268 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



twelfth or thirteenth century, I see no reason to doubt ; I even think it not 

 improbable that the name Finghin, which does not previously appear in their 

 history, but which after that period became so common amongst them, may 

 have been originally adopted from a feeling of veneration for the saint, in whose 

 church they were interred. But that they have any claim to the erection of 

 this curious structure I think I have sufficiently disproved ; and I have only to 

 add, that, as the Annals of Clonmacnoise, which are so circumstantial relative 

 to the erection of the buildings there, and to the injuries which happened to 

 them, are wholly silent as to any erection or restoration of the church, called 

 Temple Fineen, or Kegles Finghin, there appears to me no reason to doubt 

 that the existing ruin is the remains of that church, which the annalist refers to 

 as in existence in the year 1015, and which was then apparently of a respect- 

 able antiquity. 



The Round Tower, which is attached to this church, and forms an integral, 

 and undoubtedly, a cotemporaneous part of the structure, will be described 

 hereafter ; but I should state here that the entrance doorway of this Tower is 

 placed within the chancel, and on a level with its floor. I should remark also, 

 that this chancel was lighted by a single round-headed window, placed in its east 

 wall, of very simple construction, and small size ; and that there is a curiously 

 ornamented piscina in the south wall, still in perfect preservation. 



Among the many other churches, of which there are ruins at Clonmacnoise, 

 the great church may, with propriety, be here noticed, not only as a building 

 erected in the beginning of the tenth century, as can be proved from the most 

 satisfactory historical evidence, but also, as exhibiting vestiges, sufficient to show 

 that it had been originally ornamented. The erection of this church is thus 

 recorded in the Chronicon Scotorum, and a similar entry is to be found in the 

 Annals of the Four Masters, at the same year. 



" A. D. 909- ftaimliaj Cluana mac noip DO 66nam la plann, mac TTIaoilfecIilainn, 7 la 

 Colman Conaillech." 



" A. D. 909. The Cathedral of Clonmacnoise was built by Flann, son of Maoilsechlainn," and 

 by Colman Conaillech." 



The persons here recorded were Flann, monarch of Ireland, who died in 

 the year 916, and Colman, abbot of Clonmacnoise and Clonard, in the record 

 of whose death, at the year 926, in the Chronicon Scotorum, and 924 in the 



