevailing weather: much lichen. Rectangular schist slab with rounded corners, 3 ft 7 ins high, 1 ft 1 in. wide, and O’Laverty reports 8 ins thick. Chipped and cracked. At time of ‘O.S. Memoir’ (1838) lying in a ditch. Equal-armed cross in circle in false relief. Cross formed of two interlaced double bands in each direction. Small circles (sunken centres?) in ‘spandrels’. ‘O.S. 1838 Memoir’: a little south of church spring WELL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 285-6; O’Laverty 1887, 316-8; Bigger and Fennell op. cit. above, with plan p. 61; P.S. 1940, 4.

O’Laverty 1887, 317, description based on O.S.; Bigger, F.J. and Fennell, W.J. ‘Teampull Lastrac, Dunseveric’ in U.J.A. 5 (1898-9), good drawing p. 60; Crawford 1912, 219.

[467] drawing in records of N.M.D., undated lithograph M. Ward, Belfast, shows base of tower and four steps of newel stair in situ with ashlar door jambs in foreground; Getty 1855, 292-300, with plan of church. ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 25e). Getty (op. cit., 292) refers to cross-carved pillar-stone in area of church, ‘now destroyed’. Described as about 4 ft 9 ins high and 1 ft 7 ins wide (drawing p. 293). Drawing shows two decorated faces: 1) Large circle with eccentrically-placed single equalarmed linear cross with bars at ends of arms and shaft. 2) Three crosses, smaller but similar form, in circle of same size with single cross outside, stem touching circle top right. No further details available. Wilde (1857, 132) illustrates from Museum of Royal Irish Academy flattened oval stone, sandstone, 4 ½ ins by 3 ¾ ins and 1 ⅞ ins thick. On one side four hollows (illustrated); on the other a cross (not illustrated). ‘It was dug up near the ruins of Trummery church.’ I did not trace this stone. Wilde op. cit. 132 and 149.

PLATE 11B: TEMPLASTRAGH - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

219

Narrow sides very smooth. Hardly a ‘cross’: rather pearshaped on stem. North face carving, sunk horizontal line and above, defined by pecked lines, motif like pincers grasping semi-circle. Locally crosses thought to mark priest’s grave; no other ecclesiastical associations. ‘O.S. Memoir’ (source for O’Laverty) reports formerly HOLY WELL at foot of hill where stations held, but patron unknown.

FIG. 25E: TRUMMERY - CROSS-CARVED STONE (AFTER GETTY 1855).

iii) EARTHWORK. Drawing in Dubourdieu’s ‘Statistical Survey’ (see above) shows motte-like mound to left (north) of church. Lewis (1837, II, 335) refers to a ‘nearly perfect’ rath or doon near church. ‘O.S. Memoir’ (1837) describes fort as about 75 yds north of graveyard, approximately circular, enclosed by mat and parapet. Top concave, 24 yds diameter; mound 15 to 24 ft sloping height above field. Levelled about 1823 (O’Laverty 1887, vii). O’Laverty: ‘A large funeral mound, such as occurs in the immediate vicinity of most of the ancient churches in the diocese, stood about 300 yds to the north of the ruin’ (1880, 267). Refs:

PLATE 16B: TULLAGHORE - EAST CROSS- NORTH FACE (LEFT); AND FIG. 22C: TULLAGHORE - EAST CROSS- NORTH FACE (RIGHT). Refs:

O’Laverty 1887, 443; Lawlor, H.C., 1936-7, 297, with inaccurate, misleading drawings; P.S. 1940, 15-16. Good drawings in unpublished O.S. Memoir.

52.

TURRALOSKIN townland, Ramoan parish. O.S. 8; D/087382.

Nothing now except cross-carved stone, but ‘O.S. Memoir’ useful account of site. Graveyard locally called Kille-Acrue (O.S. six inch map Kilcrue), contain one road, walled. All material destroyed by 1838 except v).

References as above and Reeves 1847, 48; O’Laverty 1880, 267-70; Henry 1965, note on 38-9 speculates on possibility that Magheramesk is Rath Melsigi of Bede’s ‘Historia Ecclesiastica’ III, 27.

[469] SITE: Under 300 ft, low-lying and damp, overlooked by higher, better drained land except to east where valley opens out towards Tow River.

See also Magheramesk, Appendix A. [468] 51. Tullaghore townland, Armoy parish. O.S. 13; D/095340.

MATERIAL: i) CHURCH: about 7 yards north of stone stood supposed ruins of ancient church, internally 16 ft by 16 ft.

SITE: Over 400 ft, rough, exposed east-west ridge, with ground falling sharply south to Well Water valley. Inhospitable; does not look likely church site.

ii) ALTARS. Between church and pillar-stone ruins of three altars of well-shaped stones, tops 1 yd square.

MATERIAL: TWO STONE CROSSES (Pl. 16 and Fig. 22c). 1) West Cross standing, not very firmly, facing north and south 2 ft 3 ins high, 1 ft 5 ins across arms, about 3 ins thick. Schist, chipped, weathered and tending to flake. No sign of working or decoration. Rough, stumpy Latin cross. North face (drawn and photographed) more smooth than south.

iii) BUILDINGS. ‘At foot of cross’ buildings, beneath which were oval pebbles. To northeast of cross ruins of several small houses with hearths and ashes. iv) BURIALS. 15 yds to east in adjoining field, ruins of ancient graves, enclosed by large stones sunk in ground. In ploughing pieces of coffins found. No burials within memory except still-born children.

2) East Cross: about 17 ft east of 1), set north and south on hummock with stones pushing through surface around. Seems to be in situ. Schist, 2 ft 9 ins high, maximum width 1 ft 11 ins, 2 ½ to 6 ins thick (thicker at base).

v) CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 10b). Now stands isolated in low, boggy surroundings. Schist 5 ft 3 ins high, 1 ft 6 ins wide, 6 ins thick, roughly oval plan, heavy 220

1ichen. Northeast face decorated with large sunk outline cross. Ends of arms slightly, top of shaft markedly, expanded, bottom of shaft plain. Cross cut back about ½ inch. Locally called ‘the Priest’s Headstone’.

PLATE 10B: TURRALOSKIN - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

vi) WELL. 50 yards to south. ‘Kille Well’. O.S. sheet 8 marks well to west. vii) SOUTERRAIN. Reported 30 yards west. O.S. marks ‘cave’ to northwest of church site. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 386, brief postscript; O’Laverty 1887, 403-4, uses O.S. material (reports pillar-stone removed but reerected on original site); Bigger, F.J. in U.J.A 14 (1908), 156-7, puts in wrong townland, wrong dimensions, photographs both sides of stone; Crawford 1912, 219.

221

[470]

CO. ARMAGH: All the sites are in Armagh diocese except where Dromore is indicated. 53.

ARMAGH. O.S. 12; H/874452.

eventually:] Et exierunt ambo, sanctus Patricius et Daire, ... et ascenderunt illam attitudinem terrae, invenieruntque cervam cum vitulo suo parvo iaciente in loco in quo nunc altare est sinistralis aeclessiae in Ardd Machae ... (Stokes 1887, 290-2)

Ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. Earliest history remarkably obscure; prominent in written sources only from late seventh century onwards. Foundation dates 444 (A.U.) and 457 (A.F.M.) unreliable. Problem closely linked with fortunes of Ulaid, and their capital, Emain Macha (Navan fort), 2 miles west of city. Emain prominent in stories of ‘Ulster Cycle’. Not clear from written sources exactly when Ulaid defeated by Uí Néill and driven north and east into Co. Down followed by establishment of Airgialla tribes in former Ulidian territory. Most scholars believe Emain continued as Ulidian capital into fifth century, partly because of Patrick’s choice of Armagh, but one recent verdict is ‘on the available evidence, the date of the destruction of Emain presents an insoluble problem’ (Mac Niocaill 1972, 15 and see also Hughes 1972, 174-9).

Version in ‘T.L.P.’ clearly based on Muirchú with additions, including substitution of ‘Sabhall’ for ‘northern church’, and ‘the place where Rath-Dári stands today’ as gloss to Armagh (ibid. 229-31). Additions to ‘Muirchú’s Life’ (Book II) suggest rivalry between Uí Néill with Airgialla and Ulaid over Patrick’s relics: Patrick wanted to die at Armagh but forbidden by angel, died at Saul and buried at Downpatrick (ibid. 295-9). ‘Liber Angeli’, written probably early eighth century using seventh-century sources, claims Patrick’s relics at Armagh (Hughes 1966, 278). Also claims terminus vastissimus for Armagh ‘which you [Patrick] have loved before all the lands of the Irish: that is, from the top of Mount Berbix as far as Mount Mis, from Mount Mis to Bri Erigi, from Bri Erigi to Dorsum Breg’. This defines bounds of Airgialla, Dál nAraidi and Ulaid (ibid. 276 and 280).

Archaeology of Navan. Chance finds at and near Navan over any years underline importance, especially fine Iron Age metalwork. Recent excavation demonstrates use of site from Neolithic period onwards. Mound, 150 ft diameter and 15 to 17 ft high, raised over 130 ft diameter circular timber structure of concentric rings of posts. C14 date 465 ± 50 B.C. for structural timbers gives terminus post quem for building and 265 ± 50 B.C. for destruction, probably deliberately, by fire (Radiocarbon 12 no. 1 (1970), 287-8). Sequence in this part of 18 acre enclosure seems to end well before Patrick’s time. Small ring-fort nearby within enclosure produced Early Christian occupation material (Current Archaeology 22 (1970), 304-308).

[472] Paruchia Patricii to extend to ‘all the free churches of the provinces of this island’ and ‘every place ... which is called ‘domnach’’ (ibid. 277-8). Armagh’s claims set out in ‘Book of Armagh’, written 807, and process of associating Patrick s name with widespread churches continued in ‘T.L.P.’ in late ninth century.

[471] Establishment of Church. Patrick makes no mention of Armagh in either ‘Confession’ or ‘Letter to Soldiers of Coroticus’ (Bieler 1953). Earliest account of foundation dates from late seventh century when Armagh clearly actively and successfully pressing claims to supremacy. Silence of earlier sources suggests possibly temporary eclipse, or at least not prominence of later centuries (Armagh not mentioned in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ or Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History’) Tírechán refers to Armagh only in passing but Muirchú detailed story of foundation:

Evidence of Annals: (All references to A.U. unless otherwise stated). Devastated 618 and burned 672. From early eighth century references increase. To this time apparently administered by bishops but from early eighth century abbots predominate (Hughes 1966, chap. 7). Obits include also scribes, stewards and anchorites. Brawls involving killings in 781, 789, warfare and killings 798, burned 775, 783 (A.F.M. adds by lightning). Vikings prominent from 832: ‘The first plundering of Ard Macha by Gentiles, thrice in one month’. ‘The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill’ adds: ‘and Turgeis [a pagan] himself usurped the abbacy of Armagh and Farannan, abbot of Armagh and chief successor of Patrick was driven out’ (quoted in Henry 1967, 9-10).

‘Fuit quidam homo dives et honorabilis in regionibus Orientalium, cui nomen erat Daire. Hunc autem rogavit Patricius ut aliquem locum ad exercendam religion daret ei…‘Peto’, inquit sanctus, ‘ut illam altitudinem terrae quae nominatur Dorsum Salicis dones mihi, et construam ibi locum.’ [After much wrangling,

Further Viking raids (plundering, burning, taking prisoners) in 840, 845, 852, 869 (1,000 captives), 879, 882 (with Irish), 896 (710 captives), 921, 943. Also several accidental fires. 1005 Brian Boru gift of 22 oz. gold on Patrick’s altar, and body brought to Armagh from Swords for burial in 1014. Although Culdees not mentioned in annals until 921, probably originated during 222

ascetic revival of late eighth and ninth centuries, as elsewhere (Reeves 1864, passim, and Hughes 1966, chap. 16). From 966 abbacy held by lay members of Clan Sinaich (Hughes 1966, 245-6). Lay supremacy broken by Cellach (d. 1129) and. reform continued by Malachy. ‘The stone church of the monastery of [SS.] Peter and Paul, that was built by Imar [473] Ua Aedhacain, was consecrated by Ceallach, successor of Patrick’ on 21 October 1126. Augustinian, and probably reforming Arroasian rule introduced by Malachy. Other early foundations may have been reformed in twelfth century. Stormy history continues in eleventh and twelfth centuries with fires and raids, including 1189 pillaging by John de Courcy. Many topographical references, listed below. Despite great material damage importance unimpaired: Armagh’s supremacy confirmed by twelfth century reforming synods.

FIG. 30. ARMAGH CITY SKETCH MAP

MATERIAL: Reeves (1860, 3) wrote ‘I am not acquainted with any place in this island, so rich in historical associations, and yet having so little to show, and so little to tell, at the present day, as Armagh.’ i) ENCLOSURE clearly differentiated in annals as ‘the Rath’ from ‘the Trians’, e.g. 912: ‘Many houses were burned in the Rath of Ard Macha’ but 1074: ‘Ard Macha was burned ... both Close and Third’. Muirchú does not mention any enclosure, simply ‘high ground’, ‘that parcel of ground’, and refers not to buildings but to ‘a hind with her little fawn’ (Latin quoted above). ‘T.L.P.’ adds Patrick went with Daire and others ‘to the hill to mark it out, and to bless it, and to consecrate it’ (Stokes 1887, 231). Though ‘T.L.P.’ mentions ‘Rath-Dári’ nothing in early sources suggests Patrick given enclosure, simply hill. Recent writers, since Reeves (1860), have almost all assumed Patrick given a fort but on inadequate evidence.

Medieval History. Archbishop continued to enjoy ancient privileges as ‘coarb of Patrick’, receiving substantial dues. Rarely visited parts of province ‘inter Hibernicos’; left administration to Irish speaking officials, and lived more in Co. Louth than Armagh (Gwynn 1946, passim). Rebuilding of cathedral began 1268. This church remains but extensively restored in 1834. Religious houses affected by dissolution (1539) SS. Peter and Paul, Culdee Priory, convent of Templeferta with its cell Templebreed (Glancey 1954, 69). Post-medieval History. Elizabethan accounts of ruined and impoverished state of town and churches usefully collected by Hayes-McCoy (1964, 5-6). Cathedral area fortified 1561 by Lord Deputy Sussex with ‘strong raths and impregnable ramparts’ and town described by Marshal Bagenal in 1586 as ‘a small villadge [sic], having the church and other Frieries [sic] there for the most part broken and defaced’ (U.J.A. 2 (1854), 151). Important pictorial source, Richard Bartlett’s map of about 1601, shows ruined town with roofless churches and derelict civil settlement carefully represented as from hill-top to southeast. (Hayes-McCoy 1964, Pl. III). Escheated Counties Map 1609 similar features but less detail.

[475] Excavated evidence: excavation in 1968 by A. Harper and C. Gaskell Brown in back gardens on north side of Castle Street, formerly Vicars Choral holdings, southeast of cathedral. Four trenches located substantial ditch about 21 ft wide, 7 ft 6 ins to 10 ft deep. Edge to south badly disturbed, but clearly line is arc of circle, approximately concentric with present graveyard wall. Excavators suggest circle about 150 ft radius with centre slightly south of cathedral. V-section profile. Fill at base rapid primary silt (red-brown sandy clay), damp organic material above, and bulk of fill stony red clay from south lip. In two more westerly trenches much charcoal-rich material tipped from north edge. C14 dates of 290 ± 80 A.D. for twigs above primary silt end 520 ± 85 A.D, from twigs in pit cut into upper layers of ditch fill. Evidence suggests ditch, presumably surrounding hill-top, from about second century A.D., out of serious use by early sixth century.

[474] Pictorial sources increase in more recent times with drawings, paintings and maps especially important Rocque’s 1760 map. Extensive eighteenth and nineteenth-century development involving demolition and re-use of earlier materials. Reeves collected valuable traditions in mid-nineteenth century. Prospects for future progress include watching for chance finds and re-used material as in past, and further excavation.

Pictorial evidence: Bartlett’s c. 1601 Map shows irregular low stone wall round foot of hill on which ruined cathedral stands. Quite unknown to what extent early enclosure(s) survived to sixteenth century, whether Sussex refurbished defences or refortified hill-top.

SITE: (Fig. 30). Church of Ireland cathedral occupies early site on commanding sandstone hill, over 200 ft (cathedral 240 ft). Level hill-top with steep drops all around. River Callan nearby to west and tributary Ballynahone river to east. Much of immediate surroundings probably once marshy but other prominent hill-tops nearby.

Present topography: nothing remains of monastic enclosure, but present remarkable street plan may reflect elements of earlier plan. Innermost line is present cathedral graveyard wall, about 330 ft north-south 223

perhaps truncated by Vicars’ Hill to west. Second circuit (Reeves’s ‘upper enclosure’) seems to follow Castle Street, Callan Street; line to north less clear but perhaps continued in garden walls, back to Market Street and Castle Street. Diameter about 600 ft.

where bishops, priests and anchorites worshipped, may have been on present cathedral site, but hardly susceptible to proof. Principal church only appears clearly in annals in 840 when stone church distinguished from oratories: ‘Burning of Ard-Macha, with its oratories and cathedral (‘doimliacc’)’. Possibly stone oratory, scene of brawl in 789, was principal church, but use of word ‘oratory’ suggests not. Doubtless included in general accounts of burnings. ‘Stone church’ 996, ‘the great stone church’ with lead roof 1020. Re-roofed with shingles 1125 after having been roofless in part for 130 years. Involved in general burnings 1074, 1092, 1112, 1166 and 1179. Rebuilt by Archbishop O’Scannail 1268 onwards. Nothing known of pre-1268 fabric, but written sources suggest stone church by 840 at latest, and much subsequent damage and rebuilding.

[476] It is my impression that Bartlett’s enclosure proximately follows this line rather than inner circuit. Abbey Street and English Street define still larger circle, continued in garden boundaries rather than Thomas Street and Ogle Street, and lost to west, about 1400 ft northsouth. Cross at door of Rath mentioned 1166 (A.U.): suggests either single or principal one. Cross shown in Bartlett’s map outside gap in wall east of cathedral, but no evidence to bridge gap between 1166 and 1601. Refs:

Reeves 1898, 206 and 211; Davies and Paterson 1940; Camblin 1951, 6-7, pl. 38; air photographs in Common 1964, 92-3 (oblique) and Norman and St. Joseph 1969, fig. 69 (vertical).

Ref:

[478] 3) Muirchú’s ‘Northern Church’: (Stokes 1887, 292, quoted above). ‘Liber Angeli’: ‘virgins and penitents [and those] serving the church in legitimate matrimony ... it is permitted to these three orders to hear the word of preaching in the church of the north quarter on Sundays always’ (Hughes 1966, 277). ‘T.L.P.’ replaces Muirchú’s ‘northern church’ with ‘in the place where the ‘Sabhall’ is today’ (Stokes 1887, 231) so the two usually equated. No further evidence either to confirm equation or disprove it. May possibly be ‘stone oratory’ where man killed in 789. Other references to oratories, but first appears by name 916 when burned with other buildings. Obit of ‘Cennfaeladh of the Sabhall’ (1012). Burned 1020 (A.F.M. adds ‘stone church’). Reeves suggested ‘northern’ not because of topographical position but because north-south orientation like Saul (Co. Down), but ‘Liber Angeli’ (see above) suggests simple topographical explanation. Reeves: ‘The site cannot now be determined but we suppose it to have stood somewhere near the extremity of the north transept of the present cathedral’ (loc. cit. below). Nothing shown in this position in Bartlett’s map. Disappears early in annals, no reference in dissolution records, so perhaps did not survive to Plantation.

ii) CHURCHES. Eight pre-Norman churches known by name, and collective references to ‘churches’ and ‘oratories’ may conceal other, unnamed buildings. 1) Na Ferta. According to Muirchú Daire first gave Patrick not the hill he asked for but ‘another place on lower ground, where is now Fertae Martyrium near Arddmachae, and there St. Patrick lived with his people’ (Stokes 1887, 290 and White 1920, 95). ‘T.L.P.’ reports Daire saying: ‘I will give thee a site for the church in this strong rath below’ (ibid. 229). ‘T.L.P.’ also describes planning of site, interesting, but written some 450 years after the event: ‘In this wise, then, Patrick measured the Ferta, namely, seven score feet in the enclosure (‘lis’), and seven and twenty feet in the great house (‘tig mor’), and seventeen feet in the kitchen, seven feet in the oratory (‘aregal’; and in that wise it was that he used to found the cloisters (‘congbala’) always’ (ibid. 236-37). Noticeably absent from lists of burned buildings until 1090 when ‘stone church of Na Ferta burned with 100 houses nearby’ and 1179 when city ‘burned for the greater part’. [477] Reeves reported traditional site Bank of Ireland, Scotch Street (formerly Earl of Anglesey’s Liberty). Bartlett’s map shows simple rectangular church hereabouts, roofless, in circular enclosure with odd semicircular projections to north and south. Clearly had own distinctive enclosure in c. 1601, though not necessarily Daire’s ‘strong rath’. Popularly associated with Patrick’s apocryphal sister, Lupita; Stuart reported her burial found here in late eighteenth century, standing upright with crosses in front and behind. May arise from memory of burials encountered during building. Ref:

Reeves 1898, 206.

Ref:

Reeves 1898, 207-8.

4) The Toi: ‘Church of the Elections’. Burned by lightning 916: ‘the southern half, with the Toi and the Sabhall, and the kitchen, and the abbot’s house all’. Also burned in great 1020 fire (A.F.M. has ‘stone church’). Otherwise presumably grouped with ‘churches’ and ‘oratories’. Apart from slight 916 hint (above), position uncertain. [479] Reeves’s statement that it ‘stood on the south side of the present church’ seems based on traditions. He admits ‘the site of building is doubtful’ (loc. cit. below). Others have suggested actually attached to south side of cathedral: Rocque’s 1760 Map marks ‘The Parish Church’ in angle between chancel and south transept. Bartlett’s c. 1601 Map shows only pile of rubble in this angle, but chapel against south aisle of nave and west side

Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 312-3.

2) Cathedral occupies summit of hill and reasonable to assume earliest church on hill in this area. Not clearly distinguishable in earlier sources. Muirchú mentions North Church in Armagh, which implies another (Stokes 1887, 292), and ‘Liber Angeli’ refers both to North and South churches (Hughes 1966, 277-8). South church, 224

of south transept. But nothing to link these later structures with pre-Norman church. Like Sabhall may not have survived to c. 1601.

skeletons were lately found in the rear of these premises, which was used after the Reformation as a cemetery’ (1900, 26 note 15).

Ref:

[481] Hayes-McCoy identified large aisled church on right of Bartlett’s c. 1601 map as St. Columba’s, but I agree with Dr. Henry (1967, fig. 2) more likely SS. Peter and Paul, from scale of building, position, and by comparison with Rocque’s map. I have wondered whether church survived to c. 1601, but Reeves found Templecolumkilly mentioned in street ‘Bore-netrianSassenach’ in 1614. 1760 map marks simply ‘where St. Columb’s Church stood’.

Reeves 1898, 208.

5) Culdee Church. Only pre-Norman reference to Armagh Culdees is 921 when Vikings of Dublin plundered city, but: ‘the houses of prayer with their company of Celi-De and of the sick, were protected by him, and the church (‘ceall’) beside’. Reappear in postNorman sources serving cathedral as Vicars Choral, prior of Culdees ranking next after dean. Rectories and vicarages held by Culdees in medieval period; origins of this custom obscure, but parishes so held noted in inventory below. In dissolution records styled Culdee Priory, but found to be not monastic and members continued to serve as vicars choral. Reeves confident that church occupied vicars’ holdings southeast of cathedral, north of Castle Street, where Rocque (1760) marked ‘The Vicars’ Hall’. Reeves locates ‘about half way up Castle Street and close to the churchyard wall’. Bartlett marks long, rectangular, roofless building (church or hall?) in this position. Reeves also reports ‘sepulchral traces were found in great abundance’ near presumed site in early nineteenth century. 1968 excavation in this area. One fragment of stone wall on south lip of ditch could be connected with Culdee establishment, but more excavation needed to test further. Refs:

Ref:

8) SS. Peter and Paul, Augustinian canons, founded by Imar O’Hagan before 1126 when: ‘The stone church of the monastery of Paul and Peter ... was consecrated.’ May have adopted Arroasian rule when Malachy archbishop. Burned with other churches 1179 and 1196, though had escaped burning 1166. 1557 reported prior had surrendered monastery including large stone church and extensive buildings. Identification with large ruined church north of cathedral in Bartlett’s map rather than ruin to northwest likely. Reeves defines precinct and Rocque marks church site just southwest of Presbyterian meeting house. ‘The old Abbey buildings afforded abundant materials, not only for the meeting house on the north-east [built in 1722], but also for dwelling-houses and garden walls, which are high and substantial in that quarter’ (Reeves op. cit. below, 223-4). See also ‘Architectural Fragments’ below.

Reeves 1864, passim and 1898, 213-7; Scott 1896, passim.

[480] 6) St. Brigid’s Church. Earliest reference in annals is obit coarb in 1085, when styled ‘Regles Brigit’. Escaped burning 1179 but burned 1189 when A.U. editor translates ‘Regles’ as ‘House of Canons Regular’ of Brigid. Continued as nunnery through Middle Ages and listed as cell of Na Ferta at dissolution. Several sources confirm position southeast of cathedral. Bartlett’s map shows very small roofless church or chapel south of suggested Culdee building outside enclosure, and Rocque’s 1760 Map marks site ‘where St. Bridget’s Church stood’. Reeves traced post-dissolution history through inquisitions and leases and defined precinct as ‘an irregular space, situate in the south-east of the cathedral, having frontage in the middle of the south side of Castle Street, and extending backwards down the slope, south and south-east, to near, but not touching, Thomas Street.’ Site of church within this area pinpointed on Rocque’s map. Digging in area 1830 produced human bones: ‘in the rear of Chapel Lane, and hard by the [old Roman Catholic] chapel’. Ref:

Reeves 1898, 219-20.

Refs:

Reeves 1898, 220-4; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 157.

9) Other Churches. Reeves found Templemurry mentioned in post-medieval source (1614? not altogether clear). Suggests ‘Teampull Muire’ (‘Mary’s Church’), and adds: ‘The situation of Templemurry can only be a matter of conjecture, but it probably stood somewhere below the Infirmary.’ Map in Stuart 1900 facing p. 16 shows site immediately north of infirmary, but only conjecture (not shown by Rocque in 1760). [482] Not found in any early source. Rocque marks cruciform ruin, north of present Windmill Hill, in approximately position of Mount St. Catherine’s School. This seems too far away from area pinpointed by Reeves for Templemurry. Yet another church in this direction suggested by Bartlett: c. 1601 Map shows small roofless building with cross on gable. Looks like chapel though oriented approximately north-south. Shown on hill clearly west of River Callan and separated by another hill from Loughnashade and Navan to west. This suggests to me Legarhill townland, and if correctly placed by Bartlett building cannot be identified either with Templemurry or ‘Rocque’s ruin’ (see above). But no evidence to take any of these back certainly to pre-Norman period. Reeves 1898, 224; Hayes 1964, 6, identifies Bartlett’s chapel tentatively with Templemurry. A.F.M. 936 reports death of ‘abbot of ‘Teach-Fethghna’ and chief priest of Ard-

Reeves 1898, 218-9.

7) St. Columba’s Church first appears with obit ‘Dunadhach of Colum-Cille’s Recles in Ard Macha 1011. Another obit A.F.M. 1152, but history otherwise obscure. Not listed in dissolution records, and site again reconstructed from post-medieval sources. Rocque (1760) marks site north of SS. Peter and Paul (see below) on north side of Abbey Street. Stuart reported: ‘Many human 225

Macha’ and A.U. 953 of erenagh of Tech-Fethgna. Fethgna was coarb of Patrick, died 874; possibly church named after him in or near Armagh, but not identified.

suggestion stood 40 ft northwest of cathedral based on other examples. No evidence to locate Armagh tower and no trace of it ever reported.

Ref:

Refs: Reeves 1898, 207.

Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 406.

10) General References to Churches and Oratories. Annals refer to unnamed churches and oratories. All may be buildings discussed above, but possibility remains of others. Most important references are 789 quarrel and killing at door of stone oratory (‘in hortio oratorii lapidei’); 840 Armagh burned with oratories and cathedral (‘dertigi’ and ‘doimliacc’); 869 burned with its oratories; 921 ‘houses of prayer’, see Culdees, above; 1009 ‘The oratory of Ard-Macha was roofed with lead’; 1196 reference to ‘the southern church’.

iv) OTHER MONASTIC BUILDINGS. 1) Abbott’s House burned 823 (‘forut n-abbad’), again 916, and: ‘The great house of the abbots of Ard-Macha with twenty houses around it was burned’ in 1116. Seems, like Na Ferta, to have stood in own enclosure. Reeves thought likely site, on grounds of recent topography, north end of Vicars’ Hill, northwest of cathedral. Suggestion receives support from Bartlett’s map, unknown to Reeves. Large ruined building, with bell-cote but not clearly church, occupies suggested area with wattle cabins nearby. I agree with Dr. Henry more likely abbot’s (later archbishop’s) house than SS. Peter and Paul as suggested by Hayes-McCoy.

11) Architectural Fragments. Three dressed stones, limestone, In Armagh Museum. [483] Removed from east wall of Third Presbyterian Church Hall (formerly First Presbyterian Church), Abbey Street, built 1722 (see SS. Peter and Paul, above). Two capitals, both re-cut for use as window jambs.

Ref:

Reeves 1898, 209-10.

2) Kitchen, burned 916 with ‘the southern half, Toi, Sabhall and Abbot’s House. No other reference.

1) 1 ft 3 ½ ins long, 9 ins high and 8 ½ ins thick. Rollmoulded necking for column about 6 ins diameter. Above necking plant form (defaced palmette?), decreasing in width upwards, divides stone into two zones. On either side elegant fish (dolphin?) head downwards, with leaflike scalloped tail curling up over back, prominent fin with beaded edge, eye truncated by re-cutting, and perhaps beaded mouth.

3) Infirmary. Does 921 entry suggest infirmary? Not easy to interpret: ‘the houses of prayer with their company of Celi-De and of sick’. 4) Guest-house. Obit of ‘erenagh of Lis-oigedh and Cluain-Fiachna’ 1004, another reference to erenagh 1016, and A.F.M. 1155. Name suggests own enclosure ‘lis’ - and landed endowment. Absence from lists of burned buildings suggests somewhat removed from main monastic concentration, presumably outside ‘Rath’, but site unknown. Even Reeves has no suggestion (1898, 211).

Traces of roll moulding running along under fishes on either side of necking of central column, but no sign these intended to fit columns. 2) Similar size, shape and mouldings. Instead of fish, birds with heads pointing down to outer angles of stone, prominent wings and tail. Roll moulding under left hand bird head seems to turn and run along side of stone; elsewhere re-cut.

[485] 5) ‘Erdam’ burned 996. Word fully discussed by Petrie: suggests adjunct to another building like porch, porticus or sacristy (1845, 437-444). 6) Library. A.F.M. account of 1020 fire gives more detail than A.U. Includes ‘teach screaptra’, which escaped fire, but books in houses of students burned.

3) Rectangular block, 1 ft ½ in. long, 6 ½ ins wide and 10 ins high, with half-round mouldings at two angles. These three pieces all mutilated but work clearly twelfth-century and of high quality. SS. Peter and Paul most likely source; St. Columba’s less likely. Unpublished. Perhaps surprising that more re-used material not found; to be expected all over city, but particularly likely in area of SS. Peter and Paul (see Reeves’s observations, quoted under that site above).

7) Houses in ‘Rath’ several times mentioned: 912 many burned, 921, 1116 twenty houses burned near Abbot’s House, and 1184 thirty houses of principal members of community pillaged (not stated where). v) CEMETERIES (Pl. 20a). Human remains reported near several church sites (see above) but principal graveyard must have been near cathedral. Early burials presumably well sealed by long later use; somewhat surprising not more reports of chance finds from grave-digging. Part of cemetery apparently reserved for royal burials: 935 royal heir of Ailech buried in ‘the cemetery of the kings’. 1014 Brian Boru buried at Armagh ‘in a new tomb’, but no indication exactly where. King of Ailech buried in ‘the mausoleum of the kings’

iii) ROUND TOWER. Unfortunately little to report about this. First reference in A.U. is 1020 when: ‘the bellhouse with its bells’ burned; but A.F.M. 995 account of fire includes plural ‘cloictheachta’. A.U. 1121 ‘A gust of wind came ... so that it took off the pinnacle-cover of the steeple of Ard-Macha.’ [484] Davies and Paterson (1940) reported tradition tower stood until 1642 but could not verify this. Reeves’s 226

1064. A.F.M. in 1010 reports distinguished cleric: ‘buried with great honour and veneration in the great church of Ard-Macha before the altar.’ Bernard’s ‘Life of Malachy’ describes Malachy one night going round ‘the memorials of the saints of which there are many in the cemetery of St. Patrick’ (Lawlor 1920, 115).

5) Cross at the Gate of the Rath. All five used as landmarks in description of 1166. ‘Ard Macha was burned ... from the Cross of Colum-cille, the two streets, to the Cross of Bishop Eogan, and from the Cross of Bishop Eogan one of the two streets, up to the Cross of the door of the Close, and all the Close with its churches - except the monastery of Paul and Peter and a few of the houses besides - and a street towards the Close to the West, namely from the cross of Sechnall to the Cross of Brigid [was burned], except a little.’ Crosses of Brigid and Columba nay have been near churches of same dedication. No references to churches of Eogan (of Ardstraw, Co. Tyrone) or Sechnall (of Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, and see Bieler 1953, 57-65). Some confusion in secondary sources about cross reported brought to Armagh from Raphoe by Archbishop Prynne. Very like1y this was small, portable altar cross, not heavy stone one, and it should not be equated with one of the stone crosses. Bartlett’s c. 1601 map shows only one cross, outside entrance of enclosure east of cathedral. [487] Likely to be Market Cross of more recent sources and reasonable to suggest is ‘the cross at the Gate of the Rath’ of annals, though no evidence to bridge gap of 435 years between 1166 and 1601. Bartlett shows un-ringed cross on pyramidal base with pile of nibble at foot, but unlikely very careful representation.

PLATE 20A - ARMAGH CATHEDRAL GRAVEYARD.

Graveyard appears in poem by Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe (fl. 1240-80) about death of Brian O’Neill in 1260:

Cross Fragments in Cathedral, kept at west end of north aisle. History of mutilated fragments traced through drawings. Stood in Market Place (hence ‘Market Cross’) downhill from cathedral in eighteenth century. Traditionally thrown down late seventeenth century (Stuart 1819), re-erected in former position 1744, thrown down again 1813 (Paterson op. cit., below). Coote (1804, 320) gives very stylised drawing, virtually useless, but Bell’s 1812 drawing (for Stuart 1819) useful view, also valuable drawing by Sir Henry Dryden 1852. Reeves complained of neglect of cross in own day ‘treated pretty much like rubbish’ (1898, 213). Moved into cathedral crypt and then north aisle early present century. Fragments badly mutilated and weathered but still impressive in scale and organisation. Clearly originally prominent mouldings, strict division into panels and coherent iconographic scheme.

‘In Ard Macha are the interments of the Ulaid with their lime-stone tombs. Among the tombstones of our clann Néill, Alas! that his resurrection shall not be there’. (Carney 1965, 97) vi) OTHER FEATURES WITHIN ENCLOSURE. 996: ‘Lightning seized Ard-Macha, so that it left neither oratory, nor stone church, nor erdam, nor fidnemed without burning.’ [486] ‘Fidnemed’ suggests grove of trees, usually pagan connotations, but here in ecclesiastical context (cf. Derry’s oak trees). Just this single, tantalising reference. Whereabouts not stated but likely in central area. Extensive 1020 fire consumed not only buildings but also ‘the abbot’s chariot and the old preaching chair’.

Shaft: wide angle roll, narrower inner fillet, and wider horizontal bands dividing scenes. East face: from bottom Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, Sacrifices of Isaac, and damaged and obscured scene. West side: Annunciation to Shepherds, Adoration of Magi, Baptism, badly damaged scene (Miracle at Cana?). North side: divided by inner fillet into linked panels. Children in Fiery Furnace, two single-strand interlaced knots, Paul and Antony receiving bread, panel of bossed spirals (?).

vii) CROSSES. Annals mention five named crosses, and fragments of two survive. All references late (twelfthcentury). 1) Cross of Brigid: 1121 ‘Two streets of Trian Massain, from the door of the Close to the Cross of Brigid, were burned’; 2) Cross of Colum-cille;

[488] South side: similar mouldings. Two figures (David and Jonathan?), David and Goliath, David and Lion, two badly damaged figures, two horseshoe-shaped motifs

3) Cross of Bishop Eogan; 4) Cross of Sechnall; 227

with two circular knobs below. Mutilated fragment of head: crossing and one arm. East side: Crucifixion with soldiers, spear and probably stream of blood. On arm crucified thief, divided from main Crucifixion by panel of bosses with interlace. West side: Christ in Majesty with people around, but badly defaced.

North side: similar sunken panel 1 ft 1 in. wide. At base very defaced circular area with bosses and part of diamond frame above with bosses. Edges of shaft too battered to show any details of edge mouldings.

Nineteenth-century drawings show open-ringed head. Ring decorated with projections on inner circumference. Fragment has prominent but damaged edge rolls. Drawings suggest inner fillet continued too. Bell’s 1812 drawing shows rectangular base set on clumsy large subrectangular stone. Dryden’s 1852 drawing shows no base but tenon at base of shaft and at base of upper section of shaft and head. Suggested original height 13 ft excluding base. Possible from drawings to suggest what scenes now missing. Damaged fourth scene on east side may be Paul and Anthony dividing bread. Above fourth scene on west side possibly loaves and fishes. Below Crucifixion at top of shaft was group of three figures, sometimes described as Moses, Aaron and Hur, but more likely New Testament scene (Arrest?). 1812 drawing shows Crucifixion side of head fixed onto Old Testament side of shaft, clearly mistaken restoration after one of falls, and this has caused some confusion in descriptions. Dryden drawing (1852) shows correct arrangement. Standing figure on end of one arm (probably originally south) and lozenge under arm. Refs:

PLATE 20B: ARMAGH - BROKEN CROSS. Refs:

Crawford 1927, 28, fig. 9; Roe 1955, 108, p1. I.

viii) CARVED STONE FIGURES. Remarkable collection kept in north transept of cathedral. Circumstances of finding in all cases poorly documented and none certainly within my date limits, but have a. bearing on my subject so dealt with briefly here.

Crawford, H.S., appendix to ‘The Early Crosses of East and West Meath’ in J.R.S.A.I. 57 (1927), 4-6, fig. 9, pls XIIIXIV; Porter 1931, 130; Sexton 1946, 61-3; Roe 1955, 10910, pls II-III; Paterson, T.G.F., appendix to ‘Old St. Malachy’s’ in S.A. 1 no. 2 (1955), 169-194, especially 190-1, with useful illustrations; Henry 1964, 29-30, 43-4, 60, pls 36-8.

[490] 1) ‘The Tandragee Idol’: claimed from a bog near Newry, but circumstances of finding obscure. Granite bust, chipped at base but otherwise complete.

[489] Broken Cross in Cathedral Yard (Pl. 20b) cannot be identified with any of crosses in annals, though if present position west of west-end reflects original whereabouts, Cross of Sechnall seems most likely. Popularly known as ‘St. Patrick’s Chair’ (Stuart 1819, 76-7 and Rogers 1861, 18). Base and stump of shaft, sandstone, of massive proportions. Badly weathered and much lichen.

Prominent features: round eyes, moulded cheeks or moustaches, strong brows, large rectangular open mouth. Head or helmet has small horns. Right arm projects from elbow-length sleeve with cuff, crosses body and grasps object at left shoulder. Coarse, claw-like fingers. Back featureless. Refs:

Base: undecorated with shallow step, 4 ft 1 in. east-west by 4 ft 6 ins north-south and 1 ft 3 ins high. Shaft survives to height of 3 ft and 1 ft 8 ins by 2 ft 4 ins. East side: wide flat edge mouldings defining central sunken panel 1 ft 3½ ins. wide. At base D- or stirrupshaped fillet surrounds motif which suggests to me curled up animal viewed from above. Above is diamond-shaped frame with cruciform pattern of six bosses around centre boss with linking lines. West side similar but sunken panel 1 ft 2 ins wide. Motif at base too defaced to identify, but diamond frame above has cruciform interlaced pattern. South side: narrower edge moulding defining sunken panel 1 ft 2 ins wide. At base circular device with bosses, and part of diamond above.

Macalister, R.A.S., ‘A Sculptured Figure from Tanderagee’ in J.R.S.A.I 65 (1935), 156-8, pls 13-4; Henry 1965, pl 3 (excellent front view); Ross 1967, p1. 46 (side view); Rynne 1972, 80-2.

A similar but not identical figure kept at Lurgan may be later copy of 1). Rynne suggests ninth century, but I know no grounds for close dating. Ref:

Davies and Paterson 1940, 91 and pl. X.

2) Full-length granite figure, pugnacious stance. Oval face, round eyes, rectangular nose, hands very similar to 1). Main feature is radiating lines around face to shoulders. Described by Dr. Ross as ‘of Sol Invicta type’. Ref:

228

Ross 1967, 380, pls 91b and c; Rynne 1972, 80-2.

3) Granite head with distinctive, grooved, radiating hair and features (rounded eyes, mouth) very similar to 2). May be bearded. Ref:

to killing in midst of Trian Ard-Macha in 987. Trian Mor appears in A.U. 1009, Trian Saxan 1092, Trian Massain 1112. Annals suggest several streets in each: 1112 ‘two streets of Trian Massain and the third street of Trian Mor’ burned; 1121 ‘two streets of Trian Massain from the door of the Close to the Cross of Brigid’; 1166 trians not specified, but clearly several streets involved in fire. Hints in written sources have enabled Reeves and later workers to suggest whereabouts of trians.

Ross 1967, 115, pls 39a and b; Rynne 1972, 80-2.

4-6) Three stone bears, graded in size (I have seen only two), all granite. Largest has small animal head carved on recessed stone between front and back legs. Ross accepts nos 1 to 6 as pre-Christian ‘Celtic’ cult figures, and Rynne calls them ‘the only really closely-knit group in Ireland’ (1972, 80), but their date is problematic. Refs:

1) Trian Saxan. In Plantation sources ‘Abbey Street’ is ‘Bor-neTrian-Sassenach’, and Reeves suggests: ‘the region embraced by Upper English and Abbey Streets’ (1898, 212). Clear from A.U. Trian Massain extended to rath gate (see below), so perhaps Trian Saxan extended to meet it there, and if Scotch Street represents an early line (note position of Na Ferta on it), it may have divided Trian Saxan to north from Trian Massain to south.

Ross 1967, 349, pls 84a and b and 85a; Rynne 1972, 80-2 and p1. VII.

[491] 7) Head, popularly St. Patrick’s. Furrowed brow, almond-shaped baggy eyes, open mouth (slightly figureof-eight shape) with jagged teeth. Angle suggests originally set in masonry e.g. as corbel. Ross illustrates but admits ‘extremely difficult to date (1967, 116, p1. 40a). Rynne prefers Romanesque or slightly later date (op. cit. above, 94 note 15). Ref:

2) Trian Massain: A.U. 1121 suggests extended south from gate of rath to area of St. Brigid’s church, if cross was near church (discussed above). If Irish Street also represents an early radial road, trian may have stretched south and west to Irish Street.

Davies and Paterson 1940, 68, p1. Vb.

3) Trian Mor: position least clear from written sources. I would conjecture, with Reeves, ‘that this ward included Irish Street, Callan Street, and the western region of the town’ (op. cit. 212).

8) Full-length figure in high relief on two thick slabs of freestone (limestone?). Arms outstretched, clutching ends of long ears. Breasts suggest female but commentators not agreed on this. Eyebrows, loin cloth and roll under feet all treated similarly, as notched rolls. Porter (op. cit. below, 149) believed pre-Gothic, even pre-Romanesque: ‘While I can find no positive proof my impression is that the workmanship is that of the tenth or early eleventh century.’ Refs:

[493] Bartlett’s map shows street on line of present Scotch Street dividing two clusters of tenements. From cross a road is shown running north between two blocks of properties which I take to be approximately line of English Street, while enclosure runs northwest dividing hill and precinct to south from tenements and (probably) SS. Peter and Paul to north. South of Scotch Street line Bartlett’s enclosure runs south and southwest dividing Culdee church and St. Brigid’s from further house sites. No properties in Bartlett’s map identifiable with Trian Mor: he squeezes in Franciscan Friary on extreme left, and other buildings may be hidden by slope west of Cathedral Hill. Map shows no street corresponding to Irish Street, but clearly indicates Windmill Hill route west to Navan, and road north from west of cathedral dividing suggested Abbot’s House from SS. Peter and Paul, possibly on Dawson Street (formerly Abbey Lane) line.

Porter, A.K (1931), 142-50; Sexton 1946, 64; good photograph in Macliammóir, N., Ireland (1966), p1. 111 and p. 220 where ears taken to be a bow.

9 and 10) Heads of king and queen are later medieval. In Armagh Museum two other stone heads. One from Dawson Street has ridged radiating hair very similar to 2) and 3) and shorter ears than 8). Other from unknown provenance in city, massive, chipped with hollow in top of head. Illustrated by Rynne (op. cit. above, p1. XI no. 3) and taken to be among heads ‘to be most probably identifiable as pagan Celtic idols’ (91). Some of above stones probably found during nineteenth century restoration of cathedral, but circumstances not welldocumented.

Apart from churches and crosses in trians discussed above, annals give little detail. In 870 man killed before door of house of king of Tara, but no clue to whereabouts. When Na Ferta burned in 1090 one hundred houses nearby also consumed. Impression given of sizable settlement.

[492] Reeves complained that at time of restoration ‘many beautiful specimens, with ornaments peculiarly Irish, were carried away to England and kept there’ (1860, 53). Davies and Paterson (1940, 82) bemoaned dispersal of stones. Poor documentation and losses serve, unfortunately, only to increase confusion and uncertainty surrounding hill-top.

Refs:

Reeves loc., cit. above; Paterson 1952-3, 18-24.

x) EXCAVATED MATERIAL. Through the kindness of Cynthia Gaskell Brown and Alan Harper I am able to indicate the range of rich finds from 1968 Castle Street excavation in former gardens of Vicars Choral (see above under ‘Enclosure’). Area north of/ enclosed by, ditch

ix) EXTRA-MURAL SETTLEMENT. Distinguished clearly in annals as Trians (thirds) from ‘the Rath’ (see under ‘Enclosure’ above). Earliest reference is in A.F.M 229

found to be badly disturbed by intensive post-medieval use: gardening, drainage, rubbish and cess pits. Some late features contained early finds.

slag and cinder; all samples analysed were iron. Report on the excavation forthcoming. xi) BELLS. ‘Clog an Edachta’, ‘St. Patrick’s Bell’ or the ‘Bell of St. Patrick’s Will’, or the ‘Bell of the Testament’; A.U. 553: ‘Thus I find in the Book of Cuanu: the relics of Patrick were placed in a shrine, at the end of three score years after Patrick’s death, by Colum-cille. Three splendid minna were found in the tomb, namely, his goblet, and the Angel’s Gospel, and the Bell of the Testament.’ Relics distributed, goblet to Down, bell to Armagh, and gospel to Columba. Was clearly one of Armagh’s most precious relics and profaning was serious offence: e.g. 1044, 1200 cows and many prisoners carried off by king of Ailech ‘in revenge for the profanation of the ‘clocc-ind-edechta’’.

[494] Other features taken to be early because of absence of late finds. Both coins found in disturbed contexts: widely separated in time - silver penny of Sihtric III of Dublin (995 ± 2); and a groat of Henry VIII. One concentration of stake holes and gulley possibly wattle wall with drip-trench. Finds in ditch increased in richness west-wards and hollow north of lip of ditch here may have been for some industrial activity. Otherwise pits and a few post holes, but no distinctive plans. Range of material: 1) Stone. Sandstone mould for casting bar ingots of rectangular and triangular section, also for small circular ladles (lamps?) with rectangular bar handles. Mortars, whetstones and three worked flints.

Reeves traced history of keepers in detail: first O’Maelchallan family (see inscription below), by midfourteenth century O’Mellan family in east Tyrone, later Mulhallan (Mullholland) family in Ballyscullion parish (see Church Island, Co. Londonderry), by late eighteenth century in Co. Antrim (Edenduffcarrick), finally to Adam McClean and to R.I.A. collection.

2) Bone. Antler knife handles, four decorated (circles, triangles, swastika and cross-batching). Large quantity of animal bone, including cattle, pig and deer. 3) Iron. Knife-blades, shears, spikes, staples, sheet and nails.

[496] Bell and shrine now in N.M.D., nos R 4010 and R4011. Simple iron bell, ‘of the normal early, rectangular, lay cow-bell type’ (Raftery, 1941, 156), 6 ins high, handle 1 ½ ins high, 5 ins across mouth. Of two iron sheets, one forming front, top and upper part of back, other lower back, fastened with three rivets at sides and two at back. Handle rectangular section. Bell dipped in bronze. Shrine very impressive, elaborate and often described, so little detail here. Long uncial inscription:

4) Bronze. Disc-headed pin with perforation and fine decoration of affronted birds at junction of disc and shaft. Eighth-century date suggested. Cast bronze Y-shaped fitting, high quality but unknown purpose. Strap-end, pin, awl, stylus (?), sheet, strip, wire. Also materials for bronze working (see below). 5) Silver: coins (see above).

‘OR DO DOMNALL U LACHLAIND LAS IN DERNAD IN CLOCSA OCUS DO DOMNALL CHOMARBA PHATRAIC ICON DERNAD OCUS DOD CHATHALAN U MAELCHALLAND DO MAER IN CHLUIC OCUS DO CHONDULIG U INMAINEN CONA MACCAIB ROCUMTAIG’

6) Enamel and Glass. Two sticks of enamel (yellow and grey) and one of glass (blue). Base fragment of green glass beaker with marvered opaque white trails, of German origin, either fifth-sixth or seventh/eighthcentury. 7) Jet and Lignite. Waste products from lignite manufacture: discs from lathe-turned bracelets, and unfinished pieces. Jet armlet.

‘Pray for Domnal Ó Lachlaind who caused this bell to be made, and for Domnall successor of Patrick in whose house it was made, and for Cathalán Ó Máelchalland steward of the bell, and for Cúduilig Ó Inmainen and his sons who enriched it.’ (following Henry 1970, 94-5)

8) Trial Pieces. Eight slate, one stone, all simple and rough. Most distinctive features swastika and triple knot. Some very rough interlace and many haphazard scorings.

This can be safely dated between 1091 and 1105 by inscription. Box of bronze sheets, with joints covered by rounded bindings. Main feature of decoration openwork panels. Front: cruciform design with originally eight oval settings at corners and mid-points of frame and two more recent large quartz settings. Though some panels missing, front originally covered with panels of varied interlace, some in fine filigree, some coarse. Back: openwork silver plate with fretwork pattern of ‘T’ and ‘+’ openings, and inscription all round edge. Sides fine zoomorphic interlace in bold relief. Circular panels at handle with finer interlace, and chip-carving on handle attachments. High, elaborately decorated crest (handle cover) with

[495] 9) Pottery. Two E-ware sherds, one associated with bronze-working debris. One problematic red glazed sherd, uncertain date and form. A few sherds of souterrain ware. 10) Materials from industrial processes. Two-leaf clay moulds for casting high quality decorated bronzes. Sherds from at least sixty-four crucibles mostly pyramidal with triangular mouth and pointed or rounded base. A few flatbased crucibles and one bag-shaped. Traces of bronze and glass. Fabric-impressed pieces of large crucibles for copper or bronze melting. Tuyères of vitrified clay. Tap230

zoomorphic openwork interlace and two affronted birds enmeshed in spirals. Much studied. Refs:

of preservation. Dating difficult: Waterer (op. cit. below) inclines to eleventh or twelfth century but others, including Rynne, believe later.

Reeves, W., ‘Five Chromo-Lithographic Drawings Representing an Irish Ecclesiastical Bell’ (1849), also 1847, 369-75 and 1877, passim: Coffey 1909, 47-9, fig. 51 and pls IX-X; Stokes, M., 1928, 49-50, fig. 18; Crawford 1923, 1578; Mahr 1932, pls 78-80; Raftery 1941, 156; Henry 1970, chap. 4 and pls 22-4 and 27. For bell usually called ‘Bell of Armagh’ see TERRYHOOGAN (no. 80, below). I know no reason to identify bell called ‘Patrick’s Finnfaidhech’ (i.e. ‘sweet-sounding’) with either of above bells. It may have been another bell with Armagh connections, but I have come across it only in annals, e.g. A.U. 947 when ‘The full of Patrick’s Finnfaidhech of white silver [was given] by the Cinel Eoghain to Patrick’, and its profanation avenged in 1013.

Other products of Armagh scriptorium include ‘Book of Mac Durnan’ probably late ninth century and two gospel books in B. M. Harley collection, probably first half twelfth century. [499] Clear from annals as well as products Armagh long, distinguished scholarly tradition. A.U. reports obits of scribes in 725 and 732 and many ninth-century references to scribes. Only one reference after 936, but lector (‘fer legin’) appears, and clearly still active scholarly tradition. 1162 Synod of Cloenad (Clane) decreed every lector of an Irish church to be alumnus of Armagh. Trian Saxan believed named after English students resident in city.

[497] xii) CROSIER, called ‘Bachall Iosa’. ‘This was the most venerated shrine In Ireland’ (Crawford 1923, 164). Does not appear in earliest Patrician sources, but in ‘T.L.P.’ used against pagan idol and for marking out monastic enclosure (Stokes 1887, 91 and 237). Notes on Fíacc’s ‘Hymn’ refer to Tassach: ‘He is the first that made a case for Jesu’s Staff’ and suggest origin of staff on island in Tyrrhene Sea (ibid. 425 and 421). Crawford found eighteen references to staff in A.F.M between 784 and 1166. Reference in A.U. 789 to ‘dishonouring of Bachall-Isu and Patrick’s relics’ and frequent references thereafter. Used for swearing, for battle and peacemaking (Hughes 1966, 244-5), and dishonouring was serious offence. Taken to Christchurch Dublin in 1180 and burned by Saxons (English) in 1538 so irretrievably lost.

Refs:

Reeves 1891, passim; Crawford 1923, 152; Kenney 1929, 337-8; Raftery 1941, pls 84-5; Hughes 1958; Henry 1967, chap. 3, especially 99-105 and 1970, chap. 3, especially 626; Waterer, J.W., ‘Irish Book-Satchels or Budgets’ in Med. Arch 12 (1968), 70-82.

xiv) OTHER RELICS. Written sources mention several other relics, clearly very important, but none survive and little known about them. ‘Liber Angeli’: Armagh ‘ought to be venerated for the honour of the great martyrs, Peter and Paul, Stephen, Laurence and the rest’, and further ‘there is by a secret dispensation [a relic of] the most holy blood of Jesus Christ ... in a sacred linen cloth, together with relics of the saints In the south church, where rest along with Patrick the bodies or holy pilgrims who came from afar, and of other just men from overseas’ (Hughes 1966, 278). A.U. 734 ‘transposition [enshrining?] of the relics of Peter, and Paul, and Patrick, to fulfil the Law’. In 1033 shrine of SS. Peter and Paul dropped blood on Patrick’s altar in Armagh. Many general references in annals to relics: e.g. abbot captured by Vikings with reliquaries in 845 and prisoner freed in stone church with relics and staff of Jesus in 1101.

xiii) BOOK SHRINE and CASE. ‘Book of Armagh’ and leather case in T.C.D. library. Book closely datable from colophon to 807. ‘The most important historical manuscript of Ireland prior to the twelfth century’ (Kenney 1929, 337). [498] Main contents Patrician texts, New Testament and ‘Life of Martin of Tours’. A.F.M 939: ‘Canoin-Phadraig was covered by Donnchadh, son of Flann, king of Ireland’, but shrine does not survive. Brian Boru wrote confirmation of privileges of Armagh in book in 1005, Used like other relics for swearing: 1196 pledging on three shrines and Canon of Patrick in south church. Hereditary Keepers; Maor na Canóine family MacMaoir, MacMoyre (see Ballymyre below). Reeves puts keeper’s Armagh tenement ‘near the foot of Abbey Street’ but gives no source (1898, 212). MacMoyre family first appears 1367 in Armagh registers. Book pledged and never recovered by last keeper in 1680. Leather satchel or budget for book, also T.C.D. Externally 12 ½ ins long by 10 ½ ins deep and 2 ¼ ins wide with flap 7 ⅝ ins deep. Seems designed to contain larger book than ‘Book of Armagh’. Single piece of leather with stitching of thongs or gut. Originally simple fastening by lacing through four pairs of holes on flap and body beneath, but clumsy later locking device added. Elaborate, crowded tooled decoration. Relief especially high on flap. Main decorative elements interlace, knots and animals, and most striking feature of composition is roundels with interlacing frames. Remarkably complete and in fine state

Ref:

Sheehy 1961, 372-6

[500] xv) WELLS. ‘Liber Angeli’ begins: ‘Once, therefore, St. Patrick went forth from the city Altum Mache to baptize, teach, and heal multitudes of both sexes of the human race beside the spring which is close to the eastern part of the aforesaid city’ (Hughes 1966, 276). Neither of recorded holy wells corresponds closely to this location, though O.S. marks St. Brigid’s Well east of ruined Franciscan friary on southeast edge of town at H/878447. I have discovered nothing further about this well. Better known is St. Patrick’s Well Legarhill townland at H/863451, just west of Callan River and bridge. Visited on 29 June, eve of festival of SS. Peter and Paul (Paterson 1948, 127-30). Refs:

231

Coote 1804; Stuart 1819 and 1900; Reeves 1860; Kenney 1929, especially 319-50; Paterson and Davies 1940; Camblin 1951; Hayes-McCoy 1964, 5-6 and pl. III; Henry 1965, 1967 and 1970; Hughes 1966; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, especially 29, 59-60, 157, 312-3.

54.

BALLYMORE parish, subdivision Ballynaback in Aughlish townland. O.S. 14; J/056441.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Unknown whether ruined seventeenth-century church and modern parish church occupy earliest site. Lewis (1837, I, 154) reported ‘… the ancient cemetery may still be traced in the demesne of Ballymoyer Lodge’, but his account otherwise so garbled it does not inspire confidence. No early cemetery mentioned by Shaw Mason (1816, 30).

‘Lommán and Colmán from Tamlachta Glíadh’ at 4 February in M.T., also M.G. and M.D. Medieval parish, listed in 1306 Taxation as ‘Thamclache Dalig’. Several references in archbishops’ registers, and known by several names including ‘Tamlactglid’ (Sweteman 1367), and ‘Myntereny and Tamlaghlege’ (Fleming 1454). Patron in medieval and post-medieval times Ciarán. Amongst possessions of Armagh Culdees in 1367, and rectory held by Culdees in early seventeenth century (Mounterheney or Townatalee Reeves 1864, 100 and Scott 1896, 246-7). Erenaghs were family Munterheny.

SITE: general area is wooded valley, under 500 ft. Leslie 1911, 139-140 follows Lewis in identifying Ballymyre with Tahellen (Co. Monaghan); Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 374 refer only to this misidentification and produce no other evidence for an early site here. Refs:

[501] SITE (Fig. 29c): oval graveyard, long axis northeast-southwest, about 270 ft by 150 ft, slight hillock on valley floor close to south of stream under 100 ft. Uncertain whether Ballynaback graveyard is earliest church site; there is a townland Shaneglish in the parish. Lewis (1837, I, 152) recorded ‘there are some very slight remains of the ancient church’, and church also mentioned in 1835 O.S. Notes, but hardly traceable now amongst dense burials.

Reeves 1861, passim; Kenney 1929, 337-9.

[502] 56. Carrickcroppan townland, Killevy parish. O.S. 26; J/ 034282. I have come across no ecclesiastical traditions here, either early or penal. SITE: at about 400 ft in broken, stony country, close to small rocky outcrop and overlooking stream in valley to north. O.S. marks path nearby running northeast towards Bessbrook (see Maghernahely, below). MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED BOULDER in field bank (Pl. 21a and Fig. 34e). Large roughly rectangular granite boulder, at least 2 ft 6 ins high by 2 ft 10 ins and 1 ft 10 ins thick (edges obscured). Face to north has very deeply cut cross (to maximum depth of 1 ¾ ins), with diamond-shaped expansion at centre. Ends of limbs die out at edges of boulder. Stone resorted to for prayer; always several gifts on its upper surface (visible in Pl. 21).

FIG. 29C: LOCATION OF BALLYMORE.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 138-9; Paterson Ms. notes; Arthurs 1957 on place-names. See also TERRYHOOGAN, below.

55.

Ballymyre (otherwise Ballymoyer) parish and townland. O.S. 21; H/ 964307(?).

Early history and patron unknown. Name derived from keeper (‘maor’) of ‘Book of Armagh’ (see under Armagh, above), family MacMoyre, first mentioned in ‘Sweteman’s Register’, 1367. 1609 Inquisition found this family had held eight townlands here from time out of mind. Nature and site of earliest ecclesiastical establishment uncertain.

PLATE 21A: CARRICKCROPPAN - CROSS-CARVED BOULDER

232

58.

CLOGHINNY townland, now Forkhill parish (formerly Killevy). O.S. 28; J/ 027177

SITE (Fig. 29b): just under 400ft it on lower slopes of Slieve Gullion, close to present limit of cultivation; south-facing.

FIG. 34E: CARRICKCROPPAN - CROSS-CARVED BOULDER

Unpublished and not marked by O.S. 57.

Cashel townland, Lisnadill parish. O.S. 16; H/ 904367.

Cashel, diameter about 130 ft. Wall intact in lowest courses, but field stones piled above, 5 to 6 ft thick. Interior now featureless, but P.S. 1940, 71 reports ‘It contains a souterrain, now closed.’ Outside and against north wall lies a ‘wishing stone’, probably a fallen pillar stone (said to mark the burial place of an ancient king, ibid.), 5 ft 10 ins long, 1 ft 6 ins wide and 1 ft 10 ins thick, un-worked except face to south which seems smoothed. Reeves, in 1879 Ms. Notes, records: ‘There is an inscribed stone there.’ Is this the fallen stone? No inscription is visible, but there is no other likely candidate. FIG. 29B: LOCATION OF CLOGHINNY.

SITE: very fine hill-top, about 800 ft, with steep drop to east and very extensive views.

MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED BOULDER (Pl. 21b and Fig. 34c).Three massive granite boulders in rough pasture field. Cross-carved stone is about 9 ft long (northeast-southwest), 4 ft 6 ins wide (southeastnorthwest), at least 6 ft high, with crosses on flattish northwest face, near north end.

[503] MATERIAL: large amber BEAD found in or near ‘Relig-an-chaisill’: N.M.D. 131-1906. No features now visible suggest church site, but site still known as the Relig, formerly used as children’s burial ground, and Reeves in 1879 notes listed this as a church site. Refs:

Crosses: 1) to left, linear Latin cross, 1 ft 5 ins high, 1 ft across arms, with circle around crossing, ends of arms and top of shaft crossleted, and base of shaft possibly forked (unclear). Lines ½ to ¾ in. wide, shallow, probably pecked. 2) to right, small linear Latin cross with ends of limbs slightly expanded but no other elaboration. Cross 7 ins high by 4½ ins across arms; limbs ½ in. wide and very shallow. Less careful workmanship than 1). Excellent light conditions needed to see these crosses (especially 2) at all clearly.

Reeves 1879 Ms. Notes; Paterson Ms. Notes; P.S. 1940, 71.

(Castrum O’Hanlon parish see Loughgilly.) (Clancarney see Kilcluney.) (Clanconchie see Lisnadill.)

233

Another church site reported at Killyloughran (not a townland) between Creggan and Crossamaglen, but I was unable to locate this (Appendix B). Refs:

Leslie 1911, 206-7; Murray, L.P., ‘The History of the Parish of Creggan in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’ in L.A.J 8 (1934), 117-35, especially 130-1.

(Derrybrochisse, see Killyman.) 60.

DERRYNOOSE parish, Listarkelt townland. O.S. 19; H/ 793322.

Patron Mochua: ‘My Chua [glossed] of Tech Mochua in Leix of Leinster, and of Daire Mis in Slíab Fuait’ at 24 December in M.O., also in M.T., M.G., and M.D., but in these associated only with Timahoe, not Derrynoose. Died mid-seventh century (Kenney 1929, 456).

PLATE 21B: CLOGHINNY - CROSS-CARVED BOULDER.

[505] ‘Life of Mochua’ (Plummer 1910, II, 184-9) refers to saint building church in mountainous, thinly populated district at ‘Dayrinnys’ (p. 189). Early history otherwise obscure. Medieval parish; rectory belonged to Armagh Culdees. Listed in 1306 Taxation as ‘Dirmissce’. Several references to church and parish in archbishops’ registers: 1426 aid sought for repairs to ‘St. Monthue’s church, Darryinis’ and erenagh mentioned 1429 (Chart 1935, 434). Ruin of probably seventeenth-century church in large, neglected graveyard, thought to be ancient site. SITE: Just over 500 ft, commanding hilltop, with steep slopes to north and east. MATERIAL: no early material now except enclosure, but reports of some. i) ENCLOSURE. Present graveyard seems to occupy rath, roughly circular, about 150 ft diameter, surrounded by embanked hedge, in parts stone-faced, with wet ditch outside. Interior considerably raised above surrounding level.

FIG. 34C: CLOGHINNY - CROSS-CARVED BOULDER.

[504] Field downhill to southeast known as ‘Shankill’ and reported to contain a SOUTERRAIN with entrance in northeast corner of field. Unpublished and not marked by O.S. (Clonaul see EGLISH.) 59.

ii) CROSSES. Arthurs (1954, 36) records tradition: ‘there were seven crosses on the hill beyond the old church’ (Mullach gCrose) where stations formerly held. None survive.

Creggan parish and townland. O.S. 31; H/ 932159.

Patron and early history unknown. Medieval parish, connected with Armagh Culdees by early seventeenth century (Reeves 1898, 216 and Scott 1896, 246-7). Uncertain whether present parish church on early site but present church reported by Donaldson (1923, 83) built over earlier structure. Creggan used as refuge after Franciscans expelled from Armagh in early seventeenth century.

iii) STONE. St. Mo Chua’s cursing stone kept in 1920s in graveyard. Buried to discourage superstitious practices associated with it. Uncertain whether flat or with ‘knee-tracks’ (i.e. a bullaun). No description or illustration known (Arthurs 1954, 35). iv) WELL. Still frequented, at foot of hill to north (in Drummeland townland). Sometimes called St. Malachy’s, but properly St. Mochua’s.

SITE: valley, about 350 ft, high above and close to east of Creggan River.

Refs:

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

234

Reeves 1864, 101-2 and 1900, 210; Leslie 1911, 217-8; P.S. 1940, 71; Arthurs 1954, excellent discussion of written sources, place-name evidence, and local traditions; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 379.

[506] 61. DRUMCONWELL townland, Lisnadill (formerly Clanconchie) parish. O.S. 16; area of H/ 8740.

62.

Drumcree parish and townland. O.S. 9; HJ/ 000558.

Early history unknown. Medieval parish; vicarage held by Armagh Culdees. Medieval dedication to Columba (‘De Annatis Hiberniae’ 1508). Modern church and graveyard thought to be on early site.

Exact site not located or visited. Reported by Reeves to be highest point of north-south ridge, known as ‘Graveyard Field’ - ‘long divested, through tillage, of all cemeterial appearance’ (op. cit. below, 368).

SITE: hill slope, at about 100 ft, with steep slopes to south and east, one mile west of river Bann.

MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED OGAM STONE (Pl. 23b and Fig. 34d). Irregularly shaped stone, about 4 ft 6 ins high, 1 ft 3 ins wide and 7 ins to 1 ft 9 ins thick. At top of flat face lightly-pecked linear cross in circle (damaged), cross stem extending outside circle. Pecked and rubbed ogam on two edges, read by Macalister as ‘DINEGLO MAQI QETAIS’. Found 1879 and put in vestibule of Primate Robinson’s Library, Armagh, where it is still.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. BELL reported found ‘some years since’ in Drumcree graveyard by Lewis (1837, I, 514) may be the bell from Terryhoogan, not a different one (Paterson Ms. Notes Discussed further under TERRYHOOGAN (q.v.). Refs:

Reeves 1864, 103, on Culdee connection; Leslie 1911, 2667.

[507] 63. EGLISH parish and townland, formerly Clonaul parish (from area name Cluain Dabhail) O.S. 7; H/ 806502. Early history and patron of site unknown, but crosses suggest early use. Navan fort in this parish. Ruined eighteenth-century church at north end of large, neglected graveyard. Graveyard elongated oval, about 250 ft northsouth by 140 ft east-west. Surface very uneven: might repay detailed planning, and excavation practicable (because disused) though graves will have done much damage. SITE (Fig. 29e): commanding hilltop, about 250 ft.

PLATE 23B: DRUMCONWELL - OGAM STONE.

FIG. 34D: DRUMCONWELL - CROSS-CARVED STONE. Refs:

Reeves 1879 Ms. notes and J.R.S.A.I 16 (1883-4), 367-70 (with drawing by Wakeman on p. 369); Crawford 1916, 163, no. 2; Macalister 1945, 298-9, no. 311, fig. on p. 299.

FIG. 29E: LOCATION OF EGLISH.

235

MATERIAL: parts of two carved CROSSES: 1) North Cross (Pl. 22). Head, set directly on base, about 90 ft south of west gable of ruined church. Possibly reset as gravemarker. Both parts sandstone. Base is simple truncated pyramid with no steps, mouldings or decoration. 2 ft 5 ins by 1 ft 11 ins at base, 1 ft 10 ins by 1 ft 2½ ins at top and at least 1 ft 6 ins high. Head: main faces now set north and south instead of east and west. Weathered, much lichen, and ends of limbs broken off except present ‘head’. Present rather unpleasing outline result of damage. Reeves failed to point this out, and Wakeman’s drawing was misleading as it suggested head was intact (Reeves 1883-4, 425-6 and fig. on p. 426). Ringed head, with surface of ring slightly sunk below plane of arms. Stone within ring un-pierced but deeply recessed. Head has edge roll moulding with inner small fillet. This inner fillet present on top of present ‘head’, suggesting this formerly an arm. PLATE 22A: EGLISH - NORTH CROSS - SOUTH FACE

[508] North face large central boss defined by raised moulding. Boss decorated with all-over fine interlace, but detail difficult to see.

2) South Cross (Pl. 23a). About 50 ft south of North Cross. Part of head only, lying loose in graveyard on my visit, but subsequently cemented in place. Red sandstone. General form and mouldings as North Cross. Arms short and stumpy. Stump of tenon on head, about 1 in. high, which must have held cap or finial. No decoration except mouldings. On both surfaces hollow at crossing: one side diameter 4½ to 5 ins, and 1½ ins deep, markedly offcentre; other side diameter 6 ins, 2½ ins deep and more nearly central. I doubt whether these hollows are part of the original design. Head measures 2 ft 6½ ins across arms, arms 11 ins wide, top 12 ins wide, and 8 ins thick. Found by T.G.F. Paterson and first mentioned in P.S. 1940, 62; Roe 1955, 111 and pl. V shows both sides.

PLATE 22B: EGLISH - NORTH CROSS – NORTH FACE.

South face: circular moulding enclosing design of nine bosses with linking lines. Discs on inner circumference of ring with traces of decoration: slight hollow visible in centre of circle. Main dimensions: surviving height 2 ft 5 ins, width 1 ft 11 ins across arms, and 8½ ins thick. Width of top member, which survives intact 11½ ins. Refs:

PLATE 23A: EGLISH - SOUTH CROSS.

Reeves op. cit. (Wakeman’s drawing on p. 426 is inadequate and in some respects wrong); Roe 1955, 111 and pls III (lower) - IV.

Refs:

236

Leslie 1911, 163-5; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 383 include on basis of crosses; no historical references.

In Eglish parish is townland Tamlaght. O.S 11-12. No site marked by O.S. or reported in any source, but may be area mentioned in ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes 1887, 232-3):

[510] Site of church in small, circular graveyard. No buildings visible, but Rogers (1861, 51) records elderly inhabitant’s story that walls 7 ft high removed within memory and stones re-used. Rogers continued: ‘An excavation was lately made, and a portion of a wellfitting pavement was uncovered about 5 ft below the present surface.’ Burials prevented further work. Excavation might be possible: graves do not seem dense and graveyard long disused.

[509] ‘She is Ercnat, Dáre’s daighter, who is in Tamlachta Bó’. Reeves suggests this identification (1860, 12). Glancy suggests may be ‘Tamnach Buada’ of M.T. and M.G. at 21 July (1959, 365), but there are other possible identifications. No site or material known. 64

KILCLUNEY parish, O.S. graveyard, Kilbracks townland. O.S. 17; H/ 966376.

Kilclooney

SITE (Fig. 29c): commanding hill slope, under 400 ft, close to east of Lowry’s Lough. NO CERTAINLY EARLY MATERIAL, but ENCLOSURE may be early. Somewhat oval, about 100 ft north-south by 120 ft east-west. Low bank, standing to maximum height of 4 ft 6 ins above surrounding level.

Reeves in Ms. Notes (‘Parochialia’, Armagh Public Library) and MacDermott 1956 identify parish with ‘Garthfyding’ of 1306 Taxation. MacDermott identifies with ‘Kilcolman’ of 1608 Armagh Survey, and suggests patron was Colmán, abbot, son of Coirtchidh at 18 October in M.T., M.G., and M.D. Postulates early population group, Moccu Coirtgidh, later eclipsed by Uí Niallaín group, Clann Cearnaigh, which gives parish alternative name of Clancarney.

Where disturbed, bank of earth and small stones visible, with some larger stones in outer face. Gap to west with much loose stone nearby. Ditch visible in places outside bank, especially to south.

Large, very overgrown graveyard, thought to be an early site. SITE: hilltop, over 300 ft, in hilly surroundings.

Leslie 1911, 163-5; MacDermott (ii) 1956, passim.

65.

Kildarton now parish (formerly Armagh), Tirnascobe townland. O.S. 12; H/ 914448.

Rogers 1861, 51-2; Leslie 1911, 321; Glancy, M., in S.A. 2 no. 1 (1956), 78.

66.

KILLEVY parish, Ballintemple townland. O.S. 29; J/040220.

‘Cell-Sléibhe-Cuilinn’, named from Slieve Gullion, ‘one of the more important monasteries for nuns in early medieval Ireland’ (Kenney 1929, 366), and one of the best-documented sites in Ulster. Founder and patron Darerca, known also as Monnena and (locally) Bline. ‘Monnine of the Mountain’, glossed ‘Monnine of Slíab Cuillinn who was previously named Darerca’, at 6 July in M.O., also in M.T., M.G. and M.D. Died 517 or 519 (A.U.).

NO EARLY MATERIAL, but WELL near graveyard, traditionally associated with ‘St. Loona’, now filled in (Paterson 1948, 128) Refs:

Refs:

Patron and history unknown; Dartinne at 3 July in M.T. seems from Leinster. Uncertain whether pre-Norman church site, Position east of Armagh has suggested identification with Coll nan-Ingen or Cengoba (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 233 and Appendix B), but identification not certain.

[511] ‘Life’ by Conchubranus, written probably in eleventh century, incorporates early material, certainly pre-ninth century, possibly as early as first half of seventh. Hymns in honour of Monnena probably composed in seventh or eighth century, and list of her successors probably compiled in first half of ninth century. Kenney 1929, 366-371, gives details of sources. 923 (A.U.): ‘plundering of Cill-sleíbhe by Gentiles from Snamhaignech [Carlingford Lough], and Dubhlitir, priest of Ard-Macha suffered martyrdom by them.’ Uncertain whether succession broken during Viking period. Next reference to abbess is obit in 1077 (A.U.). Great wind which damaged Derry killed people at Killevy 1146 (A.F.M.). House continued as nunnery throughout Middle Ages. Classed as convent of Augustinian nuns at dissolution in 1542. Uncertain when house became Augustinian. Not documented, but by analogy with elsewhere twelfth century seems likely. Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 321, discuss history to dissolution. 1609 Escheated Counties

FIG. 29C: LOCATION OF KILDARTON.

237

map shows church and detached round tower, both roofed. Ruined churches now in crowded graveyard. Site intensively used over very long period.

rather small stones, many spalls, and much mortar (mostly re-pointing).

SITE (Fig. 29b): over 500 ft, on east-facing lower slopes of Slieve Gullion. Excavation impracticable in graveyard, but possible inside churches and in surrounding area, especially field across road to northeast (see below for ‘cave’ and ‘fort’).

PLATE 24A: KILLEVY - WEST CHURCH – WEST DOOR (EXTERNAL).

Dressed granite quoins survive lower part of northwest angle and southwest angle. North wall seems largely rebuilt, and at northeast angle continuous with wall running east to East Church. No quoins visible. South wall ruined low, much obscured by graves, and interrupted by low, lintelled gap, probably late. Small rectangular cavity, 1 ft 3 ins deep, interior of east wall on either side of east window. This is round-headed internally and externally (P1. 26), the head formed from individual red sandstone voussoirs (10 inside, 5 outside). Jambs of dressed granite, edges rather eroded, but sides seem slightly inward-sloping. Externally jambs and voussoirs cut back around window opening. Sill damaged externally, but no sign of any moulding. West wall very irregular. Door (Pl. 24) massive and impressive, but on close inspection shows certain peculiarities. Huge granite lintel. Quoins of north jamb fit well but lowest set back behind line of upper two.

FIG. 29B: LOCATION OF KILLEVY.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE. Early editions of O.S. six inch map mark ‘fort’ in field northeast of graveyard. Nothing now visible, and I have not been able to discover anything more about it. No sign on R.A.F. vertical air photograph (sortie 540/736, 17 May 1952). Unknown whether this was secular farmstead or connected in some way with monastery. No other enclosure visible in the vicinity. [512] ii) CHURCHES. Two churches aligned in a row east-west, originally separated by space of about 33 ft, now joined by continuous walling. West Church (Pls 24 and 26 and Fig. 31). Externally 46 ft 8 ins by 27 ft 2 ins with walls about 2 ft 8 ins thick. General appearance very rough but setting-out very precise, except for west wall. Lord Dunraven commented, from his vast experience, ‘The whole building is as rude as any I have ever seen’ (1875, 109). Masonry very rough and difficult to categorise. Some large polygonal stones, especially in lower east wall, and many rounded boulders interior west wall, but generally

PLATE 24B: KILLEVY - WEST CHURCH – WEST DOOR (INTERNAL).

238

[513] Quoins of south jamb irregular size and uncharacteristic use of spalls to fill gaps. Internally lintel cut back but not all jambs correspond, and several puzzling stone projections. Door clearly not in original state, though may be in original position with west wall reconstructed, perhaps twice, around it.

PLATE 25A: KILLEVY - EAST CHURCH- NORTH WALL.

FIG. 31: KILLEVY - CHURCH PLAN.

Stones of south wall not so large; masonry very rough. Window in east wall clearly late medieval, perhaps fifteenth-century, not obviously inserted. Sills of two narrow, splayed windows in ruined south wall. Outside of east and south walls very marked base batter. Door oddly sited towards east end of north wall. Massive dressed granite quoins, cut back inside probably to hold door case. Short granite lintel outside only just covers jambs and fits very uncomfortably (Pl. 25). Separate lintels inside. Both churches further discussed above, pp 135-6.

PLATE 26A: KILLEVY - WEST CHURCH – EAST WINDOW (EXTERNAL).

PLATE 26B: KILLEVY - WEST CHURCH- EAST WINDOW (INTERNAL). PLATE 25B: KILLEVY - EAST CHURCH- NORTH DOOR.

East Church (Pl. 25 and Fig. 31). iii) ROUND TOWER. ‘Newry Telegraph’ dated 13 March 1866, includes information about the tower: ‘A round tower existed here within the last century. It was attached to the side wall at the South side, near the SouthWest angle, where the stones of which it was built form a large heap. Some of the old people in the neighbourhood have an Irish poem descriptive of its fall.’

Internally about 35 ft by 22 ft. South wall 3 ft 6 ins wide, north about 3 ft. West wall missing; excavation might reveal its line and (perhaps) a west door. Masonry varied. Large polygonal stones lower parts of north and east walls; upper parts generally smaller stones and some attempt at coursing with pinnings to level up courses. 239

[514] This article reprinted in ‘Ulster Gazette’ published Armagh 24 March 1866, and Reeves copied it into his Ms. Notes, with English translation of the Irish ‘Elegy of Killevy Bell-tower’ by Labhras Bacach OCeallach, harper and historiographer to Captain Redmond O’Hanlon and Marmaduke O’Hanlon who lived about 90 years previously. (Reeve’s note undated.): ‘O steeple of Killevy/ My grief to have thee down./ If the two Redmonds were living,/ Thy top would not be broken.’ O’Kane (1955, 11) reports tower blown down by a gale in 1768. Authority for date not given. Some doubt whether tower attached or freestanding (as shown in conventionalised drawing on 1609 Map). Area near southwest corner of church now much obstructed by two large grave enclosures, and site of tower probably badly disturbed by graves. iv) ST. MONENNA’S GRAVE. Traditional site of grave north of east-end of West Church, 10 ft south of graveyard wall. Large, featureless granite slab, roughly rectangular, 6 ft east-west, by 4 ft 6 ins north-south, and at least 7 ins thick. v) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 27 and Fig. 34b). Not in situ. Kept (loose) against outside of east wall of West Church. Neatly dressed trapezoidal granite slab, 14 ft 5½ ins high, 1 ft 14 ins to 11 ins wide and 1. ft 1 in. to 11 ins thick. Equal-armed cross in circle, with base and top of stem projecting beyond circle. Very low relief, probably pecked, now weathered. Upper surface of stone, at 90º to main decorated face, measures 1 ft 5 ins by 1 ft 2 ins; on it a small roughly equal-armed cross with ends of arms slightly expanded, measuring 4 ins across.

FIG. 34B: KILLEVY - CROSS-CARVED STONE – FACE AND TOP.

Well-worked, quite deeply cut (about ⅓ in.), tending to V-section. [515] Technique different from main cross, but work not markedly inferior. Davies 1938, 85 no. 5, gives very poor schematic drawing of stone when it was partly buried and suggested it was a key-stone. Smaller cross noted but not drawn by Davies.

PLATE 133A: LATE STONE CROSS AT KILLEVY.

vi) SOUTERRAIN. First and second edition O.S. six inch maps show ‘cave’ in southwest angle of field across road northeast of graveyard. ‘Newry Telegraph’ in article cited above, records: ‘A cave, through which a man can pass on hands and knees, runs from the churchyard, under the public road, some distance into the field beyond, It is

PLATE 27: KILLEVY - CROSS CARVED STONE – FACE AND TOP (INSET).

240

formed of large stones roughly pieced together, and is believed by the peasants to lead up into the mountain ...’

Long disused, neglected graveyard, densely overgrown. SITE: about 100 ft, hilltop, overlooking plain to south. Topography much altered recently by motorway construction. Excavation impossible, but thorough clearance might be rewarding.

vii) WELL. Outside graveyard to southwest., at about 700 ft, about 600 yds away up the mountain side. Known as St. Bline’s Well, and visited especially on Sunday nearest 6 July (St. Monnena’s festival). Ref:

[517] MATERIAL: i) ?ENCLOSURE. Graveyard is walled and circular, about 150 ft diameter.

Paterson 1948, 129.

viii) QUERN of pink granite in West Church under east window. Diameter 1 ft 7 ins, of hole 2¼ ins, and 3 ins thick. Upper surface convex, underside slightly concave with raised moulding around hole (here only 1 in. diameter).

ii) CROSS. Large stone cross reported in 1703 (Ashe Ms. ‘Survey of the Lands of the Archbishopric’, in Cathedral Archives). No sign now, and Mr. Paterson told me he had looked for it many times without success.

(Small granite cross (Pl. 133a) set up against outside east wall of West Church. 4 ft high, shaft 10 to 12 ins wide, 1 ft 10 ins across arms 5 to 6 ins thick. Shaft thins from base towards top. Short straight arms. Base rough where formerly set in ground. Inscription across arms, difficult to read, but seems eighteenth-century (1740?). Not an early cross shape: cross and inscription may be contemporary.

iii) QUERN fragment lying loose near southwest part of enclosure wall.

Font probably medieval, in lintelled gap, probably late door, south side of West Church. Granite, seven-sided. Diameter 1 ft 7 ins, 1 ft 4½ ins high and 5 ins deep.) Refs:

Leslie 1911, 339-40; Coffey, H.W., ‘A History of Milltown Parish’ (pamphlet 1950); Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 393; Paterson Ms. Notes in Armagh Museum.

69.

KILMORE parish and townland. O.S. 9; H/942511.

Many churches called ‘Cill Mor’ appear in early written sources, and it is often difficult to identify sites with certainty. Three different Kilmore epithets have been linked with this site – ‘Cill mor Aedhan’; ‘Cill mor Enir’; and ‘Cill mor Uí Nia1láin’. ‘Cill mor Aedhan’ may refer to Kilmore in Co. Monaghan. ‘Cill mor Enir’ probably in Co. Tyrone (see under Errigal Keerogue). ‘Cill mor Uí Nia1láin’ should be in this part of Armagh (ONeilland barony) and only this epithet should be taken to refer to this site.

Reade, E.H., in J.R.S.A.I 10 (1868-9) 93-102 with plan by Foxall and drawings by DuNoyer; Dunraven 1875, 109-111; Kenney 1929, 366-371; Davies 1938, 77-86; O’Kane 1955, passim Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 321.

[516] 67. ?KILLUNEY townland, Armagh parish. O.S. 12; area of H/ 895460. Reeves in 1879 Ms. Notes mentions church site on Jacob Barrett’s farm, long ploughed. Paterson Ms. Notes record site used for burial in famine times. I enquired in the townland but did not find the site. Hogan suggested Killuney might be identified with ‘Cell Uinche’ in Conailli associated in M.T. with Nechtán at 2 May, also M.G. and M.D.

The literature is confusing: see Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 39, for the most recent but not very satisfactory discussion. ‘The priest Corc of Cell Mór’ at 4 April in M.T., and in M.G. and M.D located to Cell Mór Uí Nialláin Mentioned in connection with battle in 1120 (A.U.); burned with its oratory in 1150 (A.F.M.) said death of erenagh in 1200 (A.U.). Medieval parish belonged to Armagh Culdees (Reeves 1864, 13). Present church and graveyard occupy early site.

But identification not certain: Hogan suggests Kilanny (Co. Louth) as another possibility. Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 393) list ‘Kill-unche’ on authority of Colgan and follow Hogan in suggesting Killuney. 68.

Refs:

[518] SITE prominent hilltop, about 150 ft. Graveyard impossible for excavation, but surrounding area might be interesting.

KILLYMAN parish, formerly Derrybrochisse, Mullenakill townland. O.S. 4; H/891603.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. O.S. Memoir (1835) reports church supposedly built by St. Patrick. ‘There was a monastery near the church, the foundation of which was visible about seventy years ago.’ Bones from surrounding field suggested graveyard once much bigger.

689 (A.U.): record of death of ‘Dochinni of Dairemurchaisi’ and Mochonna at 4 March in Colgan 1645, 566. Aedan of Daire Bruchais at 29 March in M.T., M.G., and M.D.

WELL reported by O.S. in glebe garden, held to be holy because blessed by St. Kyrne-na-Gort, of whom nothing more was known.

Early history otherwise obscure. 1406 rectory granted to prior of Armagh Culdees (Derrybrochise alias OKaregan: Reeves 1864, 101). Vicar appointed in 1540 to church of ‘St. Congellus of Derebroye (Paterson Ms. Notes).

Refs:

241

Leslie 1911, 340-3; Paterson 1948, 129 mentions well.

70.

KILNASAGGART in Edenappa townland, now Jonesborough parish but formerly Killevy. O.S. 32; J/063150.

‘Ernáin [glossed] of Midluachair, in Cell na sacart’ at 26 October in M.G. and M.D. Reeves identifies this Ernain with Ternoc, mentioned in inscription (see below), member of Dalaradian royal family, died 714 (A.F.M.) or 716 (Tig.). History and nature of early establishment unknown. In early seventeenth century belonged to Armagh Culdees (Reeves 1898, 216 and Scott 1896, 247). Roofless church shown here in 1609 Escheated Counties Map marked ‘Fecte’, perhaps version of local name ‘Feigh’ or ‘Feede’ (mountain). SITE: valley, about 200 ft on slight local eminence close to stream, overlooked by hills. Close to important ancient route, the ‘Miodhluachra’ from Tara to Navan. Pass known as ‘Bealach an Mhaighre’ (‘Moyry Pass’), scene of important battles (Hayes-McCoy 1964, 2 and pl. I).

FIG. 32: KILNASAGGART: SKETCH PLAN OF GRAVES.

Excavated evidence (Fig. 32): before excavation, surface within enclosure very uneven with marked drop to north. Area in north part of enclosure 10 m. by 11 m. stripped of sods. Found to be covered with dense mass of stones, all shapes and sizes (Pl. 30a shows south part of area).

Long disused for burial. Promising for excavation, though local memories of small illicit holes. Small-scale work in 1966 and 1968. [519] MATERIAL: no early ENCLOSURE visible, nor found by excavation. Site now enclosed with bank and thorn hedge, believed made by local volunteers c. 1908 at instigation of Co. Louth Archaeological Society (Quinn 1909, 186). Reeves described site as ‘a small, unenclosed, and slightly elevated space near the edge of a field’ (1853, 221). Position seems quite straightforward unenclosed until c. 1908 (Morris 1904, 48 refers to plot as unprotected) - until photograph taken 1869 by Lord Dunraven considered. Behind pillar stone appears enclosure wall in position of present one (Petrie 1878, II, p1. xix). Suggests c. 1908 enclosure replaced or refurbished earlier one, built between 1853 and 1869. Air photograph R.A.F. sortie 540/736, 17 May 1952, shows no trace of any other enclosure. i) CEMETERY. Reeves recognised ‘some traces of ancient sepulture, but none of any building’. In view of Reeves’s lack of detail, Reade’s 1857 description surprising: ‘This stone [no. 1 below] still stands at the head of a very peculiar cemetery’, at north edge of circle 55 ft diameter, edge formed of circle of low flat graves, radiating towards centre. Inner circle, concentric with outer, of smaller graves, with remnant of stone shaft or smaller pillar at centre (1857, 316-7). Plan on p. 317 shows sixteen rectangular graves in outer circle, some with one, some two, some three stones (blobs on plan). Inner circle eleven small graves. Little comment on plan in text; is suspiciously detailed considering Reeves’s comment and Reade’s own words elsewhere: ‘the very remarkable circles of graves now nearly obliterated’ (op. cit. 315).

Area bounded to north by revetment of eleven stones, carefully chosen to present flat face to north, running east-west for 5.30 m. Adjoining revetment to north two large flat slabs at right angles to revetment with two fallen slabs between (P1. 31).

[520] Morris saw no graves in 1904 (1904, 47). All accounts of radial graves here seem to go back to Reade 1857, and one aim of 1966 and 1968 work was to test his plan.

Several other stone concentrations, fills of disturbances. Surface very varied and despite careful trowelling, no

PLATE 30A: KILNASAGGART- STONE SPREAD IN SOUTH PART OF EXCAVATED AREA.

North part of area, north of revetment, concentration of field-stones. Loose stones south of revetment planned and cleared (slab no. 2 found, see below), leaving only stones embedded in underlying surface. Main feature was kerbing of thin slabs, on edge or fallen, defining area 3 m. north-south by 2.80 m. (Pl. 30b).

242

grave-cuts visible at this stage. Since horizontal view not very informative, eight trenches sited at ninety degrees to line of revetment to combine horizontal and vertical views.

by clear deposit of iron pan. Grave built freestanding within trench, not floored with stone but lintelled. When small lintels, other stones corbelled out to help bridge gap (Pl. 31).

PLATE 31A: KILNASAGGART – REVETMENT AND SLAB FEATURE LOOKING EAST. PLATE 31B: KILNASAGGART – EXCAVATED GRAVES (F5 AND F31) LOOKING WEST.

All trenches located one or more graves. Ten stone-built graves found, one possible example, two dug graves and part of third. All uniformly orientated approximately eastwest; no sign of Reade’s radial arrangement. Six graves, side by side, formed line running north-south for about 6.80 m. with only 20 to 60 cms between graves. [521] No sign of markers or sockets. Concentrations of stones on surface, voids in sections and other signs suggest many more graves still to be found, some but not all disturbed in fairly recent times. No close correlation between kerbing of upper level (see above) and graves below, though same orientation.

PLATE 32A: KILNSAGGART – GRAVE (F20) LOOKING SOUTH.

Small stones neatly packed filling all crevices. Grave cut filled in, stones packing sides and earth upper part. Only five graves fully excavated, of which three already disturbed. Little fill below lintels. Although solid bone fragments found in superficial disturbances, excavated graves produced only bone dust and paper-thin fragments. No datable finds from graves. One trench opened in south part of enclosure, south of main area, to test different spot. No dense superficial stone scatter, but graves continue, on same alignment: one lintelled grave (F20) and one dug grave which ran under c. 1908 bank (Pl. 32). Soil profiles suggested revetment served to hold dump of mixed red-brown sandy material (local boulder clay). This overlay distinctive pale grey sandy layer, buried leached soil, clear in north and east of area, but less clear westwards and absent to south where graves seem dug straight into undisturbed till (as in Pl. 32a).

PLATE 30B: KILNASAGGART – PART OF STONE KERBING LOOKING NORTH-WEST.

Graves (Pls 31-2) of local stone (granite and shale), large and small boulders as well as slabs, fitted with considerable care. Procedure was digging of trench, wider than proposed grave. Sides of trenches in places marked 243

1949, 114 refutes this). In ‘O.S. Letters’ O’Donovan reported country people believed crock of gold at foot and he feared it would be overturned (O’Flanagan 1927, 2). It was over-tuned by treasure-hunters about seventy years before 1905 and reset (L.A.J. I no. 2 (1905), 92). Excavation at foot of stone in 1968 revealed 50 to 60 cms (1 ft 8 ins to 2 ft) below present ground level to base; stump of stone protected from weathering very finely dressed, almost to a polish. Set in shallow cut in till, packed with large stones and recent material. Close to west of stone articulated legs of another burial found; no associated stone grave. Present condition of stone: thick lichen and incipient cracks. Southeast face: towards top large Latin cross, ends expanded in seriphs, above long Irish inscription read by Reeves and Macalister as ‘IN LOC SO TANIMMAIRNI TERNCHC MAC CERAN BIC ER CUL PETER APSTA’ (more correctly APSTEL). Below is equal-armed cross with spiral terminals in circle (damaged on left). Below this circle horizontal line, visible in Petrie’s plate (loc. cit. above), now buried. Small equal-armed cross in circle on broken surface top right.

PLATE 32B: GRAVE (F20) WITH LINTELS REMOVED, LOOKING WEST.

[522] ii) OTHER EXCAVATED MATERIAL. Finds and features, apart from graves, disappointingly sparse. Two trenches outside enclosure to northwest (17 by 2 m.) revealed thin topsoil above boulder clay with no clear features and only modern finds. Trench northeast of enclosure (5 by 2.20 m.) showed spade-dug cultivation trenches. Two trenches southeast of enclosure were unfinished and this area was not adequately tested. Finds included slight scatter of occupation material: burned bone, charcoal, cinders. Several struck flints including two scrapers and hollow-based Neolithic arrow-head. Neolithic rim sherd. Much post-medieval pottery; only handful of medieval and earlier sherds, none distinctive. One blue glass bead and one unfinished quern. More extensive excavation needed to test site more adequately for other structures and to search for more finds. iii) TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. Morris (1904, 49): ‘There was a monastery here it is said in olden times, and tradition has it that the monks had a mill here.’ He points out fields near stone called Mill Field, Kiln Field, and Shelling Hill, where winnowing formerly done. No features of interest now in vicinity except bullaun (see below).

PLATE 28A: KILNASAGGART CROSS-CARVED PILLAR STONE.

Northwest face: ten crosses, some spiral, some triangular terminals, all equal-armed within a circle except top right Latin cross without circle. Lowest cross on left carved on battered face. Crosses on right surrounded by circle in relief; on left crosses carved on raised circular discs. Small hole in top of stone. Much discussed and illustrated.

iv) CROSS-CARVED STONES, all granite. 1) (P1. 28a) at northwest edge of raised area, just inside modern enclosure. Reeves believed stone ‘one of the most interesting Christian monuments now existing in Ireland’ (1853, 221). Tall pillar, 7 ft visible above ground 1 ft 8 ins to 1 ft 5 ins wide and 6 to 7 ins thick. Face to southeast flattish, to northwest convex.

Refs:

[523] Angle to north battered, with knife-sharpening scores low down, once thought to be ogam (Macalister 244

Bell 1815, 293-5 (both faces illustrated); O.S. Letters 1835, in O’Flanagan 1927, 2 (not very accurate drawing facing p. 2); Reeves 1853, 221-5 (drawing); Reade 1857, 315-8; Petrie 1878, 27-30 (excellent photograph by Dunraven in 1869, pl.

XIX); Morris 1904, 47-9; Quinn 1909, 186-90; Macalister 1935, 183-5, and 1949, 114-5, no. 946 (p1. XLVI, inaccurate in some details).

3) Similar to 2) but rougher. 2 ft 3 ins high, 1 ft 4 ins wide and up to 8 ins thick. Cross-carved surface smooth but back rough. Latin cross, ends of arms and top slightly expanded. Shallow pecking. Top ‘gable-shaped’, bottom broken. May be Quinn’s no. 2 (1909, fig. on p. 186). 4) Small boulder, irregular shape, 1 ft 1 ½ ins by 1 ft 4 ins and maximum 8 ins thick. Latin cross, ends of arms may be expanded but not very clear. Roughly pecked. 5) Irregularly shaped split fragment. Surface with cross smooth, rest rough. 11 ins high, maximum 11 ins wide and 1 ½ to 6 ins thick. Latin cross with terminals slightly expanded. Shallow pecked lines. Quinn’s no. 4 (ibid.). [525] 6) Lower part of stone with cross shaft illustrated by Quinn (ibid. no. 3); upper part completing cross excavated 1968. Roughly triangular, 2 ft 3 ins long, 11 ins wide and 2 to 3 ins thick. Bottom of shaft unclear, may be expanded. Top is expanded. Break is across arms but their ends probably expanded. Shallow pecked lines.

PLATE 29: KILNASAGGART – CROSS-CARVED STONES.

[524] 2) (Fig. 33). Found in superficial stone scatter immediately under sod during 1966 excavation. 2 ft 1 in. long, maximum 1 ft 5 ins wide and 3 ins thick, roughly triangular or ‘gable-shaped’, slightly pointed at base. Latin cross, top and arms triangular expansion at ends, but not base. Line pecked, broad (1 to 1 ¼ ins) shallow U-section. Slab of tabular granite; front and right side dressed; left and back rougher. In Ulster Museum.

7) Granite slab (Fig. 33, also visible in P1. 30). Roughly 3 ft 3 ins square and 10 ins thick. Now near centre of enclosure. May have been moved from near farm to northwest (Morris 1904, 48) though very heavy indeed. Close to edge faint Maltese cross in circle, in low false relief. Part of a second similar cross, half broken away on southwest edge. Both probably pecked, worn and difficult to see. Not previously illustrated.

Nos 3 to 6 lying loose near base of No. 1 (Pl. 29 and Fig. 33)

Other stones. Earlier accounts mention other stones, which seem to have disappeared. Bell (1815, 295) ‘near the pillar there is the pedestal of an old cross’, present whereabouts unknown. About ten roundish stones carved with crosses reported found when stone overturned, not now to be seen (L.A.J. I no. 2 (1905), 92). Illustration of stone in Reeves 1853 shows slab at foot of pillar-stone with cross in circle (Fig. 33), noted as ‘recently removed’ in J.R.S.A.I. 16 (1883-4), 434. No. 6 of Quinn’s illustration (op. cit. above) may be my no. 2, or may be missing, and Quinn’s stone G is missing. v) BALLAUN in next field, about 210 ft southwest of enclosure, known as the ‘Wart Well’ (P1. 28b).

PLATE 28B: KILNSAGGART – BULLAUN.

FIG. 33: KILNSAGGART – CROSS-C ARVED STONES.

245

Large, earthfast granite boulder, polygonal, about 5 ft 7 ins north-south by 5 ft 6 ins esat-west, standing about 1 ft above ground. Large hollow near southwest corner of boulder, oval, 1 ft 4 ins east-west by 1 ft3 ½ ins northsouth and 8 ins deep.

SITE (Fig. 29a): commanding hilltop, about 300 ft, with extensive views. This must have been virtually an island before draining of Loughgilly lake and bog.

[526] Greatest depth markedly west of centre of depression. East side slopes gradually, others very steep or slightly undercut. Not now frequented for cures. Mentioned by Morris (1904, 49) and Paterson (1948, 129), but not previously illustrated. Refs:

Bell 1815, 293-5; Reeves 1853, 221-5; Reade 1857, 315-8; Morris 1904, 47-9; Quinn 1909, 186-90.

71.

Lisnadill parish, formerly Clanconchie.

Patron and early history unknown. Pre-Reformation name derived from family Clann Chonachadh (Arthurs 1954, 46). Area largely held by Armagh religious houses during Middle Ages. I have come across no evidence to suggest present parish church (Lisnadill townland, O.S. 16; H/884405) is on site of medieval or earlier church. Church sites reported in this parish at Ballymoran (Appendix B) and Drumconwell (above). The Dane’s Cast runs about ½ mile southeast of present parish church. Ref:

Leslie 1911, 348.

72.

Loughgall parish (also known as ‘O Nellan’), Levalleglish townland. O.S. 8; H/907521.

FIG. 29A: LOCATION OF LOUGHGILLY.

NO EARLY MATERIAL, but shape of graveyard suggests large circular ENCLOSURE, now truncated to west, measuring about 300 ft north-south.

Patron and early history unknown, but area was centre of Uí Nialláin territory (crannog in lough ½ mile to south). Lords of Loughgall mentioned in annals: death of sons of Kings of Loch Cal in 803 and 849 (A.U.).

Ref:

Leslie 1911, 356-7.

74.

Maghernahely townland, Camlough (formerly Killevy) parish. O.S. 26; J/041286.

Patron and early history unknown. Roofed church shown in 1609 Escheated Counties Map. Reeves suggested identification with ‘Yllagh’, chapel in Killevy parish, mentioned in archbishops’ registers, but unknown whether Yllagh established in pre-Norman times or later. Material from church re-used in Caulfield bawn, part of which survives. Modern Convent of Mercy occupies site.

According to Leslie, Reeves identified Loughgall with ‘Plebs de Ochedegan’ (= O’Hagan) of 1306 Taxation. Loughgall vicarage held by Armagh Culdees in early seventeenth century (Reeves 1898, 216 and Scott 1896, 246-7). Ruined medieval church in crowded graveyard, may be early site.

[528] SITE: about 400 ft, hillside with extensive views to east.

[527] SITE: about 100 ft on local hillock above small river to east flowing south to Lough Gall, in hilly country. Built up all around.

Excavation: fields south and east of convent are pasture and excavation would be possible.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Ref:

Leslie 1911, 351-2.

73.

Loughgilly (formerly ‘Castrum O’Hanlon’) parish, Cornagrally townland. O.S. 21; J/008361.

MATERIAL: quite a lot reported or surviving, but none of it certainly early. i) ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENTS. Ashlar and a few mouldings re-used in bawn wall on south side. Chamfered and hollow chamfered pieces and roll mouldings (three-quarter round and keeled).

Early history and patron unknown. Medieval parish, listed in 1306 Taxation as church of ‘Villa Ocanloun’. Modern parish church in large, semi circular graveyard may be on early site. 1609 Escheated Counties Map shows roofed church here.

ii) CROSS. Lewis (1837, I, 247) ‘a little eastward of these [the bawn] walls stands the shaft of an elegant cross, of which the rest lies in a ditch.’ Leslie (1911, 1567) quotes from Reeves Ms. Notes: ‘a rough cross formed 246

by 3 stones stood on the site of the former chapel yard, where human bones have occasionally been dug up, but the stones after lying overturned were, about 1863, broken into flag stones by the tenant of the farm.’

of Armagh Culdees by early seventeenth century (Reeves 1898, 216 and Scott 1896, 246-7). Senior prebend of Armagh cathedral. Modern church and graveyard probably on early site.

iii) BURIALS found when convent built, but no details available.

SITE: about 350 ft hilltop with extensive views to east, west and south.

iv) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 34b and Fig. 35b) also found when convent built, and kept in convent. Small trapezoided stab of pink granite, 11 by 3 ¾ ins and 2 ½ ins thick. One surface (with cross) dressed smooth, others rougher. Small Latin cross of shallow, pecked lines, irregularly worked. Not previously noted.

MATERIAL: i) possible ENCLOSURE. Modern church stands at north edge of very markedly raised area. Falls away steeply at edges and in places signs of surrounding ditch, partly water-filled. Outline of eminence to south is rounded. This may be simply graveyard eminence, but I had the strong impression it was a rath. Only reference I have found is 1953 booklet on Mullaghbrack parish (copy in Armagh Museum) where church is described as ‘situated within a ring-fort’. ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 35c). Found in graveyard during grave-digging in 1928. Removed in 1945 to Armagh cathedral chapter house where it is still. Trapezoidal slab, broken and possibly recut. 1 ft 3 ins by 10 ins by 2 ins thick. Upper surface dressed smooth, under surface rougher. Design best seen as cross of single-strand interlace in false relief. [530] Spaces defined by interlaced bands decorated with circular sinkings. Central band bifurcates at bottom and right to form two-lobed arms, but only single arm on left. Top broken. Under arm to right part of pecked linear cross with expanded terminals, and faint traces of second, similar cross to left. May be part of an altar slab.

PLATE 34B: MAGHERNAHELY - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

v) WELLS. Formerly four wells on hillside east of convent, flow filled in. Stations at wells until 1886. Reported to be under patronage of St. Agnes and to be for ears, eyes, knees, and backward children. [529] (Font in rockery southwest of convent, probably medieval. Granite. Squarish, 2 ft by 1 ft 10 ins, with chamfered corners. 1 ft high and circular bowl 1 ft 1 in. diameter, 9 ins deep.) Refs:

Lewis 1837, I, 247; Leslie 1911, 156-7; Paterson 1948, 129.

75.

MULLAGHBRACK parish and townland. O.S. 17; H/958423.

FIG. 35C: MULLAGHBRACK - CROSS-CARVED STONE. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 382-6; Paterson 1946; 48 and plate IIIb (good photograph).

76.

SEAGOE parish, Seagoe Lower townland. O.S. 10; J/023554.

East of River Bann, in area of sept Clan Breasail; and in territory of Iveagh, not Oriel, so in Dromore not Armagh diocese. Early name ‘Tech da Gobha’. Founder and/or

Early history and patron unknown. Medieval parish, but not recognisable in 1306 Taxation. Rectory held by prior 247

patron Gobha, probably personal name rather than legendary smith. Calendars suggest some confusion - at 6 December in M.G.: ‘Gobbán the fair modest prince [glossed] of Cell Lamraige [Killamery] in the west of Ossory in Húi Caithrenn. Or maybe he was from Tech dá Goba in Húi Echach Ullad. An abbot of monks was he: a thousand monks were his community, and his relics are in Cluain Eidnech [Clonenagh].’ Also 6 December in M.D. Otherwise early history unknown. Medieval parish. Not separately taxed in 1306 - Reeves suggests included under prebend of Archdeacon of Dromore. United in 1444 with Enachloisgy (see Shankill below). Ruined medieval or early post-medieval church on eminence in large, crowded municipal graveyard.

internal diameter at base about 3 ins. Mentioned by Keenan and Mooney 1954, 47.) Refs:

Reeves 1847, 107-8; Keenan and Mooney 1954, passim; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 403.

77.

Shankill parish, in Dromore diocese, formerly Kylmilcon.

Ecclesiastical history complicated. ‘Octavian’s Register’ (1431) refers to ‘Canonicatus et Praebenda Sti. Fintani de Kyllmilcon alias de Caillmore’. ‘Kylmilcon’ may be ‘Enachloisgy’: vicarage united with Seagoe 1444 (‘Prynne’s Register’). Shankill first appears as parish name in 1622. At least two church sites in parish.

SITE: low, about 100 ft overlooking plain of River Bann to west.

i) Annaloist townland. Oxford Island, O.S. 6; area of J/0461. Not located.

NO EARLY MATERIAL but chance discoveries may be made by gravediggers.

This may be medieval parish church site. Keenan and Mooney 1954, 46, report slight remains of church and cemetery.

[531] WELL: Paterson 1948, 130, reported well (closed) in grounds of rectory.

NO OTHER MATERIAL REPORTED.

BELL sometimes called ‘Bell of Seagoe’, is bell from Relicarn, Terryhoogan (q.v.).

ii) Shankill townland. O.S. 6; J/075587. Roofless church shown here on 1609 Escheated Counties map. [532] Site now on west edge of Lurgan, about 150 ft in gently hilly surroundings. Well-kept municipal cemetery, with marked hump, probably church site, near Brownlow tomb. NO EARLY MATERIAL. iii) Was there a church in Kilmore townland - in this parish, but in Co. Down? Name would suggest one, but no trace reported. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 312-3; Atkinson 1925, 188-190.

(Tamlaght-Bo, see under EGLISH) 78.

TARTARAGHAN included on grounds of place-name.

Arthurs (1957, 41-2) derived name from ‘teach Tíreachaín’, and suggested time-range of fifth to eighth century for formation of name. Unknown if this was Patrick’s late seventh-century biographer, or another Tírechán. History and nature of early establishment unknown. SS. Peter and Paul, Armagh, had grange in Tartaraghan, and roofless church marked on 1609 Escheated Counties Map in ‘Tashtiragan’. Tartaraghan parish only since 1709; previously attached to Drumcree.

PLATE 134B: SEAGOE - STOUP.

(Stoup (Pl. 134b) probably medieval. Found in graveyard during grave-digging. Armagh Museum no. 65:1947. Fully dressed, internally and externally. 1 ft high, external diameter 10 ½ ins, internal 7 ¼ ins, and 6 ins deep. Flattish base. Externally rounded except one flattened face. Clear marks of pecking. Internally steep sides and

Medieval site probably Eglish townland, O.S. 5; H/939566. Uncertain whether this is site of earliest establishment. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ noted generally believed site of abbey, but no trace remained. Now 248

disused and neglected graveyard, locally ‘Toby Hole’ (Arthurs op. cit., 41). Toby may be corruption of ‘tobar’ (‘well’). Arthurs suggested church site was higher ground to west of road.

Polygonal graveyard, oval outline towards southwest, about 225 ft northeast-southwest by 140 ft. SITE (Fig. 29c): Low-lying, under 100 ft, on valley floor with stream to west and south.

SITE: hill slope, just over 100 ft, above river valley. Graveyard reserved for Catholics, and Ballynaback for Protestants. No buildings visible or reported, and early history unknown. Paterson in P.S. 1940, 68, calls Relicarn: ‘an ancient burial place probably pagan in origin’, but this is speculation. It may be a fairly late graveyard.

NO EARLY MATERIAL Refs:

Leslie 1911, 416-7; Coffey 1950, 3-5; Arthurs 1957, 41-4; Stuart 1900, 118, equates ‘Thamclache Dalig’ of 1306 Taxation with Tartaraghan, but this is wrong (see Ballymore).

[534] BELL known as the ‘Bell of Armagh’ (given this name by Petrie). Believed found early eighteenth century in Terryhoogan graveyard. Sometimes called ‘Bell of Ballynaback’; this arises from confusion with nearby graveyard (see Ballymore).

[533] 79. Tassagh townland, Keady (formerly Derrynoose) parish. O.S. 16; H/865377. Rectory of Derrynoose, including Tassagh, held by Armagh Culdees.

‘Newry Magazine’ I, no. 4 (1815), 294: ‘It was found, upwards of ninety years ago, in the graveyard of Ballynaback, not far from where the body of the celebrated raparee, Redmond O’Hanlon, is buried [i.e. Terryhoogan].’

Traditionally burial place for Culdees. Earlier history unknown, but Arthurs pointed out site close to ancient route south from Navan along River Callan (1954, 38). Square graveyard wall encloses markedly raised, uneven area of roughly circular outline. SITE: about 250 ft, very close to west of Callan river, on valley floor.

In 1815 kept in area and used for funerals and swearing. Illustrated p. 293. Keepers were family Hennon or Henning, lived and used bell in parish of Seagoe (q.v.); last public use reported to be about 1836. In Seagoe area bell called ‘Clog Ban’ or ‘Clog Beanuighte’. 1842 to R.I.A. and now N.M.D. no. R 4012. Paterson Ms. Notes give different suggested origin (source Blacker Mss): heard ringing underground in Drumcree graveyard and found during grave-digging. But Terryhoogan seems well attested.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Lewis 1837, II, 34, mentioned gold ring with large emerald found here in 1824, but present whereabouts unknown. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 316.

80.

Terryhoogan townland, Ballymore parish, Relicarn graveyard, close to north of Ballynaback graveyard, and not to be confused with it (as in some sources). O.S. 14; J/045442.

History before early eighteenth century unknown; no ancient connection known with Ballymore parish. 11 ¾ ins high, 11 by 8 ins at mouth, of sub-oval section, markedly different from angular section of many bells. Body cast bronze, very heavy, with widely flaring mouth. Cracked and rivet holes for early repairs. Handle and clapper of iron. Inscription in Irish minuscules: initial Latin cross (seriphs top and ends of arms) OROIT AR CHŪ/MASCACH M/AILELLO (a prayer for Cumascach, son of Ailill). Can be confidently identified with steward of Armagh who died 909 (A.U.). Refs:

Newry Magazine as above; Dawson, A., in J.R.S.A.I. 16 (1883-4), 126-30; Coffey 1909, 66-7; Stokes, M. 1928, 53; Mahr 1932, p1. 49; Raftery 1941, 144-5; Macalister 1949, 113-4 and p1. XLVI [Ballynabrack]; Leslie 1911, 138-9; Paterson Ms. Notes.

[535] 81. TULLYVALLAN West (Tipping) townland, Creggan parish. O.S. 27; H/926232 (no. 1) and H/928233. MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONES. 1) (Pl. 34a and Fig. 34a). Polygonal piece of shale set in bank bordering path at edge of field. Stone 6 to 7 ins

FIG. 29C: LOCATION OF TERRYHOOGAN (‘RELICARN’).

249

thick. Southeast face carved cross with outlining cross defined by wide grooves. Small circular sinkings at ends of arms, and at crossing slightly larger sinking with surrounding groove (not clearly seen in P1. 34). Arms die out at edges of stone. Seems to be pecked and rubbed. Other stones nearby but unworked, and nothing else of interest in immediate vicinity. Unpublished.

ringed cross, with arms extending outside ring. Cross partly damaged (bottom and left), and ring unclear in parts. Possible ring added to uppermost cross, which is more carefully worked than the rest, but same technique (pecking, un-rubbed) used throughout. Unpublished.

PLATE 33A: TULLYVALLEN – CROSS CARVED STONE (2) – NORTH FACE.

PLATE 34A: TULLYVALLEN – CROSS CARVED STONE (1) – SOUTH-EAST FACE.

FIG. 34A: TULLYVALLEN – CROSS-CARVED STONES.

2) (P1. 33 and Fig. 34a) about 860 ft northeast of 1). Large triangular shale boulder embedded in ground, at least 2 ft 6 ins high and 2 ft thick. Stands with several other large, un-worked stones in rough pasture, very uneven surface. East face, at top of stone - equal-armed outline cross in false relief. Very carefully worked. All lines very rounded in section, probably pecked and smoothed, about ¼ in. deep. North face at 90° to last, complex cross, complexities of which only visible in best lighting conditions. Clearest is simple Latin cross, pecked out, about ½ in. deep. Closer inspection shows this to be upper part of large pecked

PLATE 33B: TULLYVALLEN – CROSS CARVED STONE (2) – EAST FACE.

[536] Area of these stones is over 500 ft, rough, remote country, very broken surface with many rocky outcrops. Local informant told me another stone with a cross had been found near to 2) but broken up, and T.G.F. Paterson had told him there had been a mass rock in the area (authority for this unknown). 1609 Escheated Counties Map shows Tullivelan townland but marks no features in it. 250

82.

TYNAN parish and townland. O.S. 11; H/766430.

be seen, but fourth side rough with two concrete-filled circular holes, roughness and holes probably result of reuse. The two narrower long sides decorated.

Patron seems to be Vindic (29 August) but calendars suggest some doubt or confusion about saints and places with similar names. M.O. in gloss to Vincentius at 21 August: ‘Unnic Tuignech in Húi Dortain [Co. Meath], i.e. a bishop. Or Uncenti (is the right reading), so that he may be Unnic in Tugniath, or Uncan Tuigneth.’ Uncan Tugneda at 21 August in M.T.; Uncan at 21 August in M.G.; but also Unniuc [glossed] ‘from Tuignetha’ in M.G. at 29 August. Early history obscure. First reference in annals is obit of erenagh Mael-Muire Ua Muiregain of Tuidhnigha in 1072 (A.U.). Vicarage belonged to Armagh Culdees (Reeves 1864, 13 and 102 and Scott 1896, 246-7). Medieval parish, listed in 1306 Taxation as Tungenethe. Whereabouts of early site uncertain but presumably at or near site of modern parish church and graveyard. SITE: prominent hilltop, over 200 ft. Possibility of stray finds from graves and gardens in area. MATERIAL: i) CARVED STONE (P1. 38 and Fig. 35a) probably architectural fragment.

FIG. 35A: TYNAN - CARVED STONES.

Drawings and photographs should be referred to for full detail. On both sides at one end small panel defined by rectangular frame, filled with fine, single strand interlace. Panel on one side intact, on other side partly broken. On ‘cross side’ two rectangular panels defined by frame flanked by pecked grooves, embellished with ‘T’ motifs at ends and at centre where, back to back, they form a cross. On ‘figure side’ long rectangular panel defined by fleshy half-round mouldings. These run off stone at one end, and towards other end turn through 90°, cross, and become necks of two long-necked beasts. These clasp between their snouts head of small figure who ‘hangs’ between them, holding two not easily identifiable objects, to one of which an animal seems to be attached.

[537] Known for some time but not fully visible until recently. May be stone referred to in O.S. 18 report on village cross (see below), and by Reeves as ‘Jamb moulding’ (1883-4, 412), but first description by O. Davies and more recently by H. Roe (references below). Set until recently under base of Village Cross, but moved to graveyard when cross moved, and now on north side of church near tower door.

[538] In ‘spandrels’ between moulding and beasts’ necks two small human heads in profile, facing edges of stone. Work in low relief. Rest of panel plain. In broken end of stone is rectangular sinking, 4 ins by 6 ½ ins running back 4 ½ ins into stone, with sides shelving slightly inwards. Roughly worked with clear hammer marks inside hole. May be mortice hole to hold a tenon in another stone, but I think it likely to be connected with re-use of stone. Nearby is sandstone fragment (Pl. 36b), 11 ½ ins long by 6 ¾ ins by 7 ins.

Rectangular block of sandstone, 3 ft 4 ins long by 7 ins by 1 ft 1 in. One short end intact, the other partly broken, and all edges very badly chipped, so impossible to be sure of original mouldings. Angle roll survives on one edge, slight traces on two other angles, but none on fourth. Clear from signs of dressing that three sides intended to

One face neatly dressed; others ragged and broken. On dressed face, rectangular panel, 3 ½ ins by 4 ¾ ins, defined by flattish moulding, with decoration of small holes inside. This may be remains of interlace, and stone certainly weathered, but workmanship rough and I think this stone may have been worked to balance interlaced

PLATE 38: TYNAN - CARVED STONES.

251

panel on larger stone when it was set under base of Village Cross. When only ‘cross side’ of long stone visible under cross base it was thought, reasonably, to be decorated lintel, with cross originally over centre of door. Discovery of decoration on other side obviously casts doubt on this interpretation. But I can find no close parallel and am uncertain about its original purpose (discussed further above, pp. 149-51). Not fully published.

[539] 1) Cross base (P1. 37c) Built into graveyard wall at base of east gatepost opposite village cross. Sandstone. Maximum height visible 1 ft 8 ins; length at base partly obscured; 2 ft 8 ins where un-obscured and 2 ft 2 ins at top; full thickness does not survive extends back only 1 ft then broken. Single shallow step and slopes of sides rather asymmetrical. No sign of mouldings or decoration and generally rough. Socket obscured. Unpublished.

PLATE 37A: TYNAN –CROSS RING FRAGMENT.

2) Cross ring (P1. 37a). Fragment, built into top of church wall just east of gatepost, above cross base. Impossible to see whether open or closed ring because of mortar. Ring 5 ½ ins wide, 1 ft thick, and outer edge of curve 1 ft 2 ins long. North side decorated: probably double strand interlace. South side has been decorated, but nothing left except hollows. Small roll moulding on angles and top of ring plain except for raised fillet inside angle roll.

PLATE 36B: TYNAN – FRAGMENT WITH WEATHERED INTERLACE. Refs:

Davies 1944, p1. IV a; Roe 1955, 113-4 and p1. XI. Neither of these illustrations very clear.

Refs:

ii) CROSSES. Remains of at least four crosses from Tynan village. Important to note only one of crosses in Tynan Abbey demesne originally in Tynan village. Others from Glenarb (Co. Tyrone, q.v.).

Roe 1955, 113 and pl. XI.

Village Cross is composite: base and lower part of shaft belong to one cross, upper shaft and head to another. Early descriptions do not make this distinction explicitly, but clear from Coote’s 1804 description (p. 328) cross already composite, though not in present form: ‘without the churchyard is a relick of antiquity, an oblong stone of about 18 inches square and 4 ft long, set up on a large block stone, and capped with another, which is square, having its faces concaved [sundial now set on churchyard gatepost], and this crowned with a smaller stone [possibly the piece described above, no. 1?]. [540] I could not discover any characters on this relick; the oblong stone is divided into square compartments, and had the vestige of some sculpture, probably a cross had formerly crowned it; it is however certain that it has been mutilated.’ ‘O.S. 1855 Memoir’ (‘Statistical Report’ by C. Bailey) description similar to Coote’s but notes ‘something like figures’ in one compartment, and continues: ‘At the foot

PLATE 37C: TYNAN – CROSS BASE BUILT INTO CHURCHYARD WALL.

252

of the block stone lies another stone, which have been part of a cross much mutilated, formerly stood on the top of the oblong stone before, but was maliciously thrown down a ago.’

appears to this stone mentioned few years

Shaft (Pl. 35) survives to height of 3 ft 10 ins, tapering from 1 ft 10 ins by 1 ft 6 ins below to 1 ft 8 ins by 1 ft 3 ½ ins above. Angle rolls and inner fillet on all faces. One panel of decoration on each face. East: rectangular panel, frame in low relief, Adam and Eve under short-branched tree.

Reeves in 1883-4 noted cross bad been in present place for about forty years. This suggests removed from earlier position on higher ground nearer church since Coote’s and O.S. descriptions. Moved again, short distance only, about 1960 to improve motorists’ view. 3) Base and lower shaft. Base (P1. 37b) massive and unshapely. Lowest part probably originally buried. Roughly shaped truncated pyramid with very shallow step at top. Undecorated. 2 ft 4 ins high, and about l ft by 3 ft 6 ins at base.

PLATE 35B: TYNAN - VILLAGE CROSS- EAST SIDE.

West (Pl. 36c): similar panel with frame and large central figure facing forward (long beard?). Surrounding surface very rough, certainly carved, possibly small heads or figures, but not at all clear.

PLATE 37B: TYNAN –BASE OF VILLAGE CROSS.

PLATE 35A: TYNAN - VILLAGE CROSS – VIEWED FROM NORTH SHOWING PROJECTING BOSSES.

PLATE 36C: TYNAN – FIGURE ON WEST SIDE OF VILLAGE CROSS.

253

[541]South: traces of rectangular panel, formerly decorated but very worn. North clear raised rectangular panel within frame (which joins fillets at sides) with loose, double strand interlace (Pl. 35).

[542] Cross tall and well-proportioned (lacking cap?). Open ringed head without discs. Ring recessed in two planes, each with edge mouldings but no other decoration.Cross decorated with elaborate mouldings and small decorative devices in frames linked by narrow fillets. No figure carving. East side angle roll and two narrow fillets which contract in semi-circular indents a little below head. Six circular medallions linked by thin moulding, with circular motifs of interlace, fret, and spirals. South side similar but not identical mouldings and decorative motifs (all spirals); frames more varied in shape (lozenge and U-shaped). Narrow sides divided into longer panel below and shorter above, longer with circular medallion top and bottom, with no linking line. Reeves gives dimensions as base 2 ft high, overall height including base 11ft, shaft 1 ft thick, 4 ft 10 ins across arms.

4) Upper shaft and head (Pl. 35). Short length of shaft sits somewhat uneasily on shaft of 3). East and west faces undecorated and angles badly chipped, but on north and south sides edge roll and inner fillet visible. South: raised diamond-shaped panel in frame with cruciform interlaced pattern very worn. North: rectangular panel with single strand interlace. Head badly damaged, mended and restored. Open ring, slightly recessed below arms, with discs on inner circumference. Ring undecorated but traces of decoration on discs. East and west faces decorated with circular bosses in very high relief (Pl. 35a), each with outlining circular moulding. Central boss larger than ones on arms, and traces of all-over fine mesh decoration on central bosses. Ends of arms chamfered. Under arms and ring mouldings clear (edge roll and inner fillet); fillet turns as though end of arm rectangular not chamfered, and in triangular space so formed small tripartite knot. Reeves (1883-4, 415) gives overall height as 13 ft 5 ins (including base), head 4 ft across arms and 1 ft 1 ½ ins thick.

Refs:

Reeves 1883-4, 415-9 on Village Cross and 422-5 on Terrace Cross with illustrations by Wakeman. Welch’s photograph of Terrace Cross often reproduced, as in P.S. 1940, pl. 11 and Village Cross pl. 10. Roe 1955, 112-3, pls IX and X (top) Terrace Cross and X (bottom) and XI Village Cross.

iii) BULLAUNS. In rockery at Tynan Abbey terrace several hollowed stones. Not precisely provenanced. Some may be for recent agricultural or domestic purposes. Not examined in detail.

5) Tynan Abbey Terrace Cross (Pl. 36a) brought from village forty or fifty years before 1883-4 according to Reeves. Very hard, fine-grained sandstone and carving very sharp. Upper part of shaft and lower part of ring replaced, and H. Roe (op. cit. below) says base reported to be modern, but no other published reference to this. Base truncated pyramid with steep sides and one step near top. Very regular outline.

iv) CRUCIFIXION PLAQUE. Bell Collection, Edinburgh Museum (N.M.E. KF 13), always stated ‘from Dungannon’. Through the kindness of Richard Haworth I an able to locate this to Tynan parish. [543] John Bell’s Notebook, vol. 3, p. 57, gives small sketch (not great detail but strongly suggests this piece, and nothing else like it in Bell Collection) with note found at College Hall near Tynan in digging potatoes, 1844. ‘College Hall or Marrassit’ listed as townland in 1901 ‘Topographical Index’, O.S. Sheet 11, ½ to ¼ mile north of Tynan church. Openwork bronze mount. Figure of crucified Christ occupies central area: elongated, bearded face, very long arms, short kilt. Angels with cross-hatched bodies and spiral-jointed wings crouch on arms of cross, one hand behind Christ’s head, other to own cheek in mourning. Spear and sponge bearers also squat, wearing long-sleeved short tunics with varied hatching. Border very varied infilling including zig-zags, ‘feathering’ and spirals, with lentoid shapes in two upper angles. Refs:

N.M.E. 1892, 228-9 and fig. on p. 288; Mahr 1932, pl. 29; Raftery 1941, 152; MacDermott 1954, 36 accepts twelfthcentury date; Henry 1967, 122 and 124 prefers ninth or tenth-century.

(Viking silver hoard found in roots of fallen tree beside lake in Tynan Abbey demesne 1861. Seven silver pieces: bracelets, rings and ingots. Refs: PLATE 36A: TYNAN - TERRACE CROSS.

254

Paterson, T.G.F., in J.R.S.A.I. 92 (1962), 78-9 and pl. XII.); Reeves 1900 and 1901; Leslie 1911, 435-6.

[544]

DERRY/LONDONDERRY: Sites are in Derry diocese except where Connor or Armagh is indicated.

83.

AGHADOWEY parish and townland. O.S. 18; C/859209.

SITE: about 150 ft, on gentle slope southwest to Bann estuary.

Patrons Guaire Bic at 9 January in M.T., glossed ‘of Achad Dubthaig in Mag Lí on the brink of the Bann’ in M.G., also M.D. with genealogy; and Guaire at 22 January in M.T., glossed ‘Guaire Mór of Achad Dubthaig on the brink of the lower Bann’ in M.G., also M.D. Sixth or seventh century. Reeves (1850, 80) discusses genealogy. Medieval parish church (with erenaghs), and seventeenth century reference to ‘termon Sci Gowry’. Modern parish church and graveyard probably on early site, but townland name ‘Seygory’ to south (‘seat of Guaire’) possibly significant.

NO EARLY MATERIAL, but apparently SOUTERRAIN nearby: Lewis (1837, I, 19) reported ‘in the adjoining field is an extensive cave formed of uncemented walls covered with large flat stones, one of the largest and most perfect yet known in this part of the country.’ No further details available.

SITE: valley floor, between 125 and 150 ft, close to south of Aghadowey river.

Reeves 1850, 74-5 and 80; Leslie 1937, 88-9 and 93; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 372.

84.

AGHANLOO parish, Rathfad townland. O.S. 5; C/679279.

Reeves 1847, 75; P.S. 1940, 186-7.

86.

Agivey extra-parochial district attached to Kilrea parish, Mullaghmore townland. O.S. 12; C/903222.

Patrons and date claimed to be same as Aghadowey; most recently Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 372): ‘monastery said founded by St. Guar of Aghadowey, seventh century’, but I can find no early authority for this. Was medieval chapel of Aghadowey and later grange of Cistercian house at Macosquin. Ruined church in polygonal graveyard.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Refs:

SITE (Fig. 39a): promontory, between 25 and 50 ft, in bend of Agivey River, close to west of River Bann.

Name suggests possibly patron Lugha, but early history unknown. Erenagh land suggests early foundation (Reeves 1850, 78). Mentioned in late (1532) ‘Life of Columba’ by O’Donnell (chap. 146, O’Kelleher and Schoepperle 1918, 151). Medieval parish church, included for 1306 Taxation in parish de Ro (see Drumachose). Graveyard eminence, approximately circular, diameter east-west 150 ft (squared off to south), walled, with low, grass-grown foundation, of church, probably of c. 1700 on site of earlier church. SITE: between 25 and 50 ft, local eminence in flat country at foot of Binevenagh, ½ mile east of River Roe. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

FIG. 39A: PROMONTORY SITES - AGIVEY

Reeves 1850, 78 and 132; Leslie 1937, 89-93.

MATERIAL: HOLE-STONE (P1. 51b). Reported found in 1931 and Re-used as headstone. South of ruined church, erect, 2 ft 8 ins high by 1 ft 6 ins and 3 ins thick, hole 5 ins diameter. Not previously illustrated.

[545] 85. Agherton (or Ballyaghran) parish, Glebe townland O.S. 3; C/822365. East of River Bann, in Connor diocese. Medieval parish church, first mentioned in 1262; earlier history unknown. Ruined church in large, circular graveyard, diameter about 200 ft.

Font described in P.S. 1940, 192, is medieval. Graveyard very neglected; Might repay thorough clearance.

255

Undecorated except for very crudely incised Latin cross at crossing on west side, 10 by 5 ins, and roughly horizontal scoring on shaft, all probably later additions. Cross described (not illustrated) in P.S. 1940, 202-3, which adds: ‘At one time a church stood here.’ This is probably derived from O.S. field-man’s report: ‘The Cross marks the site of an ancient graveyard, and near the site of an ancient church, it is believed to have been erected over the grave of some priest or distinguished person’ (O.S. Fieldmen’s Notebook, site 208, p. 63). Area east of cross is rough pasture. Excavation would be possible, but no surface features to indicate precise location. I could discover nothing locally.

PLATE 51B: AGIVEY - HOLE STONE. Refs:

as Aghadowey, also P.S. 1940, 192.

[546] 87. Altaghoney townland, Cumber parish. O.S. 29; C/537019. SITE: between 525 and 550 ft., hillside on southeast slopes of Crockdooish Mountain, overlooking confluence of Inver and Glenrandal rivers, flowing north to River Faughan. Very remote countryside. MATERIAL: CROSS (P1. 55b and Fig. 46b) firmly set in north wall of lane to (now disused) farm.

FIG. 46B: ALTAGHONEY – ROUGH CROSS.

88.

Ballinderry parish and townland in Armagh diocese. O.S. 49; H/933804.

Medieval parish church, but early history unknown. Graveyard rounded outline to east and occupies or close to church site, on Church Hill (O.S. marks ‘site of church’ a little to southwest of graveyard).

PLATE 55B: ALTAGHONEY - ROUGH CROSS.

[547] Within graveyard nucleus is well-marked, raised, circular area, with much rubble at edges.

Single slab of schist, set east-west 4 ft 3 ins high (visible, P.S. 1940, 203, reports 5 ft high), shaft 10 ins to 1 ft 2 ins wide, 1 ft 4 ins across arms, 5 to 6 ins thick, Carefully dressed: west face flat; east less regular with central ridge. Very short stumpy arms, hardly wider than shaft.

SITE: Benchmark 183 ft nearby. Hilltop, fine site with distant views south to Ballinderry valley; east to Lough Neagh; and northwest to Slieve Gallion; ½ mile to southwest is crossing of Ballinderry River. 256

NO EARLY MATERIAL, but interesting example of late ‘bullauns’ (Pl. 135a). Southeast corner of graveyard, in low ground at edge of mound, table-top gravestone of Rev. Joseph Clancy, late rector of parish, died 1707. North (un-inscribed) end of sand-stone slab covered with hollows two deep, two incipient in flat surface, and eight at edges creating scalloped outline. Vary in size and depth, maximum 1 ft 1 in. diameter and 2 ins deep. In some hollows and at other points on stone deep scores, clearly from knife-sharpening. Not previously noted.

Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone), which was traditionally associated with Ballynascreen. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 76 and 82-3; P.S. 1940, 210; Davies, op. cit. above.

90.

Ballyrashane parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 8; C/893337.

East of River Bann, in Connor diocese. Medieval parish, known also as ‘Singingtone’ or ‘St. Johnstown’, and ‘Coulfade’ (1306). Earlier history unknown. Grass-grown church foundations in graveyard west of modern parish church. SITE: low eminence between 175 and 200 ft. NO EARLY MATERIAL.

Leslie 1911, 124.

89.

BALLYNASCREEN parish, townland. O.S. 40; W/730907.

Reeves 1847, 74; O’Laverty 1887, 230-1.

91.

Ballywillin parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 3; C/870386.

East of River Bann in Connor diocese. Early history unknown, but Reeves suggests this may be site of ‘Portrossce’ of 1306 Taxation. Church now ruined, still in use when Lewis wrote (1837, I, 170).

PLATE 135A: RECENT ‘BULLAUN’ AT BALLINDERRY. Ref:

Refs:

SITE: between 175 and 200 ft, overlooking slope to north and northwest, down to sea.

Moneyconey

[549] MATERIAL: CHURCH (Pl. 39 and Fig. 45a).

Medieval patron Columba: identified by Reeves and others with ‘Scrin Colum-cille’: ‘Diarmait, son of Muircertach Ua Lochlainn, with a force of foreigners came on a foray into Tir-Eogain, so that they plundered Scrin Colum-cille’ (A.U. 1204). Early history otherwise obscure. Strong local Patrick and Columba traditions, and Ballynascreen believed to be head of group of nine local churches. Patrick, according to ‘Tripartite Life’ active in Moyola area (Stokes 1887, 155) but none of churches listed certainly identified with Ballynascreen. Erenagh killed 1132 (A.L.C.) and references to erenaghs continue to early seventeenth century. Site probably extended outside graveyard into pasture beyond.

Ruin seems substantially of late twelfth or early thirteenth century. I did not make detailed study of this church and am basing this short description partly on Lockwood’s (op. cit. below). Walls of basalt rubble, many spalls, sandstone ashlar details. Long, narrow and undivided, internally 85 ft by 22 ft 6 ins and walls about 3 ft 6 ins thick. Opposed doors in north and south walls - north with pointed head; south with rounded - both with drip mouldings.

[548] Medieval parish church. Ruined, much patched church, probably late medieval in graveyard. SITE: valley, on shoulder just above Moyola River, at about 400 ft. MATERIAL: BELL. Davies, O., in U.J.A 4 (1941), 5763, draws on O.S. Ms. material which I did not consult and refers to 1835 description of a bell from Ballynascreen. He did not know its whereabouts. Munn (1925, 43), not a very reliable source, mentions a bell in N.M.D., but I did not see it or find any reference to Ballynascreen in N.M.D. topographical files. I suspect there may be confusion here with bell no. K32 at Edinburgh from Termon Maguirk parish (see

FIG. 45A: SKETCH PLAN OF BALLYWILLIN CHURCH.

Originally two lancets in each of north and south walls, now partly altered and blocked. Both round and pointed heads. At west-end tall, pointed lancet, set high, and eastend post-medieval inserted window with heads of two 257

pointed lancets visible above. Two recesses in interior east wall: to north of centre with triangular head, to south round-headed, framed by elegant continuous roll mouldings (Pl. 39).

SITE: between 450 and 475 ft, on prominent local hilltop, in land falling northwest-wards to Owenrigh River (Fig. 41).

PLATE 39: BALLYWILLIN – WINDOW IN NORTH WALL (EXTERIOR) (LEFT); AUMBRY IN EAST WALL (INTERIOR) (RIGHT) Refs:

92.

Reeves 1847, 76; Lockwood, F.W., in J.R.S.A.I. 17 (1885-6), 159-61, plan and drawings p. 158; P.S. 1940, 186-7.

FIG. 41: BANAGHER SITE PLAN.

BALTEAGH parish, Ardmore townland. O.S. 17; C/707209.

MATERIAL: i) CHURCH (Figs 42-3).

Erenagh mentioned in 1609 Inquisition suggesting early foundation. Can this be identified with ‘Clúain dá Fhíach’ in M.T. and M.G. at 23 December (Colman)? Balteagh derived from ‘baile’ or ‘both da Fhiach’ (‘town’ or ‘hut (church) of the two ravens’) (Reeves 1850, 133). At 23 December in note to entry: ‘... there is a ‘Clúain’, or ‘Both’, dá Fhíach in Cíannacta of Glenn Gemin.’ Medieval parish, patron St. Canice, included in 1306 Taxation under de Ro (see Drumachose, below). Graveyard with grass-grown traces of church to north. Local stories of change of site: two ravens flew here with plumb-line from old site, Rellick, in Kilhoyle townland (not visited; O.S. 17, Tobergill and Ring’s Fort marked in 1924 edition).

FIG. 42: BANAGHER CHURCH PLAN.

[550] SITE: between 175 and 200 ft, on slight westward slope down to Castle River. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 132-3; Leslie 1937, 115-8.

93.

BANAGHER parish, Magheramore townland. O.S. 30; C/675066.

Founder traditionally St. Muiredach O’Heney of local family, but no such saint commemorated in calendars. Church first mentioned 1121 when King of Cianacht killed ‘in the middle of the cemetery of Banagher’ (A.U.).

FIG. 43: BANAGHER CHURCH: ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES.

Now two cells, but chancel clearly butted against east wall of nave. Phase I: Nave externally 41 ft 4 ins by 25 ft 9 ins, internally 35 ft 7 ins by 20 ft. Slightly chamfered external offset. No antae. Quoins of sandstone ashlar, and some ashlar elsewhere, especially lower courses east-end of north wall. Rest of walling: split stone rubble, variable size, neatly laid and in places roughly coursed. Upper part

Reeves suggested eleventh or early twelfth century date for St. Muiredach; this seems reasonable, though possibility remains of earlier church hero. Headquarters for Cotton’s visitation of diocese in 1397. Medieval parish church; erenaghs to early seventeenth century. Ruined church in state care in graveyard. 258

of north wall (about 4 ft) noticeably rougher, less attempt at coursing. West wall much obscured by hillside and burials, also exterior south wall.

Date 474 (P1. 47a) on soffit of north jamb known to have been out in early eighteenth century.

PLATE 47A: BANAGHER - ‘DATE STONE’ ON CHURCH DOOR. PLATE 40A: BANAGHER CHURCH - WEST DOOR (EXTERIOR).

Window (Pl. 41a-b) to east of centre of nave; south wall, round-headed. Head externally of two stones. Opening framed by projecting, square-sectioned architrave and projecting sill which extends to right and left beyond architrave. Internally deeply splayed, long sloping sill, slightly inclining jambs, and head of six well-cut voussoirs. Circular cavity centre east jamb of outer opening, and rectangular cavity cut on inner face of opening at top and bottom. All this represents work of Phase I, late eleventh or twelfth century (further discussion pp. 136-7).

[551] West door (Pl. 40a-b): markedly inclining jambs, externally square-headed with massive lintel. Door framed by deep, square-sectioned, moulded architrave. Internally recessed, with round-arched door head of carefully cut radial voussoirs This arch frames tympanum, formed by back of lintel, plain except for projection at centre.

PLATE 40B: BANAGHER CHURCH - WEST DOOR (INTERIOR).

At junction of lintel and north jamb rectangular socket, and carefully cut rectangular hole in jamb on south side.

PLATE 41A: BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (EXTERIOR).

259

[552] Near centre south wall one window intact (Pl. 43ab). Tall, elegant round-headed lancet with externally continuous roll mouldings (three rolls) and drip moulding: internally deeply splayed with sloping sill and, again, continuous rolls. Two voussoirs at crown of arch are plain and fit awkwardly, presumably inserted. Window near east end of north wall very ruined: only part of splay to west visible. Reeves writes of east window: ‘Many of the stones which formed the east window lie scattered in the church-yard, and the window itself is described as having been narrow and circularheaded externally, but inwardly splayed to a great extent, both laterally and vertically’ (Reeves 1850, 106). This sounds much like surviving south window. Recent clearance has revealed base of window or niche with mouldings similar to south window low down to east of south window and blocked. This remains a puzzling feature. Recently cleared niche in east wall (P1. 42b) has simple rebate and outline cross roughly pecked on one jamb, probably connected with later medieval liturgical arrangements still under investigation at east end. At external northeast and southeast corners of chancel angles recessed to accommodate three quarter round attached pilaster shafts with badly weathered capitals. These seem to have necking of half-round section, elaborate decoration (foliage, interlaced stems, pendant threepetalled flowers or birds?) and square-sectioned abacus. Good descriptions and illustrations of church in works cited below, but no published plan.

PLATE 41B: BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF NAVE (INTERIOR).

Phase II: Chancel added in transitional RomanesqueGothic style, externally 23 ft by 20 ft 11 ins, internally 20 ft 8 ins by 16 ft 3 ins. Walls of neatly fitted sandstone ashlar with some use of rebating and spalls to help in coursing. Chancel arch recently cleared to bases (P1. 42a). Cut through east wall of Phase I church and sandstone dressings of opening fitted into earlier rubble walling in slightly clumsy way. Three-quarter round, double roll-moulded bases survive with centre point clearly marked. These presumably supported freestanding shafts (not surviving) against the chamfered respond. Arrangement seems a little awkward.

PLATE 42A: BANAGHER CHURCH – NORTH RESPOND OF CHANCEL ARCH.

PLATE 43A: BANAGHER CHURCH- WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (EXTERIOR) [ORIGINAL PLATE WARPED].

260

top and moulding cut from single stone. Another window in northwest wall, same dimensions, 6 ft from ground, with similar head. No floor or roof. iii) MORTUARY HOUSE (Pl. 45a-b) 31 ft 6 ins southeast of chancel, in prominent position at top of steep southward slope. Built of neat coursed sandstone ashlar, very similar to chancel, on footing of large schist flags. 10 ft 8 ½ ins tong, 4 ft 9 ½ ins wide and 7 ft 3 ins high to ridge. House-shaped with roof stones cut to pitch and triangular apex. At east-end low-down chamfered offset. Elaborate west-end treatment with horizontal stringcourse and chamfered mouldings framing rectangular panel with standing figure of mitred ecclesiastic in relief. Full description, illustrations and discussion in Waterman 1960, 85, fig. 4 and pl. Xa; compare drawing, presumably inaccurate, in Petrie 1845, 454. Uncertain how much restoration done in past: ‘O.S. Memoir’ reports repaired ‘lately’ and Reeves notes ‘some repair’ since Petrie’s drawing (1850, 108).

PLATE 42B: BANAGHER CHURCH – NICHE IN EAST WALL OF CHANCEL.

PLATE 45A: BANAGHER MORTUARY HOUSE (MAX. HEIGHT 7’ 3”)FROM SOUTH-EAST.

PLATE 43B: BANAGHER CHURCHWINDOW IN SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL (INTERIOR).

ii) BUILDING. Known as ‘The Abbey’ or ‘The Residence’. About 50 ft north-northwest of church, outside graveyard, badly ruined and overgrown. Best description by Reeves (1850, 108), drawings in D.P.J. I, no. 48 (May 1833), 380, and good photograph in J.R.S.A.I. 45 (1915), 237. [553] Walls now stand 6 to 10 ft high, of large, roughly coursed, mortared rubble, too badly over-grown for careful examination. No datable features in present state. Reeves (loc. cit.) gives more detail: height to eaves 17 ft, to ridge 24 ft, 19 ft long by 14 ft wide. Door ‘in the gable next the church’ raised above ground. Window in northeast wall, outwardly 2 ft 6 ins by 4 ins with circular

PLATE 45B: BANAGHER MORTUARY HOUSE (MAX. HEIGHT 7’ 3”)FROM NORTH-WEST.

261

iv) CROSSES. Local tradition, reported by Lewis (1837, I, 177), were originally five crosses marking boundaries of church land or termon. There are now two crosses. Position shown in Fig. 41 (above).

2) (Pl. 46b and Fig. 46c). In Carnanbane townland, northwest of church, in field west of road, close to fence and loose. Single slab of schist. 2 ft 8 ins high, shaft 10 ins wide, 1 ft 9 ins across arms, and 3 ½ ins thick. One face concave. Very rough; less carefully shaped than no. 1. and chipped. Both previously mentioned, e.g. listed by Crawford 1907, 198, but not illustrated.

1) (Pl. 46a and Fig. 46c) 59 ft east of east-end of church, at edge of graveyard eminence. [554] Uncertain whether in situ - symmetrical placing suggests reset. Set with faces east-west, leaning to north. Single slab of schist, 3 ft 10 ins high, shaft 1 ft wide, 1 ft 7 ins across arms, and 2 ½ to 4 ½ ins thick. Very short, stumpy arms. West face slightly concave. Un-decorated.

FIG. 46C: BANAGHER ROUGH CROSSES.

v) BULLAUN (Pl. 47b) East-northeast of church, 24 ft northeast of cross 1, outside graveyard wall. Stone now earthfast, 2 ft 8 ins northeast-southwest by 1 ft 10 ins. Oval depression 1 ft 2 ins by 1 ft and 7 ins deep with evenly sloping sides, usually water-filled. No superstitions or traditions reported. Not previously mentioned in print or illustrated, but may be ‘stone font’ of ‘O.S. Memoir’, said to be in churchyard, but original position was: ‘between the cross which is nearest to Dungiven [no. 1?] and the road which passes by’. ‘O.S. Memoir’ also describes stone near mortuary house, measuring 20 by 13 ins with hole 3 ins diameter and deep. I have not seen this.

PLATE 46A: BANAGHER CROSS NO.1.

PLATE 47B: BANAGHER- BULLAUN STONE.

vi) WELLS. Dunraven (1875, 114) mentioned three holy wells ‘in the vicinity’ of Banagher. One was called ‘Tober Muireadhaigh’, but day of veneration unknown.

PLATE 46B: BANAGHER CROSS NO. 2.

262

Souterrain? Munn (1925, 72) refers to an ‘artificial cave’ near old church. No further details. I suspect this results from misinterpretation of Lewis (1837, I, 177) where reference seems to be to souterrain near present, not old, church.) Refs:

rubble with some dressed sandstone quoins. Part of original roofing survives on northeast side, of large stone flags set like tiles, dressed horizontally top and bottom. [556] Body of ‘house’ solid except for lintelled cavity, off-centre to south, broken at west-end and increasing in width eastwards. At east-end cavity contracts into small ‘hand-hole’, triangular, worn, cut in sandstone. Local tradition that this was St. Ringan’s tomb.

Many accounts of Banagher. Probably most useful of early accounts is Reeves 1850, 106-8; Reeves considered church ‘the most interesting of all the ecclesiastical ruins which remain in the diocese [of Derry]’ (op. cit., 106). Also Petrie in D.P.J. I, no. 48 (May 1833), 380-1, including report of Patrician traditions; Lewis 1837, I, 176-7; Dunraven 1875, 112-4; Champneys 1910, 101-2, 108-9, 228; Leask 1955, 835 and 1960, 65-6; P.S. 1940, 203-4; A.M.S.C. 1962, 96-7. Unpublished O.S. Memoir very full.

[555] 94. BOVEVAGH parish and townland. O.S. 24; C/667141. Does not appear in early calendars, and first reference in annals is 1100 when ‘The oratory (‘derthach’) of Both Medba was burned’ (A.I.). Reeves discusses saints associated with site (1850, 85). They are i) Adamnan; ii) Aidan son of Fintan, of O’Conors of Cianacht; iii) locally, Ringan; and iv) Leslie (1937, 125) following Archdall claims Columba as founder in 557. These associations confusing and vague. Medieval parish church with erenaghs to seventeenth century. Ruined medieval church in graveyard. SITE: between 275 and 300 ft, very strong, occupying east end of promontory with steep slopes down to south and east, and north to Bovevagh River. MATERIAL: i) MORTUARY HOUSE (Pl. 48a-b).

PLATE 48B: BOVEVAGH – MORTUARY-HOUSE (FROM EAST). Ref:

Drawing in Petrie 1845, 455; full description, drawings and photograph in Waterman 1960, 83-4, fig. 3 and p1. 9c.

ii) SOUTERRAIN. Lewis (1837, I, 218) reports ‘Near the old church is an artificial cave, 82 yards in length, with several galleries branching from it in different directions.’ No further details known. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 36 and 85, and 1857, lxiv; Leslie 1937, 123-5; P.S. 1940, 200; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 375.

95.

CAMUS (Macosquin) parish and townland. O.S. 7; C/870290.

Patron and perhaps founder, Comgall (see Bangor, Co. Down). Connection with Bangor apparently maintained at least to tenth century: 938 Muircertach Camsa, abbot of Bangor died (A.F.M.). Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ refers to Camus (Anderson 1961, 318-9): ‘monasterium sancti Comgil quod scotice dicitur Cambas’. In calendars associated with Colmán at 30 October in M.O., glossed ‘In Land Mocholmóc, however, he is, or in Cammas Comgaill’; also M.T. - M.G. glossed ‘an abbot, from Cammus Comgaill on the Bann’s brink, from Lann mo Cholmóic’ and M.D. At 22 January in M.O. ‘The departure of Comgall’s daughters’ glossed: ‘Or in Camus Comgaill are they, as others (assert)’, in M.T. named

PLATE 48A: BOVEVAGH – MORTUARY-HOUSE (FROM NORTH-WEST).

In prominent position, 5 ft west of southwest corner of ruined church, and orientated east-west. House-shaped, externally 8 ft 9 ins by 6 ft 6 ins and 7 ft high. Much ruined, especially at west end. Built mainly of mortared 263

‘Lasii et Columbae et Bogae’, also M.G. and M.D. Medieval parish church (erenaghs to early seventeenth century).

clear Baptism; three standing figures (Porter, loc. cit. above, suggests Journey to Emmaus); damaged, probably Loaves and Fishes. West: Adam and Eve; three figures, flankers holding or hitting third (Cain and Abel?); clear Ark; clear but damaged Sacrifice of Isaac. Sides: no figures; panels of interlace and bosses.

[557] In seventeenth century site abandoned for Macosquin. Now neglected graveyard, reported once much bigger.

Refs:

SITE: between 50 and 75 ft, valley floor, close to west of River Bann. Area was important crossing point of Bann: e.g. hosting in 1006 ‘... through Cinel-Eoghain, over Fertas-Camsa into Ulidia’ (A.U.). Trouble there in 1129 (A.I.). Also close to important fort Dun-da-bheann, possibly to be identified with Mountsandel downstream to north.

Porter 1931, 107, fig 165, 168, 206, 217, 222, 250, 251, 257; Sexton 1946, 78-9, gives full bibliography.

MATERIAL: i) CROSS (Pl. 49a-b). Damaged red sandstone crossshaft and base, set up in 1905 near gate in southeast part of graveyard. Chequered history, described by Lewis and Given (references below), including use as gatepost until 1905. Early schematic illustration in Sampson (1814, facing p. 222) shows two base stones, possibly misreading of stepped base.

PLATE 49B: CAMUS CROSS – SOUTH SIDE.

[558] ii) BULLAUN (P1. 58c)

PLATE 49A: CAMUS CROSS – WEST FACE.

Base: single stone, weathered, mended with concrete, undecorated as far as one can tell in present condition. 4 ft 8 ins by 3 ft 10 ins and 1 ft 6 ins high, with single step. Shaft: single stone, 6 ft 6 ins high and 1 ft 8 ins by 1 ft, broken at top. Edge battered, but clearly formerly angle rolls. Faces divided into panels, defined and linked by narrow, continuous fillets (except north face where horizontal fillets absent). Panels very worn. East: from bottom, standing figures flanking seated figure (Porter suggests Adoration of Magi, 1931, 107);

PLATE 58C: CAMUS - BULLAUN STONE.

7 ft from northwest wall of graveyard, near south corner of tomb of Hannah McFarland, 1842. Earthfast boulder, 3 ft 4 ins northeast-southeast by 2 ft 3 ins. Circular 264

depression towards south edge of stone, 1 ft 2 ins diameter and 5 ½ ins deep. Slope to south steeper than others, so maximum depth south of centre. Apparently frequented until early nineteenth century. Mentioned by Sampson 1814, 222; Given, M., in U.J.A. 11 (1905), 150, uses O.S. 1835 Memoir and gives dimensions slightly larger than mine (stone probably less buried - 3 ft 6 ins by 2 ft 6 ins by 1 ft). Not previously illustrated. Refs:

Lewis 1837, II 326-7; Reeves 1850, 83-4 and 1857, 96-7; Given loc. cit. above, 145-52; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 375.

96.

CHURCH ISLAND (Lough Beg), formerly Inis Toite and variants, Ballyscullion parish. O.S. 42; H/974946.

ii) BULLAUN (P1. 58a) South of graveyard wall, near foot of slope to shore. Large pentagonal boulder, about 3 ft east-west by 2 ft 6 ins. Depression slightly oval, 9 ins northeast-southwest by 8 ½ ins and 4 ½ ins deep with evenly sloping sides. Seems still occasionally frequented for cures. Mentioned by Lewis 1837, I, 165 and P.S. 1940, 212. Not previously illustrated.

Toite at 7 September in M.T., ‘Toite on Loch Echach’; in M.G. glossed ‘of Inis Toite on Loch Becc in Húi Tuirtri’, and M.D. Plundering and killing in ‘Inis Taite’ by Ulidians in 1129 (A.I.). Medieval parish church; erenaghs of Ballyscullion or Inistede to early seventeenth century. Mulholland family, hereditary keepers of ‘St. Patrick’s Bell’ (see Armagh), lived in this parish. Church ruinous 1622 and fortified 1643 (see below). Tower and spire added 1788 to improve view from Ballyscullion House. Ruined church (late medieval) in large graveyard. Island densely overgrown.

PLATE 58A: CHURCH ISLAND - BULLAUN STONE. Refs:

SITE: to southeast of 7 acre island, now tidal but still very difficult access.

[560] 97 Clondermot (Glendermott) parish since 1860, previously attached to deanery of Derry.

[559] Steep slopes down to water on south and east. Many stones all round island. To south of church rough jetty of boulders, at least 30 ft long.

Published accounts of parish very confusing. Munn 1925, 91, and Leslie 1927, 233, seem based on Lewis 1837, I, 661 (his source?), and Reeves 1850 is less helpful than usual. Clooney, Dergbruagh and Enagh are all early sites (q.v.) and were medieval chapels in Clondermot parish. I visited church site and graveyard at C/445129 (O.S. 20) on west bank of Burngibbagh River, between 75 and 100 ft, but am uncertain how early a site this is. Circular raised nuclear area of burials.

MATERIAL: i) possible ENCLOSURE west and northwest of graveyard is a low bank, about 20 ft wide, with stones visible through turf. Runs north-south for about 130 ft, then curves eastnortheast, disappearing into undergrowth northwest of churchyard wall. (I had only a short time on the island because of the water-level, and have not been able to return to plan the bank.) In area between bank and churchyard wall a number of stones, some set in line, roughly parallel to bank. This area available for excavation, but church known to have been fortified in l640s. Poem written here 4 February 1643 includes these lines:

MATERIAL: BULLAUNS in Altnagelvin townland. O.S. 14; about C/456149. One built into wall of inn (formerly demesne) garden, hole only exposed, diameter 10 ins, depth 8 ins, with outlet hole. Rest of stone rendered over. Another reported in nearby boulder, which I could not find, hollow also 10 ins diameter and 8 ins deep. Davies suggests they may come from Clondermot graveyard, but this is only speculation, and no certain ecclesiastical associations.

‘…The Chancell’s made or Magazine Soe that our Church thus arm’d may vaunt She’s truly now made militant. With workes we have inviron’d round And turn’d or Churchyard to a Pounde.’ Bank may, therefore, belong to late militant phase rather than much earlier ecclesiastical use. Surroundings of church too densely overgrown to explore for further traces. Ref:

Reeves 1850, 83; Leslie 1937, 114; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 31, mention connection with Mochonna, perhaps of Killyman (Co. Armagh), apparently based on Colgan. For stone trial pieces from this parish see River Bann.

Refs:

Davies, O., in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 141, and references above.

98.

CLOONEY townland, Clondermot parish. O.S. 20; C/442175.

Although popularly ‘St. Columb’s’, medieval patron seems to have been Brecan: Colton’s Visitation (1397) ‘quandam ecclesiam parochialem sancti Brackani, situatam in terris de Clone, Derensis diocesis, prope

U.J.A. 8 (1860), 165-6, for the poem.

265

fluvium Deria ex parte orientali, quo quidem terre ad ecclesiam Ardmachanam pertinere noscuntur…’ (Reeves 1850, 31-2). Uncertain whether Brecan of Ardbracken (Mea.) or another.

100.

CUMBER parish, Ballynameen townland. O.S. 23; C/538068.

Traditionally one of foundations in area of River Faughan: ‘Tripartite Life’: ‘Thereafter Patrick goes into Daigurt into Mag Dula. Seven churches he hath at the river Fochaine ...’ but not identified with any of the seven ‘domnach’ sites listed (Stokes 1887, 155).

[561] This has been claimed as site of Patrician foundation ‘Domnach Min-Cluane’ (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 155, identified by editor as Clooney). Armagh reference (see above) interesting in this connection, and one of divisions of Clowney listed in early seventeenth century inquisition is ‘Rossedony’ (Reeves, op. cit. 32), but more work needed on place-names and tenurial history to test this hypothesis further. Suffered during unsettled years of late twelfth century: 1179 Cluane (and other sites) desolated by men of Magh-Itha (A.U.) and 1197 Roitsel Fitton pillaged ‘Cluain-I’ (and other sites, A.U.). Probably site mentioned in O’Donnell’s ‘Life of Columba’ (1532) (O’Kelleher and Schoepperle 1918, 85). Ruined church on site probably of about 1600.

Medieval parish church; erenagh land listed early seventeenth century. Ruined eighteenth-century church in crowded graveyard. SITE (Fig. 39b): promontory, between 250 and 275 ft, high above River Faughan, close to confluence with River Glenrandal.

SITE: between 50 and 75 ft, on small eminence above Foyle flood plain with stream to east. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Surrounding ditch mentioned in P.S. 1940, 194 not now visible. HOLY WELL to southeast, known as St. Columb’s Well. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 31-2; J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 283-4, discusses possible Patrician identification, and photograph of church p. 284.

99.

COLERAINE parish in Connor diocese. O.S. 7.

FIG. 39B: CUMBER PROMONTORY SITE.

Exact site of early church uncertain. Tírechán refers to Patrick blessing ‘locum in quo est cellola Culie Raithin’ (Stokes 1887, 329), and ‘Tripartite Life’ to gift of land to Patrick for cell, and Patrick foretells bishop Coirbre will be there: ‘It is he who is in Cúil Raithin on the brink of the Bann in the east ...’ (idem. 167). ‘Carbre of Cúil Rathin’ at 11 November in M.O., also M.G. and M.D., probably mid-sixth century. Columba received at Culrathin by bishop Conall (Anderson 1961, 318-21).

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

[562] All following references from A.U. Coleraine burned 731; Airmedach, abbot, killed by Vikings 932; and erenaghs died 989, 1110 and 1122. Massacres and plunderings 1101 and 1171; and 1177 John de Courcy ‘burned Cuil-rathain and many other churches’. Malachy visited ‘civitas Culratim’ (Lawlor 1920, 85). Buildings thought to have been destroyed finally when castle built, early thirteenth century. A monastery damaged in warfare 1404 (M.I.A.). Reeves suggested area of Shambles on east bank of Bann, but uncertain.

[563] 1197 (A.U.): patrons given as Columbkille, Canice and Brecan (see Faughanvale). Patron of Dergbruagh probably Canice (see also Drumachose).

NO EARLY MATERIAL REPORTED.

NO EARLY MATERIAL REPORTED.

Refs:

Refs:

Lewis 1837, I, 444, for Patrician tradition; Reeves 1850, 856; Leslie 1937, 171-3.

101.

Dergbruagh, Gransha townland, Clondermot parish. O.S. 14; C/461197 (church site marked on 1933 sheet 14, not earlier editions).

With Clooney and Enagh pillaged by Roitsel Fitton

Medieval chapel. Graveyard and church site not visited. SITE: just under 100 ft, on slope westwards to Foyle estuary, only ½ mile west of Enagh.

Reeves 1847, 75, 247 and 1857, 97-8; O’Laverty 1887, 1604; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 33.

Refs:

266

Reeves 1850, 31, brief note only.

102.

DERRY Templemore parish and townland. O.S. 14.

[563] MATERIAL: sadly little from such an important site. No grounds for thinking Long Tower, which stood until seventeenth century, was ecclesiastical round tower, and Sampson’s illustration (1814, facing p. 217) was a windmill (‘O.S. Templemore’ 1837, 25).

Early name ‘Daire-Calgaich’; ‘Daire-Columcille’ only from tenth century onward. A.U. gives foundation date 546, but ‘the date is little to be trusted’ (Anderson 1961, 71). Founded apparently before Columba went to Iona (563). Late sources like A.F.M. and O’Donnell’s ‘Life of Columba’ give much circumstantial detail about foundation, but earliest sources unhelpful. Daire-Calcig mentioned only three times in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ (place, not monastery); not at all by Bede (who mentions Durrow), Succession of abbots can be worked out from annals (Reeves 1857, 370-413). All following references from A.U. Obit of scribe 724; burned 788; victory over Vikings at Derry 833 but plundered by Vikings 990; coarbs and erenaghs appear from tenth century onwards. Many topographical references in twelfth century: 1122 ‘Mael-Coluim Ua Brolchain died on pilgrimage in the disert of Derry’. (There is a gap in A.U. from 1132 to 1153.) 1162: ‘Total separation of the houses from the churches of Daire was made by [Flaithbertach Ua Brolchain, abbot] and by the King of Ireland, that is by Muircertach Ua Lochlainn; where were demolished eighty houses, or something more.

i) BULLAUN (Pl. 58b). Built into base of Calvary group at Long Tower Roman Catholic church in late nineteenth century after lying loose in St. Columb’s Wells. Irregular rectangle (basalt), 3 ft 1 in. long, 2 ft 4 ins high. In exposed face two hollows with trace of third to left. Right: 11 ins diameter, 7 ins deep; left: 1 ft diameter, 8 ins deep; extreme left: diameter about 4 ins and very shallow. Slopes of sides very asymmetrical: steeper at ‘bottom’ as now set. Two hollows also on reverse side, now hidden. Known as St. Columb’s stone. Drawing and description in ‘O.S. Templemore’ 1837, 26.

[564] And the stone wall at the centre was likewise built by the successor of Colum-cille, and malediction upon him who should come over it for ever.’ 1163: ‘A limekiln, wherein are sixty feet on every side, was made by the [same abbot] and by the community of Colum-cille in the space of twenty days.’ 1164: ‘The great church [‘Teampull Mór’] of ferry was built ... And the [top] stone of that great church, wherein there are ninety feet [in length] was completed within the space of forty days.’ 1166: ‘Daire Colum-cille was burned for the greater part and the Dubh-regles was burned, a thing unheard of from ancient times.’ 1177: A cleric’s house burned. 1178: A great wind ‘prostrated also six score oaks or a little more ...’ 1185: A burial ‘beside the small church’. 1192: ‘the door of the refectory of Dubh-regles was made ...’ 1197: A robbery (four goblets) from the great altar of the great church. 1204: ‘Derry was burned from the Cemetery of Martin to the Well of Adomhnan,’ Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 67-8) trace ecclesiastical history of twelfth and thirteenth centuries in detail.

PLATE 58B: DERRY - BULLAUN STONE.

ii) WELLS. Three wells, traditionally Columba’s, Adamnan’s and Martin’s, in street called St. Columb’s Wells. Formerly frequented but now covered over. Reeves refers to ‘Gospel of St Martin’, said to have been Derry’s chief relic in the twelfth century (1857, 324-6). See also Dunboe. Recent sad events in Derry could provide opportunity for excavation in central area.

See transferred from Rath Luraig (Maghera) to Derry in 1254. Dubh Regles was the Columban foundation. O’Donnell’s ‘Life’ reports church built north-south to avoid damage to oak grove: ‘the ruins of that church remaining to this day’ (1520, O’Kelleher and Schoepperle, 1918). Gwynn and Hadcock suggest Dubh Regles became Augustinian monastery (Arroasian) early thirteenth century (1970, 168-9). Teampull Mór was the medieval cathedral. Damaged during Elizabethan wars. Little in sources to help in reconstructing position of buildings: some confusion in secondary sources (e.g. Lewis 1837, II, 304).

Refs:

Most important account is O.S. Templemore 1837, not superseded; Sampson 1814, especially 216-20; Reeves 1857, 161-1, 227-8; J.R.S.A.I. 45 (1915), 209-21; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 67-8 and 168-9.

103.

Desertlyn parish in Armagh diocese, Ballymully townland. O.S. 46; H/842845.

Medieval parish church but history unknown. Rectors appear in Armagh registers from 1365 onwards. Ruined church, probably church ‘almost finished’ in [566] 1622, in large, polygonal graveyard, with traces of bank in north part of yard.

SITE: Promontory, between 50 and 100 ft, in bend of River Foyle. 267

SITE: between 225 and 250 ft, on promontory, about 400 ft from river to southwest.

southeast of graveyard, close to stream. Filled in late nineteenth century.

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

iii) Lewis (loc. cit. above) mentions small FORT and large SOUTERRAIN with three chambers near church, but no further details.

Refs:

No published account of church or site; Leslie 1911, 221-3, for history.

104.

DESERTMARTIN parish, townland. O.S. 41; H/855921.

Refs:

Knocknagin

(Domnach Airthir Ardda, see Tamlaghtard.)

Patron unknown. Reeves (1850, 83) points out St. Martin’s Cemetery and Gospel at Derry (see above), but Martan an Irish name, and connection with Martin of Tours must not be assumed. Medieval parish with erenaghs. Church here used until nineteenth century. Graveyard with overgrown church foundations.

(Domnach Min-Cluane, see Clooney.) (Domnach Sonliss see Killennan and Mullaboy,) 106.

SITE: under 200 ft, beside river in bend of Grange Water; immediate surroundings very damp.

105.

Reeves 1850, 83; Leslie 1937, 180-3; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 379.

DESERTOGHILL parish, townland. O.S. 26; C/851147.

DRUMACHOSE parish, Fruithill (formerly Drenagh) townland. O.S. 10; C/693231.

Founder and patron Cainnech (Canice): listed in calendars at 11 October, and chief church Aghaboe (Co. Laois), but native of this area, ‘of the Corcu Dalann, a branch of the Cianachta Glinne Gaimen’ (Kenney 1929, 394). Contemporary of Columba. Meeting at Druim Ceit, attended by Columba, probably held nearby in Mullagh townland (Anderson 1961, 314-7 and P.S. 1940. 191).

NO EARLY MATERIAL, but re-used in north part of west wall of graveyard many large dressed polygonal blocks of red sandstone, presumably from church. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 75 and 80; Leslie 1937, 183-6; P.S. 1940, 200.

[568] Title ‘comarb of Cainnech in Cianacht’ found, e.g. 1056, 1090, 1207 (A.U.), and later, e.g. ‘Armagh Registers 1458’. Lands known as ‘Termon-Conny’ (‘Termon of Cainnech’) in early seventeenth century. Clearly important medieval parish. In 1306 Taxation linked with Aghanloo, Balteagh and Tamlaght Finlagan under heading ‘de Ro’ (from River Roe). Church reported ruined by 1622. Substantial ruin of thirteenth-century church in neglected graveyard.

Ballynameen

Claimed by Colgan to be Columban foundation, and patron of medieval parish church was Columba (Reeves 1857, 284). Name from erenagh family, O’Tuahills. Ruined church, in use as parish church until late eighteenth century, in graveyard. SITE: between 275 and 300 ft, close to west of northflowing tributary of Agivey River.

SITE: about 100 ft. Graveyard forms considerable mound on ridge, with level dropping sharply to west and south to tributary of River Roe.

MATERIAL: i) BULLAUN. ‘St. Colmbkille’s Stone’ marked by O.S. in field north of graveyard.

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

[567] Described by Lewis (1837, I, 458) as stone with two rude fonts, popularly made by Columba’s knees, in graveyard. Brown, J., in J.R.S.A.I. 18 (1887-8), 332-3, drew attention to stone, then in adjoining field, and suggested it was for reception of exposed children!

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 374 and 1850, 132-3; Plummer 1910, I, 152169 for Latin Life; Kenney 1929, 3914-5; Leslie 1937, 2016; P.S. 1940, 191-2; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 34.

107.

DUNBOE parish, Downhill townland. OS. 2; C/758354.

I have found no early reference to patron. Lewis reports tradition: ‘It is stated that St. Patrick founded the old church here’ (1837, I, 67). ‘A manuscript of the Gospels, called “the Gospel of Martin”, traditionally believed to have been brought with him to Ireland by St. Patrick, was preserved in Dunboe till 1182’ (Reeves 1850, 83 and A.F.M. 1182). Colgan gives Adamnan as patron. Important early secular site in parish, Dun Cethirn, mentioned in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ (Anderson 1961, e.g. 314-7) and scene of battle in 629 and burning in 681 (A.U., and Reeves 1857, 94-6). Medieval parish with erenaghs to early seventeenth century.

In J.R.S.A.I. 22 (1892), 434-5, mysterious story of moving stone to Garvagh in October 1892, and subsequent disappearance: uncertain whether deed done by Roman Catholics or Protestants: ‘who almost to a man are greatly averse to it.’ Believed associated with church since foundation by Columba. Dimensions given: irregular square of 2 ft, less than 1 ft high, with two hollows near centre. This is the last heard of this stone; any stone answering to this description in the area? ii) Site of St. Columbkille’s WELL in Kurin townland,

268

Badly ruined church in graveyard, with high circular nuclear area. Church used until late seventeenth century.

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

church foundations west of fence. Believed ploughed up on east- (cemetery-) side. Erect slab, face and sides carefully dressed, top somewhat rounded but chipped. Visible height 4 ft (earlier accounts 4 ft 6 ins), 1 ft 9 ins wide at top, 1 ft 4 ins at bottom and 11 ins thick. On east face Latin cross with two bars in low relief (about ½ in.). Bottom of shaft unclear.

Refs:

Refs:

SITE: about 200 ft on southwest-facing hill slope above river valley which opens to the sea.

Reeves 1850, 77, 84, 86; Leslie 1937, 213-4; P.S. 19240, 186. 108.

Buick, G.R., ‘On a double cross at Duncrun, County Derry’ in J.R.S.A.I. 33 (1903), 41-5, drawing and poor photograph; Crawford 1912, 227; P.S. 1940, 187.

[569] 108. DUNCRUN townland and formerly parish (now Magilligan). O.S. 5; C/682324. According to ‘Tripartite Life’ founded by Patrick: ‘He founded churches there [Ard Dailauig], namely Dun Cruithne. He left bishop Beo-aed there ...‘(Stokes 1887, 160-1). I cannot trace Beo-aed in calendars, and nothing more known of early history. A bishop of Armagh died ‘in Dun Cruthnai ’ in 1185 (A.U.): is this Duncrun? Erenagh of Dun cruithne died in 1207 (A.U.). Medieval parish church, disused by Plantation. Site known locally as ‘Canon(’s) Brae’, pasture, divided by fence with church site to west and cross slab (see below) in fence on east side. Local traditions include Viking raids. SITE: about 150 ft, on local hillock on northeastsouthwest ridge, falling steeply northwest-wards to Foyle flood plain. Farmer notes dark on hill, different from local red soil. From distance top of hill looks artificially heightened. MATERIAL: i) CHURCH. No sign now of church reported by Reeves as 35 ft by 19 ft, but much stone in fence including sandstone and some stones with mortar adhering.

PLATE 54B: DUNCRUN - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

[570] Very promising for excavation, though earliest occupation probably disturbed by medieval use and burials. Surface indications suggest soil in places very thin. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 84; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 382.

109.

DUNGIVEN parish and townland. O.S. 31; 0/692083.

‘Noble Nechtan from Alba’ at 8 January in M.O. glossed: ‘from the east, from Scotland is his kindred, i.e. of Dun Geimin in Ciannachta of Glenn Geimin. Or in Scotland is Nechtain.’ Also in M.T., M.G, (here ‘a holy virgin’), and M.D. with date 678. This arises from suggested identification with Neachtan Neir who died 679 (A.U.). Otherwise early history obscure. Strong local Patrician traditions (see St. Patrick’s stone’ and ‘altar’ below). Obits of priors appear in A.U. from 1207 onwards, and Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 174) trace history as house of Augustinian canons until suppression. Problem surrounds date of start of Augustinian house here. Alemand (1722, quoted in Gwynn and Hadcock, loc. cit. above) and Sir James Ware (Reeves 1850, 41) attribute foundation to O’Cahans in 1100, and this date often

FIG. 47B: DUNCRUN - CROSS-CARVED STONE.

ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 54b and Fig. 47b) set against east-side of fence, but in Reeves’s time inside 269

quoted, but this is early, both for O’Cahans and Augustinians here. Mid-twelfth century seems more likely. In medieval times closely associated with O’Cahans and O’Murrays. Repaired 1622 and used for Protestant worship until early eighteenth century. Ruined church in state care in large, crowded graveyard.

probably for seventeenth century re-use, but follows early line. [572] At southwest angle early wall and angle pilaster stand four courses high. Plan at southwest angle complicated by foundations of tower which fell in 1784 as result of treasure-hunting at its base. Best early description and illustration of tower by Shaw Mason (1814, 302 and fig. facing p. 302): ‘it formed a part of the building itself ... the lower part was square until it reached the roof of the building, from thence to the extremity the tower was circular.’

SITE: very strong. About 300 ft, promontory, with very steep slopes to River Roe to south. [571] End of promontory, west of church, suggested by several writers as possible site for secular (O’Cahan?) stronghold. Equally suitable for early ecclesiastical occupation. Dungiven is now, and must always have been, important route centre near meeting of several river valleys and at west-end of Glenshane Pass through Sperrin Mountains. MATERIAL: i) CHURCH (Pl. 50a-c and Fig. 45b). (Not correctly orientated but described as though it were.)

FIG. 45B: DUNGIVEN CHURCH SKETCH PLAN.

PLATE 50A: DUNGIVEN CHURCH – EXTERIOR WINDOW IN SOUTH SIDE OF NAVE.

I have not been able to take full account of excavation done here since 1968. Now two cells, but older part is nave, substantially probably of about 1100, with later alterations. Davies (1939, passim) seriously underestimates amount of early work in nave, as does P.S. 1940, 205-6. Masonry best seen at northeast angle of nave, and southeast and southwest angles where recently exposed. Walls of sandstone ashlar, irregularly sized but neatly coursed with narrow mortar joints. External offset projects 3 ins. Square- sectioned pilaster shaft clasps northeast angle, 10 ins wide, projecting 21 to 3 ins. Lowest courses of similar shafts at southeast and southwest angles. From northeast angle pilaster run three horizontal bands 12 ins wide along east wall. No pilasters or bands visible elsewhere. Early masonry of north wall interrupted by inserted fourteenth-century window and seventeenth-century door, and top to or three courses rebuilt (or wall heightened). South wall of nave more weathered so less regular appearance, but substantially same build. Partly rebuilt at west-end, at southeast angle (above two courses of angle pilaster) and patch of rubble blocking door. One original window in south wall, roundheaded, internally splayed, externally framed by projecting, square-sectioned architrave (Pl. 50a and compare Banagher above). West wall largely rebuilt,

PLATE 50B: DUNGIVEN CHURCH – ARCADE IN EAST WALL OF NAVE.

270

Illustration shows tower corbelled inwards at gable height and small windows, as of a stair. Reeves (1850, 41) reported height as about 50 ft. Recent excavation seems to show square foundation in southwest angle is part of original build, presumably to support tower, but of course no certainty tower shown by nineteenth century illustrator is this early tower. Interior nave walls much patched and partly obscured by rendering. Interior east wall perhaps remodeled in twelfth century when round arched recesses inserted (?) probably blind arcading. Uncertain how many originally as central area disturbed by later chancel arches. Two partly exposed at extreme north- and south-ends of east wall of nave. Three-quarter round attached shafts with (northside) fluted cap and roll necking, and fluted reeded base, also with roll necking (Pl. 50b). Chancel probably added in thirteenth century, and substantial seventeenth century changes.

PLATE 51A: DUNGIVEN- THORN TREE WITH RAGS AT BULLAUN.

iii) HOLE STONE reported by Davies (1939, 286 and p1. XVIa, i) and P.S. 1940, 206, as standing east of church, to south of sunken path. I have looked carefully for this on several occasions and have never seen it. Many stones in area are fallen and turf-covered. Davies (1oc. cit.) gives dimensions 2 ft 6 ins by 1 ft 5 ins with hole 4 ½ins diameter. iv) ‘CELL’. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’: ‘To the west of the old church, and immediately at the foot of the bank on which it is situated, there are the remains of what appears to have been a small cell. The sides are vaulted, and the architecture apparently of an old date. It is not one hundred yards from the church.’ This seems to have disappeared. Davies 1939, fig. 5, p. 284, reproduces O.S. 1835 sketch view and section showing corbelling. Diameter at base about 10 ft and standing about 8 ft high. v) ‘CLOUGH PATRICK’. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’: ‘At the old church on the rocks at the bed of the river there are in one place two holes called Clough Patrick. They are considered by the country people as of ‘ancient standing’. It is said that there were formerly two more higher up ...” Davies 1939, 286, reproduces O.S. material on ‘St. Patrick’s Altar’ and ‘St. Patrick’s Stone’. I could not find these.

PLATE 50C: DUNGIVEN CHURCH – EXTERIOR NORTH-EAST ANGLE OF NAVE.

(Other buildings: recent excavation has shown buildings south and west of nave. These are probably conventual buildings of Augustinian Abbey, so fall outside scope of present study.)

Shaw Mason’s detailed account (1814, 328) applies name ‘Clough Patrick’ to standing stone still visible east of church.

ii) BULLAUN (P1. 51a) East-northeast of church, north of sunken path, close to fence and much obscured by bushes, moss and rags. Large boulder (schist, according to P.S. 1940, 206), about 3 ft 6 ins north-south by 1 ft 3 ins, and over 1 ft high (obscured).

[574] He reports stations included Toberpatrick (see below), stones at River Roe, church, and finally standing stone. vi) HOLY WELL. O.S. marks Toberpatrick northnorthwest of church at C/692086. Not visited.

[573] Depression 1 ft 4 ins north-south by 1 ft 3 ins and about 1 ft deep. Slope of side to south steeper than elsewhere. On west-side hole partly breaks out to side of boulder. Still much frequented for cures. P.S. 1940, 206, and photograph in Davies 1939, p1. XVIa, 2.

Refs:

271

Shaw Mason 1814, 296 f.; Sampson 1814, 225-6, 328 and fig. facing 328; Petrie in D.P.J. I, no. 51 (June 1833), 404-5; Reeves 1850, 41-2; Champneys 1910, 102, p1. XLV; Davies 1939 passim; A.M.S.C. 1962, 93-5, best recent description of church; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 174.

110.

ENAGH Clondermot parish, Templetown townland. O.S. 14; C/468194.

Certainly church here in 1197 when pillaged (with Clooney and Dergbruagh) by Roitsel Fitton (A.U.) and early seventeenth century inquisition mentions erenagh (Reeves 1850, 29). ‘Colomb [glossed] a priest, from Enach’ at 22 September in M.G. and M.D. may belong here; ‘Maelan of Enach’ at 4 January in M.T., M.G. and M.D. also suggested, but there are several possible Enach places. Colum Crag of Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ suggested by Colgan as patron (Anderson 1961, 206-9). Much discussion of early history on very slender evidence: Sampson suggested Patrician church ‘Domnach-dola’ (1814, 224-5), Canice suggested in J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 282-3; Columba by Munn (1925, 93), but none of these seems firmly founded. Could Enagh be scene of dramatic 1165 event (M.I.A.)? Son of king of Ulaid captured at Camus Comhghaill, taken to Inis Aonaigh and blinded ‘in violation of the protection of Patrick’s coarb, the ‘Bachall Iosa’, ‘Clog an Udhachta’, ‘Soisgèala Martain’, ‘Miosach Cairnigh’, the three shrines in Teampall na Sgrín, together with the relics of the north of Ireland’. Was medieval chapel of Clondermot. Ruined medieval church with added transept in neglected graveyard.

PLATE 132C: ENAGH – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 28-9 and 1857, 19.

111.

ERRIGAL parish, Ballintemple townland. O.S. 18; C/811149.

Early history obscure, but according to Colgan, Adamnan was patron, and old form of name was ‘Errigal-Adamnan’ (Reeves 1850, 80-1). Lewis confidently states: ‘A monastery was founded here by St. Columb in 589, which flourished until the ninth century, when it was plundered and destroyed by the Danes’ (1837, I, 608). Later writers have repeated this, e.g. Leslie (1937, 221) and most recently Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 383-4), but I have found no evidence. Medieval parish church with erenaghs to seventeenth century. Graveyard with grass-grown church foundations.

[575] SITE (Fig. 40a): hillock, about 50 ft high, between Lough Enagh East and West, with steep drop from graveyard to East Lough. Crannog in East Lough excavated: material mainly prehistoric, a little Early Christian (Davies, O., in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 88-101). Island in East Lough was site of chief seat of O’Cahans in medieval period.

SITE: between 500 and 525 ft, on fringe of hills flanking valley of Agivey River ¼ mile to south. MATERIAL: i) BULLAUN (P1. 59a). In farmyard, southwest of graveyard. Basalt boulder, 2 ft 9 ins east-west by 2 ft 6 ins and at least 1 ft high (P.S. 1940 gives 26 Ins). Circular hollow, diameter 1 ft 1 in. and 6 ins deep, usually waterfilled. Not previously illustrated. Ref:

P.S. 1940, 197, but location no longer as stated there.

FIG. 40A: LOCATION OF ENAGH.

MATERIAL: none certainly early. CROSS of uncertain date (P1. 132c) north of west-end of church and east of graveyard gate, small rough schist cross, set east-west 1 ft 9 ins high, shaft 10 ins wide, 1 ft 4 ins across arms, 2 to 3 ins thick. Chipped and lichencovered. Traces of letters on east-side. Seem to be ‘701’ above ‘OF’ and do not appear to be part of longer inscription. Not previously mentioned. PLATE 59A: ERRIGAL - BULLAUN STONE.

272

[576] ii) SOUTERRAIN. Large rock-cut souterrain of roughly cruciform plan in field north of graveyard. Excavated in 1933; very mixed finds including prehistoric implements. Report in U.J.A. 2 (1939), 82-3 (plan 83, sections 85).

113.

Name suggests patron Cronaghan (Cruithnechan), and Columba’s foster-father, ‘the priest Cruithnechan’ of Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’, suggested (Anderson 1961, 466-9), though in O’Donnell’s late ‘Life’ associated with Temple Douglas (Co. Donegal). Cruithnechan does not appear in early calendars. Medieval parish with erenaghs to early seventeenth century. Ruined church in neglected graveyard.

St. Onan’s Rock. About ½ mile west of church, in Gortnamoyagh townland. Name from ‘Adamnan’ or ‘Eunan’, otherwise the ‘Giant’s Track’, or ‘Shane’s Leap’. Reported to have hollows like footprints. Not precisely located or visited. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 75, 80-1, and 1857, lxiv; P.S. 1940, 197.

112.

FAUGHANVALE parish and townland. O.S. 15; C/580209.

SITE: between 300 and 325 ft, on slight local eminence in low foothills of Sperrin Mountains, at south edge of Moyola valley. MATERIAL: present ruin is of church rebuilt (or remodeled) in 1806, incorporating earlier ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENTS. Earliest of these may be late Romanesque, but possibly later.

Name not from River Faughan, but Irish ‘Nua Chongbhail’ (‘New Habitation’, as in Noughaval (Co. Kerry), Conwall (Co. Donegal) and elsewhere: see Reeves 1850, 79).

1) Niche reset in south wall of chancel, close to southeast angle: opening 3 ft 1 in. high, 8 ½ ins wide.

Medieval parish church with erenaghs in early seventeenth century. In early seventeenth-century inquisition called ‘Ecciesia vetus S. Conici’ (Reeves, loc. cit. above), suggesting patron Canice (see Drumachose). 1197: ‘defeat for Roitsel Fitton on the strand of the Nuathcongbhail [and] they were slaughtered to a large number ... through a miracle of Colum-cille and Cainnech and Brecan [whose churches] they pillaged there’ (A.U., see also Clooney, Dergbruagh and Enagh).

[578] As now set, splays out into wall thickness, and internally rebated and hollow chamfered with sloping sill. All in sandstone. Hollow chamfer suggests unlikely before thirteenth century. Probably window reset as aumbry. 2) West porch incorporates several re-used mouldings including jamb with deeply moulded angle roll.

Extensive ruin of church in graveyard. Dense ivy prevents close examination, but church may be thirteenthcentury. P.S. 1940, 195, gives dimensions 60 ft by 18 ft. Walls of schist rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. Clasping angle buttresses at northwest and southwest corners. Narrow east and west windows, but no datable details visible. P.S. 1940, 195, uses ‘O.S. Memoir’:

3) Other fragments certainly later, including pieces grooved for glass and thirteenth-century triple attached moulded capitals.

[577] Faughanvale, Drumachose and Balteagh churches similar architecture. O’Hanlon (‘Lives of Irish Saints’, vol. I, 333) reproduces 1636 sketch of Faughanvale church by Du Noyer which suggests transitional window. Further comment must await clearance of greenery.

NO EARLY MATERIAL (with possible exception of church: see above). Reeves 1850, 79. Index to T.L.P. (Stokes 1887) suggests ‘Telach Maine’ (p. 175) may be Tullamaine townland in this parish. I have not pursued this further.

in

Lucas

1967,

219),

Reeves 1850, 82 and 1857, 191; U.J.A. 4 (1941), 142 and fig. 2, p. 140 (moulding a) incorrect).

114.

KILLELAGH formerly parish, Tirnony (formerly Carrowmenagh) townland. O.S. 36; C/839019.

SITE: between 325 and 350 ft, southeast of Killelagh Lough on south-facing hill slope, overlooking Moyola valley. Close to (east of) important route: old road across Carntogher from Maghera to Dungiven.

(Glendermott, see Clondermot) (Gransha (Grange Dergbruagh.)

Refs:

Reeves records Kieran as patron, and points out Tullykeeran townland nearby, but no early source cited (Reeves 1850, 82). ‘Ulster Visitation Book’, 1622, refers to ‘S. Cremorii’ and to church as ‘ruinous’ (U.J.A. 2 (1896), 254). Medieval parish church with erenaghs. Ruined church, probably medieval, but no datable features, at west-end of rough enclosure, presumably graveyard but no headstones visible, grazed and neglected.

SITE: about 125 ft, on west-facing valley side of Sheskin River, flowing north to sea.

Refs:

KILCRONAGHAN parish, Mormeal townland. O.S. 41; H/815948.

see

MATERIAL: BULLAUNS. 1) (Fig. 84c). Stone lying 16 ft north of northeast corner of ruined church, one of group of three

(Inis Toite, see CHURCH ISLAND.) 273

large stones. About 4 ft 6 ins north-south by 3 ft and 1 ft high with two hollows, both oval. Larger to north (7 ins north-south by 6ins and 4 ins deep); smaller (6ins northsouth by 5 ins and 1- ins deep). Basalt. This stone described in J.R.S.A.I. 19 (1889), 247, and said used formerly for kneeling and praying. Graveyard used for un-baptised children.

hill into next field. Much stone, especially slabs of schist, loose and in field fence. SITE: Northwest-facing hill slope, about 400 ft, on fringes of hills bordering Faughan valley, with extensive views to west (Fig. 47c).

FIG. 84C: KILLELLAGH - STONE WITH HOLES SEEN IN PLAN.

[579] 2) (Pl. 59b). Near bend in path at approach to graveyard, on east side of path, 58 ft south of entrance to graveyard. Basalt, stone partly obscured, 4 ft. northwestsoutheast by 1 ft 4+ ins and at least 1 ft 4 ins high. Hole in upper surface towards southwest side, 11 ins northsouth by 10 ins east-west and about 5 ins deep; sides of fairly even slope. Mentioned in J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 317 and 33 (1903), 88.

FIG. 47C: LOCATION OF KILLIENAN.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. O. S. also marks ‘Seinlis Fort’ nearby to east-northeast. My guide could not point this out to me and knew nothing about it. Fort has caused speculation that this is site of Patrician ‘Domnach Senliss’, one of seven churches in Faughan area (Stokes 1887, 5). Nearness to townland Lettershendony to northwest is interesting. See also Mullaboy. Refs:

O.S. Lists useful in confusing area, p. 53; Munn 1925, 111-3.

[580] 116. Killowen small parish on west side of River Bann, included in borough of Coleraine. PLATE 59B: KILLELAGH - BULLAUN STONE.

Appears in 1306 Taxation as ‘Drumtarssi’, and in 1609 found to have only parson and no erenagh, though later patent mentions ‘termon or erenagh land of Killowen’.

In J.R.SA.I. 32 (1902), 317, tradition of a HOLY WELL mentioned, patron unknown. Lewis (1837, II, 138) refers to SOUTERRAIN in Tirnony townland, but gives no details. Refs:

115.

‘Ulster Visitation Book’ 1622 reported: ‘small church, meanly repayred’, patron ‘S. Eugenius’ (U.J.A. 2 (1895), 146).

Reeves 1850, 82; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 392, mistakenly place Killelagh in Co. Donegal.

Reeves suggested: ‘This parish, very probably, was cut off from Camus as an appendage to the castle of Drumtarsy, after the English settlement, which would account for the absence of herenagh land.’ Not visited and no early material reported.

Killiennan townland, Cumber Lower parish. O.S. 22; C/501134.

O.S. mark ‘site of church’. Area pointed out is rough, raised, un-ploughed corner of ploughed field, continuing

Refs:

274

Reeves 1850, 131-2; Leslie 1937, 242.

117.

KILREA parish and townland. O.S. 27; C/927122.

2 (1896), 253); 1641 burned and 1688 damaged (U.J.A. 8 (1902), 128-9); 1768 in good repair (Leslie 1937, 261-2). Ruined church in state care in large graveyard.

Leslie (1937, 246) gives Patrick as patron, but I have found no early source. Medieval parish with erenagh in early seventeenth century (O Demon family). In late medieval period attached to SS. Peter and Paul, Armagh. East of present parish church oval raised area with ruins of post-medieval church.

[582] Surface of graveyard very uneven, but oval mound west of church particularly marked, with cross slab at west edge (see below), and signs near slab of stone revetting.

SITE: between 175 ft and 200 ft, very commanding, with steep slopes and extensive views east to Bann, in. away.

SITE: about 225 ft in flattish country, at meeting-point of important routes, from Moyola valley to south, from Bann and Lough Neagh to east. and across Sperrins by Glenshane Pass to west.

O.S. marks WELL, Toberdoney, ½ mile to northeast, not visited.

MATERIAL: i) CHURCH and ARCHITECTURAL FPAGMENTS (Pls 52-3 and Fig. 44). Church now two cell with west tower, but in use until nineteenth century and fabric shows evidence of much alteration and at least four main phases.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 75.

118.

LISSAN parish, Tullynure townland, Churchtown. O.S. 46; H/805829 (but some uncertainty: see below).

at

Patron ‘Sarán son of Tigernán son of M6enach’ at 21 September in M.T. (not located), [581] and in M.G. glossed: ‘from Lessán in Sliab Callann and Cluain dá Aera in the Cechair’. 744: ‘The killing of Colman, bishop of Lessán, by the Ui-Tuirtri’ (A.U.). Medieval parish in Armagh diocese. I am uncertain of location of earliest site. I visited Church of Ireland church at Churchtown, marked by O.S. as ‘church in fort’. Graveyard polygonal, raised above surroundings, about 150 ft north-south by 200 ft east-west. Commanding site, just under 400 ft, with extensive views.

FIG. 44: MAGHERA CHURCH PLAN (DETAIL OF NORTH-EAST ANGLE PILASTER).

NO EARLY MATERIAL here, but writers also mention old graveyard and church site in Clagan townland to northwest (Leslie 1911, 253 and Munn 1925, 206). Not marked on early O.S. six-inch maps. I did not locate or visit this. 119.

MAGHERA parish, Largantogher townland. O.S. 36; C/855002.

Early name ‘Rath-Luraig’ from patron Lurach, sixth century. ‘Lurech mac Cuanach’ at 17 February in M. T. and M.G., but not located. Reeves (1850, 80) gives genealogy, of royal house of Uí Tuirtri, descended from Colla Uais. Fergus of Rath-Luraigh abbot of Finnglais (Co. Dublin) died in 817 (A.U.), and 832: ‘Plundering of Rath-Luraigh and Connere by Gentiles’ (A.U.). Church burned in 1135 (A.F.M. and MIA.). See of Cenel nE6gain transferred from Ardstraw to Maghera for short period mid-twelfth to mid-thirteenth century before finally settled in Derry. Thereafter medieval parish church. Church used until early nineteenth century (Plate 138 shows old and new churches). Several references to fabric: 1622 ‘Ulster Visitation Book’: ‘repayred’ (U.J.A.

PLATE 138: MAGHERA- GENERAL VIEW FROM WEST.

Phase I: nave, externally 43 ft 8 ins by 26 ft 6 ins, internally 37 ft 4 ins by 20 ft 7 ins. Walls of polygonal large and medium-sized basalt rubble, neatly fitted, with some spalls, on neat cut-stone off-set 4 to 5½ ins wide. Exterior northwest and southwest angles rough on west face and break in off-sot, probably indicating position of robbed antae (P1. 52b). No original windows of this phase survive. Presumably west door, but problem whether present door or not. Interior west wall is partly obscured by rendering, but wall around door very rough, 275

smaller stone than elsewhere, suggesting rebuilding or extensive patching. I am inclined to consider present door as addition of Phase II. For likely date of Phase I see pp. 139-40.

Single stone only, quite likely not in situ (would hardly rest straight on off-set without any special treatment of base), but exterior east angles may well have had pilaster shafts. I suggest west door (Pl. 53a) belongs to this phase. Externally square-headed with massive lintel and moulded architrave; internally back of lintel forms tympanum, as Banagher (q.v.), with round arch above, here rendered over. Jambs mutilated, especially on north side. Lintel, surround and architrave richly decorated towards exterior.

Phase II: addition of chancel, Romanesque, externally 30 ft 7 ins by 26 ft 2 ins, internally 28 ft 6 ins by 20 ft 7 ins. At junction with nave1 exterior north wall shows several features: break in off-set, two pieces of ashlar aligned like quoins, and distinct change in masonry, from large polygonal to smaller stones with many spalls (Pl. 52a). Admittedly complicated by fact that chancel walls extensively rebuilt.

Lintel detailed, well-populated crucifixion scene, with large Christ on cross, elongated arms with thieves shown behind arms. Christ halo or long hair. Always said to be wearing long garment; lowest part of figure is broken so difficult to be sure, but I have impression of kilt or skirt from waist, not full-length robe. Four small angels above arms of cross. Sponge-and lance-bearers kneel on one knee (blood from wound?). Six figures to right and five to left, at least one with staff. Possibly hand of God above Christ’s head. Detail much eroded and very difficult to make out.

[583] Chancel has similar external off-set to nave, and some large masonry in lower part of north wall probably original, though rebuilt above. At exterior northeast angle three-quarter round attached pilaster shaft in sandstone (Fig. 44.).

PLATE 52B: MAGHERA CHURCH – DETAIL NORTHWEST ANGLE. PLATE 53A: MAGHERA CHURCH – WEST DOOR (INTERIOR).

PLATES 53B & 53C: MAGHERA CHURCH – DETAIL OF ARCHITRAVE ON SOUTH SIDE (EXTERIOR)

PLATE 52A: MAGHERA CHURCH – EXTERIOR NORTH WALL.

276

South jamb - west face animal interlace; north face floral motifs; and, at top, small figure of ecclesiastic with conical mitre, knobbed crosier with pointed base and detailed vestments.

which has a wheel cross incised on it.’ Later writers have taken it to be either plain pillar-stone or broken cross (e.g. J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 315-7 and Crawford 1907, 198, ‘a fragment of a cross shaft’). Not previously illustrated. Account in J.R.S.A.I. 19 (1889), 246, of opening tomb and stealing contents (including ‘crucifix’).

North jamb - floral and interlaced motifs, and another figure, less clear. Surround of door formerly faced with decorated stone. Mostly missing but some with diaper decoration survives. Phases III and IV outside scope of this study, but necessary to examine them briefly for adequate understanding of building. [584] Phase III medieval. Two windows inserted in north wall of chancel: parts of sandstone sills and jambs survive, Gap in north wall of nave, probably inserted door. Gap (not opposed) in south wall possibly another door. Large windows inserted in north and south walls of nave, opposed. South one now rough gap. Severa1 subphases likely. Phase IV post-medieval. Tower added to west-end, seventeenth or eighteenth century. North wall of chancel ruined quite low; rebuilt with large window, probably eighteenth century. Uncertain: date of insertion and blocking of west-most window in north wall of nave, also at what point north and ?south doors of nave blocked and window inserted into blocking of south gap. Date of aumbry interior east wall of chancel.

PLATE 54A: MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE.

Fragments: 1) Romanesque capital, red sandstone, loose under tower. From attached pilaster, not free-standing column (3 sides decorated). Small half-round necking with multiple small flutings above and deep, plain abacus. 12 ½ by 12 by 9 ins. 2) Another Romanesque capital, sandstone, also loose under tower. More worn and decorated on only 2 ½ sides. Same general form and size, but flutes wider and reeded. ii) BUILDING. Shaw Mason (1814, 600): ‘At right angles with it [the church], on the south side, the ruins of a considerable building were some years ago visible’. No further details available. There are gardens south of graveyard. iii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 54a and Fig. 47a). At west edge of marked eminence west of church, traditionally marking St. Lurach’s grave. Roughly rectangular slab of basalt very weathered and rough with thick lichen. Cross can only be seen in excellent light conditions and persistence needed. [585] Stone 2 ft 9 ins high, 1 ft 3 ins to 1 ft 7 ins wide and 4 ins thick, with projection to 10 ins thick on lower north side. On east face ringed cross; seems to be in relief. Details uncertain, especially ends of limbs and left side. Dunraven (1875, 120) wrote ‘... in the churchyard [Lurach’s] grave is said to be marked by a low headstone,

FIG. 47A: MAGHERA – ST. LURACH’S STONE.

277

Leask 1955, 86 and p1. III; A.M.S.C. 1966, 113 and p1. 47 (best photograph of lintel); Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 93; Henry 1970, 184-5 and p1. V.

iv) FONTS (Pl. 134c). Large red sandstone font kept under west tower. Externally roughly hammer-dressed, internally more carefully finished. 1 ft 8 ins high, diameter 2 ft 3 ins; cavity diameter 1 ft 6- ins and 1 ft 4 ins deep. Mouth slightly chamfered sides of cavity fairly straight. Likely medieval rather than earlier. Unpublished.

120.

MAGHERAFELT parish and townland in Armagh diocese. O. S. 42; area of H/897906.

Medieval parish church. Early history obscure, but seems safe on grounds of place-name to include this amongst early churches. Arthurs has traced history of name and suggests derivation ‘Machaire Thighe Fioghalta’ - the ‘Plain of Teach Fioghalta’ (or similar name). Present Church of Ireland church built to replace old one. Graveyard may be early site. Not precisely located or visited. NO EARLY MATERIAL REPORTED. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 364-7; Maitland, W.H., ‘A History of Magherafelt’ (1916, reprinted from the Mid Ulster Mail) Arthurs, J.B., in B.U.P.N.S. V, part I (Spring 1957), 3.

121.

MULLABOY townland, Cumber Lower parish. O.S. 22; C/512139.

PLATE 134C: MAGHERA – FONT.

Reports of several other fonts or bullauns. 1) Davies (op. cit. below, fig. 1e) illustrates font from ‘O.S. Memoir’, 6 ½ ins high, 7 ins wide. Present whereabouts unknown.

MATERIAL not in situ; CROSS (P1. 55a) set up with penal altar stone at base in graveyard of Roman Catholic chapel built in 1826.

2) Dunraven (op. cit. above) mentions ancient font, 8 ins diameter and 7 ins deep. Present whereabouts unknown. 3) Carefully shaped, of sandstone, barrel-shaped profile, 1 ft 2 ins high, diameter 1 ft 7 ins, with circular cavity diameter 1 ft and 11 ins deep. Now at Culnady but said to come from Maghera Old Church. Not certainly ecclesiastical, and not earlier than medieval, perhaps post-medieval. I have not seen this; information from Richard Warner of Ulster Museum. [586] v) WELL. Well mentioned, formerly holy, now with pump above it, in U.J.A 8 (1902), 128-9 (‘Some Notes on the Parish of Maghera. and Neighbourhood’). Also local tradition of passage between Maghera church and Termoneeny church (q.v.). Is this a distant echo of a lost souterrain? (WAXED TABLETS (N.M.D. no. D15-24) found in bog at depth of about 14 ft in vicinity of Maghera. These are not to be compared with tablets from Springmount Bog (Co. Antrim); they contain fragments of Latin exercises and date from medieval times, perhaps as late as sixteenth century. Refs:

T.R.I.A. 21 (1848), 3-15, pls I-Ill; Coffey 1909, 82-4, figs 889.)

PLATE 55A: MULLABOY CROSS.

[587] Chapel demolished between 1966 and 1971 but cross still in graveyard. Large single slab of schist. 7 ft high as now 8 ft (P.S. 1940, 198, 8 ft), shaft 1 ft 6 ins wide and 7 to 8 ins thick. Carefully worked hollows at intersection of arms and shaft. Arm on right missing, and

Much attention to west door, but less to rest of site. Refs:

Shaw Mason 1814, 575-600; Reeves 1850, 80-1, 107; Dunraven 1875, 115-20; Champneys 1910, 100-3; Henry 1932, I, 112-3; Davies in P.B.N.H.P.S. II (1940-5), 17-22 with plan; Sexton 1946, 218-20 (very full bibliography);

278

chipped at head and foot. Front face smoothly dressed; back obscured against wall; sides slight pecking marks.

Church here in use in eighteenth century and ruined at time of first O.S. Map. Reeves reports cemetery then used for idiots, suicides, un-baptised infants and strangers cast ashore: ‘but in 1845 it was ploughed up, the foundations of the chapel cleared away, and all the human remains found there were collected and buried in one pit’ (1850, 78). Bones also reported found when railway built.

Original provenance: ‘O.S. Lists’ give some information (p. 41, no. 117). 1896 the Rev. J. McKeefry ordered removal of cross from fence where it had lain for 250 or more years to Mullaboy chapel. Believed to have been mutilated in 1641. Original site in Gorticross Field where Roman Catholics used to meet, with church site to northeast of cross site. This field still pointed out, in Oghill townland at C/512146. Is northwest-facing steep hillside with spring in west corner beside road. Spring called ‘well’, supposedly St. Margaret’s, formerly frequented, and alleged never to run dry. Cross reported to have lain near well. On crest of slope is level area, suitable for building, but notable scarcity of stone in field fences. Field has been ploughed but nothing of interest noted. Next townland to west is Lettershendony, and to south is Killennan with another church site (q.v. and see Fig. 47). Refs:

SITE: under 50 ft, at east edge of flat land fringing Lough Foyle. No surface traces, but excavation would be possible. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

[589] 123. Straidarran townland, Learmount (formerly Cumber) parish. O.S. 23; C/587054.

J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 284-5; P.S. 1940, 198 and p1. 46 (poor photograph). O.S. six-inch sheets in this area renumbered creating possibility of confusion. My numbers are those in 1901 ‘Topographical Index’.

No early written material, but strong local tradition, reported by Sampson (1814) and later writers (e.g. Munn 1925, 202), that this was Patrick’s second foundation near River Faughan, after cumber. ‘O.S. Memoir’ (under Banagher) describes church and adds: ‘On the adjacent hill stood a cross of cut freestone’. Irish name said to be ‘Ballyarran’. Featureless ruined church (late or postmedieval) in small graveyard.

RIVER BANN at Ballynease (Macpeake) townland, Ballyscullion parish, near Culbane (area of 980020). TWO STONE TRIAL PIECES in Dublin 1) N.M.D. no. 1928: 786. Whetstone, 3 ins long, 1 in. wide, maximum in. thick.

SITE: between 350 and 375 ft, northeast of small lake and south of tributary of Faughan, surrounded by hills.

[588] Very lightly scored fine lines on both main surfaces and one narrow side. Motifs include triple knots, figureof-eight knot, hatched pelta, much loose interlace and some haphazard lines.

MATERIAL: CROSS mentioned by Sampson (1814, 224-5): near [the church] is a small lake and a hill with a stone cross, all on a diminutive scale.’ No details, nowhere else mentioned except ‘O.S. Memoir’ above, and not now to be found.

2) N.M.D. no. 1928: 787. Waterworn pebble, slightly trapezoidal, 2 by 2¼ ins and ¼ in. thick. More varied and more accomplished designs than no. 1 on both main surfaces. Several compass-drawn circles, diamond figure with circles at apices, several triple knots; one combined with trumpet spiral; and several interlaced designs. Work varies from quite deeply cut to very lightly scratched. Not published in detail; brief mention only in J.R.S.A.I. 60 (1930), 77. Nearest sites are Church Island (Co. Londonderry), Duneane (Co. Antrim) and Ahoghill (Co. Antrim). 122.

Reeves 1850, 78 and 1857, 282; for bibliographical confusion in this area see Tamlaghtard below. (Some writers, most recently Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 41, have connected A.U. 1204 reference with Skreen as well as Ballynascreen (q.v.) I think Ballynascreen more likely for Tir-Eogain.)

Refs:

Sampson, loc. cit. above; Lewis 1837, I, 177.

124.

Tamlaght townland and parish in Armagh diocese. O.S. 48; H/889791.

Early history and patron unknown. First appears in 1306 Taxation when assessed at nothing because despoiled. Seems to have been medieval parish though later joined with Ballinderry (1616-1779, Leslie 1911, 412-4). Modern parish church to northwest of earlier site. Traces of church in graveyard still visible in nineteenth century:

SKREEN, Temlaghtard parish, Craig townland. O.S. 2; C/708344.

Appears in 1306 Taxation as ‘Ballo[nes]krene de Ardo’, not to be confused with Ballynascreen in east Co. Londonderry. Is this ‘Teampull na Sgrín’ whose three shrines violated 1165 (see Enagh)? Listed by Reeves (1857, 282) amongst churches founded by Columba, or in which Columba specially venerated. Named from shrine, mentioned in O’Donnell’s ‘Life of Columba’ (O’Kelleher and Schoepperle 1918, 149).

[590] letter in Reeves’s correspondence, Armagh Public Library, addressed to Reeves, August 1847, speaks of: ‘ruins of an apparently very ancient date in the lower burial ground which till lately was separated by a ditch and hedge from the new graveyard.’ SITE: just over 150 ft, on southeast-ward hill slope down to Ballinderry River.

279

MATERIAL: BULLAUNS (P1. 59c). 1) Lying loose, close to south. side of modern church, south of porch, five-sided granite boulder, 2 ft 3 ins by 2 ft 3 ins, standing 9 ins high. Hollow 10 ½ ins diameter, 5 ins deep, with sub-rectangular perforation, diameter 3 ins, communicating with similar hollow on under-surface. 2) Two broken pieces of basalt (?), formerly joining, with two shallow depressions, about 5 ins diameter, 1 ½ to 1 in. deep.

could see no other datable or clearly early features, Some details and dimensions in P.S. 1940, 187. ii) MORTUARY HOUSE (Pl. 56a).

PLATE 56A: TAMLAGHTARD – GRAVESHRINE.

Tomb, traditionally of patron St. Cadan (not Aidan as mistakenly on O.S. maps), in prominent position east of, and adjoining east gable of church, much obscured by graves and accumulated soil. Mortared rubble with dressed gritstone details. Extends 8 ft 6 ins from east wall of church, 1 ft 10 ins wide across roof stones, and present height above ground is maximum 2 ft 6 ins at east-end. Uncertain how far ‘house’ intact. Waterman (1960, 84) thought it partly re-modeled. Roof of dressed stone flags with flat top and sides dressed to slope. Stone with semicircular hand-hole in centre of north side at present ground-level. Hole 6 ins high, 7 ins wide in stone 4 to 5 ins thick. Description in Waterman 1960, 84. Not previously illustrated.

PLATE 59C: TAMLAGHT -BULLAUN STONE.

Also in Tamlaght townland is portal dolmen Cloghtogle and standing stone. Refs:

Shaw Mason 1819, 445-6; Leslie 1911, 412-4; Crozier and Rea 1940, p1. XIV, double perforated bullaun.

125.

TAMLAGHTARD parish and townland. O.S. 5; C/678313.

Probably to be identified with one of Patrick’s seven churches in Cianacht, ‘Domnach Airthir Ardda’ (‘Patrick’s well is there’) referred to in ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes 1887, 161). Patron Cadan: Reeves quotes from ‘Book of Leacan’: ‘Cruimther Cadan of Tamlaght-ard’ (Reeves 1850, 84); and Presbyter Cadan in ‘Tripartite Life’ listed amongst Patrick’s household as one of his two ‘waiters’ (Stokes op. cit., 265). Lewis (1837, II, 590) and other writers, perhaps following Colgan, refer to Columban foundation here in 584, but I have found no early evidence for this. Medieval parish church, with erenaghs in early seventeenth century.

iii) WELL (P1. 56b).

[591] Repaired in 1622 (‘Ulster Visitation Book’ in U.J.A. 2 (1896), 130), and in use until late eighteenth century. Ruined overgrown church in crowded graveyard. SITE: about 150 ft, with steep slopes down from graveyard, on small east-west promontory in westsloping foothills of Binevenagh, overlooking River Foyle. MATERIAL: i) CHURCH possibly early. East window, tall lancet, probably thirteenth-century, may be inserted into earlier east wall, but church much obscured by growth and I

PLATE 56B: TAMLAGHTARD – HOLY WELL.

280

Marked by O.S. as ‘Tobar Easpuig Aedain’, but again this should be Cadan. East of graveyard, outside modern Roman Catholic chapel. Spring, still much frequented for cures. See reference to Patrick’s well in ‘Tripartite Life’ (above). Stone with hollow at well I take to be recent and have not listed as bullaun. Refs:

Church built of very mixed stone, roughly coursed, mortared, with spalls. Externally 61 by 25 ft. Tall gap in gable for east window, wide gap in west wall and two ragged breaks in north wall. [593] More westerly gap leads into projecting tower at northwest angle. Externally rectangular, 12 ft east-west by 8 ft, internally circular, diameter 5 ft 6 ins. Seems bonded into nave. I could see no access from outside, only from nave. Church has no distinctive, datable features, and nothing that struck me as certainly within my time limits, but in view of excavated tower-base at Dungiven, this tower deserves inclusion and some discussion (see further p. 169 above). But it is clearly not a round tower of the ‘usual’ kind.

Reeves 1850, 84; P.S. 1940, 187. Discussion of sites in this area has often been garbled and confusing; it is, admittedly, a confusing area, but the kind of muddles found, for example, in Lewis (1837, II, 590), Archdall (1873, 173-4), Munn (1925, 231-6), Leslie (1937, 277) and most recently Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 41) are avoidable and should not be perpetuated. There is serious confusion in these works between Tamlaghtard, Duncrun, Skreen and sometimes Ballynascreen, all discussed above.

[592] 126. TAMLAGHT FINLAGAN parish, Mulkeeragh townland. O.S. 9; C/652219. Patron ‘Findlug the sure, of Dún Blésce [glossed] i.e. Lugaid the Fair, a disciple and brother of Finntan…so that he is a saint in Tamlachta Findlogain in Ciannachta of Glenn Gemin’ at 3 January in M.O., also M.T. (but only of Dún Blésce), M.G. and M.D. May be same as Findlugan who appears in Scottish island of Hinba in Adamnan’s ‘Life of Columba’ (Anderson 1961, 378-81). Lewis and others claim Columban foundation of 585, but no early evidence for this. Medieval parish church, included for 1306 Taxation in parish ‘de Ro’ (see Drumachose). Erenaghs in early seventeenth century. Church ruinous in 1622. Ruined, very overgrown church in crowded graveyard.

Refs:

Reeves 1850, 78-9, and 1857, 136; plan in U.J.A. 2 (1895), 127; P.S. 1940, 190-1; U.J.A. 4 (1941), 43, note on tower. O’Hanlon ‘Lives of the Irish Saints’, I, 55, engraving based on 1836 drawing by Du Noyer, church from northwest, showing tower projection.

127.

TAMLAGHT O’CRILLY parish, Drumnacannon townland. O.S. 33; C/911062.

Early history unknown, but erenaghs in early seventeenth century, and patron in 1622 recorded as St. Conlus (‘Ulster Visitation Book’, U.J.A. 2 (1895), 254). Two church sites in this parish:

SITE: between 75 and 100 ft, on low hill in gently hilly country, on east bank of small Bessbrook River, flowing north.

1) Drumnacannon townland, as above. Reeves identifies this site with Tamlaght O’Crilly and Tawlaght McNinaych of ‘Colton’s Visitation’ (1397). Postmedieval ruined church, believed to be on earlier site. Nucleus of early burials forms considerable mound round ruin, north of modern church.

NO CERTAINLY EARLY MATERIAL. Possibly CHURCH (Sketch plan Fig. 45c).

SITE: between 175 and 200 ft, hilltop with extensive views. NO EARLY MATERIAL. O.S. marks no megaliths on sheet 33, but Leslie (1937, 285) mentions plague monument, said to be sepulchral cave, on rising ground above village. 2) Drumagarner townland OS. 27. 1306 Taxation lists ‘Derogarvan’; and ‘Drumogaruan’ listed in ‘Colton’s Visitation’ (1397). [594] 1609 Inquisition refers to ‘Tawlaghtdrumnagaruan’: uncertain whether this refers to 1) or 2), or perhaps by 1609 merged. Reeves points out obliterated church site in Drumagarner townland: ‘There is not a vestige of the church or its cemetery now remaining, but it is known that on an eminence at the west side of the road, called “Church Hill”, is a spot where the late Thomas Hutcheson, Esq., found, within these sixty years, human skulls and other bones, together with a baptismal font.’ Traditionally church started here but never finished and transferred by night to Tamlaght (Reeves 1850, 54). Not visited.

FIG. 45C: TAMLAGHT FINLAGAN SKETCH PLAN.

Tamlaght Finlagan often quoted as site of round tower e.g. Leslie (1937, 281): ‘there are the remains of a Round Tower near the ruins of the old Abbey’; and Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 405); ‘formerly a round tower’. Good example of how errors arise through imprecision and over-simplification.

Ref:

281

Reeves 1850, 53-4, 81; Leslie 1937, 282-5.

128.

Templemoyle townland, Banagher parish. O.S. 30; C/670073.

No information in early written sources. Tradition, recorded in ‘OS. Memoir’ and repeated by Reeves (1850, 107-8), this was site first chosen by St. O’Heney and building was begun, but stones removed to Banagher by night, and saint led there by stag which carried his book on its antlers. Reeves comments: ‘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.’ Very ruined, grass-grown church, unenclosed in meadowland with no surface traces of graves and no mound. Spread of rubble about 58 ft east-west by 32 ft, internally 40 ft by 18 ft, and maximum height above surrounding field about 5 ft. Possible site of door near west-end of south wall. Stone includes large and small material. No mortar visible. Quite featureless and un-datable unless cleared.

FIG. 40B: LOCATION OF TERMONEENY.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

[596] 130. Tullybrisland townland, Faughanvale parish. O.S. 15; C/560209. Area has no ecclesiastical associations as far as I can discover. Several stories about cross current locally: marker between townlands; to mark ‘safe home’ during cattle-stealing; mishap with cart while taking cross to Faughanvale. No reports of bones ploughed up in field. SITE: about 100 ft, on north-facing hill slope, overlooking Lough Foyle, with stream close by to east.

[595] SITE: under 300 ft, in level ground, tending to be tamp, between Owenrigh and Owenbeg rivers. NO CERTAINLY EARLY MATERIAL. It would be quite feasible to clear the CHURCH (see above). ‘O.S. Memoir’ includes references to ‘traces of underground arches’ and ‘water font’ here, and discovery of BELL beside Owenrigh stream, later more specifically described as found in Templemoyle [townland] near waterfall. Sketch small bell, 2 ins high, with flared profile. ‘O.S. Memoir’ reports cross-carved stone in next townland, Derrychrier, on Robert Porton’s farm. In artificial mound 5 ft 8 ins by 4 ft 10 ins and 2 ft high. Base (font or socket) 2 ft by 1 ft 8 ins by 1 ft 1 in.; sides 5 ins thick and 6 ins deep. Length of cross-carved stone 1 ft 3 by 10 by 6 ins. Cross 8 ins by 6 ins and ½ in. deep. Rough sketch shows simple linear Latin cross. I have not been able to return since finding this reference to look for this stone (‘O.S. Memoirs Box 32’, Londonderry IV, passim). Refs:

Reeves 1850, 107-8.

129.

TERMONEENY parish, Mullagh townland. O.S. 36; H/857993.

Reeves 1850, 76 and 81-2.

MATERIAL: i) CROSS (P1. 57a-b and Fig. 46a). Isolated in meadow, set facing north and south. Single schist slab, 3 ft 3 ins high, 1 ft 5 ins across stem, 2 ft 3 ins across arms, about 8 ins thick. Top damaged, and both faces scaled, especially S. Present outline somewhat mushroom-shaped, with no distinct upper member. At edges of upper part of shaft and arms stone worked back about 1 in., leaving cross in relief. Ref:

Mentioned by Munn 1925, 178; P.S. 1940, 195. Not previously illustrated.

Patron unknown and early history obscure, but was medieval parish church (‘Euga’ in 1306 Taxation), and early seventeenth-century inquisition refers to ‘the erenagh land of Any, called Termon Any’ (Reeves 1850, 76). Ruined medieval church in graveyard. SITE (Fig. 40b): commanding hilltop, over 200 ft, overlooking Moyola plain to south and Maghera ¾ mile to northwest. Black Burn at foot of hill to north.

PLATE 57: TULLYBRISLAND CROSS (SOUTH FACE - LEFT; AND NORTH FACE - RIGHT)

282

FIG. 46A: TULLYBRISLAND CROSS.

ii) ‘ALTAR STONE’ or ‘MASS ROCK’ at about C/559208, Boulder set in north road bank, at least 4 ft 6 ins east-west by 3 ft. On upper surface in lower corner to east rough, shallow incised Latin cross, 8 ¾ by 5 ¾ ins. Stem of double lines, arms single line, with cross bars at foot and end of arms. Probably fairly recent: stone thought to be penal altar, though position on former main road seems inappropriate. Ref:

P.S. 1940, 195.

283

[597]

DOWN: Sites are in the dioceses of Down and Dromore.

(Achadh-chail, see under MAGHERA.) 131.

ANNAHILT parish, Glebe townland, Dromore diocese. O.S. 22; J/304574.

From ground inspection clear Patterson’s drawing (p1. XII, fig. 12) inaccurate. Expansional cross formed of three clearly pecked lines. Centre circular expansion with fret decoration. Only end of arm to left clear, and here tripartite knot, not spirals as in drawing.

Moliba ‘of Enach Elti’ at 26 December in M.T. and M.G., also Molibba ‘in Uí Echach of Ulster or in Uí Garrchon’ at 18 February in M.T. and M.O. (gloss), and in M.G. glossed ‘in Enach Elte’. Early history unknown. Medieval parish church. Ruin of eighteenth-century church in large graveyard, markedly raised above surroundings, west of modern parish church.

Refs:

ii) SOUTERRAIN. Impossible to locate precisely from earlier accounts, but southwest of church, outside enclosure, slightly downhill from it. Described by Bigger and Fennell in U.J.A. 5 (1899), 146-7 (with plans) as 108 ft long, 5 ft high, 3 ft wide, crescentic plan with short branch off at one end. Praeger (1900, 150) gives slightly different dimensions.

SITE: just over 300 ft, impressive hilltop in hilly (drumlin) country. Steep slopes down to damp surroundings except to west. NO EARLY MATERIAL: ‘Enclosure’ claimed by Shaw Mason (1814, 13, followed by Lewis 1837, I, 26, and Reeves, 1847, 316): ‘The burying ground about the church is of great antiquity; and the fort in which it stands is curious; being the innermost of four enclosures, the whole occupying at least nine acres, and sloping to the east in a regular glacis.’ Not substantiated by field survey (Co. Down 1966, 150-1). Refs:

as above, and Atkinson 1925, 180.

132.

ARDTOLE townland, Ardglass parish. O.S. 45; J/564382.

Patterson loc. cit. Bigger 1908, 99-102 (reproduces Patterson’s drawing, 102); Crawford 1912, 225, based on Patterson; Co. Down 1966, 298, p1. 75.

See

also

Ardglass

and

Dunsfort

(Appendix

D).

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 35-6; O’Laverty 1878, 172; Milligan, S.F., in J.R.S.A.I. 19 (1889), 245, on souterrain; Bigger 1916, 130-1; Co. Down 1966, 298.

133.

Ballyorgan townland, Rathmullan parish. O.S. 38; J/571430.

Medieval chapel, patron and earlier history unknown. Very fragmentary, featureless remains of church; unenclosed, overgrown, and incorporated into field boundaries. No sign of graves. Reeves reports local name ‘Cappel na Coole’.

Early history and patron unknown. Listed as ‘Droneyll’ in 1306 Taxation, and medieval patron St. Nicholas (Fleming 1413). Reeves suggested preceded Ardglass as site of parish church (1847, 36) but Bigger not convinced (1916, 130). Ruined church, largely fifteenth-century.

[599] SITE: about 50 ft, near foot of south- and southwest-facing hill slope, overlooking plain, now airfield.

SITE: just under 100 ft, at north-end of north-south spur with very steep drops to north, west and east., ½ mile inland. Site forms very marked mound above surroundings, and at foot of slope to north and west traces of stone enclosing or retaining wall.

MATERIAL: CROSS-SHAFT near northwest angle of church, described by Davidson (1958, 89) when more clearly visible than now. Broken shaft, 3 ft 9 ins high, 1 ft 8 ½ ins wide at base, 11 ins wide above, and 11 to 5 ins thick. Shaft heavily lichened but plain except for diagonal scoring. Expands below into less carefully trimmed base, presumably originally hidden.

[598] Other sides less clear, and enclosure here ‘squared off’ by recent field banks. MATERIAL: i) CROSS SLAB from Ardtole church, moved in 1791 to Chapeltown Roman Catholic chapel at J/572400 where mounted high above south porch.

Other material reported which I could not find in overgrown date: BASIN of red sandstone (Davidson 1958, 89) and CROSS-CARVED STONES reported by O’Laverty (1878, 203): ‘Portions of a large cross and some stones marked with crosses’.

I have not been able to draw or measure his. Patterson (1870-4, 275) gives dimensions 18 ins by 13 ins, unknown thickness. Probably shale.

Refs:

284

Reeves 1847, 37; O’Laverty 1878, 201-3; Davidson 1958, 89 and p1. XL; Co. Down 1966, 299.

134.

BANGOR parish, Corporation townland. O.S. 2; J/501811.

its oratory (‘dertaigh’) and the relics of Comghall were shaken out of their shrine’ (A.U. which adds poem about taking relics to Antrim). Obits continue, including 929 comarb, scribe, anchorite and Apostolic doctor of all Ireland at Rome; and comarb killed by Vikings 958. Bangor less prominent in later tenth and eleventh century annals; often suggested monastic life interrupted and comarbs of annals laymen. Malachy’s ‘Life’ (see below) suggests fresh start, but perhaps still church if not community. A.F.M. 1065 mentions killing of king of Ulidia in stone church (not A.U.).

After Armagh, greatest and best-documented, of northern monasteries. Founded 555 or 559 (A.U.) by Comgall of Dál nAraidi, probably from Magheramorne area, south Antrim, celebrated 10 May: ‘Comgall the gifted, of Bangor’ in M.O. and other calendars (‘Life of Comgall’ in Plummer 1910, II, 3-21, also Heist 1965, 332-4, and see Kenney 1929, 396-7). Died 601 or 602 (A.U.). Succession of early abbots known from annals and hymn in ‘Antiphonary of Bangor’ (see below), and many listed in calendars. Clearly very large community and head of extensive paruchia: ‘Litany of Irish Saints’ (II) includes ‘four thousand monks with the grace of God under the yoke of Comgall of Benchor’ (Plummer 1925, 61).

New prominence under Malachy: St. Bernard’s ‘Life’ describes making over to Malachy of Bangor (probably by comarb of Comgall) ‘to build, or rather rebuild, a monastery’ (Lawlor 1920, 26-7), ‘long ago destroyed by pirates’ (30). He built a wooden oratory, ‘finished in a few days, made of smooth planks indeed, but closely and strongly fastened together, a Scottic work, not devoid of beauty’ (32). On return from Rome: ‘It seemed good to Malachy that a stone oratory should be erected at Bangor, like those which he had seen constructed in other regions’ (109) though project aroused local hostility (110). Introduced Augustinian rule, probably Arroasian. Gwynn and Hadcock trace later history, and discount suggestion late medieval Franciscan house here (1970, 161 and 276). Parish church probably on early site. In eighteenth century Harris reported: ‘... Part of the Ruins of Malachy’s Building yet subsists, and the Traces of the old Foundation discover it to have been of great extent’ (1744, 64), but more likely part of medieval conventual buildings.

[600] Comgall friend of Columba (Anderson 1961, e.g. 314-317) and numbered by Adamnan amongst ‘monasteriorum sancti fundatores de Scotia’ visiting Columba (ibid. 500-1). Paruchia probably included Camus-juxta-Bann (Co. Londonderry), Antrim and Rathlin Island (Co. Antrim) (q.v.). Columbanus studied at Bangor before sailing to Continent in about 590. Kenney (1929, 198) suggests his Rule based on famous but lost rule of Bangor, celebrated in ‘Antiphonary’: ‘Benchuir bona regula, recta atque diuina, stricta, sancta, sedula, summa, iusta ac mira’ (Byrne in Carney 1965, 31, and Bieler 1966, 32-9).

[602] Earliest masonry surviving is wall of thirteenthcentury building and fifteenth-century tower (Co. Down 1966, 265-6). Stones kept at church include thirteenthcentury coffin lids.

Mail Rubha sailed to Britain probably from Bangor (671) and founded Applecross (673, A.U.). Bangor clearly also important centre of classical and vernacular learning. Three Latin hymns in ‘Antiphonary of Bangor’, written between 602 and 691, including list of first fifteen abbots, written during abbacy of Cronán (680-91) (Kenney 1929, 265-6 and Reeves 1853 A, passim, translation 175). Robin Flower suggested Bangor also early centre of historical studies and vernacular literature (1947, 13-23). Original ‘Irish Chronicle’ (lost) which lies behind all annal collections may have been compiled at Bangor (Henderson 1967, 165-8). During seventh-century Easter controversies Bangor apparently in touch with ‘Romani’. ‘Mo-sinu maccu Min, scribe and abbot of Bangor, was the first of the Irish who learned by rote the computus from a certain learned Greek. Afterwards Mo-Cuaroc maccu Neth Semon, whom the Romans sty1ed doctor of the whole world, a pupil of the aforesaid scribe, in the island called Crannach of Downpatrick [see Cranny Island, below] set this knowledge down in writing, lest it should slip from memory’ (Kenney 1929, 218 and Hughes 1966, 132-3). Eighth century three obits of scribes in annals (Hughes 1958).

SITE: about 100 ft, level falling gently to Bangor Bay ½ mile to north. MATERIAL: sadly little for site of such outstanding importance. i) CROSS SHAFT. Fragment only, set in wall of private chapel, Clandeboye estate. Surface partly obscured by whitewash or cement. 2 ft 6½ ins high, 1 ft 2 ins wide, unknown thickness. Trace of edge moulding to left and plain horizontal band at bottom - either bottom of shaft or of panel. Decorated with overall design, double-strand interlace and knot-work. Suggested reconstruction in chapel entirely hypothetical. Refs:

Bigger and Hughes 1900, 193-4 (drawing from rubbing); l isted by Crawford 1907, 196; mentioned in Davies 1946 (suggests is termon cross shown in 1623 estate map on Cross Hill, about 200 yds southeast of church); Co. Down 1966, 266 and p1. 76.

ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 56a). In Ulster Museum. Reported found about 1823 in abbey ruins. Cream sandstone with quartz inclusions. Rather battered: broken at base and chipped. Trapezoidal, 1 ft 1 in. high,

[601] Reported burnings of Bangor in A.U. at 616, 756 (‘on the festival of Patrick’), 817 abbot lived in exile and 823 first reference to Vikings. 824: ‘The plundering of Bennchair in the Ards by Foreigners, and the spoiling of 285

4½ to 5¼ ins wide and 2¼ to 3 ins thick. Original form of base uncertain because broken.

worked Latin cross, ends of arms expanded, and two similar, less shapely, crosses pecked below.

‘Front’: damaged moulding at sides and top, enclosing ringed cross in false relief. Long shaft, stepped base (damaged), ring slightly below plane of arms, ends of limbs splayed and hollows at intersection. Depression at crossing probably weathering, not worked. Small sunk equal-armed more deeply cut than crossing. [603] ‘Back’: single, large equal-armed cross, V-section incision; stone below badly broken. Side to right of front: two pecked horizontal lines define rectangular panel near top enclosing four-petalled ‘flower’ in false relief. Deeply sunk within and between petals. Small equal-armed cross below, ends of arms expanded. Side to left of front: similar, simple equal-armed cross. Top of stone weathered and pitted Despite poor condition, work clearly accomplished. Probably partly pecked, partly chisel-cut. Refs: Bigger and Hughes 1900, 196 (drawing); Crawford 1912, 224 (b); not in Co. Down 1966.

PLATE 71B: BANGOR – SUNDIAL (LEFT); AND FIG. 56B: BANGOR – SUNDIAL (RIGHT).

[604] North face plain except for edge grooves which run off top of stone. East and West faces inner groove turns at top to complete rectangular panel. Refs:

Bigger and Hughes 1900, 195 (drawing before set upright); Crawford 1912, 224, c; not in Co. Down 1966.

iv) BELL. Found in abbey ruins probably 1790s. Cast bronze, 1 ft 2 ins high with handle, 1 ft without handle. 9 by 8 ins at mouth, 6 by 2 ins at top, weight 20 lbs 6½ oz. Surfaces carefully smoothed. Front incised Latin cross without ring but arms hollowed at intersection. At mouth on all four sides panels of delicate fretwork (individual panels, not continuous band).

FIG. 56A: BANGOR – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

iii) SUNDIAL (Pl. 71b and Fig. 56b). Bangor Castle grounds, public park, set in concrete. Original position seems unrecorded, but likely abbey. 24 ft 11 ins visible height (Bigger and Hughes give 6 ft total height with slightly thinned rounded base).

Kept in Bangor Castle Museum. Ballyclog (Co. Antrim, q.v.) may be ‘Baile Cluig Comhghaill’ of M.I.A. at 1164.

Main face now to south. Irregular width and thickness on different faces, about 10 ins wide at base as now set, 1 ft at top, 9 ins thick at base, 71 ins at top.

Refs:

South face: dial badly damaged. Clearly has projected at sides to east and west but broken. Two concentric arcs define face. Hole right through stone, 1½ ins diameter south side, clearly pierced from both faces. Only four radii survive; centre most elaborate with triangular termination and flanking line either side.

Reeves 1853 A, 179; Milligan 1903, 55-6 (photograph); J.R.S.A.I. 63 (1933), 243-4; Co. Down 1966, 140, p1. 83.

v) CROSIER? Reeves (1847, 386, ‘Addenda’) ‘St. Comgall’s crosier, called the ‘Bachall Comhghoill’, was preserved by the clergy of Armagh till 1177, when it was taken from them by the English - (Annal. Inisfall)’. But this does not appear in MacAirt’s edition of A.I. and I can find no other reference to it.

Inner arc and radii very shallow; outer arc more deeply cut and some hollowing of stone below dial to create a little relief. Into dial run edge mouldings of shaft, two shallow grooves. Centre shaft below dial small, carefully

Refs:

286

Harris 1744, 61; Reeves 1847, 13, 152-4, 199-201; Bigger Hughes 1900, passim Lawlor 1920, passim Kenney 1929, especially 198, 265-6, 395-6, 766-7; Co. Down 1966, 265-6; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 161, 276; and other references as above.

135.

BRIGHT parish and townland. O.S. 45; J/507381.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE north of church (see below), cutting off south end of ridge, grass-grown earthwork, bank 3 ft high, ditch to north 4 ft deep, overall width about 36 ft. O’Laverty (1878, 441) gives different account of enclosure: circular cashel, 180 ft diameter, and from this extending westwards another enclosure cutting off southend of island. This ‘cashel’ not now clear from field inspection.

‘Tripartite Life’ reports Patrick went south to Ross, son of Trichem in Derlus ‘where now is a small town (‘cathair becc’) Mrechtan [Bright] where is bishop Loairn’ (Stokes 1887, 38-9). [605] Loarn at 11 September in M.G. but no place given. No other early references. Parish church, listed 1306. Reeves gives reference to burning of church and slaughter of people in 1316, but I have not traced his source (1847, 35). Ruined 1622 and Protestant church built on site later eighteenth century.

ii) CHURCH. Briefly excavated by H.C. Lawlor, September 1925; only brief report. Dimensions internally 28 ft 10 ins by 14 ft 4 ins, with walls 33 ins wide, of boulders bound with clay (now mortared). Door reported 7 ft 2 ins from west end in north wall (Lawlor op. cit. below) but south wall in P.S. 1940, 88. Northwest corner, area 8 by 6 ft partitioned off.

SITE: about 150 ft, prominent Silurian outcrop with cliffs south and west of graveyard and extensive views to sea, but overlooked by slightly higher ground to north where castle stands.

iii) GRAVEYARD reported by O’Laverty (1878, 441) east of church, and Lawlor adds irregularly placed stones in small, walled enclosure, in hollow east of church, 30 ft below level of hilltop.

MATERIAL: none surviving, but reports of i) ENCLOSURE. O’Laverty in 1899 (op. cit. below) gave detailed description of earthwork formerly surrounding church in his family’s land. Unfortunately no plan, and difficult to reconstruct with confidence. ‘A mound, or high bank of earth’ west of drive to church, removed by O’Laverty’s father about 1840. ‘Ancient trench’ east of drive ran eastwards to rocky cliff. Ditch 5 ft deep, 12 ft wide; fill of rich brown earth with burned wood, seashells, animal bones. Ditch of similar proportions cut off promontory on east and south and part of west sides. Area enclosed about four Irish acres. ‘Fairy mill-stones (querns?) and stone spindle-whorls often found. Potentially promising for excavation and air photography.

iv) POTTERY. Lawlor: ‘On digging [in 1925], the only antiquarian remains found were a few fragments of pottery of the old or souterrain type, and one fragment of a wheel- turned vessel.’ [607] Is wheel-turned sherd medieval, or imported subRoman? Whereabouts of sherds unknown. Not in Ulster Museum. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 18-9; O’Laverty 1878, 441; Lawlor, H.C., in P.B.N.H.P.S. 1924-5, 35-7; P.S. 1940, 88; Co. Down 1966, 296.

ii) GRAVES. O’Laverty (1878, 150) ‘in the adjoining fields stone lined graves are frequently found’.

137.

CLONALLAN parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 51; J/151196.

iii) WELL. O’Laverty (ibid, 148) reports ‘a remarkable well about a quarter of a mile to the north of the church, which no doubt is the ancient holywell.’

Patron Conall son of Aed at 2 April in M.T., not located, but in M.G. glossed ‘from Clúain Dalláin, near Snám Ech [Carlingford Lough] ... in Húi Echach of Ulaid’, also M.D. Reeves suggested was Conall who succeeded Coibre at Coleraine about 570. Place-name perhaps derived from poet Dallan Forgaill, at 29 January in all calendars, but not located here. O’Laverty (1878, 10) reports his festival kept in church at 29 January, but uncertain whether this was recent or long-established practice. Modern parish church probably on early site; clear early nucleus of graveyard with earlier gravestones. Next townland to northwest is Donaghaguy, but no report of church site there.

Refs:

U.J.A. 2 (1854), 192-4 for Limoges enamel ewer from Gragewalls townland; Reeves 1847, 35 and 142; O’Laverty 1878, 147-50 and ‘The Little City of Bright, County Down’ in U.J.A. 5 (1899), 81-3.

[606] 136. CHAPEL ISLAND, Strangford Lough, Grey Abbey parish. O.S. 11; J/554672. Nothing known of history. Reeves suggests may be church of St. Korcany’ of 1306 Taxation; geographically in right position, but not the only possibility. Locally believed attached to Nendrum, 3 miles southwest across lough.

SITE: over 100 ft, fairly level area overlooking steep drop to south to Carlingford Lough.

SITE: 25 acre island, ⅜ mile from east coast of Strangford Lough, accessible (not easily in my experience) at low tide on foot. Long, thin island with central ridge (highest point 53 ft); church site at south end of ridge, east-facing scarp above coastal strip.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

287

Reeves 1847, 114; Keenan, P., ‘Clonallan Parish: Its Annals and Antiquities’ (Newry 1942).

138.

CLONDUFF parish, Ballyaughian townland. O.S. 48; J/228294.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE. Raised area, about 90 ft north-south by

Patron Mochommoc at 26 December in M.T. (‘bishop’ but not located), M.G. glossed ‘of Clúain daim in Húi Echach Ulad’, also M.D. Early history otherwise obscure.

[609] 60 to 75 ft, revetted with large, un-mortared stones. On east side row of 4 upright stones may be part of earlier wall. Within raised area small rubble headstones without inscriptions.

[608] Medieval parish; uncertain whether graveyard occupies early site. Reeves notes ancient cemetery, cultivated, in Kinghill townland (1847, 115), and alias for Ballynanny townland is Ballychommoc (Keenan, op. cit. below, 5). Ruin of early post-medieval church in rectangular graveyard.

ii) CROSS BASE. Three crosses in enclosure. North and south are granite copies of Kilbroney cross (q.v.) - South dated 1842; Centre cross dated 1883. Details of crosses in Co. Down 1966, 301. Base of south cross (Pl. 131a): irregular granite boulder sunk in ground, top dressed smooth and decorated. 2 ft 4 ins north-south by 1 ft 10½ ins, 1½ ins high (but buried). Socket 1 ft 4½ ins north-south by 8 ins, considerably bigger than present shaft (12 ins by 7½ ins). Base decorated with large spirals in false relief at corners of socket, springing from moulding round socket. Rectangular panels of key pattern (not interlace) on east and west sides. Only clearly seen in very low sunlight. Socket does not cut decoration (contra U.J.A. 4 (1941), 38). Not certainly early but unlike other work here.

SITE: close to 436 ft spot height, on south-facing slope of ridge, overlooking valley of infant River Bann. MATERIAL: BULLAUN (P1. 82a) at edge of field across minor road west of graveyard. Earthfast polygonal granite boulder, long axis northeast-southwest, about 3 ft 4 ins by 2 ft 6 ins and 11 ins high. Southwest of centre hollow with gradually sloping sides, 1 ft 2½ ins by 1 ft 1 in and 3½ ins deep. No associated traditions that I could discover. Mentioned in Evans 1951, 156.

PLATE 82A: CLONDUFF – BULLAUN.

(Rough Stone Cross, probably late. Gravemarker inside church ruin. Granite, 2 ft 4 ins high, 2 ft 4 ins across arms. Top member squarish, arms tending to pointed. Inscribed and dated 1737. Nothing similar in graveyard. Chalice and Quern: Lewis (1837, I, 356) reports: ‘A very handsome antique chalice, now in the possession of A. Murphy, Esq., of Rathfriland, and also a quern, in the possession of the Rev. J.A. Beers, were dug up in the churchyard in 1832.’ I have not pursued these.) Refs:

139.

PLATE 131A: CLONLEA – CROSS-BASE.

Reeves 1847, 115; MacPolin, F., ‘Clonduff Parish, Past and Present’ (Belfast 1936); Keenan, P., ‘Brief Historical Sketch of the Parish of Clonduff’ (Newry 1941); Co. Down 1966, 299.

CLONLEA. graveyard, Greenan townland, Newry parish. O.S. 51; J/118222.

Refs:

U.J.A. 4 (1941), 38 and sketchy drawing fig. lb, 39; Co. Down 1966, 301, p1. 74.

140.

COMBER parish and townland. O.S. 10; area of J/461692.

At confluence of River Enler and Strangford Lough, hence name. Probably to be identified with Patrician foundation in Dal nAraidi mentioned in ‘Tripartite Life’: ‘... Conlae son of Coelbad received Patrick with humility, and offered to him Domnach Combair’ (Stokes 1887, 165). In 1031 ‘Cill-combair’ with oratory burned, four

Nothing known of history. SITE: between 100 and 200 ft, east-facing valley side. 288

clergy killed and thirty captives taken away (A.U.). Cistercian house, daughter of Whitland, Carms. Colonised about 1200 (later history in Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 130). Protestant church thought to occupy Cistercian site.

all for timbers (plan, Co. Down 1966, 291, fig. 189). Flatheaded, lintelled window east wall (later narrowed with mortared masonry), base of window south wall, and narrow door west wall (later widened).

[610] O’Laverty suggests earlier site in ‘Mr. Andrews’ bleach green’ where stone-lined graves found about 1850 (1880, 137-8). 1860 O.S. map marks two bleach mills north of town, but site of O’Laverty’s graves uncertain. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 197-9, mostly later history; U.J.A. 2 (1854), 55 (Father MacCana’s Itinerary); O’Laverty, 136-40; Co. Down 1966, 289-90 on Cistercian site; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 33 and 130.

141.

?CRANNY ISLAND.

Identified by Kenney with place mentioned in ninthcentury gloss on eighth-century gospel: ‘a pupil of the aforesaid scribe [Mo-Sinu maccu Min], in the island called Crannach of Downpatrick’ (see under Bangor for full extract and context). Kenney locates in southwest arm of Strangford Lough. No reference to church here in other sources. I have not pursued this possible site. Refs:

Kenney 1929, 218.

142.

DERRY townland, Ballyphilip parish. O.S. 32; J/612523.

PLATE 60A: DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH FROM NORTH-WEST.

Only early written references are in calendars, and some refer to Ards, not Derry specifically. At 29 May M.O. has ‘Cummain the pure and good, daughter of lovable Allén’, glossed ‘and in Ard Ulad she is’. Bulk of glosses of eleventh century and later (Kenney 1929, 481). In M.T. at 29 May ‘from Daire Ingine Aillén in Ard Ulad’, and M.G. gloss only ‘a virgin from Doire: daughter of Aillén in Ard Ulad ...’ Reeves’s statement: ‘The festival of St. Cumain was anciently observed in this church on the 29th of May ...’ (1847, 24) is surely based on M.O., not on recorded practice. Nothing more known until ‘Dere’ listed in 1306 Taxation. Belonged to Movilla at dissolution. In state care since 1959.

PLATE 60B: DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH FROM WEST (MODERN WALL IN FOREGROUND)

[611] SITE: between 50 and 100 ft, on hillock in gently hilly surroundings, with stream to north and west, and damp surroundings except to south which is natural approach to site. Boulder clay over shale. MATERIAL: fully described in Co. Down 1966, 290-1 and Waterman 1967, so briefly summarised here. No ENCLOSURE traced, though obstacle across approach from south to be expected. i) CHURCHES. 1) South Church (Pls 60a-b, Pl 61a and Fig. 54a). Built on thick clay raft, sealing earlier layers (see below), internally 16 ft 3 ins by 11 ft 9 ins; east and west walls 2 ft 9 ins wide; north and south 2 ft 6 ins, with antae at east- and west-ends. Walls beautifully built of thin shale slabs in clay (Pl. 61a) on bold external plinth. Transverse paired sockets in north and south walls, and transverse and longitudinal socket in east wall,

PLATE 61A: DERRY – SOUTH CHURCH – SOUTH WALL (DETAIL OF MASONRY).

289

Run east-west but 13° different from South Church. In south wall socket for timber, about 18 ins diameter, and stratification suggested wall west of socket was later extension. Wall faced with long slabs with rubble core. Separated from South Church by brown soil with stone debris, suggesting period of disuse. Three layers below this structure - from base buried soil with occupation material and two post-holes, clay make-up, and thin peaty layer. No datable finds from these layers. Occupation so under North Church with pits post-holes and occupation debris. iii) CEMETERY. Under both churches, and in area between, thirty-six graves found, also two outliers (4 ft east of North Church and 140 ft west of South Church). Under North Church some simple trench graves; others all stone-built. Vary in orientation though all approximately east-west with heads to west sides of thin slabs and lintelled; only one floored. Skeletons poorly preserved, but largely adult males, one probably, three possibly, female, and one child. Some graves contained extra bones with burial. Identifiable sample seventeen. Some burials, on stratigraphical grounds, could be contemporary with west extension of earlier structure, but others cut ruined walls of structure, and graves may all post-date it. Two adult male burials in trench graves associated with South Church, both near east-end, north of centre; one with head to east, other to west.

FIG. 54A: DERRY – CHURCH PLAN.

2) North Church (Pl. 61b and Fig. 54a) 22 ft north of 1), built on dark brown clay, sealing earlier features. Internally 39 ft by 16 ft 9 ins with walls 2 ft 9 ins thick. No antae. Faces of split stone rubble of varying size with spalls, set in clay, with rubble core, on dry stone footing in foundation trench. Slight offset, inside and outside. Northeast angle massive quoin (Pl. 61b). Narrow east window. Slab, probably sill stone, suggests position of south door. West-end badly ruined; no possibility of tracing west door if this ever existed. Excavation showed two spreads of rubble in mortar butted against west wall. Excavator suggests thirteenth century and possibly foundation for tower. Altar and dais at east end also medieval.

iv) CROSS-CARVED STONES. 1) (Fig. 57b). Found re-used, cemented into foundation west of North Church, perhaps in thirteenth century. [613] Small slab of Silurian slate, 10 ins long, 6½ ins and 1 to 1¾ ins thick. Sides neatly squared; top and bottom more roughly dressed. Latin cross with hollowed angles at intersection, outlined by wide, roughly pecked grooves. Refs:

Waterman 1967, 66, fig. 3 no. 3.

PLATE 61B: DERRY – NORTH CHURCH – NORTH-EAST ANGLE (DETAIL OF MASONRY).

[612] ii) EARLIER STRUCTURE. Excavation showed south church covered (and had protected) two parallel, slight, dry-stone walls, 13 ft 6 ins apart, 2 ft 3 ins thick.

FIG. 57B: DERRY- CROSS-CARVED STONES.

290

143.

DONAGHADEE parish and townland. O.S. 3; J/589799.

Included on grounds of place-name. Early history unknown. Medieval parish church: 1306 Taxation ‘Dofnachti’. Other forms include ‘Donaghdyth’ (1524) and ‘Donoghdie’ (1609). Reeves: ‘The parish church occupies the ancient site’ (1847, 17), but I can discover nothing more. SITE: below 50 ft, close to stream and above harbour. Not visited. NO EARLY MATERIAL REPORTED. In this parish also ‘Templepatrick’, O.S. 7; J/594776. Graveyard and holy well. Reeves quotes Montgomery Mss: ‘the ruins of a small church called Templepatrick, where it is said St. Patrick first landed in Ireland; there is his well also, and other traditions among the Irish concerning it’ (1847, 17). Refs:

Reeves 1847, 17, 179.

144.

DONAGHCLONEY parish and townland. O.S. 20; J/131535.

PLATE 69B: DERRY NORTH CHURCH- CROSS-CARVED STONE.

2) (Pl. 69 and Fig, 57b): Kept in North Church at east end. Circumstances of finding not known. Very rough work and damaged. Slate slab 1 ft 5 ins high, 10 ins wide and 2¼ ins thick. Left side neatly dressed, top obliquely dressed and right broken. On face now set to west roughly pecked cross of three parallel grooves, crossing clumsily at centre. Arms not properly aligned. Unpublished.

Included on grounds of place-name. Early history unknown, though vague Patrician traditions. Medieval parish church, included 1306 with ‘the prebend of the Archdeacon’, but several references in archbishops’ registers e.g. ‘vicar of Dompnach-cluana’ (Swayne: Reeves 1847, 107).

v) FONT from Derry reported moved to Roman Catholic chapel at Portaferry. Not visited and no details available.

Graveyard, semi-circular, with modern chapel-of-ease, probably early site.

Refs:

SITE: under 200 ft, spur end in bend of river Lagan with bridging point to south. Many raths in area.

O’Laverty 1878, 404-5.

vi) FINDS FROM EXCAVATION. From occupation under North Church, pre-cemetery and not necessarily ecclesiastical: sherds of souterrain ware, perforated stone disc, iron slag and fragments, and animal bone. At westend of North Church rock high and no intact occupation because of ploughing. Mixed finds, Early Christian and medieval, including bronze buckle with millefiori glass inlay. Finds within North and South Churches from later (medieval) occupation, but in North Church included derived earlier finds. One souterrain ware sherd in grave fill of grave 2 in floor of South Church.

NO EARLY MATERIAL Refs:

[615] 145. DONAGHMORE parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 40; J/105350. Despite name early history obscure. Patron Mac Erc: M.T. at 17 September ‘of Erc bishop from Domnach Mór Maige Coba’, also M.G. (though wrongly located at Domnach mór Maige Damairne). Cowan and Atkinson put festival at 6 July, but Erc does not appear here in early calendars. ‘Seven holy bishops of Domnach Mór Maigi Coba’ in ‘Litany of Irish Saints’, II (Plummer 1925, 69 and Hughes 1959, probably late-eighth – earlyninth century). No further references until medieval parish church, held of see of Armagh, with rectors McKerrell family, hereditary erenaghs. Modern parish church in graveyard on early site. Reeves reports modern church about 60 ft north of ancient site.

Prospects for further excavation. Likely building traces badly disturbed by burials and finds often derived not in situ, but valuable to define extent of graveyard, study larger sample of skeletons, consider direction of growth of cemetery. Excavator points out possibility of locating ditch or other boundary, especially to cover access from south. There may be buildings outside area of burials. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 107; Atkinson 1925, 194, 197, adds nothing about early history; McKeown in D.C.H.S. 4 (1931), 74-80 found no surviving Patrician traditions.

Reeves 1847, 23-4; P.S. 1940, 108-9; Co. Down 1966, 2901, fig. 189 and p1. 84; Waterman 1967, passim.

[614] (Domnach Combair, see COMBER) 291

SITE: over 200 ft, eminence in hilly surroundings.

but iconography of this side not at all clear. Head: weathered traces of figure, possibly Christ in Glory, but impossible to be sure. South side: David harpist with two panels of weathered interlace above. Interlace on under surface of ring, and some carving on end of arm, but too weathered to make out. North side: four panels, of which second shows two figures, others very worn interlace. Weathered figure on end of arm and carving on side of gabled head.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE. Cowan (1914, 122 and 128) mentions rath of somewhat oblong form enclosing about 1½ acres, embracing graveyard and adjoining paddock and knoll. Then only faintly visible. Seem to be traces of bank at south edge of graveyard eminence, especially in southeast sector, but difficult to trace because of burials and growth. ii) CROSS (Pl. 62a-b). Re-erected south of church in 1891, not certainly in original position and perhaps on modern base (double-stepped). Head may have been reversed as crucifixion usually appears with New Testament scenes but here with Old Testament. Coarse granite, weathered, with lichen. Stocky shaft with collar at base, fat angle rolls, inner fillet and narrow collar at base of head. East and west sides treated as single long panel with no subdividing mouldings. West side: rectangular panel on base collar, weathered decoration.

PLATE 62B: DONAGHMORE CROSS (FROM NORTH-WEST). Refs:

Co. Down 1966, 291-2, fig. 190 and p1. 73.

iii) SOUTERRAIN. Cowan (1914, 120-1) describes finding of souterrain in 1837, and Levis (1837, I, 468) gives details of ‘an artificial cave, which extends a considerable distance, the sides being formed of loose stones, covered over with large flat stones: near the centre is a cross or transept, forming two distinct chambers; the cave is about 3 feet wide, 5 feet high, and 62 feet long, and, at the cross, nearly 30 feet broad.’ According to P.S. 1940, 123, it runs north-south, with beehive chambers off, some 200 ft long. Closed In 1890 and cross said to stand on capstone.

PLATE 62A: DONAGHMORE CROSS (FROM NORTH-EAST).

[616] From base of shaft: Adam and Eve below shortbranched tree; four swimming fish with ark above, slightly obscured by crack; two figures standing frontally; two more, one holding sword aloft; unidentified horizontally placed object below collar. Head with open ring, slightly recessed below plane of arms, with semicircular discs on inner circumference. Top is gabled (not separate finial). Very weathered crucifixion with thieves on arms and small figures above. East side: weathered rectangular panel on base collar. Base of shaft, two groups of three figures and similar group at top, but area between less clear. Upper part may be sacrifice of Isaac,

[617] iv) Cowan (1914, 372-3) reports finding in 1830 of ‘stone enclosure 6 ft by 4 ft, near graveyard boundary , 4 to 5 ft below surface, bottom and sides stone-flagged. Cremated bone found and ‘small bars resembling silver’. I am uncertain what this feature can have been. A prehistoric long cist? Refs:

292

Reeves 1847, 111-2 and 306-7; Cowan 1914; Atkinson 1925, 230-2; P.S. 1940, 122-3 and p1. 32; Co. Down 1966, 291-2 and p1. 73.

146.

DOWN diocese and parish. O.S. 37; J/482445.

[619] i) ENCLOSURE. Faint traces of earthwork encircle hilltop on which cathedral stands. Somewhat oval plan, flattened to east, about 600 ft east-west by 650 ft north-south. (Co. Down 1966, p1. 24). Small excavations 1919-20 (Lawlor 1925, 63). Stray Neolithic finds from hill, but excavation by V.B. Proudfoot showed occupied from Late Bronze Age onwards, at first unenclosed, later defended. Six stages of defences defined in long trench in southwest part of enclosure, largely Iron Age, but last stage Early Christian: least formidable, palisade on small bank. Clearly decayed by thirteenth century. Finds from interior indicated major period of occupation was first millennium A.D.: souterrain ware, sherds of imported Class E pottery, iron and slag. Features in interior – post-holes, pits, hollows but little direct dating evidence. Obviously only small sample of very large site, and research excavation would doubtless prove fruitful.

Also known as ‘Ráith celtchair’. Earliest ecclesiastical history of site obscure, Dun-lethglaissi stormed 496 or 498 (A.U.); no reference to church. 584: ‘The repose of Fergus, bishop of Dun-lethglaise, who founded Cill-Bien’ (or 590) (A.U.). Bishop Fergus in M.T. and M.G. at 30 March un-located, but in M.D. ‘of Druim Lethglaise’. No cleric then mentioned until 753 (A.U.). Some obscurity surrounds Patrician connection with Downpatrick. Tírechán believed Patrick buried in Saul (Stokes 1887, 332), but Muirchú’s notes (Book II) give ‘DúnLethglaisse, ubi sepultus est Patricius’ (ibid., 298) (as also ‘Tripartite Life’ (ibid., 255)). By twelfth century generally believed Patrick, Columba and Brigid all buried here: e.g. Giraldus Cambrensis: ‘Their three bodies were buried in Ulster in the same city, namely Down. They were found there in our times ...’ (O’Meara 1951, 89). Fiaco’s ‘Hymn’, written in eighth century (Kenney 1929, 340) listing triumphs of Christianity over paganism, includes ‘A great church is Dún Letb-glasse’ (Stokes 1887, 409). ‘Litany of Irish [Pilgrim] Saints’, II, probably late eighth to early ninth century, lists: ‘The twelve pilgrims in Lethglas Mór’, perhaps Downpatrick (Plummer 1925, 66 and Hughes 1959, 326).

Refs:

ii) ROMANESQUE FRAGMENT. Found loose in new graveyard southwest of cathedral: ‘probably part of a door or window jamb enriched with a chevron with palmette ornament in the spandrels’ (Co. Down 1966, 267, pl. 91). Tantalising glimpse of early twelfth-century work.

[618] From mid-eighth century A.U. gives regular obits of abbots. Plundered by Vikings 825 and 942; plundered and burned by Vikings 989. Unquiet period early eleventh century: A.U. 1007 king of Ulster’s son killed in St. Brigid’s church, in the middle of Dun-da-lethglas; 1010 abbot blinded; 1016 ‘Dunlethglaise was all burned’; and again 1040. 1111: ‘fire of lightning burned Dun-dalethglas, both Close and Third’. Down chosen as see for Ulaid at Synod of Rathbreasail, and Malachy bishop in 1120s and 1137-48. From his time (1138) dates foundation of house of Augustinian Canons at Down (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 169). AU. reports ‘Dun-dalethglas was destroyed by John de Courcy’ (1177). Name changed to Downpatrick and Benedictine monks brought from Chester to cathedral. Present cathedral on early site is part of Benedictine Priory church. No evidence of preNorman origins for any other Downpatrick medieval religious house. Unknown what became of St. Brigid’s Church (see above), but A.U. 1538 reports relics of Brigid carried off by Saxons from Downpatrick. Hint of early topography in 1182 grant by John de Courcy: ‘Concessi ecclesiae S. Trinitatis de Dune terram dextra parte S. Georgii intrantibus murum usque ad Curiam S. Columbae; et a Curia S. Columbae per vicum juxta crucem S. Moninnae, usque ad murum’ (Reeves 1847, 229).

iii) ROUND TOWER. Harris (1744, 220) ‘about 40 Feet from the old Cathedral, is 66 Feet high, the Thickness of the Walls three Feet, and the Diameter on the inside 8 Feet. On the West side of it is an irregular Gap about 10 Feet from the Top, near a Third of the whole Circumference being broken off by the Injury of Time. The Entrance to it is two Feet and a half wide, and placed on a Level with the Surface of the Ground ...’ [620] Drawing by Samuel Woolley, 1790, shows tower south of cathedral (impression approximately south of west-end), of neatly coursed ashlar with no openings, circumference decreasing a little from bottom to top (Co. Down 1966, p1. 88). Year of demolition variously given (1783, 1789, 1790). Dubourdieu (1802, 289): ‘When the tower was thrown down, and cleared away to the foundation, another foundation was discovered under it, and running directly across the site of the tower, which appeared to be a continuation of the church wall, which, at some period prior to the building of the tower, seemed to have extended considerably beyond it.’ P.S. 1940, 117, suggests cathedral tower includes re-used stone from round tower Getty excavated site in 1842 but found ground level lowered and no trace of foundations (1856, 128-30).

SITE: prominent hilltop, just under 100 ft, high above Quoile and marshes. Air photographs in Co. Down 1966, pls 24-5 and Proudfoot (op. cit. below) p1. XV. MATERIAL: mostly fragmentary and not impressive, but adds up to reasonable amount.

Proudfoot, V.B., ‘Excavations at the Cathedral Hill, Downpatrick’ in U.J.A. 17 (1954), 97-102; Co. Down 1966, 98-9 and fig. 67.

iv) CROSSES: 1) (P1. 63a-b). Known sometimes as ‘Town’ or ‘Market Cross’, set east of cathedral in 1897 (Praeger 1900, 124). Probably cross described by Harris: ‘Near the Courthouse in the Street lie the several Pieces of an old Stone Cross, on the Shaft of which is carved a Crucifix or

very

293

Image of Jesus; it is generally called the Market Cross; yet probably it stood in one of the Church Yards’ (1744, 32). Shows signs of ill-treatment: very eroded and break below head. Stands on modern base on featureless rectangular granite block, 2 ft 5 ins north-south by 2 ft east-west and 1 ft 3 ins high: is this original base? I doubt it but Bigger and Fennell (op. cit. below) imply it is, and give dimensions 2 ft 6 ins wide, 1 ft 10 ins thick, 1 ft 7 ins high. They report modern stone above needed because large cavity in lower stone: used as horse trough. Shaft of coarse granite.

Crucifixion; possibly traces of soldiers leaning back at considerable angle; on arms groups of three figures (or figure and two animal defaced carving on broken top member. West side (Pl. 63b): even more badly damaged and defaced. At broken base two heads with something between and over; no plain dividing band; three figures(?); horse and rider facing left; figure-carving above, but too damaged to decipher. Head: slight traces of central and flanking figures, but no detail. North side entirely defaced; South side long panel of single wide band (1¼ ins) interlace, impression rather haphazard, ill-organised.

PLATE 63A: DOWNPATRICK CROSS – EAST FACE.

[621] Has clearly had angle mouldings but seem deliberately knocked off. 1 ft 3 ins by 11 ins and 4 ft 9 ins high (incomplete). Readings of figure scenes vary because very defaced; mine are as follows: East side (P1. 63a): bottom clearly broken, about waistlevel, across two figures, with large round object (head or loaf?) between; horizontal band, 2½ ins wide, flattened circular section, seems plain; either three elongated figures or three shorter figures with three extra heads (centre figure frontally placed, flankers in profile, feet inwards); another plain horizontal band, 3½ ins wide; three more figures, centre frontally placed with arms extended, flanked by two figures (or beasts?); very abraded carving below break (lower part two figures?). Head with hollowed angles, slightly recessed solid ring, apparently without discs on inner circumference. Large figure at crossing, clothed, arms outstretched, probably

PLATE 63B: DOWNPATRICK CROSS – SOUTH AND WEST FACES. Refs:

Bigger, F.J. and Fennell, W.J., ‘The High Cross of Downpatrick’ in U.J.A. 3 (1897), 272-4 (photographs p. 273 and description of restoration); J.R.S.A.I. 27 (1897), 245-6; Crawford 1907, 196; Henry 1932, 204, p1. 93; Sexton 1946, 121; Co. Down 1966, 272, p1. 73,

[622] 2) Three fragments which may belong to one cross, now in west vestibule of cathedral, formerly at St. Patrick’s Grave outside to south. O’Laverty (1878, 285-6) 294

reports sectarian trouble over cross and its breaking: ‘the three largest fragments of it are now, however, placed ... at the east end of the Cathedral.’ Granite, 7 to 8 ins thick, very weathered and difficult to make out detail. Pieces are: a) published in Co. Down 1966, 271, as head, by Bigger (op. cit. below) as part of shaft. Is clearly end of some limb: could be head or arm? Joins: b) mutilated fragment of crossing and two limbs. At crossing large circle enclosed within two concentric fillets. Circle may contain interlace but badly weathered. Panel on head (or arm) within moulding very defaced with fret or interlace. Edges badly damaged, but has been angle roll all round, and small, carefully-worked hollows at intersection, Co. Down 1966, 271, suggests hollows only on shaft and head, not arms (could be vice-versa if pieces differently placed). On reverse rectangular sinking on ‘head’ and circular sinking at crossing. Reverse of ‘head’ also clear panel fret decoration. Fragment c) also granite (contra Co. Down 1966, 271, sandstone) in better condition, 7 ins thick, 1 ft 8 ins wide, 1 ft 6 ins long, with small tenon 6 ins wide and 1¼ ins long. Dimensions very similar to a) and b); only slightly smaller. Angle roll probably defaced. Rectangular panel within fillet with bold, pleasing decoration of spirals incorporating triskeles and trumpets. Reverse sinking like other fragments, 1 ft 1½ ins wide, ¾ in. deep. I feel sure sinkings are secondary so presence on all three fragments does not prove all originally part of one cross; nevertheless c) seems to me sufficiently like a) and b) to suggest likely all same cross. Refs:

5) Cross-base? Now mounted on four short pillars and used as cathedral font. Brought from yard in English Street where used as water-trough; suggested original provenance not cathedral site, but Augustinian Canons (D.C.H.S. 9 (1938), 49, and Reeves 1847, 231, on site of Augustinian church). [624] May be reputed base of broken granite cross mentioned by Bigger (op. cit., 1900, 63-4) as kept in yard near cathedral. Coarse granite, 3 ft 1 ins by 3 ft, 1 ft 6 ins high and 9 ins deep. Unlikely originally served as font; cross-base most likely. Sides decorated with broad flutings enclosed by (largely defaced) moulding. East face - three sunken areas. One of intervening rectangular panels decorated with angular fret (can be read as outline crosses), but other re-cut. Traces of interlace on south sides. No decoration traceable on other faces. Refs:

D.C.H.S. 9 (1938), 49 (photograph); Co Down 1966, 271, p1. 72.

v) CROSS-CARVED STONES. I have not seen either of these. 1) (Fig. 56d). Stone 10 ins square, 2½ ins thick, face fairly smooth with sharply incised lines. Ingenious design which incorporates ten crosses. Large saltire cross, crossleted, ringed, with equal-armed cross in each quadrant. All crosses have seriphs; seem carefully worked. In 1883-4 in O’Laverty’s collection; present whereabouts unknown.

Bigger, F.J., The Grave of St. Patrick’ in U.J.A. 6 (1900), 61.-4 with drawing; Co. Down 1966, 271, fig. 174 and p1. 74.

[623] 3) In south aisle, set in wall, sandstone cross, 1 ft 10 ins high. Arms and shaft hollowed at intersections, solid recessed ring. In high relief (1¾ ins) standing figure of ecclesiastic, 1 ft 44 ins high. Head defaced, but other detail very fine. Wears long robe, hemmed, with vertical ribbing, and hemmed, horizontally ribbed cape. Hands project from under cape, right holding crosier (knops on shaft? rounded head? damaged and difficult to be sure), left rectangular object with V-notch in top. Figure stands on horizontal projecting bracket on which crosier base rests. FIG. 56D: DOWNPATRICK – CROSS-CARVED STONE. Refs:

J.R.S.A.I. 35 (1905), 304 (drawing); J.R.S.A.I. 41 (1911), 290 (drawing); Crawford 1912, 225 (1); Henry 1932, 199; D.C.H.S. 6 (1934), 40 (photograph); Co. Down 1966, 271, p1.72.

Refs:

2) Carved stone found by Arthur Pollock during gravedigging in 1962. I did not locate this and know it only through photograph by A.E.P. Collins which shows elaborate cross with fretwork embellishment. Needs to be pursued further.

4) Mounted in wall, beside 3). Fragment only of small sandstone cross. Arms and shaft hollowed at intersection; solid recessed ring. Upper part of male figure in relief. Head may be tonsured; facial features defined by deep lines producing almost caricature effect. Clasps rectangular object against chest. Outer edge of arms ribbed and incised saltire cross/star motif on object. Less accomplished than 3). Refs:

Patterson 1883-4, 117-9 (drawing 119); Crawford 1912, 225 (2); Lionard 1961, 137, fig. 27; Co. Down 1966, 271.

vi) BULLAUN at foot of font in cathedral. Water-worn pebble, probably basalt, broken. Maximum dimensions 10 by 6 ½ ins, 7 ins high. Hollow in upper surface 6 by 5 ins (truncated by break) and 2 ins deep with projection in centre at base. Unpublished and circumstances of finding unknown.

D.C.H.S. 6 (1934), 40 (recently found); Co. Down 1966, 271, p1. 72.

295

[625] vii) Reports of other material. O’Laverty 1878, 301: ‘Occasionally stone-lined graves are found, such as we have remarked at Saul, St. John’s Point, and other ancient churches ...’ No other reports of these. Wall fragments found at various times, for example about 1910 when tennis courts leveled north of cathedral (p.s. 1940, 117) but none clearly earlier than medieval. Recent survey of material in Co. Down 1966, 267-8.

all 3 ft 8 ins. Lower shaft survives to height of 3 ft 6 ins. On north and south sides small offset 1 ft 5 to 6 ins above base; offset absent east and west faces, but on all sides this lower part undecorated. East side recessed rectangular panel in frame with very weathered interlace in frame. Rectangular sinking at top of panel unlikely part of original design. West side another recessed rectangular panel in frame with single-strand, loose interlace. Within frame narrow raised fillet defining inner rectangular panel with defaced decoration. North side: above offset rectangular frame with singlestrand interlace. Within this is inner fillet, half-round section, defining rectangular panel with diagonal key pattern in lower part and (above horizontal band) interlace at top (broken). South side generally similar but interlaced border clearly interrupted 10½ ins above bottom of panel by horizontal lines.

viii) RELICS AND RELIQUARIES. According to A.U. 553 (full extract under Armagh ‘Bells’) when Patrick’s relics enshrined by Columba contents of tomb included goblet, given to Down. Presumably chalice, but hear no more of it. Giraldus Cambrensis believed bodies of Patrick, Columba and Brigid all buried at Down: ‘John de Courci, who was in command there, took charge when these three noble treasures were, through divine revelation, found and translated’ (O’Meara 1951, 89-90). ‘Shrine of St. Patrick’s Arm’ associated with Down, now in church of St. Patrick, Donegal Street, Belfast. Fifteenth-century shrine, presumably replacing earlier one. Refs:

Smith, J.H., in U.J.A. 2 (1854), 207 f.; Crawford 1923, 90; Raftery 1941, 166, pls 123 and 127; Co. Down 1966, 141 and 442). Brigid’s relics reported carried off by English in 1538 (A.U.).

Refs:

(many J.R.S.A.I. reports on visits to Downpatrick not included): Harris 1744, 25-36, 220; Dubourdieu 1802, 289; Reeves 1847, especially 141-8, 223-232; Getty 1856, 12830; O’Laverty 1878, 264-302; P.S. 1940, 117- 8; Co. Down 1966, 266-74; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 68-9, 105- 6, 169; other references as above.

147.

DROMORE diocese, Ballymagaulish townland. O.S. 21; J/200533.

Patron Colman or Mo-Cholm-oc (‘Life’: ‘short and fabulous’, Kenney 1929, 466 and Heist 1965, 357-60). Colmán at 7 June in M.O., glossed ‘Mo Colmóc of Druim Mór in Húi Echach of Ulster’, [626] also M.T., M.G. and M.D. A.U. records obit of abbot 842; of anchorite and abbot 908. Comarb of Comgall and Mocholmoc died 953; comarb of Finnen and Mocholmoc 1019; bishop of Druim-mor 1101. Dromore not chosen for diocese at synods of Rathbreasail or Kells. First reference to diocese is 1197 so likely created at Synod of Dublin 1192. Was small and poor. Later history in Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 69-70.

PLATE 64A: DROMORE CROSS – LOWER SHAFT (FROM SOUTHEAST).

SITE: under 300 ft, valley floor, on north bank of River Lagan beside bridge. MATERIAL: i.) CROSS (Pl. 64a-b). Massive granite cross re-erected and restored (much of shaft and part of head) in 1887 after use as base for town stocks. Base elegant, rectangle with convex faces and top. Face to east most carefully shaped. Granite on west side and part of north side untrimmed. Small angle roll along edges: clear upper surface but less clear at sides. 1 ft 10 ins high, at top about 3 ft 6 ins by 3 ft at base - west side 4 ft 1 in., others

PLATE 64B: DROMORE CROSS – BASE.

296

[627] Massive head, solid recessed ring, hollowed intersections. Recessed panels under arms and ring. West face plain; east face large circular sinking at centre and square sunk panel in north arm (unlikely to be original). Now stands southeast of cathedral at approach to bridge, but formerly used as market cross near cathedral (Harris 1744, 99).

[628] O’Donovan was shown supposed site of old monastery and ancient burial ground, but he does not say where: ‘Many of the chiseled stones are yet in the modern walls and variously scattered about’ (O’Donovan 1909, 20-22).

ii) CROSS CARVED STONE (Fig. 57c) known as ‘St. Colmán’s pillow’, kept in niche in south wall of chancel. 1 ft 5 ins high, 11 ins wide, about 7 ins thick (obscured). Boulder (water-worn granite?). On smooth upper surface Latin cross formed of three fairly shallow wide grooves. Can be seen as outline cross in false relief, with bifid ends of shaft and arms. Four small circular sinkings in angles between arms and shaft. Recovered early this century from Lisburn and set in cathedral in 1919.

Refs:

Drawing of cross in broken state by J.H. Burgess 1843 in Alexander Johns Ms., vol. 1 85; Reeves 1847, 103-5, 303-6; O’Donovan loc. cit. Atkinson 1925, especially 87-8; Co. Down 1966, 274-5 and pie 73-4; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 69-70.

148.

DRUMADONNELL townland, Drumgooland parish. O.S. 35; J/244392.

Stone cross built into north gable of schoolhouse, not in situ, but doubts about original site. Evidence and problems fully and judiciously rehearsed by Kerr, W.C., in ‘Ulster Archaeological Society Newsletter’ (May 1972, 7-10); only briefly summarised here. I agree evidence is inconclusive. Harris (1744, 82) describes stone cross at ‘the Parish Church of Drumoolgan’ about 30 ft from church door. But which site is this? Bigger (op. cit. below) confident account of moving of cross about 1778 from old church site in Deehommed townland to church in Drumadonnell, apparently built in late seventeenth century. Broken in sectarian trouble, so built into schoolhouse (no account available of hidden face). Fitzpatrick (op. cit. below) confirms sectarian trouble but cannot recall any tradition of moving cross and believes Drumadonnell was original location. Drumgooland graveyard is in Deehommed townland at J/258407. Circular, about 160 ft diameter, with higher nuclear area; valley side overlooked by higher ground, under 400 ft. Drumadonnell school 1 mile southwest, under 300 ft, on ridge between Drumadonnell river and tributary. MATERIAL: CROSS (P1. 68a). Base granite, tall plain cube. May be recent (when cross set in gable?).

FIG. 57C: DROMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Earlier history unknown. Description in Co. Down 1966, 274; photograph in Atkinson 1925, facing 96. He gives dimensions 18 by 12 by 8 ins. ‘Colmán’s Life’ refers to ‘Petra Colmani’ but this seems to belong to Nendrum not Dromore (Heist 1965, 358). iii) WELL. O.S. reports ‘St. Colmán’s Well’ 8 chains west of cathedral. Not visited. iv) John O’Donovan in 1834 ‘O.S. Letters’ describes collection of Mr.. Welsh of Dromore (also mentioned by Lewis) and gives verse about it: He has pieces of croziers, A rare crucifix, An old broken mitre, a chalice and Pix; The pan of a censor of brass finely polished, Which was found near a. church that Cromwell demolished; A font that was raised near the Abbey of Saul, And some Druid Idols, the rarest of all ...

PLATE 68A: DRUMADONNELL CROSS.

297

[629] Cross granite, 8 ft 6 ins high, 5 ft 2 ins across arms. Solid ringed head, hollowed intersections without discs on ring. Wide flat edge mouldings and small fillet defining decorated panels. Shaft and arms very worn interlace and at crossing diamond-shaped area with central circular rosette (small bosses round larger central boss) and tripartite interlaced knots in ‘spandrels’. End of arm to left chamfered but to right damaged. Reeves mentions another church ruin in Magheramayo townland: ‘and beside [the ruins] is a holy well called ‘Toberdonnagh’, where stations used to be held on 24th of June’. ‘Drumgolyn cum capellis’ appears in 1422 list of churches (Reeves 1847, 315-6). See pp. 61-2 for further discussion of sites. Refs:

Harris 1744, 82; Lewis 1837, I, 516 only confuses matters by referring to cross in schoolhouse at Drumgooland; Bigger, FJ., ‘The Ancient Cross of Drumgoland in the County Down’ in U.J.A. 14 (1908), 56-8; Fitzpatrick, P., ‘The Ancient Cross of Drumgoolan, Co. Down’ in U.J.A. 15 (1909), 45-7; Co. Down 1966, 301 and p1. 73; Kerr, op. cit. above.

149.

DRUMBO parish and townland. O.S. 9; J/321650.

9 ft and walls 3 ft 9 ins thick. Sides incline only slightly upwards. Walls of local Silurian rubble, varied size, many spalls, only very roughly coursed. Door 5 ft 6 ins high, 5 ft above ground (in Harris’s day 6 ft). Lintel and jambs hammer-dressed to curve of tower; sill missing. Jambs incline slightly (1 ft 10 ins to 1 ft 8 ins at top). No architrave or elaboration. Suggestion of seating for doorcase broken away inside. Small lintelled window to north lighting uppermost (surviving) storey. Interior much patched (burned?). Joist holes for floor at door level and four sets of holes above, providing for basement and five stories in surviving height. Interior excavated for Gotty on 27-9 December 1841. [631] Quite detailed description of stratification: to depth of 2 ft rubbish, to 4 ft rubble (tower tumble), to 7 ft ‘black mould’ with charcoal and animal bones, one inch of mortar spread, burial immediately under, head to west, and further 2 ft to bottom of foundations and undisturbed ground (about 9 ft in all).

Early history difficult to trace, partly because more than one Drumbo (Latin ‘Collum Bovis’, see Hogan 1910, 358). Incident described in ‘Tripartite Life’: ‘Patrick was once sleeping on a Sunday over the sea at Druim-bó. He heard a great noise of the heathen digging a rath on a Sunday’ (Stokes 1887, 222-3). Believed to refer to Strangford Lough area, but not certainly even Ulster. Hardly appropriate for this inland Drumbo. Reeves quotes Colgan (followed by Gwynn and Hadcock) in passage attributed to Oengus, tract on mothers of saints in Ireland, including Mochumma of Drumbo. But Kenney does not list this source, and Mochumma of Drumbo does not appear in M.O. or other calendars. At 24 July M.T. has Lugbe ‘of Druim Bó’, also M.G. and M.D. [630] At 10 August M.T. has Cummine ‘abbot of Druim Bó’, also M.G. and M.D. Those may refer to this site, but further information needed for confident identification. Drumbo area involved in 1003 battle of Craebh-tulcha (A.F.M.); and 1130-1 hosting into Ulster: ‘and they plundered Druim Both, including round tower, and oratory, and books’ (M.I.A.). Medieval parish church. Presbyterian Church now occupies early site.

PLATE 65A: DRUMBO ROUND TOWER (FROM WEST).

iii) Reports of OTHER MATERIAL: Harris (1744, 73) mentions foundations of (enclosure?) wall close to old church, and local belief small fortified ‘town’ on hill because soil fertile with domestic rubbish. Dubourdieu (1802, 290) ‘... of late, in labouring the fields in the environs, many hearthstones and other remains have been dug up.’ Co. Down 1966, 297, reports finding of sherds of souterrain ware in east part of graveyard in 1950. Sexton told me walls encountered northeast of tower where ground very uneven.

SITE: about 380 ft, on hill slope with steep fall west to Lagan valley. MATERIAL: i) report of CHURCH (though date unknown). Harris (1744, 73) writes of ‘the Ruins of a Church 45 feet in length, and 20 broad’, southeast of round tower (see below). Reeves (1847, 45): ‘regretted that, owing to the frequency of interments, no part of the old church remains.’

Refs:

ii) ROUND TOWER (Pl. 65a) West of present church, 24 ft northwest of earlier church. About 35 ft high (neat appearance at top result of restoration). Internal diameter 298

Harris 1744, 73; Dubourdieu 1802, 289-90 and fig. facing 278; Petrie 1845, 89-91 and fig. of door on 401; Reeves 1847, 44-5; Getty 1855, 110-6; P.S. 1940, 87; Co. Down 1966, 297 and p1. 85; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 34, follow Reeves.

(Drumgooland, see DRUMADONNELL.) 150.

[633] 2) Broken fragment of shale, built into gatepost of farmhouse southeast of 1). 7 ins high, 8 ins wide, unknown thickness. Shallow pecked line, about in. wide, forming part of outline cross with square expansion at crossing and end of one surviving arm.

DRUMSALLAGH townland, Aghaderg parish. O.S. 33; J/094414.

Church site here believed to be ‘Tamlacht Menainn’ or ‘Tamlacht Umail’ of calendars. At 26 October in M.O. Nassad, Beóán and Mellán glossed ‘in Tamlachta near Loch Bricrenn, i.e. three saints in the same church in Húi Echach of Ulster, near Tamlachta Maccu-cuill on Loch Bricrenn’; M.T. similar but ‘in Tamlachta Umail at Loch Bricrenn’; M.G. ‘from Tamlachta Menainn’.

Ref:

Co. Down 1966, 302; not illustrated.

Probably site of medieval parish church (Reeves 1847, 112-3), but Dubourdieu introduces some confusion with alleged Franciscan house ‘situated about 200 yards from the old church of Ahaderig, in the same townland; [632] the ruins of the church remain until this day, but most of the ruins of the monastery, with its choicest stones, were removed about an English mile, to the place where the church now stands ... an old man [over ninety] ... remembered the walls of this building standing, to the height of three or four feet, and about 90 ft in length, but that above 40 years ago they had been removed to make room for a bleach green’ (1802, 303). No Franciscan house here documented, but possibility of two distinct sites in area.

FIG. 57E: DRUMSALLAGH - CROSS-CARVED STONES.

3) Loose in farmyard near 2), broken stone. Surviving outline segment of rough circle, diameter 9 ins, radius 4 ins and 2 to 3 ins thick. Both sides flat and carved with roughly pecked linear crosses. Unpublished. iii) Report of BELL found about 1835 on monastery site. Alleged acquired by Bell and with his collection to Edinburgh. Described as ‘thin brass’, square shaped, without clapper, with one side partly burned (corroded?) or broken out (Lett 1905, 254 n.2). I cannot identify this from brief description in Edinburgh Museum Catalogue, 284, KB1-12.

SITE: about 200 It, fairly flat area: hill. rises to east and stream close by to west, flowing west to Lough Shark. Important north-south routes to west and east of site. Next townland to south is Meenan (of. Tamlacht Menand), Lough Brickland with crannog, ⅞ mile to east, plundered, probably by Vikings, in 833, and battle there 1005.

iv) Other reports of material: Dubourdieu mentions finds from Aghaderg parish, though not clear exactly where. He implies ecclesiastical material ‘as gold cups, dishes etc., probably chalices and patens, and other monastic or church furniture’ (loc. cit. above), but piece he describes from Drumsallagh sounds like a torque. ‘A number of detached pieces of antiquity are likewise in the Bishop of Dromore’s possession’ (ibid. 305). Whereabouts of all these finds unknown, and uncertain whether relevant to this enquiry.

MATERIAL: i) CHURCH. Foundations of east-west building, called by O.S. ‘Site of Monastery’. What appear at first sight to be walls probably spoil from robbing, so depression between parallel ‘banks’ indicates wall-line. Co. Down 1966, 302, suggests at least 42 ft by about 20 ft. My observations suggested about 50 ft by 24 ft, with possibly further cell (chancel?) to east, making total length about 80 ft (cf. Dubourdieu above). Much spilt stone rubble and some dressed sandstone in area; surface around very uneven. If there are two church sites in this area, uncertain which this is: parish church on early site or Franciscan house. ii) CROSS-CARVED STONES (Fig. 57e): i) Block of ashlar (local slate?), 1 ft 4 ins across, 1 ft 3 ins high and 8¾ ins thick, re-used as northeast quoin of disused mill at about J/093412. Worn and lichen-covered. Very lightly pecked cross of arcs within circle diameter 1 ft. Difficult to distinguish detail. Arcs of cross unsteady; does not appear carefully compass-drawn. Ref:

Refs:

Harris 1744, 83; Dubourdieu 1802, 301-5; Reeves 1847, 112- 3; Lett, H.W., ‘The Island in Lough Brickland’ in J.R.S.A.I. 35 (1905), 249-54; Co. Down 1966, 302, p1. 76; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 40.

151.

DUNSEY ISLAND, Killinchy parish. Perhaps O.S. 24 at about J/544589.

[634] In M.T. at 6 August: ‘Duissech on Loch Cúan’ ; M.G. at 5 August: ‘Dunsech [glossed] a virgin, on Loch Cúan in Ulster’, also M.D. But also at 11 December in M.O., gloss only: ‘Dunsech a virgin of Cell Dunsige in Ulster - now she has three churches in Ulster’, also M.G. and M.D. Rector of Kilduncy mentioned in Archbishop Swayne’s Register 1427.

Co. Down 1966, 302 and p1. 76.

299

Reeves discovered no buildings or traditions in island, but many bones reported found ‘within living memory’ in area of farmhouse, perhaps southwest corner of island, under 50 ft, off west coast of Strangford Lough. Not visited. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 186; O’Laverty 1878, 345-6.

152.

Edenmore townland, Newry parish. O.S. 47; J/144265.

Granite boulder, roughly triangular outline. 6 ft high, maximum 5 ft wide and 3 ft thick. Isolated in meadowland. Several small granite boulders at base. On flat northeast face near top carved cross and letters. Difficult to see detail under lichen and generations of whitewash. Roughly incised Latin cross, lines V-section, up to ½ in. deep. Top of shaft and ends of arms slightly expanded. Stem rests on cross bar of ‘H’ of ‘IHS’, with ‘J.G’. (not ‘C’) underneath. Letters lightly scratched; less deep than cross, possibly added. Small oval boulder cemented to top of stone. I could not discover any local traditions about stone.

Unlikely to be a church. SITE: hill slope, about 350 ft, overlooking lower ground to northwest and northeast.

Refs:

MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STANDING STONE (P1. 70b and Fig. 58d).

[635] 153. GORTGRIB townland, Knockbreda parish. O.S. 5; not located or visited.

U.J.A. 4 (1941), 139 and rough sketch 140, fig. 2c; Evans 1951, 90-1 and fig. 40; Co. Down 1966, 96 and p1. 14.

Molibba ‘of Gort Cirb’ at 6 August in M.T., and at 5 August in M.G. and M.D. Probably to be identified with small townland Gortgrib. Church of ‘Corgrippe’ listed 1306. Reeves 1847, 11-2: ‘There are no remains of a church; but in a portion of a field, called “the Graveyard”, some human remains have been found.’ Refs:

Hogan 1910, 448.

154.

HOLYWOOD parish. O.S. 1; J/401794.

Site of medieval parish church of Haliwode or ‘Sanctus Boscus’. Ruin of thirteenth-century church with fifteenthcentury and later additions in graveyard. Because site is on Belfast Lough, suggested is church of Lassrén ‘the great son of Nascae [glossed] i.e. from Ard macc Nascai(?) in Ulster, i.e. from Art maic Nasca on the shore of Loch Laig in Ulster’ at 25 October in M.O., and similar M.T., M.G. and M.D. Colgan suggested was Laistranus of Bode, one of recipients of letter in 634 (H.E. II, 19). Nothing more known of early foundation.

PLATE 70B: EDENMORE- CROSS-CARVED STONE.

SITE: lough shore, under 50 ft on very slight slope down to water. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 12-3 and 272-4; O’Laverty 1880, 190-9; Co. Down 1966, 282-3.

155.

INCH parish and townland. O.S. 37; J/477455.

Extensive remains of Cistercian Abbey, daughter of Furness, Lancs., colonised 1187 on site of earlier church. At 22 July M.O. has ‘My Biu (moBíu) of Inis Cúscraid [glossed] i.e. beside Dún dá lethglas’, also M.T., M.G. and M.D. [636] At 29 July M.T. has Bití of Inis Caumscraid, also M.G and M.D. Devastated by Sitric 1001 when many captives taken (A.U.). Erenagh of Inis-Cumscraigh died 1061. Reeves quotes Furness source describing

FIG. 58D: EDENMORE – CROSS-CARVED STANDING STONE.

300

Refs:

foundation of Inch: ‘Dominus Johannes de Curcy conquestor Ultoniae fundavit abbatiam de Ynes in insula de Ynescuscre’ (Reeves 1847, 232).

ii) FIGURE-CARVED STONE. West of i), maximum visible height 3 ft 2 ins, 1 ft 2 ins across arms, 1 ft 1 in. across shaft, head 10½ ins diameter and 4 ins thick. Circular head, short, stumpy arms, wedge-shaped body, and long, plain, straight shaft. On upper east face groove around edge outlines cross / body. Features incised and outline Latin cross on body with very long arms and short top member. West side plain. Grey granite. Date problematic: I feel, with Co. Down 1966, 303, likely post-medieval, probably eighteenth century; Helen Roe believes very early, ‘not later than mid 7th century’ (1960, 206); and Charles Thomas agrees (1971, 128-130).

SITE: about 50 ft, on slight knoll, with Quoile River to south and marshes on other sides. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Several writers suggest chapel formerly in graveyard north of Abbey (site occupied by Maxwell vault) belonged to early foundation. Drawing in D.P.J. I, 50 (June 1833), 397, shows very overgrown chapel from southwest showing west door and two gaps in south wall. Harris (1744, 37) refers to: ‘an old Church, which perhaps was a Chapel to the great Abby ...’ Petrie and others took simplicity to indicate great antiquity, but O’Donovan, visiting Downpatrick in 1834, wrote: ‘Everyone here says that Petrie has totally mistaken the date of the small church at Inch’ (‘O. S. Letters’, O’Donovan 1909, 62). None of brief descriptions help in deciding date.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 44, 92-3, 232; O’Laverty 1878, 321-4; Power, P., in D.C.H.S. 1928, 19-20; Co. Down 1966, 279-81.

156.

KILBRONEY parish and townland. O.S. 51; J/188195.

Good photograph by Welch in Atkinson 1925, facing p. 264 and P.S. 1940, p1. 33; Roe 1960, especially 194 and fig. la.

[638] iii) BELL. ‘St. Bronach’s Bell’ reported found late eighteenth century among branches of fallen tree in graveyard (another version in old wall), now in Roman Catholic Chapel, Rostrevor, at J/181186. Cast bronze, 10½ ins high, handle 1¾ ins high, 7⅝ by 7 ins at mouth. Rather angular outline with rectangular mouth. Undecorated except handle where ends expand to join bell. Nothing known of whereabouts of St. Bronach’s ‘bachall’ (see above).

Crucifixion stone, formerly built into chapel, certainly late medieval (Co. Down 1966, 281, p1. 107). Refs:

Clearly visible in old photograph by Welch as large, low stone with chamfered edge (Atkinson 1925, facing p. 256). Co. Down 1966, p1. 73.

Refs:

Earlier name ‘Glenn Sechis’ or ‘Cell Sechis’. M.O. at 2 April, gloss only, ‘Brónach virgo, from Glenn Sechis’ M.T. not located, M.G. and M.D. Medieval parish church, listed 1306 as ‘church of Glentegys, otherwise of Nister’.

Milligan 1903, 55; Atkinson 1925, 250 and p1. facing p. 248; Co. Down, p1. 83.

iv) WELL. O.S. marks ‘St. Brigid’s Well’ south of graveyard.

Archbishop of Armagh’s register refers to office ‘custos Baculi Sanctae Bromanae’ (Swayne 1428, Reeves 1847, 116). Ruined fifteenth-century and later church in graveyard.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 115-6 and 309; Atkinson 1925, 249-50; Co. Down 1966, 303. Surprisingly omitted by Gwynn and Hadcock 1970.

157.

KILCLIEF parish and townland. O.S. 39; J/596457.

Nothing known of earliest history; Colgan believed was Patrician foundation but I find no evidence for this. Name indicates ‘Church of Hurdles’ but in A.F.M. at 935 find stone church burned: ‘and a great prey was carried out of it’ (not A.U.). Also A.F.M. 1001 plundered (with Inch) by Sitric.

[637] SITE: about 200 ft, valley side on eastward slope to Kilbroney River and southward slope to Carlingford Lough 1 mile away. MATERIAL: i) CROSS. 36 ft south of chancel of ruined church. Granite, single stone, 7 ft 7 ins high, 11 ins wide across shaft, 3 ft 1 in. across arms and 8 ins thick. Un-ringed Latin cross; west side stone cut back at intersection of arms in somewhat horseshoe-shaped hollows (not east side). Small edge mouldings. West side all-over decoration, but very weathered and only clearly visible in good conditions. Shaft and arms decorated with square panels of fretwork with diamond panel at crossing. North and south sides plain except for edge moulding; east side also plain, slightly convex.

Medieval parish church. Archbishops’ registers refer to ‘Ecclesia Sti. Kelani de Kyicleth’. Reeves suggests either Cailan of Nendrum or Cillen of Achadh-chail (1847, 39 and 217 and under Maghera). Modern parish church and graveyard probably on early site. SITE: about 50 ft, slight hillock on sea-shore, sloping south and east to sea. NO EARLY MATERIAL: earliest is several AngloNorman coffin lid fragments.

Base now much obscured; uncertain whether old or recent.

Refs:

301

Reeves 1847, 38-9 and 217-9; O’Laverty 1878, 204-7; Co. Down 1966, 304; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 389.

[639] 158. Kilhoran (and variants), Kilkeel parish, Moneydorraghmore townland. O.S 56; J/371191.

Immediately west of cross large, oval, cracked slab of granite, 3 ft 2 ins north-south by 2 ft 8 ins, at least 8 ins high. Hole at centre, rectangle with rounded corners, 10 ins by 8 ins. Would almost certainly accommodate cross shaft. Lawlor reported locally called ‘wart well’ and used for cures.

History unknown. SITE: just over 50 ft, coastal plain sloping eastwards to sea.

O’Laverty learned cross traditionally marked priestly burial.

MATERIAL: STONE-BUILT GRAVES found during drain-laying along path north of parish church. About ten graves, orientated east-west. Sides and lintels of local flags; only one paved floor. About 12 ins deep and mostly empty voids without soil or bones. Graves also reported found in field north of main road, but none found when present church built in 1840. Refs:

O’Laverty 1878, 28; Berry, R.J. and Nolan, M.J., ‘Report on the Ancient Graveyard at Annalong, Co. Down’ in J.R.S.AI. 62 (1932), 219-223 (plan p. 220 shows six graves); Co. Down 1966, 391, mention only. In vestry of church are framed photographs of pipe trenches showing graves.

159.

KILKEEL parish, Magheramurphy townland. O.S. 56; J/307146.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 26-7 and 205-10; O’Laverty 1878, 11-2 and 23; Lawlor 1936-7, 296-7 and fig. 3 on p. 295; Co. Down 1966, 304.

Medieval parish church, known as church of St. Colman ‘del Morne’ or ‘of Kylkele’ (Reeves 1847, 27). 1526 described as ‘plebania’ with dependent chapels including Kilcoo, Kilmegan, Ballaghanery, Tamlaght and Greencastle. I am uncertain whether term ‘plebania’ indicates likely pre-Norman origin, and have found no early written references (Reeves 1847, 208-10 and Seymour 1932-4). Ruined church, fifteenth-century and later, in large graveyard. SITE: between 50 and 100 ft, prominent hillock between Kilkeel River to east and tributary Aughrim River to west. ¾ mile inland. MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE. Church clearly within rath. Bank clearest west, southwest and west-northwest of ruin, elsewhere less clear, north-south diameter about 160 ft.

FIG. 85A: KILKEEL – WEST SIDE OF CROSS.

[640] Overall width (bank and ditch) west of church 32 ft, and bank maximum 3 ft high above ditch bottom. Interior level considerably raised. southwest of ruin, bank cut into by extension to shop. Section shows brown loam with small stones and few larger stones. From this point southand eastwards graveyard wall seems to follow line of bank. O’Laverty reports corpses in his time still carried round bank three times before burial (1878, 12). ii) CROSS AND BASE (P1. 75b and Fig. 85a) 58 ft west of west wall of church. Small, rough granite cross, chipped but hardly ‘defaced’ (Co. Down 1966, 304, and not ‘equal-armed’). Maximum visible height 2 ft 8 ins, 1 ft 7 ins across arms, about 11 ins across shaft, and 6 to 8½ ins thick. Short stumpy arms; somewhat pointed head (chipped). PLATE 75B: KILKEEL- WEST SIDE OF CROSS AND BASE.

302

160.

KILLINCHY parish and townland. O.S. 17; J/508609.

162.

May be ‘Cell Inse’ of calendars: at 1 November in M.G. Altín glossed ‘Altín and An, a virgin girl from Cell Inse’ and ‘Coemóc of Cell Inse’, also M.D. Modern parish church and graveyard probably on early site.

Early history unknown, and not certainly listed in 1306 Taxation (Reeves 1847, 43). Site known as Killowen (ibid. 186 and O’Laverty 1878, 331). Ruined fifteenth-century church in graveyard, embanked above surroundings, with much loose stone.

SITE: over 200 ft, hilltop with extensive views, 1 mile inland from Strangford Lough.

SITE: under 50 ft, slight rise in damp, marshy surroundings with stream to southwest; overlooked by castle hill to south and ½ mile from shore of Strangford Lough.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

KILLYLEAGH parish, Corporation townland. O.S. 24; J/524532.

Reeves 1847, 10 and 381; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 393.

[641] 161. KILLYGARTAN, Kilmore parish, Listooder townland. O.S. 23; J/423537.

MATERIAL: i) ROMANESQUE FRAGMENT. Decorated sandstone door jamb stone, found in graveyard by D.M. Waterman;

Marked by O.S. as ‘Killygartan Old Graveyard’ (not as antiquity). Stone traditionally marks burial-place of priest of penal days who met a particularly unpleasant end rolled downhill in spiked barrel. Cross-slab enclosed by modern stone wall; eminence extending south looks like cemetery but no headstones.

[642] fully described in U.J.A. 34 (1971), 110. Arris roll, roll-sectioned chevron with beading in outer spandrels and animal head in inner spandrel. Jamb rebated. Clear marks of diagonal tooling in two directions (loc. cit., p1. XIII).

SITE: under 150 ft, in rough area of rocky outcrops, close to east of tributary of Ballynahinch River.

ii) CROSS-CARVED STONES: 1) (Pl. 69a and Fig. 57a) 44 ft east-southeast of graveyard gate, approximately in line with (west of) stump of south wall of church. 1 ft 4 ins high, maximum 9 ins wide, about 10 thick. Local Silurian slate, tending to laminate. East face dressed smooth, though undulating, with well-worked cross. At centre Latin cross in false relief, head slightly expanded, surrounded by outline Latin cross, similar form, also false relief. Two cuts from left side of head towards edge of stone. Very firmly set leaning forward to east, so difficult to photograph: cross appears foreshortened. No similar cross in graveyard. Top and west side irregular. Unpublished.

MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 69c and Fig. 58a). Local Silurian slate, rectangular slab, 3 ft 10 ins high, 11 to 12 ins wide and 6 to 8 ins thick. Broken top corner to south. West side dressed smooth with bold Latin cross in false relief. Arms and top extend to edges of slab; no special treatment of base. Defining lines ¾ in. wide and ½ in. deep, probably pecked. South side also smooth; north and east rougher.

PLATE 69C: KILLYGARTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT) & FIG. 58A: KILLYGARTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (RIGHT) Refs:

O’Laverty 1878, 329; McEasmuinn, A., ‘Traditions in the Parish of Kilmore’ in D.C.H.S. 10 (1939), 64; Davidson 1958, 89-90 and p1. XI.

PLATE 69A: KILLYLEAGH - CROSS-C ARVED STONE (1).

303

2) (Fig. 56c). Stone sometimes in southeast part of graveyard but seems to be mobile. I saw it once on brief visit in 1965 and only sketched it, and have looked carefully three times since and never found it. 1 ft 10 ins high, 11 ins maximum width, unknown thickness. Upper part cut in strange shape like bird’s head, cut clearly interrupting cross so secondary. Equal-armed cross with diamond-shaped centre in false relief within pecked circle.

[643] 163. Kilmeloge (O.S.), Killmologe (O’Laverty), Kilkeel parish, Ballyveaghmore townland. O.S. 56; J/345183. No traditions preserved about site, but name suggests church. O’Laverty’s speculations not usually very reliable, but suggested name possibly from Molúanén of Tamlaght (q.v. below). SITE: over 200 ft, gently sloping coastal plain at foot of Mournes, 5/6 miles inland. MATERIAL: present state disappointing compared with O’Laverty’s description. ENCLOSURE about 215 ft internal diameter; circular bank of earth, faced with stones, in poor condition. A few of interior facings are dressed granite, but mostly boulders. Very slight indication of exterior ditch. Interior cultivated and featureless. O’Laverty gives diameter 240 ft. Describes trench on either side of bank and entrances to east and west. Inside west entrance on left: ‘what seems to have been a well, and a little farther on a large stone is met, having a cup shaped hole hollowed out of it, which may have been used for holding Holy Water, or perhaps for crushing the corn used for food.’ South side of enclosure three circles of stone in clay: ‘they seem to be the foundations of rude buildings’, one with narrow opening. South of east entrance foundations of rough square building. Outside enclosure to north large flat stone with two hollows. All this derived from O’Laverty 1878, 25-6, and none of material seems to survive. 164.

FIG. 57A: KILLYLEAGH - CROSS-CARVED STONE (1).

KNOCKAVALLEY, Rathmullan parish, Killough townland. O.S. 45; J/531361.

Marked on second edition O.S. map, not as antiquity. History of site unknown, though O’Laverty calls it ‘the old cemetery of Knockavalley’ (1878, 156). [644] Mound described in Co. Down 1966, 197, as Dshaped, 40 ft across top; 4ft high at centre, 2 to 3 ft at sides. Of shillet and earth with larger stones at edges. O’Laverty (loc. cit.) mentions ‘a few stones marked with crosses’ but now only one.

FIG. 56C: KILLYLEAGH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2) Refs:

Patterson 1870-4, 275, and p1. XI, fig. 7 (form of cross not accurate at crossing); Crawford 1912, 225; Clarke 1971, 109 and p1. XXId. A close watch should be kept for further stones here.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 43, 186; O’Laverty 1878, 331-2; Co. Down 1966, 304 and other references as above.

PLATE 68C: KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT). & FIG. 57D: KNOCKAVALLEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

304

SITE: about 50 ft on north-south ridge, ½ mile inland.

[645] (Lough Brickland, see DRUMSALLAGH.)

MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 68c and Fig. 57d) lying loose on mound. Neatly dressed, rectangular, 1 ft 5 ins long, 6 ins wide, 4 to 5 ins thick. Simple Latin cross in relief, limbs slightly splayed, with ground clearly pecked back about ¼ in. Limbs run out to edges of stone except bottom where slight indications of base.

166.

Refs:

Patron Domongart (Donard), from whom nearby peak of Mournes named. ‘Domongart mac Echdach’ in M.T., unlocated, at 24 March; in glosses to M.O. at 24 March (name only) and 18 March: ‘Domangart son of Eochaid of Sliab Slanga’; in M.G. at 24 March: ‘gracious Domongort [glossed] son of Eochaid, from Raith Murbuilg in Dál Riada’ (mistake for Dál nAraidi, probably from confusion with Murlough Bay, Northeast Antrim in Dál Riata). M.D. calls him ‘bishop’ and gives death as 506, but this date not in any early source and Reeves believed too early (1847, 154-5). No early evidence for date, but sixth century seems likely. Does not appear in earlier Patrician sources, but in ‘Tripartite Life’ Patrick blesses unborn saint in mother’s womb (Stokes 1887, 225), and puzzling passage: ‘There is another man from him in Sliab Slánge, namely Domongart son of Echaid; he it is that will upraise Patrick’s relics shortly before Doom. His church is Rath Murbuilc on the side of Sliab Slánge, and there is a ‘lárac’ [fork] with its surroundings, and a pitcher of beer before him on every Easter, and he gives them to massfolk on Easter Tuesday always’ (ibid. 121). No early ‘Life’, but sources suggest royal birth. History of site otherwise obscure. Medieval and later history: Giraldus Cambrensis knew of monastery here: ‘this latter [mountain] is usually called ‘Dominic’s Mountain’, because St. Dominic [for Domongart] built a fine monastery at its foot’ (O’Meara 1951, 77). Medieval parish church, ‘Rath’ in 1306 Taxation. Collation to ‘rectory of St. Dongarde’s parish church, Rath’ in Primate Swayne’s Register, 1438 (Chart 1935, 176).

O’Laverty 1878, 156; Davidson 1958, 89 and p1. XI; Co. Down 1966, 197.

(Lann Rónain Find, see MAGHERALIN.) 165.

MAGHERA parish, Carnacavill townland. O.S. 43; J/372341.

LEGANANNY townland, Drumgooland parish. O.S. 36; J/303427.

O.S. marks ‘Old Graveyard’, not as antiquity, and shows small oval, long axis east-west, about 25 ft. Nothing known of history. SITE: under 700 ft, west-facing hill slope, above stream valley, generally rugged surroundings. MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 70a and Fig. 58c) towards east-end of eminence with carved face to east. Granite pillar, maximum height 5 ft 9 ins, maximum width 1 ft 3 ins, 6 ins thick at top, 1 ft 1 in. below. Rectangular in plan. Rough and fissured. Wellworked, equal-armed linear cross potent. Lines probably pecked, 1 in. wide, ½ to ¾ in. deep. In view of graveyard traditions (there are small unlettered granite stones) I would regard this as a cross-carved pillar-stone, not ‘Christianised’ standing stone as at Edenmore (q.v.)

[646] Church reported ruinous in 1622. Colgan collected information about saint and church: ‘priscis Rathmurbhuilg, hodie Machaire-Ratha appellata’ (1645, 743). Accounts survive by many later visitors to church and mountain. Present parish church built 1825 west of ruined church and graveyard. SITE: low-lying, under 50 ft, close to south of Carrigs river, 1 ½ mile from sea and Dundrum Bay, at north foot of Mournes. MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE (Fig. 53). Graveyard often taken to be in early enclosure (e.g. A.M.S.C. 1928, 26 and P.S. 1940, 125), but ‘cashel’ may be simply graveyard boundary wall. Oval, long axis northwest-southeast, about 200 by 165 ft. Stone wall about 10 ft thick. Co. Down 1966, 307, points out traces of smaller enclosure, inside but not concentric with graveyard wall. Encloses higher nuclear area, bounded to west and southwest by traces of wall, to north by slight ditch, but all much mutilated by graves. Revetment found in 1965 excavation (see below) may be part of enclosure, but more excavation needed to confirm or disprove suggestion.

PLATE 70A: LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT) & FIG. 58C: LEGANANNY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT). Refs:

Anon, in D.C.H.S. 9 (1938), photograph 62 (reports stone locally called ‘ur-yar’); Co. Down 1966, 96 (listed with standing stones) and p1. 106.

305

church. They call it the ‘Claig theach’, and have never heard of any other then existing in Ireland’ (1909, 72).

FIG. 53: MAGHERA – SITE MAP AND MAP OF TRENCHES. Refs:

Air photographs in A.M.S.C. 1928, p1. on p.26 and Co. Down 1966, p1. 85.

ii) No early CHURCH survives. Ruin in graveyard probably thirteenth century (Co. Down 1966, 307). No sign of earlier fabric incorporated and no earlier fragments reported. Colgan reported church dedicated to Donard on top of Slieve Donard, and Harris gives useful description of ‘two rude Edifices’, one believed to be saint’s ‘Cell or Oratory’ (1744, 121). Valuable account by O’Donovan in ‘O.S. Letters’ of 1834 (1909, 73-4). Are clearly prehistoric cairns, much damaged by O.S. surveyors, but one probably passage grave, other multiple cist cairn (Co. Down 1966, 85-6, at 2,796 ft and 2,720 ft).

PLATE 65B: MAGHERA ROUND TOWER (FROM EAST).

[648] Excavation in 1965 showed lowest visible course of masonry is base of tower; no regular offset at base. Tower built on slight knoll of shale (P1. 67a and Fig. 53).

[647] Long visited by pilgrims. Not impossible used as cell for retreat from monastery on the plain but hardly susceptible to proof. Gwynn and Hadcock introduce possible confusion by listing Maghera and Slieve Donard (Rath Murbuilc) separately and not making it clear whether one or two churches intended: 1970, 398 and 404. iii) ROUND TOWER (Pl. 65b) about 250 ft northwest of graveyard, oddly far from ruined church if this does occupy early site. Surviving stump about 18 ft high. Blown over about 1710. Harris gives well-known account: ‘about thirty Years ago [it] was overturned by a violent Storm, and lay at length and entire on the Ground, like a huge Gun, without breaking to Pieces; so wonderfully hard and binding was the Cement in this Work’ (1744, 82). Internal diameter about 9 ft, walls 3 ft 3 ins thick, roughly coursed granite boulders and split shale with liberal use of pinnings and mortar (much modern). Door faces east 5 ft 6 ins from ground. Ragged gap (no jamb or sill stones) with rebuilt segmental head. No detectable batter, and no joist holes or offsets inside. Natural shale visible inside tower. Excavated in 1840s but unfortunately no detailed report. Petrie refers briefly to finding of human remains (1845, 88) and Getty quotes 1843 report: ‘Mr. Duffin, in whose Glebe it is, has had it dug about to a considerable depth, and all the soil cleared off, and that the inside has been sunk several feet deep’ (Getty 1856, 131). O’Donovan in 1834 enquired about function: ‘All the old inhabitants of this district, who know nothing about the written theories, tell me that the one at Magheraw was the Belfry belonging to the old

PLATE 67A: F2 LOOKING SOUTH TO FOOT OF ROUND TOWER. Refs:

Co. Down 1966, 307 and p1. 85.

iv) BURIALS. Graveyard according to Harris ‘a noted burial Place’ (1744, 82), raised high above surroundings, clearly long use. In addition to probably early slabs listed below, one fragment of Anglo-Norman cross-carved coffin lid, suggesting thirteenth century use (Bigger 1902, 94 and Co. Down 1966, p1. 111). In 1965 parts of four burials (including one infant) found in trench F2 running north from foot of tower (P1. 67a and Fig. 53). All eastwest. No slab linings, nails or other features. Further 306

excavation needed to show whether these four are part of more extensive cemetery. See reference above to finding of human remains in/near tower in 1840s. Occurrence of burials so far from enclosed graveyard interesting and discussed further above (pp. 107-8).

Northwest of northwest corner of ruined church, at edge of higher part of graveyard. Slab of Silurian slate, 2 ft 5 ins maximum visible height (early reports give 3 ft), 1 ft 5 ins maximum width, narrowing slightly towards base, and 3 ½ to 6 ins thick. Dressed to rectangular outline. East face Latin cross with four crossbars (lowest usually covered with soil). Shaft unsteady: curves slightly. All lines have cross-bars on ends (cross potent). Drawing by Patterson (op. cit. below) shows base with seriph, but not accurate in other respects.

v) CROSS-CARVED STONES. Five stones, of which two now missing; sixth in garden nearby may be from Maghera, but not certain.

Refs:

Patterson 1870-4, 275, fig. 2, also 1883-4A, 21, fig. 2 and in U.J.A. 8 (1902), 198, fig. 2; Crawford 1912, 225-6, a; Co. Down 1966, 307.

[649] 2) (Pl. 66b and Fig. 59a). Small granite boulder, once built into inner side of blocked west door of ruined church, now loose at west end. 1 ft 3 ins wide, 1 ft 1 in. high, 1 ft 2 ins thick. On flat face, to east when set in wall, equal-armed linear cross potent, of shallow pecked lines.

PLATE 66B: MAGHERA – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2)

FIG. 59A: MAGHERA –CROSS-CARVED STONES. Refs:

1) (P1. 66a and Fig. 59a)

Patterson 1883-4A, 21, fig. 1 and U.J.A. 8 (1902), 198, fig. 3; Crawford 1912, 225-6, d; Co. Down 1966, 307.

3) (Fig. 59a). I have never found this, despite long searching. Patterson (op. cit. below) illustrates tall stone, 3 ft 4 ins high, 7 ins wide, unknown thickness. Small linear Latin cross with seriphs at top of stone. Below cross crude outline figure: circle for head with features indicated, triangular body, stick-like legs, with open circle above head to right. Figure may not be contemporary with cross, but difficult to pursue further unless found. Refs:

Patterson 1870-4, 275, fig. 1, also 1883-4A, 21-2, fig. 3 and U.J.A. 8 (1902), 198, fig. 1; Crawford 1912, 225-6, b.

4) (Fig. 59a). Rough boulder near south edge of graveyard, close to vault and Anglo-Norman slab. Described by Bigger (op. cit. below) as 2 ft 5 ins high, 1 ft 6 ins wide at base. On east face three large outline Latin crosses potent, pecked, with clearly secondary inscription ‘Dan Green Maghera Miller’. I found this only recently and have not yet been able to draw or photograph it. Bigger convinced it was a ‘Christianised’ pagan stone. PLATE 66A: MAGHERA – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1)

Refs:

307

Bigger 1902, 94, with drawing; Crawford 1912, 225-6, e.

5) (Fig. 59). Like 3) known only from Patterson’s drawing. Reported to be 1 ft 6 ins high, 10 ins wide, with roughly rectangular outline.

revetment (see above). Natural shale only reached in part of trench. About 150 souterrain ware sherds (no glazed or wheel-made pottery), one blue glass bead, burned and unburned animal bone, much iron working debris. A very promising area which has suffered less from ploughing than elsewhere.

[650] Elaborate decoration of ringed Latin cross in false relief with distinctive diamond-shaped centre. Surrounding area sunk in shape of cross with concave outline and cross-bar at base. Refs:

Patterson 1883-4A, 22, fig. 4; Crawford 1912, 225-6, c.

6) (Fig. 59a). In garden at Burrendale House near Bryansford, and now rather obscured by plants. Original provenance unknown, but Maghera most likely. Unlikely in graveyard in Patterson’s time (1870s) since he clearly made careful search. Granite block, rectangular outline, 2 ft 4½ ins high, 1 ft 3 ¾ ins wide, 4¾ ins thick at top and 1 ft 3½ ins at base. Large linear Latin cross with short cross-bars at ends of limbs, and similar smaller cross standing on each arm. Lines pecked. Ref:

Patterson 1946, 51, fig. 2.

vi) EXCAVATED EVIDENCE. In 1965 three trial trenches excavated northwest of graveyard (Fig. 53) to test potential of area for further work. Trench C8, 32 ft northwest of graveyard wall, showed strong indications of ploughing, truncating features and mixing finds. Several features found, filled with dark, charcoal-flecked loam: shallow gulleys, hollows, pit and stake-holes (Fig. 53). Natural here was river gravel, quite unlike shale to west. Finds small in size and fewer than further west, but included 18 sherds of souterrain ware and one crucible fragment. Trench F2 (P1. 67a and Fig. 53) ran north from foot of tower. Slight hump of small rubble and mortar at foot of tower, thinning northwards. Brown stony loam overlay natural shale with traces of two phases of ploughing. Silt-filled east-west depression fairly recent, but earlier features included pit with iron smelting debris, three post-holes, and burials mentioned above.

PLATE 67B: E4 WEST END – GRANITE REVETMENT.

vii) RELICS. Colgan reported in church: ‘asservatur una nola [bell] in magna venerationie, quae fuit olim huius sancti, Glunan vulgo dicta, et unus e calceis [shoe] pretioso tegumento ex aureo, et argento coelatus’ (1645, 743, quoted by Reeves 1847, 28). O’Donovan in 1834 wrote in ‘O.S. Letters’ [652] ‘I can hear no account of St. Downart’s buckle and bell, which were preserved at Magheraw in Colgan’s time’ (1909, 72). Ref:

Crawford 1923, 174.

(Bronze ‘badge’ reported from churchyard with crucifixion scene: Patterson believed late medieval. Present whereabouts unknown.

[651] Trench E4 (Pl. 67b and Fig 53) 30 ft east of tower, running east-west in line with door. Most productive and complicated of trenches. At west end dump of clean sand ran out of trench westwards towards tower, revetted to east by massive granite boulders (one in situ, two slipped, P1. 67b). Stones traceable on surface for about 40 ft to south, 6 ft to north, then turn west for about 25 ft and disappear. Under dump grey clay layer with much bone, slag and some souterrain ware sherds, above natural altered shale. Signs of waterlogging at base. Into shale one large post-hole cut, stone-packed, 1 ft 2 ins deep. Centre of trench substantial path of large, probably reused stones ran from northeast to southwest, overlying massive granite wall, un-mortared but packed with gravel and pebbles. Uncertain from narrow trench whether fragment of massive north-south wall or angle (northsouth wall turning east). To east of wall clear, undisturbed layers. Two dark layers with charcoal and occupation material overlay sticky grey clay with bone and slag, over natural shale. Area west of wall difficult to interpret: layers slope down into ditch east of granite

Ref: Refs:

Patterson in J.R.S.A.I. 13 (1874-5), 17. Colgan 1645, 743; Harris 1744, 82, 121; Dubourdieu 1802, 287-8; Lewis 1837, II, 329-30 seems to be some confusion with Maghera (Co. Londonderry) repeated by Archdall 1873, 280-2; Reeves 1847, 27-8, 154-5, 207-8; O’Laverty 1878, 47-56; Lett, H.W., ‘Slieve Donard, in the County of Down’ in J.R.S.A.I. 35 (1905), 230-233; O’Donovan 1909, 72-9; Evans 1951, especially 86-8, 93-4, 99-101; Co. Down 1966, 307.

Achadh-chail may be in Maghera parish, but identification tentative and site not certainly identified. Colgan attributed to Oengus tract on mothers of saints of Ireland, including (brother of Domongart) Cillen ‘de Achadhcail in regione do Leth-Cathuil ad ripam aestuarii de Duindroma’ (1645, 587). Kenney does not list this source and I cannot trace it further back than Colgan. Hogan gives several references to Achadh-chail. Reeves listed possessions of see of Down in late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries, including: ‘Rathmurvul [Maghera] cum Rathscillan et omnibus aliis pertinentiis suis’ (1847, 308

165). Is this name derived from Cillen? O’Laverty suggested site: ‘In a field in Wateresk belonging to Mr. Savage, and immediately adjoining his house, are the remains of an ancient cemetery which was once enclosed in a rath. The bodies were interred in graves lined with flag-stones, and a large granite stone stood in the cemetery, but it has been rolled into a stream which bounds the field; on this stone is inscribed a simple cross, formed by the intersection of two pairs of parallel lines’ (1878, 54).

Marahinch near Moira, about 90 years ago (before 1903). Taken to Granard (Co. Longford). Milligan believed returned to Moira Roman Catholic chapel but discovered nothing known of it there. I have not pursued this further; may still be in Granard. Nearest early sites to Moira are Trummery (Co. Antrim) to northeast and Magheralin to southwest.

[653] Morris suggested another site, ‘Sillan fort’, less than ½ mile from Newcastle on Bryansford road, 45 yds diameter. I have not yet been able to pursue this question further. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 165, 217, 236; Archdall 1873, 220-1; O’Laverty 1878, 54; Hogan 1910, 7; Morris, H., in D.C.H.S. 8 (1937), 39-40; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 372.

167.

MAGHERALIN parish and townland. O.S. 13; J/128589.

Refs:

Dawson, A., in J.R.S.A.I. 16 (1883), 126; Milligan 1903A, 193-4.

168.

MOVILLA townland, formerly parish (now Newtownards). O.S. 6; J/503744.

Founder Finnian (Vinnian), member of Ulster royal family, Dál Fiatach. Died 579 (A.U.) or 580 (A.I.: ‘Repose of Finnián of Mag Bile’). Danger of confusion with others of same name, especially Finnian of Clonard. Traditionally studied at ‘Candida Casa’ (Kenney 1929, 391), and brought back ‘gospels’ from Rome (St. Jerome’s Vulgate; ibid. 391): Findbarr of Mag Bili, glossed: ‘... it was Findén of Mag Bile first brought the law of Moses into Ireland ...’ in M.O. at 10 September. Uncertain whether Columba studied with this Finnian or another (Anderson 1961, 68-9). Movilla regarded chief church of Ulaid (as Bangor of Dál nAraidi), clear from passage in ‘Saltair na Rann’ quoted by Reeves (1847, 151). Many later abbots appear in calendars and obits in A.U. Cronan (d. 650) probably among ecclesiastics to whom papal letter about Easter observance addressed in 640 (Bede, H.E., II, 29).

Place-name strongly suggests early church: 1306 Taxation: ‘Church of Lan’. Nineteenth-century writers, including O’Donovan and Reeves, wrongly identified Magheralin with Linn-duachail, now thought to be Linns, Co. Louth, near Annagassan (Reeves 1847, 110-1, gives many annal entries for this site). Magheralin site associated in M.O. at 22 May with Rónán, glossed ‘of Land Rónáin Find in Húi Echach of Ulster’, also M.T., M.G. and M.D. Colmán at 30 March belongs to Linns (see above), but is Colmán of M.T. at 30 October, of Camus and Lann Mocholmóc, to be placed here at Lan? 1178: ‘Lann Rónáin Fhinn, chief sanctuary of all Ulaidh, was plundered by John de Courcy, and Tomás Ó Corcráin, its erenach, was beheaded’ (M.I.A.) Ruined late medieval church in large graveyard with raised, roughly oval nuclear area. O’Donovan, visiting 1834, reported: ‘In an adjoining field a quantity of human bones have [been] dug up, which points to the site of the ancient burial ground.’

[655] Another, Colmán mac Mur-chon (d. 736), author of Latin hymn (Kenney 1929, 269). In 825 Movilla burned by Vikings: ‘with its oratories’ (‘dertigib’); Chron. Scot. at 825 has: ‘with its Erdamhs’. 1019: ‘comarb of Finnen and Mocholmoc’; and 1025: ‘comarb of Finnian and Comghall’; suggesting joint abbacies with Dromore and Bangor. Marianus Scottus exiled from Movilla 1056 (Kenney 1929, 615). Uncertain when rule of Augustinian Canons introduced, but likely by Malachy after 1135. Ruined church (thirteenth and fifteenth centuries) occupies northwest corner of vast municipal graveyard, which effectively seals area archaeologically, though fields to north and west might repay investigation.

SITE: about 150 ft, in damp surroundings with small stream south of graveyard. General slope gently southwards to river Lagan ¾ mile away.

SITE: just under 200 ft, hill slope with steep drop to west. NO EARLY MATERIAL: it would be reassuring to find some in view of historical uncertainties. Not certain present cemetery occupies earliest site. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 110-1, to be used with caution; O’Donovan 1909, 15-16; Atkinson 1925, 210-11; Co. Down 1966, 307-8.

[654]

Near Moira, area of J/150600.

In 1815 John Bell refers briefly Marahinch, parish of Moira, 12 ins (1815, 294). Dawson reports called distinguish from ‘Clog Ban’ (‘Bell Terryhoogan, Co. Armagh). More Milligan: bell found in old Danish

MATERIAL: sadly little from such an important site. i) WINDOW built into blocking of east window of church, may be from predecessor of surviving church. Semi-circular headed lancet, jambs slightly inclined, externally chamfered, internally rebated and splayed. Presumably Romanesque, though simple and not closely datable. O’Davies in U.J.A. 8 (1945) seems to overestimate amount of early work: ‘I think however that there are traces of a pre-Norman church, probably the rebuilding after the Danish sack in the ninth century’ (38), and ‘many’ re-used Romanesque fragments. I could not see any other clearly pre-thirteenth century masonry.

to BELL from high, 8 ins wide ‘Clog Ruadh’ to of Armagh’, see detail given by fort on lands of

ii) CROSS SLAB (Pl. 71a) built with Anglo-Norman 309

slabs against north wall of church. Reported dug up in graveyard 1840 (Patterson 1870-4, 273).

in earlier Patrician sources, but introduced in ‘Tripartite Life’: ‘Now while Patrick was going along his way, he saw a tender youth herding swine. Mochae was his name. Patrick preached to him and baptized him, and tonsured him, and gave him a gospel and a credence table (‘menistir’).

Slab of local slate, roughly rectangular but edges untrimmed, 3 ft 11½ ins long, 1 ft 9 ins wide, about 3 ins thick. Handsome outline ringed cross on dressed face; [656] arms and shaft hollowed at inter-section and semicircular expansions on inner circumference of ring. Incised diamond at centre. Area within ring clearly pecked back; other work all sharp V-sectioned incisions. Inscription in half uncials parallel to shaft ‘ÓR DO DERTREND’; individual not identified.

[657] And he gave him, also, at another time, a crosier that had been bestowed on them by God, to wit (it fell from heaven with) its head in Patrick’s bosom and its foot in Mochae’s bosom, and this is the ‘Etech’ [i.e. ‘Winged thing’] of Mochae of Noendruim. And Mochae promised a shaven pig every year to Patrick; and this is still offered’ (Stokes 1887, 41). Lawlor (1925, chap. III, but not Reeves 1847) identified Nendrum with site mentioned in Muirchú’s notes, ‘hinDruim moccuEchach’, in connection with conversion of Maccuil (Maughold), but identification by no means certain (Stokes 1887, 286-9). M.T. lists: ‘Mocoe priest, abbot of Nóendruim’ at 23 June, also M.O.: ‘Commemoration of moChoe, there is nothing that escapes us: may the famous happy champion from Oendruim protect us!’ with long glosses: ‘i.e. Mochóe who is in Nóendruim in Ulster, i.e. nine ridges which are in the island wherein his church is. Or Oendruim, i.e. one hill in the whole island; and in Loch Cuan it is. A sleep without fading of flesh Mochoe of Oindruim slept: [of] the folk of the congregation in which the sage abode he found none save their great-grandsons. To Mochoe the beautiful sang the little bird from the skies, three strains from the tree-top, fifty years in each strain.’ Also M.G. and M.D. with fuller version of story of long sleep. Only other references to obscure early phase are late ‘Lives’ of Finnian of Movilla and Colmán of Dromore, both believed to have studied at Nendrum (Heist 1965, 357-8). None of these sources at all close to Mochaoi’s time: no basis for confident argument or firm conclusions. Lawlor suggested foundation c. 445, Reeves c. 450. Towill (1964, passim) suggested early phase nonmonastic missionary base, orientated towards Galloway, only later monastic and within Armagh orbit. Françoise Henry speculates Machaoi not associated with this site at all but simply with island, and again suggests monastic phase only from seventh century.

PLATE 71A: MOVILLA - CROSS-CARVED STONE. Refs:

Many publications: Patterson 1870-4, 273-4; Petrie 1878, 71; Crawford 1912, 224; Macalister 1949, 120-1, p1. XLVI; Lionard 1960-1, fig. 20, 125; Co. Down 1966, 284, fig. 184.

iii) Report of ?FONT. Patterson in J.R.S.A.I. 11 (1870), 25-7, described ‘ancient stone coffer’ from excavation for vault 8 to 10 ft deep to surface of shale. Externally 3 ft 8 ins by 2 ft 8 ins, internally 2 ft 2 ins by 1 ft 2 ins, 1 ft 10 ins high and 1 ft 3 ins deep. Clumsy work. Sunken ledge at top, 1 in. deep, perhaps for cover. Suggested functions included font, cross-base, reliquary. Drawing on p. 26. Said taken to house one or two miles from Movilla and kept on lawn; I have not tried to locate this. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 14 and 151-2; Kenney 1929, especially 390-1; Davies, O., ‘Movilla Abbey’ in U.J.A. 8 (1945), 33-8; Co. Down 1966, 283-4; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 188; other references as above.

169.

NENDRUM, Mahee Island, Tullynakill parish. O.S. 17; J/524636.

[658] With A.U. obits from 639 onwards picture clearer: obits 639, 643 (bishop), 659 (bishop), 684 (abbot), 735 (bishop), 755 (abbot) and 873 (bishop, scribe and abbot). Entries suggest regular monastic life and succession. ‘Nine times fifty monks under the yoke of Mochoe of Noendruim’ in ‘Litany of Irish Saints’, II (Plummer 1925, 67 and Hughes 1959 - probably eighth to early ninth century). 976: ‘Setna Ua Deman, herenagh of Oendruim, was burned in his own house’; reasonable to suggest Viking raid, and Vikings known to have been active in Strangford Lough area (e.g. A.U. 877, 924). Lawlor took this to be end of monastic life: ‘all remained as it lay after a conflagration; that that conflagration was the one referred to as having taken place in 974 [sic] there can be no doubt’ (1925, 72). But arguments from silence are

Founder Mochaoi. A.U. gives obit at 497: ‘Mochoe of Oendruim rested’, and 499: ‘Or in this year, Mochoe of Aendruim, according to another book’. Does not appear 310

suspect. Site appears next in Anglo-Norman invasion period when granted from see lands of Down to Benedictine houses of St. Bees (Cumberland) and St. Mary’s, York. Some have doubted whether Benedictine cell on this site, but finds of medieval pottery suggest it was. Probably fairly short life. In 1306 Nendrum listed as parish church, probably replaced by Tullynakill on mainland in fifteenth century. Discovered and identified by Reeves in 1844 during work on 1306 Taxation roll; small scale excavation to elucidate buildings in innermost enclosure. In 1900 unimpressive: ‘Apart from the deep interest that must attach to one of the earliest Christian sites in the country, there is but little now left to arouse antiquarian enthusiasm’ (Praeger 1900). Excavated by H.C. Lawlor for ‘Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society’ 1922-4 (fourteen months with four to twelve men, one suspects not very closely supervised).

Lawlor 1925, p1. I and Co. Down 1966, 293-4, fig. 191; air photographs in Common 1964, 38-9, and Norman and St Joseph 1969, p1.54.

[659] Substantial unrecorded restoration, despite Lawlor’s protestations to the contrary: ‘entirely repair and preservation, not restoration’ (1925, 127-8). 1954 new survey by ‘Archaeological Survey’ and small excavation by A.C. Thomas, elucidating some points but raising new problems. Site remains tantalising: rich but abounding in unsolved (perhaps insoluble) problems. SITE: at west end of Mahee Island, reached now by causeways, formerly only fords or boat. At south end of low ridge corresponding to 50 ft contour, with considerable drops to east and west, more gentle slope to south.

FIG. 51A: NENDRUM – PLAN.

ii) CHURCH (Fig. 54b). In inner enclosure.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURES (Fig. 51a). I can add little to Co. Down 1966; treatment here brief and largely based on Co. Down, also Lawlor 1925. Lawlor’s interpretation strongly influenced by preconceived belief enclosures preChristian and secular in origin. Cashel walls now visible largely result of Lawlor’s restoration; shown in parts to be misleading (Co. Down 1966, 293-4). Innermost enclosure just under one acre; freestanding wall 6 to 7 ft thick. Oval tending to pointed at northwest. Entrances to northwest near round tower, south of church and (wrongly reconstructed, original form uncertain) east of church. Middle cashel about 1½ acres (Lawlor 1925, 96, gives 2½); to east freestanding, elsewhere forms revetment to terrace. Immense width, up to 20 ft, on east side may be result of wrong reconstruction; on west side where indented certainly wrong. Terrace formed of earth with occupation debris including much souterrain ware. Lawlor describes group of finds ‘either low down in the filling-in material, or on the pre-terrace surface’ near no. 17 on his plan, included stone stained red from crushing something, ironstone and crucible fragments (1925, 140).

FIG. 54B: NENDRUM – CHURCH PLAN.

Reeves describes discovery of church ‘of which nothing but the foundations remain’ and gives dimensions (1847, 196). Lawlor found walls standing to maximum height of 3 ft 9 ins (east gable), mostly much lower. Believed deliberately wrecked (1925, 93 and 117). Walls (how much original?) shale rubble, very varied shape and size, mortared. Originally 26 ft by 16 ft internally. Gables 2 ft 9 ins wide, side walls 2 ft 5 ins. Antae at west-end and west door. Church extended eastwards for 22 ft, original east wall breached, and small annex added north of chancel. Likely extensions belong to Benedictine phase. Three fragments of round-headed windows built into restored west wall; one 7 ins wide from single red

[660] One gate to west. Outer cashel much less clear; may enclose about 6 acres, but line of whole circuit not yet demonstrated. To west wall, 9 to 10 ft wide with gate to shore. Thick straight wall to north taken by Lawlor to be ancient probably not (in foreground of his p1. III, 3). F. Henry believes third circuit out of use in monastic phase (1965, 80). My plan (Fig. 54b) is based on plans in 311

sandstone block (1 ft 2½ ins by 9 ins and 4½ ins thick) could be from original stone church (west part of ruin). Lawlor recognised likelihood of earlier church of perishable materials but does not seem to have looked for signs of it. Reconstructed west wall and door are his work, as is ‘earthwork’ round church.

Most interesting of excavated buildings was Lawlor’s ‘school’, clearly monastic workshop, in middle cashel west of church. Rectangular, 30 by 13 ft, orientated eastnortheast - west-southwest, with door to north approached by paved path. West wall of one built with middle cashel wall, here revetment to terrace.

Refs:

[662] Walls of rubble bound with clay, standing I to 2 ft high. Appeared undisturbed by agriculture, and Lawlor found burned thatch and timbers in upper levels. Iron fittings (nails, ring, hinge) clearly some from plank door. Finds included about 30 stone trial pieces (see section viii) below). Lawlor 1925, pl. III, 2, shows south wall running on slightly to east, not on his plan but indicated in Co. Down 1966, fig. 191.

Lawlor 1925, 116-8, 129 and p1. VI; Co. Down 1966, 294.

[661] iii) ROUND TOWER (P1. 72a in inner enclosure, 43 ft northwest of church. Believed in Reeves’s time to have been lime kiln but recognised as ecclesiastical tower by Reeves. Cleared and restored by Lawlor (his p1. V before and after photograph). Survives to height of 4 to 14 ft. Rubble of varied size with many pinnings, but external face largely restored. Internal diameter 6 ft 9 ins; walls 4 ft 2 ins thick at base, 3 ft 9 ins above offsets. Two external offsets: upper projects 6 to 10 ins, lower less regular, about 5 ins. Lawlor suggested batter of 1 in. in 7 ft. Also suggested stones from ruined tower used to build church but no grounds for this.

South of ‘school’, close to cashel wall, pit excavated. Stone-lined, diameter 4 ft 3 ins, depth about 6 ft. South wall of ‘school’ corbelled over it, so either contemporary with school or earlier - fill included burned material and animal bones. Function uncertain: Lawlor suggested oven or sweathouse. Lawlor had much experience of souterrains and would have recognised this if it were part of a souterrain (1925, to4). North of ‘school’, at 23 on Lawlor’s plan, fragment of possible building with west wall on line of middle cashel like ‘school’. In southwest sector of middle enclosure, on terrace, close to and abutting cashel wall, four stone revetted circular or oval platforms. Two seem to block entrance to middle enclosure, though Lawlor did not comment on this. Are not in themselves hut foundations but platforms on which huts could be built. Lawlor suggested workshops and took no. 19 (his p1. i) to be brazier’s workshop (for finds see section viii) below). Lawlor’s p1. III, 1, shows excavated platforms. Circular mound in outer enclosure to north containing stone-lined chamber with three flues. No sign of intense heat but seems to be kiln of some kind, not necessarily of monastic phase. Other structures described by Lawlor not now visible. Include paths of slabs.

PLATE 72A: NENDRUM – ROUND TOWER (FROM EAST). Refs:

[663] Most prominent is from west door of church through cemetery, west to cashel wall and along wall to southeast entrance. Another approaches ‘school’ from north, and short 1engths run to oval platforms (to hut doors?). Path from entrance, to middle enclosure, to southwest, through gate in outer wa11. Lawlor suggested past ‘janitors cell’ here, to lough shore. Path clearly seen in Lawlor 1925, p1. VII upper. Lawlor 1925, p1. I and chap VII for all those features and Co. Down 1966, fig. 191 for what is now visible. Also air photographs as under i) above.

Lawlor 1925, 113-5, p1. V; Co. Down 1966, 294.

iv) OTHER BUILDINGS. Lawlor found walls at depth of about 5 ft, underlying middle cashel terrace and running under other walls. Classed as ‘Prehistoric’ in discussion and labeled on plan as: ‘fragments of very ancient walls’. Flimsy dry stone - often forming arcs of circles - but no coherent plans, and no published sections. Some were permanently exposed, others re-covered. Main concentration seems to be in north part of site in middle and especially outer enclosure (none in innermost). Traces also to west and southwest in middle enclosure. Seem haphazard in plan. Longer sections suggest enclosures and subdivisions; could be field walls, but not enough information on which to base arguments. Lawlor 1925, p1. I shows walls excavated and Co. Down 1966, fig. 191 walls now visible.

v) BURIALS. Reeves found burials ‘in and about the site of the church’ during 1844 exploratory work (1847, 196). Lawlor: many graves of ancient date were also found not only close to the church, but in many places inside the inner cashel, and several between the inner and second cashels’ (1925, 17-18 and p1. i). Main concentrations are:312

1) West of church. Graves of slabs, two with cross-slabs in situ (see vi) below), up to 3 ft deep, others close to surface. Lawlor points out much disturbed; graves each contained several skeletons (1925, 135). Description suggests long use. 30 ft west of church small mound beside paved path excavated. Stone revetted platform found, interpreted by Lawlor as foundation for small square or rectangular building of perishable materials, ‘possibly the cell of the janitor or ostarius’ (1925, 120).

giving Lawlor’s numbers and provenance when known. All except no. 16 mounted on east side of reconstructed west wall of church. Nos 1 to 6 on wall south of door, and 7 to 16 north of door. Some are red sandstone; others are grey and weathered and I am uncertain whether they are Silurian slate or also sandstone. Full dimensions and thickness obscured by mounting.

2) In the church ‘regular interments had taken place in the floor’, carefully in rows, not impinging, all about 2 ft deep. Lawlor suggests about 60, seven rows of eight, but no plan. At east-end large skeleton in front of altar and one either side, feet to altar, heads to north and south. ‘That the interments took place before the stone church was erected, is evident from the fact that the remaining [664] portion of the cross wall, in the centre of the church, which was the east gable of the original stone church, is superimposed on a row of graves’ (1925, 134). No mention of whether graves also under side walls but graves reported ‘close to and outside of the north and south walls of the church’ (135).

FIG. 51B: NENDRUM – LOCATION OF CROSS-CARVED STONES.

1) (P1. 72c and Fig. 60a). First to be described and published, by Patterson (1870-4, p1. XI, fig. 8). In Lawlor’s time missing, but subsequently added to stones mounted on west gable. 2 ft 7½ ins high, maximum width across arms 1 ft 2 ins, thinning markedly towards base. Latin cross with hollows at intersection of arms and shaft and no ring - the ‘usual’ Nendrum type. Low relief; ground pecked back about in. Outline of cross emphasised by inner groove. At base of stem ground pecked back less deeply and less carefully. Provenance unknown.

3) East of church walled rectangular enclosure, similar orientation to church. West wall towards church incomplete; East wall probably altered somewhat by Lawlor in mistaken restoration of innermost enclosure wall. No mention of cross-slabs from this area. Co. Down 1966, 294, suggests is graveyard of Benedictine cell. 1954 excavation showed earlier wall on same line under enclosure wall now visible, but area much disturbed. 4) South of church two circular mounds, found to be heaps of skeletons covered with soil, ‘men, women and children’ (Lawlor 1925, 73). One mound overlay fragment of mortared walling. Traces of scarped platform in this area (shown in Co. Down 1966, fig. 191) with dry stone revetting. 5) Southeast of church, northeast of heaps of skeletons. Orientation corresponds with burials east of church and differs from those west of church. 6) In middle cashel, west of church. Lawlor’s plan shows only two, similar orientation to graves west of church in innermost enclosure. Macalister in otherwise laudatory - introduction to Lawlor’s report comments on lack of close study of skeletons (1925, viii-ix). Absence of plans of graves greatly to be deplored. High priority if further excavation to examine relationship of burials to church(es) and try to establish chronology of graves. Lawlor left graves west of church in situ and perhaps most of others. Lawlor 1925, especially 73-4, 132-3; Co. Down 1966, 294.

PLATE 72C: NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1) Refs:

[665] vi) CROSS-CARVED STONES (Fig. 51b gives key to numbering). Large number known but not all published and not previously brought together. I have renumbered stones,

Patterson loc. cit above; Crawford 1912, 224; Lawlor 1925, p1. VIII, 9; Lionard 1961, fig. 11, 16 (not accurate); Co. Down 1966, p1. 78.

2) (Fig. 60a). Broken angular stone, 11 by 8 ins. Part of linear cross with bifurcating limbs; on upper limb added 313

hollowed out triangle. Not illustrated by Lawlor and provenance unknown.

FIG. 60A: NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONES. Refs:

Part visible in Co. Down 1966, p1. 77, top left.

3) (Fig. 60a). Small broken stone, 6 by 4 ins, with very clearly pecked (not smoothed) lines. May be part of cross, but form uncertain. Surviving design is ‘L with crossbar’. Not previously illustrated and provenance unknown.

PLATE 72B: NENDRUM – CROSS-CARVED STONE (7).

8) Irregularly shaped broken stone. 7 by 7 ins. One arm (or head) and part of crossing, probably of usual Nendrum cross form (as no. 1). Defined by two shallow incised lines. Prom debris of inner cashel.

[666] 4) (Fig. 60a). Rounded boulder, 11 by 7 ins, with lightly incised Latin linear cross. Cut has V-section and is very rough. Not previously illustrated and provenance unknown.

Ref:

5) (Fig. 60a). Broken slab of red sandstone from debris of innermost cashel. Edges to right and at base intact suggesting originally rectangular outline. Part of stem and one arm of simple, rather angular Latin cross in low relief with ground pecked back. Refs:

[667] 9) Rounded stone about 1 ft 5 ins high and 1 ft 3 ins wide. Latin cross of usual form (as no. 1), outlined by groove (but no inner emphasising line). At crossing ground worked back leaving crossing in low relief. Less carefully worked at base. Found by Lawlor over one of graves west of church; seems unbroken.

Is almost certainly Lawlor’s p1. VIII, 3 and 131; clearly seen in Co. Down 1966, p1. 77, top left.

Refs:

6) (Fig. 60a). Rectangular slab of red sandstone, 10 by 5½ ins, rather battered. Latin cross of usual form (as no. 1). Mostly in false relief, defined by outlining groove, but bottom right segment ground pecked back leaving stem and arm in true relief. Refs:

Lawlor 1925, p1. VIII, 7 and 131.

Lawlor 1925, 130 and l. VIII, 4; Co. Down 1966, p1. 77, bottom right.

10) Long stone, irregular oval outline, damaged at head. 1 ft 6½ ins high by 9½ ins. Latin cross of usual form (as no. 1), in low relief with ground pecked back. Inner groove emphasising cross. Like no. 9 found over grave west of church.

Not listed by Lawlor; Co. Down, p1. 77, top left. Refs:

Lawlor 1925, 130, p1. VIII, 1; Lionard 1961, fig. 11, 18; Co. Down 1966, p1. 77, top right.

7) (P1. 72b). Broken rectangular block of sandstone, found in modern fence near bungalow (Clark’s on Lawlor’s plan). Now 12 ½ ins wide by 11 ins high and 6 ins thick. Seems intact only at top; broken at base and perhaps re-cut at sides. Hole at top, 1½ ins diameter and 1 in. deep, may be secondary. Accomplished design of large circle enclosing smaller intersecting circles, each filled with six-petalled ‘marigold’.

11) Now set on side with shaft to left. Broken: lower part from debris in church, upper from rubble of inner cashel to northeast. As set 11½ ins high by 11 ins. Cross probably of usual form (as no. 1) though stem broken. Low relief with ground pecked back. Emphasising inner line and incised circle at crossing.

Refs:

Refs:

Lawlor’s fig. 4, 130, is mirror image and not accurate; Co. Down 1966, 295 and p1. 78.

314

Lawlor 1923, p1. VIII, 8; Co. Down 1966, p1. 77, bottom left.

12) Broken rectangular slab, mounted in wall upside down. 11 ins high by 9 ins. Latin cross of usual form (as no. 1) in false relief with wide defining groove pecked back. From debris inside church. Refs:

[669] From hole (with restored gnomon) run five main radii, double ribs with stirrup-shaped ends. Between these are four subsidiary radii, single ribs with open circle at ends. Side at base plain. Higher on shaft to left (northwest) edge moulding; to right (southeast) edge moulding, roll with centre groove, and panel of angular fretwork. Edge moulding and roll continue on side of head, also trace of twisted cable moulding. Very accomplished work and very sophisticated mouldings.

Lawlor 1925, 130, p1. VIII, 2, shown right way up.

13) Small broken slab, 10 ins high by 5½ ins, with lightly cut linear Latin cross. Probably is Lawlor’s no. 6 (1925, p1. viii). Found near platform in cemetery west of church (no. 4 on Lawlor’s p1. i). Refs:

Co. Down 1966, p1. 78, bottom left.

14) Fragment only, 61 ins by 6 ins, showing crossing of usual cross type (as no. 1) with inner groove. [668] At crossing unusual elaboration for this series, tripartite interlaced knot. Cross in quite high relief, about 4 in. above background. Same provenance as no. 13 above. Refs:

Lawlor 1925, 131, p1. VIII, 5; Co. Down, p1. 78, bottom left.

15) Small fragment, 1½ by 5 ins, may be limb of cross but not certain. Refs:

Co. Down 1966, p1. 78, bottom left (to right of no. 14).

16) Irregularly shaped stone, 9½ by 6 ins, with lightly scratched cross: not at all clear. 17) In Ulster Museum. Broken slab, outline now triangular, 1 ft 5 ins by 11½ ins. Segment of circle defined by three grooves, enclosing compass-drawn pattern, probably of marigold type as no. 7, but only small segment survives. Below are two lines of runes with small space between. Macalister read first line as ‘BRIMABOTA’ or ‘BRINOBATA’ and suggested Old Norse ‘Primábóta’ (‘of the chief abbot’). Whether reading correct or not, occurrence of runes very interesting. Ref:

PLATE 73A: NENDRUM – SIDE OF SUNDIAL.

Lawlor 1925, vii-viii and p1. II; Co. Down 1966, p1. 81.

vii) SUNDIAL (Pl. 73a-b). Reconstructed by Lawlor from many fragments and set up at southwest angle of church. Reconstruction of head seems reasonable, of shaft less certain. Original height unknown, Shaft 1 ft 2 ins wide and 6 ins thick. Plain panel at base, 1 ft 3 ins high, clearly pecked back. Then triple roll moulding horizontally across shaft, turning up edge to left but then broken. Shaft as reconstructed above gap has triple rolls at edge, some with fillets, and angular key pattern of triple rolls.

PLATE 73B: NENDRUM – SUNDIAL FROM SOUTHWEST. Refs:

Head only slightly wider than shaft (1 ft 3½ ins). Horseshoe-shaped panel defined by edge roll with groove down centre, and smaller inner roll into which main radii run.

Lawlor 1925, 131-2 (fragments found scattered), p1. ix; Lawlor in I.N.J. 1926, 53-5 on ‘Divisions of the Nendrum Sundial’; Co. Down 1966, 295, p1. 78.

viii) EXCAVATED MATERIAL. For fifty years Nendrum has remained the most prolific excavated early monastic site in Ireland, though one hopes it will soon be overtaken (e.g. by Iniscaltra , Co. Clare). Lawlor’s 315

treatment of finds - unsystematic and illustrations inadequate, but he was careful to give provenances, when known. For more detailed treatment than is attempted below see Stephen Phillips’s B.A. dissertation, ‘The Material Excavated from Nendrum Monastery’ (Q.U.B. 1960): illustrates some finds, describes many more, but weak on provenances. Most of material in Ulster Museum; a little in N.M.D. (e.g. J.R.S.A.I. 91 (1961), 923). My aim here is to outline main classes of material under known find-spots, and list more important of unprovenanced finds. Roman numerals below refer to Lawlor’s plates and Arabic numbers are his finds numbers.

as stand for crucible (100, 101, xi). Circular bronze ingot (89, xi). Iron tongs, badly corroded (65, xiii), parts of iron two-link snaffle bit (66, 69-71), penannular iron ring (67, xiii). Stone mould for casting pin heads or glass studs (20, X and Co. Down 1966, p1. 80, top right), also two whetstones (32, 33, x). Just outside platform 19 bronze penannular brooch, unfinished, with casting seam visible and terminals lacking decorative settings (84, Xi and Co. Down 1966, fig. 80, no. 2). Also from Nendrum but unprovenanced one broken crucible lid with distinctive projection (Phillips op. cit. above, p1. 8, 94). Platform 20 produced no distinctive finds. 4) Middle cashel, the ‘school’ (Lawlor’s no. 22). Very rich in finds including trial pieces discussed separately below. Small stone and shale discs, some perforated (518, x). Much iron: four iron styles (40-3, XIII), small knives (50-4, xiii), many nails of different kinds, appropriate to different kinds of woodwork (some shown in p1. xxii), heavy ring and staple (76, xiii), hinge (77, xiii), hook (79, xiii), point with perforated head (72, xiii), iron needle. Bronze needle (75, XIII) and outside, near east gable, bronze quoit brooch (85, XI and Co. Down 1966, fig. 80, no. 4). Small hollowed-out clay disc with knob for attachment, stained red, perhaps from crushing pigment (35, x).

1) Middle cashel, west-side, pre-terrace finds. Cultivated and disturbed: Lawlor found stratification difficult to follow. [670] ‘It will also be realised, considering all these upheavals and disturbances, that to draw a definite line between what relics belonged to the pre-terrace period; what to the filling-in soil, which was largely composed of kitchen midden refuse; and what belonged to the postterrace period, is impossible in most cases’ (1925, 138). But bulk of pre-terrace material was ‘fictilia’, souterrain ware unmixed with later types (further discussed below). Also ‘low down in the filling-in material, or on the preterrace surface’, small sandstone pendant with rough interlace and ogam-like decoration (no. 116, XXI and Co. Down 1966, p1. 79, top left, not from ‘school’), iron hook (73, XIII), bronze ingot (89), two bone pins (90-1, xi), worked flints (1-3, x), crushing stone stained red (4, x), and ‘some broken crucibles’, all from near 17 on Lawlor’s plan (1925, 139-40). Iron cooking pot, of single sheet riveted at side with socket and traces of wooden handle. Lawlor’s only section shows it on ruined middle cashel wall, covered by terrace material, at a) on his plan, close to north of ‘school’ (109-10, fig. 3).

[672] Segments of long bones with varying amounts of working; one with tripartite interlaced knot (122-132, XVII and Co. Down 1966, p1. 79). Bone knife handle with incised bird head (112, XII and Co. Down 1966, p1. 79). Close to east gable Lawlor reports ‘a Norse silver coin of about A.D. 930’ (1925, 149); ‘it unfortunately got broken into small pieces by the blow of a pick axe’ (75 note a). This must cast some doubt on the identification 5) Large midden. North part of middle enclosure against middle cashel wall (Lawlor’s no. 30): ‘a large heap of kitchen midden refuse ... which was carefully examined. It consisted chiefly of animal bones, oyster and other sea shells, charred wood, pottery fragments of both the souterrain and the wheel-turned unglazed types’ (1925, 136-7); also material suggesting to Lawlor iron smithy in vicinity (17). Several rubbing or polishing stones, tracked stones (23, 34, x), and stone trial piece (115, xii). Iron included slag, pig iron, knife blades (46-9, XIII), socketed point (56, xiii), and a few nails.

2) Middle cashel, west-side, terrace make-up material. Largely midden refuse: ‘Large quantities of oyster and other sea shells and animal bones abounded everywhere, and a good deal of pottery, only of the rough hand-made (without a wheel) description was found’ (1925, 109). Scarcity of noteworthy finds from 1) and 2) compared with sites on terrace is striking. 3) Middle cashel, west and southwest, hut platforms. Common to all were ‘a number of iron nails and cooking pot fragments’ (1925, 143). Platform 17: concentration of fine metal-work. Two bronze ring-headed pins (80, 82, xi), bronze hand pin (83, xi) and bronze strap-end, decorated on both sides (86, xi).

6) Some other provenanced finds. In debris from innermost enclosure wall, sandstone mould for sheet metal beating, probably for bronze lamps. Stone measures 5½ by 10½ ins (unknown thickness); depression 6½ ins long, 3½ ins across bowl, 1 in. across stem which is 2¾ ins long. Mounted on restored west gable of church with cross-slabs, north of door (Lawlor’s 19, x). In rubble near round tower another iron socketed point (55, XIII) and polished stone axe (36, x). Small polished stone axe near hand of one burial west of church (38, x, near 4 on plan). From skeleton in one of mounds south of church small circular amber bead (97, xi).

[671] All well illustrated in Co. Down 1966, fig. 80, nos 6, 12, 11, 13. Platform 18: less rich. Stone axe (37, x) and iron adze or wedge (78A, xiii). Platform 13 - rich in finds - seen by Lawlor as ‘the bronze foundry’ (1925, 141-3). Many crucibles. Two forms, one pyramidal, triangular mouth, pointed base, other bag-shaped with oval mouth and lug for lifting (xi, 99 and 93 show the two forms). Three quartzite pebbles hollowed out to serve 316

[673] 7) Unprovenanced finds. Lawlor gives list (1925, 153-4). They include querns, polishing stones (30, 39, x), stone mould for pin heads or studs (22, x), stone bead of hourglass shape (31, x), iron spurs (44, 45, xiii), iron axe (78, XIII, believed to be from hut 18), iron socketed point, hook and strap work (57, 58, 74, xiii), bronze pin head with kerbschnitt border round circular hollow, intended to hold decorative setting (87, XI and Co. Down 1966, fig. 80, no. 8), clay mould for casting pin heads or studs with design like penannular brooch (24, x), coins of John and Edward III (p. 154, fig. 6).

on Lawlor’s plan: ‘while the men were clearing the foundations of the great outer cashel [the wall Co. Down regards as modern]’ (1925, 149). Sunk, mouth down, two thirds of depth in earth; top third covered with fallen stones. Single sheet of iron (corroded) bent and riveted seam down one side. Handle broken. Bell dipped in bronze, partly surviving. Squarish outline with tall looped handle. 9 ins high to top of handle, 5½ by 4½ ins at mouth. No clapper but hook for attachment. Refs:

8) Trial Pieces. Thin slabs of micaceous mudstone, siltstone and sandstone with lightly cut designs, sometimes well-spaced, sometimes crowded and overlapping. Mostly from ‘school’ (over 30); one from large midden (115, xii). Work ranges from very accomplished to very unsure and rough. Motifs can be classified as follows a) geometric curvilinear: common interlace, simple knotwork, compass-drawn and freehand circles, some with ‘marigolds’, crosses of segments of circles; b) rectilinear: much less common, step pattern in border and designs based on square; c) zoomorphic: several animals, one with interlaced back legs; d) letters: one fragment with e, another with m, another with several letters (part of alphabet?); e) single stone with design of two penannular brooches. Lawlor 1925, p1. XII shows some and Co. Down 1966, pls 79-81.

Lawlor 1925, 149-152, p1. XIV; Co. Down 1966, 140, p1. 83.

[675] x) WELLS. None seem to have preserved any traditions of sanctity when Reeves discovered site in 1844: ‘Outside the enclosures, on the east, is a well artificially closed in’ (Reeves 1847, 196). This well marked on Lawlor’s plan as 35 (mistake for 33): ‘it is still locally known as “the monk’s well”’ (1925, 19-20). Lawlor reports another well 200 yds to south and third at extreme northwest of island close to shore (1925, 20 and 106). xi) HARBOURS. Reeves noted landing place to east: ‘At the foot of the eminence on which the church stands, to the east, is a creek, which appears to have been the usual landing place. Here are some remains of rude stone works’ (1847, 196). Stone jetty. To southwest, opposite gates in middle and outer cashels, two arcs of large stones creating small harbour, confidently assigned by Lawlor to ‘prehistoric’ phase. Lawlor refers to another quay south of enclosure (1925, 105). Obviously not closely datable, but reasonable to suggest at least southwest harbour used by inhabitants of enclosure.

9) Pottery. Very little known about pottery in 1920s and Lawlor’s chap. ix utterly superseded. Clearly site rich in pottery: ‘every place where excavations have taken place, immense numbers of fragments of pottery were found’ (1925, 156). [674] Main classes are:a) one sherd only of class Ei imported pottery, listed in Thomas 1959, 109 and 1967, 46.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 10, 63, 148-51, 187-97, also paper to Down, Connor and Dromore Church Architecture Society, 1845, reprinted in U.J.A. 8 (1902), 13-22 and 58-68; O’Laverty 1878, 349-66; Lawlor 1925, passim; P.S. 1940, 93-14; Waterman, D.M., ‘A note on Medieval Pottery from Nendrum and Grey Abbeys, Co. Down’ in U.J.A. 21 (1958), 67-70; Lionard 1961, especially 150-1 (dealing only with stones illustrated by Lawlor); Towill 1964; Henry 1965, 798, fig. 8b; Co. Down 1966, 292-5, fig. 191, pls 77-81; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 42 and 107.

170.

Newry parish. O.S. 46; area of J/087263.

b) Souterrain ware – Lawlor’s ‘Type A’ - forming over half of pottery (1925, 161). Usual simple straight-sided forms, some plain, some with applied cordons, all with grass impressions in base and a few with grain impressions (Lawlor 1925, pie XVI and XVII, Co. Down 1966, fig. 76, no. 3). c) Wheel-made pottery - Lawlor’s ‘Type B’ - not to be confused with class B imports. Jugs and cooking pots some glazed but mostly unglazed. No longer accepted as class C imported (Radford 1956, 64); best seen as of local manufacture and Anglo-Norman period (Waterman in U.J.A. 21 (1958), 67-70). Found mixed with souterrain ware in upper levels, especially in large midden. Also significantly glazed jug sherd found 12 ins under church floor during excavation of graves there (Lawlor 1925, 157, p1. XVI, no. 133).

Cistercian house founded before Anglo-Norman invasion, but uncertain whether earlier church here. Traditionally Patrick planted yew tree and founded monastery (A.F.M. 1162): not in early sources (Atkinson 1925, 7 and Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 409). [676] Foundation charter of Cistercian house, ‘Ibar-cindtrachta’ or ‘Viride Lignum’, by Muirchertach Úa Lochlainn, king of Ireland, 1156-60 (Kenney 1929, 769). Suggested by Keating and others founded 1140s by Malachy (Reeves 1847, 16-7). 1164 hosting: ‘They destroyed the monastery of the monks Newry and plundered several other churches (M.I.A.). Buildings

d) Fired clay fragments with finger impressions, perhaps kiln waste, from inner cashel near gate and round tower, marked 8 on Lawlor’s plan (128, xvii). ix) BELL in Ulster Museum. Found at point marked 18 317

remained in Castle Street - Abbey Yard area to late eighteenth to early nineteenth century.

on suspension loop for clapper, riveted through top of bell. Clapper conical knob on round sectioned bar.

SITE: probably 50 ft on slope down to Newry River.

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 116-9; Atkinson 1925, 7; Power, P., in D.C.H.S. (1928), 22; Co. Down 1966, 29b; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 142 and 409.

171.

RAHOLP townland, Saul parish. O.S. 31; J/540479.

MATERIAL: reports of ‘vast quantities of human bones’ (Reeves 1847, 119), font, 1 ft square, 2 ft high, hollow 10 by 9ins (Powel, op. cit. below) in back garden. CROSS STONE (Fig. 58b).

Patrician sources report Tassach gave Patrick last communion: Muirchú’s notes, late seventh century, and Fiacc’s ‘Hymn’, eighth century (Stokes 1889, 297 and 411). Later glosses to ‘Hymn’: ‘Tassach ... Patrick’s artisan. He is the first that made a case for Jesu’s Staff, and Raholp to the east of Downpatrick is his church’ (ibid. 425 and Kenney 1929, 340). At 14 April M.O. has: ‘the royal bishop, thy Assach, gave when he came to him, the Body of Christ, the truly strong King, at the communion, unto Patrick’; and gloss locates at ‘Ráith Colpthai in Leth Cathail in Ulster’; also other calendars. Later history unknown until ‘church of Rathcolpe’ listed 1306, and reported ruinous 1622. Now unenclosed in pasture, badly needing attention. SITE: about 150 ft, slight hill in gently hilly country, overlooking Strangford Lough, 1 mile to north. MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE (Fig. 52). Church stands towards westend of elongated oval mound, steep-sided except at approach from west. Must be artificially heightened Silurian outcrop. At edge of mound to east and northeast of church two to four courses of dry stone revetment wall; to south very large slabs (some visible in Bigger 1916, p1. xiii). Where mound eroded to northeast, composed of till and shillet.

FIG. 58B: NEWRY – CROSS STONE.

Built into interior wall, McCann’s Bakery near Abbey Yard. Granite, rectangular (probably re-cut at sides, especially to left), 4 ft 5½ ins high, 1 ft wide, unknown thickness. Ringed Latin cross, all in relief except base of stem in false relief. Relief highest at crossing inside ring (¼ in.), elsewhere less. Rounded angles, probably pecked. Maltreated in past: has been tarred over. Ref:

Co. Down 1966, 290, p1. 72.

BELLS acquired in Newry but history unknown. Possibly Co. Down provenance, but not certain. Both in N.M.D. and unpublished. 1) 1943-8: bronze-coated iron bell. Of sheet with seams at sides: single rivet of high projection at of each side. Rounded outline, narrowing slightly towards base. 7 ins high, 5 by 3 ins at mouth 6½ ins maximum width. Wide handle, flat section with depression centre, ¾ in. high. 2) 1943-9: bronze-coated iron bell. Single sheet of iron two small rivets holding seam on either side.

FIG. 52: RAHOLP – PLAN OF SITE.

[678] ii) CHURCH (P1. 74a-b and Fig. 55c) known as ‘Templemoyle’ or ‘Church-moyley’. Useful description by Reeves before Bigger’s extensive restoration: ‘... The south wall is overturned; the east and west walls are about 12 feet high; the east window is 4 feet 6 inches high, and 10 inches wide, splayed inside to the width of 3 feet 2 inches; and ends, not in an arch, but in a large flag. In building the walls, yellow clay has been used instead of mortar’ (1847, 39). Present appearance largely result

[677] At shoulder iron cut to ‘W’ shape and folded down sides. Rectangular outline, 5.8 ins high, 4.1 ins without handle, 3.9 by 3.3 ins at mouth. Handle of peculiar form: iron bar bent down in centre forming two lobes, resting

318

of Bigger’s heavy-handed restoration; he gives ‘before and after’ photographs in report of work (1916, p1. xii) but otherwise inadequately recorded.

Simple rectangle, internally 27 ft 9 ins by 16 ft 8 ins. Walls 2 ft 8 ins thick, small and medium shale rubble (now mortared), on neat dressed offset with carefully worked quoins. General appearance rough, but prerestoration photograph gives impression stone carefully fitted. Original west door with sloping jambs and single lintel. Upper part west wall reconstructed: does not necessarily reproduce original roof pitch. North and south doors and small north window later insertions. East wall restored window (fell just before 1900: Praeger 1900, 136), lintel with three sharply incised, equal-armed outline crosses on inner face (drawing of window with crosses and dimensions in Bigger 1916, 125). Small aumbry either side of window. Rebuilt stone altar on earlier foundations found to cover stone-built grave (Bigger believed Tassach’s). Three other burials against east wall, all with heads to east.

PLATE 74A: RAHOLP CHURCH (FROM SOUTH-WEST).

iii) CROSS BASE (Pl. 75a) 15 ft east of exterior east wall and window. [679] Large, irregular slab of slate, about 4 ft north-south by maximum 4 ft 4 ins east-west, 4 to 6 ins thick, with cavity 1 ft 9 ins north-south by 8 ins running right through stone. Bigger reports formerly to southwest of present position (1916, 124). No reports of any cross; perhaps wooden? Not previously illustrated.

FIG. 55C: RAHOLP – CHURCH PLAN.

PLATE 75A: RAHOLP – CROSS-BASE (FROM SOUTH).

iv) CROSS-CARVED STONES . I have had difficulty matching stones I have seen with Bigger’s drawings (1916, 127) and a few still unaccounted for. Some perhaps removed or reburied. 1) (Fig. 59b). Excavated by Bigger immediately inside south door, left in situ and re-excavated by me. Neatly dressed rectangular slab, now chipped at edges and cracked across centre. Shale, 5 ft long, 1 ft 8 ins wide,

PLATE 74B: RAHOLP – RECONSTRUCTED WEST GABLE: DOOR AND CROSS-SLAB.

319

unknown depth. At east end roughly pecked, only approximately equal-armed linear cross.

altar top, some loose when I drew them, since removed for safety by ‘Archaeological Survey’.

Ends of arms to east and west bars with expanded ends; to north and south triangular expansions.

6) (Fig. 60b). Illustrated by Bigger (op. cit., 127, bottom centre) as 1 ft 6 ins high and 2 ft 1½ ins thick (Crawford 1916, 164 b gives 1 ft 6 ins by 10 ins by 2½ ins), probably mounted by him above if door (too high to draw but see P1. 74b). Technologically different from 1 to 5: outline Latin cross in false relief, pecked. Limbs run out to sides of stone, top member completed, base open. Not in situ in gable. 7) (Fig. 60b). Illustrated by Bigger (op. cit., 127, bottom right) as 1 ft 3½ ins high and 7½ ins thick (Crawford 1916, 164 c gives 1 ft 4 ins by 8 ins by 1¾ ins). Linear Latin cross, ends of limbs with seriphs and small circle at crossing. Whereabouts unknown.

FIG. 59B: RAHOLP –CROSS-CARVED STONE (1). Refs:

8) (Fig. 60b). Illustrated by Bigger (op. cit., 127, bottom left) as 1 ft 1 in. high (Crawford 1916, 164 e gives 1 ft 2 ins by 6 ins), roughly triangular, with rough, linear ringed cross. Whereabouts unknown.

Bigger’s drawing (1916, 127, top left) is schematic; Crawford 1916, 164 a.

2) (Fig. 60b). Fragment only of shale slab, about 8 by 10 ins, unknown thickness. Shallow, rough pecking, probably cross with rather wildly bifurcating ends of arms. Not illustrated by Bigger (op. cit.).

9) Still in church, against north wall (tends to fall down): Bigger op. cit., 127, top centre and marked on plan, 124, as ‘gravestone’. Unshaped slab of shale, 2 ft 6 ins high, 11 ins wide at base, 5 ins at top, 3 to 4 ins thick. Very lightly scratched motifs on one of broad and one of narrow faces. Mostly small linear equal-armed crosses in circles, double lines in one case, triple in another. A few un-ringed crosses and other lines.

3) (Fig. 60b) Slab with gable-shaped top, 1 ft 4½ ins high, 7½ ins wide, 1 in. thick, broken on left side. Sandstone? Roughly pecked Latin cross with ends of arms expanded. Not illustrated by Bigger. 4) (Fig. 60b). Rough stone, irregular outline, 1 ft 4 ins long 9½ ins wide, unknown thickness. Roughly pecked cross; as lower limb approaches edge of stone becomes very unclear. Uncertain whether part of limb broken off or originally roughly equal-armed. Refs:

[681] On top of stone deeper cuts: cross in circle and groups of parallel lines (not ogam). Arrangement haphazard: motifs give impression of doodles. A few stones south and east of church must be grave-markers, but not crosses or letters.

Must be Bigger’s stone in op. cit., 127, centre right; Crawford 1916, 164 d.

v) PILLAR STONE 1 ft 10 ins east of east gable, 3 ft 2 ins high, 8 ins wide, 4 to 5 ins thick. Trimmed to rectangular shape but no other work. Visible in prerestoration photograph (Bigger op. cit., p1. XII). vi) WELL about 300 ft southeast of church. Obliterated and area cultivated by 1915; excavated and restored by Bigger (op. cit., p1. XIII) but now neglected. I have discovered no traditions. vii) FINDS made during Bigger’s excavation. Slab of hard slate, 1 ft 9 ins by 9 ins with designs of squares sharply incised on both sides. I could not find this. Bigger’s p1. XV different from drawing (127, top right) so these presumably the two sides. Some squares plain, some infilled with saltire crosses and some with equalarmed and saltire crosses. Uncertain function. Perhaps a gaming board? Bigger reports two glass and one amber bead in earth above grave under altar, illustrated p1. XVI.

FIG. 60B: RAHOLP – CROSS-CARVED STONES (2-8).

[680] 5) (Fig. 60b). Fragment only, 7 by 6 ins by ¾ in. Irregularly pecked shallow line ending in cross-bar, with another cross-bar above, and broken at top. Not illustrated by Bigger. Stones 2 to 5 mounted by Bigger in

Refs:

320

Reeves 1847, 39, 142, 223; O’Laverty 1878, 220-2; Bigger 1916, especially 123-30; Crawford 1916, 164, information from Bigger, but not always coinciding with Bigger 1916, 127 (see above); Co. Down 1966, 295 and fig. 192.

(Raith Murbuilg, see MAGHERA.) 172.

Patrick, Brigid and Columba at Saul (A.U., 1293). Large graveyard and Church of Ireland church. SITE: about 100 ft, fairly level platform on steep hillside with extensive views north and northwest to Quoile estuary.

RUBANE, Inishargy parish, Echlinville townland. O.S. 18; J/area of 616606.

Echlinville townland formerly called Rubane, Rowbane (and variants: Reeves 1847, 379). Probably to be identified with ‘Ruba’:

MATERIAL: Two lengths of rubble walling west and northwest of church probably medieval (Co. Down 1966, 288).

[682] M.G. at 24 June has ‘gracious Tiu of Ruba [glossed] the name of his place: in Ard Ulad it is’; also M.D., but here female saint. Church site: ‘The chapel, of which not a vestige remains, formerly stood in the field opposite the entrance to Echlinville demesne’ (Reeves 1847, 379); and O’Laverty locates more precisely ‘in the field in which stands the pigeon-house’ (1878, 425).

i) MORTUARY HOUSE (P1. 76a) Northwest of modern church near edge of graveyard where level drops away sharply north-wards. Simple rectangular structure of mortared rubble, damaged and incomplete at east-end, internally 2 ft 6 ins northsouth by about 5 ft east-west. Walls 1 ft 4 ins thick. Rectangular opening in south wall, 1 ft 9 ins wide, 2 ft 2 ins high. Internally small cavity north wall and heavy solid stone roof supported by squinch corbels at northwest and southwest corners.

SITE: not precisely located, but about 50 ft, ½ mile north of Blackstaff River. MATERIAL: O’Laverty (op. cit., 425-6) reports INSCRIBED, CROSS-CARVED STONE ‘Among the graves was found a stone which is at present in Holywood Church. On it is inscribed a cross formed by the intersection of two pair of parallel lines, and along the stem of the cross is inscribed in Irish letters ‘Deanlam’, the remainder of the inscription is gone.’ Does not now seem to be at Holywood Roman Catholic church, nor in Ulster Museum where some O’Laverty material kept. Present whereabouts unknown. No illustration known. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 21 and 379; Patterson 1870-4, 274; O’Laverty 1878, 425-6; Crawford 1912, 224; Macalister 1949, 121; Co. Down 1966, 303.

173.

SAUL parish and townland. O.S. 31; J/509463.

This is one of two structures described by Harris (1744, 40): ‘... there are here two small vaulted Rooms of Stone yet intire, about seven feet high, six feet long, and two feet and a half broad, with a small window placed in one Side. Perhaps these small Chambers were Confessionals, or Places for private Devotion.’ Second structure, west of above, used as family vault, closed and rendered over rubble walling. [684] No significant detail visible. St. Patrick believed to have lodged in ‘house’: O’Laverty 1878, 237-8, gives several sources.

Muirchú’s notes describe Patrick’s visit to Dichu, ‘ubi nunc est Orreum Patricii’, and later angel sends Patrick back to ‘Sabul’ where he died (Stokes 1887, 275, 296). Tírechán refers to Patrick’s burial-place at ‘Sabul Patricii’, and ‘Tripartite Life’ to Dichu’s gift of Saul to Patrick (ibid. 37 and 332). Later sources add much detail, including peculiarity of church orientated north-south, and name of Patrick’s disciple, Dunnius, abbot at Saul (Reeves 1847, 220-2). M.G. lists Dichu, glossed ‘from Saball’ at 29 April. Later history obscure until twelfth century reform period when Malachy introduced Augustinian Canons. [683] Near contemporary report of this in Bernard’s ‘Life of Malachy’ (Lawlor 1920, 113). 1170 Amlaimh deposed from abbacy by monks of Mellifont and took revenge: ‘The Congregation of Canons Regular, with their abbot, whom Maelmoedoic Ua Morgair ... instituted in Saball of Patrick, were expelled out of the monastery they themselves built and wore despoiled completely, both of books and furniture, cows and persons, horses and sheep ... save the tunics and capes which were upon them at that hour’ (A.U.) Later history outlined by Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 194) including finding of relics of

PLATE 76A: SAUL – MORTUARY HOUSE (FROM SOUTHWEST). Refs:

Waterman 1960, 82-3, fig. 1 and p1. IXa, full account.

ii) Report of GRAVES. Archdall (1873, 289-91) and O’Laverty (1878, 238) report recent discovery of stonebuilt graves under avenue ‘outside churchyard’ (which direction?). Graves contained white sea-pebbles, three, seven, or ten in number. 321

J.R.S.A.I. 22 (1892), 432-3; Crawford 1912, 225 a; D.C.H.S. 4 (1931), 39A; Co. Down 1966, 288 (4), fig. 188. No published photograph.

iii) CROSS-CARVED STONES. Many surviving or reported. i) (P1. 77a and Fig. 61). In southeast part of graveyard, about 20 ft west of east wall of yard. Rectangular, carefully squared slab of shale, at least 4 ft 2 ins high, 1 ft 6 ins wide, 6 ins thick. On west face outline Latin cross limbs hollowed at intersection and sunk circle at crossing. Defined by wide grooves (up to 1 in. wide, ½ in. deep). Arms run out to sides of stone. Heavy lichen cover.

2) (Pl. 77b and Fig. 61). In southwest part of yard (Co. Down gives about 50 ft southwest of 1), small erect rectangular slab of shale, 2 ft 8 ins high, 1 ft 2 ins wide, 2 ins thick. On west face simple outline Latin cross defined by wide pecked groove. I saw this in 1963, but since then it seems to have been lost during ‘graveyard tidying’.

PLATE 77B: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2). Refs:

Patterson 1870-4, 274, p1. XI, fig. 6 and 1892 (op. cit. above), 432-3; Crawford 1912, 225 b; D.C.H.S. 4 (1931), 39C; Co. Down 1966, 288 (5).

3) Trapezoidal slab kept in church, 3 ft 2 ins long, 1 ft wide at top, 8 ins at base and 6 ins thick. [685] One surface in high relief (¾ in.) long shafted Latin cross with rounded base, sharply squared arms and slightly splayed head. At crossing sunk circle and incised saltire crosses above and below crossing. Other side badly mutilated but shaft of similar cross visible without saltires. Stone nearly squared; marks of hammering visible. Does not appear in earlier publications. Co. Down 1966, 288 (b), p1. 75.

PLATE 77A: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1).

4) Large, heavy, broken piece of slate, kept in church. 2 ft 1 in. square and 2½ ins thick. Three concentric circles. Innermost circle Maltese cross formed of double lines, interlacing at centre, with tight spirals in areas between arms. In second circle running scroll design. Third circle plain. On broken edge segments of two concentric circles, probably edge of similar cross. Accomplished work of very high quality, sharply cut. Refs:

5) (Pl. 78a and Fig. 61). 36 ft west of mortuary house, approximately in line with south side, 32 ft east of west wall of yard. Rectangular slab of shale, 3 ft 2 ins high, 1 ft 6 ins wide, 3 ins thick, badly chipped at edges. Face to west slightly convex, especially at base. Deeply hollowed-out, pecked Latin cross with square left in false relief at intersection. Ends of arms clearly splayed but badly flaked. East face very rough. I found this fallen, cross down, covered with other stones, and excavated it.

FIG. 61: SAUL - CROSS-CARVED STONES AND SUNDIAL. Refs:

D.C.H.S. 4 (1931), 39D; Co. Down 1966, 289 (c), p1. 75.

Refs:

Several publications: Patterson 1870-4, 275, p1. XI, fig. 5 and ‘On Some Ancient Sculptured Stones at Saul’ in

322

Crawford 1916, 164 e; D.C.H.S. 4 (1931), 39B; not in Co. Down 1966.

6) (Pl. 78b and Fig. 61). Small slab of slate, kept in schoolroom at graveyard. 1 ft 4 ins high, 8½ ins wide and 1½ ins thick. Edge to left dressed straight, top rounded, right side and base rougher and chipped.

Other side badly damaged. Single large cross of same form. Work appears very rough, but perhaps impression due to damage. Refs:

[686] Equal-armed cross pecked out and smoothed, ends of limbs slightly expanded. Ring linking arms also pecked but not as deeply. Traces of mortar on surface as though re-used.

Patterson 1892 (op. cit. above), 433, sketched 1874; Crawford 1912, 225 c; Davidson 1958, 90, pl. XII; Co. Down 1966, 289, p1. 76. Crawford (1916, 164) lists but does not illustrate two other slabs (information from F.J. Bigger) which I have not traced, and no other source mentions them.

8) Rectangular slab, 2 ft 9 ins by 1 ft 2 ins with Latin cross of two broad incised lines. Ends of arms slightly expanded and diamond-shaped sinking at centre. Crawford’s d. 9) Irregularly tapering, 2 ft 6 ins by 11 ins. Near top small cross, 4½ by 3¾ ins, of single broad lines slightly expanded at ends. Below, almost touching, ringed cross crossleted, formed of single narrow lines, 8½ by 7½ ins with 4 ins diameter ring. Crawford’s f. iv) SUNDIAL (Fig. 61). Only reference I have come across is Way 1868, 219-20 with drawing by Du Noyer (220, fig. v) About 1 ft 7 ins wide. [687] Drawing shows short shaft (Way suggests much buried), shield-shaped face and seven radiating lines. Stone cut back at sides of ‘shield’. I have looked many times and not found this, and no other writers mention it which I find puzzling.

PLATE 78A: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (5).

v) WELL and BULLAUN OS. marks ‘Mearing Well’ about ¼ mile northwest of church. P.S. 1940, 108, locates beside road about 200 yds west of churchyard, ‘beside which is a bullaun carved in the native rock’, I did not see this. vi) Reported SOUTERRAIN. P.S. 1940, 108: ‘Under the south side of the churchyard is a souterrain now closed up, of which we have no description.’ Unknown source. SITES NEAR SAUL: 1) Slievegrane Lower townland, less than ¾ mile south of Saul, part of cemetery of slab graves excavated. Sherd of imported Class E ware found (Waterman 1967, 69 note 11). 2) O’Laverty (1878, 240): Ballysugagh townland, ‘Savalbregach’ (‘False Saul’), northeast of church, traces of cemetery with stone-built graves. Formerly buildings adjoining.

PLATE 78B: SAUL – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6). Ref:

Co. Down 1966, 288 (a), p1. 75.

7) Rectangular slab of slate, broken and chipped, kept in schoolroom at graveyard. First recorded by Patterson but lost until 1968. 1 ft 3 ins by 11 ins and 24 to 3 ins thick. On better preserved surface parts of six equal-armed ringed crosses. Large one at centre complete, well worked, ends of arms expanded. Broken cross, similar proportions, above. Two smaller crosses on each side, similar form. All pecked, crosses more deeply than rings.

Refs:

Harris 1744, 39-40; Reeves 1847, 40, 220-3; O’Laverty 1878, 229-47; Co. Down 1966, 287-9; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 44; other references as above.

174.

Seaforde, Loughinisland parish, Naghan townland. O.S. 7; area of J/407421.

Not necessarily church site; inscribed stone (see below) re-used. Dubourdieu (1802, 277) reports destroyed souterrain in rath near Seaforde church, about 30 yds 323

long, 3 to 4 ft wide, 4 ft high with two side chambers at end. INSCRIBED SLAB built into souterrain, removed and used in Dubourdieu’s day for pounding whins. He gives rubbing showing rough Irish characters. [688] Seem to be ‘OROIT AR E ... AC ...’; suggests scraped with point, not cut with chisel. Slab about 2 ft 6 ins by 1 ft 6 ins. Presumably destroyed, or entirely obliterated by pounding. Clearly Early Christian memorial atone, but original provenance unknown.

[689] Small window south wall with inclining jambs and Reeves reported formerly flat, lintelled head. He recalled east window triangular head of two inclining flags (1847, 34).

Not impossible rath and souterrain marked early ecclesiastical site, but equally stone could have been brought from elsewhere. No certainly early church very near (Downpatrick, Inch, Tyrella 4 miles, Maghera 5½ miles). Refs:

Dubourdieu 1802, 277-8; Ferguson, S., ‘On Some evidence Touching the Age of Rath-Caves’ in P.R.I.A., 2nd ser., I (1870-4), 129-36; Petrie 1878, 72; O’Laverty 1878, 91-2 (believed C. of I. church occupies earlier church site); Crawford 1912, 225; Macalister 1949, 121-2; Co. Down 1966, 116.

175.

ST. JOHN’S POINT townland, Rathmullan parish. O.S. 45; J/527338.

PLATE 80A: ST. JOHN’S POINT – CHURCH (FROM SOUTH-WEST).

At 17 August M.T. has Eoán son of Cairlánd, unlocated, but in M.G. glossed ‘from Tech Eoin in Ulster’, also M.D. ‘Stechian’ among lands granted by Malachy to abbey of Down about 1183. ‘Chapel of Styoun’ listed 1306. Ruined church in state care. SITE: about 50 ft on gentle east and southeast-ward slope to shore, [distance missing] miles away. MATERIAL: No enclosure visible or reported. i) CHURCH (Pls 80a-b, Pl. 81a and Fig. 55a). Harris wrote (1744, 271) ‘the Walls of [St. John’s] are yet intire’, but Reeves lamented east wall demolished to foundations (1847, 34). Small, rectangular, internally 20 ft by 13 ft, with antae at east and west. Walls 2 ft 3 ins thick on rough internal and external offset, carefully fitted split stone, larger below, smaller above (Pl. 81a). Quoins of dressed granite. West gable largely intact with steep pitch. Tall west door (P1. 80b), markedly inclining jambs, some granite quoins, granite lintel with relieving lintel of shale above.

PLATE 80B: ST. JOHN’S POINT – DETAIL EXTERIOR WEST DOOR.

ii) CEMETERY. Wakeman: ‘... in the cemetery adjoining the very early church at Saint John’s Point ... the graves are arranged in the form of a circle, to the centre of which the feet converge’ (1903, 331). I have been unable to discover authority for this and am reluctant to believe bald statement without evidence. iii) BULLAUN (Pl. 81b) East of church, close to well at roadside, just outside (modern) enclosure wall. Boulder, rectangular with rounded corners, 2 ft north-south by 1 ft 8 ins east-west, 7 ins high visible. Hollow 1 ft 9½ ins north-south by 1 ft 1 in. and maximum depth 5 ins. Long sides steep slope, ends more gradual. At north end hollow

FIG. 55A: ST. JOHN’S POINT – CHURCH PLAN.

324

runs out to edge of stone. Several deep scores along long axis of hollow (knife sharpening?). No associated traditions. O’Laverty reports holy water font from church moved to Roman Catholic chapel at Rossglass. I did not see this.

SITE: under 50 ft, only slight eminence in low, damp surroundings, 1/6 mile east of Cassy Water and 1/6 mile from Carlingford Lough, with stream close by to south. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 207; O’Laverty 1878, 9-10; Evans 1951 101.

(Tamlacht Menainn, Tamlacht Maccu-cuill, Tamlacht Umail see DRUMSALLAGH.) (Tech Eoin, see ST. JOHN’S POINT.) 177.

Temple Cormac or Cormick, Ballyculter parish, Audleystown townland. O.S. 31; J/566505.

In part of townland known (from well, see below) as ‘Tubberdoney’, ruined chapel in enclosing wall. Nothing known of history and material not closely datable. SITE: Just under 100 ft in slight hollow on slope down towards shore of Strangford Lough, ¼ mile to north.

PLATE 81B: ST. JOHN’S POINT – BULLAUN STONE.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE, outline roughly oval but pointed to west., about 77 ft east-west by 72 ft north-south. Narrow gap to south. Stands to maximum 4 ft high, but in parts much spread. Of split shale, some very large stones in lower courses, and much stone, including very big stones, in nearby hedges. About 3 ft 6 ins wide, but variable. A few rough, uninscribed headstones, but very overgrown and difficult to explore thoroughly. Burials seem to extend outside wall; ploughed up in recent years (Co. Down 1966, 297). ii) CHURCH (Fig. 55b) ruined very low (maximum 2 ft 6 ins) and featureless rectangle, about 27 ft by 16 ft internally (Co. Down 1966, 297 plan cf. O’Laverty 1878, 217, 30 ft by 18 ft 6 ins), walls about 3 ft wide. Rough split shale with pinnings, apparently dry-built. Part of lowest foundation south wall of slabs on end.

PLATE 81A: ST. JOHN’S POINT – NORTH WALL OF CHURCH

iv) WELL. Marked by O.S. as ‘St. John’s Well’, close to bullaun at roadside east of church. No reports of special observances. Refs:

Harris 1744, 139, 271; Reeves 18117, 3344, 163-11; Archdeacon of Down ‘Notice on the Ancient Chapel on St. John’s Point, in the County of Down’ in U.J.A. 2 (1854), 225; O’Laverty 1878, 142-5; Co. Down 1966, 295-6, fig. 193, p1. 84.

176.

TAMLAGHT, Kilkeel parish, Lisnacree townland. O.S. 55; J/244146.

In M.T. at 1 April: ‘Tuan mac Cairill from Tamlachta [in] Bairche’ also M.O. (gloss only), M.G. and M.D. Also at 18 October: ‘Moluanen of Tamlachta’ in M.T. and ‘of Tamlacht in Bairche’ gloss in M.G., also M.D.

FIG. 55B: TEMPLE CORMAC – CHURCH PLAN.

[691] iii) WELL, O.S. marks ‘Toberdoney’ - ⅜ mile west on Lough shore.

[690] Early history otherwise obscure. Chapel within ‘plebania’ of Kilkeel, ruined 1622.

iv) Harris, quoted by O’Laverty mentions SOUTERRAIN in Tubberdoney: ‘close to the wall of

Very neglected rectangular graveyard. 325

Judge Ward’s Improvements’. Probably same as souterrain described in J.R.S.A.I. 45 (1915), 176, as ‘within 40 ft of the Castleward Road’. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 383; O’Laverty 1878, 217-8; P.S. 1940, 105; Co. Down 1966, 296-7, fig. 194 (plan of enclosure and church).

178.

TULLYLISH parish and townland. O.S. 26 J/082486.

[692] 179. TYRELLA parish and townland. O.S. 44; J/454361. At 17 September M.G. has Riaguil, glossed ‘from Tech Riagla in Leth Cathail’ but in M.O. and M.T. from Muckinish, Lough Derg (Shannon), while Riaguil of Muckinish also at 16 October M.O., M.T. and M.G. Clear from place-name was early site here: 1306 Taxation, ‘Church of Staghreeli’, and other forms include ‘Taghrolly’, ‘Techrula’, ‘Teighriola’, clearly ‘teach of Riaguil’ as in M.G. above, O’Laverty reports about 1800 most of ancient church demolished and re-used for Tyrella House and garden wall; rest removed 1839 when Protestant parish church built on early site. ‘Two holy water stoups of freestone’ found among ruins, and cemetery reported very large, extending north across road into Clanmaghery townland (O’Laverty 1878, 129-30).

At 12 May ‘hallowed Erc Nascai [glossed] i.e. of Tolach lis in Hui Echach of Ulster’, also M.T., M.G. and M.D. In 809 A.U. records: ‘The killing of Dunchu, abbot of Telach-liss, beside the shrine of Patrick, in the abbots house of Telach-liss’, a rare reference to monastic topography. Possibility of confusion with Tullylease, Co. Cork, but all above references seem to belong to Co. Down. Medieval parish church: appears in list of procurations payable to Archbishop of Armagh from churches in Dromore diocese, dated 1422 (Reeves 1847, 315-6). Ruined post-medieval church probably occupies early site.

SOUTERRAIN reported in demesne of Tyrella House, near site of old church, found 1832, 43 yds long, 2 ft 6 ins wide, 5 ft high, in three chambers (Lewis 1837, II, 664). SITE: under 50 ft, close to stream ½ mile from shore of Dundrum Bay.

SITE: under 200 ft, hilltop in hilly surroundings, close to, south and east of, River Bann.

NO EARLY MATERIAL SURVIVES.

MATERIAL: ruin and graveyard within oval ENCLOSURE. Co. Down 1966, 336, gives dimensions about 150 by 130 ft. Interior 15 to 20 ft above surrounding level, falling in places to berm or ditch, and in places clear bank outside. Refs:

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 316; Atkinson 1925, 100-1, 243-5; Co. Down 1966, 336.

326

Reeves 1847, 32-3; O’Laverty 1878, 126-30.

[693]

FERMANAGH: Sites are in Clogher diocese except where Kilmore is indicated.

180.

AGHALURCHER parish, Glebe townland. O.S. 34; H/365314.

STONE WITH HOLLOWS (P1. 111a) 15 ft west of remaining fragment of north wall of church, has superficial appearance of a bullaun stone, but is probably natural (sandstone?).

Patron Ronan son of Aedh, of royal family of Airgialla, at 23 December in M.T. (but no place given), M.G. and M.D., possibly early seventh century. Also associated with Fiedhlimidh at 23 December in M.T., M.G. and M.D. (no place given). Early history obscure, but large, important medieval parish; church, parson and erenagh frequently mentioned in fifteenth and early sixteenth century annals. Badly ruined medieval church with added post -medieval vault in crowded graveyard. Site taken into state care long ago because vault believed to be ninth-century! Much loose stone, including ashlar in graveyard, and massive cut stones re-used at graveyard gate, Excavation since 1966 cleared much of east end of church despite burials.

PLATE 111A: AGHALURCHER – STONE WITH HOLES.

SITE: local hilltop, over 200 ft, in damp surroundings, about 1 mile east of Upper Lough Erne.

[694] ii) ST. RONANS STONE, site of, marked by O.S. about 100 yards northwest of church on west side of road; mentioned in ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’, but no details given and nothing now visible.

MATERIAL: i) CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 83b and Fig. 72c) at St. Ronan’s Well at H/361317, Farranasculloge townland, ¼ mile northwest of church. Previous whereabouts unknown, but likely from church site nearby. Set in concrete and built into stones surrounding well on northwest side. Unknown when set here. Sub- rectangular stone, 10 ⅜ ins by 8½ ins, unknown thickness. Cracked. Latin cross potent in relief with background clearly pecked back. Unpublished.

PLATE 83A: AGHALURCHER – ST. RONAN’S WELL.

iii) HOLY WELL. St. Ronan’s Well (P1. 83a), marked by O.S. in 1859 as ‘Tobershaw’ (see i) above) Isolated in field with hawthorn tree, obviously still resorted to for cures. Seems to be a spring.

PLATE 83B: AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE.(LEFT), & FIGURE 72C: AGHALURCHER – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (RIGHT)

(FIGURE CARVED STONE of male sheela-na-gig type, found during 1966 excavations, I have no further details of this. I think it 1ke1y that this and the stone carved with a bishop built into the vault are chronologically outside my date limits.

Refs:

327

Lewis 1837, I, 16, for ninth-century ‘date’ of vault; Dagg, G., in J.R.S.A.I. 24 (1894), 264-70; Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; McKenna 1920, II, 164-9; P.S. 1940, 181; U.J.A. 4 (1941), 144.

Inis Rochla may possibly be identified with Inishroosk townland, area of H/315320 in Aghalurcher parish. Berchán glossed ‘of Inis Rochla’ at 24 November in M.G., and M.D. adds ‘on Lough Erne’. This area, formerly island, stands slightly above surrounding bog, under 200 ft. Local people point out the Grey Stone as only site of interest: mass of huge rocks, natural formation, with Penal associations. No other sites of interest as far as I could discover. Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table III; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 388.

181.

AGHANAGLACK townland, Boho parish. O.S. 20; H/108435.

Human bones have been dug up in the ordinary operations of agriculture in sufficient abundance to induce the inhabitants to desist from thus violating, what, after such discovery, they consider the sanctuaries of their forefathers.’

SITE: over 400 ft on. local rocky eminence, on southeastfacing slope of valley of tributary of Sillees River. No trace of buildings now visible. No reason to doubt cross shaft in situ. MATERIAL: i) CROSS (P1. 84a-b). Undecorated sandstone crossshaft and base. (Shaft recently broken and carefully mended by Ministry of Finance.)

PLATE 84A: AGHANAGLACK – CROSS-SHAFT.

ii) SOUTERRAIN. ‘The OS. Memoir’ continues: ‘Near this spot there is a cave called the “prison”, evidently the work of human labour; the entrance is by a narrow door formed by two rocks, and cut in the Gothic stile [sic]. The roof is also rudely hewn into flat irregular arches, the floor flagged. The cave is capable of holding ten or twelve persons.’ The existence of this souterrain is still known, but I did not locate it precisely. 182.

AGHAVEA parish and townland. O.S. 28; H/370389.

PLATE 84B: AGHANAGLACK – CROSS BASE.

[696] Patron Lasair at 13 November in MG. (‘Lassar [glossed] of Achad Beithe’) and M.D. ‘Life of Lasair’ (ed. Gwynn, L., Eriu. 5 (1911), 73-109) makes her member of Eoganacht royal line, sister of Damhnad. Educated with Molaise of Devenish, then Damhnad to Tedavnet and Lasair to Aghavea. Her bell mentioned, used for tax-collecting and holding water (81, 101). Kenney (1929, 465-7) lists Lasair amongst saints for whom: ‘the material is either so scanty or so unsatisfactory that it is impossible to say more than the founders of these churches lived at some time in the heroic age of the old Irish Christianity’ (p 46). See also Killesher. Medieval parish. Church and erenagh mentioned in fifteenth and sixteenth century annals. Modern parish church probably on early site.

[695] Shaft 7 ft 5 ins high above base, tapering markedly from bottom to top (east and west sides from 1 ft 5 ins to 1 ft; and north and south sides from 8½ ins to 6 ins). Angles sharp not rounded, surfaces very smoothly dressed with some signs of hammering or pecking. Broken mortise hole in top, but no sign of head in vicinity in spite of P.S. 1940, 159. Base truncated pyramid, carefully shaped, 1 ft 9 ins high, about 1 ft 6 ins east-west, by 1 ft 4 ins north-south at top and 2 ft 6 ins by 2 ft 2½ to 4½ ins at bottom. Clear diagonal striations on east and west faces, probably chisel-dressing. Rectangular socket, 1 ft 2 ins by 7½ ins and 10 ins deep, narrowing to about 11½ ins by 5 ins at base. Pecking marks visible in socket. Described in P.S. 1940, 159, but not previously illustrated. ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’ of Boho parish includes useful account of this site: ‘there is [sic] also faint traces of a building having formerly stood near the present site of the stone; and

SITE: about 225 ft, on low local hilltop in gently undulating countryside. Ground falls especially to south to low marshy area and stream. Many raths nearby.

328

MATERIAL: i) possible ENCLOSURE (Fig. 65c). Within graveyard wall is very high nuclear area of burials, with steep slopes down to wide berm, with surrounding bank on northwest, west and south sides, measuring 200 ft northeastsouthwest by about 225 ft northwest-southeast. Roughly circular outline cut to northeast by road and by recent graveyard extension to southeast. This interesting graveyard topography not previously noted in print, even by Wakeman who was so enthusiastic about enclosures (Wakeman 1874-5, 61).

Edges of stone probably redressed for re-use. Under surface very rough with chisel marks. Letters finely worked, deep, V-sectioned, with carefully worked seriphs. May be chisel-cut, or if pecked very carefully smoothed. Inscription two lines of half uncials: ‘ÓR DO DUNCHAD/PSPIT BIC’ (Macalister, with whom I would agree) or ‘HIC’ (Petrie and others): ‘a prayer for Dunchad the little priest [priest here]’. No accompanying cross. For the ‘Domnach Airgid’, once kept at Aghavea, see Clogher (Co. Tyrone). Refs:

Petrie 1878, II, 73-4, fig. 80a; Crawford 1912, 227; LowryCorry 1919, table I and 39; McKenna 1920, II, 144-6 and 155-6; Macalister 1949, 126, no. 965, p1. XLV.

183.

Ballyhill townland, Aghavea parish. O.S. 23; H/393436.

O.S. (1859) marks site of church, graveyard, and tower, but history obscure. SITE: prominent hilltop, over 300 ft, with extensive views. MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE. Prominent tree-planted hilltop rath of platform type, with very steep slopes to west, but less marked to east. Short stretch of wall along perimeter on north side. Interior rough and overgrown, with no sign of graves or structures. Diameter approximately 175 ft. In absence of historical records uncertain whether this is ecclesiastical enclosure, or whether pre-existing earthwork chosen for church site.

FIG. 65C: AGHAVEA – SITE PLAN.

ii) INSCRIBED STONE in N.M.D. (Pl. 85a). Reported in P.R.I.A. 6 (1857), 512, as ‘found in an old wall near Brookeborough’. ‘O.S. Memoir’ 1835 makes it clear stone was at Aghavea: ‘One piece of antiquity however was preserved, more by accident perhaps than design. It is a stone built into the churchyard wall near the top and on the left of the Gateway as you enter.’

ii) BULLAUN (Pl. 110c) in northeast part of enclosure, close to perimeter and southeast of east-end of wall (see above). Pentagonal earthfast boulder with hole near southeast edge. [698] Maximum dimensions of stone 2 ft 5 ins northwestsoutheast by 2 ft, and 7 ins high. Well-made hollow, 11 ins north-south by 10 ins east-west and 3 ins deep, with steeper slope on north side. Not previously mentioned or illustrated.

PLATE 85A: AGHAVEA- INSCRIBED STONE.

[697] There follows a wild reading of the inscription. Rectangular slab of fine-grained red sandstone, 2 ft 3½ ins long by about 1 ft 2 ins and maximum 6½ ins thick. Surface dressed very smooth with no sign of tooling.

PLATE 110C: BALLYHILL- BULLAUN STONE. Refs:

329

Site mentioned briefly by Lowry-Corry 1919, table II and 41, and McKenna 190, II, 135

184.

Boa Island Calciragh graveyard in Dreenan townland, Templecarne parish. O.S. 4; H/085620.

[699] ii) FONT, ‘a fine font, 24 inches in diameter and 14 inches deep, is in a private garden nearby ... owned by Mrs Rowe’ recorded in Rogers 1967, 76, but I did not see this.

Oval, densely overgrown graveyard which may once have been bigger. Believed in early nineteenth century to have been church site, but history unknown. Too overgrown to search thoroughly, but no building traces visible. Still frequented and occasionally used for burial. SITE: under 200 ft, on gentle south-facing slope close to lough shore.

Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II, 41 and 1933, 200-4; P.S. 1940, 145 and p1. 36; Rogers 1967, 76-81.

185.

BOHO parish, Toneel North townland. O.S. 21; H/116462.

Patron Fedbair, as also Monea (q.v.). Is probably Fedbair commemorated a 6 November: ‘a virgin of Botha eich uaichnich in Tir ratha’ (gloss in M.O.) and ‘of Botha Eich Raichni (gloss in M.G.) and in M.D. Early history obscure. Medieval parish. A.U. refers to erenagh in 1483. Early site now occupied by Roman Catholic chapel; nuclear area in large graveyard is marked hump west of chapel.

MATERIAL: i) STONE FIGURES (Pl. 86a). Stone set on concrete base, carved with two figures, back to back. Maximum height 2 ft 7½ ins (formerly higher), 1 ft 5 ins wide and 1 ft 2½ ins thick. Both figures seem belted with arms stiffly crossed over belt. Faces very large with pointed chins and emphatic features. West side pointed oval, eyes defined by bands in relief, Mouth pointed ellipse, deeply sunk, with ellipse left in reserve. Moulding above mouth suggests moustaches. East side eyes similar shape but enclosing band less emphasised. Mouth hollowed and impression of cheeks not moustaches. South side trace of carving above belt, and ‘basketry’ or hatching on east head and above shoulders. North side defaced. In top, between heads, socket 8¾ ins north-south, by 3¼. ins east-west and 4 to 5 ins deep. Projection from back of west head above socket. Probably pre-Christian (see p.282).

SITE: over 400 ft, fairly level platform on steep, eastfacing mountain side, overlooking valley of Silees River. MATERIAL: CROSS (Pls 87-8) stands at east edge of raised area west of chapel. Long sides set southeast-northwest but described here as though conventionally east-west. Red sandstone, in only fair condition, with detail much eroded. Large base 1 ft 11 ins high. Upper surface very pitted with solution hollows (incipient bullauns?). Very shallow step at top. Angle roll and inner fillet defining rectangular panels on sides of base.

PLATE 88B: BOHO – CROSS BASE (DETAIL).

East face (P1. 88a-b) carved decoration but detail very difficult to see: raised area, possibly small bosses and interlace. [700] West face (Pl. 87a-b) rectangular frame without decoration, and short sides undecorated. Dimensions 2 ft 10 ins to 3 ft north-south by 1 ft 5½ ins, to 1 ft 8½ ins east-west. Shaft broken, now 6 ft high, 1 ft 4½ ins by 11 ins narrowing to 1 ft 2½ ins by 9 ins at top. Wide edge roll moulding tending to squared outline flanked by deep wide hollow, with narrower more pointed inner roll

PLATE 86A: BOA ISLAND – CARVED FIGURE. Refs:

Stone fully described in Lowry-Corry 1933, 200-204, and frequently illustrated, especially west side, as in Henry 1965, p1. 2, and MacCana 1970, P. 128. For second figure set up nearby see Lustymore Island below.

330

which turns through 90° at base to form complete rectangular panel on east and west faces (though broken at top). Decoration of east and west sides in deeply cut false relief.

back-to-back spirals; three figures, central one probably seated with child (Adoration of Magi?); broken panel above, three figures with stylised water over legs (Baptism).

PLATE 87B: BOHO CROSS (FRAGMENT OF ARM).

North face: long rectangular panel with circular hole at top, diameter 24 ins and 2½ ins deep and small interlaced motif at foot; interlaced knots; long raised plain panel; interlaced panel, broken, probably knots. South face panels very weathered: ‘S’-figure of fine interlace; long plain panel with neat oval hole, 3 ins by 2¾ ins and 2 ins deep; upper parts badly damaged but interlace at broken top. Arm fragment (Pl. 87b) lying loose near shaft, 1 ft 4 ins long, 1 ft 2 ins wide and 8 ins thick. Edge roll and inner fillet as on shaft. Hollows as approaches intersection but no ring visible. Decorated with four big bosses with fine linking lines and smaller bosses. End of arm rough and plain, back badly eroded, under arm raised plain rectangular pane1.

PLATE 88A: BOHO – CROSS-SHAFT (EAST SIDE).

Refs:

Wakeman 1870, 124; Crawford 1907, 190 and 197; Kingsley Porter 1931, ‘Corrigenda’; Henry 1932, 54, 98, 137, p1. 52 and p1. 89; P.S. 1940, 159-60. No detailed paper on this cross, and base decoration not previously noted.

[70] 186. CLEENISH parish and island. O.S. 27; H/255396. ‘Claen-inis’, not to be confused with ‘Cluain-eóis’, (Clones). Founder and patron Sinell at 12 November in M.G., ‘Sinell [glossed] from Cloen-inis on Loch Erne’, and M.D. Sinell traditionally disciple of Finian and Columbanus ‘Life of Fintan Munnu’ (Kenney 1929, 44950; died 635) tells how he went ‘ad virum sanctum, qui fuit sapientissimus totius Hybernie “et Britannie”; ipse vocabatur Silell filius Miannaidh, et ipso erat abbas in monasterio Daimh [for Clayn] Hynis, quod est in stagno Herne, in aquilonali parto Hybernie. Et mansit ibi sanctus apud virum predictum, legens ante eum sedule ... Et ita cum solo Sileall beautus Munnu octodecim annis vixit’ (Plummer 1910, II, 228). ‘Life’ also speaks of severity of regime at Cleenish. A.U. at 1100: ‘This year the church of Saint Sinell of Clain-inis was founded’ (not in all versions and 1000 as in P.S. 1940, 173). Does this mark re-foundation, or simply building of new church? Medieval parish church disused by early seventeenth

PLATE 87A: BOHO CROSS (WEST SIDE).

East face from bottom: two circular motifs of narrow band interlace with angle knots; small rectangular panel with scored lines; Eve above stands on this, Adam appears to jump, with interlaced tree and serpent between (considerable detail visible); panel of arabesques. West face: six circular motifs of narrow band interlace in three rows with angle knots; motifs of affronted and 331

century. Many fifteenth and sixteenth century references in annals to parish clergy including erenaghs in 1400 and 1495 (A.U.). Guest-house mentioned 1427 (A.U.). Uncertain whether medieval church occupied early site. McKenna wrote (1920, II, 286): ‘The monastery probably stood upon the rising ground towards the centre of the island, where remains of a circumvallation wore traceable some years ago’, but this is merely speculation.

thick, broken at top. Mortar adhering on right side. Clearly chisel-dressed. Ringed cross formed by two narrow bands in low relief, interlaced and dividing to form slightly expanded base. Upper part of cross damaged and missing and end of arm on right unclear. Probably stone ‘with interlace’ of P.S. 1940, 173. Not previously illustrated.

[702] Long-disused, very neglected graveyard with heavy tree cover, neglected already in Wakeman’s time (1870, 60): ‘a vast wilderness of weeds, through which a few moss-covered and lichened stones appear’. Surface very uneven and scattered with stone, including sandstone ashlar, especially on south side. Ashlar re-used in pre1918 cottages on island and stone reported taken to Enniskillen by water in nineteenth century. SITE: level ground, under 200 ft, at northwest corner of island, close to north shore. Local tradition that monastery was close to south of graveyard but no surface features. Ground outside graveyard available for excavation, and work might be possible inside as site so long disused (though O.S. reported still used in 1835).

PLATE 89A: CLEENISH CROSS-CARVED STONE (1)

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE. I saw no ‘rath’ enclosing the graveyard, suggested by Mrs. Rogers (1967, 103). O.S. (1859) marks ‘site of fort’ ¼ mile southeast of graveyard (cf. McKenna above). ii) Possible LINTEL. Large dressed stone now lying outside graveyard on south side, 6 ft 7 ins long, 2 ft 2 ins wide and 1 ft 3 ins high. Top as now set dressed to flat rectangular outline; other sides rougher. Mentioned in Rogers 1967, 103. Lieutenant Chaytor in 1835 ‘O.S. Memoir’ reported old inhabitants remembered a building partly standing in graveyard, thought to be a belfry, with winding stairs inside. Pulled down, and stones used in nearby buildings and in Enniskillen. FIG. 72A: CLEENISH – CROSS-C ARVED STONES.

iii) CROSS-CARVED STONES (P1. 89a-b and Fig. 72). 1) Set deep in ground (completely covered on my visit except for upper surface), perhaps reset as grave-marker. Near centre of cemetery immediately south of medieval corbel with carved female head, Block of carefully dressed sandstone ashlar, not fully exposed at base and broken on right. 1 ft 8(+) ins high by 1 ft 11(+) in, wide and 1 ft thick. [703] Stone probably re-cut: upper surface roughly dressed, truncating cross. East face finely chisel-cut ringed cross in low relief, sharp and apparently unweathered. Stem and end of arm expanded, and semicircular expansions on inner circumference of ring. Probably stone mentioned in P.S. 1940, 173. Not previously illustrated.

PLATE 89B: CLEENISH CROSS-CARVED STONE (2)

2) Lying loose outside graveyard wall to southeast. Carefully dressed rectangular ashlar block of red sandstone. 1 ft 6 ins high, 1 ft 3½ ins wide and 8½ ins

Refs:

332

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; McKenna 1920, II, 285-9; Rogers 1967, 101-5, also illustrates and describes two stone heads, traditionally from Cleenish, now in Enniskillen.

187.

CLONITIVRIN townland, Clones parish. O.S. 40; approx. H/483256.

(Co. Leitrim) and Killeigh (Co. Offaly), not here (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 182 and 380).

There is some danger of confusion with Clontibrot (Co. Monaghan), but I think it likely the following entries refer to Clontivrin: Colman ‘of Cluain Tibrinne’ at 9 March and 13 March in M.T. and at 10 March in M.G. and M.D.; Lonán ‘of Cluain Tibrinne, and two Colmans here’ gloss to 24 October in M.O., and Lonan at 24 October in M.T., M.G. and M.D. Conghus, anchorite of Cluain-Tibrinne, died 745 (A.U.).

[705] Known as ‘Daire-Maelain’ and ‘Airech-Maelain’. Lowry-Corry and McKenna suggest this may be ‘Aired Muilt’ associated with Ternoc and Diuchaill mac Máeldub at 28 February in M.T., M.G., and M.D., but identification not certain. Medieval parish; erenaghs mentioned in fifteenth century (A.U.). Ruined eighteenthcentury church and crowded graveyard probably on early site.

Early history otherwise obscure. Medieval chapel, disused by early seventeenth century. Site cleared and cultivated early nineteenth century. O.S. (1859) marks ‘site of monastery’, ‘old graveyard’ and holy well. Area visited but site not precisely located.

SITE: commanding hilltop, about 230 ft, overlooking Drumcullion Lough to south. MATERIAL: i) possible FINIAL SOCKET STONE (Pl. 90b) mortared on top of north gatepost of graveyard. Triangular section, standing 10½ ins high, 1 ft wide at base and 9 ins long. Slope of sides asymmetrical (steeper slope to west as now set). Small square socket in top, projecting about 4 in. above top of stone, 5 ins square externally, 3½ ins internally, 2 ins deep. Stone vesicular (sandstone) and chipped.

[704] SITE: general area under 200 ft, valley floor, close to north of river. NO EARLY MATERIAL REPORTED. HOLY WELL, close to river to east, reputed to be good for jaundice cures (Lewis 1837, I, 360). Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I and 40; McKenna 1920, II, 51; surprisingly not included in Gwynn and Hadcock 1970.

188.

DERRYBRUSK parish, Fyagh townland. O.S. 27; H/277392.

Patron Senach the smith at 11 May in M.G., glossed: ‘son of Etchen, from Aired Brosca on Lough Erne’ and in M.D. Earlier forms of name include ‘Aireadh Seanaigh’ and ‘Aireadh’ (and ‘Aireach’) ‘Brosca’ (Lowry-Corry 1919, 39), Early history obscure. Medieval parish church. Incumbents include erenaghs (A.U. 1384 and 1487), and guest-house mentioned (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 349 and 379). Church disused by early seventeenth century and parish united with Derryvullan. Extensive ruin of late medieval church in roughly circular graveyard, diameter about 100 ft. Surrounded by earthen bank and in parts external ditch: possibly early ENCLOSURE. PLATE 90B: DERRYVULLAN – ROOF FINIAL.

SITE: under 200 ft, at foot of steep slope to west, and 400 ft south of south shore of Drumcullion Lough. Surroundings low and marshy but site itself dry.

Refs:

ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 90a and Fig. 72b) reset at head of modern grave, southwest of southwest corner of ruined church, 34 ft east of graveyard wall, Red sandstone slab, set upright but not in situ. 1 ft 5 ins high by 1 ft 2½ in wide and 5 ins thick, much chipped. East face dressed smooth, rather concave towards base, and lower part of north side dressed to curve (re-cut?). Cross on east face incomplete at top and lower left quadrant. Equal-armed cross in circle; ends of arms expanded; arm to right as now set less markedly expanded, perhaps originally lowest member. Outline cross and ring in false relief with background clearly pecked back about ½ in. Unpublished.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Mentioned as possible finial in Rogers 1967, 177. (See also Kiltierney and p. 148.)

Lowry-Corry loc. cit.; McKenna in U.J.A. 12 (1906), 125-8; Gwynn and Hadcock loc. cit. Stone head built into exterior east wall of church: Rogers 1967, 177.

189. DERRYVULLAN parish and townland at hamlet Tamlaght. O.S. 27; H/276404. Patron Tigernach, assumed to be of Clones (4 April). Obit of ‘Tigernach, founder of Daire-Meille, abbot of Cillachaidh’ in 810 (A.U.) seems to refer to Doiremelle 333

190.

DEVENISH island and parish. O.S. 22; H/224469.

Patron Lasrén or, more commonly, Molaise, died 564 or 571 (both A.U.). Late ‘Life’ survives, incorporating early material. Strong magical flavour, with particular emphasis on fire. Given site by king of Druim Clethchoir (unidentified). One miracle involved flagstone on which saint traveled overseas: ‘unde in huius miraculi indicium petra prefata in modum peluis facta, in ecclesia Daminensi usque in presens tempus manet’ (Plummer 1910, II, 137, and Kenney 1929, 387-9). Molaise listed at 12 September in all calendars: ‘Laissrén the beautiful, from multitudinous Daminis’ in M.O., also M.T., M.G. and M.D. Devenish appears frequently in annals, especially from ninth century onwards. In 837: ‘All the churches of Loch Erne, together with Cluain-Eois and Daimhinis, were destroyed by Gentiles’.

PLATES 90A: DERRYVULLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

In 869: ‘Martan, abbot of Clonmacnoise and Daiminis, a scribe ... fell asleep’ (A.U.); and 896: ‘Maelachidh, tanist of Cluain-mic-Nois, and abbot of Daimhinis, underwent martyrdom by the Delbhna’ (A.U.). Abbot of Devenish died in 921 (A.U.), and from 946 onwards titles erenagh and comarb appear frequently. [707] In 1157: ‘Daimh-inis with its churches was burned’ (A.U.), and 1176: ‘Domhnall son of Amhlaoibh Ó Maoil Ruanaidh, king of Fir Mhanach, was burned by his own kinsmen in the round tower of Daimhinis’ (M.I.A.). A.U, records later burning in 1360. No references in early sources either to Culdees or St. Mary’s Abbey, house of Augustinian Canons Regular. Both communities first mentioned in fifteenth century, but likely to go back to reforming periods in ninth and twelfth centuries (Radford 1970, passim). Culdee church was medieval parish church, transferred to Monea in seventeenth century. Site much used for parleys and courts in medieval and later times, and for burial until mid-eighteenth century (see foreground, Ledwich 1790, p1. XIII facing p. 183). FIG. 72B: DERRYVULLAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Site now in state care. In addition to material listed below are St. Mary’s Abbey, mainly fifteenth century, a late medieval cross (composite), several Anglo-Norman graveslabs, and thirteenth-century and later architectural fragments.

[706] iii) Possible BULLAUN. Wakeman (1870, 62) reported finding a hollowed stone, about forty years before, during drain-digging near well (see below). Kept in his time at cottage near graveyard gate, but I could not trace it. Wakeman gave measurements of stone 1 ft 9 ins by 1 ft 3 ins by 9 in, with upper surface hollowed out about 3 ins like a bowl. No illustration.

SITE (Fig. 66): Northeast-facing hill slope in south part of island, ¾ mile long, in lee of higher land to west. and southwest.

iv) St. Patrick’s WELL on hill slope south of graveyard, overlooking Drumcullion Lough. A spring, now frequented only by cows. Refs:

Site at about 200 ft. Very promising for excavation despite long use for burial, and work on large scale desirable.

Lowry-Corry, 1919, table I and 39; McKenna 1920, II, 18892.

334

projection. Jamb to south inclines but to north straight (partly rebuilt?). Walls stand to maximum height of 6 ft 3 ins (south) and minimum 3 ft (east). Faced with huge slabs (examples of size 3 ft 2 ins by 1 ft 9 ins, 4 ft 8 ins by 1 ft 8 ins, and 5 ft by 2 ft 5 ins). Stones well fitted with very narrow mortar joints. Some stones on north wall show clear diagonal tooling, probably chisel work. Quoins contrast strongly: of small, neat sandstone ashlar. No windows survive but John Frith’s drawing shows east and south windows (op. cit. below). Ledwich’s drawing (see below) shows door at east end! Many loose stones from roof kept in site museum, and possible from these to reconstruct form of roof (P1. 91b). Clearly steep pitch. Roof stones at gable dressed flat on upper and lower surfaces. On gable face projection 8 ins wide following roof line, standing out 3⅓ ins from face of gable. [709] This would run to meet pilasters at angles, presumably with carved capital at eaves. At sides roof stones cut to simulate overlapping tiles (drawings in McKenna and Bigger 1897, 23 and 25).

FIG. 66: DEVENISH – SITE PLAN.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURES (P1. 3). Wakeman (1874-5, 61-2) refers to enclosure 74 paces west of St. Mary’s Abbey, 52 paces in diameter, with bank averaging 18 ft wide at base (also 1870, 39). I could not trace an enclosure in this area to my satisfaction, though general area is very rough and surface uneven. Air photographs by Dr. St. Joseph (nos. QU 44-52) show extensive but not easily identifiable earthworks, especially north of Abbey (e.g. QU 44 and 49). Seem to be several small rectilinear enclosures with rounded angles, reminiscent of ‘Celtic fields’. [708] Also traces south of churches, No clear rath in area pinpointed by Wakeman. Air photograph published by Radford (1970, p1. 5) gives only impression, not clear picture of earthworks. ii)CHURCHES AND ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENTS. 1) St. Molaise’s House (Pl 91b and Pls 92a-b and Fig. 67) Northeast of round tower, west of ‘Teampull Mor’. Very small Romanesque church, externally 26 ft by 19 ft, internally 19 ft 3 ins by 10 ft 10 ins. Massive walls, side walls 3 ft 10 ins to 4 ft wide, gables 2 ft 11 ins to 3 ft 1 in. Neat external offset, 3 ins wide at sides 4 ins at gables. Irregular offset inside. Pilasters of very slight projection clasp the four angles. Bases decorated with sophisticated carving (acanthus, scrolls and beading to west, interlace on southeast angle) and bases of angle rolls survive. West door has square-sectioned architrave of very slight

PLATE 91B: DEVENISH – GABLE STONES OF ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (RECONSTRUCTED).

Sad history of decay of St. Molaise’s House can be traced in some detail. Roof intact in eighteenth century: appears in drawing in Ledwich’s ‘Antiquities’ (1790, p1. XIII facing p. 183). Account and detailed drawing of Devenish by John Frith, Philomath, of Enniskillen presented to Bishop of Clogher in 1808 shows roof intact, but he notes that more than half roof fell in 1803 storm after cut stone taken to Enniskillen for re-use. Colt Hoare visited Devenish in 1806 and described west door as roundheaded, and this can be seen in 1824 drawing by F. 335

Bésaucèle (in Getty 1856, facing p. 186) which also shows partly ruined roof sagging in ogee shape. Getty excavated inside the ‘House’ in 1844 (op. cit., 186-9) and reports bones found at west end.

PLATE 92A: DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (DETAIL OF NORTH WALL).

PLATE 92B: DEVENISH – ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE (DETAIL OF NORTH-WEST ANGLE).

Romanesque fragments. Among the loose and reset stones I was unable to find the east window of St. Molaise’s House described by McKenna and Bigger as small, splayed, round-headed, and made up of four cut stone voussoirs (1897, fig. on p. 23). Architectural fragments noted include (1) small window-head in sandstone, said to come from area of ‘House’. Round-headed, single stone, deeply splayed inside and rebated outside. (2) Decorated fragment, possibly capital, 6½ by 6½ by 10½ ins, built into west wall of ‘House’ near southwest corner. Decorated with figure-of-eight spirals, bound with pelleted bands, with interlace on the abacus (drawing in McKenna and Bigger 1897, 77, no. 3).

PLATE 3: DEVENISH – AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH FROM SOUTH EAST.

[710] (3) Sandstone capital of an attached column or pilaster, found during recent Ministry of Finance clearance, which I have seen only in Ministry photograph. Rounded outline below chevron-decorated necking of angular profile. Above necking part of stylised animal head (ox?) with traces of curly mane, large lentoid eyes, chevron-decorated snout, and open jaws bound by interlaced (cross-hatched or pelleted) bands; top of head square outline. Corresponds in style with work in situ in St. Molaise’s House but all in situ decoration is vegetable not animal.

FIG. 67: DEVENISH – PLAN OF ST. MOLAISE’S HOUSE. Refs:

Full treatment of St. Molaise’s House in McKenna and Bigger 1897, 22-27. Dating far too early, but useful drawings including roof stones; Lowry-Corry in J.R.S.A.I. 66 (1936), 270-84, detailed account with many illustrations; Leask 1955, 37-8 and 127.

(4) Sandstone fragment with zigzag decoration; may be voussoir from round-headed door but probably too large for ‘House’ door. Zigzags on one face cut away and continued in low relief on surface at 90º to this. Cross336

carved stone no. 1, described below, may be architectural fragment.

Fine window in south wall (Pl. 93a-b and Fig. 69b): tall, round-headed lancet, elaborately moulded inside and outside. Internally deeply splayed with sloping sill and continuous roll moulding flanked by deep hollows.

2) ‘Teampull Mór’ (Pls 91a, 93a-b, 94a and Fig. 68) (the ‘Great’, or ‘Lower’, ‘Church’).

[711] Externally opening surrounded by another continuous roll, and hollow chamfer into window. Drip moulding above head. Fig. 69b shows details of mouldings - note prominence of hooked, almost keeled, forms. Small solid square addition at southeast angle. Drawings (e.g. John Frith and Ledwich see above) suggest formerly east window of three tall lancets, and at least one other window in south wall. McKenna and Bigger 1897 give plan (p. 56) and claim 12 ft clearly added to original church at west end. I cannot detect any such addition.

PLATE 91A: DEVENISH – VIEW EAST FROM ROUND TOWER.

Most easterly building in the complex, closest to lough shore. Very long and narrow proportions, externally 86 ft 6 ins by 22 ft 10 ins, internally 80 ft by 17 ft 9 ins. General appearance of walls suggests roughly coursed sandstone and limestone rubble with many spalls, but on less exposed north wall, and at base of wall where recently cleared, some stones clearly are squared. At northwest and southwest angles three-quarter round attached shafts (P1. 94a), absent from east-end (recent excavation suggests original church extended eastwards). West door, featureless gap.

PLATE 93B: DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (INTERIOR VIEW).

FIG. 69B: DEVENISH – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS PLATE 93A: DEVENISH – TEAMPULL MOR – WINDOW IN SOUTH WALL (EXTERIOR VIEW).

337

at top at cardinal points. These vary a little in dimensions though wall thickness here uniformly 3 ft 2½ ins. All have slightly inclining jambs except south, and all are undecorated.

PLATE 94A: DEVENISH – SOUTHWEST ANGLE OF TEAMPULL MOR.

PLATE 95A: DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DOOR AND WINDOW.

At base of roof boldly projecting square-sectioned cornice with rolls top and bottom, masks over windows (Pl. 95b) and various motifs between comprising large pellets, small pellets, ‘S’-spirals and running spirals. This cornice decoration oddly jumbled, especially between north and west heads. It suggests some confusion, change of plan at time of building, or clumsy later restoration.

FIG. 68: DEVENISH – PLAN OF TEAMPULL MOR.

iii) ROUND TOWER (P1. 95a-b). Complete, though cap restored 1835, Board of Works repairs 1896, and recent re-pointing. General impression rather short and squat. Cross-section and full dimensions in Wakeman 1874-5, 65-6, and McKenna and Bigger 1897, 45 and 54. 81 ft 4¾ ins high, circumference 49 ft 9 ins, diameter at base externally 15 ft 6 ins, internally 8 ft 8 ins. Masonry externally very carefully worked sandstone, out to curve and batter. Coursed, but stones of variable size, so smaller stones used to make up courses. Frequent use of rebated ashlar, presumably for stability and to help in coursing. Chisel marks visible in places, e.g. diagonal tooling of window jambs at top of tower. Mortar joints one inch wide or less. One offset visible 13 ins above ground level, projecting 5 ins, but another reported below. Door sill 8 ft 6 ins above offset, facing east. Door (Pl. 95a) round-headed: head of three throughstone voussoirs. Jambs mostly through-stones. Stones beautifully cut and fitted. No mortar visible at all. Around door and continuously under sill very slightly projecting (½ in.) square-sectioned architrave, 6½ ins wide, 7½ ins at sill, undecorated. [712] Inner side of door badly damaged (by fire?): draw bar hole on right, hinge attachment and pivot hole in threshold slab on left.

PLATE 95B: DEVENISH ROUND TOWER – DETAIL OF CORNICE.

Part of roof and cornice fell in 1834 (O’Donovan ‘Letters’, 21 Oct. 1834 in O’Flanagan 1928, 23-4) and upper part of tower repaired in 1835. Was this restoration a clumsy piece of work? Getty (op. cit. below) claims excellent work, ‘stone by stone almost’. I have found no

Windows: with pointed head made of two stones over door to east, at third floor stage flat-headed to west, and fourth floor flat-headed to east. Four flat-headed windows 338

detailed record of cornice before 1834. Masks on cornice to south, east and west clearly male with interlaced beards and moustaches (east in excellent condition), but weathered head to north probably female (cornice drawn by Wakeman, 1874-5, 72). Conical roof stones flat-bedded at base and cut to slope. Apex is conical stone with moulded waist and socket in top for iron finial (illustrated in Wakeman 1874-5, 74, and cf. Antrim). Internally tower faced with limestone ashlar. Basement and five floors. Flooring ingeniously contrived by wall thickness at each stage increasing internally upwards, so providing ledge to support joists. [713] Offset at level of external cornice and roof hollow. Near top of first and second stages stone ‘hooks’, projections, high above supposed floor level.

PLATE 96A: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (1).

2) (Pl. 96b and Fig. 73). Irregular rectangular slab of coarse sandstone, 1 ft 11 ins high, 1 ft 1 in. wide, and 3 to 6 ins thick. Front dressed but back very rough indeed. Near centre of stone equal-armed cross with ends of arms expanded and centre slightly expanded. Roughly worked: pecked. Unknown provenance; now in stoneyard at museum. Unpublished.

Base of tower excavated by Getty in 1844: he found ‘lime floor’ at level of second base offset, second ‘floor’ deeper, and no further features to bottom of foundation (Getty 1856, passim). iv) CROSS-CARVED STONES (P1. 96a-c and Fig. 73).

FIG. 73: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONES.

PLATE 96B: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2).

1) (Pl. 96a) Slab recently found; reported to come from near south wall of St. Molaise’s House. Rectangular sandstone slab, badly chipped, 1 ft 5 ins long by 1 ft 1½ ins and 2½ ins to 3½ ins thick. Cross of arcs in circle in false relief, ½ in. above ground. Circle also in false relief and two surviving angles (‘spandrels’) outside circle hollowed out. Sophisticated work. Sides of stone where intact are dressed straight and back shows rough pecking marks. Perhaps to be set in a building. Unpublished.

3) Oval stone with constricted base, 1 ft 3 ins high and 8 ins wide. Latin cross in relief, very rectilinear outline, the four members separated with small square at crossing. McKenna and Bigger report it was thought of as an altar stone, wrongly, in their opinion. Present whereabouts unknown. Refs:

339

McKenna and Bigger 1897, fig. on p. 77; Crawford 1912, 226, b, listed as in lower graveyard (Fig. 73).

4) Circular stone with broken base, 1 ft 6 ins high and 1 ft 1 in. wide.

7) (Pl. 133b). In upper graveyard, south of St. Mary’s Abbey church. Rough stone, little worked except perhaps lower part thinned to suggest cross shaft. Surfaces uneven and chipped. 2 ft high, 10 to 13½ ins wide and 3 to 7 ins thick. On east face rough linear cross, single deep incision of V-section, shaft 7½ ins high and 4½ ins across arms. Not certainly early: may be quite recent.

[714] Cross in circle; cross appears to be made up of double lines, interlaced, but no detail of technique available. Present whereabouts unknown. McKenna and Bigger 1897, fig. on p. 77; Crawford 1912, 226, a, again listed as in lower graveyard. (Fig. 73). 5) Drawn by Wakeman and listed by Crawford as in lower cemetery, but I have been unable to find it on several occasions. Lower part only of rectangular slab, reported 1 ft 10 ins wide and surviving height 1 ft 1 in. Two panels, defined by edge and centre flat mouldings, with fine single-strand interlace in panels. I am not entirely satisfied from the drawing that the stone is preNorman and would very much like to see it. Refs: 73).

Wakeman 1874-5, 83, fig. 19; Crawford 1912, 226, d. (Fig.

6) (Pl. 96c and Fig. 73). Recumbent stone in lower graveyard close to east wall of cemetery, southeast of Teampull Mór (tends to get encroached on by grass). Large rectangular slab of sandstone, 5 ft long, 1 ft 10 ins wide, uncertain depth. Carefully worked rectangular outline. Incised doublearmed cross of three lines with circular expansions at intersections, semi-circular at ends of arms and shaft, and circle at base, all within rectangular frame. The lines of cross and frame define six rectangular panels with chamfered corners.

PLATE 133B: DEVENISH - LATE CROSS-CARVED STONE.

[715] Not previously mentioned. A cross-carved stone now in St. Mary’s Abbey comes from Drumgay Lough and is described below (under Drumgay), but it has been suggested that it originally was at Devenish. v) BULLAUN (P1. 94b).

PLATE 94B: DEVENISH – BULLAUN STONE.

Holed, double-sided bullaun, kept in chapel south of Teampull Mór and certainly not in situ. Roughly square stone, 2 ft square and 7 to 10 ins high. No working apart from hollows. Depression in top (as now set) 1 ft 2 ins northwest-southeast by 1 ft and 7 ins deep, asymmetrical, with steeper slopes to south. Irregular oval hole 4½ ins by 3 ins through north slope. I was unable to turn the stone, but clearly another depression on under surface. McKenna and Bigger observed (1897, 79): ‘This Devenish stone may have been used in the celebration of Druidical mysteries before Molaise discovered the island.

PLATE 96C: DEVENISH – CROSS-CARVED STONE (6). Refs:

Wakeman 1874-5, 83, fig. 15; McKenna and Bigger 1897, 82; Crawford 1912, 226, c.

340

The local guide will tell you that it is part of a quern used by the monastery in grinding corn, but it is no such thing.’ Refs:

‘+ ŌR DO [CEN] FÁILUD DO CHOMARBU MOLASI LASAN [DERNAD] IN CŪTACHSA DO [...] IMLAN + 7 DO GILLA BIATHΙN CHERD DO RIGNI Í GRESA’ (‘A prayer for Cenfaelad the successor of Molaisi, under whose auspices this shrine was made for [...]. and for Gilla-Biathin the wright, who made this handiwork’, following Macalister 1949, 124).

Mentioned by Wakeman (1870, 39) and illustrated as a holestone in Wakeman 1874-5, 83, fig. 20; McKenna and Bigger 1897, 79.

vi) HOLY WELL. In Wakeman’s time hardly a trace left of well and no-one remembered stations there, but in John Frith’s 1808 description accompanying his painting well described as 100 yards north of Abbey, with thorn tree beside it. Wakeman (1874-5, 89) prints letter from John Frith (1808): ‘in [the well] people with sore eyes and back-going children wash for a cure, making what they call a station.’ O.S. marks site of well, but no trace now.

Cenfaelad was abbot of Devenish from 1001 to 1025 (A.U.). This inscription sometimes taken to date shrine as a whole, but in present form clearly remodeling of an earlier shrine. Used for swearing as late as 1840. Kept for many generations by hereditary keepers, O’Meehan family, at Ballaghameehan (Co. Leitrim. Bought from family by R.I.A. in 1859 and now in N.M.D.. no. R 4006.

vii) ST. MOLAISE’S BED also mentioned by Frith and marked by O.S., described by Wakeman as a little north of St. Molaise’s House near Teampull Mór, and consisting of small rectilinear earthwork around stone coffin (probably medieval coffin now in Teampull Mór).

‘St. Molaise’s Well’ is at Ballaghameehan (Steele 1937, 16).

Cooladonnel

near

Main refs: Stokes, M., ‘Observations on the Breac Moedog and the Soiscel Molaise’ in Arch. 43 (1871), 131-150; Coffey 1909, 44-5; Crawford 1923, 154; Mahr 1932, p1. 57 and 58 (all sides); Raftery 1941, 119-121; Macalister 1949, 124; Henry 1967, 120, pls 58-9.

[716] McKenna and Bigger (1897, 29) report excavation of ‘Bed’ in 1896 and give its position as 10 yards northwest from door of ‘House’. Loose roofing stones from St. Molaise’s House found and they suggest nineteenth-century date for ‘Bed’, but ‘Bed’ of some kind known to John Frith in 1808.

ix) BELL. Rogers 1967, 55, mentions and gives drawing of ‘hand bell from Devenish island, now in N.M.I.’ I did not see this in Dublin. Illustration suggests cast bronze bell with complex handle, broken but probably originally with two lobes for carrying. No further details available and date quite unknown. Molaise’s ‘Life’ refers to his bell, sent from heaven and kept at Devenish (Kenney 1929, 388). Only reference I have come across is Roger loc. cit. above.

viii) SOISCÉL MOLAISE. Shrine believed to have been made for copy of Gospels belonging to St. Molaise, but now empty. Rectangular box, 5¼ by 3⅛ by 4½ ins, of five bronze plates (top missing). Edges bound with silver strips and bronze plates covered with openwork silver plates.

x) QUERNS. Rogers (op. cit., 44) mentions ‘a fine millstone inscribed with a cross, the head of which inclines to the west’ from Devenish now at Ballinamallard. Not illustrated, and I did not pursue this.

Front: ringed cross with four panels showing symbols of evangelists each flanked by name of evangelist and symbol in Irish. Other panels which survive decorated with loose interlace in coarse gold filigree and cabochon settings for (originally) five carbuncles.

[718] There are at least four quern fragments amongst loose stones at site museum.

Back: diaper pattern of openwork crosses, squares, ‘L’s and ‘T’s cut through silver revealing very varied patterns worked in bronze plate beneath. This panel is within rectangular frame, lightly cut, on which are indicated circles, apparently marking position of rivets but never pierced. Corners of rectangle occupied by pointed ovals set diagonally, with fragment of ring chain in two and faces in other two. Sides have panels of carefully worked, tight, fleshy interlace, much of it zoomorphic, and one panel of ecclesiastic with forked beard, cape, hemmed robe, carrying book and short staff. Hinges on sides, one original, one replaced, and small ring for suspension. Hinge plate decorated with animal head, settings for stones and panels of red champlevè enamel.

For the ‘Lough Erne Shrine’ see Tully.

[717] Base: larger panels missing (figures?), smaller panels with interlace similar to sides, and frame with long Irish inscription:

Refs:

O.S. Memoirs, Fermanagh XIII include John Frith’s painting and description; Getty 1856, 178-91, including excavation account; Reeves 1864, 22-24, on Culdees; Wakeman 1874-5; McKenna and Bigger 1897, dating unsound but much useful detail; Kenney 1929, 387-9; P.S. 1940, 161, and 160 for standing stone in Tullydevenish townland where coffins rested en route for Devenish; CR. I, 3 (1955), 133, account of Devenish in 1718-9 by John Dolan, including description of St. Molaise’s House ‘of great strength and cunning workmanship that may seem to stand for ever’; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 33, 169, 362; Radford 1970.

191.

DONAGH townland, Drumully parish. O.S. 34; 11/398299.

Medieval chapel, known in 1609 as ‘Donaghmoyline’. ‘Donagh’ element suggests Patrician, or at least Armagh, connections, and erenaghs indicate pre-Norman 341

foundation (Clogher Record 1, no. 3 (1955), 141, O’Dunain family erenaghs). In C.R. 2, no. 2 (1958), 290, among list of Fermanagh churches in early eighteenth-century history of Fermanagh: ‘Killtiernaigh church and the two chapels of Domhnaugh and Glanumha were also consecrated by St. Tyernagh.’ If this is Fermanagh Donagh, and not Monaghan (parish church not chapel), later Clones connection indicated. History otherwise obscure, and no local Patrician traditions. Polygonal graveyard probably on early site. SITE: prominent rocky promontory, over 200 ft, with cliff to west and river to north and west.

PLATE 99B: DONAGH –WINDOW HEAD.

MATERIAL: Fragments of east and south walls of CHURCH densely overgrown and little visible. ‘O.S. Memoir’ of 1835 gives more detail. Church seemed to measure 52 ft by 26 ft, with side walls 2 ft 8 ins and gables 3 ft 2 ins thick. Part of east gable and southwest angle standing in 1835, with part of window in east gable and loose window head in north part of graveyard.

Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I, 40; P.S. 1940, 181.

192.

Drumbrughas townland, Clones parish. O.S. 35; 11/496327

SITE: over 300 ft, on south-facing hill slope, on south slopes of Slieve Beagh range. MATERIAL: CROSS (P1. 103b and Fig. 85b). Red sandstone, set in north hedge of narrow lane, now little used, but apparently formerly important route from Clones area to north across Slieve Beagh. Set facing east and west, but west face deep in hedge and difficult to see. Cross is single stone. Height of 4 ft visible. Shaft almost squaresectioned, 9 ins wide, 1 ft 6 ins across arms, and 8 ins thick.

[719] Some called the site a friary, but the writer (Durnford) could find no reason for this. He appended sketches with detailed measurements of headless window (now disappeared) and WINDOW HEAD now lying 40 ft south-southeast of gate to graveyard. Massive piece of red sandstone, head of narrow roundtopped window, internally deeply splayed, externally rebated and chamfered (like 1835 drawing of window opening). Opening about 5 ins across externally; internally very chipped but about 1 ft 9 ins wide at base. Carefully worked except top which is rough (Pl. 99b and Fig. 69a).

PLATE 103B: DRUMBRUGHAS – ROUGH CROSS (LEFT) & FIG. 85B: DRUMBRUAGHAS – ROUGH CROSS (RIGHT).

Arms stubby, tending to triangular outline. Rough workmanship, especially lower shaft on east side. No decoration visible, but surface badly obscured by lichen. Very crudely cut date on east side just below arms. I read this as 1734 (D’Arcy, op. cit. below, 1717) but very

FIG 69A: DONAGH – ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS

342

difficult to see. In poor condition, chipped, with heavy lichen, and leaning considerably eastwards.

the same. Early history obscure. Not listed in 1306 Taxation, but appears to have been a parish. Erenagh family Ó Gabhann (Livingstone 1969, 41-2). Featureless badly ruined church in polygonal graveyard which has markedly circular raised nuclear area. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ gives description of ruin and records site called by many a monastery, said to have been appended to Galloon.

[720] I have discovered no ecclesiastical associations but D’Arcy records local tradition funerals stopped at cross. Refs:

Brief, un-illustrated account by D’Arcy, S.A., in J.R.S.A.I. 59 (1929), 176; mentioned in P.S. 1940, 181.

193.

Drumgay Lough, Conerick townland, formerly Devenish (now Trory) parish. O.S. 22; area of H/238475.

SITE: commanding hilltop, over 200 ft. NO EARLY MATERIAL, but McKenna mentions a HOLY WELL in the parish.

Two items associated with area, but no ecclesiastical site known in immediate vicinity. i) CROSS-CARVED STONE. Now set high on south wall of St. Mary’s church, Devenish, under tower. Wakeman reported its finding during excavation of three crannogs in Drumgay Lough. It came from crannog near north shore of lough. No further details of its finding. McKenna and Bigger 1931, 84, state (no authority given) that stone carried away from Devenish ‘seventy years ago’ and left on Drumgay crannog. Later in an Enniskillen barber’s shop, and finally taken to Devenish. Difficult to know what to make of this. Red sandstone slab. Circular head (damaged on left side) on short stem. Crawford’s dimensions 2 ft high, 1 ft 4 ins wide and 3 ins thick. Decoration all in false relief. At centre equal-armed cross of double lines. In opposing quadrants of circle pairs of faces and spiral motifs, surrounded by circular frame with chevron decoration. Stem undecorated. Refs:

Refs:

(Éo-Inis, see WHITE ISLAND and p. 62.) [722] 195. Friars’ Island, Aghalurcher parish. O.S. 34; H/332309. Name suggests ecclesiastical site, but original name unknown and history of site obscure. Moran who edited Archdall’s ‘Monasticon Hibernicum’ wrote of the island ‘on which there were ruins within present memory, but which have now disappeared’ (1876, 161, note 8). Small island largely taken up by earthworks. Dr. St. Joseph’s photograph QT 96 shows polygonal, somewhat D-shaped banked enclosure with traces of outer enclosure, probably attached rather than concentric. Is this a secular or ecclesiastical complex? Mrs. Rogers reports no material visible (personal communication). Excavation feasible. I did not visit the island.

Wakeman, W.F., in J.R.S.A.I. 11 (1870), 232-5: ‘Remarks upon three hitherto unnoticed crannogs in Drumgay Lough, near Enniskillen’, drawing p. 234 and again p. 313; Crawford 1912, 227, no, 5; D.C.H.S. 3 (1930), photograph facing p. 55; good photograph in P.S. 1940, p1. 38.

ii) BULLAUNS. 1) Wakeman (1874-5 A, 461-3) describes bullaun near west shore of Lough. [721] Red sandstone, 6 ft by 10 ft, with hole diameter 1 ft 4 ins and 8 ins deep. Within the hollow small plain Latin cross, shaft 3 ins long, 2½ ins across arms. Drawing p. 461, fig. 15. Lowry-Corry in P.S. 1940, 160, claims Wakeman’s dimensions entirely wrong, and gives stone as 3 ft 6 ins by 2 ft 9 ins, 1 ft 7 ins high, with hollow 11 by 9 ins and 6 ins deep ‘in which is a roughly inscribed cross’. Hardly sounds like the same stone.

Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II, 41.

196.

GALLOON island and parish. O.S. 42; H/391226.

Founded by Tigernach of Clones (died 549-50, A.U.). Latin ‘Life of Tigernach’ (‘late, but has some appearance of being based on authentic traditions’, Kenney 1929, 387) refers to foundation of Galloon: ‘Cum ad locum promissum perveniret Gaballinense monasterium ibi construxit ...’ (Plummer 1910, II, 267). Patron of church was his successor, Colman ‘of Gabal Liun’ at 28 July in M.T., but Comgall in M.G. at 28 July ‘of the lake’s head [glossed] of Gobul Lìuin in Dartraige Coninse’, and M.D.

2) Wakeman mentions second bullaun at Gortalough on north side of Drumgay Laugh, almost buried in an earthen mound and still frequented. Red sandstone, with hollow diameter 1 ft 3 ins and 11 ins deep. Wakeman, op. cit., 466, fig. 19 (printed upside-down!). I did not locate or visit either of these stones. 194.

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; McKenna 1920, II, 115-6; stone heads described in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 43, probably later medieval.

Early history otherwise obscure, but large, important medieval parish (plebania) with erenaghs. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ reported local tradition of link with Drummully: milk and butter sent on flagstone from Drummully to Galloon on River Finn at 9.00 each morning, and flag sent back after noon. Church with tower shown in 1609 map, but ruined by 1622.

DRUMMULLY parish and townland. O.S. 43; H/442201.

[723] Very neglected graveyard reported by O.S. formerly to have been larger (burials in adjoining fields). Church site traceable but very overgrown.

Patron Mochomma ‘of Druim Aliche’ at 4 January in M.T., M.G. and M.D. Medieval patron Coeman, probably 343

SITE: under 200 ft, on east-facing hill slope, very close to shore in south part; of large island. Burials would make excavation difficult, but site would repay thorough clearance.

with, below, small bosses and double-strand interlace, weathered but still visible. North side (P1. 97a): carving in quite high relief and reasonably well preserved. At base two figures with legs crossed, embracing or struggling. Above two animals in profile, lower apparently longer snout than upper, then trumpeter and another figure. Likely interpretations: Return of Prodigal Son and Last Judgment (with sheep and goat?). West side: three groups of figures, but not separated by mouldings. Bottom four figures (Adoration of Magi Lowry-Carry), then three figures clearly Baptism, John with arm raised, and top bird feeding circular loaf to Paul and Anthony. Collar above broken away. East side: Sacrifice of Isaac; two very worn big bosses (or interlaced knots); three figures, central one with arms held up by flanking figures who hold staffs (Moses, Aaron and Hur); four big interlaced bosses linked with single strand interlace. This side again treated as single panel.

MATERIAL: i) ARCHECTURAL FRAGMENTS. Many loose stones in graveyard, including ashlar. One cusped moulding clearly late medieval, but some fragments probably Romanesque.

Macalister read, diffidently, ‘MAEL CHIARAIN’ at base of shaft on south side (Lowry-Corry 1934 and Macalister 1949, 122, p1. xxxvi). Impossible to check this claim in present condition. Socket in top of shaft 5½ ins deep. PLATE 99A: GALLOON – WINDOW HEAD.

1) Window head (P1. 99a): single stone 1 ft high and 1 ft thick worked into rounded head of narrow window. Internally splayed from 9 ins diameter at outer opening to 1 ft 4 ½ ins. Externally rebated. Sandstone. Lying loose near West Cross. 2) Window sill, single stone, 2 ft 5 ins wide and 1 ft 2 ins thick. Internal opening 10 ½ ins wide splayed out and down to 2 ft. Externally stone cut back round opening then chamfered. This treatment different from window head and the two pieces unlikely to come from same window: the sill may be later. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ reported three parallel walls running east-west and tradition that church had double roofs (an aisle?). Stones said to be built into nearby cottage but none now visible. ii) CROSSES, all with figure carving and all of sandstone. Two shafts with bases, parts of two cross heads and one ring fragment. Little known until Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry’s paper in 1934: ‘perhaps the least known of the sculptured crosses of Ireland’ (165), and still less visited than most. All in poor condition: damp, with heavy lichen, and far less easily visible than in 1934. 1) East Cross shaft 4 ft 1 in. high, with base 5 ft 3 ½ ins. Base plain with shallow step. Shaft 1 ft 1 in. by 9 ins.

PLATE 97A: GALLOON – EAST CROSS (NORTH SIDE).

2) West Cross: at top of slope, leaning badly. Shaft 4 ft 4 ins high and overall height with base 6 ft ¾in. Large undecorated base of truncated pyramid form with wellmarked step. Shaft 1 ft by 8 ins at bottom and 1 ft 1½ ins by 10 ins at top. No edge mouldings and no division into panels.

[724] At base of shaft slightly projecting undecorated ‘collar’ 6½ ins high into which angle roll mouldings die. North and south sides of shaft treated as single long rectangular panels defined by inner fillet which turns through 90º at top to complete the panel.

[725] Figures in quite high relief, but much lichen and badly weathered.

South side: at top of shaft in high relief crouching beast with head downwards and four legs slightly splayed, 344

East side (P1. 97b): bottom three figures, centre facing front, flanking figures in profile with arms raised (various interpretations: Moses, Aaron and Hur, Temptation of St Anthony, Arrest of Christ); figure with arms outstretched between four beasts (Daniel); Adam and Eve and tree with three palm-like branches. West side: bottom, three figures (Children in Fiery Furnace?); clear Sacrifice of Isaac; panel above very unclear: ark suggested but uncertain.

4) Cross-Head (P1. 98a-b) re-used as gravestone set eastwest about half way up slope to south of centre of cemetery. [726] Visible height 2 ft 4 ins, maximum width across (broken) arms 1 ft 2 ins, minimum width at construction 7 ins, and 8 ins thick.

PLATE 98B: GALLOON – BROKEN CROSS HEAD (EAST SIDE).

PLATE 97B: GALLOON – WEST CROSS (EAST SIDE).

North side: slight trace of angle roll. Base six bosses or spirals; crouching animal, head downwards; two affronted figures, or zoomorphic figures? South side: very unclear indeed. I could not make out any scenes with confidence, Lowry-Corry suggests Jacob wrestling with angel, two figures, and David breaking the lion’s jaws. Macalister, again with difficulty, read ‘DUBL/ITIR’ near base of shaft on this side. At top of shaft rather heavy collar defined by raised band with traces of decoration (bosses on east side where partly broken away). Socket 8½ ins deep.

PLATE 98A: GALLOON – BROKEN CROSS HEAD (WEST SIDE).

West side: large figure 1 ft 11 ins tall in short robe. Long face with pointed chin or beard. Arms not clearly traceable. Large lump on either side of figure. East side: robed figure about 1 ft 7 ins high, feet turned out and arms outstretched. Trace of figure below arm on each side and piercing implement, surely Crucifixion. No clear, regular edge moulding, but slight trace around hollowing of arms.

3) Cross-Head fragment loose near West Cross: part of centre, one arm and part of ring. Lowry-Corry suggests originally about 3 ft 6 ins across arms. One side centre Crucifixion, sponge- and lance-bearers visible, Christ wears tunic, and on arm small bosses and three figures (Arrest?); other side, centre figure with arms outstretched between two animals (Daniel), traces of bosses above and below, and bosses and two figures on arm. Another figure on end of arm. Narrow roll moulding on edges. Unlikely to be head of West Cross as Daniel appears on its shaft.

Refs:

345

Listed by Davies, O., in U.J.A. 4 (1941), no. 4, but very inadequate description; mentioned in Rogers 1967, 93. Not previously illustrated.

5) Fragment of ring. I could not find this on two occasions, but at neither time was vegetation helpful. Details from Lowry-Corry: sunken rectangular panel with knots of thick interlace and border with interlace. Possible traces of decoration also on edge of ring.

It was a landmark for sealing bargains. Used as gravemarker in churchyard until 1943 when moved to present position, thought to be original position. Not previously illustrated.

iii) HOLY WELL. McKenna 1920, II, 133, mentions holy well on the island, traditionally linked with well at Drummully and reputed to turn hair grey. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ reported difficulty in tracing it: at first no-one could provide information, but later some people found who remembered it. Several wells in area had been filled up before 1835.’ O.S. Memoir’ by Lt. Durnford very useful. In addition to information above, it includes careful drawing with measurements of West Cross and loose cross-head, and reference to carved stone in gable end of nearby house (not now visible). Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table 1 McKenna 1920, II, 117-121; Cole, F.J., in I.N.J. 2 (1928-9S, 127-8; Lowry-Corry 1934, very full treatment with all measurements and good photographic cover; Sexton 1946, 156-9, merely summarises Lowry-Corry 1934; Macalister 1949, 122 and p1. XXXVI for inscriptions; P.S. 1940, 183-4. Surprisingly absent from Gwynn and Hadcock 1970. Hogan suggests ‘Cluain Mind’ may be Clonmin in Galloon parish. Lasse virgin of Cluain Mind in M.T. at 19 April, also M.G. and M.D. but not certain and no site pinpointed. Hogan also suggests ‘Tatmach Buada’ may be ‘Tonnaboy’ townland in Galloon parish: ‘Seven bishops of Tamnach’ at 21 July in M.T. glossed ‘i.e. Tamnach Buada’, also M.D. Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 405. No site identified. PLATE 100A: HOLYWELL – ROUGH CROSS.

[727] 197. Holywell or Templerushin, Rushin and Cavancarragh townlands, Cleenish parish. O.S. 25; H/075396.

[728] ii) BULLAUN and other stones.

Strong traditions but no recorded history. Ruined medieval church in oval graveyard. McKenna (1920, II, 297-300) dated church to ninth or early tenth century, but Lowry-Corry (op. cit. below) not before thirteenth. Is probably late medieval. SITE: about 200 ft, on south slope down to lough shore, where valley of Lurgan River opens out from Belmore Mountain to Lough MacNean Upper. MATERIAL: none of it certainly pre-Norman. i) CROSS (P1. 100a) set in large, unshaped boulder on south side of road at east side of bridge, east of church site. Junction of cross and boulder obscured by cement. Cross set facing north and south. Single stone, sandstone, 2 ft 6 ins high, shaft 7 ½ins wide, 1 ft 3 ½ ins across arms and 6 ½ ins thick. Very angular section, and general impression stubby and square. Shaft above arms projects only 2 ½ ins and is 8 ¼ ins wide.

PLATE 100B: HOLYWELL – BULLAUN STONE.

Bullaun (P1. 100b) East of southeast corner of ruined church in large, earthfast boulder, at least 5 ft 3 ins southeast-northwest, by 2 ft 8 ins. Hollow diameter 10 ½ ins, maximum depth 4 ins to southeast of true centre. Other stones near graveyard visited during stations. These include huge, unshaped boulder east of mill-leet and graveyard, with two hollows in surface - to south (6 ins diameter and 1½ ins deep); and to north (about 7 ins and 1 in.) Resemble cupmarks rather than bullauns. Said to be St. Patrick’s knee prints (‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’).

Not an early cross form: certainly post-Norman and probably post-medieval. According to ‘Viator’ in C.R. 2, no. 1 (1957), 138, it has no ecclesiastical associations and is not visited during stations.

346

Another boulder north of church, just outside graveyard wa11, has two incipient hollows. In C.R. 2, no. 1 (1957), 38-9, is account of stones and stations which include turning stones in the hollows.

head) and two cusped, decorated ogee window heads. No trace or record of original head. Four low ‘pillar-stones’ at corners of base with small sinkings in top, certainly for modern railing round shaft.

iii) HOLY WELL northeast of graveyard. Spring, known as ‘Davagh Phadric’, still much frequented. Stations there on last day in July mentioned in ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’. Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II and ‘Holywell Church, near Lough Macnean in J.R.S.A.I. 65 (1935), 223-30, mainly about ruined church.

198.

INISHKEEN island and parish. O.S. 27; H/247413.

Problems of identification arise: there are several Inishkeen church sites (e.g. Co. Louth), so if written sources give no further details of area, impossible to be sure. Thus association of Mochoemoc with this Inishkeen not supported in earliest sources (gloss to 13 April in M.O., M.T., M.G. and M.D.) though claimed by Colgan and repeated by later writers, most recently Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 37). But identification with Fergus seems well attested, at 29 March in M.G. (glossed: [729] ‘son of Enna from Inis Cáin on Loch Erne’) and in M.D. Is this same Fergus glossed ‘of Inis Inesclainn on Loch Erne’ in M.G. at 10 November and in M.D.? Medieval parish church. Erenaghs mentioned in fourteenth and fifteenth century annals. Ruined church in damp, neglected graveyard.

PLATE 101A: INISHKEEN – CROSS-BASE WITH BULLAUNS.

[730] Other crosses ‘O.S. Memoir’ mentions another base stone in southeast corner of graveyard with mortice hole about 7½ ins deep. Socket filled with water, believed to be infallible cure for tooth-ache.

No sign of Wakeman’s claimed ‘lis’ round graveyard (1874-5A.469-70). Much ashlar in and around church including mouldings, but I saw nothing certainly prethirteenth century, mostly fifteenth. Lowry-Corry (1919, 39) reports at its west-end foundations of square building, thought to have been tower. Church area would repay careful clearance.

Small pillar at another corner (not specified which) led Lt. Chaytor to suggest formerly cross at each corner of cemetery. Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry (J.S.P.M.D. 10 (1917), 55) reported cross base to south of church still there, with socket 13 ins by 8½ ins and 6 to 7 ins deep. Said to have been another cross north of church. I did not know these references at time of visit and did not see this base.

SITE: under 200 ft, on gentle east-facing hill slope in northeast part of island, close to shore. O.S. mark two raths on island.

ii) PILLAR STONE Southwest of cross. Stands 3 ft 1 in. high, 1 ft 1 to 2 ins wide and 7 ins thick. Top broken but lower part neatly worked to rectangular section with traces of angle mouldings. East side (P1. 101b) from broken top runs ‘stem’ in high relief leading to open circle. Below this, in very different technique (shallow pecking), probably face, but in poor conditions I was unable to satisfy myself as to its details. Small cup-mark near base of shaft. West side two large fleur-de-lis motifs, fairly lightly pecked, and near base small equal-armed cross, 5 ins across, formed by pecking outline of four circles. South side 1 ft 10 ins above base projection begins, extending for 2 ¼ ins, then broken.

MATERIAL: i) CROSS SHAFT AND BASE East of ruined church. Base (Pl. 101a) stands 6 to 12 ins above ground and is trapezoidal with bowed sides and rounded corners. Sides measure – north: 2 ft 3 ins; east: 2 ft 7 ins; south: 1 ft 11 ins; and west: 2 ft 6 ins. Bullauns in surface described below (iii). Shaft stands 3 ft 10 ins high to (modern) head and 1 ft 2 ins by 8 ins. Rectangular, angular outline with no angle mouldings. West face plain, but north side clear horizontal line and vertical line on right giving impression of rectangular panel, perhaps unfinished. Corresponding horizontal line on east side with another parallel to it 11 ins higher, but no linking vertical lines. ‘Head’ of cross is recent agglomeration of moulded rectangular window sill (or

Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry, op. cit. above, 55-6, gives good description (maximum height 48 ½ ins) and illustrates rubbing of east and west sides on fig. facing p. 347

55. Mrs. Rogers (1967, 107-8) gives photograph of east side and not very accurate drawing of west side.

Ruined church and long disused graveyard, now in care of Ministry of Finance. SITE: under 200 ft, in flat, rather damp ground near southeast point of island, close to shore. Very promising for excavation. MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE (Fig. 65b) of mixed stones and earth mentioned by Wakeman (1870, 79) and McKenna (op. cit. below, 1904, ii). Still clear to east and west of church, and seems to continue all round, though obscured by dense scrub to north and south 145 ft east of church, on way to quay, part of enclosure cleared (seen 1971). [Word missing] of large stones, 9 ft wide, standing 2 ft high. Elsewhere more spread and grass-grown. Clear about 60 ft south of church where 11 ft wide. 80 ft west of church is 12 ft wide. [732] Short stretch of bank visible 65 ft north of church, 12 ft wide, but to east disappears in scrub and to west complicated by bank from north running south and ending 20 ft from northwest angle of church. Fig. 65c offers only rough sketch plan. 30 ft west of northwest part of this enclosure is embanked area, nearly square, 65 to 75 ft, with banks 10 ft wide, maximum 3 ft high. Gap 5 ft wide just south of centre of west side. Area would repay clearance and careful planning.

PLATE 101B: INISHKEEN – CARVED STONE.

iii) BULLAUNS (P1. 101a). Four oval sinkings, eccentrically placed in upper surface of cross-base. Bestdefined hole is south of centre of west side, 9 ½ ins northsouth by 7 ins and 2 ½ ins deep. Near northwest corner hole less clear, about 7 ins northeast-southwest, by 5½ ins and 1½ ins deep. [731] Near southeast corner about 7 ½ ins northwestsoutheast, by 7 ins and 2 ins deep. Near northeast corner 8 ins north-south by 6 ½ ins and 2 ins deep. Wakeman’s drawing (1874-5 A, 469) gives far too regular and symmetrical impression, as does drawing in U.J.A. 3 (1897), 173. Refs:

Wakeman 1874-3 A, 469-70, over-enthusiastic and uncritical account: church or seventh century, ‘lis’, ‘several fragments of early crosses’; Lord Belmore in U.J.A. 2 (1896), 234-6; Lowry-Corry useful account in J.S.P.M.D. 10 (1917), 54-6; Lowry-Corry 1919, table I and 40; McKenna 1920, II, 180186; Rogers 1967, 105-9. FIG. 65B: INISHMACSAINT – SITE PLAN.

There is no good, full account of this site. It badly needs careful clearance and detailed study. 199.

ii) CHURCH (P1. 102a and Fig. 70). Welch photograph (no. 1813) shows church very overgrown. Restoration work probably 1920s, certainly 1958 and recently further re-pointing and clearance. Opinions have varied on date of church: Wakeman (rightly) thought it showed early characteristics, but also evidence of considerable remodeling (1870, 79); McKenna (unusually cautiously) thought not earlier than fourteenth or fifteenth century (1904, ii); P.S. 1940 (153) suggested late thirteenth or fourteenth, and A.M.S.C. 1962 (iii) eleventh or twelfth

INISHMACSAINT island and parish. O.S. 15; H/165541.

Founded by Ninnid, important sixth-century founding saint. Gloss at 18 January in M.O.: ‘Ninnid of Inis Maige Saim on Loch Erne’, also in M.T., M.G. (at 16 January) and M.D. In 718: ‘Finnamail, descendant of Boghaine, son of Finn, abbot of Inis-Maighe-Samh... slain’ (A.U.). Medieval parish church, in use until eighteenth century. 348

century. Ministry of Finance pamphlet, ‘Guide to Monastic Sites in Lower Lough Erne’ (1970), most recent suggested sequence: small original church west-end, extended eastwards probably c. 1200, with later alterations. No detailed study and no published plan.

Overall length externally 67 ft, internally 60 ft. northeast and southeast quoins neatly squared ashlar. East wall very irregular, leaning eastwards. In south wall near east-end single lancet with pointed, cusped head, internally deeply splayed and jambs externally chamfered. In present form probably fifteenth-century, but three of interior jambs on west have three-quarter round attached shafts, clearly earlier. Small undecorated aumbries in south wall near southeast angle and north wall. Outline of church extremely irregular: my plan probably suggests too much regularity. Excavation might reveal line of earlier east wall.

PLATE 102A: INISHMACSAINT – WEST WALL OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR).

PLATE 102B: INISHMACSAINT – SOCKET STONE.

iii) SOCKET STONE (Pl. 102b). Built into interior south wall close to east of door. Neatly dressed squared slab of sandstone 3 ft 2 ins long, 2 ft 5 ins high and unknown depth (more than 8 ins). Socket 1 ft 7 ins long, 8¾ ins high and 4½ ins deep, with crack across. Edges of socket and stone seem quite straight. Only reference is Rogers 1967, 64. iv) CROSS (Pl. 103a).

FIG. 70: INISHMACSAINT - CHURCH PLAN.

West part: stone varies greatly in size and shapesquarish, rectangular, polygonal, wide mortar joints and a few spalls. One stone in west wall 4 ft 4 ins long. Sandstone and quartz. Neat dressed sandstone external offset, 2 to 3 ins wide. Centre exterior west wall patch of different masonry fills irregular gap and corresponds with break of about 3 ft 10 ins in regular offset (Pl. 102a). Contrasting masonry also visible inside, clearly to north, less clearly to south. This must be position of blocked west door. [733] Present south door clearly cut through wall; offset continues and breach floored with slabs. Internal offset about 2 ins wide visible in places. Gable wall about 4 ft thick; north wall 3 ft 8 ins; and south wall about 3 ft. East part of church, walls not very markedly different but rather more evenly sized stones with more spalls. No sharp break in north and south walls but marked change in offset, to larger, irregular stones, projecting up to 1 ft 6 ins. Change occurs 36 ft from west-end, and west wall is 23 ft 6 ins long (external measurements).

PLATE 103A: INISHMACSAINT – ROUGH CROSS.

349

Base plain, un-stepped truncated pyramid of vesicular stone, quite different from fine-grained sandstone of cross. Not true rectangle: sides at base – north: 2 ft 9 ins; west: 3 ft 9 ins; south: 3 ft 6 ins; east: 4 ft 1 in - and at top – north: 1 ft 10 ins; west: 3 ft 2 ins; south: 2 ft 3 ins; east: 3 ft 1 in., and 2 ft 2 ins high.

[735] McKenna (1920, II, 438) insists Castle Caldwell bell is Edinburgh KB9. I have not been able to pursue this further. Refs:

Wakeman 1870, 79; McKenna ‘Inismacsaint’ in U.J.A. 10 (1904), 113-7, with drawing of cross p. 116; Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; McKenna 1920, II, 436-9; P.S. 1940, 153 and p1. 38; Gallagher, P., ‘Inishmacsaint and a lost diocesan border’ in C.R. 1, no. 1 (1953), 18-26.

[734] Shaft 2 ft 3 ins wide at base, narrowing to 2 ft 1 in. where constriction for arms begins. 9 ½ ins thick. Hollowing of arms very shallow curves, far from semicircle. Just below crossing stone jointed: tenon in shaft fits mortice in cross-head. Head un-ringed. Arms hollowed (again shallow curves) then splayed at ends. Top member very short: looks truncated. Shaft, main faces undecorated, but slight traces of rectangular panels on ends of arms, under arms and on curved upper part of shaft. Panels on south side seem in relief, on north side defined by raised fillet. Very weathered. Panels mentioned by Rogers (1967, 64). P.S. 1940, 153, gives overall height as 13 ft.

200.

v) CROSS-CARVED INSCRIBED STONE (Fig. 74d). Found during recent Ministry of Finance clearance work. At present with Ministry of Finance in Belfast. Small slab of sandstone, 1 ft 1 in. high, 11 ½ ins wide (but broken on right), 1 ⅜ ins thick. Very neatly squared edge on left 10 ins high. Cross of arcs within circle with short stem at base. Fairly lightly pecked lines of V-section.

SITE: about 200 ft. Church flattish site with river to south. Cross on rocky spur above river, separated from church by slight hollow. Very promising for excavation.

(Inis Inesclainn, see INISHKEEN.) (Inis Rochla, see under AGHALURCHER.) KILCOO, Frevagh and Slattinagh townlands, Devenish parish. O.S. 19; well at G/966465 and cross at G/968464.

Material suggests important early church, but historically unknown, or at least unidentified. ‘One of the most curious, picturesque, and archaeologically tantalizing and baffling spot in Ireland’ (Wakeman 1879, 34). Locally traditionally associated with St. Patrick.

MATERIAL: i) Fragment of wall, probably of CHURCH. Mortared rubble, very ruined and overgrown, running east-west for about 19 ft. Featureless. Date uncertain, but nothing distinctively early. Wakeman suggested was part of south wall of nave. His long description of wall adds nothing helpful.

On right (broken) side part of inscription in half uncials ‘A...’ and below ‘LE…’ Unpublished.

ii) CROSS SHAFT AND BASE (P1. 104a) about 500 ft east of wall, in Frevagh townland, on south-facing slope down to river. Stands on mound about 10 ft diameter, with stones around edges (more than Wakeman’s ten: eleven visible and others certainly obscured). Cross faces northeast and southwest. [736] Base very carefully shaped: tall truncated pyramid with rounded angles and slightly convex sides. Undecorated, but on (conventional) west side 11 ins below top of base is slight step out, continued on north and south but not east faces (visible in P1. 104a).

FIG. 74D: INISHMACSAINT – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

vi) Two QUERN fragments amongst loose stones recently cleared by Ministry of Finance.

Maximum height above ground 2 ft 5 ½ ins. Dimensions at top about 1 ft 3 ins by 7 ins; and at bottom 2 ft 5 ½ ins west by 1 ft 6 ins north, by 2 ft 2 ins east, and 1 ft 3 ins south. Base leans back eastward. Shaft has been broken and mended with concrete. Surviving height 1 ft 10 ½ ins. Width decreases from 1 ft 2 ins at base to 1 ft ½ in., and 4 ½ to 5 ins thick.

vii) BELL. McKenna (1920, II, 438) refers to ‘St. Ninnid’s Bell’, traditionally made by Senach of Derrybrusk, which in Colgan’s time was kept on Inishmacsaint. O’Donovan in ‘O.S. Letters’ describes contents of Castle Caldwell museum on 31 October 1834, including three bronze bells, no. 13 probably the ‘Bell of St Nenny’ (O’Flanagan 1928, 43).

Angle rolls, and on east and west faces only, flattish fillet flanked by grooves turns across base to define undecorated central rectangular panel. East face more chipped and weathered than west.

May be KB3, ‘Edinburgh Museum Catalogue’, listed as ‘St. Ninian’s (sic) Bell’, ‘of iron, coated with bronze, 9 ins high, wants handle, 6 ½ ins across mouth, imperfect’ (N.M.E. 1892, 284).

350

Outline irregular: broken at base and probably at top. Original shape pointed or gently rounded. Maximum 1 ft high, 1 ft 6 ins wide and 5 ½ ins thick. [737] Ringed linear Latin cross potent. Ring not very circular and bars at ends of arms and top detached. Very clearly pecked, with no sign of attempt to deepen or smooth the lines. Under cross and inverted, initial cross and half uncial inscription, damaged by break and very difficult to read. Wakeman read ‘EDCU MIC LIE’; Macalister disagreed and (tentatively) suggested ‘COLGIDICAE’. Inscription also pecked.

PLATE 104A: KILCOO CROSS (FROM SOUTH-WEST) Refs:

Wakeman 1879, 33, gives drawing of cross. No published photograph.

iii) INSCRIBED, CROSS-CARVED STONES. 1) Lying flat (in situ?) east of wall fragment. Irregular rectangular sandstone slab, 2 ft 7 ½ ins long by 1 ft 2 ½ ins and 7 ins thick. Surface obscured by dense lichen. Outline Latin cross, with diamond-shaped expansion at crossing and circular expansions at ends of arms, defined by pecked grooves. Hollow relief circles in expansions and small three-petal motif at head of cross on west.

FIG. 74A: KILCOO- CROSS-CARVED STONES (2 & 3). Refs:

Wakeman 1879, 29, fig. 2; Crawford 1912, 226, no. 3b; Macalister 1949, 125, no. 963, p1. XLV (drawing oversimplified).

3) (Fig. 74a). Described and illustrated by Wakeman, but present whereabouts unknown (not in N.M.D.). Sandstone fragment, 1 ft 2 ins by 8 ins. Ringed Latin cross, broken at top and bottom. Arms and top of shaft expanded and dots in four quadrants. Drawing suggests outline cross defined by grooves, but not certain. Beginning of half uncial inscription: ‘ŌR D...’

Below cross initial cross and half uncial inscription ‘OR DU MAEL CLUCHI’ (Macalister) but perhaps ‘ORT DU ...’ Wakeman 379, 28, fig. 1; Crawford 1912, 226, no. 3a; Macalister p49, 125, no. 962 and p1. XLVII (not altogether satisfactory).

Refs:

2) (Pl. 104b and Fig. 74a). Removed by Wakeman and now in N.M.D. Red sandstone, surface pocked smooth.

Wakeman 1879, 31, fig. 3; Crawford 1912, 226, no. 3c; Macalister 1949, 125, no. 964.

Other slabs. Wakeman (1879, 26) ‘It is almost incredible that the missing monuments could in our time have been wantonly destroyed; but it is a fact beyond question that some fourteen or sixteen years ago, when a new road which immediately adjoins the graveyard was being formed, more than twelve ancient inscribed stones were removed by a contractor and utilised by him in the construction of “pipes” or “drains”.’ Wakeman refers to O.S. report that the stones had inscriptions and crosses of various forms, but I did not locate the Kilcoo description among the ‘O.S. Memoirs’. iv) HOLY WELL. Tober Patrick nearby (not visited). Wakeman records well formerly frequented on 17 March and formerly a few stones with crosses nearby. Refs:

PLATE 104B: KILCOO – CROSS-CARVED STONE (2)

351

Wakeman 1879, long, useful, illustrated account; LowryCorry 1919, table II, ‘There is a tradition that this was a monastery founded by St. Patrick which existed until the

sixteenth century’; McKenna 1920, II, 456-8; P.S. 1940, 157. Place-name study might possibly reveal earlier name and lead to identification of church.

iii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 106a) 15 ft northwest of pillar stone. Large, erect rectangular slab, 4 ft 7 ins high (reported 5 ft 3 ¼ ins) by 3 ft and 4 to 8 ins thick. North edge dressed straight; south edge rough and broken. Shaping to rounded outline at north side of top seems deliberate.

[738] 201. KILLADEAS, Rockfield townland, medieval parish of Derryvullan and/or Devenish; now Trory (see Lowry-Corry 1919, table ii). O.S. 15; H/206539.

East side: interlaced cross of arcs in circle on thick stem, forking towards base. Lowry-Corry and Macalister described the base as ‘boat-shaped’, but this cannot now be seen at all clearly. Ring and stem in very high relief (1 to 1 ½ ins above background).

Name suggests Culdee connection, and in early seventeenth century was held by Devenish Culdees, but history obscure (no reference in Reeves 1864). Material shows beyond doubt there was an early church here. Church site said to be hollow to N. of graveyard and road, but no traces. Referred to in Isaac Butler’s journal (1744) as: ‘of rude sculpture, and built like a barn’ (quoted in Lowry-Corry 1935). ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ for Trory reports site of old church called ‘the Yellow Church’ inside old graveyard; walls partly standing ten years before. Modern church now in graveyard.

Cross less high relief, decorated with interlaced motifs triple knots to right and at bottom, less clear top and left, but see Macalister’s suggestion (Macalister 1949, 123, no. 958, l. XLVII). Lowry-Corry saw defaced interlace in areas between arms of cross, but no sign now except slight unevenness. Crossing very weathered, but outlining bands of cross seem to interlace at centre (Macalister does not show this).

SITE: close to lough shore, on flattish site, over 100 ft.

Macalister read half uncial inscription in line with stem to left: ‘BENACHT/AR ART/U LURC/AIN’, not now visible.

MATERIAL: i) SOCKET STONE (P1. 105b) 10 ft northeast of ‘pillar stone’ (see below). Massive conglomerate boulder, set upright with main faces to east and west. Much obscured, but hole visible at centre is part of socket. Stone about 3 ft 8 ins long as now set, 1 ft 1 in. thick, and 2 ft high above ground, the rest being buried. Top of stone roughly rounded. Socket at centre runs right through stone, 8 ½ ins wide, 1 ft 5 ins high and 7 ins deep through the stone. Stone must originally have been set flat with hole to accommodate stone or wooden shaft. Unpublished.

West side: traces of about fifteen partial and complete cupmarks, various diameters, 2 to 4 ins deep. LowryCorry 1935, very clear pls 4c and 5a and b; Macalister loc. cit. above.

PLATE 105B: KILLADEAS – SOCKET STONE.

[739] ii) PILLAR STONE(?). Lady Dorothy LowryCorry was told that this was part of a cross, intact within living memory (1935), but I doubt this. It has every appearance of a rough pillar stone. Conglomerate, surface much obscured by lichen, but no sign of decoration. Stands 55 ft north of northwest corner of nave of modern church. 3 ft 9 ins high, top partly broken; roughly circular section, circumference 4 ft 3 ins, tending to square with rounded angles. Set in concrete in large, irregularly oval socket stone, about 2 ft 9 ins north-south by 2 ft 10 ins east-west. Lowry-Corry 1935, pls 4a and b.

PLATE 106A: KILLADEAS – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

[740] No sign of, and nothing known of, stone mentioned in P.S. 1940, 153, no. 3: ‘stone with small Greek cross inscribed on it, with two lines cut underneath’. iv) FIGURE-CARVED STONE (Pl. 105a) 113 ft northnortheast of northwest corner of modern church. Height 352

visible now 2 ft 8 ½ ins (reported 3 ft 5 ½ ins) and 1 ft 3 ins east-west by 9 to 10 ins north-south, set in concrete.

[741] 202. KILLESHER parish and townland, in Kilmore diocese. O.S. 26 (well) and 32 (church); H/122358.

South side in low false relief (pecked), figure of ecclesiastic with bell and crosier, walking to left. Clear details of shoes, bell with clapper, shape of crosier head, and face. Enclosed within frame which forms edge roll. Defining groove turns and runs under ecclesiastic’s feet, and runs up beside (rather flat) nose and brow. Top of stone and head damaged (battered). Man’s back oddly constricted by straight edge to right.

Patron Lasair, also of Aghavea. (q.v.). Not associated with Killesher in calendars, but ‘Life’ tells how Lasair went to ‘Cill Lasrach at the head of Loch Mic nÉn and blessed a noble and stately church there’ (Gwynn, L., in Ériu 5 (1911), 83). Lasair’s date uncertain (Kenney 1929, 465-7). Medieval parish church. Ruined, altered and unpleasantly ‘restored’ medieval church in circular, walled graveyard, about 150 ft diameter, considerably raised above surroundings.

West side: chubby, rather crude face in relief at top of stone. Top battered. Cheek to left rounded but to right rather flat. Mouth open, rectangle with slightly rounded corners, and odd line from right side of mouth to edge of stone. Stone deeply sunk round snub nose, giving impression of puffy cheeks. Round eyes, stone again cut back round these, and pupils in lower relief. Traces of brow above left eye, but damaged. Panel below head defined by groove, like south side, and this continues under chin of face creating collar effect. Simple, rather clumsy wide band interlace with small (accidental?) gap filled with two thin bands.

SITE: about 300 ft, on north-facing hill slope overlooking Lower Lough MacNean, and ¼ mile west of valley of Cladagh River. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Wakeman (1874-5, 61) mentioned a ‘very marked earthen wall’ about 18 ft thick surrounding church. I could not trace this, only the general graveyard eminence. Davies (1944, 54) mentions, in passing, a carved stone cross at Killesher; I wonder whether this is a mistake as there is no sign of a cross, and no mention of one in any other source.

North and east sides undecorated. Battered, rounded-off upper surface shows no marks of wear.

HOLY WELL. ‘St. Lasser’s Well’ west of graveyard. I did not visit this. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ by Lt. Durnford has useful appendix on antiquities. This includes plan with measurements of church ruin, detailed drawing of east window, and general view from southeast Also (p. 27-8) account of ‘St. Lasair’s Cell’, on west bank of Cladagh River under flat-topped earth mound, twenty-six chains up river from Florencecourt to Sligo road at edge of glen in which river runs.

Macalister saw slight traces of half uncial inscription on ecclesiastic’s back, reading from hem upwards: ‘ROBARTA (CH)’, but I have seen no trace of this.

[742] Lasair said to have lived in cell by day and built church at night so never seen. Plan of cell (O.S. Memoir, 28) looks like a souterrain. I came across this reference after my visit and have not been able to return to look for site, but seems too far away to be part of church/graveyard complex. Refs:

Gwynn, L., ‘The Life of St. Lasair’ in Ériu 5 (1911), 73-109; Lowry-Corry 1919, table I.

203.

Killydrum townland, Boho parish. O.S. 20; about H/100475.

Traditionally site of St. Fedbair’s oaken church, built before church at Monea (q.v.), but history unknown. SITE: level platform, Just over 600 ft, on steep, rocky, northeast-facing mountain side. Terrain generally rough. MATERIAL: i) BULLAUN (Pl. 110a).

PLATE 105A: KILLADEAS – FIGURE-CARVED STONE. Refs:

Macalister 1949, 123, no. 959, p1. XLVII, not a very satisfactory drawing; best illustration is on cover of recent volumes of U.J.A. Lowry-Corry 1935, good detailed account with many illustrations. N.M.D. holds good prints of these and other photographs, showing stones in far better condition than at present.

Polygonal earthfast sandstone boulder, un-worked except for hollow. Stone 3 ft east-west, by 2 ft 9 ins and 11 ins high. Circular hollow towards east side, 1 ft diameter and

353

4 ½ ins deep. Mentioned in P.S. 1940, 157. Not previously illustrated.

Enclosure can be seen though not very clearly, on R.A.F. air photograph taken on 1 June 1954 (sortie 58/1454, no. 0084). ii) BUILDINGS. In graveyard grass-grown foundations of two rectangular east-west buildings, apparently twocell to north and three-cell to south. Some dressed stones on surface including late medieval fragments. Likely these buildings belong to medieval use of site, not earlier. McKenna (1920, II, 350-4) gives unusually full account of material at this site, including dimensions of three buildings (352). Refs:

P.S. 1940, 146-7.

iii) Possible FINIAL SOCKET STONE (P1. 111b). Set in cement on wall surrounding well to southeast of graveyard. PLATE 110A: KILLYDRUM - BULLAUN STONE.

[744] Stone 11 ins long, with rectangular socket in top, externally 7 ins east-west by 5 ½ ins, internally 3 ½ ins by 3 ins, and 2 ¾ ins deep.

ii) HOLY WELL north of bullaun, surrounded by stones, otherwise featureless. Not still frequented. O.S. mark as ‘Tober Saint Feber’. Refs:

P.S. 1940, 157.

204.

KILTIERNEY townland, Magheraculmoney parish. O.S. 6; H/222626.

Probably stone mentioned by Wakeman in J.R.S.A.I. 15 (1879-82), 68-9. Not previously illustrated. cf. Derryvullan.

In medieval period was grange of Cistercian house at Assaroe. Earlier history unknown, but name suggests link with Tigernach of Clones, confirmed by post-medieval sources. Ó Maolagain, P., in C.R. 2, no. 2 (1958), 290, publishes early eighteenth-century Ms. ‘History of Fermanagh’: [743] ‘Killtiernaigh church [was] consecrated by St. Tyernagh’. Erenaghs were Ó Treasaigh and Ó Sleibhin families (Livingstone 1969, 41-2). McKenna suggested this was retreat to which Tigernach fled (Plummer 1910, II, 266, ‘Life of Tigernach’) but site hardly corresponds to a hill near Clogher. Church reported ruined early seventeenth century.

PLATE 111B: KILTIERNEY – ROOF FINIAL.

iv) CROSSES AND CROSS SLABS. One of Wakeman’s tantalisingly vague statements concerns Kiltierney: he writes (loc. cit. above, 68) of: ‘an early Christian cemetery, dotted with crosses of primitive type - some of them early, some so late as the seventeenth or eighteenth century’. There are many early eighteenthcentury gravestones with a distinctive ringed cross design, but no certainly early stones.

Long-disused graveyard, unenclosed, in grazing land. Excavation feasible, though obviously many burials and long use of site. SITE: over 300 ft, a hollow close to north of small river in rolling, hilly surroundings. MATERIAL: unsatisfactory, fragmentary and difficult to date. i) ENCLOSURE. Clear traces of penannular bank, defining large, roughly circular area bounded on south by stream.

1) In the cemetery small rough cross: single stone, badly broken at top and north side, of shaley stone, tending to laminate and crack. Surviving height 1 ft 5 ins, shaft 7 ins wide, 5 to 6 ins thick. Arm to south projects 4 ins beyond shaft, Impossible to date. May be fairly recent gravemarker.

Circumference of bank approximately 330 yds. Grassgrown, but stones poke through surface everywhere. Variable in size, in places continuous, elsewhere taking form of series of ‘dumps’. Several gaps, but none particularly marked or intentional as for entrance.

2) McKenna 1920, II, 352: ‘Lying outside the cemetery is a rough flagstone having a large cross, in relief, on one side. The shaft and arms of the cross appear to have been 354

bordered with a ⅜ in. bead, portions of which remain on the left arm.’ I saw no sign of this.

MATERIAL: i) BELL-HANDLE. O’Donovan in 1834-5 ‘O.S. Letters’ refers to handle of bell of St. Naile of Kinawley in possession of Bartley Drum of Shanvally (12 Nov. 1834, O’Flanagan 1928, 64). Mentioned by McKenna following O’Donovan (Shrines, 71). Present whereabouts of handle unknown. Naile’s ‘Life’ (see above) mentions his ‘wonder-working bell’ several times. Said to have been made by Senach the smith of Derrybrusk

3) Cross-carved stone, reported by Wakeman, which I also did not find. According to P.S. 1940, 147, Wakeman’s details wrong and drawing ‘erroneous’. P.S. 1940 gives stone about 3 ft 7 ins by 3 ft I in. with Latin cross and four cup-marks between arms and stem. Refs:

Wakeman in J.R.S.A.I. 13 (1875), 468-9 (drawing 468); Crawford 1912, 226, no. 2; 1940, 147.

Refs:

v) WELL southeast of graveyard, now surrounded by stone wall but neglected and visited only by cows. Refs:

ii) HOLY WELL to southwest of graveyard, still frequented. O’Donovan (loc. cit. above) reported cures for jaundice. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ (Lt. Durnford) gives sketch of well (p. 22) and records stations on last Sunday in July. Known as ‘Tubar Niall’ or ‘St. Nawley’s Well’. Naile’s ‘Life’ gives ‘Disert na Topar’ as alternative name for Cell Naile (Plummer, op. cit., 131).

All references given above.

[745] 205. Kiltober townland, Drummully parish. O.S. 43; H/428223. SITE: known as ‘Toberakill’, northwest-facing steep hill slope with four fallen standing stones, well near foot of hill1 and low, damp, flat area, under 200 ft, to west. Small river runs close by to northwest. NO CERTAINLY EARLY MATERIAL but certain features are suggestive:

ii) THE FORTH. In low, damp land west of well, irregular oval mound of rough ground with thorns and loose stones. Edges well-defined except to southwest. Roughly 180 ft northeast-southwest by 60 ft. Perhaps truncated to southwest. Believed locally to be an ancient church site - potentially interesting for excavation. Stone with hollow removed from farm nearby to southeast to Enniskillen recently, but thought to be for domestic use, not associated with Toberakill. P.S. 1940, 184, the only reference I have found.

206.

KINAWLEY parish, Lismonaghan town1and, in Kilmore diocese. O.S. 33; H/229308.

Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; P.S. 1940, 179.

207.

LISGOOLE townland, Rossorry parish. O.S. 27; H/24 1418.

‘Sancti Aedi episcopi’ at 25 January in M.T. not located, but in M.G.: ‘Aed a bishop lofty, very pure, from the noise of Less Gabail [glossed] on Loch Erne’, also M.D. But history of this early foundation unknown. In twelfth century house of Augustinian canons established. History traced by Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 185), and also third occupation, by Franciscan friars in sixteenth century (ibid., 254).

i) HOLY WELL. Some large stones surround it, otherwise featureless. Associated traditionally with St. Patrick, and formerly visited for cures.

Refs:

Plummer 1925 A, especially 131, 137, 141-9.

McKenna reports tradition that Alfrith of Northumbria studied here in seventh century, but I have come across no written evidence to support this. [747] Site now occupied by large house; uncertain whether this incorporates any earlier fabric. Graveyard reported cleared and cultivated. SITE: under 200 ft, very close to lough shore, overlooking Inishkeen. NO EARLY MATERIAL.

Patron Naile (or Natalis), also of Inver (Co. Donegal). Naile’s date uncertain and ‘Life’ ‘a very late piece of hagiography, and a very poor one, whether from the literary, the historical, or the religious point of view’ (Kenney 1929, 465-6). ‘Nóele of Inber’ at 27 January in M.T, but in M.G. Noele glossed ‘of Inber Noele’, and in margin ‘... and abbot of Cell Naile and afterwards of Daminis’.

Refs:

McKenna in U.J.A. 3 (1896-7), 50-4 and 84-9; Lowry-Carry 1919, table I and 40.

208.

Lisnaskea, Castle Balfour Demesne townland, Aghalurcher parish. O.S. 34; H/363340.

Not a church site.

[746] Gloss at 27 January in M.D. mentions spring at Cill Náile. Medieval parish church. Extensive ruin of late medieval church in crowded graveyard.

MATERIAL: CROSS SHAFT and BASE (Pl. 107a-b) not in situ. Set up in Corn and Potato Market by 1841, but original provenance unknown. Not listed by Crawford (1907), and not well-known. Stone is fairly coarse sandstone, weathered, but designs still clear. Base, as now set, 10 ins

SITE: valley side, about 200 ft, on south-facing slope above small river. 355

above ground level with single step. Not true rectangle: sides measure 3 ft 7 ins (east), 3 ft 1 ½ ins (south), 3 ft 5 ins (west) and 3 ft 3 ins (north). Undecorated. Shaft: 4 ft 6 ins high, and 1 ft 10 ins north-south by 1 ft 6 ins. Massive, single stone, angular outline, with prominent undecorated collar at top and bottom, each about 1 ft high and projecting in.

West side: thirty-two small, circular bosses in relief (background cut back about 1 in.), all same size, with no sign of linking lines or other decoration.

East side: weathered traces of edge moulding along top edge of lower collar and down north side of collar. Panel of figure-carving, 2 ft 5 ins high and 1 ft 8 ins wide. Very lively treatment of Adam and Eve in quite high relief (about 1 in.). Branches of tree interlaced with clear apples.

[748] In present position by 1841 when Corn and Potato Market built, and modern concrete head added. This obscures socket, which must be smaller than 1 ft 3 ins by 1 ft 1 ½ ins. Original position unknown, but suggestions include Fawney cross-roads, 1 mile east of Lisnaskea; Castle Balfour in Lisnaskea; Galloon; and Inishroosk. To these could be added Aghalurcher.

North and south sides plain. Lowry-Corry in J.R.S.A.I. 65 (1935), 153-6, discusses history of cross which is very obscure.

Refs:

Lowry-Corry, op. cit., with photographs, p1. 12.

209.

Lustymore Island, Templecarne parish. O.S. 4; H/103616.

MATERIAL: STONE FIGURE (P1. 86b) now set up in Caldragh graveyard on Boa Island (q.v.). Reported to come from disused graveyard where some graves found, on north shore of Lustymore Island, south of Friars’ Quay, under 200 ft. I have not visited island, but Mrs. Rogers tells me she has looked several times and never found surface traces. Traditionally monastic site, but history unknown.

PLATE 107B: LISNASKEA – CROSS SHAFT (EAST SIDE).

PLATE 86B: LUSTYMORE ISLAND– CARVED FIGURE.

Figure: height as now set 1 ft 10 ¾ ins (Lowry-Corry 2 ft 3 ¾ ins), maximum width 1 ft 3 ins, 11 ins across face, and 7 ins thick. East side carved into head and torso of figure. General similarity to Boa Island double figures, PLATE 107A: LISNASKEA – CROSS SHAFT (WEST SIDE).

356

but different in details and general impression much less powerful. Oval face, rounded cheeks and pointed chin. Features not very high relief: eye on left pointed oval defined by groove with sinking at centre; other eye and nose damaged; open mouth, wide raised pointed oval band. Arms small, not crossed, and hands (slight indications of fingers) close together. Notches in sides of stone to emphasise neck and elbows. Attitude suggests figure may be seated. Back is rougher, and plain except for slight indication of neck. I see nothing to suggest this was originally a double figure like its (present) neighbour. Refs:

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

[749] 210. MAGHERACROSS townland and parish. O.S. 16; H/283538. Medieval references to erenaghs suggest this was site of early church. Erenagh died in 1509 (A.U.), and erenagh provided hospitality in 1452 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 398). But patron unknown and history obscure. I find conflicting accounts of medieval status and am uncertain whether medieval parish or chapel-of- ease. Large graveyard, considerably raised above general surroundings, marked on 1859 O.S. map as site of church’, but no trace of foundations. East end of graveyard much lower and approached by unusual wide sunken track.

MAGHERACULMONEY parish, Tullanaglug townland. O.S. 5; H/209630.

MAGHERAVEELY in Clones parish, Uttoney townland. O.S. 40; H/465276.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I and 40.

[751]213. MONEA townland, in Devenish parish until 1630. O.S. 15; H/155492. Founded traditionally by Fedbair (see Boho). She is said to have built church at Killydrum (q .v.), but what was built by day was destroyed at night. A deer showed Fedbair suitable spot, at Monea, where she built her church (O’Donovan ‘O.S. Letters’ in O’Flanagan 1928, 54-5). In calendars Fedbair associated with Boho not Monea. Monua ‘of Mag Niad’ at 16 January in M.T., also M.G. ‘Monoa [glossed] a virgin, from Mag Niad in Tuath Rátha’, and M.D. Probably to be associated with this site, but history obscure. Medieval chapel of Devenish. Modern parish church and graveyard probably on early site.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’ records local story that Patrick, when in this area, planted cross on hill in Drumsonnus townland, Kilskeery parish, but removed by night to Magheracross graveyard.

211.

212.

SITE: over 200 ft, hilltop, close to north of small river.

SITE: about 350 ft, fine hilltop site in rolling country of prominent rounded hilltops. Area much dissected by Ballinamallard River and tributaries.

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 398.

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I and 39; McKenna 1920, II, 333-4. Druim Bairr may be identified with Drumbarna townland, Magheraculmoney parish: Ailill’s Sons at Druim Bairr at 16 January in M.T., M.G. and M.D. But identification not certain and no site identified.

Irish form of name is ‘Machaire-miliuc’, and known in early seventeenth century as ‘Maghery Meelick’ and similar forms. Probably to be associated with ‘Colman son of Corordan of Miliuc in Datraige Coininnsi’ gloss to 15 June in MO., also at 15 June in M.T., M.G. and M.D. Editors associate with barony of Dartrey, Co. Monaghan, but Magheraveely is very close to Monaghan border and seems most likely candidate. Other ‘Meelick’ sites in Co. Galway and Co. Mayo. History unknown. Probably medieval chapel of Clones. Ó Corragain family erenaghs (Livingstone 1969, 41-2). Church still standing in late eighteenth century, but no sign now in crowded graveyard. West end of cemetery rounded.

Early, poor publication in J.R.S.A.I. 41 (1911), 385-7, where described as sheela-na-gig Lowry-Corry 1933, 203-4 and p1. 7; Rogers 1967, 80-1, interprets west side as defaced figure.

Refs:

Refs:

Association of site by McKenna with Deacon Aed (31 August M.T., M.G. and 10 July M.D.) does not seem certain. Editors of calendars identify Cuil Maine with Clonmany (Co. Donegal), or Collooney (Co. Sligo), not Magheraculmoney. Medieval parish church, patron unknown. Early fourteenth-century ‘Registers of Clogher’ record translation of relics of bishop Ferguiminth of Culmaine (McKenna 1920, II, 333).

SITE: under 300 ft, on prominent north-south ridge with river in steep-sided valley to west. NO EARLY MATERIAL, but Steele (1937, 33) reports ‘A stone cross, which has unfortunately disappeared, was dug up in the churchyard in the early nineteenth century, which may have been of very early date’.

[750] Despite uncertainties, existence of erenaghs (Ó Maolduin family) suggests early foundation (Livingstone 1969, 412). Modern church may incorporate some earlier fabric, in large, overgrown cemetery. SITE: over 300 ft, on gentle north-facing hill slope overlooking small valley.

Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I, 39-40; McKenna 1920, II, 43941; Steele 1937, especially 18 f.

214.

PUBBLE townland, Inishkeen parish. O.S. 23; H/332464.

1603 Inquisition mentioned a ‘chappell of Pobull, alias Collidea, possessed by Gille ro O’Huines as (Reeves 357

1864, 24). This suggests chapel on pre-Norman site, and at some time connected with Culdees (presumably of Devenish). Known as ‘Pobal-Phadraig’, and traditionally Patrick preached here and given lands (Lowry-Corry 1919, table I). Last church built in 1699 and used until 1784. Well-kept graveyard.

associated with Cluain Cai (Co. Tipperary). In M.G. Fainche from Ross Airthir at 1 January, also M.D. Appears prominently in ‘Life of Enda of Aran’ (Plummer 1910, II, 60-75) but this source very late and poor (Kenney 1929, 374). [753] Though Enda’s origins claimed to be royal family of Airgialla, this pedigree is false; rather he belonged to Meath, and his work almost exclusively associated with Aran (Plummer 1910, I, lxiv). Fainche claimed by most writers to be Enda’s sister, but ‘Life’ can be interpreted as meaning spiritual, not actual, sister. ‘Life’ of no value for this site. Early history obscure. 1084 or 1085 A.U. ‘This year the church of Saint Fuinche at Rosoirrther was founded.’ Many records of erenaghs during Middle Ages in A.U.; member of the ‘muintir’ (‘community’) died in 1420, and guest-house maintained, as at Cleenish, in early fifteenth century. Graveyard, with no trace of church foundations.

[752] SITE: over 400 ft, in hilly country. Steep slope up to hills northwards, gentler slope south to valley of tributary of Tempo River. MATERIAL: two BULLAUN STONES. 1) Described and illustrated by Wakeman. I follow his description as I did not find this stone. In the middle of a field at Pubble. Sandstone, 5 ft 3 ins long, 3 ft 10 ins high, 3 ft 11 ins thick. On each of four almost perpendicular sides a fine ‘basin’, diameters about 10 ins and depth about 7 ins. Wakeman 1874-5 A, 465-6 and fig. 18 on p. 465. 2) (Pl. 110b). Broken double bullaun kept in rockery of Mr. Tommy Watson’s house, northeast of graveyard across the road. Reported found during digging on slope north of road, above graveyard, before the war. Unshaped sandstone boulder, 3 ft 4 ins along south side by 1 ft 10 ins and 12 high. Top of stone flattish, and holes at south edge. Hole to west (left) better formed. South edge broken away but was originally full circle diameter 8 ins and 3½ ins deep. Steeper slope on west than east. Hole to east (right) only part of circle, running off stone to south, and 3 ins from other hole. Does not seem to be broken on south. Chord of surviving arc is 6 ins and depth 3½ ins. No stories or superstitions attached to this stone. Unpublished.

SITE: graveyard over 200 ft, on west-facing hill slope, but summit of hill to east and southeast very extensive views to Lough Erne. Area is a promontory at confluence of Sillees River and Upper Lough Erne (Fig. 65a).

FIG. 65A: ROSSORY – SITE PLAN. PLATE 110B: PUBBLE - BULLAUN STONE. Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table 1 and 40; McKenna 1920, II, 2649.

215.

ROSSORRY townland and parish. O.S. 22; H/2311129.

MATERIAL: only report of CHURCH is ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’, brief reference to very small church in poor repair of unknown date. Davies, O., in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 141, fig. 1, illustrates moulding which I could not trace. ENCLOSURE (Fig. 65a). Summit of hill to east and southeast of graveyard occupied by impressively large earthwork enclosure, mentioned by Wakeman (1874-5, 61), Belmore in U.J.A. 2 (1896), 231, and McKenna (Shrines, 49). Wakeman wrote ‘about two thirds of this

Patron Fainche at 21 January M.O. ‘Fuinche [glossed] Fainche daughter of Carell in the north, i.e. from Ross airthir at Lough Erne’, but in M.T. Fainche at 21 January 358

‘mur’, or rath, still remain. The missing portion has been obliterated by tillage ... the wall at its base in some places measures eighteen feet in thickness.’ Now pasture, divided by field hedge. Circuit complete except for northwest where obliterated by farm buildings and cultivation. Markedly not circular; rather rectangle with rounded corners.

isolated in rocky country, and first impression is of a standing stone, but some indications of possible church site.

[754] About 300 ft southwest-northeast by 120 ft. Bank varies in width from 8 ft to 21 ft where much spread, and north of dividing hedge traces of ditch about 14 ft wide. No clear entrance in surviving circuit, though bank on west has rounded end south of hedge. Enclosure visible, though not very clearly, in R.A.F. air photograph taken 1 June 1954 (58/1456 no. 0321). Potentially very interesting prospect for excavation. Discussed further p. 104. Refs:

216.

PLATE 85B: TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); & FIG. 74C: TEESNAGHTAN – CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

as above, and O’Hanlon, J., Lives of the Irish Saints (1873), 1 January, and p. 4 engraving of cemetery (information from Wakeman); Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; McKenna 1920, I, 418-9 and II, 186-7.

Vague local traditions of ‘burials’ nearby to west where small mound and piles of stones. Rough patch north of stone with scrub and stones locally ‘the Forth’, marked on O.S. 1859 map but not labelled or named. Not clearly rath or cashel from surface inspection. General area rocky and rough; difficult to explore thoroughly. Place-name: Mrs. Flanagan points out can be interpreted as ‘Teach Neactain’, ‘teach’ (‘church’), and a personal name. Evidence combines to suggest lost early church here. P.S. 1940, 178, only reference I have found. Not previously illustrated.

Slawin townland, Inishmacsaint parish. O.S. 8; G/998575.

Nothing known of history of site. Graveyard within rath, internal diameter about 100 ft. Bank especially clear on west side: stands about 6 ft above exterior level with stone wall on crest. Elsewhere very overgrown. Entrance on east side. No features to suggest an early church. This may be secular rath, appropriated fairly late for burials, rather than early ecclesiastical enclosure, but uncertain.

218.

Parish extends into Co. Donegal. and I am uncertain of site of earliest church. Erenagh family, ‘MacCraith’ (McGrath) (Livingstone 1969, 41-2) suggests medieval parish based on early monastic nucleus, but history obscure. Ruin of late medieval, church in large graveyard, Tievealough townland, O.S. 8; G/978598.

SITE: hill slope, just under 300 ft, with steep slope northward to Lower Lough Erne, and mountain scarp to south. NO EARLY MATERIAL. O.S. (1859) marks ‘Tober Ninny’ ¾ mile to west-southwest but not visited (St. Ninnid of Inishmacsaint). Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II.

217.

TEESNAGHTAN townland, Kinawley parish, Kilmore diocese. O.S. 32; H/192306.

TEMPLECARNE (or Termonmagrath) parish.

[756] Labelled ‘abbey’ by O.S. but on what grounds unknown. Gwynn and Hadcock list as ‘unclassified’ (1970, 369). SITE: Just under 200 ft, promontory in southwest part of Keenaghan Lough.

SITE: about 350 ft, on tongue of rough ground between two small rivers on lower slopes of Benaughlin, looking east to lower land bordering Upper Lough Erne.

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

[755] MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 85b and Fig. 74c). Limestone, roughly rectangular outline, standing 4 ft 7 ins high by 3 ft 6 ins and 8 ins to 1 ft 4 ins thick. Surfaces irregular, cracked and chipped (attempts made to remove it?). North face flattish, slightly concave, with cross at top of stone. Small equal-armed cross. Lines of V-section, in. deep at crossing, ¾ in. elsewhere. Some hollowing around, leaving outline cross in false relief, but not continuous. Cross fits well with crack in top of stone: perhaps fitted here deliberately to use crack. Stone stands

Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I and 140; P.S. 1940, 147; U.J.A. 4 (1941), 43.

219.

TEMPLENAFFRIN townland, Cleenish parish. O.S.; H/101388.

Appears in list of fourteenth-century Fermanagh churches, but not parochial; probably chapel of Cleenish (Lowry-Corry 1919, table I). Lowry-Corry found preNorman terms used in connection with this church: termoners, corbes and erenagh land. These suggest early church, but nothing known of its history or patron. Possible link with Killesher (details in Lowry-Corry in 359

U.J.A. 1 (1938), 25-31). Much altered, ruined church in oval graveyard, considerably raised above surroundings. Church needs clearance and careful survey, but I could not detect any work of before 1200 to my satisfaction (description and some illustrations in U.J.A. paper cited above).

this is the right spot, but found no other traces. Remains of abbey traditionally used in building Tully Castle. SITE: promontory, under 200 ft. MATERIAL: none directly associated with this site, but near Abbey Point was dredged up the LOUGH ERNE SHRINE. Some accounts of find-spot are vague: ‘about half-way between Beleek and Enniskillen’ (Coffey 1909, 42), but McKenna and Bigger (1897, 37-41) are more specific and report shrine found in about twenty-four feet of water off Abbey Point, Tully. Reported found in 1891 by fishermen. Small box of yew wood in shape of building with hipped roof. 6 ¾ ins long, 3 ⅜ ins wide and 5 ins high. Covered with bronze plates and angles bound with bronze. Formerly three circular decorative medallions on long sides, of which only one still fully intact. This has interlace round central amber stud.

SITE: resembles site of Holywell. Under 300 ft, at south foot of Belmore Mountain, close to Lough MacNean Lower and south end of pass through Belmore Mountain. NO CERTAINLY EARLY MATERIAL. Eighteenthcentury gravestone included for purposes of comparison (Pl. 112b and p. 240). O.S. Lists note 7 chains southwest of church three BULLAUNS in a rock. I looked for these but did not find them. Not listed in P.S. 1940, 171, or elsewhere.

[758] ‘Ridge pole’ is bronze bar with interlaced decoration and very stylised projecting animal head at each end biting pole. Bronze plate at junction of wall and roof has rather clumsy angular interlace and is probably an addition. Gable ends D-shaped bronze plate with interlace and hinge attachment, presumably for handles. Inside shrine was smaller shrine, of same shape but of bronze, not wood. In N.M.D., no. 1901:46. Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table III. On the shrine Coffey 1909, 423; Crawford 1923, 82-3; Mahr 1932, pls 9-10; Raftery 1941, 106-7.

221.

WHITE ISLAND, Magheraculmoney parish. O.S. 10; H/173600.

History and Irish name unknown, but material provides indisputable evidence of much pre-Norman activity. Has been suggested as possible site of unidentified Éo-inis (p. 62) on Lough Erne, but no certainty. PLATE 112B: TEMPLENAFFRIN – 1729 GRAVE STONE. Refs:

Lowry-Corry two references above.

[757] 220. Tully, Abbey Point, Tully townland, Inishmacsaint parish. O. S. 10; H/123569(?). Previous writers have recorded traditions of abbey here, and traces of enclosure. McKenna (1920, II, 446) wrote of ‘well-defined remains of an extensive circumvallation’ and Lowry-Corry (1919, table III) of ‘half a rood of ground’. I had difficulty finding Abbey Point (not marked by O.S.) and local people did not seem to know any ecclesiastical traditions. The most likely area they call ‘the Ebby’ (sic) without knowing why, a piece of rubble walling jutting north into lough where boats once landed, and further east in same field ‘the wee Ebby’. Here northeast corner of field cut off by piece of rubble walling, mostly grass-grown, with steep drops to water on north and northeast. Also traces of low bank from this wall running northwest and west. I am by no means sure

FIG. 71: WHITE ISLAND – SITE AND CHURCH PLAN.

360

SITE: close to lough shore in east part of island in Castle Archdale Bay. Church under 200 ft on slope southwards to landing-place. Rath to west at highest point of 74-acre island (Fig. 71).

Detail difficult to see, but I incline towards interlace rather than faces. Square abacus with row of balls below, with matching hood moulding. Outer arch of ten voussoirs, fitting rather awkwardly at apex. Roll mouldings in the two orders of the arch are keeled. Inside of arch rebated but otherwise inside badly damaged.

MATERIAL: i) ENCLOSURE and EARTHWORKS. Some unevenness of ground near church said to result from various modern restorations, but some probably indicates buried structures. McKenna and Lowry-Corry 1930, 25, refer to ‘unmistakable traces of the foundations of extensive buildings’.

On ruined south wall east of door fragments of windows reset (not in situ) - sandstone ashlar with chamfered angle. East window (partly reconstructed), sill and jambs intact but not head. Tall narrow lancet, deeply splayed internally and chamfered externally. Lying loose at east end window head (P1. 108b) cut from single piece of sandstone; circular head, opening externally 5 ins wide and rebated, splaying internally to 15 ins wide.

Southeast part of island including church cut off by large but not now very formidable enclosure. I regret I have not been able to study or plan them earthworks. A detailed survey remains to be done. ii) CHURCH (Pl. 108a and Fig. 71) and EXCAVATED EVIDENCE. Single-cell church, internally 47 ft 8 ins by 27 ft, with gable walls 3 ft 3 ins wide, side walls 3 ft. Walls of rubble, very varied in size, ranging from small spalls to massive elongated stones (in south wall one stone 7 ft 3 ins long). [759] Wide mortar joints, up to 3 ½ ins wide. But stonework much restored and re-pointed. Very roughly coursed in parts. Quoins neatly dressed sandstone, also neat external offset.

PLATE 108B: WHITE ISLAND – WINDOW HEAD.

Results of 1959 trial excavation: 9 ft square excavated in southeast corner of church. Standing church found to have shallow foundations, with internal off-set (bench?) and traces of stone-flagged floor. On this was occupation debris including burned timbers. Below stone church considerable depth of soil which had accumulated after disuse of timber structures. These took the form of timber slots for horizontal beams (9 to 12 ins wide, 1 ft 6 ins deep) with an associated post hole, probably two or three phases, and aligned only slightly differently from church above. [760] Timber features cut through about 9 ins charcoalflecked soil above natural sandy boulder clay. Further excavation would be most welcome. iii) INSCRIBED AND CROSS-CARVED STONES. 1) (P1. 106b and Fig. 74b). Found in 1958 in (reconstructed) church wall during Ministry of Finance restoration and now built into interior west wall of enclosure. Carefully dressed trapezoidal slab of sandstone, broken at base, 1 ft 8 ins high by 1 ft and 3 ½ ins thick. Outline Latin cross very lightly incised. Lines cross at intersection, forming square, and left side of shaft slopes in at base as though towards a pointed base. Half uncial inscription above cross: appears to be ‘DELMNE’,

PLATE 108A: WHITE ISLAND – SOUTH DOOR OF CHURCH (EXTERIOR).

South door: two orders, with three-quarter round engaged shafts, moulded bases (two rolls) and very weathered capitals. General profile of these is concave. 361

though first and last letters less clear than rest. ‘S’ and ‘T’ should perhaps be considered instead of ‘D’, though I think ‘D’ most likely.

2) (Fig. 74b). Slab reported found during nineteenthcentury clearance in church interior. Described and drawn by Wakeman, but present whereabouts unknown. Roughly rectangular, about 1 ft 6 ins by 1 ft, thickness unknown. Across top inscription ‘CORCRAIN’ and near centre, at 90º to these letters, ‘FOG’. Refs: Wakeman 1879, 66 and 68 (drawing); Crawford 1912, 226, no. 1; Macalister 1949, 124, no. 960.

[761] iv) FIGURE-CARVED STONES (Pl. 109a). These have been so fully illustrated and described from Du Noyer’s time onwards that I do not propose to describe them in detail, but simply point out the main features. Variably numbered in different publications. Numbered here from left to right as now set in north wall of church. All of sandstone. 1) Sheela-na-gig type figure, but not really obscene (impression hands in lap) - grins from ear to ear, puffy cheeks and seems to be wearing short cape. FIG. 74B: WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONES (1 & 2).

2) Figure seems to be seated with hands ‘in muff’ or carrying rectangular object; wears tunic with collar, short sleeves and hem and front seam. 3) Ecclesiastic, found in 1958, in excellent, un-weathered condition, carrying crosier and bell, wearing hood, longsleeved tunic with collar, front seam and hem.

PLATE 109A: WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (GENERAL VIEW).

4) Figure with clear hair-line (or cap?), emphatic features and strongly lined face; other carving difficult to see and interpret. Staff held against shoulder on left, object held to chin on right and pouch-like object at waist. Hemmed garment.

PLATE 106B: WHITE ISLAND – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

J.B. Arthurs discussed inscription in correspondence with Ministry of Finance (May 1958). He suggested the name could be the sept Delbnae (Delmnae or Delmne) of Co. Westmeath – Co. Roscommon area, or more probably unlearned Middle Irish for ‘we shape’ or ‘we form’ (M.I. ‘delbm(a)i-ne’). Form of lettering no great help in dating because long in use; Arthurs inclined to date after the tenth century, but added ‘nothing exactly comparable seems to be known or yet recorded, and ... the style gives little certain help in dating.’ Only publication is Rogers 1967, 73. Drawing on p. 73 seems greatly to exaggerate ‘bent’ end of the cross. I prefer to see a pointed end.

5) (P1. 109b). Figure with curly hair and hemmed robe holds two bird-like creatures by necks, affronted with beaks and claws touching. On right pattern of big, loose, single-strand interlace covers side of stone. 6) Seems to form a pair with no. 5 (same size, hair and robe), with round shield, sword, and penannular brooch. 7) Unfinished: head and body simply roughed out.

362

8) Single head, carved in relief on squarish block, with flat cap and emphatic features. Clearly a finished piece, not a fragment, and quite different from the other stones.

[762] 1) to 6) have stump or tenon at base (long for 3 and 4, others short), less carefully dressed and clearly for setting in ground, wall, or some socket. 1) to 5) have feet, widely spaced, protruding from hem of garment. All have clearly-defined features, including staring round eyes and emphatic chins. 1) to 6) have sockets or seatings in top of head, ½ to ¾ in. deep, no. 2 a double socket. Refs:

Du Noyer in J.R.S.A.I. 6 (1860-1), 62-9; Wakeman in J.R.S.A.I. 15 (1879-82), 66-9 and 276-92; McKenna and Lowry-Corry in J.R.S.A.I. 60 (1930), 23-37; Ettlinger in Man 53 (1953), 33-4; Lethbridge in J.Roy. Anthrop. Inst. 83 (1953), 175-82; Ettlinger in Man 10 (1958), 265-72; LowryCorry, Wilson and Waterman 1959.

v) Sandstone QUERN fragment, loose at south end of church. Refs:

PLATE 109B: WHITE ISLAND – CARVED FIGURES (DETAIL).

363

as above, especially Wakeman 1879-82, McKenna and Lowry-Corry 1930, and Lowry-Corry, Wilson and Waterman 1959. Also Davies, O., in J.R.S.A.I 69 (1939), 112.

[763]

TYRONE: Sites are in Armagh (A), Clogher (C) and Derry (D) dioceses as indicated.

222.

Aghaloo parish, Rousky townland (A). O.S. 60; H/663549.

Walls stand to maximum 7 ft high, of rough masonry, mortared rubble, mostly boulders with some large stones. Featureless.

Patron and early history unknown. Medieval parish church; rectory held by Armagh Culdees (Reeves 1864, 13). Area ancient territory of ‘Muinter Birn’ (Marshall 1923, 31-4). Ruined church, probably 1622, in graveyard. SITE: over 350 ft, hilltop, with distant views south over Blackwater valley. MATERIAL: Possible ENCLOSURE. Graveyard oval, about 175 ft east-west, by 150 ft north-south; outline flattened to north. Surrounded by earthen bank; some stones visible in bank, and outside roughly stone-faced. Area enclosed by bank larger than area where burials visible, so parts of bank accessible for excavation, especially to north. NO OTHER EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 86; P.S. 1940, 255.

223.

ARBOE (or Ardboe) parish, Farsnagh townland (A). O.S. 40; H/966756.

Patron Colmán at 18 February, but gloss in M.O. suggests confusion over association: ‘Colmán from Ard bó in Cenél Eogain, or in Scotland to the west of Monad. Or Colmán of Ard bó on the shore of Lough Neagh ... Alii dicunt that he is Colmán son of Aed, who is in Ard bó on the shore of Lough Neagh.’ Genealogy given of Colmán son of Aed, back to Colla Uais. Colmán at 21 February in M.T., M.G. and M.D. Date uncertain though secondary sources give later sixth century. 1103: A.U. obit of erenagh: ‘master of learning, liberality and poetry’. 1166: burned by Irish (A.U.). Medieval parish. Ruined church, probably sixteenth century, in crowded graveyard, still much used.

FIG. 79B: ARBOE – SITE PLAN.

Known as the ‘Abbey’ and orientation suggests church, but roughness of work does not suggest early date to me. Bones reported ploughed up nearby (Bigger and Fennell, op. cit., 3). 2) East-northeast of 1), three sides of rectangular building against cliff-face, known as the ‘Cellar’. Walls survive on north, west and south to maximum 12 ft high, missing on east. Internally - 23 ft north-south by (probably) 14 ft east-west. Walls of large, coursed, unworked boulders with mortar. Featureless and un-datable.

[764] SITE: (Fig. 79b) between 75 and 100 ft, rocky hillock with steep cliffs to south and east, overlooking Lough Neagh. Small harbour to southeast. Area north of graveyard cultivated and available for excavation.

Refs:

Bigger, F.J., and Fennell, W.J., in U.J.A. 4 (1897-8), 1-6.

ii) CROSS (Pl. 113). Very tall sandstone cross west of graveyard and southwest of buildings. Carving weathered and head damaged (head fell early nineteenth century and restored). Base: tall (3 ft 6 ins), apparently two stones (though not very clear). Very pronounced step. Plain except roll moulding along all angles.

MATERIAL: i) BUILDINGS of uncertain date north of graveyard, in Sessia townland. 1) About 200 yards north of ruined church, small eastwest rectangular building with west door. Internally 34 ft 6 ins by 14 ft 8 ins (Bigger and Fennell, op. cit. below, plan p. 3).

Shaft: according to P.S. 1940, 241, about 18 ft 6 ins high. Impression of towering height. Open ringed head with projections on inner circumference of ring; arms 364

hollowed at intersection. Base of head marked by heavy collar, projecting beyond line of shaft, and top capped with eroded finial, probably originally ‘house-shaped’.

North: Baptism; three figures, central one kneeling; two people hold another head downwards; man with spear and helmet and two bodies (this and one below perhaps Slaughter of Innocents).

[765] Very elaborate mouldings: edge roll, and double inner fillet. Individual scenes separated not by this fillet but by flat horizontal bands. Shaft, one stone to collar, another above.

Collar spirals, and bossed spirals on shaft above. Under ring centre sunken panel with circular knotwork with wide band either side with angular interlace. Under arm plain; end of arm weathered figure. South: Death of Abel, David killing lion, David and Goliath, Paul and Anthony receiving bread from raven. Collar: panel of linked bossed spirals, framed by pellets. Bossed spirals and arabesques above. Under ring as north, also under and end of arm. Knotwork and interlace on sides of cap. Refs:

Sexton 1946, 53-7, as usual gives full bibliography and digest of writers’ views; Porter 1932 offers several different interpretations as does A.M.S.C. 1962, 76-7 Roe 1956, 8.1-3 pls I-IV, fullest treatment.

[766] iii) BULLAUN (P1. 114b). Large boulder, very overgrown. Lying at foot of steep slope, south of west gable of ruined church, on north side of path to harbour. Could possibly have fallen from above. Circular hollow, 10 ins diameter and 4 ins deep. No traditions. Unpublished. At foot of cross several pieces of sandstone weathered into strange shapes. Leslie (1911, 95) reports story of cow who came out of lough and supplied milk for workmen and to slake mortar during building of church. She was stolen, left foot tracks in stone and was recovered. ‘Foot tracks’ now pointed out in stone at cross.

PLATE 113: ARBOE CROSS –EAST SIDE.

East: Old Testament scenes, Adam and Eve, Sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel between two lions, Children in Fiery Furnace protected by angel’s wings. Collar: mouldings and pellets round rectangular panel with small bosses and fret. Head: centre Christ in glory; scales and flames under feet, and weathered scene of man (possibly hand raised in blessing and holding crosier), two flanking busts and eleven heads below. Rest of head very worn. Recessed ring with traces of interlace.

PLATE 114B: ARBOE – BULLAUN STONE.

West: New Testament scenes, Adoration of Magi, Miracle at Cana, Loaves and Fishes, Entry to Jerusalem. Collar: worn bosses.

iv) PIN ‘WELL’ (Pl. 114a). In northwest corner of graveyard, extraordinary feature of beech tree stuck with thousands of pins and pennies for wishes and cures. Tree perhaps collects moisture in fork of arms (hence ‘well’), but I suspect reverence is towards tree itself. Now dead; will fall one day.

Head: Crucifixion, angel at head; below crossing figure with two flanking figures in profile (Arrest of Christ?), bosses above and below. Similar three figure group on each arm. Interlace on ring. 365

destroyed by John de Courcy. Area was centre of Airgialla tribe UiFiachrich of Ardstraw. In 1111 designated episcopal centre of diocese, later moved to Maghera (Co. Londonderry), finally Derry. Medieval parish church with erenaghs and extensive termon lands in early seventeenth century. Graveyard thought to be on early site, cut by road. Earlier nucleus west of road forms considerable mound. SITE: (Fig. 79a) occupies prominent shoulder, about 150 ft, on valley side. To south and west level drops sharply to crossing point on river Derg; bridge here in 1514 (A.U.). NO EARLY MATERIAL now, but some reports of material. Shaw Mason 1814, 115: ‘one of the side walls of the old parish church at Ardstraw, which now forms part of the enclosure of the graveyard’. ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’ similar information: ‘Tradition says there was a church here and some show its remains built up in the enclosure wall.’

PLATE 114A: ARBOE – ‘PIN WELL’. Refs:

Bigger and Fennell, op. cit. above; Leslie 1911, 95; P.S. 1940, 241-2; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 28.

224.

ARDSTRAW parish and townland (D). O.S. 17; 11/349875.

Patrician foundation claimed in Tírechán’s ‘Collections’: ‘Et venit in Ard Sratha et Macc Ercae episcopum ordinavit’ (Stokes 1887, 329); yet familia of Ardstraw regarded as hostile to Patrick’s familia (ibid. 3114). Patron was Egan of royal house of Laigin, Di Meisi Corb, traditionally studied at ‘Candida Casa’. Sixth century (Kenney 1929, 172, 400). Latin ‘Life’ (‘very late and abridged ... There is but little material for the history either of the church or its founder’, ibid. 400) FIG. 79A: ARDSTRAW – LOCATION OF SITE.

[767] reports founding of Ardstraw (no mention of Patrick): ‘Ardstratense quoque monasterium, quod in illis partibus celebre habetur, ibidam fundavit’ (Heist 1965, 401). Eógan at 23 August in M.O., M.T., M.G. and M.D. Coibdenach glossed ‘bishop of Ard sratha’ in M.G. and M.D., died according to A.U. in 707. Also obit of bishop in 680, abbots 852, 881, abbot of Drum-cliabh (Drumcliff, Co. Sligo) and Ard-sratha in 923, (all A.U.).

Lewis 1837, I, 58, refers to church foundations: ‘some very beautiful crosses of elaborate workmanship, and several upright stones and columns richly fluted’, and remains found during construction of road. But this account of elaborate remains sounds unlikely and suggests confusion. U.J.A. 4 (1941), 142 and fig. 1 p. 140, reports moulding built into graveyard wall.

A.U. tells of much damage: 1069 burned; 1095 church (‘teampull’) burned; 1099 stone church (‘daimliag’) burned; 1101 burned and profaned with other churches.

[768] North section of wall on west side of, and adjoining, road may be fragment of building, but not certainly.

In 1179 peace made: ‘in the centre of the church (‘teampull’) of Ard-sratha’ upon relics; but 1199 church

Refs:

366

Reeves 1850, 9-11; Scott, C., ‘Ardsratha: the Church, the See, and the Parish in U.J.A. 13 (1907), 38-45; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 29, and references above.

225.

ARDTREA parish, Tullyraw townland (A). O.S. 39; H/855762.

SITE, between 125 and 150 ft, on slight local eminence in generally damp, low-lying surroundings, overlooked by higher ground to east. Tributary of Ballinderry Rriver ¼ mile to northwest.

Patron (woman) Trea ‘of Ard Trea’ at 8 July in M.T., also M.G. and M.D. Trea, daughter of Caírthend, at 3 August in M.T. not located, but in M.G. and M.D. of Ardtrea. Probably fifth century: ‘Tripartite Life’ describes Patrick blessing Trea in mother’s womb (Stokes 1897, 169).

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Present name of parish believed to be derived from ‘St. Patrick’s Bell’ (see Armagh); hereditary keepers had lands in this part of east Tyrone (Reeves 1877, 19). Hogan suggests possible identification of ‘Cell Saile’ with ‘Killysally’ in Ballyclog parish. Etracta virgin at 11 August in M.T., glossed ‘from Cell Saile in Crích Conaill’ in M.G. But editor of M.G. gives Kilseily (Co. Clare)? and Co. Donegal for Crích Conaill, so identification remains in doubt.

Father Devlin (1955, 15) suggested possible identification with ‘Domnach Rigduinn’, Patrician foundation in Uí Tuirtri (Stokes, loc. cit.). Erenagh died in 1127 (A.U.). Church site (probably 1622 ‘now built’), completely overgrown but traceable west-northwest of modern church in neglected part of graveyard. SITE: (Fig. 78a) commanding hilltop, over 200 ft, in area of many hilltop raths, ½ mile south of Ballinderry River.

Refs:

Leslie 1911, 128; Devlin, op. cit. above.

227.

BODONEY Upper parish, Glenroan townland (D). O.S. 12; H/538909.

FIG. 78A: ARTDTREA – HILLTOP SITE.

MATERIAL: CROSIER FRAGMENT bought by O’Laverty from estate of the Rev. James Kennedy-Baillie (d. 1864), rector of Ardtrea. Nothing more known of its history, so not certainly originally from Ardtrea. Part of head of bronze crosier shrine, 2 ½ ins long by 1 ½ by 1 in. Decorated on drop with cross motif (setting at centre missing: piece of amber sold at same time, possibly missing setting). Arms of cross in-filled with herringbone hatching. In four panels between arms interlaced plaits and knots, all very roughly done. In Ulster Museum. Refs:

FIG. 79C: BODONEY – LOCATION OF SITE.

Probably to be identified with ‘Both-Domnach’, one of Patrick’s seven foundations in Moyola area (Stokes 1887, 155).

Garstin, J.R., ‘On the Identification of a Bronze ShoeShaped Object as part of the head of an ancient Irish Crozier’ in P.R.I.A. 1 (1870-4), 261-4 with illustrations; Crawford 1923, 172. Leslie 1911, 112-3; U.J.A. 4 (1941), 143 and fig. 1, l40 reports one moulding; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 373.

[769] 226. BALLYCLOG parish, Glebe townland (A). O.S. 39; H/866737. Medieval parish church. Early patron and history unknown, but Father Devlin (1955, 14-5) argues for identification with one of Patrick’s seven foundations in Uí Tuirtri – ‘Domnach Fothirbe’ (Stokes 1887, 169). Extensive ruin of (probably 1622) church in elongated oval graveyard, considerably raised above surroundings, surrounded by bank. Is this simply graveyard boundary, or an earlier enclosure? PLATE 1B: BODONEY – TOPOGRAPHY.

367

[770] Patron Athcen or Aithgen, Patrick’s cook (ibid., 265), commemorated at 3 May in M.T., ‘Aigthen of Both’. ‘Muirecan from Both-domnaigh, comarb of Patrick, on a visitation in Tir-Eoghain’ (993); and obit 1005 (A.U.).

(1896, 277 (stone with two hollows in churchyard). I saw no other likely candidate. One of group of large stones west of road east of church has cupmark, traditionally Patrick’s knee-print. May be part of ruined megalith (P.S. 1940, 218-9).

Medieval parish. Modern parish church at east-end of large graveyard. West-end of yard probably earlier nucleus where marked hump and much loose rubble (mostly schist but some sandstone ashlar). SITE: (Pl. 1b and Fig. 79c) under 400 ft, valley floor, close to confluence of Glenelly River and Glenroan Burn. Strategic position on Glenelly valley east-west route with Barnes Gap nearby to southeast through Sperrins. O.S. marks many ‘forts’ in valley. MATERIAL: i) CROSS with cross carved on it (P1. 115a and Fig. 82d) 10 ft east of west wall of graveyard near southwest corner, at edge of markedly sunken area. Schist badly chipped top and north edge. Cross roughly shaped with arms approaching triangular outline.

PLATE 127B: BODONEY – SLAB WITH HOLES.

More than 2 ft 6 ins high (shaft buried), 1 ft 8 ins across arms, 2 ½-3 ins thick. West face plain. East face equal-armed linear cross in not-at-all circular circle with lines at 45º from crossing to circle. Lines of main cross extend beyond circle to right and at top. Lines vary in width and section but generally ¾ in wide, ¼ in. deep of U section. Certainly not compassdrawn! Pecking visible in ring. Not certainly early, but nothing else like it in graveyard and quite possibly early. Unpublished.

FIG. 84A: BODONEY – HOLE WITH STONE SEEN IN PLAN.

(STONE CROSSES probably modern, included for purposes of comparison. At least three simple schist crosses in graveyard. PLATE 115A: BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT), & FIG. 82D: BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS-CARVED STONE (RIGHT).

No. 1 (Pl. 132a) is grave-marker in west part of yard, about 12 ft from west. wall.

ii) SLAB WITH HOLLOWS (Pl. 127b and Fig. 84a). About 25 ft east of west wall of graveyard, just north of centre point, large flat schist flag sunk into ground. Polygonal, maximum dimensions 4 ft 7 ins east-west by 4 ft north-south and about 3 ins thick. Four oval hollows, diameters 6 to 8 ins, depths ¾ to 2 ins.

Nos. 2 (Pl. 116b) and 3 (Pl. 116a), similar form but different size, loose amongst cleared stones along north wall. No. 2 has crudely scratched initials and date 1714, which I am inclined to think contemporary with cross, not added. I feel sure these two are recent - perhaps both eighteenth century.)

[771] Surface of hollows quite rough. Mentioned in P.S. 1940, 219. May be stone referred to in J.R.S.A.I. 26 368

iii) BELL. ‘The Badoney (sic) Bell’ published by H. Morris in J.R.S.A.I. 61 (1931), 61, p1. 1a. Reported found 1856 in Bodoney Lower parish, unknown townland. Bronze 5 ¼ ins high, weight 18 oz. In 1931 in possession of manager of Hibernian Bank, Strabane. Present whereabouts unknown. iv) WELL. O.S. marks ‘Toberanna’ as antiquity on south side of river, about 800 ft south-southwest of church. Not visited. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 55, 73; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 374.

228.

CANUS-JUXTA-MOURNE parish and townland (D). O.S. 10; H/347915.

Leslie claims patron Conall but does not give source (1937, 136). Lewis (1837, I, 248) states confidently: ‘it was founded by St. Colgan in 586, and destroyed during the insurrection of 1641.’ PLATE 132A: BODONEY – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE.

[772] History nevertheless very obscure: not in 1306 Taxation or Colton 1397 Rental, but erenagh mentioned in early seventeenth century which suggests pre-Norman origins. Ruined church and graveyard, bisected by railway. Church largely rebuilt except ivy-covered east gable with window. I could see no detail. O. Davies in P.S. 1940, 217, reports: ‘Part of the moulded frame of a small Romanesque window is preserved in [the east wall]’, but date as early as this seems unlikely in view of information in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 44 and fig. 1f, 39. SITE: between 75 and 100 ft, high above River Mourne on promontory in bend of river. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 131; Leslie 1937, 136.

229.

CAPPAGH parish, Dunmullan townland (D). O.S. 26; H/450802.

PLATE 116B: BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS (2)

Patron according to Leslie Eógan (see Ardstraw) but he gives no early source. Medieval parish church. Erenaghs mentioned at time of Colton’s 1397 Visitation and early seventeenth century. Extensive ruin of church in graveyard (Lewis 1837, I, 251, was misinformed: ‘the ruins of the old church are scarcely discernible ...’!). SITE: over 300 ft, hilltop with extensive views. Cappagh Burn ¼ mile away to north and west. MATERIAL: i) I am uncertain about date of CHURCH (P1. 136a-b). Chapel to south is clearly late sixteenth or seventeenth century and added to church. Main body 62 ft by 22 ft 6 ins. Only feature which could perhaps be argued to be early is west wall with ashlar quoins with fat angle roll indicated by fairly shallow notches. Roll dies out to the arris as it approaches eaves height. I cannot find parallels for angle rolls in late medieval Irish contexts, but this treatment does not look Romanesque to me:

PLATE 116A: BODONEY – ROUGH CROSS (3)

369

[773] treatment of top of roll reminiscent of stop chamfers on fifteenth-century door at St. Mary’s Abbey, Devenish (Co. Fermanagh) and Creevelea (Co. Leitrim) (Leask 1960A, 77, fig. 29 and 160, fig. 72).

230.

Carnteel parish and townland (A). O.S. 60; H/694546.

Early patron and history before 1306 Taxation unknown. Medieval parish. Rectory belonged to Armagh Culdees in later Middle Ages (Reeves 1864, 13). Ruined church, sixteenth or early seventeenth century, in graveyard. SITE: about 430 ft, hilltop in drumlin country, overlooking lough with crannog to east. Area was site of battle in 1239 (‘Carn-Siadhail’, A.U.). NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 168; Davies in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 149-50.

231.

CARRICKMORE townland, Termonmaguirk parish (A). O.S. 36; church site at H/616728.

Earlier name ‘Termon-conyn’ and variants. Reeves suggested possibly from Columba’s sister, Cuimne (Reeves 1857, 283). Father M. McDermott in S.A. 2, no. 2 (1957), 433 f., suggests may be ‘Termon Conaoidh-in’ from Conaed, a priest whom Patrick left at ‘Domnach Airthir Maige’ in province of northern Uí Briuin (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 175).

PLATE 136A: CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF NORTH-WEST ANGLE.

[774] See also Donaghanie. Temonmaguirk appears late Middle Ages from erenagh family, McGuirks. Strong traditional links with Columba (not Patrick) but history obscure. O’Donnell’s late ‘Life of Columba’: ‘in the place that is now called Termon Cumainig in Tír Eogain, he hallowed that place and left thereon the right of sanctuary thenceforth. And he struck three strokes with his staff upon the ground, and a well sprung from each stroke thereof’ (O’Kelleher and Schoepperle 1918, 127). 1195: ‘The churches of Tír Eóghain were plundered and laid waste’ including Tearniarin Comáin (M.I.A.). By 1306 Taxation was parish church. In 1622 church ruined. Site of this church in west part of present Roman Catholic graveyard (U.J.A. 4 (1941), 40). This thought to be early site, but not certain. SITE: Termon Rock, commanding rocky mass over 600 ft, dominating valley of Camowen River. Roman Catholic cemetery to east of rock, sheltered by it. MATERIAL: i) CEMETERIES. In or near Roman Catholic graveyard two cemetery sites:

PLATE 136B: CAPPAGH CHURCH – DETAIL OF SOUTH-WEST ANGLE ROLL.

1) Relig na Far Gunta, for slain men and ii) BELL published by S.F. Milligan (1903, 53 and p1. on 52). Said to have been given by parish priest of Cappagh to Omagh merchant who sold it. In possession of Sir John Leslie, Bart., from collection of Surgeon Young. Bronze, 9 ins high, handle 2 ¾ ins, overall height 11 ¾ ins; 6 ½ by 4 ⅜ins at mouth and 3 ¼ by 1¼ ins at top. I do not know its present whereabouts. Refs:

2) Relig na Leanabh for children (names from MacDonald 1947; and O.S. marks ‘Relicknalaniv’; Reeves 1857, 283, has ‘Relig na paisde’ for children). Also 3) Relig na mBan - Anglicised ‘Relicknaman’ - for women. Southwest of church, at H/607722, on southwestfacing slope, over 400 ft, in rough, rocky surroundings. MacDonald (op. cit.): ‘beside it [is] the burial ground for suicides.’ Story: Columba decreed a woman of bad

Reeves 1850, 4, 7, 70, 72; Leslie 1937, 140-1; P.S. 1940, 231.

370

character should be buried out of earshot of his bell (at church) in ground not to be entered by living woman or dead man. (I survived!) Relicknaman is small ENCLOSURE (P1. 117a) irregular circle, rather flattened to west, internal diameter about 60 ft.

suggesting rough triangular base. West side partly flaked off, and rest of surface in danger of flaking. Simple pecked cross; part of stem missing. Unpublished. Mentioned to me by Dr. George Gillespie. iii) ‘WELLS’ and ‘BED’. On Termon rock several hollows in rock, at least partly artificial, including ‘St. Columbkille’s Well’, water-filled cleft, about 3 ft 6 ins east-west, by 2 ft 6 ins north-south, on northeast side of rock, reputedly good for warts. ‘St. Columbkille’s Bed’ is triangular cleft in rock about 10 ft long, 5 to 6 ft wide and 4 to 5 ft deep. Other wells, which I did not pursue, discussed by MacDonald, including ‘Tobar na gConnallach’ (‘of descendants of Conall’), ½ mile from Roman Catholic church, and wells of SS. Eugene, Stephen and Brigid (op. cit., 27-8).

[775] Bank is tumbled, grass-grown wall, face visible in places, 2 to 3 ft above outside level. Interior only slightly raised with many mounds and rough stones, some standing, many fallen. Width of spread bank about 5 ft, wider and higher to north. Entrance on west-side; gap with facing stones visible, and wall here 6 ft wide. Also gap to north, where enclosure partly incorporated into field boundary, not necessarily original entrance. Large rock in centre of enclosure and one cross-carved stone (see below). Graveyard long disused. Site may eventually be threatened by nearby large-scale quarrying.

[776] iv) BELL known as ‘Bell of St. Columbkill’, no. KB 2, National Museum, Edinburgh, purchased as part of Bell Collection, Dungannan, 1868. Formerly kept, according to Lewis, in Sluggan townland (1837, II, 620). Of single sheet of iron, welded at sides; part of bronze coat remains. Handle broken. Height 10 ½ ins, at mouth 8 by 6 ins; at top 5 ¼ by 3 ins. MacDonald (1947, 56-8) has collected information about bell. Used in parish for cures and swearing upon. Known as ‘God’s Vengeance’; curse for perjury. Tradition links it with Ballynascreen (Co. Londonderry): bell said to have indicated site for church there, later taken away by a McGuirk. Parish has strong links with Ballynascreen, e.g. intermarriage. Brief mention of bell in Stokes, M., 1928, 52 and N.M.E. 1892, 284. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 3 and 1857, 283; Leslie 1911, 426-8; Gillespie, G., ‘Some Place-Names in the Parish of Termon McGuirk, Co. Tyrone’ in J.R.S.A.I. 66 (1936), 295-311; MacDonald 1947, passim.

PLATE 117A: CARRICKMORE – RELICKNAMAN (GENERAL VIEW)

(Cill Mór Magh Enir, see ERRIGAL KEEROGUE.) Ref:

P.S. 1940, 236.

232. CLOGHER diocese and parish, demesne townland. O.S. 58; H/538515.

ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 117b and Fig. 82b).

Clogher

‘Tripartite Life’ tells of Patrick’s gift of Clogher to his ‘champion’ MacCairthinn (Stokes 1887, 175- 7 and 265) whose name may be of pagan origin (‘son [devotee] of rowan tree’: Kenney 1929, 351), and site believed to be pagan shrine (see below). A.U. records death of MacCairthinn (506). At 18 March in M.O., gloss only, and 15 August under: ‘Fer dá chrich, a fair champion [glossed] Clochar, i.e. an assembly: or clochar, i.e. cloch óir i.e. a stone (‘cloch’) round which was gold (‘ór’), which the heathen had and worshipt. PLATE 117B: CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE (LEFT); &. FIG. 82B: CARRICKMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (RIGHT)

[777] And out of it a devil used to speak: Cermand Cestach was his name, and it was the chief idol of the north. That is the short stone on thy right hand as thou enterest the temple of Clochar and the places of the joints of gold and silver still remain in it, ut vidimus ipsi.’ This gloss appears in a fifteenth-century manuscript of M.O, apparently ‘written by Ruaidri O’Luinin for Cathal Maguire, a canon of Armagh and Dean of Clogher, who

In south part of Relicknaman, 7 ft north of inner face of south wall. Small sandstone slab, originally upright but sloping westwards at west-end of one of many small grassy mounds. 1 ft 6 ins high, maximum 1 ft 2 ins wide and 2 ins thick, very crudely shaped like a cross. East side disjointed cross roughly pecked with two lines below 371

died in 1470 ...’ (Stokes’s preface to M.O., xiii). Kenney explains confusion of MacCairthinn with Fer dá crich (1929, 352 n. 185).

one end of sunk panel is cut, and though cut is diagonal it would not accommodate a sloping jamb. This end may be re-cut, not in original form, but uncertain.

Several other Clogher entries in calendars. From A.U. we learn of obits 702; 770 (abbot); 842 (abbot died as prisoner of Vikings); scribe, bishop and abbot 869. 931 abbot jointly of Clones and Clogher. Obits of erenaghs in 961 and 1126. Later history as seat of bishop after 1111 traced by Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 63).

[77] I cannot suggest any convincing use for this stone. A jamb is possible, but any explanation must take account of sunk panels on both sides. Church that preceded cathedral said to have stood until 1744 about 200 yards west of cathedral, but nothing known about it. No early references in annals to fabric. A.F.M. 1395 burned, also 1507 (A.U.).

Secular lordships in area: Clogher in annals often called ‘Clochar-mac-nDaimeni’ from ruling branch of Airgialla in area, Sí1 Dainíne. Area of powerful Airgialla group Uí Cremthainn until displaced by Cenél Feradaig branch of Cenél nEógain. Seat of ruling Airgialla group may have been Rathmore (‘Rathmor Maigh Lemna’), complex of earthworks southwest of Cathedral. Excavation in 1969 and 1971 produced late-Roman finds and imported postRoman pottery (E-ware) from inner ‘citadel’, and several structural phases. Sequence and structures clearly complicated (Warner, R.B., ‘Preliminary Report on Season March/April 1969’ and note in Excavations 1971 (Association of Young Irish Archaeologists), 23-4). Tigernach of Clones member of Airgialla royal family; ‘Life’ places family seat: ‘iuxta Clochorensem urbem’ (Plummer 1910, II, 262). [778] SITE; strategic position commanding Clogher Valley or Blackwater Gap, important route from Armagh area west to Lough Erne. Valley known as ‘Magh Lemna’. O.S. mark many ‘forts’ in area. Protestant cathedral and large oval graveyard occupy prominent hilltop, about 330 ft, ⅓ mile south of River Blackwater. Air photograph of cathedral and surrounding area in U.J.A. 23 (1960), p1. XXI. PLATE 120B: CLOGHER – ENIGMATIC STONE IN CATHEDRAL.

MATERIAL: 1) ?ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENT (P1. 120b). Enigmatic stone, popularly believed to be the ‘Cloch óir’ (see reference to M.O. above). Formerly outside north wall of cathedral but 1929 brought into ‘narthex’. Millstone grit, 3 ft 6 ins high, 1 ft 10 ins north-south as now set and 1 ft 5 ins east-west. East and west faces have carefully-worked rectangular panel sunk 1 in. deep, 9 to 9 ½ ins wide and 5 ft long. At bottom panel is finished off but at top is cut, not at 90º but at slightly acute angle. West side border to left 7 ins wide, to right only 3 ins, then rough as though to be hidden; east side corresponds. North side against wall, unfortunately invisible and immovable, but seems dressed flat. South side very uneven and pitted; arouses great curiosity but looks as though inclusions weathered out of stone, not man-made.

ii) CROSSES (P1. 118a-b).

Lawlor published this in I.N.J. 3 (1931), 193-4. He argued stone is lintel of early door with sloping jambs. His p1. 12 is not simply an appalling photograph but a falsification of evidence. It is touched up and inked in to support his argument which cannot stand. Stone seems to have little in common with early doors (e.g. Leask 1955, fig. 31). Early architraves project slightly (not recede). 5 ft seems very long for decorative element of lintel. Only

PLATE 118A: CLOGHER CROSSES (EAST SIDE).

372

Two mended and re-erected west of cathedral, and fragment of shaft of third. All sandstone. No figure carving at all.

2) South Cross. Base: tall (2 ft 4 ins) truncated pyramid, unstepped, with angle rolls and inner fillet defining undecorated rectangular panels. 3 ft 5 ins by 2 ft 7 ins bottom and 2 ft 3 ins by 1 ft 6 ½ ins top. Shaft below break: collar at base, 5 ins high, into which angle rolls die, but inner fillet turns above collar to define long, sunken, rectangular panel. East side large relief panel with bold pattern of big and small bosses in quite high relief, within rectangular frame. Surface weathered but traces of lines linking bosses. West side similar framed rectangular panel in relief with interlaced knots (weathered and not clear whether single or double strands). South side similar panel with traces of fine interlace, also north - probably interlace. Shaft measures 1 ft 6 ins by 1 ft 1 in. at base; 1 ft 3 ins by 10 ins at break (which is 3 ft 9 ins above base). Shaft above break: considerably smaller, 1 ft 1 in. by 8 ins suggesting quite long section of shaft missing. Mouldings as lower shaft on smaller scale and face of cross sunk. East side top only of framed rectangular panel of large bosses in relief with traces of other decoration in lower plane between bosses.

1) North Cross unearthed, mended, and set up with South Cross in situ about 1912 (Marshall, op. cit. below, 37). Base: tall (2 ft 7 ins) truncated pyramid with shallow step near top. 2 ft 9 ins by 2 ft 3 ins at ground, 1 ft 8 ins by 1 ft 5 ins at top. Angle rolls and inner fillet defined by two grooves, turning under step to define undecorated rectangular panels.

[781] West side top of similar panel with double strand angular interlace. Head: same general form as north cross. Surface of ring projections raised and weathered decoration on rings interlace and possibly south spirals. On both faces at crossing large high relief boss in circular frame with weathered traces of interlace all over bosses (double strand on west side). Ends of arms chamfered and treated like hipped roof. Possibly decorated with knot on hipping and diamond on ridge, but difficult to be certain. Henry 1932 illustrates crosses; Davies, op. cit. below, gives description and drawings p. 228 (reproduced in P.S. 1940, as p1. 72) oversimplified and inaccurate in some details.

PLATE 118B: CLOGHER CROSSES (WEST SIDE).

Shaft: at foot small, slightly projecting collar, 5 ½ ins high into which mouldings of shaft die. Shaft treated as single sunk rectangular panel (though broken at top) defined by half round fillet within fat angle roll moulding. Single large decorative panel in relief on east and west sides. East: four interlaced fine - line spirals with angular knots at corners making rectangular panel (no enclosing frame). West: diamond pattern of fine interlace (weathered), also no frame. North and south same mouldings but undecorated. Shaft 1 ft 5 ins by 11 ½ ins at collar; 1 ft 3 ins by 10 ¼ ins at break (2 ft 11 ins above base). Above break: concrete attaching stump of shaft and head. Mouldings above break similar to below but smaller scale and main face of shaft in same plane as mouldings, not sunk (cf. no. 3 below).

3) Broken shaft (P1. 121a) stands 1 ft 9 ins high and decreases from 1 ft 2 ins by 10 ½ ins at base to 1 ft by 9 ins at broken top. Small collar at base 4 ins high into which mouldings die. Angle roll and inner fillet defined by two grooves. Faces of shaft in same plane as mouldings, not sunk (cf. top of North Cross). No decoration.

[780] Arms hollowed at intersection with recessed, unpierced ring with prominent circular projections on inner circumference. Ring moulded, projections raised boss at centre. Top of head partly restored. East side bold motif at crossing of double interlaced lines in relief defining diamond at centre (occupied by quadripartite interlaced knot), ends of lines to sides ‘crocodile’ heads, open jaws, top and bottom animal heads, also gaping jaws. West side of crossing in low relief circular frame enclosing interlaced motif like four-petalled flower. Sides plain. No cap surviving.

PLATE 121A: CLOGHER – FRAGMENT OF CROSS-SHAFT.

373

4) Report of cross fragments. Crawford (1918, 175) describes North and South Crosses and mentions: ‘portion of the head of a plain cross with pierced ring and central boss’, also part of shaft built into graveyard wall.

Though weathered these clearly part of original design. Sundial is semi-circle, defined by narrow band which dies into edge moulding. Hole for gnomon 1 in. across and 1 ¼ ins deep, and three rays with small hollow at end of each, diameter ¾ in. Projecting top has narrower edge moulding enclosing small rectangular panel with loose single strand interlace in quite high false relief. Figure side (east as formerly set): in worse condition, badly weathered and cracked. Shaft edge moulding as before (base only 4 ins high). Panel (not recessed) seems undecorated. Shield-shaped upper part defined by edge moulding which turns at top and ‘disappears’ behind face. Within this frame wide ribbon Interlace in false relief, very weathered (no surface detail visible on ribbons).

‘There is also a base or socket stone near the gate of Clogher Park’ (but compare with Marshall, op. cit. below, 37, who says one of present bases found inside palace gates, where used as trough). I have not found these fragments. iii) SUNDIAL (Pls 119a and 120a) formerly stood close to south wall of cathedral near west-end. June 1969 moved into north porch to prevent further weathering. Sandstone.

PLATE 120A: CLOGHER – SUNDIAL IN CATHEDRAL.

[783] Design incorporates equal-armed cross at centre with diamond-shaped terminals. Face at top of stone unfortunately badly flaked, little detail remaining. Pearshaped, in true relief, standing out maximum 1 ½ ins from background and outlined by projecting top panel. Only clear detail is stylised curly hair and brow on right. Rest of face perhaps deliberately obliterated. Sides: quite elaborate treatment. Edge rolls defining elongated rectangular panels on edge of shaft and ‘shield’. Top of shield and ‘head’ sides plain.

PLATE 119A: CLOGHER – SUNDIAL.

[782] Main dimensions: 4 ft 10 ins high, width of shaft 1 ft 5 ½ ins (bottom) to 1 ft 4½ ins (top), across expanded top maximum 1 ft 9 ins, across small projection 11 ins. This projects 6 ½ ins above rest of stone. Thickness at bottom of shaft - 9 ins decreasing to 7 ½ ins at top of stone. Sundial side (west as formerly set): shaft treated as single sunken panel, defined by broad (2 – 2 ½ ins) edge mouldings. Below panel is 5 ½ ins of rough, hammerdressed stump, formerly buried. Decoration in false relief. At base beautifully worked fish, now weathered and cracked, but detail still visible, some scales but especially tail and fins. Above is fairly simple, bold, loose interlace, figure-of-eight design, of broad bands. Bands have incised lines along edges, like hemmed ribbon, and surface of bands is textured. Uncertain whether simple hatching or more elaborate decoration defaced. Rounded loops at lower corners, very weathered, at former ground surface. At upper corners loops cross and end in elongated pointed knots filling space under sundial.

Refs:

Published by Lawlor in I.N.J. 3 (1931), 177-8 and p1. 11 (which is touched up); Roe 1960, passim, but poor photographs; Bailey, R.N., in J.R.S.A.I. 93 (1963), 187-8; Rogers 1967, 121, mentions fish, otherwise not noted.

iv) BULLAUNS 1) (Pl. 121b) Triangular piece of sandstone 2 ft 1 in. by 2 ft 1 in. by 2 ft 4 ins and 7 to 8 ins thick. Kept at foot of south cross. One hollow diameter 7 ins, gently sloping sides, clear pecking marks, 2 ½ ins deep. Second is pierced, circumference incomplete, breaking out at side of stone, diameter about 8 ½ ins, 6 ins at perforation. 374

Under side rougher and much more roughly hollowed out. Drawing in Davies (op. cit. below) fig. on p. 228. 2)

CROSS, known as the ‘Cross of Clogher’, now in St. MacCartans Diocesan Seminary, Co. Monaghan, formerly kept at Gewalt (Toora) church near Ederny (Co. Fermanagh). Clearly post-Norman and not within my date limits. Raftery suggests 1300-50.

Several reports of other bullauns which I did not see. ‘O.S. Memoir’ mentions two hollowed stones built into graveyard wall - one for headaches, other for warts. Sketch of one built into wall on palace side below stone head. This may be stone mentioned by Marshall, op. cit. below (p. 37): basin in sandstone 9 ins diameter and 3 ins deep, built into outside of boundary wall facing palace grounds.

Refs:

Crawford 1923, 88 Raftery 1941, 163 and p1. 110.

GLASS BALL, listed by Wilde (1837, 166) from Clogher. Not illustrated. I have not pursued this further. Refs:

as above, McKenna 1920, I, 121-169 Marshall, J.J., Cloghar na Righ (1930); Davies, O., ‘Clogher Crosses and Other Carved Stones’ in U.J.A. 1 (1938), 227-30; P.S. 1940, 253.

[785] Near Clogher. ‘Life of Tigernach’ (Plummer 1910, II, 266) describes visit to family at Clogher when offered see. Would not accept, as occupant would have to be forcibly expelled, so fled to nearby hill ‘ubi in cella quam ibidem fundaverat, diu permansit’. No name given. May be monastery in home area which he had ordered to be enclosed: ‘suisque, ut circa eundem locum fossam profundam facerent, precepit’ (ibid. 265). Not identified. 233.

‘Tripartite Life’: ‘Patrick delivered her [Cinnu] to a certain virgin to be taught, namely Cechtumbar of Druim Dubain, in which place both virgins have their rest’ (Stokes 1887, 179). In gloss to 4 April in M.O. amongst stories of Tigernach: ‘Tigernach’s mother was Dairfraich. Tis to her that Cechtarnair of Druirn Dubain said, after being unable to split the tree while building her oratory:

PLATE 121B: CLOGHER – BULLAUN STONE.

v) QUERN. At foot of South Cross, of pink granite. 1 ft 2 ins diameter, though not true circle, 2 ins thick and hole 3 ins diameter. [784] Two opposed holes for turning. Under side slightly concave.

“O Darfraich O mother of holy Tigernach! Let come thy help which was not slow, split the tree anigh the wright”.’

vi) THE ‘DOMNACH AIRGID’. Book shrine in N.M.D. no. R.2834. Formerly kept by Maguires in Aghavea parish, but originally at Clogher. Traditionally shrine of Gospels left by Patrick for MacCairthinn: ‘Tripartite Life’ ‘... And Patrick then left bishop Macc Cairthinn in Clochar, and with him the ‘Domnach-Airgit’, which had been sent to Patrick from heaven when he was at sea coming toward Ireland’ (Stokes 1887, 175-7). But it is later than fifth century (see below). Box from single piece of yew with sliding lid (present one not original). Contained folded parchment of parts of gospels (Kenney 1929, 638-9). Earliest metalwork are bronze panels coated with tin riveted onto left and right sides of yew box. Border of ‘triangular spirals’ and panel of loosely interlacing ribbons (mostly with incised borders) on hatched basketry background.

Reputed site ‘Nun’s Hill’ in Clogher demesne where wells called ‘the two sisters’ (O.S. 59 at about H/543507, site over 300 ft). Not visited. I have come across no firm evidence for this identification. Refs:

Petrie 1845, 348; McKenna 1920, I, 143; Marshall, J., Clochar na Righ 193O), 14.

(Clonarb, see GLENARB.) [786] 234. CLONFEACLE parish, Tullydowey townland (A). O.S. 62; H/838521. Sources poor for early history. According to ‘Tripartite Life’ Patrick met Olcan (of Armoy) here (Stokes 1887, 166). Name traditionally from one of Patrick’s teeth, kept here. Colgan associated with abbot Lugaid (1645, 452-3); many Lugaids in calendars, but not placed here. Medieval patron of parish church was Jarlath, successor of Patrick at Armagh (list in Stokes 1887, 543), commemorated on 11 February. Earliest references in annals (A.U.) 1004 when ‘erenagh of Lis-oigedh and Cluain Fiachna, a distinguished professor of poetry and history, died’, 1053 when vice-abbot killed; and 1069 obit of another viceabbot. ‘Cluain-Fiachra was burned’ 1145 (A.F.M.).

General resemblance to ‘Book of Durrow’ (Henry 1965, p1. 55 shows them juxtaposed), but work very rough indeed and Raftery (op. cit. below) prefers date of about 850. Yew box probably earlier, but not closely datable. Rest of shrine made in fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Refs:

At Clogher? DRUIM DUBAIN.

Raftery 1941, especially 115-9 with references and p1. 117.

For BELL known as the ‘Bell of Clogher’ see Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone). 375

Reeves lists Clonfeacle rectory among Culdee holdings early seventeenth century (U.J.A. 4 (1898), 216). Graveyard at Roman Catholic chapel thought to be early site: ‘O.S. Lists’ (p. 71) site of church and portions of foundations found from time to time. Graveyard forms considerable oval mound, about 100 ft north-south, by 210 east-west. SITE: between 75 and 100 ft, local eminence in flat surroundings, close to west of River Blackwater, southwest of crossing point. MATERIAL: i) CROSS (P1s. 122a-c). Listed by Crawford (1907, 199, no. 4) re-used as headstone. 1908 reported by Bigger ‘at present almost buried’ but he was arranging for it to be restored ‘on a suitable base and set up in a proper place’ (U.J.A. 14 (1908), 143). Now set at edge of graveyard mound, close to northwest corner of Roman Catholic chapel (rebuilt 1970). Sandstone. General impression massive, squat, and unpleasing. 3 ft 11 ins high, shaft 1 ft 4 ins wide at base, 11 ins at top, 2 ft 10 ½ ins across arms. Thickness decreases from 11 ½ ins bottom, to 8 ins top.

PLATE 122B: CLONFEACLE CROSS (FROM NORTH-WEST).

East side: carefully finished and smoothed. In highest plane Latin cross of angular outline and unlovely proportions. [787] Cut back about 2 ins below this plane is small, solid ‘ring’ (in fact rather angular), and projections from ring along top of arms, up and down shaft. Cross head leans slightly northwards. Traces of letters on shaft – ‘O’ left and ‘V’ right, but no coherent inscription; perhaps added.

PLATE 122C: CLONFEACLE CROSS (FROM SOUTH). PLATE 122A: CLONFEACLE CROSS (FROM EAST).

Base: two stones mortared together; probably from Bigger’s time.

West side: rougher, still shows marks of hammerdressing. Ring and projections less carefully worked: cut back somewhat on shaft under arms (1 to 1 ½ ins), less on ring, and above arms and upper shaft projections flush with main cross.

On west and south sides of cross on lower arc of ring is vein of hard stone (quartz?) standing out, probably accentuated by weathering. Cross may be unfinished. Keane 1867, 358: ‘One ancient Cross, without sculpture or inscription, stands as the headstone of a grave, about eight yards from the west wall of the Chapel. There are no other interesting relics of antiquity.’

North and south sides: main features are ring and projections and marked thinning of cross at top. Small hole on south side of shaft. 376

Davies, O., in U.J.A. 1 (1938), 89, description and rather over-simplified drawing; Roe 1956, 84-5 (reports formerly prostrate at ‘Nine Wells’ nearby), p1. VI, poor photo labelled ‘East side’ shows west).

Probably medieval. In 1966 set in concrete north of north gable of chapel. [788] Now (1971) greatly altered:sawn off to height of only 1 ft 1 in. and top used as holy water stoup in porch of new chapel set on new base. When intact stood 1 ft 10 ins high, external diameter at mouth 1 ft 4 ½ ins, internal 11 ½ ins, and depth 12 ½ ins. Rather barrel-shaped. Outside roughly shaped, pocked, unsmoothed surface. Carefully smoothed at mouth and inside. Sandstone. Unpublished.

ii) CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 82c).

iv) Modern BULLAUN (P1. 135b). In neglected west area of graveyard flat grave slab, table-top type, broken across well-formed hole, diameter 7¼ ins, 3 ins deep, with very smooth sides. No lettering traceable on slab, but clearly recent (eighteenth or nineteenth century). Man, aged 4 in 1966, remembered people coming to hole for wart cures by putting pins in hole (which presumably collected water) and pricking warts. Not previously noted.

FIG. 82C: CLONFEACLE – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Reported by Roe dug up in graveyard by sexton, but I have been unable to discover its present whereabouts. About 1 ft 6 ins long by 1 ft 1 ½ ins, thickness unknown. Rectangular and rough except upper surface dressed smooth. Seems from photo to be carved with outline Latin cross with widely flaring limbs in relief. Ref:

Roe 1956, 85, p1. VI, lower. PLATE 135B: CLONFEACLE – MODERN BULLAUN STONE.

iii) FONT (P1. 134a).

v) WELL. ‘O.S. Lists’ mention holy well (no name given) about 30 chains nort-northeast of Clonfeacle Rectory, locally believed to cure eye troubles. O.S. 61. Not visited. Refs:

as above and Leslie 1911, 186-7; drawing of site by Wakeman (July 1879) reproduced in S.A. 2, no. 1 (1956), facing 78, also in O’Hanlon, Lives of Irish Saints, 3, 735; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 32.

235.

Clonoe parish, Killary Glebe townland (A). O.S. 47; H/871677.

Medieval parish; early history unknown. Mayes (1951) gives Comgall as patron but no source. Present parish church with details of c. 1700 may incorporate earlier work, in graveyard. SITE: just over 150 ft on slight local eminence in fairly flat surroundings; gentle slope to river ¼ mile to south. NO EARLY MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE, but report of CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 83d) from Clonoe parish. PLATE 134A: CLONFEACLE – FONT.

377

[790] 237. DESERTCREAT parish and townland (A). O.S. 38; H/813733. Patron and early history unknown. Medieval parish church. Church of Diseart Dá Chrioch burned 1195 (M.I.A) and battle at Disert-da-crich 1281 (A.U.). Parish church and graveyard thought to be on early site. SITE: about 250 ft, east-facing valley side above (close to crossing of) Killymoon River. Area round church markedly raised and to southeast this has rounded outline. Tullaghoge fort in this parish. MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (Fig. 83a). FIG. 83D: CLONOE – CROSS-C ARED STONE (LOST/DESTROYED).

[789] Source (for which I am indebted to Richard Haworth, and for transcription) is note pasted into John Bell’s notebook, vol. 3, 54 (Glasgow University Library, Farmer Collection, Bi.22.Z.26): ‘Seems to be a basalt stone. The upper or other side smooth [?] was used for beetling yarn and cloth upon. In the possession of Charles Turloch O’Neil parish of Clonoe about 50 perches from the Mountjoy Castle time immemorial the crosses and found inscribed on the underside said to have been there since the time of St. Patrick’. Added in different hand ‘Millagharoly or Magheralamfald, P. of Clonoe’. No measurements given. Accompanying sketch shows trapezoidal stone with six linear crosses, all equal-armed with crossbar terminals. Large one at centre, four small ones at corners, and another small cross above centre one. Is this an altar stone? I have not yet been able to pursue this in the field. Mountjoy Castle is in Magheralamfield townland at H/902687, and Magheralamfield, Mullaghtirory and Crosshanna are subdivisions of townland (O.S. 47). Refs:

Leslie 1911, 200; P.S. 1940, 245, and U.J.A. 4 (1941), 44. Hogan suggests ‘Enach Ceir’ of M.T. (Diuir at 19 May) and ‘Enach Eir’ in M.G. may be Annagher in Clonoe parish.

236.

DERRYLORAN parish, Glebe townland (A). O.S. 38; H/805768.

FIG. 83A: DESERTCREAT – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

Set prominently 37 ft northwest of northwest corner of nave, at edge of path. Large boulder, basalt, edges very worn, top polished (by kneeling, see below). Roughly rectangular but irregular outline, upper surface 2 ft 4 ins east-west, by 1 ft 8 ins thick. On upper surface equalarmed cross, rough, probably pecked, but surface very cracked and details difficult to see. Three of arms have cross-bar terminals; fourth unclear. Not in situ. I first learned of stone from letter to Reeves, dated Feb. 1848 (Armagh Public Library, Reeves Mss.), from rector of Tullaghoge. He described stone at roadside near Desertcreat House called ‘Columbkill’ s Stone’, marked with rudely scratched cross on upper surface and smooth from kneeling Roman Catholics. Small sketch rather too regular and symmetrical, but clearly same stone. Reported dug up and moved to Church of Ireland church within last five years. Unpublished.

Patron Luran at 29 October in M.T., M.G. ‘bishop’, and M.D. Obits of erenaghs 1123 (A.U.) and 1136 (A.F.M.). Church of Doire Loráin plundered 1195 (M.I.A.). Medieval parish. Extensive church ruin (largely fifteenth or sixteenth century with some re-used material) in neglected graveyard. SITE: just under 200 ft, on south bank of (and above) Ballinderry River, overlooked by higher ground to south.

Refs:

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1850, 55; Leslie 1911, 220.

[791] (Domnach Caoide, see DONAGHEDY)

Leslie 1911, 214; U.J.A. 5 (1942), 8-11; Devlin 1955 suggests Derryloran may be ‘Domnach Libuir’ of T.L.P., but admits he finds no evidence to support his suspicion; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 379.

(Domnach Conaoidh, see DONAGHANIE) (Domnach Fainre, see DONAGHENRY) 378

(Domnach Fothirbe, see BALLYCLOG) (Domnach Maeláin, see ‘Drumcath’) (Domnach Mór DONAGHMORE)

Maige

Imchlair,

see

(Domnach Riascad, see DONAGHRISK) (Domnach Rigduinn, see ARDTREA.)

238.

DONACAVEY parish and townland (C). O.S. 51; H/446630.

Early history and patron unknown, but included among certainly early sites on grounds of place-name. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ reports tradition Patrick founded church. Medieval parish church. Ruined church (incorporates reused ashlar) in crowded graveyard: high oval nucleus within modern rectangular wall.

FIG. 83E: DONACAVEY CROSS SHAFT (AFTER DAVIES 1941)

SITE: over 350 ft, prominent hillock on north-south ridge overlooking valley of Quiggery Water to east.

[792] Davies in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 144 and fig. 1a on p. 140, shows regular rectangular outline with series of individual large motifs in upper half of shaft: from bottom simple quadripartite interlaced knot, four-petalled ‘flower’ motif, crude angular fretwork and some aimless curvilinear motifs. Local people told me shaft broken some years ago by landrover or tractor and pieces mysteriously disappeared. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ noted cross - ‘Close to the Church is a fragment of an ancient stone cross, which an old dame living close to the church stated that she remembered entire: it is not remarkable either for size or beauty of sculpture.’

MATERIAL: i) CROSS BASE of uncertain date (Pl. 131b). About 250 ft east-southeast of graveyard on north side of lane leading to church, deep in hedge. Two stones, both sandstone. Front: block 2 ft 4 ½ ins east-west by 1 ft 5 ins and 10 ins high. Broken on west side. Clear chisel-dressing on surface. Behind: stone with socket, 2 ft 7 ins east-west by 11 ins. Height obscured. Socket 11 ins east-west by 7 ins and 7 ins deep. Broken away at front (broken piece loose nearby). Pop of stone and socket chisel-dressed. Stillfrequented: many offerings in socket hole. P.S. 1940, 247, describes CROSS SHAFT (Fig. 83e), ‘St. Patrick’s Cross’, 3 ft 8 ins high by 10 ¾ ins by 7 ins, with socket in top.

Refs:

Davies in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 144

ii) BULLAUN. Crozier and Rea (1940, 112) mention in passing double perforated bullaun here, but I have not found it on two visits. Father Gallagher has also looked and not found it. No further details. Refs:

Leslie 1929, 169; Ó Gallachair, P. ‘The Parish of Donaghcavey’ in C.R. 7, no. 2 (1970), 251-320.

239.

DONAGHANIE townland, formerly Termonmaguirk parish (now Clogherny) (A). O.S. 43; H/504682.

Early history and patron unknown, but strong local Patrician traditions and included amongst certainly early sites on grounds of place-name (as Donacavey, above). Place-name often explained as ‘Domnach an Eich’ (‘Church of the Horse’ - see tradition, below). Father McDermott in S.A. 2, no. 2 (1957) suggests derivation from Patrick’s follower, Conaed (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 175), ‘Domnach Conaoidh’. Was medieval chapel. ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’ records tradition of fight between Patrick’s horse and reptile in nearby lough, also pattern at Loughpatrick first Sunday in August, much frequented formerly by people of all denominations, 1ess now (1834).

PLATE 131B: DONACAVEY – CROSS-BASE.

379

[793] East window of church and foundations then visible. Now disused, terribly neglected graveyard. No sign of church unless partly incorporated into graveyard wall.

[794] 241. DONAGHENRY parish, Glebe townland (A). O.S. 39; H/837720. Identified with one of Patrick’s seven churches in Uí Tuirtri: ‘Domnach-Fainre’ (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 169). Early history otherwise unknown. Medieval parish church: in 1306 Taxation ‘Anathfatheri’. Church site grass-grown but very marked hollow with much loose rubble all over graveyard. In good vegetation conditions traces of ENCLOSURE visible within modern graveyard wall, but uncertain how early. Tops of large buried stones, very clear to east, visible on north, scattered stones on west and slight traces south, interference from burials. Shape at corners not very clear: probably rectangle with rounded corners, Raised area of burials bounded by these stones.

SITE: just over 350 ft, hilltop in drumlin country, ⅓ mile southwest of Loughpatrick. MATERIAL: BULLAUN (Pl. 130a). ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’ reports at time of August pattern: ‘A stone in the church bearing on it the supposed mark of Saint Patrick’s knee, is circumambulated’. This may be stone now sunk in ground and immovable in west part of graveyard, 3 ft 10 ins inside southwest wall, close to private grave enclosure in west corner. Stone at surface 1 ft 5 ins north-south by 1 ft 8 ins, unknown thickness. Hole near centre, 9 ins north-south by 9 ½ ins east-west, 3 ½ ins deep, sides fairly evenly sloping. Unpublished.

SITE: under 200 ft, rather flat in area of gentle hills, with streams nearby to north and east. NO EARLY MATERIAL. O.S. mark ‘Friars Well’ 100 yards north of graveyard, also standing stone to north, and local story of passage from rectory to church (possible souterrain?).

U.J.A. 10 (1904), 39-40, for Patrician traditions and story of horse; Leslie 1911, 180; McDermott, M., op. cit. above.

240.

DONAGHEDY parish, Bunowen townland (D). O.S. 3; C/454045.

242.

DONAGHMORE parish and townland (A). O.S. 46; H/768653.

[795] M.G has Colomb at 6 September glossed ‘of Ross Glanda. ‘Glan’ (“pure”) was the name of a well that was there before Patrick, and Donmach Mór Maige Imchlair is its name today. In Tyrone it is’; also Columb glossed ‘priest of Domnach Mór Maige Imchlair’ at 4 June. M.D. at both dates too. But ‘Colum sac. [glossed] of C1úain Emain’ at 4 June in M.T. (probably Cloonowen near Athlone). Entries all presumably refer to same Colum. Early history otherwise obscure.

‘Domnach Caoide’ suggests Patrician connection. Patron Caoide, however, appears only in late sources: M.D. at 25 October and p. 373, ‘Caoide, abbot, of Domhnach-Caoide in Tír-Eogain. His church, his bell and his staff are preserved.’ Colgan associates Caoide with Donaghedy at 28 October (1645, 162) and suggests he was companion of Columbanus. No early references. Medieval parish with erenaghs in early seventeenth century. Ruined church and graveyard.

Entry in M.I.A. at 1195 suggests some kind of communal establishment: ‘The churches of Domhnach Mór, the refectory (‘proinnteach’) of Cruimthear Coluim ... were burned.’ Parochial in 1306; said in record of taxation to have many costly shrines (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 34). Rectory held by Culdees in 1469 and early seventeenth century (Reeves 1864, 104, and U.J.A. 4 (1898), 216).

SITE: magnificent, over 300 ft, high on cliff above Altinaghree Burn, flowing west to Burn Dennet, in area of many lakes and bogs. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Nothing more heard of ‘bell’ and ‘staff’ (see above). O.S. mark ‘St. Columbkille’s Well’ in Church Hill townland, ⅜ miles north-northeast of church. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 294; Leslie 1911, 228; Devlin 1955.

‘Tripartite Life’ tells how Patrick: ‘went to the Men of Imchlar, and he baptised and blessed them. He left Presbyter Colum with them, and with him Patrick’s book of ritual and his bell’ (Stokes 1887, 171). Colomb ‘of bright Ross Glandae’ at 6 September in M.O, with several possible candidates in glosses including ‘Colum of Domnach mór Maige Imchlair’, also M.T. ‘from Ros’.

PLATE 130A: DONAGHANIE – BULLAUN STONE. Refs:

Refs:

Crowded disused graveyard thought to be on early site, but much built up all around. SITE (Fig. 78b): under 350 ft, promontory between two branches of Torren River.

Reeves 1850, 70 and 73; Leslie 1937, 190-4; P.S. 1940, 214.

380

east and west faces: within angle rolls as follows - thin fillet, pellets, thicker fillet, pellets, innermost thin fillet which on west side turns to form frames for figure scenes but is continuous, not broken (i.e. scenes linked by mouldings). East side scenes divided by plain horizontal lines, not linked to edge mouldings. Figure carvings in quite high relief, but weathered. East side: from bottom, figure either side and three animals between (Annunciation to Shepherds); four figures, three standing, one sitting with child (Adoration of Magi); Baptism; Miracle at Cana (?). West side: Adam and Eve, tree with dangling branches; Cain, centre, killing Abel, left, with another figure right; Sacrifice of Isaac; base only of broken panel (two figures?).

FIG. 78B: DONAGHMORE – HILLTOP SITE.

MATERIAL: i) Report of MASONRY. Devlin (1957, 427) reports when clearing done in graveyard in 1954 traces of building seen, perhaps church. No measurements but seemed small. When graves dug sometimes substantial foundations encountered.

North and south sides seem same, though north more weathered. Treated as single long panel. Mouldings angle roll, pellets and fillet. Decoration in false relief, bold geometric forms linked by continuous fillet. From bottom D-shaped frame with perhaps animal inside; diamond shaped frame with interlace in cruciform pattern; circular frame with bossed spirals; diamond, again with cruciform interlace. Linking fillet continues up to break.

ii) CROSSES (Pls. 123a-b, and Pl. 124a). Present cross outside graveyard is composite, made up of parts of two (popularly three, from different parts of parish). Said thrown down in seventeenth century (Devlin suggests 1602 more likely than 1641) and set up by rector Richard Vincent who died 1774 (so not in 1776 as Lewis 1837, I, 469, followed by many others). Devlin traces details history of cross (1957, 428). All parts of sandstone.

PLATE 123B: DONAGHMORE – BASE (WEST SIDE). PLATE 123A: DONAGHMORE CROSS – LOWER SHAFT (FROM NORTHWEST).

[796] Base (P1. 123b): large, single stone, with one step and rather irregular offset at base, standing 3 ft high. East side irregular but undecorated. West side rectangular panel sunk, and within it horseman facing right in bold false relief. Very little detail: probably unfinished. Nowhere illustrated.

Upper shaft: different size and different mouldings suggest this does not belong to shaft below (Pl. 124a). East side: edge roll and inner fillet. Very worn scene, Loaves and Fishes?; tall central figure between flanking figures (Arrest or Ecce Homo).

Lower shaft: at bottom slightly projecting plain collar into which angle rolls die. Very elaborate mouldings on 381

[797] Upper segments of ring and top of head missing. Head has hollowed intersections, pierced recessed ring with projections on inner circumference. Crucifixion at crossing; Christ’s feet seem tied, head supported by angels. Soldiers very elongated and distorted. Arms: small scenes with three figures. Projections on ring may be decorated but very worn.

hollowed stone in ‘sadly neglected and un-kemped’ graveyard, resorted to for wart cures. [798] Pins left in hollow. Seems no longer frequented.

West side: no figure scenes but more complex mouldings. Angular edge moulding and fillets framing and linking panels. Diamond figure of four large and two smaller bosses with linking lines; circular motif with very worn decoration; at crossing diamond-shaped figure with bosses and linking lines (H. Roe sees serpent heads). On arms rather shapeless forms, looking more zoomorphic than human. Ring and projections plain.

PLATE 124B: DONAGHMORE – BULLAUN STONE.

iv) HOLED STONE of uncertain date and purpose. In graveyard, about 15 ft from gate, to east of path. Polygonal piece of granite about 1 ft 2 ins high. Edges rough except upper surface smooth. Neatly worked hole, 4 ins diameter right through stone, becoming wider and deeper lower. I was unable to lift it to see other side. Not previously noted. v) WELLS. At least two holy wells in area, but I did not pursue them. See also gloss to M.G. above. vi) BELL known as ‘Bell of Clogher’, traditionally given to St. Mac Cairthinn by Patrick, formerly kept in Donaghmore parish by O’Mellan family. Petrie bought it from descendant of family and so it passed to R.I.A. and finally N.M.D. (no. p 1004). Cast bronze, 9 ¾ ins high including handle, 5 ⅝ by 4 ⅝ ins at mouth. Angular outline. Undecorated. ‘PATRICI’ on front and ‘1272’ on back later additions. Raftery suggests tenth century date. I am puzzled by Clogher association and would have expected bell kept at Donaghmore to have been (traditionally) Patrick’s bell given to Colum (see above).

PLATE 124A: DONAGHMORE CROSS – UPPER PART OF WEST SIDE.

North and south sides: edge moulding, pellets, inner fillet. Decoration similar to lower shaft. Under ring diamond figure with thread linking to another, continuing faintly on shaft. Under arms figure of eight moulding, loops filled with tripartite knots. Ends of arms upsidedown lizard-like animals shown as though from above. Refs:

Full treatment in Roe 1956, 85-7 pls VII-X; also Sexton 1946, 118-9, with earlier bibliography; P.S. 1940, 245; A.M.S.C. 1962, 73 and p1. 34.

Refs:

Coffey 1909, 66-7 and fig. 64; Mahr 1932, p1. 46; Raftery 1941, 144, with earlier bibliography; Leslie 1911, 233-4; Devlin 1956 and 1957, passim; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 34.

243.

DONAGHRISK townland, Desertcreat parish (A). O.S. 38; H/821739.

Identified with one of Patrick’s seven foundations in Uí Tuirtri ‘Domnach Riascad’ (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 169). But history unknown. Does not seem to have survived as parish church though listed in 1306 as ‘Dunaghcressca’. Leslie claims foundation in 1294 of priory here by O’Hagan family (source for Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 365) but gives no source.

iii) BULLAUN (Pl. 124b). In graveyard, about 120 ft north of gate. Polygonal stone with flattish surfaces to north, southeast and base. About 5 ft north-south by 3 ft 8 ins and 2 ft high. Large, neatly-worked depression, broken through to side of stone on north, 1 ft 4 ins northeast-southwest, by 1 ft 2 ins and 1 ft 1 in. deep. Side to southwest gentle slope; to northeast steep. Only previous reference Fennell, V.J., in U.J.A. 9 (1903), 37:

[799] Site of early establishment uncertain. Circular walled graveyard enclosure seems fairly recent (O’Hagan

382

family tombs). Well 300 ft northeast known as ‘Friars’ Well’.

barony as ‘Kilquoyny’, and 1743 ‘Kildrum otherwise Kilconne’. Argues church name probably ‘CillCoinnigh’, church of Coinneach, and only Coinneach (Cainnech) of Aghaboe (Co. Laios) and Drumachose (Co. Londonderry) has north connections. Graveyard believed used until 1712, later ploughed.

SITE: over 200 ft, flat, overlooked by, and ¼ mile southwest of, Tullaghoge fort. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 294; Leslie 1911, 220; Devlin 1955.

244.

Dromore parish and townland (C). O.S. 50; H/349627.

SITE: now under pasture, over 300 ft, on hilltop with tributary of Owenreagh River down slope to south and east. No surface traces. Excavation practicable and potentially interesting. Refs:

Nature and site of earliest church in area uncertain. Earliest reference to church in parish seems to be 1521 (De Annates Hiberniae) and in Plantation records notable absence of early terminology - erenagh, coarb, termon. Church reported ruinous 1622, may be at Kildrum, see below. Ruined eighteenth-century church and graveyard in village, but doubtful if this site occupied before Plantation. This is commanding promontory, just under 400 ft, with steep slopes to north, east and south (but see also Kildrum, below).

Leslie 1929, 178; P.S. 1940, 246-7; P. ÓG. [Father Gallagher] in Dromore Parish Bulletin (Jan.-Dec. 1970), 1-3 on Kildrum. I am also indebted to Father Gallagher for Information about the cross. Material in Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 381, under Dromore has no connection whatsoever with the parish and is probably based on Lewis 1837, I, 509.

[801] 245. ‘Drumcath’. ‘Ecc. de Drumcath’ listed 1306 Taxation in Armagh diocese. Reeves in Ms. notes (Armagh Public Library) points out rectory of parish church of ‘Drumgaa’ united with Derryloran 1449 because so close (‘Primate Mey’s Register’). Earlier history unknown, but further placename study might be helpful. Could this be ‘Domnach Maeláin’ of T.L.P. (Stokes 887, 169, and Devlin 1955)? Reeves suggests identification with Drumcraw townland, Derryloran parish, O.S. 30; H/835787. O.S. (1857) marks no site but church site still remembered, on farm of Mr. McIvor, northwest of farmhouse in second field from road. Raised area about 2 ft above general level, runs for bout 110 ft east-west along hedge and extends about 30 ft north from hedge where obviously nibbled by plough but roughly circular outline. Mound must have extended into adjoining fields, but levelled. No stonework visible within memory of resent occupants (about 25 years). Many stones in nearby field banks in generally not stony area. Farmhouse said to be built of stones from church, but nothing of interest visible. R.A.F. air photo, taken May 1952 (sortie 540/740, 10. 3191) shows nothing more than features visible on ground.

NO EARLY MATERIAL, but reports of CROSS. O. S. confused matters by marking ‘Cross’ on 1857 edition map, on Cross Hill, northwest of graveyard, but clearly should be ‘site of’ as in ‘O.S. Lists’ (p. 58). Unhappy history of cross traced through ‘The Omagh Almanac’ 1896, 207: ‘On the highest point of the hill a stone cross stood, from which the ancient name of the town was derived [Mullinacross], facing the east, in the centre of an altar, made of stones and earth ... The cross stood there until the beginning of the present [nineteenth] century, when a man who rented the land objected to its being kept there, and broke it. [800] It was repaired by William Stewart and re-erected, but was treated in a worse manner a few nights after, when Mr. Stewart had some of the larger pieces brought to his residence in Dromore. A piece of the cross, about the size of a small gravestone, was dug up last year [1895] while some repairs were being done to the house formerly belonging to Mr. Stewart, and the inscriptions on it are quite distinct. McKenna, in pamphlet ‘The Parish of Dromore’ (Enniskillen, 1921, 10) repeats much of this information, adding cross traditionally marked ‘the spot where Patrick rested for a night on one of his journeys from Armagh to Lough Derg. He had seen the so-called ‘cross fragment’, and had no doubt it was a seventeenth or eighteenth-century gravestone.

SITE: very fine ridge-top, over 200 ft, with extensive views. Excavation would be possible. NO EARLY MATERIAL, and no bibliography. 246.

‘DRUMFADD’.

‘Ecc. de Drumfadd’ listed 1306 Taxation in Armagh diocese. Reeves in Ms. notes (Armagh Public Library) discusses history.

This stone rediscovered about 1960 and taken to the curate’s house, Cross Hill, where it is still. It can have nothing to do with the cross, which seems irretrievably lost.

[802] Rectors mentioned in fifteenth century Registers. 1441 rector deprived and benefice united with Ballyclog because nearby. Early seventeenth century inquisition lists erenagh land of ‘Drumfadda’ in parish of Ballinacloige. This suggests was early foundation, later parish church, but patron and history unknown. Site not identified. Reeves suggested Drumad townland, Tamlaght

Father Gallagher argues for church site in Kildrum townland being earlier church in parish. O.S. 50; H/375628, marked 268A on maps. Locally Church Hill. 1609 Map marks church in ‘Kieldrum’ (probably roofed). Listed in about 1608 among church lands in Omagh 383

parish, O.S. 39, area of H/915758. Elderly local people in townland know of no church or graveyard in area. O.S. mark nothing. 247.

Derrygortreavy (Leslie 1911, 210). History obscure and patron unknown. Medieval parish church may be site of Roman Catholic church and graveyard at Eglish hamlet, Roan townland. O.S. 61; H/782565.

Drumglass parish, Rossmore townland (A). O.S. 46; H/797647.

SITE is considerable eminence, under 200 ft, on ridge with Oona Water (tributary of Blackwater) to west and smaller tributary to east. Modern parish church at Derrygortreavy is in a rath.

Medieval parish church but patron and early history unknown. Neglected graveyard with fragment of wall and two medieval carved stones (jamb and finial (?): U.J.A. 4 (1941), 41 and fig. 1c). Graveyard oval about 115 ft north-south by 150 ft east-west.

NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

SITE: between 300 and 350 ft, hill slope on west-facing hill. Surroundings much altered and disfigured by quarrying.

[804] 250. ERRIGAL KEEROGUE parish, Gort townland (A). O.S. 59; H/585570.

MATERIAL: Report of possible BULLAUN. Hutchinson (1951, 21) mentions stone in graveyard with ‘imprint of St. Patrick’s knee and crosier’, perhaps a bullaun, but I could not find it. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 271.

248.

DRUMRAGH parish and townland (D). O. S. 43; H/437698.

‘Airegal-da-chiarog’: patron Dachiarog or Ciaran, but uncertain which saint of this name (patron day unrecorded). A.U. gives obit of abbot and scribe (810), and abbot (838). Medieval parish church with erenaghs; high valuation 1306. Destroyed with other churches 1380 (M.I.A.). Extensive ivy-covered ruin of church in crowded graveyard. Graveyard markedly higher at west end. SITE (P1. 1a): over 350 ft, prominent ridge, overlooked by ridge to north, but overlooking Blackwater valley to south.

Patron, according to Leslie, Columba, but unknown source and not listed by Reeves (1857, 276-85). O.S. 1834 Memoir reports Columban tradition. McShane (op. cit. below) also mentions traditional link with Ardstraw area. But nothing in early sources. Medieval parish church with erenaghs in early seventeenth century.

MATERIAL: (ROUND TOWER. Shaw Mason (1819, 155) makes it clear tower was at Franciscan friary site, not old church: ‘The foundations of a round tower were to be seen there within ten years, but now, even the ruins have disappeared.’

[803] Ruined church in neglected graveyard. SITE: between 250 and 300 ft, valley side, close to (south of) Drumragh river, with bridge nearby to northeast.

This was site in Ballynasaggart townland, near modern Church of Ireland church (Shaw Mason says partly built from friary ruins) at H/599570, Unfortunately other writers have transferred tower to old church site, e.g. P.S. 1940, 254 and, recently, Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 384. I see no reason to suppose this was an early round tower.)

MATERIAL: BELL associated with parish, now kept at Church of Sacred Heart, Omagh. Described in ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’: 9 ins long, dug up by ancestors of McAnkill (sic) family in neighbourhood of graveyard, handed down to eldest of family and rung at funerals. Family claimed descent from Columba. Published by Milligan (1903, 535, pie on p. 54). Known as the ‘Black Bell’ (‘Clog Dhu’) hereditary keepers McEnhill family. Cast bronze, 7 ¼ ins high, with handle 9 ¼ ins, 5 by 4 ¼ ins at mouth, with clapper. Angular profile. Mentioned (no detail) in Allen 1904, 199, and Stokes, M. 1928, 52 (where wrongly described as of iron). Refs:

Leslie 1911, 210; Beatty, W.J., duplicated booklet on Derrygortreavy parish, 1933 (copy in Armagh Museum).

McShane, J., pamphlet A Record of the Parish of Drumragh (1930), passim; Leslie 1937, 212; P.S. 1940, 243; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 382.

(Druim Dubain, see under CLOGHER) 249.

Eglish.

PLATE 1A: ERRIGAL KEEROGUE – TOPOGRAPHY OF SITE.

Seems to have been medieval parish in Armagh diocese, later united with Clonfeacle, then separated and called

i) CROSS (Pl. 125a). West of west-end of ruined church. Sandstone. Odd general impression; called 384

Refs:

‘primitive’ (A.M.S.C. 1962, 78) and ‘archaic’ (Crawford 1907, 199) but clearly unfinished, so present appearance misleading. At least 6 ft 10 ins high. Shaft 10 ins to 1 ft 1 in. wide and 1 ft 3 ins thick, decreasing to only 7 ½ ins at top. Large solid ringed head, arms project only about 1 in. 2 ft 10 ins across arms.

Marshall, J.J., ‘Clochar na Righ’ (1930), 74.

(Other material, none of it certainly within my chronological limits). 1) Grotesque female figure - sheela-na-gig, in Ulster Museum. Reported from Ballygawley; thought to be from Errigal Keerogue. A very unattractive example of its (unpleasant) kind.

[805] Top of shaft projects 1 ft 1 in. above ring. East side: ring and hollowed intersection of arms marked out lightly but stone not cut back. Good light needed to see at all clearly. West side: at centre flat boss, diameter 7 ½ ins, within square of setting-out lines (two below boss). No sign of circle on this side.

2) Various stones. Marshall (op. cit., 75): ‘When sinking graves in the old churchyard numerous dressed stones have from time to time been brought to light - portions of corbels, pillars and even sculptured heads.’

North and south sides undecorated; main feature is marked thinning of shaft above ring when seen in profile (P1. 1a). Clear flaw in stone above arm on south side.

[806] Some stones in large collection at Favour Royal, Co. Tyrone, said to come from here. I saw nothing there clearly before c. 1200, though there are several later pieces.

‘O.S. Lists’ report cross said to have been over principal door of church: sounds highly unlikely. Perhaps another stone, now lost.

3) Lower of two fonts in Ballynasaggart Church of Ireland church (Pl. 137a). Inverted and used as base to upper (sixteenth or seventeenth century?) font. Sandstone. 1 ft 1 in, high, upper circumference 3 ft 2 ins lower 4 ft 10 ½ ins. Mouth (at bottom now and obscured by cement) rectangle with rounded corners, south side, 1 ft 7 ins long; north, 1 ft 5 ins; east. and west, 1 ft 1 in. Rounded outline at bases. Sides decorated with pecked circles with central sunken dot, some linked by pecked line. A puzzling piece: I can find no good Early Christian parallels for decoration which seems to have more in common with megalithic art (cf. Sesskilgreen nearby), yet a font is not a prehistoric type, and this is hardly a ‘basin’ of New Grange type. Unknown provenance: Ballynasaggart friary or Errigal Keerogue suggested. P.S. 1940, 254, brief account. Nowhere illustrated or fully discussed.)

PLATE 125A: ERRIGAL KEEROGUE – CROSS. Refs:

Roe 1956, 88 and p1. XI.

ii) BULLAUN. O.S. marks ‘St. Kieran’s Stone’ 3 chains west of church. In ‘OS. Lists’ said to have indentations and to have been part of St. Kieran’s altar. I did not find this, but Davies, O., in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 41, describes rough irregular boulder, about 2 ft cubed, with two probably artificial hollows, to north about 9 ins deep, to south shallower but wider iii) WELL. O.S. marks ‘St. Kieran’s Well’ on north side of church, northeast of church, formerly resorted to for wart cures. PLATE 137A: BALLYNASAGGART FONT (FROM ERRIGAL KEEROGUE?).

385

Refs:

Shaw Mason 1819, 137 f; Marshall, op. cit. above, 74-5; Roe 1956 gives sketch by Wakeman of site, also in O’Hanlon Lives of Irish Saints, vol. 5, 116; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 384, unfortunately perpetuate two errors: for round tower see above, and ‘... said founded by St. Macartin (d. 506): Lewis’. Lewis (1837, I, 609) gives very muddled account, partly based on Shaw Mason. Shaw Mason confuses Errigal with Oriel and so Errigal Keerogue with Clogher (where Rathmore sometimes called Rath Oriel). Father MacDermott in S.A., 2 no. 2 (1957) suggests ‘Cill Mór Magh Enir’ in this parish. Father Gallagher in C.R. 7 no. 2 (1970), 284-5, locates it in townland of Grange (medieval ‘Grange of Moyenner’). This church sometimes confused with Kilmore (Co. Armagh, q.v.). Obit of abbot 750; obit 770; obit of bishop and abbot 812; erenagh and vice-abbot injured 818; obit of bishop 842; plundered by Vikings 874 (all A.U). I have not yet been able to pursue this in the field. Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 39, obscure rather than clarify.

252.

GLENARB (Clonarb) townland, Aghaloo parish (A). O.S. 71 (formerly 67); H/7671177.

‘The sons of Ua Slainge’ at 17 May associated with Clúana (M.T.) (Cluain Airb (gloss to M.G. and M.D.)). Nothing else known of early history. Site of grange of SS. Peter and Paul, Armagh at dissolution. Site levelled and cultivated mid-nineteenth century. Reeves describes previous state: circular elevation, well-defined, uneven because of graves. Many bones found when levelled and ploughed but no trace of buildings (1883-4, 428-30). [808] Now pasture; excavation practicable, though probably much disturbed and precise spot uncertain (nothing visible on R.A.F. air photograph).

[807] 251. Findermore townland, Clogher parish (C). O.S. 58; H/517512.

SITE: over 150 ft, prominent hilltop or gentle northfacing slope, ¼ mile west of River Blackwater.

Identified with hill where Patrick preached, according to ‘Tripartite Life’: ‘Thereafter Patrick went into Lemain [another name for the Clogher Valley]. “Findabair” is the name of the hill on which Patrick preached’ for three days and nights to a congregation which included Brigid (Stokes 1887, 177).

MATERIAL: CROSSES. Lewis (1837, I, 93) ‘numerous stone crosses have been discovered’. Reeves (op. cit., 1428): ‘seven such monuments ... reported to have stood here’. Parts of four crosses known, none in situ. 1) Caledon Demesne (Pl. 125b). Moved from Glenarb about 1872 by Earl of Caledon and set over well north of Caledon House (at H/7531440). Was last to be moved: marked at Glenarb by O.S. on first and second edition six inch maps. Set in large mossy boulder. Composite: heavy shaft, much small head. Both coarse hard sandstone.

No question of church here, simply site of celebrated event. Site is prominent hilltop over 300 ft within sight of another hill with another standing stone to west. MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (Pl. 127a and Fig. 82a). Sandstone, probably standing stone. 4 ft 9 ins high, maximum 2 ft thick, 1 ft 8 ins wide. Roughly trapezoidal in plan with smooth south face, possibly slightly dressed. Cross on south face. Latin outline cross in false relief, formed by well-marked pecked outer groove and hollowing out inside. This false relief cross partly broken away: only survives in parts. Top member splays, arms seem straight-sided, stem very unclear.

PLATE 125B: GLENARB CROSS (AT CALEDON).

Shaft: heavy, 4 ft high, decreasing slightly in width upwards. Angle rolls with small inner moulding defining single, long rectangular panel on each face. Middle of each side large circular medallion in low relief with worn surface decoration. I could not see this at all clearly; Roe (1955, 84) suggests eastern eight segments with fine

PLATE 127A: FINDERMORE – CROSS-CARVED STONE. (LEFT); & FIG. 82A: FINDERMORE – CROSS-C ARVED STONE. (RIGHT) Refs:

P.S. 19110, 252, only account I have found. Nowhere illustrated.

386

angular fret; western low bossed spirals round central spiral boss; southern perhaps interlace; northern cruciform motif with spiral terminals. Collar at top projects (chamfered out) with angle roll and inner fillet and (Roe) traces of decoration on panels. Head: solid recessed ring without projections on ring. Arms hardly project, though damaged. This damage probably responsible for impression of very stumpy arms which Reeves disliked, rather than original design. Edge roll and inner fillet defined by incised line. Arcs of ring plain. Large, circular boss at crossing on east and west sides with very worn decoration. Refs:

North and south sides: at top of shaft lozenge-shaped motifs with decoration, moulding extending as ‘thread’ under ring and arms. Ends of arms slightly bevelled with plain rectangular panels. Refs:

Reeves 1883-4, 422, fig. on p. 421; P.S. 1940, p1. 12; Roe 1956, 111-2, pl. facing 112 and p1. VI.

3) Tynan Abbey - the ‘Island Cross’ (at H/757417) (P1. 126b). Also from Glenarb. Now on island in damp and leafy surroundings. Base and lowest part of shaft modern (now about 7 ft 6 ins high). Rather angular edge roll with inner fillet defined by groove. Shaft undecorated. Large head with open ring without projections.

Reeves 1883-4, 426-7, but Wakeman’s drawing p. 247, many mistakes and omissions; P.S. 1940, p1. 53; Roe 1956, 84, p1. V shows east side.

[809] 2) Tynan Abbey - the ‘Well Cross’ (at H/760429) (Pl. 126a). Brought from Glenarb by Sir James Stronge in last century. Set up over well where picturesque but damp so heavy lichen. Original height unknown (now 8 ft) because base and lower part of shaft new. Mouldings edge roll and inner fillet; main faces of cross slightly sunk with motifs in low false relief. Solid recessed ring with semi-circular projections on inner circumference.

[810] East side: at crossing large circular medallion enclosed by double roll moulding. Lively pattern of bossed spirals, all in quite high relief. Arcs of ring richly decorated with interlace and spirals. West side: similar roundel at centre with more complicated, less weathered bossed spirals. Ring undecorated except for edge mouldings. North and south sides: central raised moulding under ring and plain rectangular panel on ends of arms. Head clearly lacks finial.

PLATE 126A: GLENARB – ‘WELL CROSS’

PLATE 126B: GLENARB – ‘ISLAND CROSS’ AT TYNAN.

West side: upper shaft rectangular panel in frame with Adam and Eve (clear only in good light). Small hole in top of frame. Crossing: Crucifixion, badly worn, but soldiers visible and spear. Arms seem plain (though lichen) but top member circular medallion in frame. Mouldings run off top of shaft, clearly lacking another stone or finial. Ring decorated with running spirals and interlace.

Refs:

Reeves 1883-4, 419, 422 and figs on pp. 418, 419, 410 (not accurate in details); P.S. 1940, p1. 10; Roe 1956, 112, pls VII and VIII; Reeves 1883-4, 412-30, important account of site and crosses; other references as above.

253.

GLENNOO townland, Clogher parish (C). O. S. 68; H/496429.

O.S. (1857) marks church site as ‘Killycawna’. Also known as ‘Temple Cill na Cashna’ (McKenna 1920, II, 156, and 99 year old lady at nearby farm in 1966). Probably to be identified with ‘Glannumha’: ‘The chapel of Glannumha called Teampollmaole belonged to the church of Clownish [Clones] formerly’ (Ó Maolagain, P.,

East side: more worn and less easy to see. Small hole in shaft below ring. Lozenge-shaped motif at crossing projecting as ‘thread’ to arms to form D-shape. Interlace on ring and worn decoration on projections. 387

in C.R. 2 no. 2 (1958), 291, from an early eighteenth century Ms. ‘History of Fermanagh’). Also mentioned in seventeenth-century Ms. ‘McGuidhir Fhearmanach’ (ed. Ó Duinnín, P., Dublin, 1917, 76): ‘and the chapel of Teampull Mhaoil an Ghleanna which belongs to the Parish church of Cluaineois’. Claimed consecrated by Tigernach: Ó Maolagain, op. cit. above, 290, ‘Killtiernaigh church and the two chapels of Domhnaugh and Glanumha were also consecrated by St. Tyernagh. The tearmonaghs, muintir Treassy; the patron day April the 4th’.

Large block of greenish-grey (sand?) stone south of church, close to southwest corner, reported moved from against church. 1 ft 10 ins high, 2 ft 4 ins wide and 1 ft 10 ins thick. Faces to south and east carefully dressed; west side broken, and north obscured. Oval hole, carefully worked, 1 ft 2 ins east-west, by 1 ft north-south and 6 ins deep with maximum depth to southeast of centre. Not frequented.

[811] Appears on 1606 Escheated Counties Map as ‘Templemoyle’; in 1609 Inquisition as ‘Temple Mullaghlanna’ (McKenna 1920, I, 180); and in 1654 Civil Survey as ‘Glennouse’ (III, 323); in all these cases linked with Clogher, no longer Clones. All this suggests early foundation attached to Clones, part of Tigernach’s paruchia, but which later passed to Clogher. Used for worship during penal times.

Refs:

My aged informant also mentioned children’s burial ground near stream north of church. McKenna 1920, II, 156; brief account in P.S 1940, 259. Father Gallagher has helped me greatly with the postmedieval sources.

[812] 254. Kildress parish, Kildress Upper townland (A). O.S. 29; H/768781. Locally Patrician foundation, but early history unknown. Medieval parish church. Ruined church (probably early seventeenth century) and graveyard.

SITE: under 600 ft, on low hill in marshy surroundings with stream nearby to north. Fort Hill and standing stone to north-northwest beyond stream. Bridge over Glennoo River ⅓ mile to south. Probably on important early route, though now remote.

SITE: over 200 ft, on eminence 200 ft west of Ballinderry River. NO EARLY MATERIAL.

MATERIAL: i) CHURCH. Very overgrown and difficult to examine closely. Foundations of east-west building, presumably church. Much fallen stone and much of ‘walls’ are field stones. Externally 41 ft by 24 ft, crossed by field wall running north-south about 30 ft from west-end. One quoin visible at southeast angle. Where wall intact of large squared blocks; no visible mortar. Door said to be in south wall, but I could not trace it. East wall (grassgrown) 3 ft 6 ins high; standing walls only 2 ft wide. Featureless and impossible to date. Graveyard said to be to north, but no graves or headstones visible.

Refs:

Leslie 1911, 325; Young, J.H., booklet Historical Notes on the Parish of Kildress (N.D.).

255.

KILLEESHIL parish and townland (A). O.S. 53; H/686604.

Patron and early history unknown. Medieval parish church. ‘Armagh Registers’: 1442 extract in U.J.A. 10 (1904), 93, refers to: ‘a proposed exchange of the Churches and Erenaghies of Argull, Termon, and Cillessill in the diocese of Armagh, or the Church and Erenaghy of Mucknane, in the diocese of Clogher’. Not implemented, but it suggests that Killeeshil had erenaghs. 1257 chief of Muinter-Birn killed by own people at ‘Cellissel’ (A.U.). Oval graveyard east of modern parish church, very neglected, probably early site. Nothing remained but foundations in 1701 (Ashe, quoted by Leslie 948, 123).

ii) BULLAUN (Pl. 130c).

SITE: about 375 ft, on one of series of glacial ridges with tributary of Oona Water at foot of slope to north. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 332 and 1948, 123.

[813] 256. KILLOAN townland, Langfield parish (D). O.S. 33; H/297753. No recorded history, but evidence of place-name and material combine to suggest presence of early church here. Townland among erenagh lands of Langfield early seventeenth century (Reeves 1850, 70). I have not pursued early forms of place- name, but take it to mean ‘Church (‘cill’) of Eogan’, presumably Eogan of Ardstraw (q.v.).

PLATE 130C: GLENOO – BULLAUN STONE.

388

SITE: between 400 and 450 ft, south-facing hill slope with stream at foot of slope and generally damp surroundings.

apparently united with Magheracross (Co. Fermanagh): Reeves ‘Ms. Notes’ (Armagh Public Library) extract from ‘Octavian’s Register’ (ff . 147-8), ‘Quilskyre Ec. S. Skyra de Quylskyre sive de Machayrenacrosse dioc. Clochoren’. Area of church in 1654 Survey called ‘Aghnalarge’ (O’Daley, op. cit. below, 109). Grassgrown church site in crowded graveyard.

MATERIAL: O.S. marks ‘The Headstone’. This is sandstone CROSS BASE (P1. 128a and Fig. 83b) set into field hedge, covered with hard white lichen. Total height about 3 ft 8 ins (2 ft 10 ins visible), 2 ft wide at base, tapering very slightly to 1 ft 11 ins at top, and 1 ft thick. Socket in top 1 ft 3 ins by 5 ins and 10 ins deep, side to south, sloping inwards considerably. South face decorated; east, obscured; north and west undecorated though weathered and pitted. Upper half south face delimited by sunken groove. Above is quite sophisticated design, combining expansional equal-armed cross with rectilinear spirals all within a frame. Cross left in false relief. Some damage at edges. Too lichen-covered to distinguish details of working. Area immediately south of base is small level platform.

SITE: about 300 ft, river valley, on flattish shelf above deeply-cut river bed. River to north and west with bridge to west, on important route. NO EARLY MATERIAL, in spite of reports to the contrary. P.S. 1940, 250: ‘There are also 2 Celtic crosses without detached ring, one with curious flat carving resembling a mason’s tools’. I have searched carefully twice and made enquiries, and am confident there are no crosses earlier than interesting post-medieval ones (e.g. Heugh Magguire, 1707). I suspect references are to these and not early crosses.

Much large rubble in nearby field banks, but generally stony area. Field south of stone not ploughed within memory. Vague burial traditions reflected in name ‘The Headstone’. Some say stone never moved, others moved further south. Excavation possible and potentially interesting, though exact site not certain.

Refs:

O’Daly, B., in C.R. I no. 1 (1953), 4-7, 1 no. 3 (1955), 88110 and 2 no. 1 (1957), 72 f., ‘Material for a History of Kilskeery’; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 395, follow P.S. 1940, 250, listing ‘remains and two crosses’.

[815] 258. Lackagh townland, Langfield parish (D). O.S. 33; H/313743. History of site very obscure; nothing certain known of early history or status. Townland listed as part of erenagh lands of Langfield early seventeenth century (Reeves 1850, 70). Church at east (down-slope) end of large graveyard, considerably raised above surroundings, about 130 ft north-south, by 200 ft east-west. O.S. 1834 map shows church still in use, and described by Lewis (1837, II, 244) as: ‘a small ancient edifice’, but O.S. 1857 shows church in ruins. Extensive ruin of church; seems largely seventeenth or eighteenth century.

PLATE 128A: KILLOAN – CROSS-BASE. (LEFT); & FIG. 83B: KILLOAN – CROSS-BASE (RIGHT). Refs:

SITE: about 275 ft, at east end of spur in bend of Black Water which flows north and east. Bridge nearby to east.

P.S. 1940, 234, inadequate description; Hamlin 1971, 81-2, fig. 2 and p1. IXa.

MATERIAL: STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING (Pl. 128b and Fig. 83c)

[814] 257. KILSKEERY parish and townland (C). O.S. 56; H/298549. Danger of confusion in early sources with Kilskeer (Co. Meath); often not possible to decide with confidence to which church references belong. Presumably same patron, virgin Scire at 24 March in M.T. (unlocated), M.O. (but in gloss only, and of Meath), similar M.G., but M.D. gives Tyrone too: ‘Scire, virgin of Cill-Scire in Meath. There is also a Cill-Scire in Fera Manach in Ulster.’ I know no grounds for confident 755 foundation date given by Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 395, following Conry) and Lewis’s ‘monastery in the seventh century’ (1837, II, 210) may result from confusion with Trillick (q.v.). Obits in annals eighth, ninth and tenth century may refer to Co. Meath. Late A.U. entries about burning of church (1537), and erenagh (1536) probably Tyrone. Medieval parish church, in late fifteenth century

PLATE 128B: LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING (LEFT); & FIG. 83C: LACKAGH – STONE WITH FIGURE-CARVING (RIGHT).

9 ft southeast of southeast corner of church, set east and west like gravestone but unlike any other stone in yard. 2 389

ft high, wider and thicker at top than bottom: 1 ft 2 ins by 5 ins top and 1 ft by 4 ins bottom. Coarse red sandstone with large quartz inclusions, covered with dense lichen. East face two figures in profile, struggling. Large heads in high relief (about 2 ins), necks crossed, arms around each other, bodies and legs smaller, in lower relief (¾ in.). Cap-like indications of hair, slight modelling of mouths, otherwise no detail visible. General impression of design and technique crude. Locally called ‘the Siamese Twins’.

260.

Cannot be identified with either of places so called in ‘Tripartite Life’. Known also as ‘Magherynelec’ and ‘Kylpatrick’ (Reeves 1850, 19). Medieval parish church with erenagh in 1397 (‘Colton’s Visitation’) and early seventeenth century. Grass-grown church foundations in graveyard. SITE: between 50 and 100 ft, at foot of gentle slopes bordering Foyle plain (river ¾ mile to west).

[816] No other traditions that I could discover. Date uncertain, but figures obvious affinity to ‘wrestlers’ in certain early contexts.

NO EARLY MATERIAL.

WELL. O.S. marks ‘holy well’ in Killen townland about ⅓ mile west-northwest of church on north bank of Black Water. Refs:

259.

P.S. 1940, 234-5, for church; Hamlin 1971, 79-81, fig. 2 and p1. IXb, including material from Wood’s Ms. History of Drumquin (P.R.O. (N.I.), DOD No. 376).

Refs:

Reeves 1850, 19 and 73; Leslie 1937, 257.

261.

MAGHERAGLASS townland, Kildress parish (A). O.S. 38; H/743768.

Strong traditional connection with Columba, but I have found no early source giving patron. Reeves lists among churches with Columba traditions (1857, 154). Army halted at ‘Magh-eitir-di-glais’ (may be here) in 879 (A.F.M.). Erenagh of Magh-etir-da-glais died 952 (A.U.). Listed 1306 as ‘Fonyglassce’, though uncertain whether parochial. Reeves ‘Ms. Notes’ give alias Magheryfinglass. Early seventeenth century listed as chapel. Lewis (1837, II, 88):

LANGFIELD (or Longfield) parish, Magharenny townland (D). O.S. 34; H/354729.

Early history and patron unknown. Several saints in calendars located at ‘Lemchaill’ (Irish ‘leamh-choill’, ‘elm wood’) but none certainly here rather than elsewhere (Mochonna at 13 January in M.T., M.G., M.D.; Fintan Corach at 21 February in M.O. (gloss), M.T., M.G. (located elsewhere); Cuilen, bishop, at 22 April in M.T., M.G., M.D.; Duthracht at 25 October in M.T., M.G., M.D.; Fintan at 16 November in M.G., M.D.; Aedh at 19 December in M.G., M.D. Some, at least, thought to belong to Lowhill (Ossory). Parish church listed 1306. 1213 in A.U.: ‘Druim-cain with its church was burned by the Cenel-Eogain.’ If this is Drumquin as A.U. editor suggests, it should refer to a church in Langfield parish. Erenaghs in early seventeenth century: erenagh lands included Killen, Killoan, Drumowen, Lackagh and Magharenny. Church ruinous 1622, in repair seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (may refer to Lackagh church), abandoned mid-nineteenth for new site. Likely site for medieval parish church and perhaps earlier establishment in Magharenny townland. O.S. 1834 marked egg-shaped graveyard, about 240 ft northwest-southeast by 190 ft, with ‘old church’ marked against east perimeter, and 1834 ‘Memoir’ refers briefly to traces of walls in old enclosure, formerly burial ground.

[818] ‘Here [in Kildress parish] are also the ruins of Magheraglass priory, which was founded by Terence O’Hagan in 1242, and fortified by the O’Hagans in the rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, from which it is sometimes called Magheraglass Castle.’ Repeated by Leslie, Carter (op. cit. below), Gwynn and Hadcock, but on what early authority? Badly ruined and overgrown church on small eminence, but no graves or headstones visible. SITE: just over 400 ft, hilltop with extensive views. Two streams of name nearby. No certainly early material but some REPORTS OF MATERIAL. i) ENCLOSURE. Carter (op. cit. below) points out in 1893 since visit in 1881 great earthwork to east of church disappeared. In Reeves ‘Ms. Notes’ on 1306 Taxation (Armagh Public Library) is sketch of site, rough but indicating enclosure of some kind. Sketch suggests banks to south, where ‘foundation of wall’ marked, and to east. No clear enclosure now, but hill on which church ruin stands looks artificially heightened and edges fall steeply away, especially to east and south. On south side some large stones, perhaps trace of revetment. If site was fortified in late sixteenth century Carter’s great earthwork could date from then (cf. Church Island, Co. Londonderry).

[817] O.S. 1857 shows only part of enclosure and current map only ‘site of’. No clear surface traces. I located field but not exact spot. SITE: just under 400 ft, level shoulder on valley side with stream close by to west overlooking valley and route to north. NO EARLY MATERIAL. Refs:

LECKPATRICK parish and townland (D). O.S. 2; C/371023.

ii) CHURCH. Equally if there was house of Augustinian Canons, church ruin could belong to that. Proportions suggest not very early. East wall has gap at centre; west

Reeves 1850, 70 and 72; Leslie 1937, 246-8; Hamlin 1971, especially 82.

390

wall incorporated in field wall; north and south partly grass-grown. Slight trace of nave-chancel, division and door in north wall. Very large mortared masonry, mostly boulders including granite. My (paced) external dimensions 62 ft east-west by 22 ft north-south. P.S. 1940, 239, gives 54 by 21 ft, Reeves (note cited above) 51 by 18 ft (probably internal) and Carter 60 by 21 ft. Carter places north-south dividing wall 24 ft from eastend, Reeves’s plan only 18 ft. Area south of church traditionally ‘St. Columbkille’s Field’ (Carter) or ‘Hill’ (Reeves).

SITE: about 400 ft, on rocky, quite steep, north-facing hillside overlooking valley of River Derg ½ mile to north. On route west to Lough Derg. MATERIAL: i) CROSS (P1. 132b) of uncertain date. At uphill (s) end of graveyard, near centre of south wall, of single stone, re-used at recent grave. At least 2 ft 5 ins high, 2 ft I in. across arms, variable thickness, about 4 ins. Both faces weathered and flaked; no sign of inscription or decoration. Very roughly shaped. Arms indicated only by concave outline of shaft above and (less) below. Unpublished.

[819] iii) BULLAUNS. Carter writes of ‘… two triangular blocks of whinstone perforated at the top, and capable of containing three to four quarts of water. One of these is built into the porch of an adjacent farmhouse’ (op. cit. below, 84). I did not know this reference at time of my visit so did not search for stone at farmhouse. Refs:

Carter, H.B., in ‘Miscellanea’ in J.R.S.A.I. 23 (1893), 84-6, ‘Maghera-Meen-Glass, County Tyrone’ (Carter went at Reeves’s request); Leslie 1911, 325; P.S. 1940, 239.

(Magherakeel, see TERMONANMONGAN.) 262.

Sessagh of Gallan townland, Ardstraw parish (D). O.S. 10; H/408896. O.S.

1857 marks ‘burial ground for children’ here (not as antiquity). Small rectangular enclosure planted with thorns, very overgrown, in arable field. Long axis eastwest, rectangular with somewhat rounded corners. Internally 24 ft by 14 ft and level about 4 ft above exterior (used for burials?). Externally stone spread extends 35 ft by 19 ft. Stones not properly laid and no mortar. All sizes from small field stones to very large, up to 4 ft long. These walls may follow more carefully constructed wall below. No entrance or features, but size and orientation strongly suggest a church. No headstones. ‘Gentle’ stories. PLATE 132B: TERMONAMONGAN – CROSS OF UNCERTAIN DATE.

SITE: hilltop, between 30 and 400 ft, in poor, boggy, undulating country. Would be possible to clear and investigate further.

ii) BELL. The only bell with a provenance in the Bell Collection (N.M.E. 1892, 2811, no. KB5) is from ‘Termon Moncan, Lough Derg’: must be this parish. Iron, coated with bronze, lacking handle, 8 ½ ins high, 5 ½ ins across mouth. I have found no other references to it.

[820] 263. TERNONAMONGAN parish, Magherakeel townland (D). O.S. 23; H/184797. Alternative name ‘Cill Chairill’ (‘Kelkirell’ 1306, and ‘Kylchyrryll’ 1397). Patron presumably Cairill: does not appear in calendars, though discussed by Colgan (see Reeves 1850, 72).

iii) WELL. O.S. (1857) marks ‘Toberpatrick’ ⅝ mile to west-northwest. Not visited. Refs:

Erenagh in 1411 (‘Primate Fleming’s Register’, ibid.) was Patrick Omongan, so alternative name as elsewhere from erenagh family. Ruined church to north of road with graveyard on hillside to south.

Reeves 1850, 70 and 72; Leslie 1937, 298-9.

[821] (Termonmaguirk, see CARRICKMORE.) 264. TRILLICK is planted street village with Church of Ireland church at head of street and no old graveyard. But area identified with place mentioned in early sources. 814 bishop and abbot of ‘Trelic-mor’ died (A.U.). Mobeccu at 29 May in M.T. not located, but gloss in M.G. places at ‘Trelec’, also M.D. No further references.

Church about 57 ft by 22 ft (P.S. 1940, 228), much overgrown but of large, polygonal, well-fitted mortared rubble with spalls. Gap on south side. P.S. 1940 reports was roofed with stone slabs. No datable features. 391

SITE: not previously identified, but Father Gallagher kindly tells me of field called Caldragh, Trillick townland, Kilskeery parish (O. S. 56), remembered as an old graveyard. I have not yet been able to pursue this further. Refs:

O’Daley references as for Kilskeery (above); Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 407.

265.

TULLYNISKAN (very varied spelling) parish, Doras townland (at New Mills) (A). O. S. 46; H/815676.

Medieval parish church, but earlier history and patron unknown. I am uncertain whether present church is on earliest site. Verbal report of old church in Stughan townland; I could not find this on first visit and did not manage a second. Present Church of Ireland church is not earliest church on this site: masonry found during gravedigging.

PLATE 130B: TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE.

ii) BELL in N.M.D. Cast bronze, similar shape to Donaghmore (‘Bell of Clogher’) but smaller. Handle of bronze, cast separately and welded on with flanges lapping over bell in points. Undecorated. Recorded as from Doras, Tullyniskan. As far as I know unpublished.

SITE: under 250 ft, north-facing valley side with Torren River to north and bridge. MATERIAL: i) BULLAUN (Pl. 130b and Fig. 84b) 32 ft north of northwest corner of church tower, until recently shaded by huge, ancient ash tree. Set up prominently on rounded stone. Bullaun stone 1 ft 11 ins high, maximum dimensions 3 ft 6 ins east-west, by 3 ft 4 ins north-south with segment broken off in northeast corner.

Refs:

Leslie 1911, 430; U.J.A. 4 (1941), 31, for bullaun and one window moulding.

266.

URNEY parish, Urney Glebe townland (D). O.S. 9; H/303949.

Several places with this name (cf. Langfield, Kilskeery) so some uncertainty to which site early sources refer. Samthann of Clonbroney (Co. Longford, died 739, A.U.) seems to have been here (Kenney 1929, 464-5). ‘Life’ mentions building in wood several times, also wooden crosier to be covered with gold (Plummer 1910, II, 25361). May be associated with Fuinche at 21 January in M.O., but glossator very uncertain and gives many possible locations ‘the Ernaide in Mag Itha’ being only one.

[822] Davies, O., suggested (U. J .A. 4 (1941), 41) ‘cut out’; I think it is naturally broken. Creates throne-like appearance. Sides of stone rounded; top and bottom flat (some dressing). Two hollows in upper surface. To southwest, diameter 1 ft and 7 ins deep with maximum depth slightly southeast of centre. To northeast breaks out to side, 11 ins northeast-southwest by 10 ins and 6 ½ ins deep.

Findsech at 13 October in M.O. glossed ‘from the Irnaide in Hui Airennain in Cenél Eogain’, one of two possibilities (also in M.T.). Others in M.G. and M.D. at 11 February, 1 August, 3 August and 4 September. Erenagh of Ernaidhe mentioned 1178 (A.U.). Desolated, with other sites, and relics used for peace-making at Ardstraw, 1179 (A.U.).

Tradition 2,000 years old and used by pagans for mixing blood! Brief description in U.J.A. 4 (1941), 41. Not illustrated.

[823] Medieval parish church with erenaghs to early seventeenth century. Ruin of post-medieval church in large graveyard. SITE: under 50 ft, flat site, about 400 ft east of River Finn. MATERIAL: CROSS-CARVED STONE (P1. 129a-b and Fig. 82e) 13 ft 6 ins east of east-end of ruined church in line with north jamb of east window. Used as gravestone, half-buried. Schist slab, irregular rectangle, 2 ft 8 ins high, 2 ft wide and 2 ins thick. Crosses on east and west faces - similar but not identical. FIG. 84B: TULLYNISKAN – BULLAUN STONE.

392

PLATE 129A: URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (WEST SIDE). PLATE 129B: URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE (EAST SIDE).

East side (Fig. 82e, no. 1): equal-armed cross of single wide line with encircling ring. Lines of cross continue outside circle but become triple. West side (Fig. 82e, no. 2): similar, but circle less circular, cross less central within it, treatment of arms and stem slightly different. Grooves wide, shallow U section, carefully worked. No similar stone in yard. Unpublished. Refs:

FIG. 82E: URNEY – CROSS-CARVED STONE.

393

Reeves 1850, 16-7; Leslie 1937, 304-5; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 409.

[824]

APPENDIX A Other Sites in Co. Antrim Circumstances in Co. Antrim and Co. Down dictated a rather different procedure from the other four counties. Both are remarkably rich in church and graveyard sites, and a rough count from O’ Laverty’s volumes suggests at least 150 sites in Antrim in addition to those in my inventory.

Billy parish and townland O. S. 7; C/959382. Important medieval parish. No early material but interesting name. Refs:

Cranfield parish and townland. O. S. 49; J/055853. Medieval parish but earlier history unknown.

My visits were mainly confined to those known or suspected to be pre-Norman on the evidence of documents or material, and a mass of possibly relevant sites remained unvisited, some with slab graves, bullauns, building foundations and other traces. More intensive local studies are needed to pursue these further, and here I list merely a selection.

Ruined church in graveyard. Wooden cross to north replica of older cross probably marking boundary of church land. Famous holy well on shore to east, formerly visited on May Eve or 26, 27, 28 June. Refs:

Aghagallon parish and townland. O. S. 66; J/123643. Ivy-covered ruin in circular hilltop graveyard. I could not find material reported by O.S. in 1837: socket, font, well and thorn. Refs:

Refs:

13; with only May

Refs:

O’Laverty 1887, 451. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 66-7; Lawlor, H.C. in P.B.N.H.P.S. 2 (1918-9), 1-8.

[826] Traditionally O’Flynn headquarters; more like a secular hillfort than church site. Refs:

O’Laverty 1887, 260; 1940, 9.

Killybanway in Racavan parish. O. S. 33; area of D/203063. O. S. describe St. Patrick’s Chapel, Graveyard Field and foundations, once enclosed by large ditch and rampart.

Reeves 1847, 68; O’Laverty 1884, 174.

[825] Ballyteerim townland, Culfeightrin parish. O. S. 15; D/251340. Fort, building and font reported. Used. for infant burial and called ‘Cross Shreen’, ‘Cross Skreen’ or ‘Crosscrene’. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 283; O’Laverty 1887, 486.

Dunmull townland, Ballywillin parish. O. S. 6; C/889370. Commanding basalt hill, Toberdornan. Enclosing bank, grass- grown foundations, filled-in well, bullaun, and reported ‘chair’ and ‘footprints’.

Ballynure parish, Toberdowney townland. O. S. 45; J/316936. O’Laverty mentions a ‘circular earthen entrenchment’, souterrain and holy well, but nothing now visible in crowded graveyard. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 283; O’Laverty 1887, 486.

Cross (or Dunard) townland, Culfeightrin parish. O. S. 5; D/172423. Killaleenan graveyard with foundation and infant graves within enclosure. Cashel and souterrain nearby.

Ballymartin parish and townland. O. S. 51; J/249859. Church and graveyard, excavated by Lawlor in 1917. South of river reported souterrain, holy well and site of rath. Refs:

Lewis 1837, I, 431-2; Reeves 1847, 87-8; O’Laverty 1884, 316-20; Bigger, F.J and Fennell, W.J., ‘Cranfield Church and Cross’ in U.J.A. 4 (1897-8), 48-9; P.S. 1940, 42. Unpublished sketches of cross in Alexander Johns’s Ms., vol. 1, 151, vol. 2, 305 and 308.

Cross (or Dunard) townland, Culfeightrin parish. O. S. 5; D/176426. Killowen graveyard with foundations and cross site nearby, formerly used for infant burial.

Reeves 1847, 48-9; O’Laverty 1887, x; P.S. 1940, 59-60.

Alcrossagh townland, Armoy parish. O. S. D/076326. O. S mark ‘holy well’ and graveyard foundation and part of cross reported, but I found cattle-trampled spring, apparently still visited on Eve.

Reeves 1847, 77-8.

Refs:

‘O. S. Memoir’ of Racavan.

Magheragall parish, Ballyellough townland. O. S. 63; J/208658. Farm occupies site and road curves round it, with motte nearby.

Reeves 1847, 283-4; O’Laverty 1887, 524.

394

Report of round tower attached to east-end, demolished late eighteenth century - early nineteenth century, about 40 ft high and 7ft diameter, of mortared ashlar.

Molusk, Grange of, in Templepatrick parish. O. S. 56; J/287834. Graveyard with bullaun and souterrain under or near.

Refs:

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 47; O’ Laverty 1887, ii-iii.

Magheramesk parish, Maghaberry townland. O. S. 67; area of J/174634. ‘O. S. Memoir’ reported holy well at graveyard and flagstone with footprint (St. Patrick’s). Refs:

The ‘Tripartite Life’ (Stokes, W., 1887, 163-5) mentions several sites in Dál Riata and Dal nAraidi which are not certainly identified. In Dál Riata are ‘Fothrad’ and ‘Domnach Caínri’ in Cothraige; and in Dál nAraidi ‘Domnach Mór Maige Damoerna’ (the Magheramorne area), ‘Imlech-Cluane’ in Semne (probably Island Magee) and ‘Raith Epscuip Findich’ in the area of the Hui Darcachein (may be in north Co. Down).

O’Laverty 1887, v-vi.

Magheranagaw ruined church and graveyard, Derrymore townland, Aghagallon parish. O. S. 62; J/083646. ‘O. S. Memoir’ reports ‘St. Patrick’s Bed’, stone with depressions. ‘St. Mogawage’s Well’ nearby. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 8; O’Laverty 1880, 457-9.

[827] Unlocated sites probably in this area in the martyrologies include ‘Raith Aidne’ (30 September in M.T. and M.G.) and ‘Druimm Breccáin’ on the border of Dál nAraidi and Dá1 Riata (7 May in M.O. gloss), but see Deshcart in Antrim inventory. Some discussion of these un-located sites will be found in Reeves 1847, Hogan 1910 and Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, but the best hope of further progress is probably from place-name studies.

Reeves 1847, 49; O’Laverty 1880, 282-3 and 1887, xi-xii; L. 1940, 58.

395

[828]

APPENDIX B Other Sites in Co. Armagh. Sites documented but un-located probably near Armagh are ‘Techfethgnai’ (Hogan 1910, 624 and Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 406), briefly discussed above under Armagh city churches, ‘Tamlachta-Bó’ (T.L.P., Stokes 1887, 233), discussed under Eglish, and ‘Coil na nIngen’ ‘to the east of Armagh’ (ibid.). Here nine daughters of the king of the Lombards tarried and some were buried there, some at ‘Druim Fendeda’, probably nearby.

Kiltubbrid townland, Tynan parish (O. S. 15). Church and holy well reported in Paterson 1948, 129. Killyloughran church and graveyard site, in Creggan parish (O. S. 30-1), believed to be older than Creggan but not located. Refs:

Murray, L.P., in L.A.J. 8 (1934), 130.

The following are sites I have come across in reading but in most cases have not yet been able to locate and visit:

Kilvergan townland, Seagoe parish (O. S. 6), traditional church site on Kilvergan Hill and bones found near farmhouse.

Ballymartrim Otra or Etra townland, Eglish parish (O. S. 12) church site long ploughed in Reeves’s day, with Legnadoevey holy well nearby to north-northwest.

Refs:

Refs:

Laraghshankill townland, Eglish parish (O. S. 7), graveyard under plough for over a century in Reeves’s day:

Reeves 1879 ms. Notes; Paterson 1948, 127.

Ballymoran townland, Lisnadill parish (O. S. 16) church site and graveyard on Kirk Hill broken up about 1867. Refs:

Keenan and Mooney 1954, 28-9.

Refs:

Reeves 1879 ms. Notes.

Maghery townland, Tartaraghan parish (O. S. 2), site of grange of SS. Peter and Paul, Armagh. Ruins of chapel standing in 1837 (O. S. Memoir) but no traces now.

Reeves 1879 ms. Notes.

Cargans townland, Ballymore parish (O. S. 14). Paterson ms. notes report ‘the Relig’ with souterrain on north side but no sign of graves.

Refs:

Arthurs 1957, 44.

Cladymore townland, Kilcluney parish (O. S. 20), church remains (Shankill) fifty years before 1879, associated with post-Dissolution Franciscans.

Maghery-Kilcrany townland, Aghavilly (formerly Derrynoose) parish (O. S. 16). Rectangular embanked graveyard. Name suggests possibly church site.

Refs:

Refs:

Reeves 1879 ms. notes and 1848 letter from John Carry to Reeves in Armagh Public Library.

Maghon townland, Drumcree parish (O. S. 9). Some church traces in mid-nineteenth century in orchard of Maghon House, with ‘St. Patrick’s Well’ nearby.

Culkeeran townland, Eglish parish (O. S. 7). Paterson ms. notes report church site to east of canal and graveyard to west.

Refs:

[829] Drumacanver townland, Derrynoose parish (O. S. 15), Kilnacarrick graveyard, cultivated in Reeves’s time but used fifty years before. Refs:

Reeves 1879 ms. Notes; Paterson 1948, 129.

Moneycree townland, Grange (formerly Armagh) parish (O. S. 8), Aged informant told Reeves of church foundations. Site broken up about 1835. Bones reported. Possible grange of SS. Peter and Paul.

Reeves 1879 ms. Notes; Leslie 1911, 217-8.

Refs:

Kilcam townland, Keady (formerly Derrynoose) parish (O. S. 19-20, 23-4), south of Keady on road to Castleblaney. Graveyard but no further details. Refs:

Leslie 1911, 87.

Reeves 1879 ms. Notes.

396

Reeves 1879 ms. Notes; Leslie 1911, 307.

[830]

APPENDIX C Other Sites in Co. Derry Drumenagh townland, Ardtrea parish. O.S. 47; H/935881. Lower Eglish Burial Ground is small neat graveyard. Three stones of megalithic proportions at entrance; nothing else of interest.

As well as un-located documented sites, this list includes sites which did not warrant inclusion in the main inventory. They were visited unless otherwise indicated. Several unidentified sites in the ‘Tripartite Life’ are likely to be in Co. Derry: seven at the ‘River Fochaine’ (Stokes, 1887, 155) included ‘Domnach Dola’, ‘Domnach Dari’ (J.R.S.A.I. 32 (1902), 285 and Munn 1925, 86), ‘Domnach Senchue’, ‘Domnach Min-Cluane’ (see ‘Clooney’) and ‘Domnach Cati’. In Cianacht was ‘Domnach Brechmaige’ (ibid. 161) and ‘Domnach Mescáin’ was at ‘Fochain’ (ibid. 265: Donnybrewer townland, O.S. 14-15, looks unlikely).

Kilhoyle townland, Balteagh parish. O.S. 17. Graveyard and possible church site, not visited (see Balteagh). Lisglass townland, Clondermot parish. O.S. 22; area of C/447115. P.S. 1940, 198, reports stone carved with arrow and cross. I failed to locate it in this wild, remote area and doubt whether it is relevant to my enquiry. Lismoyle townland, Tamlaght O’Crilly parish. O.S. 26; C/885099. O.S. mark ‘Priest’s Altar’: flat rock, and stone ‘wishing chair’. Path on rocky hilltop. Probably Penal associations.

Ballycrum townland, Drumachose parish. O.S. 10; C/742227. ‘St. Lowry’s Well’, largely filled in, traditionally where Lurach baptised Cainnech. Refs:

Munn 1925, 141.

Roselick More townland, Agherton parish. O.S. 3; area of C/843372. No surface traces though burials reported in area.

Ballyeglish townland, Ardtrea parish. O.S. 47; H/894837. Eglish Burial Ground is circular raised area within rectangular wall. ‘St. Brigid’s Well’ in northeast corner with rags. Refs:

Refs:

Reeves 1847, 75-6.

Rossnagalliagh townland, Clondermot parish. O.S. 21; C/403114. O.S. mark abbey site. Leslie states confidently nunnery founded here by Ailid O’Dermit in 879 (1937, 233) but I find no evidence for this and not listed in Gwynn and Hadcock (1970). No surface traces but much large rubble in area. Holy well to southwest. ‘St. Comgal’s’ according to ‘O.S. Fieldmen’s Notebook’ (p. 51).

Munn 1925, 28.

Ballymagroarty townlands, Templemore parish. O.S. 13. Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 374, list as early site founded by Columba: ‘Baile-meg-robhartaig’ (Reeves 1857, 285), but I have not been able to pursue this. Cam townland, Macosquin parish. O.S. 11; C/801241. O.S. mark ‘Priest’s Rock’. I located ‘Mass Field’: clearly Penal site.

Refs:

Lewis 1837, I, 662.

Munn (1925) suggests other possible church sites on the basis of place-names, but he is not a very reliable guide and all his suggestions need to be scrutinised and tested in the field.

Craigmore townland, Aghadowey parish. O.S. 11; 0/796223. ‘Priest’s Chair’ on rocky hillside. Probably Penal associations. [831] Croaghan townland, Macosquin parish. O.S. 11; about C/800262. O.S. mark ‘burial ground for children’ but I did not certainly locate site amongst new roads and quarries.

397

[832]

APPENDIX D Other Sites in Co. Down The same general comment applies to Co. Down as to Antrim: Reeves and O’Laverty mention numerous sites, and there were many seigneurial parish churches as well as those based on an earlier monastic nucleus. Again my investigations were inevitably less thorough than for the other four counties.

Remains of earlier church removed 1813 when bell with ivory handle and altar stone found, and stoup reported in graveyard, but no material survives. Refs:

Ballymenagh townland, Ballyculter parish. O.S. 38, but not located or visited. O’Laverty 1878, 192: ‘There is a field in Mr William Denvir’s farm ... called “the old walls field”, in which was a circular entrenchment, in which were found graves, and two grave-stones, on each of which was inscribed a plain cross.’

Documented sites located simply to Dál nAraidi are listed in Appendix A but could be in north Down, and those located only to Ulster (like ‘Cell Lommchon’ at 9 January in M.G. gloss) or the Ards (Findchádon at 23 February in M.T.: there are several Ards) are not further discussed, though their festivals should be remembered when dates of patterns and visits to wells are investigated. Some identifications by Reeves are unlikely in the light of further work: for example, ‘Ross glass’ at 22 December in M.T., M.G., and M.D. is unlikely to be Rossglass, Co. Down (Reeves 1847, 32-3), and ‘Cell-Aine’ in Sliab Dreg (M.T. at 9 March) is not the circular graveyard at Killaney (J/358580: ibid., 217 and 377). Mael Tolaig of ‘Druim Faindle’ appears at 14 September in M.T. and of ‘Druim Níad’ in Ulster at 13 September in M.G. (gloss): Reeves identifies with Drumbeg (ibid. 380), but I know no evidence for a firm identification. Hogan suggested Drumneth townland in Magherally parish (1910, 367). ‘Ard Caín’ of M.T. and M.G. at 8 September may be Ardkeen, but the identification is not certain (Co. Down 1966, 297-8). If ‘Cell Aedáin’ in Ulster of 1 April (M.G. gloss) can be identified with ‘Cill-Aedhain’ of A.F.M. 1149 a Co. Down location is likely: ‘they plundered InisCumscraidh, Leathghlais, Cill-Aedhain, Magh-bile, Beannchor ...’ ‘Cell Drochat’ (‘Droichit’) in Ard Ulad (25 September, all calendars)

Barnamaghery townland, Kilmore parish. O.S. 23; J/448564. O’Laverty (1878, 329-30) reports graveyard called Killyman and suggests identification with ‘Cill Bien’ (above). Much stone removed for bridge building. O.S. name is Killybawn. Disused graveyard; markedly raised to east and southeast with rounded outline. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 216.

Blaris (or Lisburn) parish and townland. O.S. 14; J/249627. Reeves locates ‘Mantan’ of M.T., M.G. and M.D. 2 March here, but not certain (1847, 377-8). [834] Crowded raised graveyard occupies medieval parish church site. Square font at house east of graveyard: 1 ft 6 ins square, 1 ft 1 ½ ins high with circular hole 1 ft to 1 ft 1 in. diameter and 10 ½ ins deep. Dunsfort parish and townland. O.S. 38; J/570410. Modern parish church on earlier site. Anglo-Norman grave cover suggests thirteenth-century activity but uncertain whether earlier. Font moved from here to Chapeltown Roman Catholic chapel (at J/572400), at west side of path near south door. Neatly dressed sandstone block, 2 ft 9 ins square and 9 ½ ins high.

[833] should be near a bridge and Reeves (1847, 380) pointed out a chapel in Gransha townland near a bridge over Blackstaff River. ‘Cell Biain’ (‘Cill-Bien’) may be in Co. Down, but this is not certain: A.U. at 584 and 590: ‘The repose of Fergus bishop of Dun-lethglaise, who founded Cill-Bien’. Graveyard at Barnamaghery suggested (see below) but not firm identification: Refs:

Lewis 1837, I, 52; O’Laverty 1878, 172; Bigger 1916.

Large circular hollow, 1 ft 3 ins diameter, 8 ins deep, and Bigger reported outlet hole. Two smaller hollows: in southeast corner: 7 ½ ins diameter, 3 ins deep; and in northeast corner, less well defined, 7 ½ by 6 ½ ins and 2 ¼ ins deep. Opposite this, on east side of path, bullaun stone (Pl. 82b). May also have come from Dunsfort, but Bigger’s account not clear. Unshaped polygonal whinstone boulder, 3 ft 3 ins north-south, by 2 ft 10 ins east-west, and 10 ins high. Towards east side hollow 8 ins diameter, 4 ins deep, joining another rougher hollow which breaks out to side of stone. Near southeast corner of upper surface small incised linear cross potent, 4 ¾ ins long, 4 ins across arms.

Reeves 1847, 144 and Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 376.

Ardglass parish and townland. O.S. 45; J/558371. Chronological relationship between this site and Ardtole not entirely clear. Locally believed founded by Patrick (Harris 1744, 271) and ‘St. Patrick’s Well’ at Sheepland Beg on coast northeast of Ardglass.

398

Lisban townland, Ardkeen parish. O.S. 25; area of J/603583 O’Laverty (1878, 424) reported church site and stone-lined graves (containing ferns), partly under farm and cross- inscribed stone built into stable wall. I enquired briefly but failed to locate site and further investigation needed. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 21.

Ringhaddy townland, Killinchy parish. O.S. 17; J/558590. Church taxed in 1306 but history otherwise obscure. [836] Featureless ruin, perhaps late medieval, stands in circular earthwork of about 120 ft diameter. Surface of ground generally uneven but no clear features and no evidence to help elucidate relationship of enclosure and church.

PLATE 82B: CHAPELTOWN – BULLAUN STONE. Refs:

Bigger, F.J., ‘A Short Account of St Mary of Dunsford’, U.J.A. 14 (1908), 99-102.

Refs:

Erenagh townland, Bright parish. O.S. 37; J/475405. Chronologically pre-Norman, but in new reforming tradition. Savignac house founded here from Furness (Lancs.) in 1127. Fortified against John de Courcy and destroyed 1177, though chapel may have continued into medieval times. Reeves described site, church and holy well (with knee and foot prints) and O.S mark site of ‘St Finnian’s Church’ and ‘Well’. Stone-lined burials reported about 330 yards northat J/474408 (Co. Down 1966, 290).

Slanes parish and townland. O.S. 25; J/638552. Probably ‘the church of Ardmacossce’ of 1306 Taxation. Circular raised graveyard with foundations of rubble-built church. Cross-carved stone recently published, for which Dr. Clarke inclines towards a Penal date. Elaborate souterrain described by Harris in field west of graveyard (1744, 195). Refs:

[835] St. Finnian suggests Movilla connection, and pre1127 use of site not impossible but unproven. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 31-2, 232-3; O’Laverty 1878, 139-41; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 132.

Reeves 1847, 216; O’Laverty 1878, 328.

Knock townland, Knockbreda parish. O.S. 4; J/382729. Medieval parish church, probably Dundela of 1306 taxation, known in early seventeenth century as ‘Knockollumcill’ and marked ‘Columkill’ on Speed’s Map (Reeves 1847, 12 and 179). Reeves listed among churches founded by Columba or where Columb specially revered (1857, 283) and included by Gwynn and Hadcock amongst ‘Early Sites’ (1970, 396), but I have found no evidence for a pre-Norman church here. Fragmentary, overgrown church ruin in hilltop graveyard. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 23; O’Laverty 1878, 417-8; Co. Down 1966, 309; U.J.A 34 (1971), 108, pl. XXIb.

Struel townland, Downpatrick parish. O.S. 38; J/512442. Strong local Patrician traditions reported by Harris (1744, 25) and stations described by O’Laverty (1878, 251-2), but history obscure before 1306, when ‘capella de Strohull’ listed. Attempts to link it with the fountain ‘Slán’ of Fíacc’s ‘Hymn’, where Patrick resorted for austerities, but writer does not seem confident of location: ‘Slán, in the region of Benn Boirche [glossed]. Some say that it used to be at Sabhall, or it may be in Dalaradia; but the Ulstermen filled it up on account of the trouble caused by the crowds who went out to it, if it was anywhere’ (Stokes 1887, 409 and 423). Earliest material thirteenth-century window fragments. I did not find the ‘small cross-inscribed gravestone’ mentioned by McKeown (op. cit. below). St. Patrick’s ‘Bed’ or ‘Chair’ on rocks to west above valley.

Kilmore parish, Carnacally townland. O.S. 30; J/439512. Despite name history seems obscure. No early material, but form of graveyard interesting: large oval, about 300 ft east-west, by 250 ft north-south, surrounded by low bank with hedge and wet ditch. Central area markedly raised but considerably smaller than enclosure, leaving flattish ‘berm’, especially marked to west and northwest. Refs:

Reeves 1847, 9-10; P.S. 1940, 100; Co. Down 1966, 309, fig. 207, pl. 86.

Refs:

D.P.J. 4 (1835), 32; Patterson, W.H., ‘The Church of St Columbkille at Knock’, J.R.S.A.I 16 (1883-4), 572-4.

399

Reeves 1847, 42; U.J.A 2 (1854), 52-3; O’Laverty 1878, 248-52; McKeown, L., in D.C.H.S. 1 (1928), 26-36; Co. Down 1966, 310-1.

[837]

APPENDIX E Other Sites in Co. Fermanagh Fermanagh sites have been investigated by Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry (1919) and Canon McKenna (1920). Recently Father Livingstone has published a list of Fermanagh erenagh families which suggests some additions to my inventory but these sites will need further investigation (The Fermanagh Story (1969), 41-2).

Keenaghan townland, Templecarne parish. O.S. 8; G/963596. O.S. mark disused graveyard, but no ecclesiastical or burial tradition. Small rectangular stony area: a wrecked megalith? Refs:

Killee townland, Magheracross parish. O.S. 16; H/295508. ‘OS. 1834 Memoir’: small graveyard, about 2 ft square. Now rough corner of field, extending into next, with one headstone and other rough stones. Large stone built field wall to northwest may be standing stone: 4 ft 6 ins high, 3 ft 9 ins wide, 1 ft 9 ins maximum thickness. McKenna recorded name ‘Friars’ Graveyard’ front three Franciscans (1920, II, 312, but Lowry-Corry 1919, table II from one friar who died in 1760), used in Penal times. History otherwise obscure. O.S. 1854 also reported formerly holy well, ‘Tubber na Suil’ with thorns and rags.

Unidentified sites probably in Fermanagh include ‘Airther Maige in Tuath Rátha’ (M.T. and M.G. at 16 January), ‘Cúil Bennchoir in Lurc’ on the shore of Lough Erne (M.O. gloss, M.G. and M.D. at 6 October), ‘Éo-inis on Loch Érne’ (M.G. and M.D. at 14 November, but see also White Island), and Lough McNean, exact site unspecified (M.T., M.O. gloss, M.G. and M.D. at 13 April): could be Cavan or Leitrim. Ballycassidy townland, Trory (formerly Devenish) parish. O.S. 16; about H/228511. ‘St. Molaise’s Well’: according to ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’ good for head pains, and stone with ‘knee prints’ formerly there. Seems to have been church here in fourteenth century. Refs:

Lisnarrick, Drumshane townland, Derryvullan parish. O.S. 10; H/198585. Crowded walled rectangular graveyard, listed by Lowry-Corry 1919, table II as ancient, but history unknown and no material.

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II.

Coolbuck townland, Cleenish parish, the Relig at Ashfield House, O.S. 23; H/317427. ‘The Relig’ marked by O.S. south of Ashfield House, but householder believes rough ground north of house is site. Vague burial traditions but no church known.

[839] Magherahar townland, Inishmacsaint parish. O.S. 15 (as ‘standing stone’); H/164519. No recorded ecclesiastical associations, but set at west-end of disused garden is broken cross-shaft in base.

Davy’s Island, Magheraculmoney parish. O.S. 10; H/174593. Augustinian connections, but early history unknown. Ruined church in roughly circular graveyard. I have only visited site briefly in appalling conditions of vegetation when little visible. Refs:

No reason to consider this pre-Norman: may be medieval but difficult to date. Trapezoidal base, 6 to 12 ins high, sides 3 ft 5 ins (northwest), 2 ft 2 ins (southwest), 3 ft 8 ins (southeast), 3 ft (northeast). On upper surface seating about 1 ft 6 ins square and ½ to ¾ in. deep. Shaft irregular outline, badly chipped, survives to height of 2 ft 8 ins, about 1 ft 6 ins by 1 ft 4 ins at base, narrowing upwards. Attached to base by square-sectioned iron tenon, but present northeast face should be turned to southeast to fit seating in base.

Davies and Lowry-Corry in U.J.A. 1 (1938), 222-6; P.S. 1940, 148.

[838] Ely Island, Devenish parish. O.S. 5; area of H/1951. May be ‘Inis Coimhéta’ or ‘Custodiaria Insula’ of ‘Vita Comgalli’, but not investigated. Refs:

Refs:

Plummer 1910, II, 6 and 324; Rogan 1910, 463.

P.S. 1940, 154; no published illustration.

Shankill, Skea townland, Cleenish parish. O.S. 26; H/208384. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ reported remains of old graveyard looking like circular fort, traditionally linked with Lisgoole. Site now partly occupied by row of cottages.

Gola townland, Derrybrusk parish. O.S. 27; H/296380. Claimed site of Dominican house and earlier monastery, but traditions ‘hazy and indefinite’ (McKenna, Shrines, 68). ‘O.S. 1824 Memoir’ reported some of ‘abbey’ removed since 1801 and some built into house. Not visited. Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II.

Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, tables III and XV; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 235.

400

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II.

Seanadh (Belie Isle, formerly Ballymacmanus), Derrybrusk (once Cleenish) parish. O.S. 27-33; area of H/2935. Claimed to be site of early monastery, but scanty evidence: ‘The late owner ... claimed to have seen the foundations of primitive cells dug up here’ (Lowry-Corry 1919, table in). Not visited. Refs:

Templemoyle, Tully townland on Inishmore, Derrybrusk (formerly Derryvullan) parish. O.S. 27; H/266375. ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’ reported formerly extensive graveyard: bones found over large area. Man aged 84 recalled its use for children only. I found site difficult to locate with certainty but it may be a rectangular enclosure, rough and scrubby with no visible graves.

U.J.A. 6 (1900), 133 f. Refs:

Stranadarriff townland, Magheraculmoney parish. O.S. 6; area of H/270676. O.S. marks ‘site of ancient cross’ but I have discovered nothing further about it.

Tulnagoran or Tullynageeran, Tattynuckle townland, Aghavea (formerly Aghalurcher) parish. O.S. 24; H/427462. ‘O.S. 1835 Memoir’ reported no building and no traditions about graveyard, but McKenna mentioned ‘some traces of a church’ (1920, II, 156). Oval raised graveyard on ridge top, enclosed and still used.

Tatteevagh townland, Aghalurcher parish. O.S. 34; H/337348. Site of graveyard: oval hump with lone thorn and one piece of dressed stone. Formerly enclosed but all stones cleared when disused.

Refs: Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II.

[840] Templemoyle, Gortahurk West townland, Cleenish parish. O.S. 26; H/131396. This was a medieval chapel, but no evidence of earlier activity. Fragment of church on fine hill-slope site. Three holy wells nearby in Carrickabweehan townland, for jaundice, ague and scurvy. Refs:

Lowry-Corry 1919, table II.

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I; P.S. 1940, 173; C.R. 1 no. 3 (1955), 136.

401

Lowry-Corry 1919, table I.

[841]

APPENDIX F Other Sites in Co. Tyrone Again unidentified documented sites are listed, also some sites not included in the inventory which were visited and a few which were not.

Bessy Bell Mountain, Beragh townland, Cappagh parish. O.S. 25; at about H/391810. 1857 O.S. map marks graveyard, described in 1940, 230, as a small grassy space in the bog, about 20 by 30 yards, surrounded by stones with small mounds over burials, presumably unconsecrated.

Four of the seven churches reported by the ‘Tripartite Life’ as belonging to Patrick in Húi Tuirtri (Stokes 1887, 169) are identified: see Donaghenry, Donaghrisk, Ballyclog and Ardtrea. ‘Domnach Brain’, ‘Domnach Maeláin’ and ‘Domnach Libuir’ are not certainly identified, though ‘Domnach Brain’ may be ‘Donnabaran’ in the medieval deanery of Tullaghoge (Reeves 1847, 294 and Devlin 1955). Two unidentified sites in the 1306 Taxation may be in Co. Tyrone, though they could be in Co. Londonderry (in Armagh diocese): they are ‘Dav’lyncdruc’a’ (listed after Ardtrea, before Desertlyn) and ‘Drumtiglu’cassi’ (after Tamlaght and Drumfada and before Magherafelt).

I climbed the mountain but failed to find site amongst innumerable grassy spaces in bog. Very unlikely site for church. Drumlea townland, Bodoney Lower parish. O.S. 19; 11/535865. O.S. mark burial ground: not visited. Eglish or Gort townland, Ballinderry parish. O.S. 31; H/ 939787. ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’: ‘There is a very old Burial Ground in the Townland of Gort, but it does not appear ever to have been the site of a place of worship.’ Small rectangular graveyard banked up above low surroundings west of Lough Neagh. Leslie 1911, 124, suggests is site of early foundation, but no evidence to support this.

Aghadulla townland, Dromore parish. O.S. 42. Father Gallagher tells me of church site here, known as Caldragh. Not yet visited. Altadaven townland, Errigal Trough parish. O.S. 65; H/494522. Strong Patrician traditions: his chair and altar pointed out on dramatic rocky outcrop, with rock-cut bullaun (1 ft 2 ins diameter, 1 ft deep) and other hollows. Unlikely church site; perhaps inauguration place? Refs:

Foremass Lower townland, Errigal Keerogue parish. O.S. 44; H/584661. O.S. 1857 map marks ‘Drumshanbo’ or ‘Caldragh’. Polygonal hilltop enclosure, diameter about 150 ft. Irregular bank, up to 4 ft above exterior level. Gap 10 ft wide on west and stones visible in face of bank.

McKenna 1920, I, 236-40; P.S. 1940, 258.

[843] Interior level irregular. Stones mark unconsecrated burials (infants and suicides). In southeast part near bank two stones of megalithic proportions and other large stones. No ecclesiastical material or traditions.

Armaghbreague fort, Radergan townland, Clogherny parish. O.S. 44; H/563645. O.S. mark site of Armaghbreague or Friary Fort on Fall Brae. No trace now, but hilltop known as the ‘Freery’, high, boggy and barren. History unknown.

Refs:

[842] Ballywholan townland, Ballyclog parish. O.S. 39; area of H/863725. ‘O.S. 1834 Memoir’: ‘many years ago in the townland of Ballywholan (and a little on the left of the road from Stewartstown to Moneymore) stood a large monastery. There is none of the building remaining. The last of the foundation stones were removed a few years ago and are now lying at the foot of the field.’ I have come across no other reference to the site and did not locate it exactly.

P.S. 1940, 243.

Killycurry townland, Donaghedy parish. O.S. 2; about C/396037. O.S. 1857 map marks ‘site of Burial Ground’ and ‘the Font Stone’ in ‘Fort Field’. I enquired in townland without success. Killymartin graveyard, Glasmullagh townland, Ardstraw parish. O.S. 25; H/388775. O.S. 1857 map marks site of graveyard. Sloping hillside at foot of Berry Bell Mountain, with rubble in hedges. Kinego townland, Killyman parish. O.S. 55. Church site according to ‘O.S. Lists’: not visited.

402

[844]

ABBREVIATIONS i.) An. Ar. De Do. Don. Dub. Fer. Gal. Kild. Kilk. Leit.

Irish county names Antrim Armagh Londonderry Down Donegal Dublin Fermanagh Galway Kildare Kilkenny Leitrim

Lim. Long. Lou. Mea. Mon Of. Sli. Tip. Tyr. Wat. Wick.

Limerick Longford Louth Meath Monaghan Offaly Sligo Tipperary Tyrone Waterford Wicklow

Chron. Scot.

Chronicon Scotorum, ed. Hennessy, W.M. (London, 1866) C.R. Clogher Record Co. Down 1966 An Archaeological Survey of Co. Down (H.M.S.O., Belfast, 1966) Cornish Arch. Cornish Archaeology Current Arch. Current Archaeology D.C.H.S. Down and Connor Historical Society Journal D.P.J. Dublin Penny Journal H.E. Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica: see Plummer 1896 I.E.R. Irish Ecclesiastical Record I.N.J. Irish Naturalists Journal J.B.A.A. Journal of the British Archaeological Association J.C.H.A.S. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society J.G.A.H.S. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society J. Roy Anthrop. Inst. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute J.R.S.A.I. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland J.S.P.M.D. Journal of the Society for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead L.A.J. Louth Archaeological Journal M.D. The Martyrology of Donegal, ed. Todd, J.H. and Reeves, W. (Dublin, 1864) M.G. The Martyrology of Gorman: see Stokes, W., 1895 M.O. The Martyrology of Oengus: see Stokes, W., 1905 M.T. The Martyrology of Tallaght: see Best and Lawlor, 1931 Med. Arch. Medieval Archaeology M.I.A Miscellaneous Irish Annals, ed. Ó hInnse, S. (Dublin, 1947) N. Staffs Jnl of Field Studs North Staffordshire Journal of Field Studies P.S. 1940 A Preliminary Survey of the Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland ed. Chart, D.A., Evans, E.E. and Lawlor, H.C. (H.M.S.O., Belfast, 1940)

ii) Societies and other bodies H.M.S.O. Her Majesty Stationery Office N.M.D. National Museum, Dublin N.M.E. National Museum, Edinburgh O.S. Ordnance Survey R.I.A. Royal Irish Academy R.S.A.I. Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland P.R.O.N.I. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland iii) Journals and other publications A.Clon. Annals of Clonmacnoise ed. Murphy, B. (Dublin, 1896) A.F.M. Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters ed. O’Donovan, J. (Dublin, 1856) A.I. The Annals of Inisfallen ed. MacAirt, S. (Dublin, 1951) A.L.C. The Annals of Loch Cé, ed. Hennessey, W.M. (London, 1871) A.M.S.C. Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland in State Care (H.M.S.O., Belfast, 1928, 1962 and 1966)

A.Tig. A.U.

‘The Annals of Tigernach’, ed. Stokes, W., in Revue Celtique 16-18 (1895-7) Annals of Ulster, ed. Hennessy, W.M. and MacCarthy, B. (Dublin, 18871901)

[845] Ant. J. Antiquaries Journal Ant. Antiquity Arch. Archaeologia Arch. Camb. Archaeologia Cambrensis Arch. J. Archaeological Journal Bulletin G.S.I.H.S. Bulletin of the Group for the Study of Irish Historical Settlement B.U.P.N.S. Bulletin of the Ulster Place-Name Society

[846] P.B.N.H.S.

Proceedings of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society P.[T.]R.I.A. Proceedings [Transactions] of the Royal Irish Academy P.S.A.S. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Scot. Gaelic Stud. Scottish Gaelic Studies S.A. Seanchas Ardmhacha 403

T.L.P.

The Tripartite Life of Patrick: see Stokes, W., 1887 U.J.A. The Ulster Journal of Archaeology, series 1 (1853-62), 2 (1895-1911) and 3 (1938, in progress) Wilts Archaeol. Mag. Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine

404

[847]

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Bigger, F.J., 1916 ‘Some Notes on the Churches of St Tassach of Raholp and St Nicholas of Ardtole’, J.R.S.A.I. 46 (1916), 121-35

Arthurs, J.B., 1954A. ‘Early Septs and Territories of Co. Armagh’, B.U.P.N.S. 2 (1954), 45-55

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Bigger, F.J. and Hughes, H., 1900. ‘Some Notes on the Architectural and Monumental Remains of the Old Abbey Church of Bangor’, U.J.A. 6 (1900), 191-204

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Bowen, E.G., 1956. The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales (Cardiff, 1956)

Coffey, H.W., 1950. A History of Milltown Parish (pamphlet, 1950)

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415

[867]

INDEX OF PLACES IN THE GAZETEER AND APPENDICES This is not an index of all places mentioned in the thesis. It lists places which appear in Section III, and page references to these places in Sections I and II. There has been no attempt to standardise the spelling of Irish names: they appear in the form in which they occur in the sources cited in the text.

Ardicoan td, see Inispollan Ardkeen td (Co. Down) 832 Ard Macha see Armagh Ardmore td, see Balteagh Ardstraw (224: Co. Tyrone) 20, 58-9, 74, 79, 83-4, 98, 110, 119, 123, 140, 152, 165, 196, 215, 367-8,371, 382, 384, 387, 401, 411-2, 486, 581, 766-8, 772, 813, 822, Fig. 79 Ardtole (132: Co. Down) 56, 72, 78, 105, 170, 172, 244, 256-7, 397-8, 833 Ardtrea (225: Co. Tyrone) 58-9, 74, 90, 119, 342-3, 370, 391, 768-9, 841, Figs 78, 80 Armagh (53: Co. Armagh) 16, 18-21, 28, 33, 43, 48-9, 63, 69, 83, 86, 93, 98, 101, 105, 115, 123, 127-8, 141, 144, 151-2, 159, 163, 165, 176, 178-81, 185-6, 196, 204, 208 n., 215, 220, 222, 224, 226-34, 279, 280-1, 314, 319, 326, 329, 331, 333-4, 337-41, 344-8, 350-4, 359-61, 3634, 366-9, 372, 374-80, 382-4, 386-7, 390, 392-3, 396, 398-400, 411, 470-500, 505-6, 509, 511, 516-8, 526, 529, 532-4, 536, 558, 580, 604, 636, 718, 763, 773, 777, 786, 807, 828-9, Fig. 30, P1. 20 Armaghbreague td (Co. Armagh) 65 Armaghbreague fort (Co. Tyrone) 841 Armoy (6; Co. Antrim) 45, 47, 78, 81, 83, 85, 105, 155-8, 162-6, 169, 238, 368, 371, 387, 391, 411, 418-20, 786, Fig. 19, P1s5-6 Ashfield House, see Coolbuck Audleystown td, see Temple Cormac Aughlish td, see Ballymore Aughnakeely, see Aghnakilla

[Page numbers refer to original text – not current edition]

Achadh-chail 597, 638, 652-3 Achad Cinn 45 Aghadowey (83: Co. Londonderrry) [Achad Dubthaig] 52-3, 371, 460, 544-6 Aghadulla td (Co. Tyrone) 841 Aghagallon td (Co. Antrim) 113, 824 Aghalee (1: Co. Antrim) 48, 85, 291-2, 413, P1. 17 Aghaloo (222: Co. Tyrone) 74, 77, 107, 763 Aghalurcher (180: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 110, 269, 289 n., 302, 316-7, 319, 322, 369, 371, 395, 401, 403, 693-4, 748, Fig. 72, Pls 83, 111 Aghanaglack (181: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 73, 175, 184, 218-9, 234, 394, 412, 694-5, P1. 84 Aghanloo (84: Co. Londonderry) 107, 544, 568 Aghavea (182: Co. Fermanagh) 24, 57, 107, 262, 341, 343, 373, 396, 400, 410, 695-7, 741, 784, Fig. 65, P1. 85 Agherton (85: Co. Londonderry) 4, 91, 170, 175, 363, 545 Aghnakilla (3: Co. Antrim), 45, 47, 65, 85, 411, 414-5 Agivey (86: Co. Londonderry) 4, 71, 77, 307, 309-10, 346, 387, 545-6, Fig. 99, P1. 31 Ahoghill (2: Co. Antrim) 65, 212, 316, 346, 361, 363, 413-4, 460, 588 Airther Maige in Tuath Rátha (Co. Fermanagh) 837 Alcrossagh td (Co. Antrim) 420, 824 Altadaven td (Co. Tyrone) 306, 841 Altaghoney (87: Co. Londonderry) 54, 66, 71, 82, 236-7, 394, 546, Fig. 46, P1. 55 Altnagelvin td 560 under Clondermot Annahilt (131: Co. Down) 55, 72, 597 Annaloist (77A: Co. Armagh) 70, 531 Antrim (4: Co. Antrim) 45-7, 83, 85, 98, 151, 154-8, 1635, 168, 170, 216, 292, 296, 316, 339, 348, 350, 368, 372, 400, 402-3, 411, 415-7, 422, 600-1, Pls 4, 6

Baile Cluig Comhgaill, see Ballyclog (Co. Antrim) Ballinderry (7: Co. Antrim) 47, 68, 102, 105, 291-2, 303, 373, 377, 391, 421-2, P1. 17 Ballinderry (88: Co. Londonderry) 71, 303-4, 396, 546-7, 589, P1. 135 Ballintemple td (Co. Armagh), see Killevy Ballintemple td (Co. Londonderry), see Errigal Ballure td, see Inispollan Ballyaghran, alias for Agherton, q.v. Ballyaughian td, see Clonduff Ballycassidy td (Co. Fermanagh) 291 n. 837 Ballyclog (8: Co. Antrim) 372, 422, 604

[868] Arboe (223; Co. Tyrone) 58-9, 74, 90, 151, 184, 218, 220-2, 224, 226-7, 292, 302, 316, 318, 331, 361, 364, 371, 385, 387, 395, 411-2, 763-6, Figs 79, 80, Pls 2, 1134 Ard Cáin 832 Ardclinis (5: Co. Antrim) 48, 68, 108 n., 245, 279, 339 n., 341-2, 417-8, P1. 137

[869] Ballyclog (226: Co. Tyrone) 58, 108, 340, 769, 841, Fig. 80 Ballycrum td (Co. Londonderry) 321, 830 Ballyeglish td (Co. Londonderry) 830 Ballyellough td, see Magheragall Ballygawley td (Co. Tyrone) 805 Ballygill Middle td, see Rathlin Island Ballyhill (183: Co. Fermanagh) 11, 58, 73, 84, 106, 306, 697-8, P1. 110 Ballyhutherland td, see Springmount Bog

Ardglass td (Co. Down) 597-8, 833 416

Ballylesson td, see Ballyclog (Co. Antrim) Ballylummin td, see Ahoghill Ballymagaughlish td, see Dromore (Co. Down) Ballymagroarty td (Co. Londonderry) 830 Ballymartin parish (Co. Antrim) 824 Ballymartrim Otra or Etra tds (Co. Armagh) 828 Ballymenagh td (Co. Down) 833 Ballymoney (Co. Antrim) 341, 422, 448 Ballymoran td (Co. Armagh) 51, 526, 828 Ballymore (Co. Armagh) 48, 70, 111, 363, 388, 393, 5001, Fig. 29 Ballymully td, see Desertlyn Ballymyre [Ballymoyer] (55; Co. Armagh) 6, 89, 340, 498, 501 Ballynaback, see Ballymore and Terryhoogan Ballynameen td (Co. Londonderry), see Cumber Ballynameen td (Co. Londonderry), see Desertoghill Ballynanny or Ballychommoc td 608 under Clonduff Ballynasaggart td (Co. Tyrone) 113, 308, 804, 806, P1. 137 Ballynascreen (89: Co. Londonderry) 52-3, 65, 71, 79, 84, 348, 372, 391, 411, 547-8, 588-9, 592, 776 Ballynease (Macpeake) td, see River Bann (Co. Londonderry) Ballynure parish (Co. Antrim) 824-5 Ballyorgan (133: Co. Down) 56, 238, 412, 598-9 Ballyrashane (90: Co. Londonderry) 548 Ballyscullion parish (Co. Londonderry) 495, 558, and see Church Island Ballysugagh td 687 under Saul Ballyteerim td (Co. Antrim) 825 Ballyveaghmore td, see Kilmeloge Ballywholan td (Co. Tyrone) 842 Ballywillin (91: Co. Londonderry) 54, 145-6, 152, 385, 392, 548-9, Fig. 45, P1. 39 Balteagh (92: Co. Londonderry) 51-2, 4, 61, 65, 549-50, 568, 577 Banagher (93: Co. Londonderry) 7, 52-3, 64-5, 70, 105, 36-7, 139-41, 145-6, 171, 183, 190-1, 195, 236-7, 270, 292, 305, 385, 387, 395, 399, 403, 550-5, 589, 594, Figs 41-3, 46, Pls 40-7

Bonamargie (9: Co. Antrim) 82, 236-7, 423-4, Figs 19, 22, P1. 7 Both dá Fhíach, see Balteagh Both Domnach, see Bodoney Bovevagh (94: Co. Londonderry) 20, 52, 71, 105, 170, 190-2, 362, 395, 555-6, P1. 48 Brackney (10: Co. Antrim) 48, 81, 247, 402, 424, Figs 19, 25, P1. 8 Bright (13 Co. Down) 55, 78, 103, 106, 198, 316, 368-9, 396, 401, 411, 604-5 Broombeg (11: Co. Antrim) 48, 81, 402, 424-5, Figs 19, 23 Broughanlea (12: Co. Antrim) 82, 238-9, 395, 401, 4256, 430, Figs 19, 22, P1. 15 Bunowen td, see Donaghedy Burrendale (Co. Down) 401, 650, Pl 68

Cabragh td 450 under Kirkinriola Caldragh, see Boa Island Caldragh, see Aghadulla Caldragh, see Foremass Lower Caldragh, see Trillick Caledon td (Co. Tyrone) 220, 222, 224, 400, 409, 808-9, P1. 125 Cam td (Co. Londonderry) 830 Camus (95: Co. Londonderry) 20, 51, 53, 83, 93, 110, 213, 224, 226, 233-4, 303, 339 346, 372, 400, 460, 556-8, 574, 600, 653, Pls 49, 58 Camus (228: Co. Tyrone) 74, 401, 771-2 Cappagh (229: Co. Tyrone) 59, 151, 345, 368, 772-3, P1. 136 Cargan td, see Deshcart [871] Cargans td (Co. Armagh) 828 Carnacally td, see Kilmore parish (Co. Down) Carnacavill td, see Maghera (Co. Down) Carnanbane td under Banagher Carncastle see St. Cunning Carncomb td 429 under Connor Carnteel (230: Co. Tyrone) 35, 74, 77, 93, 363, 773 Carravindoon td, see Rathlin Island Carrickabweehan td, see Templemoyle (Gortahurk West, Co. Fermanagh) Carrickcroppan (56: Co. Armagh) 51, 246, 266, 395, 502, Fig. 34, P1. 21 Carrickmore (231: Co. Tyrone) 59, 74, 78, 105, 107, 207, 209, 245, 255, 315, 317, 319, 344, 372, 411-2, 548, 7736, Figs 81-2, Pl. 117 Cashel (57: Co. Armagh) 51, 69, 77, 106, 114, 116 n., 171, 211, 338, 411, 502-3 Castle Balfour Demesne td, see Lisnaskea Castrum O’Hanlon parish, see Loughgilly Cavancarragh td, see Holywell Cell Aedáin 832 Cell Aine 832 Cell Conadain, see St. Cunning Cell Drochat 832-3 Cell Lomchon 832 Cell Rathnaite, see Kilraghts Cell Saile 769 under Ballyclog (Co. Tyrone)

[870] Bangor (134: Co. Down) 1, 11, 19-21, 33, 143, 54-5, 63, 72, 76, 95, 98, 122, 125, 144, 152, 165, 213, 217, 228, 233, 272-6, 324, 327, 329-32, 341, 345-6, 348, 351, 367, 371-4, 378, 380-3, 386, 399, 415, 421, 458-9, 599-604, 610, 654-5, 832, Fig. 56, Pl. 71 Barnamaghery td (Co. Down) 833 Beragh td, see Bessy Bell Bessy Bell Mountain (Co. Tyrone) 842 Bighouse td, see Drumnakill Billy parish (Co. Antrim) 361, 464-5, 825 Blaris td (Co. Down) 307, 833-4 Boa Island (184: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 73, 76, 108, 110, 282, 360, 410-1, 698-9, 748, Pl. 86 Bodoney (227: Co. Tyrone) 4, 58-9, 74, 78, 84, 240, 2456, 255, 292-3, 295, 301, 363, 391, 769-71, Figs 79, 82, 84, Pls 1, 115-6, 127, 132 Boho (185: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 73, 108, 224-5, 227, 233, 300, 373, 699-701, 751, Pls 87-8 417

Cell Uinche, see Killuney Chapel Island (136: Co. Down) 55-6, 104, 339, 402, 4112, 606-7 Chapeltown (Co. Down) 256, 304, 598, 834, P1. 82 Churchfield td, see Culfeightrin Church Hill td 793-4 under Donaghedy Church Island (96: Co. Londonderry) 51-2, 70, 75, 109, 303, 346, 395, 397, 408, 411, 460, 495, 558-9, 588, Pls 2, 58 Church Tamlaght td (Co. Antrim) 363 Churchtown, see Lissan Cill-Bien [Cell-Biain] 617, 833 Cill-Combair, see Comber Cill Mór Magh Enir 776, 806 Cladymore td (Co. Armagh) 828 Clagan td 581 under Lissan Clancarney parish, see Kilcluney Clanconchie parish, see Lisnadill

Craig td, see Skreen Craigatempin td 422 under Ballymoney Craigmore td (Co. Londonderry) 830 Craigs td, see Aghnakilla Cranfield td (Co. Antrim) 241, 825 Cranny Island [Crannach] (141: Co. Down) 55, 76, 600, 610 Creggan (59: Co. Armagh) 50, 70, 504, 829 [873] Crevilly Valley (14: Co. Antrim) 48, 271, 361, 429-30 Fig. 25, P1. 14 Croaghan td (Co. Down) 851 Cross or Dunard td (Co. Antrim) 825 Cúil Bennchoir 837 Culfeightrin (15: Co. Antrim) 45, 69, 77, 81, 237, 239, 363, 368, 411, 423-5, 430, Fig. 19 Culkeeran td (Co. Armagh) 828 Cullybackey td, see Kilmakevit Culbane td, see River Bann (Co. Londonderry) Cumber (100: Co. Londonderry) 71, 77, 566, 546, 562, 589, Fig. 39

[872] Cleenish (186: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 73, 91, 176, 244, 247, 268-70, 297, 320, 332, 390, 409-10, 701-3, 753, 756, Fig. 72, P1. 89 Clogher (232: Co. Tyrone) 6, 40, 58-9, 62, 83, 86, 93, 108, 148-9, 152, 165, 220-3, 228-9, 231, 233-4, 273-5, 277-8, 294-5, 303, 308-9, 326, 331, 341, 345, 360, 367-9, 373, 380, 382, 384, 386, 396, 400, 697, 743, 749, 776-85, 798, 811, 822, Pls 118-21 Cloghinny (58: Co. Armagh) 13, 50, 69, 89, 175, 266, 394, 411-2, 503-4, Figs 29, 34, P1. 21 Clonallan (137: Co. Down) 86, 607 Clonaul [Cluain Dabhail] see Eglish parish (Co. Armagh) Clondermot (97: Co. Londonderry) 302, 560 Clonduff (138: Co. Down) 55, 72, 86, 292, 363, 607-8, P1. 82 Clonfeacle (234: Co. Tyrone) 59, 105, 113, 219-20, 3034, 307-8, 317, 392, 394, 396, 407, 484, 786-8, 803, Fig. 82, Pls 122, 134-5 Clonlea (139: Co. Down) 56, 109, 235, 412, 608-9, Pl. 131 Clonmin td 727 under Galloon Clonoe (235: Co. Tyrone) 272, 397, 788-9 Figs 80, 83 Clontivrin (187: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 73, 317, 378, 703-4 Clooney (98: Co. Londonderry) 52-3, 71, 76-7, 108, 387, 560-2, 574, 576 Clúain dá Fhíach, see Balteagh Clúain-Fiachna, see Clonfeacle Clúain Mind, see Clonmin Coleraine (99: Co. Londonderry) 51, 53, 83, 165, 216, 346, 350, 355, 368, 373, 380, 387, 399, 460, 561-2 College Hall or Marrassit td 543 under Tynan Coll-nan-Ingen 509, 828 Comber (140: Co. Down) 55, 385, 387, 609-10 Conerick td, see Drumgay Lough Connor (13: Co. Antrim) 20, 45, 47, 85, 98, 165, 174, 185, 213, 218, 224, 226-7, 2314, 262, 292, 295, 302, 346, 350-1, 358, 367-8, 371, 373, 379-80, 382, 84, 398, 426-9, 446, 449, 453, 581, Pls 8-9 Coolbuck td (Co. Fermanagh) 837 Cornagrally td, see Loughgilly Corporation tds, see Bangor and Killyleagh

Daire-Calgaich, Daire-Columcille, see Derry Daire Mis, see Derrynoose Daisyhill, see Findermore Dav’lyncdruc’a 841 Davy’s Island (Co. Fermanagh) 837 Deehommed td (Co. Down) 61-2, 628 Dergbruagh (101: Co. Londonderry) 53, 71, 77, 560, 5623, 574, 576 Derry (102: Co. Londonderry) 3, 19, 51, 53, 63, 70, 83, 109, 127, 129, 152, 165, 176, 178, 195, 216, 292, 294, 319, 331-2, 347, 354-5, 361, 364, 371-2, 379, 384, 386, 388, 397, 399, 411, 486, 511, 563-6, 767, P1. 58 Derry (142: Co. Down) 55, 124, 127, 129-35, 187, 197-8, 200-2, 206, 210, 212, 244-5, 254, 259, 270, 337, 339 n., 374, 385, 393, 403, 412, 610-4, Figs 54, 57, Pls 60-1, 69 Derrybrochisse, see Killyman Derrybrusk (188: Co. Fermanagh) 73, 108, 282, 361, 390, 704, 734, 746 Derrychrier td 595 under Templemoyle Derrykeighan (16: Co. Antrim) 44, 85, 381, 431 Derryloran (236: Co. Tyrone) 58-9, 74, 79, 90, 361, 368, 387, 391, 789-90, Fig. 80 Derrymore td, see Magheranagaw Derrynoose (60: Co. Armagh) 15, 21, 49-50, 69, 106, 115, 215, 217, 237, 301, 316-7, 319, 322, 373, 378, 392, 396, 504-6, Fig. 72 Derryvullan (189: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 73, 148, 247, 282, 316-7, 319, 361, 704-6, Fig. 72, P1. 90 Desertcreat (237: Co. Tyrone) 59, 90, 93, 267, 387, 790, Figs 80, 83, P1. 115 Desertlyn (103: Co. Londonderry) 107, 565-6, 841 Desertmartin (104: Co. Londonderry) 108 n., 391, 566 Desertoghill (105: Co. Londonderry) 4, 91, 170 296, 303, 398, 566-7 Deshcart (17: Co. Antrim) 85, 109, 320, 431-2, 827 [874]

418

Devenish (190 Co. Fermanagh) 28, 57, 73, 76, 102, 105, 138, 141-6, 152, 154-60, 162-3, 165, 169, 188, 216, 2447, 255-7, 269, 287, 294-6, 298-9, 309, 317, 325-6, 329, 351, 35I 362, 367, 371, 378-80, 382, 386-8, 393, 399400, 403, 410-2, 696, 706-18, 720, 738, 745, 751, Figs 66-9, 73, Pls 3, 91-6, 133 Disert Uilaig 23, 45, 374, 440 Domnach Airthir Ardda, see Tamlaghtard Domnach Brain 841 Domnach Brechmaige 830 Domnach Caínri in Cothraige 826 Domnach Caoide, see Donaghedy Domnach Catí 830 Domnach Combair, see Comber Domnach Conaoidh, see Donaghanie Domnach Dari 830 Domnach Dola 830 Domnach Fairne [Fainre], see Donaghenry Domnach Fothirbe, see Ballyclog Domnach Libuir 790, 841 Domnach Maeláin 801, 841 Domnach Mescáin 830 Domnach Min-cluaine 52 n., 561, 567, 830, perhaps Clooney Domnach Mór Maige Damoerna 432, 615, 826 Domnach Mór Maige Imchlair, see Donaghmore (Co. Tyrone) Domnach Riascad, see Donaghrisk Domnach Rigduinn 768, perhaps Ardtrea Domnach Senchue 830 Domnach Senliss 54, 579 Donacavey (238: Co. Tyrone) 34, 59, 74, 108, 238, 318, 391, 393, 395, 791-2, Fig. 83, P1. 131 Donagh (191: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 78, 147, 718-9, 810, Fig. 69, Pl. 99 Donaghadee (144: Co. Down) 55, 614 Donaghaguy td 607 under Clonallan Donaghanie (239: Co. Tyrone) 4, 59, 74, 77, 93, 303, 792-3, P1. 130 Donaghcloney (144: Co. Down) 55, 72, 83, 614 Donaghedy (240: Co. Tyrone) 74, 79, 341, 793-4 Donaghenry (241: Co. Tyrone) 58, 109, 170, 794, 841, Fig. 80 Donaghmore (145: Co. Down) 55, 83, 109, 170, 212-3, 217, 220-3, 225, 227, 232, 36 368, 411, 615-7, P1. 62 Donaghmore (242: Co. Tyrone) 58-9, 74, 90, 213, 215, 222, 224, 226-7, 229, 232-3, 294, 300, 303, 315, 341, 345, 385, 398, 407, 427, 784, 794-8, Figs 78, 80, Pls 1234 Donaghrisk (243: Co. Tyrone) 93, 108, 114, 321, 798-9, 841, Fig. 80 Donnybrewer td (Co. Londonderry) 830

Dromore (18: Co. Antrim) 48, 184, 246, 265, 395, 432, Fig. 24, Pl. 10 Dromore (147: Co. Down) 24, 72, 86, 165, 213, 217-8, 224, 227, 244, 246, 279, 308-9, 332, 347, 368, 382, 384, 400, 625-8, 655, 657, Fig. 57, P1. 64 Dromore (244: Co. Tyrone) 217, 366, 372, 398, 799-801 Druim Bairr 750 under Magheraculmoney Druim Breccáin see Deshcart Druim Dubain (253: Co. Tyrone) 785 Druim Faindle 832 Druim Fendeda 828 Druim Níad 832 Drumacanver td (Co. Armagh) 829 Drumachose ( Co. Londonderry) 52-3, 71, 105, 269, 372, 544, 549, 567-8, 577, 592, 800 Drumad td, see Drumfadd’ Drumadonnell (148: Co. Down) 6, 61, 72, 217-8, 221-2, 233, 398, 401, 628-9, P1. 68 Drumagarner td (Co. Londonderry) 65, 593-4 Drumakeely td, see Springmount Bog Drumaqueran (19: Co. Antrim) 13, 48, 66, 184, 246, 252, 370, 374, 448, Fig. 23, Pl. 11 Drumbarna td 750 under Magheraculmoney Drumbeg td (Co. Down) 832 Drumbo (149: Co. Down) 55, 72, 79, 151, 155-7, 159, 163-5, 339 n., 392, 407, 629-31, Pl. 65 Drumbolcan (Co. Antrim) 65, 320, 457-8 Drumbrughas (192: Co. Fermanagh) 66, 238, 719-20, Fig. 85, Pl. 103 Drumcath’ (245: Co. Tyrone) 394, 801 Drumconwell (61: Co. Armagh) 50, 196, 248-50, 370, 394, 411, 506, 526, Fig. 34, P1. 23 Drumcraw td 412, Fig. 80 and see Drumcath’ Drumcree (62: Co. Armagh) 50, 506-7, 534 Drumeeny (20: Co. Antrim) 45-7, 69, 81, 92, 109, 151, 170, 172, 174-5, 207, 245, 256, 261, 270, 334n, 401, 4112, 424, 434-8, Figs 19, 21, 23 Drumenagh td (Co. Londonderry) 831 Drumfadd (246: Co. Tyrone) 394, 801-2, 841 [876] Drumgay Lough (193: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 244-5, 279, 304, 401, 715, 720-1 Drumglass (247: Co. Tyrone) 90, 108, 309, 802, Fig. 80 Drurngooland parish 320, and see Drumadonnell Drumkeeran td, see Kill Boedain Drumlea td (Co. Tyrone) 842 Drumlee td (Co. Down) 61 Drummeland td 505 under Derrynoose Drummully (194: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 73, 320, 327, 7212, 726 Drumnacannon td, see Tamlaght O’Crilly Drumnacur (21: Co. Antrim) 7, 47, 68, 109, 210, 253, 375, 393, 409, 412, 438, Fig. 25, P1. 13 Drumnakill (22: Co. Antrim) 48, 68, 82, 186 n., 237, 270, 292, 438-9, Figs 19, 22, P1. 12 Drumneth td (Co. Down) 832 Drumowen td (Co. Tyrone) 816 under Langfield Drumquin (Co. Tyrone) 816 under Langfield, Fig. 81 Drumragh (248: Co. Tyrone) 59, 83, 368, 802-3 Drumsallagh (150: Co. Down) 55, 72, 83, 151, 258, 269, 363, 373, 411-2, 631-3, Fig. 57

[875] Doras td, see Tullyniskan Down [Downpatrick] (146: Co. Down) 33, 55, 72, 76, 86, 103, 105 115-6, 144, 152, 159, 162-3, 165, 186, 213, 216-8, 220, 225, 227, 232, 271, 331, 337, 339, 347, 354, 367, 369, 371,376, 380, 384, 386-7, 398-400, 412, 471, 610, 617-25, 635-6, 677, 688, 832-3, Fig. 56, Pl. 63 Downhill td, see Dunboe Dreenan td, see Boa Island 419

Drumshanbo (Co. Tyrone) 211, 842-3 Drumshane td, see Lisnarrick Drumsonnus td (Co. Tyrone) 749 under Magheracross Drumtiglu’cassi 841 Drumtullagh (23: Co. Antrim) 46-7, 412, 439-40 Dunboe (107: Co. Down) 77, 93, 108, 116 n., 333, 364, 565, 568-9 Duncrun (108: Co. Londonderry) 52-3, 70, 77, 105, 116 n., 151, 245, 247, 254, 260-1, 388, 408, 411, 569-70, 592, Fig. 47, P1. 4 Dundesert (24: Co. Antrim) 13, 45, 47, 101, 103, 105, 115-6, 151, 401, 411, 440-1, Fig. 20 Duneane (25: Co. Antrim) 45, 69, 83, 116 n., 346, 442, 460, 588 Dungiven (109: Co. Londonderry) 14, 21, 51, 53, 71, 83, 86, 105, 116 n., 136-9, 143, 167-9, 172, 177, 183, 292, 302, 309, 317, 363, 366, 386, 390, 395, 402-3, 411, 5704, 578, Fig. 45, Pls 50-1 Dunmull (Co. Antrim) 306, 825-6 Dunmullan td, see Cappagh Dunseverick [Dún Sobhairce] (Co. Antrim) 45, 83, 92, 418, 442, 464-5, and see Templastragh Dunsey Island (151: Co. Down) 55, 633-4 Dunsfort td (Co. Down) 291 n., 304-5, 598, 834 Dunteige (26: Co. Antrim) 116 n., 246, 268, 394, 442-3, Fig. 24, P1. 13

Foremass Lower td (Co. Tyrone) 211, 842-3 Fothrad 826 Frevagh td, see Kilcoo Friar’s Island (195: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 73, 102, 105, 412, 722 Fruithill td, see Drumachose Fyagh td, see Derrybrusk

Galgorm td 365, 414 under Ahoghill Galloon (196: Co. Fermanagh) 44, 57, 75, 147, 228, 222, 227, 229-50, 233, 317, 320, 327, 373, 721-7, 748, Pls 979 Glasmullagh td, see Killymartin Glebe tds, see Aghalurcher, Agherton, Annahilt, Armoy, Ballyclog, Ballyrashane, Ballywillin, Clonallan, Derrykeighan, Derryloran, Donaghenry, Donaghmore (Co. Down), Glore, Ramoan, Rasharkin Glenarb (252: Co. Tyrone) 58-9, 196, 215, 217, 220, 4001, 409, 412, 559, 807, Pls 125-6 Glenavy (27: Co. Antrim) 45, 147, 68, 83, 85, 314, 377, 443-4, P1. 18 [878] G1endalough td, see Ballymoney Glennoo (253: Co. Tyrone) 59, 84, 151, 310, 29 373, 394, 412, 718, 810-2, P1. 130 Glenroan td, see Bodoney Glore (28: Co. Antrim) 45, 68, 77, 85, 444 Glynn (29: Co. Antrim) 45, 68, 77, 105, 444-5 Gobban Saer’s Castle, see Drumeeny Gola td (Co. Fermanagh) 838 Gort, alias for Eglish (Co. Tyrone) 842 Gort td, see Errigal Keerogue Gortahurk West td, see Templemoyle (Co. Fermanagh) Gortalough td, see Drumgay Lough Gortfad td 212, 363, 414 under Ahoghill Gortgrib (153: Co. Down) 55, 635 Gortnamoyagh td 576 under Errigal Grange td 806 under Errigal Keerogue Grangewalls td 605 under Bright Gransha [Grange] td, see Dergbruagh Greenan td, see Clonlea

Echlinville td, see Rubane Edenappa td, see Kilnasaggart [877] Edenderry td, see Shankill Edenduffcarrick (Co. Antrim) 495 Edenmore (152: Co. Down) 246, 265, 394-5, 634, Fig. 58, Pl. 70 Eglish parish and td (63: Co. Armagh) 7, 50, 69 217, 2201, 228-9, 231, 234, 301, 388, 507-8, 828, Fig. 29, Pls 223 Eglish td, see Tartaraghan Eglish (249: Co. Tyrone) 113, 803 Eglish td (Gort, Co. Tyrone) 302, 842 Eglish burial ground, see Ballyeglish Eglish Lower burial ground, see Drumenagh Ely Island (Co. Fermanagh) 838 Enachloisgy 530-1 Enagh (110: Co. Londonderry) 55, 70, 77, 95, 349, 387, 560, 562-3, 574-6, Figs 40, 85, P1. 132 Éo Inis 62, 721, 758, 837 Erenagh td (no.) 55, 321, 387, 834-5 Errigal (111: Co. Londonderry) 54, 82, 108 n., 170-1, 174, 292-3, 339 n., 369, 372, 409, 575-6, P1. 59 Errigal Keerogue (250: Co. Tyrone) 59, 74, 82, 115, 219, 289 n., 292, 303, 308, 316-7, 319, 531, 804-6, Pls 1, 125

Holywell td 416A-7 under Antrim Holywell (197: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 73, 84, 240, 292, 300, 306, 316-7, 319-20, 322, 727-8, P1. 100 Holywood (154: Co. Down) 72, 635, 682

Imlech Cluane 445, 826 Inch (155: Co. Down) 55, 72, 77, 207, 387, 389, 635-6, 688, 832 Inis Aonaigh 349, perhaps Enagh Inis Coimhéta, see Ely Island Inis Darciargrenn, see Island Inishkeen (198: Co. Fermanagh) 6-7, 57, 147, 287, 292-3, 300-1, 318, 728-31, 735, P1. 101 Inishmacsaint (199: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 100, 103, 105, 114, 129-33, 141-2, 218, 220-1, 234, 236, 246, 258, 3256, 385, 403, 409, 411-2, 731-5, 754, Figs 65, 70, 74, Pls 102-3 Inishroosk td (Co. Fermanagh) 694, 748

Farranasculloge td, see Aghalurcher Farsnagh td, see Arboe Faughanvale (112: Co. Londonderry) 53, 71, 77, 147, 238, 576-7, 596 Favour Royal (Co. Tyrone) 306, 806 Findermore (251: Co. Tyrone) 66, 264-5, 569, 807, Fig. 82, P1. 127 Finkiltagh td, see Ahoghill 420

Inispollan (30: Co. Antrim) 48, 68, 85, 294, 303, 392, 445-6, P1. 18 Inis Rochla, see Inishroosk Inis Toite, see Church Island

Killowen (116: Co. Londonderry) 573, 580 Killuney (67: Co. Armagh) 49-50, 516 Killybanway (Co. Antrim) 826 Killybawn, see Barnamaghery Killycawna, see Glennoo Killycoogan td 414 under Ahoghill Killycrappin 418 under Ardclinis Killycurry td (Co. Tyrone) 843 Killydrum (203: Co. Fermanagh) 15, 58, 64, 73, 320, 742, 751, P1. 110 Killygartan (161: Co. Down) 56, 254, 395, 412, 641, Fig. 58, P1. 69 Killygony (Co. Down) 212, 363 Killyhurragh, see Drumnacur Killyleagh (162: Co. Down) 56, 86, 141, 144, 641-2, Figs 56-7, Pl 69 Killyloughran (Co. Armagh) 504, 829 Killyman (68: Co. Antrim) 48, 50, 69, 114, 217, 326, 410, 516-7, 559 Killymartin (Co. Tyrone) 843 Kilsally td 769 under Ballyclog Killyvallagh, see Inispollan Kilmakevit [Kilmachevit] (55: Co. Antrim) 48, 447-8 Kilmeloge (163: Co. Down) 56, 106, 114, 177, 643 Kilmore (69: Co. Armagh) 48, 69, 110, 319, 806 Kilmore td (Co. Down) in Shankill parish 532 Kilmore parish (Co. Down) 835 Kilmoyle td, see Drumtullagh Kilnacarrick, see Drumacanver Kilnasaggart (70: Co. Armagh) 48, 50, 70, 83, 196-7, 199-200, 205, 212, 241-2, 245, 247, 251, 254, 261, 2645, 267, 279 n., 280, 291, 303, 307, 309, 326, 538-9, 361, 374-5, 395, 402, 411, 518-26 Figs 32-5, Pls 28-32 Kilraghts (54: Co. Antrim) 21, 45, 47, 83, 381, 433, 448 Kilrea (117: Co. Londonderry) 71, 316, 391, 545, 580 Kilroot (35: Co. Antrim) 45, 47, 68, 76, 109-10, 292, 294-5, 315, 448-9, P1. 18 Kilskeery (257: Co. Tyrone) 74, 217, 814-5, 821-2 Kiltierney (204: Co. Fermanagh) 15, 57, 103, 105, 114, 148, 151, 565, 373, 387, 390, 408, 411-2, 718, 742-4, 810, P1. 111 Kiltober (205: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 520, 363, 394, 409, 412, 745 Kiltubbrid td (Co. Armagh) 829 Kilvergan td (Co. Armagh) 829 Kilvoruan (Carnvindoon and Knockans tds), see Rathlin Island Kinawley (206: Co. Fermanagh) 24, 57, 84, 312, 314, 319, 343, 364, 745-6 Kinego td (Co. Tyrone) 843

Keenaghan td (Co. Fermanagh) 838 Kells (31: Co. Antrim) 46-7, 83, 85, 379, 386, 390, 446 Kilbracks td, see Kilcluney Kilbride, see Rathlin Island [879] Kilbroney (156: Co. Down) 72, 77, 86, 217-8, 220, 2234, 227, 232, 287-8, 319, 341, 609, 656-8 Kilcam td (Co. Armagh) 829 Kilclief (157: Co. Down) 55, 72, 76-7, 125, 638 Kilcluney (64: Co. Armagh) 22, 49-50, 319, 509 Kilcoo (200: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 151, 234, 242, 244, 246, 254, 256-8, 261-2, 320, 401, 411-2, 755-8, Fig. 74, Pl. 104 Kilcronaghan (113: Co. Londonderry) 147, 591, 577-8 Kildarton (65: Co. Armagh) 51, 70, 106, 402, 509-10, Fig. 29 Killdress (254: Co. Tyrone) 90, 812, Fig. 80 Kildrum td (268A: Co. Tyrone) 799-81 under Dromore Kilhoran (158: Co. Down) 6, 198, 639 Kilhoyle td (Co. Londonderry) 550, 831 Kilkeel (159: Co. Down) 56, 72 107, 115, 235-7, 318, 363, 639-40, Fig. 85, Pl. 75 Killacur, see Drumnacur Killadeas (201: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 73, 235, 244, 247, 251, 253, 258, 262, 283-4, 345, 363, 378, 738-41, Pls 105-6 Killaleenan, see Cross or Dunard Killaney td (Co. Down) 832 Killary Glebe td, see Clonoe Kill Boedain (32: Co. Antrim) 109, 177, 446-7 Kille Acrue [Kilcrue], see Turraloskin Killead parish, see Dundesert Killee td (Co. Fermanagh) 838 Kille Enan, Drumeeny (Co. Antrim) 92, 151, 175, 207, 256, 270, 434-6, Fig. 21 Killeeshil (255: Co. Tyrone) 74, 399, 812 Killelagh (114; Co. Londonderry) 54, 170, 292-3, 302, 365, 578-9, Fig. 84, Pl. 59 Killen td 816 under Lackagh Killennan (115: Co. Londonderry) 4, 71, 91, 411-2, 579, 587, Fig. 47 Killesher (202: Co. Fermanagh) 24, 57, 170, 172, 174, 319, 371, 373, 696, 741-2, 756 Killevy (66: Co. Armagh) 5, 7, 24-5, 48, 50, 63, 69, 89, 91, 98, 113, 119, 121-2, 129-33, 135-6, 153 n., 165, 170, 216, 240, 245, 247, 260-1, 307, 512, 316-7, 319, 326, 331, 341, 348, 370-1, 380, 386, 388-9, 402, 411, 510-6, Figs 31, 34, Pls 24-7, 133 Killinchy (160: Co. Down) 55, 72, 640 Killoan (256: Co. Tyrone) 11, 15, 60, 224, 235, 368, 392, 394, 412, 813, 816, Figs 81, 83, Pl. 128 Killough td, see Knockavalley Killowen (Co. Antrim), see cross or Dunard

[881] Kinghill td (Co. Down) 608 under Clonduff Kirkinriola (36: Co. Antrim) 47, 85, 170, 172, 245, 247, 260-1, 393, 449-51, Pl. 14 Knock td (Co. Down) 372 n., 835 Knockans td, see Rathlin Island Knockavalley (1614: Co. Down) 56, 247, 412, 643-4, Fig. 57, Pl. 68 Knocknagin td, see Desertmartin Kurin td, see Desertoghill

[880] 421

Magheramayo td (Co. Down) 61, 320, 629 Magheramesk parish (Co. Antrim) 322, 466, 468, 826 Magheramore td, see Banagher Magheramorne (Co. Antrim) 453, 826 Magheramully td, see Skerry Magheramurphy td, see Kilkeel Magheranagaw (Co. Antrim) 309, 826 Magheraveely (212: Co. Fermanagh) 73, 750 Magherintemple, alias for Churchfield td, see Culfeightrin Maghernahely (74: Co. Armagh) 51, 147, 217, 278, 307, 316-7, 319, 400, 411, 527-9, Fig. 35, P1. 34 Maghery td (Co. Armagh) 829 Maghery Kilcrany td (Co. Armagh) 829 Maghon td (Co. Armagh) 829 Mahee Island, see Nendrum Marahinch, see Moira Markstown, see Kilmakevit Meenan td 632 under Drumsallagh Moira parish (no.) 6 Molusk, Grange of (Co. Antrim) 826 Monea (213: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 64, 217, 373, 410, 699, 707, 742, 751 Moneyconey td, see Ballynascreen Moneycree td (Co. Armagh) 829 Moneydorraghmore td, see Kilhoran

Lackagh (258: Co. Tyrone) 60, 288-9, 292, 815-6, Figs 81, 83, P1. 128 La Loo, see Ballinderry (Co. Antrim) Lambeg parish (Co. Down) 377 Langfield (259: Co. Tyrone) 368, 392, 401, 813, 815-7, 822, Fig. 81 Lann Rónain Find, see Magheralin Laraghshankill td (Co. Armagh) 829 Largantogher td, see Maghera (Co. Londonderry) Layd (37: Co. Antrim) 48, 77, 85, 236-8, 247, 309, 321, 451-2, Figs 22, 25, P1. 15 Leckpatrick (260: Co. Tyrone) 363, 817 Legananny (165: Co. Down) 56, 61, 251, 253, 264, 412, 644, Fig. 58, P1. 70 Legarhill td (Co. Armagh) 482, 500 Lettershendony td (Co. Down) 34, 54, 579, 587, Fig. 47 Levalleglish td, see Loughgall Linn 453 Lisban td (Co. Down) 207, 835 Lisglass td (Co. Londonderry) 831 Lisgoole (207: Co. Fermanagh) 116 n., 386, 389-90, 7467, 839 Lismacloskey td, see Duneane Lismonaghan td, see Kinawley Lismoyle td (Co. Londonderry) 831 Lisnacree td, see Tamlaght (Co. Down) Lisnadill (71: Co. Armagh) 50, 116 n., 526 Lisnarrick (Co. Fermanagh) 838 Lisnaskea (208: Co. Fermanagh) 116 n., 222, 225, 227, 233, 401, 747-8, P1. 107 Lissan (118: Co. Down) 51, 53, 108, 116 n., 367-8, 580-1 Listarkelt H, see Derrynoose Listooder td, see Killygartan Lough Brickland, see Drumsallagh Loughgall (72: Co. Armagh) 50, 93, 526-7 Loughgilly (73: Co. Armagh) 50, 69, 77, 89, 102, 106, 411, 527, Fig. 29 Lustymore Island (209: Co. Fermanagh) 76, 282, 699, 748-9, Pl. 86

[883] Moneyvart td, see Layd Mormeal td, see Kilcronaghan Movilla (168: Co. Down) 21, 33, 55, 86, 98, 127, 147, 245, 247, 260, 262, 308, 329-31, 350, 361, 367-8, 371, 373-4, 380, 382-3, 386, 390, 393, 407, 610, 654-7, 635, P1. 71 Muckamore (38: Co. Antrim) 46-7, 69, 386, 453-4 Mulkeeragh td, see Tamlaght Finlagan Mullaboy (121: Co. Down) 6, 71, 218-9, 220, 234, 31920, 411-2, 579, 586-7, Fig. 47, Pl. 55 Mullagh td, see Termoneeny Mullaghbrack (75: Co. Armagh) 50, 69, 244-5, 271, 394, 529-30, Fig. 35 Mullaghmore td, see Agivey Mullenakill td, see Killyman Mullinacross td 799 under Dromore

[882]

Maghaberry td, see Magheramesk Magharenny td (Co. Tyrone) 392, 401, 816, Fig. 81 Maghera (119: Co. Londonderry) 13, 19, 51, 53, 83, 86, 93, 116, 136-7, 139-42, 152, 170, 183, 223, 247, 254, 307, 317, 329 n., 343-4, 369, 377, 380, 384, 392, 403, 411, 426, 564, 578, 581-6, 595, 767, Figs 44, 47, Pls 524, 134, 138 Maghera (166: Co. Down) 55, 72, 107-8, 116 n., 134, 154-6, 163-4, 200, 242, 244-5, 251, 254, 267, 326, 337-9, 348, 367, 402, 411-2, 645-52, 688, Figs 53, 59, P1s 65-8 Magheracross (210: Co. Fermanagh) 73, 390, 749, 814 Magheraculmoney (211: Co. Fermanagh) 62, 749-50 Magherafelt (120: Co. Londonderry) 53, 86, 841 Magheragall (Co. Antrim) 826 Magheraglass (261: Co. Tyrone) 59, 90, 109, 412, 817-9, Fig. 80 Magherahar td (Co. Fermanagh) 839, P1. 112 Magherakeel td, see Termonamongan Magheralamfield td, see Clonoe Magheralin (167: Co. Down) 55, 83, 110, 377, 653-4

Naghan td, see Seaforde Nappan South td 418 under Ardclinis Nendrum (168: Co. Down) 19, 37-8, 40, 55, 63, 76, 99, 101, 105, 114-5, 125, 129-31, 133-5, 155, 163, 165, 173, 176, 178-9, 181-3 187, 198-9, 201, 221, 242-5, 247, 254, 256, 258-60, 262, 273-6, 278-9, 315, 325-7, 329, 331-2, 337-9, 345, 347, 349, 351, 356-8, 367-8, 374-5, 381, 369-90, 402, 412, 415, 606, 627, 656-75, Figs 51, 54, 60, Pls 72-3 New Mills, see Tullyniskan Newry (170: Co. Down) 55, 83, 247, 260-1, 341, 361, 386-7, 399, 422, 490, 675-7, Fig. 58

Oghill td (Co. Down) 4, 71, 411-2, 579, 587, Fig. 47 Oxford Island (Co. Armagh) 70, and see Shankill 422

Shilvodan (Co. Antrim) 47 and see Kill Boedain Skea td, see Shankill (Co. Fermanagh) Skerry (46: Co. Antrim) 45, 69, 78, 85, 105, 308-9, 369, 411, 462-3 Skreen (122: Co. Londonderry) 52-3, 196, 210, 348, 401, 411, 588-9, 592 Slattinagh td, see Kilcoo Slanes td (Co. Down) 836 Slawin (216: Co. Fermanagh) 106, 113, 754 Slieve Donard (Co. Down) 80, 646-7

Portcam, see Rathlin Island Pubble (214: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 73, 292-4, 306, 378, 751-2, P1. 110

Racavan (39: Co. Antrim) 45, 48, 85, 109, 116 n., 292, 454-5, P1. 19 Radergan td, see Armaghbreague fort Raholp (171: Co. Down) 55, 105, 116 n., 129-33, 187, 235, 242, 245, 251, 254, 256, 269, 280, 335, 338, 361, 363, 368, 402, 677-81, Figs 52, 55, 59-60, Pls 74-5 Raith Aidne 827 Raith Epscuip Findich 827 Raith Murbuilg, see Maghera (Co. Down) Ramoan (40: Co. Antrim) 81, 8 116 n. 316, 455-6, Fig. 19 Ram’s Island (41: Co. Antrim) 46-7, 68, 75, 155-7, 1645, 402, 411, 456-7 Rasharkin (42: Co. Antrim) 65, 92, 170, 320, 363, 457-8 Rashee (43: Co. Antrim) 45, 47, 85, 116 n., 362, 367-8, 371, 458 Rathfad td, see Aghanloo Rathlin Island (44: Co. Antrim) 18, 45-6, 68, 75, 84, 92, 297, 306, 371, 380, 458-9, 600

[885] Slievegrane Lower td 197, 339, 687 under Saul Sluggan td 776 under Carrickmore Solar (47: Co. Antrim) 48, 68, 307, 412, 463 P1. 19 Springmount Bog (Co. Antrim) 329, 374, 463A-4, 586 St. Cunning (48: Co. Antrim) 46-7, 68, 409, 412, 464 St. John’s Point (175: Co. Down) 55, 72, 129-35, 205, 293, 295-6, 339, 412, 625, 688-9, Fig. 55, Pls80-1 Steeple td, see Antrim Straidarran (123: Co. Londonderry) 217, 263, 589 Stranadarriff td (Co. Fermanagh) 839 Struel td (Co. Down) 314, 322, 836 Stughan td 821 under Tullyniskan

[884] Relicarn (Co. Armagh) 111, 204, 363, 393, 533 Relicknaman (Co. Tyrone) 412, 774-5, Figs 81-2, Pl. 117 Ringhaddy td (Co. Down) 835-6 River Bann 338, 342, 346, 459-61, 587-8 Roan td, see Eglish (Co. Tyrone) Rockfield td, see Killadeas Roselick More td (Co. Londonderry) 831 Ross glass 832 Rossmore td, see Drumglass Rossnagalliagh (Co. Londonderry) 831 Rossorry (215: Co. Fermanagh) 24, 57, 73, 104-5, 110, 115, 119, 390, 411-2, 752-4, Fig. 65 Rousky td, see Aghaloo Rubane (172: Co. Down) 5, 261, 400, 681-2 Rushin td, see Holywell

Tamlachta Bó, see Tamlaght (Co. Armagh) Tamlacht Glíadh, see Ballymore Tamlacht Maccu-cuill, Tamlacht Menainn, Tamlacht Umail, see Drumsallagh Tamlaght td (Co. Armagh) 50, 217 n., 362, 508-9, 628 Tamlaght (124: Co. Londonderry) 54, 294-5, 301, 362, 589-90, 541, Fig. 80, P1. 59 Tamlaght (176: Co. Down) 55, 363, 639, 643, 689-90 Tamlaght (Co. Fermanagh) 363, 704 Tamlaghtard (125: Co. Londonderry) 52-3, 71, 190-2, 314, 316-7, 319, 363, 392, 395, 589, 590-2, P1. 56 Tamlaght Finlagan (126: Co. Down) 52, 71, 167, 169, 363, 568, 592-3, Fig. 4 Tamlaght O’Crilly (127: Co. Londonderry) 65, 362, 5934 Tamnach Buada 509, 727 Tartaraghan (78: Co. Armagh) 49, 315, 388, 532-3 Tassagh (79: Co. Armagh) 70, 83, 108, 378, 533 Tatteevagh td (Co. Fermanagh) 839-40 Tattynuckle td, see Tulnagoran Teach Fethgna [Tech Fethgnai] 482, 828 Teampall na Sgrín 53, 349, 574, 588 Tech Eoin, see St. John Point Teesnaghtan (217: Co. Fermanagh) 10, 58, 84, 184, 2645, 394, 412, 754-5, Fig. 74, P1. 85 Telach Ceneóil Oengusa 46, 439 Telach Maine, see Tullamaine Templastragh (49: Co. Antrim) 45, 68, 92, 151, 244-5, 254, 314, 464-5, Pl. 11 Templecarne (218: Co. Fermanagh) 755-6 Temple Cill na Cashna, see Glennoo Temple Cormac (177: Co. Down) 56, 114, 136, 170, 174, 363, 690-1, Fig. 55

Saul (173: Co. Down) 55, 127, 170, 173, 186, 190-1, 197, 207, 242, 244-7 251, 254, 258-9, 273-6, 292, 339, 375, 386, 396, 422, 471, 478, 617, 625, 682-7, 836, Fig. 61, Pls 76-9 Savalbregach 65, 687 under Saul Scrin Colum-cille 53 Seaforde (174: Co. Down) 56, 174, 262, 687-8 Seagoe (76: Co. Armagh) 48, 50, 70, 86, 307, 344, 394, 407, 530-1, 534, P1. 134 Seanadh (Belie Isle, Co. Fermanagh) 839 Sessagh of Gallan (262: Co. Tyrone) 60, 211, 395, 412, 819 Sessia td 764 under Arboe Seygory td 544 under Aghadowey Shaneglish td 501 under Ballymore Shankill (45: Co. Antrim) 47, 85, 338, 342, 374, 461-2 Shankill parish (77: Co. Armagh) 50, 70, 531-2 Shankill (Co. Armagh) 50, 175 and see Cloghinny Shankill (Co. Fermanagh) 839 Sheepland Beg td 833 under Ardtole

[886] Templemore parish, see Derry 423

Templemoyle (128: Co. Londonderry) 64-5, 151, 170, 412, 594-5 Templemoyle (Gortahurk West, Co. Fermanagh) 317, 840 Templemoyle (Inishmore, Co. Fermanagh) 840 Templenaffrin (219: Co. Fermanagh) 57, 84, 240, 292, 756, P1. 112 Templepatrick td 614 under Donaghadee Templerushin, see Holywell Templetown td, see Enagh Termonamongan (263: Co. Tyrone) 59, 74, 79, 84, 236, 319, 820, Fig. 85, P1. 132 Termoneeny (129: Co. Down) 71, 170, 586, 595, Fig. 40 Termonmagrath alias for Templecarne q.v. Termonmaguirk parish, see Carrickmore Terryhoogan (80: Co. Armagh) 345, 363, 497, 506-7, 531, 535-654 Tickmacrevan parish, see Dunteige Tievealough td, see Templecarne Tirnascobe td, see Kildarton Tirnony td, see Killelagh Toberakill, see Kiltober Toberdornan, see Dunmull Toberdowney td, see Ballynure Tobergill td 550 under Balteagh Toby Hole 315, 532 under Tartaraghan Toneel North td, see Boho Tonnaboy td 727 under Galloon Trillick (264: Co. Tyrone) 59, 211-2, 363, 368, 394, 821 Trummery (50: Co. Antrim) 48, 83, 92, 167-9, 253, 402, 411, 466-8, 654, Fig. 25 Toberdoney, see Temple Cormac Tullaghore (51: Co. Antrim) 48, 81, 256, 239, 395, 420, 468, Figs 19, 22, P1. 16 Tullamaine td 577 under Faughanvale Tullanaglug td, see Magheraculmoney Tully (220: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 78, 104, 718, 757-8 Tullybrisland (130: Co. Londonderry) 66, 236, 238, 268, 596, Fig. 46, P1. 57

[887] Tullydevenish td 718 under Devenish Tullydowey td, see Clonfeacle Tullylish (178: Co. Down) 72, 107, 116 n., 178, 348, 380 Pl. 691 Tullynageeran, see Tulnagoran Tullynahinnion td, see Ahoghill Tullynakill parish 658 under Nendrum Tullyniskan (265: Co. Tyrone) 60, 90, 103, 106, 294-5, 347 n., 411, 821-2, Figs 80, 84, Pl. 130 Tullynure td, see Lissan Tullyraw td, see Ardtrea Tullyvallan (81: Co. Armagh) 22, 51, 89, 244, 246-7, 254, 257, 266, 412, 535-6, Fig. 34, Pls 53-4 Tulnagoran (Co. Fermanagh) 840 Turraloskin (52: Co. Antrim) 7, 46-7, 81, 151, 170, 177, 210, 246, 251, 254, 264, 270, 401, 411-2, 468-9, Figs 19, 24, P1. 10 Tynan (82: Co. Armagh) 49-50, 70, 149-51, 213, 218-22, 224, 228-9, 231-2, 235-5, 306, 347-8, 381, 391, 400, 409, 536-43, 809-10, Figs 35, Pls 35-8 Tyrella (179: Co. Down) 170, 172, 688, 692

Urney (266: Co. Tyrone) 59, 178, 246, 251, 255, 342, 822-3, Fig. 82, P1. 129 Uttoney td, see Magheraveely

Wateresk td, see Achadh-chail White Island (221: Co. Fermanagh) 58, 62, 73, 104, 124, 145, 147, 258, 261, 283-7, 326, 43, 385, 400, 403, 40912, 758-62, 837, Figs 71, 74, Pls 106, 108-9

Yllagh, see Maghernahely

424