Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



163 



or, as O'Flaherty correctly translates it, " the island of the devout foreigner," 

 now Inchaguile, in Lough Corrib in the county of Galway, nearly midway be- 

 tween Oughterard and Cong. This little church, though exhibiting the usual 

 form of the larger churches, having a nave, triumphal arch, and chancel, is in 

 its greatest external length only thirty-five feet six inches. The interior of the 

 nave is seventeen feet eight inches in length, and thirteen feet six inches in 

 breadth ; and the chancel is a square of nine feet. The doorway, which is six 

 feet high, has inclined sides, and is two feet wide at bottom, and one foot 

 nine inches at top : 



That this church is of the age of St. Patrick, as is believed in the traditions 

 of the country, and as its name would indicate, can, I think, scarcely admit 

 of doubt ; for, though there is another church on the island of beautiful archi- 

 tecture, and of similar form and nearly equal dimensions, and undoubtedly of 

 an age considerably anterior to the arrival of the English, it appears, neverthe- 

 less, a modern structure as compared with this. It is, however, greatly to be 

 regretted that of the foundation of this, as indeed of many other churches believed 

 to have been erected by St. Patrick, we have no historical account remaining ; 

 nor does either history or tradition preserve the name of the devout foreigner 

 for whom it was erected, and to whose memory the second church on the island 

 was dedicated ; but I trust that I shall be able to show from an ancient sepul- 

 chral inscription, the only one on the island, that this devout foreigner was 



Y2 



