Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, $c. 421 



given sufficient specimens to serve as illustrations, in Section II. of this Inquiry, 

 pp. 129, 130. 



These houses, with the exception of the houses of the abbots, and those for 

 the accommodation of strangers, are usually so small as to be only fit to accom- 

 modate a single person; and from the absence of any building sufficiently large 

 for a refectory, it may be inferred, that these establishments were usually of 

 that anachoretical kind, described by Bingham, in which, in accordance with the 

 seventeenth chapter of the Synod, called of St. Patrick, the monks, without 

 earthly property, led a solitary life, under the authority of a bishop or abbot. 

 In one instance only have I discovered, in such monastic establishments, the ruins 

 of a building which would have been large enough to serve the purpose of a 

 refectory. It is situated near the monastic churches of St. Colman Mac Duach, 

 at Kilmurvey, in the great island of Aran, and is an oval structure, without 

 cement, of fifty by thirty-seven feet, external measurement, with a wall of six 

 feet in thickness. 



Of such anachoretical, or, heremitical establishments, one of the most inte- 

 resting and best preserved in Ireland, or perhaps in Europe, is that of St. Fechin, 

 on Ardoilen, or High Island, an uninhabited and almost inaccessible island off 

 the coast of Connamara, on the north-west of the county of Galway. Of this 

 curious monastic establishment I transcribe the following account from my 

 notes, made in the year 1820, when I visited the island, in the summer of that 

 year, with my respected friend, Mr. Henry Blake of Kinvile. 



"Ardoilen, or High Island, is situated about six miles from the coast of 

 Omey, and contains about eighty acres. From its height, and the overhanging 

 character of its cliffs, it is only accessible in the calmest weather, and even then, 

 the landing, which can be only made by springing on a shelving portion of the 

 cliff from the boat, is not wholly free from danger: but, the adventurer will be 

 well rewarded for such risk ; for, in addition to the singular antiquities which 

 the island contains, it affords views of the Connamara and Mayo scenery, of 

 insurpassable beauty. The church here is among the rudest of the ancient 

 edifices which the fervour of the Christian religion raised on its introduction 

 into Ireland. Its internal measurement, in length and breadth, is but twelve 

 feet by ten, and in height ten feet. The doorway is two feet wide, and four 

 feet six inches high, and its horizontal lintel is inscribed with a cross, like that 



