214 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Irisli society, astronomers and places and methods of observation 

 sufficient for the requirements of the period. Itoreover, observatories 

 or places of observation ivere requisite as matters essential to the 

 security of aggregated communities, and most essentially along the 

 coasts, on Tvhich incursions might be made by enemies or by piratical 

 adventurers. High points offering extended views in all or certain 

 directions ■n^ould natiu-ally serve as such observatories or look-outs ; 

 and in the case of buildings their highest points. Hence, places of 

 defence, fortifications, castles, &c., from the very earliest periods of 

 history have had, as part of their general scheme of arrangement, 

 elevated places or towers from which views, either of the heavens or 

 of the country in the neighbourhood, could be seciirely and advan- 

 tageously obtained. Dr. Joyce, in his "j^ames of Places," vol. i., 

 p. 215, says : " Look-out points, whether on the coast to command the 

 sea, or on the borders of a hostile territory to guard against surprise, 

 or in the midst of a pastoral country to watch the fields, are usually 

 designated by the word coirahead (covade). This word signifies 

 * watching ' or ' guarding ' ; and it is generally applied to hills from 

 which there is an extensive prospect." 



"We should therefore expect to find corresponding arrangements in 

 the plans of the earliest monasteries and buildings intended to receive 

 Christian communities. In Smith and Cheatham's "Dictionary of 

 Christian Antiquities," p. 1240, in speaking of the " 6'«Ho5n<//i " of 

 St. Euthymius, in Palestine, circa a.d. 328, it is stated : " The whole 

 area was fortified with a palisade and wall, and further protected by 

 a strong tower forming the citadel or stronghold of the whole desert, 

 rising in the middle of the cemetery." 



This tower just described was a very usual feature in the monas- 

 teries of the East, which, from their liability to attack from the 

 predatory tribes, assumed the character of strong fortresses. The 

 whole establishment was dominated by a lofty tower near the 

 entrance, like the keep of a Xorman castle, placed under the patronage 

 of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Alichael the Archangel, Apostles, or 

 saints, to which the inhabitants might flee for protection when the 

 rest of the buildings had fallen into the hands of the assailants 

 (monasteries of Mount Athos). In some cases protection was still 

 further secured by the single entrance being made many feet above 

 the ground, only accessible by ladders, or by a bucket raised by a 

 windlass, e.g., the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. 



At page 1243, the Dictionary says: " The Irish and early Scotch 



