426 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



Such buildings, however, though probably differing in form from the cells, 

 which, as I have already stated, seem to have been of a round figure, while these 

 were probably quadrangular, were, like the smaller houses, generally, if not 

 always, erected of perishable materials, and would, consequently, leave no ves- 

 tiges to present times. And hence the occurrence of so many notices, in the 

 Annals, of the burnings, not of any single structures called monasteries, but of 

 the various and distinct houses which constituted such establishments in those 

 times. As an example of such notices, I may refer to the account of the burn- 

 ing of Armagh, already given at page 149 ; and, as an additional example, I take 

 the following record, from the Annals of the Four Masters, of the burning of 

 Kells, at the year 1156 : 



"A. D. 1156. Cenanoup Do topccao, cijib cemplaib, o cpoip Dopaip upooim co Siopoicc." 

 "A. D. 1156. Kells was burned, both houses and churches, from the cross at the door of the 

 urdom to Siofog." 



In these great coenobitical monasteries, it is probable, also, that the houses of 

 the abbots were of a quadrangular form, and more than the ordinary size. The 

 Irish annals furnish us with several references to such buildings, as in the fol- 

 lowing example from the Annals of the Four Masters : 



" A. D. 1116. Copcac mop TTluriian, Inileac lubaip, oepreach TTlhaoiliopa h-1 6hpolchum, 

 Gcab bo Camoij, Cluain lopcnpo, ceacli n-abba6 mop Qpoa ITlaclia, co b'-picic cej uimme, 

 1 blob mop DO 6iop mop TTIochuoa DO lopccab i 0-ropac Cop jaip na bliabna po." 



"A. D. 1116. The great Cork in Munster, Imleach lubhair [Emly], the oratory of Maoliosa 

 O'Brolchain, Achadh bo Cainnigh [Aghaboe], Cluain loraird [Clonard], the great house of the 

 abbots at Armagh, with twenty houses about it, and a large portion of Lismore of Mochuda, were 

 burned in the beginning of the Lent of this year." 



In like manner the great house of St. Bridget, or house of the abbess, at 

 Kildare, is referred to in the same annals, at the year 962, and in those of Ulster 

 at 963, as already quoted at page 229. 



It is most probable, however, that such buildings, like the smaller cells of the 

 monks and nuns, were usually, in most parts of Ireland, constructed of wood, as 

 no remains of them have been preserved, unless such stone buildings as that called 

 St. Columb's House at Kells, and that called St. Kevin's House at Glendalough, 

 both of which combined the purpose of an oratory with that of a habitation, 

 may be considered as examples of such structures. That these buildings, which 



