1J6 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



a church which was erected by the same St. Colman Mac Duach on the Great 

 Island of Aran, and which is still in good preservation. 



This doorway is five feet six inches in height, two feet in width at the top, and 

 two feet three inches at the bottom. The lintel is of granite, and measures five 

 feet six inches in length, one foot six inches in height, and extends the entire 

 thickness of the wall, which is two feet six inches. 



Such then is the form of doorway found almost universally in the primitive 

 churches of Ireland, a form not found in any of the doorways of the Saxon 

 churches, which were usually erected " more Romano" or after the Roman man- 

 ner. But, though the form of which I have given so many examples is that most 

 characteristic of the primitive Irish churches, we are not without examples of 

 'doorways which would seem to be of cotemporaneous age, constructed in what 

 may be called the Roman manner, namely, with a semicircular arch springing 

 from square imposts, and exactly resembling the ancient Saxon doorways, 

 excepting in this one ^particular, that the sides are usually more or less in- 

 clined : and, indeed, it would be strange, if, where the semicircular arch was 

 generally used in the construction of the windows, and also in the triumphal 

 arches between the naves and the chancels, it should not be occasionally 

 employed in the construction of the doorways also. As an example of such 

 doorway in a church, which, there is every reason to believe, cannot be later 

 than the seventh century, I here annex an outline of the doorway of the ancient 

 stone-roofed church on the island of Ireland's Eye, anciently called Inis mac 



