112 Proceeding* of the Royal Irish Academy. 



similar structures were scattered on other points of Illaun a Teampull. 

 The "bee-hive" houses here are like those observed at Kilraalkedar, 

 Lough Corrane, and many other places in Kerry.* Nor have those 

 curious buildings been peculiar to this county, for they stood in various 

 parts of Ireland during centuries not very remote, f and they furnished 

 an ordinary type of dwellings for the humbler classes of people, until 

 the progress of modern domestic architectural convenience displaced 

 such erections. Even yet the old " bee-hive "-shaped houses in Kerry 

 are not unlike some of the more modern cabins, called " Builly-houses," 

 in the remote western parts of the county Mayo,;|; 



The boatmen informed us, while leaving the Island, how old peo- 

 ple were in the habit of saying, that, in the reign of Queen Anne, 

 Illaun a Teampull had been connected with the mainland at Kenard 

 Point, eastwards from Yalencia Island, and also with the adjoining 

 rather extensive island, called Beg Inish. At low spring tide, we 

 were told, a person might wade, with water scarcely reaching to the 

 waist, from Church Island to Kenard Point. "We were also told that 

 a fine Irish scholar, Mr. Andrew 0' Sullivan, of Cahirciveen, would be 

 able to communicate additional particulars regarding all the surround- 

 ing localities, when we should have returned to that town. The hale 

 old man in question — then over eighty years — is regarded as a dis- 

 tinguished Shanacliie in that part of Kerry. In reference to Illaun 

 a Teampull, Mr. 0' Sullivan informed us he had read in an old Irish 

 MS. that St. Malachy O'Morgair, with four clerics, lived there; 

 but the title of the MS., or where he had seen such record, had then 

 escaped his memory. Not only in his early years had he access to 

 many rare Irish MSS. ; but, even at present, he is in possession of several 

 that are valuable. § What renders his statement especially important 

 is the fact, that he had not previously known St. Bernard placed 

 St. Malachy O'Morgair's laura or cosnobium within the district of Ive- 

 ragh, which includes Illaun a Teampull. 



Although St. Malachy appears to have presided over a numerous 



* Illustrations of these may be seen in the MS. Ordnance Survey Records and 

 Sketches of this county, now preserved in the Academy's Library. Mr. Du Xoyer 

 has also very effectively drawn some of those objects in the splendid folio volumes 

 he presented to the Academy. 



f Nicholas French, Catholic Bishop of Ferns, having effected his escape from 

 some village near "Wexford, immediately after that town surrendered to Cromwell, 

 fled into the fastnesses of the county, where he states he was obliged to take refuge 

 in " bee-hive "-shaped houses, which were peculiar to Ireland. This letter of Dr. 

 French is preserved among the MSS. in Trinity College Library, as I have been 

 informed by Rev. Charles P. Meehan, M. R. I. A. 



t See some of those described in Hall's "Ireland:" vol. iii., pp. 403, 404. 



§ He most obligingly afforded us an opportunity of examining no less than 

 eight Irish MSS., and all written in the Irish character. He furnished a descrip- 

 tion of their contents, likewise, so as to enable us to take brief notes. 



