Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 433 



fortunately, I am enabled to determine their position, from a ground plan of the 

 various buildings at Glendalough, made for Colonel Conyngham, by the artists 

 above alluded to. In this plan we find marked, in the immediate vicinity of the 

 building called St. Kevin's House, the ruins of three other buildings, or churches, 

 the first to the north of it, at the distance of two perches and ten links ; the 

 second to the south of it, about the same distance, and the third, which is called 

 St.Kieran's church, the others not being named, to the south-east of it, at the 

 distance of about eight perches, and about six perches from the southern church, 

 and measuring about twenty-seven feet in length. It appears to me, therefore- 

 as scarcely admitting of a doubt, that three of these buildings must be those 

 referred to by the annalists, not only on account of their proximity, but because 

 two of them retained, in a translated form, the names given by the annalists; 

 and we should search in vain for the ruins of any other buildings at Glendalough, 

 with which to identify them. Moreover, supposing the fire to have been, as 

 there is every reason to believe, an accidental one, it will be at once seen, that 

 from the situation of the two last buildings to Kevin's House, they would be 

 exposed to the danger of ignition in their combustible portions, if the wind had 

 blown from the north-west. And hence I am disposed to conclude, that the 

 un-named church, marked as to the south of St. Kevin's House, is that called by 

 the annalists " the Regies of the two Sinchells." I may further add, that we may 

 infer, with every appearance of probability, that all these buildings were of 

 cotemporaneous age, and that, if not erected by the persons whose names they 

 bore, those called after Kieran, and the two Sinchells, were erected by St. Kevin 

 in their honour, as though they were all cotemporaneous, and Kevin was the 

 dearest friend of St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise, he survived both him and the 

 Sinchells, more than sixty years, having lived, according to Tighernach, to the 

 extraordinary age of one hundred and twenty years. St. Kieran and the two 

 Sinchells died of the plague, which raged in 549, and Kevin lived till 618. 



I think, therefore, we have every reason to believe, that the buildings called 

 St. Columb's House, at Kells, and St. Kevin's house at Glendalough, buildings 

 originally so closely resembling each other in every respect, were erected by 

 the persons whose names they bear, and that they both served the double pur- 

 pose of a habitation and an oratory. I am further of opinion, that the building at 

 Killaloe, called St. Flannan's House, which I have already minutely described 

 VOL. xx. 3 K 



