Clare Island Survey — History and Archaeology. 2 73 



explanation regards it as named from the Basking Shark so common in these 

 seas, but this implies a hybrid name, half English half Gaelic, as debased as 

 '' Gowlanagoat." Others, like the interpreters of the name of Inisherkin, 1 

 Co. Cork, derive it from Earc, love ; and others (more plausibly, but I 

 believe without authority) render it " Earc's Island." Inishark contains 

 about 580 acres, and the inhabitants are nearly all concentrated near 

 the south-east corner, where the shore is lowest. It has steep and high 

 cliffs to the north and west, and is so storm-vexed and so lashed by 

 fierce waves that it is often impossible to land on it for several weeks 

 at a time. I examined the sides next Inishbofln with a glass, in such 

 good, clear light that even animals, geese, and sea-birds were visible, but 

 saw no fences or entrenchments on the only projecting headlands on its coast. 

 The shore names are Ooghnageeragh, Ooghnacappul, Ooghcurreen, Ooghna- 

 veagh, Ooghnacromlack, 2 Ooghnagaragh, Ooghnacuragh, Oomeenashinnagh, 

 Ooghanany, Ooghancarrickad, Ooghaneeny (at Shark Head), Ooghanavaud, 

 Ooghvrisly, Lackagh, Lackataragh, Crornal, Dooneenapisha, Boughil and 

 Cailleen. The last two, " the boy and girl," are two great rock-pillars, the 

 last leaning over. Otway 3 was told that the girl had tempted the boy to sin 

 and goes on (whether to embellish the tale, or with local warrant, I know not) 

 to state that their souls are the eagles nesting on the rocks, or that they are 

 Adam and Eve. Outlying these are Glassillaun (two), Inishgort, and the two- 

 Inishkinnys. The early remains comprise the following : — 



Duneenapisha, " little fort of the peas," is a high cap of clay on a shore- 

 rock ; a grassy slope leads to it on the landward side, and there seem to be a 

 ditch and mound across it, near the southern end. 



St. Leo's Church, or Teampul Leo. — It has been repaired, whitewashed 

 and is used as a chapel whenever the curate visits the island. In 1870 

 it was in a lamentable condition, much broken, and used as a cattle-pen ; it 

 had a neat slit window in its eastern gable. The Leac Leo. — A slab carved 

 with a chalice, and a figure with extended hands, supposed to be a bishop, is 

 now set on the eastern gable of the church. Another cross of better \\ ork- 

 manship inside the building is regarded by some as the real Leac. 



Clochan Leo. — A dry-stone cell, 6 feet wide by 11 feet to the south and 

 9 feet to the north ; the beehive roof has nearly all fallen in. The north-east 

 corner is square, and the others rounded. The doorway was only 2 feet wide, 

 and 2 feet 6 inches high, and was at the south-east corner. The hut stood in 



1 The old name was Inis iiircin, not seirci'n. Lady Wilde suggests Inis-Erk (Ancient Legends, 

 p. 57). 



2 Whence Mr. G. H. Kinahan asserts the presence of a fancied dolmen. 



_ 3 Tour in Connaught, p. 394.- -The custom of "improving ■" folk-tales (common down to far later 

 times) renders it hard to eliminate Otway's additions. 



R.I.A. PROC, VOL. XXXI. K 2 



