Clare Island Survey — History and Archaeology. 2 55 



The Church and Stations. (Plates VII, VIII.) 



The interest of the island lies in its religious buildings. It is very striking 

 when we land at Portatemple to see every knoll and ridge crowned with little 

 cairns and stones. I was told, indeed, that the number of these stations made 

 the observances so severe that pilgrims were driven to seek other shrines of 

 less strict requirements. The great pilgrimage, now in such high repute, and 

 attended by many thousands of pilgrims, held on Garland Sunday to the 

 summit of Croaghpatrick, has quite superseded the more obscure and less 

 accessible shrines of St. Patrick. 



The church seems of early date, but has been greatly rebuilt with thin 

 slabs. It is a small oratory 11 feet 11 inches to 12 feet 1 inch long, by 8 feet 

 5 inches wide inside ; 17 feet long, by 13 feet 5 inches at the west, 12 feet 

 7 inches at the east outside, 1 and its walls 26 inches to 27 inches thick. The 

 east window, though apparently primitive, having a narrow lintelled slit and 

 splay, has a reveal or jamb, and is not inclined, so is probably of no remote 

 age. The west door has jambs, with slight imposts, but it too has a splay, not 

 suggestive of early work. The arch is of singular and poor construction of 

 absurdly thin, irregular slabs, set nearly upright, with a comb-like edge evidently 

 once entirely concealed under plaster. The repairs probably took place in the 

 fourteenth or, perhaps, even in the fifteenth century, but there is no architec- 

 tural feature to date it by more certain methods. On the altar-slab, before the 

 east window, is a mass of interesting objects, the chief of which is what is 

 probably a stone hanging-lamp. It it oval, 1 inches long ; the basin 5 inches 

 by 4| inches, with a raised border. At either end is a hole for a cord worked 

 in from opposite sides, and a deep groove runs round the edge. It is filled and 

 surrounded by a number of the usual offerings — pins, nails, fish-hooks, rosaries, 

 shot, and copper coins, the act of homage, not the intrinsic value, being alone 

 of importance. There is also the mass of conglomerate called the " saint's 

 stone ; " both are well seen in Dr. Fogerty's fine photograph, 2 which is itself a 

 nearly complete record of the oratory. 



The church stands in a very primitive cashel of large dry-stone masonry, 

 an interesting evolution of the features of the earlier stone forts. It is 46 feet 

 4 inches east and west, and 22 feet north and south, leaving a clear passage 

 round Templepatriek 3 to 4 feet wide on the south, and 5 to 6 feet wide on the 

 north. The cashel is usually 3 feet thick, and much thrown down, especially to 

 the north-west. The east wall contains a narrow passage such as we find in the 

 early ring-forts of the Grianan of Aileach, and some of Fahan, Co. Kerry, and 



'In Mr. Rollestou's account, Roy. Soc. Ant. Ir., vol. xxi, p. 360, "inside" is evidently a 

 misprint for " outside." 2 See Plate VIII. 



