442 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



possibly guide future investigators to the discovery of remains of the buildings 

 themselves. 



SUBSECTION VII. 

 CASHELS. 



I HAVE lastly to notice the circumvallations, or circular enclosures, which 

 usually encompassed the group of buildings constituting the very early eccle- 

 siastical establishments in Ireland. These circumvallations, which were but 

 imitations of the sorts of fortress in use among the pagan Irish, were some- 

 times of stone, and sometimes simply of earth ; at other times of stone inter- 

 mixed with earth, and occasionally of earth faced with stone ; and they were 

 all more or less circular in their plan. When of earth only, they were de- 

 nominated by the terms Rath, or Lis, words synonymous with each other ; and 

 when of stone, or of earth faced with stone, they were denominated Catliair, 

 or, more usually, Caiseal, words also synonymous ; and all these terms had 

 been applied by the pagan Irish to their fortresses of earth and stone ; and I 

 may add, that the term dun was applied indifferently to both. 



Of such circumvallations, but few specimens have remained to us ; and these 

 are chiefly of stone, and situated in remote and thinly-inhabited places, where 

 ancient manners, customs, and feelings, have been longest preserved. More- 

 over, the ecclesiastical Raths and Lises, from the value of their materials for agri- 

 cultural purposes, presented a greater temptation to their destruction, and have 

 rarely escaped; but the ancient Irish authorities have preserved notices of many 

 such, as having existed in localities where not a vestige of them is now to be 

 found. Such, for example, was the Rath Ardmacha, or Rath of Armagh, which 

 enclosed the original ecclesiastical buildings erected there, and of which so fre- 

 quent mention is made in the Irish annals, as already quoted, and more dis- 

 tinctly in the following passages in the Annals of the Four Masters : 



" A. D. 1091- Qn leic lapcapach bo Raich Gpoamacha bo lopccao." 

 " A. D. 1091. The western half of the Rath of Armagh was burned." 



" A. D. 1092. Raich Opoa macha, co n-a cemptoiB, DO lopccab an cecpariiab Kal. oo 

 Sepc., 7 pppc bo cpiun mop, 7 ppec bo cpiun Sqjon " 



" A. D. 1 092. The Rath of Armagh, with its churches, was burned on the fourth of the Calends 

 of September, and a street of Trian mor, and a street of Trian Saxon." 



See also the same annals, at the year 1112. 



