2 16 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



claimed to be her burial-place against the stories and slab of Cliara. Perrott's 

 composition with the Mayo gentry in 1586 gives us a list of the family and their 

 lands without mentioning Grania. Molaghlyne O'Mayle of Belclare was chief 

 of the name. Teige Eoe O'Mayle of Cahairnemart (Westport), gent. ; Ouan 

 O'Mayle of the same, Dermot McArte of Clare, gent, (whether Cliara or 

 Claremorris is doubtful). In the Barronie of Burreshowle there are Ackeall 

 and other parcels belonging, it is said, to the Earl of Ormond. The Stowe 

 MS., 1 a curious document relating to the inauguration of O'Conor, is another 

 proof of Omaille's maritime skill. " The command of the fleet to O'Flahertie 

 and Omali whenever he (O'Conor) goes on sea, or on the high sea." Of the 

 local legend of Grania Uaile and the folk-lore I shall have more to say in 

 connexion with the well of Toberfelabreed, and at the close of this paper. 2 Very 

 little can be gathered about Cliara till late in the last century. Bishop 

 Pococke did not visit it in 1752. Beranger, 3 in July, 1779, " ascended Cro 

 Pat(rick)," and saw "the high Island of Clara," but he did not visit it; it was too 

 remote for even the most enterprising travellers of that century. Eev. Caesar 

 Otway, however, though evidently able to give very little time to it, landed 

 about 1838, and inspected the Abbey; he chiefly noted the reputed skull of 

 Grania Uaile. The Ordnance Survey Letters of the same period are also unsatis- 

 factory. Dr. Charles Browne was limited by the scope of his paper in 1897 from 

 describing the ruins. In 1895 the Eoyal Society of Antiquaries visited the 

 ruins, and a brief note in its Proceedings* tells of the " indications of fresco 

 painting, but nothing can Vie distinguished of the design " ; both visits of the 

 Society (the last in 1904) were very hurried. In the Society's hand-book 

 (No. vi, p. 37) a slightly fuller account and two illustrations of the church 

 and monument are given. So that the Academy is now publishing the first 

 detailed description of the abbey, castle, and forts. 



The island consists of two high grounds, between which (so far as I am 

 aware) no antiquities remain, save a green mound, a reputed fort- site, near 

 which a bronze lance was found. 5 The lighthouse is at the north-east corner, 

 the castle nearly at the south-east, and the rocks of Canshindilla (Kinatevdilla 

 on map) at the west. The northern coast is so lofty and steep that it is not 

 surprising that no fortified rocks or headlands are found ; such may have 

 once existed, but if so, they have long since been worn away. On the east 

 shore the fortified rock of Dunallia, near it a similar rock isolated at half- 



1 Codex 111, f. 28. 



2 The Ordnance Survey Letters (mss. R. I. Acad. 14 e 18), Co. Mayo I, p. 476, give us only the 

 baldest statements about Clare Island, not even explaining its name. 



3 Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ir., vol. xi consec. (1870), p. 151, and vol. xiv (1870), p. 151. 

 1 Ibid., xxv, p. 243. 5 1 owe this information to Mr. W. J. Lyons. 



