140 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acmlemy. 



IX. The Cottage (plan, fig. 9> 



This is a structure of dry-stone masoniy, very roughly built ; the stones 

 used are fairly large, and the walls are 2 feet 6 iaches thick. They stand to 

 a height of about 3 feet ; but the hearth iu the middle is 5 feet high at its 

 highest part. The whole budding measiu-es 3-lr feet by 18 feet, with a few 

 extra inches here and there owing to the irregularity of the walls. It lies to 

 the north of the Anchorite's Cell ; the orientation of its long axis is 29 degrees ; 

 the entrance is to the north. As will be seen from the plan, it contains 

 two rooms, separated by a H -shaped stracture, which is evidently a pair 

 of hearths, back to back. 



Fig. 9. Plan of the Cottage. 



According to Bishop Eider's report, quoted in Part I of this paper, there 

 was one house on the island in the beginning of the seventeenth century. 

 This may be its ruins ; but the structure hardly looks so old. There is no 

 tradition of any recent occupation of tlie island though, as we have seen, a 

 herd was established in St. Brigid's in the middle of the last century). 



These foundations were almost hidden by a dense growth of brambles, 

 which Mr. Hibbert caused to be cut away for me. O'Conor says' : — "To the 

 Xorth East of this Confession church, lie the vestiges of another edifice, which 

 is supposed by some persons, to have been a dwelling-house ; but is generally 

 considered to have been a church. No particular name is now known for it." 

 It is so obviously not a church, that we must believe that those who identified 



' O- S. Letters, l>tc. cii., p. 551. 



