446 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



Indeed, in many instances, we find the group of religious buildings within 

 fortresses of the greatest celebrity in Irish history, as in the great fortress of 

 Muirbheach Mil, in the great island of Aran, erected by a prince of the Firbolgs, 

 about the commencement of the Christian era, the interior of which is occupied 

 by the two churches, and the numerous round houses of the monks of St. 

 Mac Duach. When I visited Aran, in the year 1821, nearly half of this 

 fortress remained, and the wall was in some parts twenty feet in height, and 

 thirteen feet thick at its summit. 



In the ancient poem just quoted, the three terms, dun, caiseal, and cathair 

 are used synonymously in the description of a fort erected in pagan times: and 

 the nature of such stone enclosures is well illustrated in the Irish translation 

 of Venerable Bede's abstract of Adamnan's account of the sacred places in the 

 Holy Land, in which the three circular and concentric walls which surrounded 

 the church of the Resurrection is translated " three cashels" : 



" Gclaip cpuinb epbe co cpi caplib' iminpe." 



" This is a round church with three cartels around it." 



But, as I have already remarked, the cashels erected by the ecclesiastics 

 themselves were often of such a height as would necessarily imply that they 

 were intended, as much at least for defence, as for any other object; and a pas- 

 sage in the Irish annals, relative to the erection of a cashel at Deny, in the 

 twelfth century, very distinctly alludes to this object. This cashel was erected 

 by the abbot Flaithbheartach O'Brolchain, as a protection to the churches of 

 Derry, which, having been greatly injured, he was about to enlarge and repair, 

 as stated in the following passage in the Annals of the Four Masters : 



"A. D. 1162. Gppcapcab na b-ci^eb 6 rempull t)oipe bo benarh la corhapba Coluim 

 Cille, plaicb'epcach Ua &polcham, 7 la TTIuipcepcac Ua Cochlamn, la pij Gpenn, 7 po 

 rojbaic occmojar ceaj, no ni ap uille, ar> in maijin i pabaccap, 7 Caipeal an uplaip bo 

 benam la comapba Coluim Cille Beop, 7 bo bepc tnallacc FPr an C1 no ^ IC F Q 6 caipip." 



"A. D. 1162. The separation of the houses from the church of Derry was made by the 

 Comharba of Columbkille, Flaithbhertach O'Brolchain, and by Muirchertach O'Lochlainn, king of 

 Ireland ; and they removed eighty houses, or more, from the place they were ; and caiseal an 

 urlair was erected by the comharba of Columbkille, and he pronounced a curse on the person who 

 should come over it." 



One of the finest ecclesiastical cashels now remaining, and in which strength 



