230 



cell in the little island of Innismore, situated in Lough Gill ; the 

 very curiously built church of Clonatin, constructed of large blocks 

 of red grit stone, rudely put together: this little building, thirty feet 

 long by nineteen wide, appears to be one of the earliest ecclesiastical 

 structures, although the door-way, formed of a blueish stone, is in 

 the best style of Saxon, and highly ornamented with human heads 

 and fanciful beasts.* At Fore, also, the little chapel of St. Fechin, 

 composed of unhewn stones, and many in the county of Cork, parti- 

 cularly at Roscarberry. These all seem to belong to the era of our 

 very earliest ecclesiastical remains, bearing marks of the highest 

 antiquity, and appearing of a more remote date than any of those 

 buildings in England which are assigned to the first ages of the 

 Anglo-Saxons. These structures have little agreement with the 

 Saxon in their character or details. They are formed of large 

 rough stones of unequal size ; the windows, though round at top, are 

 coarsely joined, and destitute alike of any neat finish or ornament ; 

 the doors are narrow, often more so at top than at bottom, and con- 

 structed in the simplest manner, a single stone forming the lintel. 



A degree of improvement may be observed in some other edifices, 

 which yet appear but little later in date than the foregoing. At the 

 town of Clones is a small ruined chapel, the outside of which is faced 

 with neatly squared free-stone, well jointed, though without cement, 

 but lined withinside with lime-stone and mortar. This little build- 

 ing is assigned to St. Tigernac, who died A. U. 550.-f- 



Aghadoe church is of rude workmanship, lighted only from the 

 east end by two of the narrowest lancet shaped windows ; but the 

 door-way is an uncommon specimen of sculptured ornament, con- 

 sisting of six diflferent mouldings in succession, amongst them the 



* Brewer's Beauties of Ireland, I. p. 388. 

 f Survey of Monaghan, p. 109. 



