433 



Ko, 18. — Enlarged view of the exterior of the doorway of the old 

 church of Kilmalkedar. 



^0. 19. — Yiew of the choir arch of the same church, showing its 

 style of decoration, and portion of the row of small, stunted, raised 

 pilasters which ornament the side walls of the nave : to the right of the 

 view are the remains of the old font. 



1^0. 20. — Yiew of the same arch, looking westward (or from" the 

 chancel), showing also the interior of the doorway, and the singularly 

 rude ornament, like an animal's head, left standing on the inner surface 

 of the tympanum when the slab forming it was being cut away, to fit 

 the head of the door. To the right and left of the chancel arch are the 

 remains of the original windows which lighted the north and south side 

 of this part of the building, which were blocked up when the present 

 larger chancel was erected in the 1 3th century, as the form of the east 

 window would indicate. 



One of the most beautifully formed skulls I ever saw was placed in 

 the rude recess to the west of the chancel arch, as I have shown in the 

 sketch ; and from where I sat when making my drawing I con Id see 

 several coffins which had never been buried, and in one instance the 

 ghastly contents were fully exposed to view. It was in the summer of 

 1856 when I first visited this remote district of Kerry, and I have no 

 doubt that the coffins I saw were the relics of the famine year of 1847, 

 when in many instances the dying buried the dead. 



In the view, and to the left of the doorway, is a rude piece of sculp- 

 ture, resembling the lower half of a quadrangular-shaped cross placed 

 on the top of a truncated cone ; they fit together by a tenon and mortice, 

 and are said to have fallen from the apex of the west gable ; this is 

 quite probable, but the cross is evidently incomplete, and we have only 

 its lower half preserved : if this be true, we have here a form of cross 

 which is quite unique. 



No. 21. — Enlarged view of the ornamentation on the soffit of the 

 choir arch of Kilmalkedar old church. 



No. 22. — Enlarged view of one of the stunted pilasters ornament- 

 ing the side walls of the nave of Kilmalkedar old church, and close to 

 the window on the north wall. The bases of these pilasters are enriched 

 at the angles by that leaf- shaped ornament so descanted on by Euskin, 

 and is one of the very many quaint and beautiful features in early Irish 

 charch architecture so little known to our native architects, and which 

 so well deserves to be rescued from the destructive hand of time and 

 neglect. 



JSTo. 23. — External view of the south side wall window of the same 

 church, from the general form of which we may assign the building to 

 the twelfth century. 



ISTo. 24. — ^External view of the east window of the old church of 

 Kilmalkedar. Erom its elongated form, though it is semicircular 

 headed, we may assign its date to the thirteenth century. 



1^0. 25. — Eont from the same old church. This, like the font from 

 Ballineanig, is a simple circular bowl with a thick rim beneath. 



