[ 83. ] 
period the church was rebuilt of lime and ftone, in the then new 
mode of architeGture, of which the tower ftill remains a monu- 
ment, as in the annexed view. 
Tue ancient wooden churches, and other edifices of the 
Irith, being eafily deftroyed by fire, were conftantly expofed 
to the depredations of the Danes and other roving plun- 
derers. There were no other means of faving the facred re- 
liques, veftments, &c. of the churches, and the wealth of the 
inhabitants, than by hiding them in fubterraneous caves. The 
method therefore of building churches entirely of ftone, with 
upper crofts; was a great improvement, as it gave a place 
of fecurity to the goods of the inhabitants, as well as to the 
facred utenfils; for the churches being entirely of ftone could 
not be eafily burnt; and the entrances into the upper crofts, being 
only by narrow newel ftairs, or by ladders through ftone trap 
doors, they could not be plundered without pulling down the 
building, which in thofe defultory expeditions they had feldom 
time to do. 
On the arrival of the Englith, the diftri@ of Magh Laifiy in 
Naafe O’Felim, in the country. of M‘Caélan or Kelly, with its 
church, was granted to Maurice Fitz Gerald by Henry the 
Second *, who erected a caftle near the church, fome remains 
of which are ftill vifible. From this period Killoffy became 
[L 2] a parifh 
* Ware. Sir John Davis. 
