2 36 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



later plaster ; but no pattern is discernible, save at the inscription now illegible 

 at the south window, over the little tabernacle, and, as I noted, in the painting 

 and scribing of the crucifixion in the " Easter Sepulchre." 



Oveeckoft. — Ascending the south stair we reach the room over the 

 chancel, a rather unusual feature in late buildings, though found in the early 

 oratories of Friar's Island and St. Flannan's, Killaloe, St. Kevin's Church at 

 Glendalough, St. Colunicille's House at Kells, Meath, and the later ones of 

 St. Doulough's, near Dublin, and St. Mochta's, Ardee. Later ages thought it 

 irreverent to put any residential room above the altar. The heights of this 

 part are as follows : — 13 feet to the upper floor, 21 feet 10 inches to the water 

 table, and about 25 feet to the top of the gable above the ground in the church, 

 and 5 feet 6 inches more in each case above the outer level. The upper room 

 is well preserved, and measures 15|feet wide and 19 feet 9 inches long east 

 and west; the walls are 3 feet thick, crowned with slab gutters, and the windows 

 do not seem to have been glazed, but may have had inserted wooden frames 

 with glass, and certainly had shutters turning in sockets. The eastern one 

 has a wide splay and an ogee-headed light commanding a beautiful distant 

 view of Croaghpatrick. The south wall has the lintelled doorway to the stairs, 

 and a deep window with broken light looking to Inishturk and Caher Island, 

 and the cliff fort of Dunnagappul. In the west wall are an ambry, a window 

 with a small light and large splay looking into the nave, and near the north- 

 western corner a doorway which evidently gave access by a ladder to the 

 gutters of the nave. The north wall has a very small door to the sacristy 

 stairs and an oblong window. There is no fireplace here or elsewhere in the 

 building, showing how little outer fashions reached this remote island. 



North Wing. — A passage only 20 inches wide with eight steep steps leads 

 from the overcroft to the vaulted floor of the upper room of the north wing. 

 The room is greatly defaced ; the west wall has a recess next the church, and 

 the east a recess and sill of a window. 



The stairs in the west wall are all removed, but the ground has been 

 raised so much that the broken summit is easily reached. The vault is so flat 

 and so badly built that the greater part has fallen away, some very recently ; 

 despite the new concrete cover, the roots of the vegetation have pierced the 

 arching everywhere. There are two windows to the east, but built up, and, 

 strange to say, not visible outside. The north part is levelled. The downput 

 of a small garderobe appears at the head of the stair ; the latter was lighted 

 by an unglazed slit, and had two pointed doors nearly buried. Creeping 

 through these we find the cell at the squint in the north wall of the chancel. 

 It is about 6 feet long and 3 feet wide with a small ope to the north, which 

 with the ope into the church makes it cruciform. It may have been used by 



