CITY OF LONDONDERRY. 
continuation in this part of the island, to so recent a period, of the original institutions of the conn- 
try, and saddening illustrations of the insecurity of life and property, and the amount of misery and 
confusion, which w'ere the inevitable results of such a social system. The town, if such it might 
be called, was entirely ecclesiastical, and consisted, almost exclusively, of churches and the 
habitations of the clergy and monks. The former were evidently structures of stone, and the 
latter of wood, or mud ; for in those days a stone-house was called a castle, and the 
only structure of that kind recorded to have been erected in Derry was a small square 
tower, built by O’Dogherty, in the 15th or 16th century, for O’Donnell, on a spot of ground 
purchased for the purpose from the erenagh Mac Loughlin. Of this castle some remains are 
supposed to exist still—but of all the ancient ecclesiastical buildings not a vestige is to be 
found. They have shared the fate of that venerable oak grove in the midst of which they were 
originally erected, and which, as has been shewn, had been preserved through so many successive 
ages with an equally religious veneration. 
St. Columb’s Church, or Duv-Regles .—A passage in the life of Saint Columb, written in 
the 16th century by O’Donnell, prince of Tireonnell, makes us acquainted with the position and 
form of the original church of Derry, and shews that the conservation of those trees was con¬ 
sidered by the clergy as a sacred duty, imposed upon them by the order of the patron saint himself. 
He writes thus :—“ many other signs and miracles were wrought by this servant of Christ in the 
same place, in which he himself dwelt for a long time, and which he loved above every other; and 
particularly that beautiful grove very near the Monastery of Derry, which he wished should 
be always left standing. And he gave orders that, should any one of its trees be prostrated by 
a storm, it should not be removed until after the expiration of nine days, after which one- 
tenth part should be given to the poor, one-third be reserved for the hearth of the guests, 
and the remainder be distributed among the people. From this veneration for the grove, 
when the holy man was about erecting the church, commonly known by the name Duibh Regies, 
he had rather that the foundation of the building should be laid in a transverse position, leaving 
the grove untouched, which by its density and contiguity rendered the place narrow, than that 
the building should, according to the usual custom, look to the east, the grove being in part 
destroyed. But, that he might not appear to deviate entirely from the usage of the church, he 
ordered that the sacred altar, upon which he himself offered sacrifice, should be erected at the 
eastern sideof the building. The ruins of that church, remaining at this day[1520], demonstrate 
that such was its situation.”—(TV. Th. O’Donnell’s Life of Columbkille. Book 1st; chapter. 
57th). 
Temple More, or Cathedral and Round Tower .—The peculiarity of position alluded to by 
O’Donnell, was, it is probable, the only feature which distinguished the Duv-Regles from the co- 
temporaneous churches of the country, many of which still remain, and are remarkable for the 
simplicity of their form and architecture. Not so, however, the Temple More, or cathedral church, 
erected in 1164, which was evidently one of the most distinguished ecclesiastical structures built in 
Ireland, previously to the settlement of the Anglo-Normans, and which, as Colgan accurately 
states, was 80 paces or 240 feet in length. 
These churches, with their accompanying buildings, were situated adjacent to each other outside 
the present city wall, on the ground now chiefly occupied by the Roman Catholic chapel and ce¬ 
meteries ; and with the exception of the round-tower belfry, were totally destroyed by Docwra, 
in 1600, to use their materials in the new works which he erected. This tower survived till after 
the siege, being marked on the maps, or plans, of that time as the “ Long Tower or Temple More,” 
and its site is still indicated by the name of a lane called the “ Long Tower.” In the ch al ter of 
Derry it is called “ Columb-kille’s Tower.” In Raven’s plan of the city, in 1621, it is represented 
as a very high and slender belfry ; but it is incorrectly drawn as square, a common error in the 
plans made by English artists in Ireland in that and earlier times, as appears from many old 
maps among the MSS. in Trinity College library. In the popular traditions of Derry and its 
vicinity, this tower is to this day invariably spoken of as a lofty round tower, built by St. Columb 
himself, and many legends are current of its miracle-working silver bell. It has been erroneously 
supposed by Mr. Sampson that “ the old windmill,” so memorable during the siege, and still 
existing as a pigeon-house at the Cassino, was the remains of this tower. 
Nunnery .—Of the other churches of Derry but very slender accounts exist. The registry of 
the Honor of Richmond, according to Harris, states that an abbey for nuns of the Cistercian order 
was founded at Derry in the year 1218, and Allemande says that the founder was Turlogh Luinagh 
O’Neill. There was, however, no O’Neill of that name but the celebrated chief of the 16th cen¬ 
tury—and it would appear that the foundation of a nunnery must have been earlier than that 
assigned, from a notice in the Annals of the Four Masters, which records the death of Bebinn, the 
daughter of M‘Conchaille, female erenagh of Derry , who died on the 23rd of March, 1135. It 
is possible that the nuns adopted the Cistercian rule in 1218, but the evidence is scarcely strong 
enough to warrant the conclusion ; nor is it quite certain that there were any nunneries in Ireland 
