150 



the neighbouring castle of Ardanragh — a building probably of the six- 

 teenth century. 



No. 1 7. East window of the same old church, showing the stone socket 

 for the internal shutter to swing on. 



No. 18. Small window loop in the south wall of the chancel of the 

 same old church, the date of which is coeval with this portion of the 

 building, and is probably of the sixteenth century. 



No. 19. Plan of the same old church, showing the modern chancel, an 

 the modifications of the original east gable. The walls of the ancien 

 church are without foundations, but they rest on a rough basement c 

 plinth of large flags. This peculiar mode of construction has been fol- 

 lowed by the builders of the chancel, either from veneration or for con 

 venience. A large flat-headed doorway in the north wall of the chance 

 allowed access to this portion of the building, while a similar doorway ' 

 the central gable allowed of communication with the ancient or wester 

 part of the building. 



No. 20. Near Poxhall, county of Longford, and in the parish o 

 Eathreagh (Ordnance Survey, Sheet 20), there is an ancient mound, 

 in the centre of which stands what is ca]led " The Caldragh Stone," o 

 which this is a sketch. The monument in question, which is un- 

 doubtedly of great antiquity, consists of a block of stone, five feet in 

 height, ten inches in breadth, flat at one side, and rounded on th 

 other, and standing in a flat circular plinth ; its apex, for somethin 

 more than one foot, is fined off, and narrowed, or notched. This mo 

 nument is evidently incomplete, and I feel disposed to believe that th 

 shaft was intended to receive a cruciform head of wood, which reste 

 on the notch at the top. 



No. 21. Close to this small pillar is a flagstone, bearing the ornamen 

 here sketched ; it consists of two circles, connected by a narrow band 

 the central portion of the former being ornamented by a Greek cross 

 The stone is broken in the middle, and I have no doubt but that whe - 

 perfect there were three such circles engraved on it. This form of orna 

 ment, without the cross, is found on monuments of undoubted Paga 

 age in Ireland. Vide Yol. I., No. 14, of my " Antiquarian Sketches,' 

 where I have figured a slab of stone from the graveyard of Tully, in th 

 county of Dublin, in which we find this triple circle connected by nar 

 row bands, and which has been recognised as pre-Christian. 



No. 22. Yiew of the west gable of the old church atEeohran,^ count 



* Foyran, a parish in the extreme north of the county of Westmeath. 



The Ordnance Survey (Westmeath, Sheet 1) marks " Church in Ruins, Graveyard," 

 and " Bishop Hugh's Well (Tohar Aidain)." 



The name of the church is written in Irish Foibren and Faiobhran. 



The patron saint is thus commemorated, at Nov. 1, in the " Calendar of Maria 

 Gorman" and the " Martyrology of Donegal" : — " Aedh son of Roi, of Foibren." 



The place is also noticed in the "Four Masters," at the year 751 : — "Eochaidh son 

 of Conall Meann, abbot of Faoibhran, died." 



