•120 " Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



There are two small deeply splayed windows ia the church. The one is ou 

 the south side of the altar, the light being of inches wide, the splay 3 feet 

 1-^ inch wide. The other is in the middle of the east wall; the splay 

 is 2 feet 4 inches wide, but it is impossible to give the width of the 

 light, as the jambs are lost. The splay of the first of these windows is 

 very unsymmetrical. 



The above is a description of the church as it exists at present. We now 

 proceed to give an account of the church as it was before the restorations, 

 and to note the nature of those operations. 



O'Conor's account is as follows' : — " At some distance from Saint Mary's 

 Church to the North, stand the remains of a small Chapel, which is called 

 ' baptism house.' It was originally 20 feet long. The East gable, 18 feet of 

 the North side wall, and about 7 feet of the South side wall attached to East 

 gable remain. 



" On the East gable is a window, which on the inside commences within 

 2\ feet of the ground, is near 3 feet broad in the lower part, and 3-1 feet 

 high. Ic is broken down at top on this side. On the outside it is 2 feet 

 2 inches high and 6 inches broad, and is of a quadrangular form." Here 

 follows a rough outline sketch, a copy of which, as it is apparently the only 

 record of tliis window when complete, is reproduced on Plate IX. O'Donovan 

 adds to this description the words : " This gable was prostrated by the 

 memorable storm of the 6th of January 1839. How soon a piece of writing 

 becomes an antiquity!'"^ O'Conor resumes: "Close to the East gable there 

 is a window on the South side wall, which on the inside, is 2 feet from the 

 ground ; o feet broad in the lower part. The upper part was totally destroyed 

 on both the inside and outside. This was 6 inches broad, and about 24 feet 

 high on this latter side. It was, as well as the East gable window, constructed 

 with chiseled stones." 



From this e.xtraet we learn that in liS3S the west wall (including the 

 Eomanesque doorway) was wholly prostrate ; the east wall, with part of the 

 side walls, was standing, with the two windows, of which that in the east 

 wall was square-headed, but that in south side had lost its top. Moreover, 

 the east wall was partly blown down early in 1839. 



Some time later the building was adapted as a habitation for a herd. 

 Brash, in his " Gentleman's Magazine " article, describes the building as in the 

 last state of decay : " About fifty yards to the north of St. Mary's are the 

 foundations of St. Michael's Church \sic\. A portion of the east end has 



' O.S. Letters, Joe. cit., p. 556. 



' O'Conor's letter, into which O'Donovan has inserted these words, is dated 19th Nov., 

 1838, about seven weeks before the storm. 



