288 



gined by Vallancey* and Miss Beaufort ;-t' it further evinces that the 

 pile must have been raised by the Danes, who were most hkely to 

 have brought such coin into Ireland. Such, indeed, was for centuries 

 the current coin of Europe, and WormiusJ here again confirms our 

 hypothesis, acquainting us that it was the Danish custom to bury in 

 the cairns of their heroes, money and other articles prized by them in 

 life. Lhuid, who first saw this monument, gives but a vague account 

 of it, and pronounces no decision on its era or use. Doctor Molineux, 

 in an excellent paper published in the Archaeologia, concludes it to 

 be Danish. Ware coincides with him, and Pownal in his ingenious 

 account of the place, published iii the second volume of the Archaeolo- 

 gia, (p. 236, &c.) arrives at the same conviction. Fortified by these 

 arguments and authorities, we venture to rank this remarkable anti- 

 quity as not earlier than the ninth century. 



The ecclesiastical edifices during the earlier part of this interval, 

 were also constructed of wood, and accordingly the Irish missionaries, 

 on their arrival in Iceland in the ninth century, constructed a church 

 of wood with angular pillars and iron bells. § The use of lead in the 

 roofs was afterwards introduced, as on the Abbey of Mayo, according 

 to the ancient Life of Giraldus Saxonicus.il 



At the beginning of the tenth century. Christian churches of stone 



* Coll. Hib. vol. vi. p. 443. f Trans. R. I. A. vol. xv. Ants. p. 131. 



+ Lib. 1. c. 7. 



§ " Episcopus illi materiam ligneam tradidit, templo extruendo destinatam, plenarium, 

 campanam ferream, nummum aureum et humum consecratam, quam columnis angularibiis 

 consecrationis loco supponeret, templumque sancto Columbkillje dedicavit." — Ant. Celt. 

 Scand. p. 15. 



II " Turgesius Norwegiensis, tyrannus valde crudelis, totam devastans Hibemiam tandem 

 ad Maionensem deveniens ecclesiam, templum, quod fuit ibi a Sanctis constructum ac asseribus 

 plumbeis contectum, ***** comburendo destruxit." — Cited O'Conor, Rer. Hib. 

 Script, vol. .iii p. HI. 



