132 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academij. 



told me that he had found practically all the stones of the east end and laid 

 them out in order, but mischief-makers very soon scattered them again, and 

 they are now appropriated as headstones. It is however to be noted that 

 O'Conor' says " the East gable is destroyed witli the exception of a small 

 portion of it, attached to the North side wall." 



There is a small cross marking a grave close to the west door. I thought 

 it might have been a gable-finial, which it much resembles, but Delany 

 assured me it was quite modern, and made specially for the grave that 

 it marks. 



\ . Anchorite's Cell (plan, fig. 7 ; views, Plates XIII, XIV). 



1 give this name to a very remarkable structure that lies north-east 

 of the principal cemetery on the island — the Saints' Graveyard, east of 

 St. Caimin's. It is, indeed, one of the most extraordinary ecclesiastical 

 buildings in Ireland. 



It is a small cell, 10 feet 1 inch long by 8 feet 5 inches broad. The walls 

 are standing to a height of between o feet and 4 feet, but nearly 5 feet at the 

 doorway. There is a plinth or footing on the east and north sides, 7 inches 

 wide, just above the ground-line. The doorway is at the east end, and is 

 revealed for a door on the inside. The orientation of the structure is 

 283° magnetic. The masonry is good, and larger stones are used in the 

 construction than in any of the other buildings on the island, except the 

 landing-stage. One stone, in the north side of the building, measures 

 •4 feet 7 inches in length. 



Internally the structure is divided into two parts by a couple of rude 

 standing stones. These are tiat slabs, each about 4 feet liigh ; that to the 

 north was broken, and has been repaired with iron clamps. They are so 

 placed as to approximate to one another at the top, making a triangular 

 opening between them through which it might be barely possible to creep 

 on hands and knees. Behind these two stones the cell is contracted in 

 dimensions. Not only are the walls thicker, making the space between 

 them narrower, but there are two other rude stones occupying the corners at 

 the west end of tlie building. These are square blocks, not slabs like the first 

 two ; and they take up so much room that it is scarcely possible to turn in 

 the space left vacant between them. Like the first two, they are so set as to 

 slope towai'd one another at their upper ends. There is a thin, flat slab on 

 edge between these stones and the masonry of the western wall, and another 

 slab forms the floor of the inner part of the cell. This floor is raised 7 inches 

 above the floor of the outer part of the building. 



' O.S. Letters, loc. cit., p. 552, 



