Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



447 



was obviously intended, is that surrounding the ecclesiastical establishment of 

 St. Molaise, on Inishmurry, an island in the bay of Sligo. It is of an irregular 

 round form, and nearly 200 feet in its greatest internal diameter. The wall 

 varies in thickness, from five to seven and eight feet, and in height from 

 twelve to sixteen. It is built of calp limestone, undressed, and without 

 cement ; and, where not shaken by the storms of the Atlantic, exhibits a con- 

 siderable degree of rude art. Its gateway is quadrangular, and measures six 

 feet two inches in height, four feet in breadth, and seven feet six inches in its 

 jambs; and such is the usual size and form of gateways found in such buildings, 

 as well as in the more ancient cashels of pagan times. There are instances, 

 however, of gateways of a larger size, as that of the cashel at Rathmichael, which 

 is eight feet wide, and which was most probably arched. But the most remark- 



able gateway belonging to such structures now remaining, is that at Glenda- 

 lough, a monument unique in its kind, and which, from want of care, unfor- 

 tunately, will soon cease to exist. The general character of this gateway, and 

 its great resemblance to the Newport gate, at Lincoln, built by the Romans 



