Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



169 



Respecting the founder's name, or the date of the erection of this church, 

 I regret to be obliged to state that I have discovered no historical notice, and I 

 can only offer a conjecture, grounded on the etymology of its name, which 

 appears to have been anciently written T?dr muijje oeij'Cipc, i. e. the rath or 

 fort of the southern plain, to distinguish it from T?ctc rmnje cucupcijic, the 

 rath of the northern plain, now shortened to Rattoo, the seat of an ancient 

 bishopric about ten miles distant to the north, that it was probably of cotem- 

 poraneous origin with the latter, which was erected by Bishop Lughach, one of 

 the earliest propagators of Christianity in Kerry, but of whose history nothing 

 more is preserved than his name and festival day, the 6th of October, as set 

 down in the Martyrology of Aengus, and in all the later calendars. 



The next example which I have to present to the reader is obviously of co- 

 temporaneous age with the doorway of Ratass, and has even a more striking 

 resemblance to ancient Greek architecture. 



It is the doorway of the church at Glendalough, popularly called Our Lady's 

 Church, and which, according to the tradition of the old natives of the place, 

 VOL. xx. z 



