424 



3. Plan and restoration of St. Bridget's House, at Faughart, county 

 of Louth. 



This singular structure, which has been erected on a boss of rock 

 near the old church of Faughart, was a simple dome-shaped stone hut 

 or cloghaun, in plan resembling an elongated horseshoe, and measuring 

 12 ft. by 7 ft. 6 in. internally, the doorway, which was 2 feet in depth, 

 being at the narrow end, and facing to the north-east. This building, 

 of which nothing now remains but the foundations, evidently bears a 

 close resemblance to the cell or house of St. Kevin which crowns the 

 summit of the rocky knoll over the Eeafert church at Glendalough — a 

 structure erected by St. Kevin himself, according to the life of that saint 

 published by the Bollandists.* 



In Yol. IY. of a donation similar to the present I have given a plan of 

 the house or cloghaun of St. Grobbonet at the old church of Bally vourney, 

 county of Cork, erroneously marked on the Ordnance Survey Map as 

 " Base of Eound Tower," which, though larger than that of St. Bridget, 

 is of the same type ; and in Yol. Y. of the same series I give a view 

 of the house or church of St. Finan Cam, from the Church Island, in 

 Waterville Lake, county of Cork, which is also a structure of the clogh- 

 aun type. 



It is noteworthy that, according to the six lives of St. Bridget, attri- 

 buted to as many ancient authors, and published by Colgan, it appears 

 that she was born at Pochard (now Faughart), in the county of Louth, 

 some time in the middle of the fifth century; and, after passing a 

 life of celibacy and piety, and in 480 having founded the religious esta- 

 blishment at Kildare, she died there about the year 523. 



Irish archaeologists will have no hesitation in accepting the truth 

 of the local tradition which asserts, that this stone hut was used by 

 St. Bridget as her cell or house, and the restoration as I have given it is 

 correct by analogy. 



No. 4. Base of the Eound Tower at St. Endeus, or Enda, pronounced 

 by the people on the spotEanagh, on the Island of Arranmore, in Galway 

 Bay. The inhabitants of the village of Killeana, which lies at the base 

 of the rise of the hill on which this tower stood, stated that when the 

 tower was perfect they could see across the island to the south from the 

 top of it, and that it was built to hold the bell of the neighbouring 

 church. From this we are not to infer that the bell was suspended, 

 and swung in the tower as in a campanile ; but that the tower was 

 used as the repository of this valued sacred property, amongst other 

 appliances for which it would be suitable. My late lamented friend 

 Dr. Petrie, for whom not one who knew him had more sincere feelings 

 of affection than myself, told me that he recollected seeing this tower 

 perfect to tteSfcight of about twenty feet, and that he had conversed 

 with old pHKS - .on the island who recollected seeing it over eighty feet 

 in height, and some of the upper opes perfect. When I visited the island 

 in the summer of 1847, I could see but five courses of the masonry. 



* See Petrie's "Essay on the Round Towers," p. 424. 



