394 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



nothing can be made out, except that there are traces of figures 

 all over it. On the south, under the arm, is a well-preserved 

 bit of ornamental work. The pattern is a double row of spirals 

 separated by a small double bead. This is the place in which, 

 on many other crosses throughout Ireland, the carving is best 

 preserved, as it has been protected by the overhanging arms. 



Discussion on the paper followed, in which Messrs. F. W. 

 Lockwood, Edward Alhvorthy, and F. J. Bigger took part. 



Note. — The illustrations of the cross have been drawn by Mr. F. W. Lockwood, 

 from photographs apecially taken by Mr. R. Welch for the Club's antiquarian photo- 

 graphic survey of Ireland. 



Mr. Francis Joseph Bigger, junior secretary, then exhibited 

 and described the ancient Celtic shrine which was recently 

 obtained in Lough Erne by Mr. Thomas Plunkett, M.R.I.A. 

 He said that the shrine was dredged up accidentally by fisher- 

 men last April from the bottom of a secluded bay on the southern 

 shore of Lower Lough Erne, half-way between Enniskillen and 

 Belleek. It got entangled in a night-line on which hooks were 

 placed, and was brought to the surface of the water from a 

 depth of 24 feet. The inside is formed out of one piece of wood, 

 the outer covering is bronze. It contained a small inner bronze 

 shrine in which the relic had been kept ; but this inner shrine 

 was not perfect, and must have been broken open before it was 

 thrown into the lake. 



This interesting reliquary no doubt belonged to an ancient 

 abbey, the foundation and foss of which are at present clearly 

 traceable on a point of land that juts out into the bay where 

 the shrine was found. This tongue of land is marked on the 

 old maps " Abbey Point," but the history of the abbey is un- 

 known, and it is evidently one of the oldest remains of the kind 

 on Lough Erne. There are frequent references to shrines or 

 reliquaries such as this one in the Annals of Ulster between the 

 fifth and tenth centuries, and Dr. Petrie says from the number 

 of references to shrines in the Irish annals that previously to 

 the irruptions of the Northmen in the eighth and ninth 

 centuries there were few, if any, of the distinguished churches 



