Clare Island Survey — -History and Archaeology. 2 25 



the base, showing the stone foundations of the wall, as we see across the 

 creek. Tne bank is usually a couple of feet high. The whole platform, north 

 and south, is about 210 feet long, sloping at the end. The general arrange- 

 ment strongly recalls the similar Mayo forts of Dookeeghan and Duncartan, 

 though its site is far bolder and more defensive by nature. (Plate III.) 



Ecclesiastical Antiquities. (Plates II- VI.) 



As I have already noted, no early church site is known to exist, but it is 

 not impossible that the Abbey usurped one, for a portion of one wall is of a 

 more primitive character than the rest of the building, and there is an early- 

 looking bullaun, or basin-stone, in the graveyard. The cross at its south- 

 west corner, scribed plainly on a great pillar, might well belong to an older 

 church than the late Abbey. 



It is better for us to deal first with the two wells Toberfelamurry (Tobar 

 feile Mhuire), at the abbey, and Toberfelabreed, on the eastern shore, for 

 they, especially the latter, are extremely primitive. It is a very curious 

 circumstance that neither is dedicated directly to its patroness but to her 

 feast, the names being "The "Well of Mary's Feast" and "The Well of 

 Brigid's Feast"; also that the observances of the latter fall on August 15th, 

 like those of the other, and not on the real day of St. Brigid. 



It has been suggested that both wells were once dedicated to the Virgin, 

 and that the names only showed the feast-days on which rites were observed 

 at each ; but this is not believed locally. 



Toberfelabreed (0. S. 85). — This is not only the more honoured of the 

 two on the island, but the only one whose repute spreads from Galway and 

 Sligo to America. This is strange from the more exalted patronage of its 

 rival, but it is human. " The god that answers by fire," and the patroness 

 that answers by cures, must override all rivals. Toberfelabreed lies in a bushy 

 hollow, near the extraordinary beach — a natural weir of boulders, two lines 

 meeting in an angle at the point called from it Kinnacurra, " head of the 

 weir," and enclosing a triangle of swamp. 



The observances on August 15th (Lady-Day in Harvest) take the form 

 of " rounds," the worshippers walking seven times sunward (i.e. with the right 

 hand next the wall), round and just outside the cashel or enclosure. After 

 this they go on their bare knees seven times round the labba and altar, inside 

 it, emerging by a gap in the north wall, and finishing by prayers at the well. 

 Emigrants from Clare Island, even in America, vow to " do a station " at 

 this place, and even if they cannot afford to return get a friend to do it for 

 them. 



K.I.A. PKOC, VOL. XXXI. D 2 



