118 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



stone, but in clearing out the weeds that choked the building a fragment 

 of cement was found on the floor. The stones of which it is built are 

 comparatively small, flat, and roughly coursed. A small fragment of 

 moulded stone was found lying inside the building, which cannot be 

 correlated with anything else on the island. A drawing of it is added to 

 fig. 1. 



The enclosure around the cella is bounded by very roughly built walls of 

 earth and stone. The external dimensions are 42 feet 9 inches east to west, 

 by 42 feet north to south. The entrance is in the middle of the south side, 

 and is 2 feet 8 inches wide. There are two jamb-stones on the eastern side of 

 this gap, and one slab stands to mark its western side, 3 feet 4 inches high 

 and "2 feet 6 inches broad at the bottom, narrowing suddenly to 1 foot 

 8^ inches. It is 4 inches thick. West of this jamb-stone the mound has 

 been broken down by cattle. A rough pavement of flat stones runs through 

 the entrance, partly buried in the earth ; this is perhaps the end of a paved 

 way said to run westward from the door of St. Caimin's Church, but now 

 concealed under the earth. There is an old thorn-tree at the north-east 

 corner of the enclosure. The Ordnance map (which has transferred the name 

 of this building to St. Brigid's) mai'ks the enclosure "Graveyard." It has, 

 perhaps, been used as a burial-ground, but there are no formal monuments 

 within it, though there are many fragments of stone lying about which may 

 possibly have been taken from the edict to mark graves. In the south-east 

 corner of the enclosure is a sandstone flag, roughly triangular, measuring 

 4 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 4 inches, not dressed or inscribed in any way, 

 lying prostrate. This may be a mark of importance — possibly even the 

 founder's tomb-slab— as in the " rounds " described in Part III of this 

 paper special reverence appears to have been paid to this stone. I suspect 

 that St. Michael's and the enclosure round it are, in fact, the remains of the 

 nucleus of St. Caimin's monastery. 



This structure is thus described in the Ordnance Survey Letters' : 

 " Directly to the West of the round tower, is the site of a very small 

 Chapel, which is called St Michael's, 6 feet long, 4^ or 5(?) feet broad. The 

 door way on the West end is 22 inches broad. The vestiges of the foundation 

 afford the means of ascertaining the extent as given here. The precincts within 

 which this foundation is seen is called Garaidh Wiicheail, i.e., St. Michael's 

 Garden." This note is of importance, as it gives us the proper name of the 

 building, derived, as the writer is careful to assure us (p. 568), from local 

 information. The measurements given must be the internal dimensions. 

 Brash's account adds nothing of importance. 



^ Galway, vol. ii, p. 558. 



