1 45] EARLY MONASTERIES, BEEHIVE HUTS, AND DRY-STONE HOUSES IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CAHERCIVEEN AND WATERVILLE (Co. KERRY). By F. HENRY, .p.va. [Read 9 May, 1035, Published 20 Pewxuany, 1957. (Prares I - XLIX.) Tuus article is the result of a campaign of surveying done at various times during the years 1937, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1953 and 1954, in the coastal districts of the large promontory lying between Dingle Bay and the Kenmare River. I started my researches with the aim of drawing up plans of early monasteries and of the dry-stone, corbelled structures—oratories and beehive ells—which compose them, In the course of this work I discovered that there were in the same area many other remains of dry-stone huts which could not be proved to be monastic but which had features in common with the monastic buildings, and I found that théir study could not easily be separated from that of the monasteries, In addition rather fiiffy dry- stone shelters, erected by shepherds for their lambs at a comparatively recent date, have been so often built amongst the ruins and with the stones of earlier buildings, monastic or other, that they had to be considered also. As a result, the monuments finally included in this survey can be roughly divided into several groups: A, Buildings belonging to monastic sites! These sites are defined by the presence of one, at least, of the following features: —a rectangular oratory of the Gallarus? type (made of horizontal layers of slabs corbelled so as to meet at the top, roughly giving to the building the appearance of an upturned boat), oriented east-west, with a door in the west gable, ——a stone cross, a eross-bearing slab or pillar or a monumental” tomb made of stone slabs. XT assume the sites to be monastic, and not merely ecclesiastical, because of the prosenca of habitation buildings in any well preserved site and because of the essantially monastie character of the early Trish church, 2 See pl. X, d- PROC. R.LA., VOL, 58, SECT, ¢, {r]46 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. The traditional name of these sites can also very often give a clue to their original purpose? ‘These sites are nearly always enclosed by a circular or roughly yeetangular wall or rampart and generally inelude stone huts, either round or square inside and more or less round outside, which are built like the oratories by carefully nid courses of flat stones, covered by 4 corbelled domed roof—-now often collapsed—which gave them the appearance of beehives. Tn some were lined inside, or even outside, by happens that the rest of the wall has disappeared and that these slabs only are left standing, giving to the ruin a disconcertingly megalithic es the lower cour! rge upright slabs appearance. B. Corbelled stone huts, of the same type as those found in monastic sites» also built of horizontal layers of flat stones, but without the same associations. They are found either isolated or built in groups of two or three with a communicating passage. These huts are often associ- ated with the remains of old field fences made of very large upright stones, Similar huts which are often found inside stone forts or in close proximity to them have been considered also whenever their remains were clearly defined. C. Stone huts or dry-stone houses of various types and shapes, generally built of uneven blocks instead of the horizontal layers of the corbelled structures. D, Shepherd's constructions, mostly rough enclosures combined with small oblong shelters covered with horizontal flags. Some of these may have been in use until a fairly recent date, as their purpose is still re- membered by several people in the district. The area surveyed does not correspond exactly to any administrative or ecclesiastical division. It includes part of the barony of Iveragh (parishes of Caher, Valentia, Killemlagh, Prior, and part of the parish of Dromod) and a small area of the barony of Dunkerron (part of the parish of Kilerohane). Tts limits, however, have been determined mostly by geographical features and in a few cases by purely practical reasons, To the north and west it is bounded by the Atlantic: to the south by the Coomakesta Pass and the range of mountains extending east of it; to the east, a line joining Coomcallee Mountain to the western slopes of Knock- nadober would more or less mark the limits of my investigations. I have ' Such as names beginning with kil-, kill- (Irish: eit, ehureh; though a confusion with coil, wood, is always possible), er names including ‘ temple” (lecmpuil) : church. See als“ baslickune”, p. LT,Henry—Larly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 47 no doubt that the same types of monuments would be found beyond that line, as a cursory examination of the neighbourhood of Caherlehillan has shown. ‘This line, as a consequence, must be considered as quite arbitrary. (Fig. 1.) I have divided this area into several sections which will be examined successively in detail. In each of them I shall simply describe the monuments, keeping considerations of date and interpretation of facts for a general study at the end. The maps of each section are traced from the 6 inch Ordnance Survey maps! and show the townlands. As far ag possible, each site has been pin-pointed on the map before reduction. A number has been given to cach site and this is inserted on the map and referred to in the text. Lou Le Innisfailen | nd wa gv 0 Ter Garheotehillan Clean Lough ° Kenmare Fig, L—South-west Kerry (the eastern boundary of the survey is indicated by dotted line) 1 They have been reduced to one fourth of the original size. [22]4g Proceedings of the Royal Trish Academy. This survey has been mainly made by using the archaeological data of the 6 inch Ordnance Survey maps (1841-2 and the 1895 revision), the Ordnance Survey Letters, and various articles on the archaeology of this part of Kerry which are mentioned in the bibliography of each site, But many groups of huts—a few belonging to group A, but most to Groups B, C, and D—had never been recorded. These I found partly from the indications of the local inhabitants, and often thanks to a good deal of trouble taken by them to show me the monuments, partly from a careful scrutiny of one side of a valley from the opposite slope {the patterns of old fields can often be seen faintly from a disiance and the indications gathered thus help to locate the huts conneeted with these fields). Chance and a certain amount of aimless wandering up and down slopes also played their part, T do not in any way claim to have made a complete survey of the urea, which would take years because some of the remains are hidden in remote parts of the mountains. Indeed I know that I have certainly missed much. But what I have found gives probably a fairly good average of the types of monuments which an exhaustive survey would reveal and this is the essential point as my aim was not to write a chapter of local history, but to study certain types of monuments which happen to be plentiful in this part.of Ireland. For this purpose my investigations have given me a sufficient number of examples. I do not claim either to have made absolutely accurate plans. The reader is asked to bear in mind the ruinous condition of the buildings and the presence of bushes, ferns and all gorts of thorny plants which often make surveying a problem. I have recorded, aa well as I could, what can be seen and understood in the present state of the ruins ‘The area surveyed is composed essentially of a series of mountainous headlands jutting into the sea and of the marshy ground connecting them which is nearly everywhere covered with a thick layer of turf, It is a district which remained difficult of access up to the nineteenth century. In 1839, Lady Chatterton still had to go on horseback from Waterville to Derrynanc? (the road was being built at the time), and the surveyors of 1841 seem to have been practically defeated by the Killoe-Killogrone area where all reads vanished and their indications become of an extreme vagueness. The present villages are of very recent origin: Caherciveen and Knightstown only developed with the building of the railway and Waterville was no more than a cluster of a few liouses until the building of the Cable Station and the recent development of the tourist trade. So, in studying it, one has to keep in mind the picture of a countryside which has been covered for centuries with dispersed habitations connected by tracks which kept to the dry ground on the slope of the hills. These tracks in the course of time became roads. Then they were superseded by the modern built-up and tatred roads, keeping generally to a much lower 1 Lady Chatterton, Rambles in the South of Ireland, 1859, vol. I.Hexey—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 49 level in the valley and connecting the new villages built at sea level, They subsist to a great extent as lanes and even grassy roads and are commonly referred to as “the old road”, Their antiquity is proved by the fact that quite a number of early sites are found near to them. Indeed, following them is an excellent means of finding remains of ancient habitations. ‘The fact that roads and habitations kept at a fairly high level on the slope does not help us very much to form a clear idea of the appearance of the valleys at that time. At present, they are mostly covered with turf so that streams are often sluggish and the flat parts of the ground have a strangely waterlogged appearance. But was the turf there in the Farly Christian period? Or at least was it not more restricted? It is hard to tell, but one hag to remember that the whole countryside may have looked different, the water being able to run much more freely than it can do at present. “ How far that now treeless country was still wooded is also a problem which has to be left open. Many of the early sites have become “ cellurachs —graveyards of children or adults, where the tombs are marked by small, unfashioned stones; the field of tombs very often occupies only part of the original enclosure, leaving room for some ruined buildings. The Ordnance Survey maps generally indicate these sites as “burial ground for children”. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. It would be impossible to thank all the people who have helped me in the actual work of surveying. Will all those who guided me and befriended me find here my warmest thanks? But a special mention is due to the Skellig light-keepers and also the Portmagee fishermen who brought me several times to the Skellig. I was greatly helped by the indications given. +o me by Mr. Patrick O’Neill, of Caherciveen, and Mr. T. Murphy, of Water. ville. Iam glad to thank Professor M, J. O'Kelly, Mr. A. T. Lucas, Director of the National Museum, Professor Gerard Murphy and Mr, Liam de Paor, who very kindly communicated to me unpublished material and allowed me to publish-it, Mr. Perey Le Clere, Inspector of National Monuments, who facilitated in every way my researches, The Commissioners of Public Work for information about the works carried out on the monuments, the County Louth Archaeological Society, for allowing me to reproduce two plates which had been published in the County Louth Archaeological Journal. The printing of the photographs, which presented many difficulties is due to Mr. Ureh and Albert Glaholm. The final redaction has been greatly facilitated by the advice and help given to me by Mr, Liam Price, pv., as well as by Mr. and Mrs. William O'Sullivan. I have used the spelling of place-names which is found on the 1842 Ordnance Survey maps50 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. THE MONUMENTS. FIRST 8 ION: NORTH OF CAHERCIVEEN (Parish of Caher) {From Doulus Head to the western slopes of Knocknadober Mountain, ineluding the islands of Valentia Harbour.) (Plate XLIV.) General description. This section consists essentially of a mountainous headland falling steeply +0 the north into the waters of Dingle Bay and sloping gently to the south towards Valentia Harbour and the estuary of the Valentia River. Two islands, Church Island and Beginish, which are isolated from the southern coast of the promontory by only a narrow channel have been included in it. Two deep gullies running across the whole width of the promontory separate the massif of Slievagh, which is immediately to the north of Caherciveen, from Doulus Head to the west and Knoeknadober to the east. A thick layer of turf covers most of the plateau which occupies all the centre of Slievagh. The slopes of Doulus Head and Slievagh, which are exposed to the south and those on bath sides of the gullies, are mostly free from turf and lend themselves to cultivation, Monuments. A, The monastic remains consist of: —a monastic site with oratory, beehive hut, monumental tomb and engraved slab, surrounded by a stone wall, on Church Island in Valentia Harbour —-an oratory in the churchyard of Killobarnaun near Caherciveen. — the ruin of a rectangular building which may be an oratory on Beginish. B. There are remains of round stone huts associated with field fences or with stone forts in several places: —on the sandy promontory of Beginish which is exactly opposite to Church Island on Doulus Head (tds. of Killelan west and of Killelan east) — in Cloghanelinaghan townland —on Killuely Commons ~~ in the forts of Cahergat and Leacanabuaile.Henry—Karly Monasteries, Beehive Muts, and Dry-slane Touses. 51 ©, D. There are huts of an aberrant type: — mn the eastern slope of Slievagh —in Leacanabuaile (rectangular huts of the uppe --on Killurly Commons —on Doulus Head (alterations to some of the round huts transforming them into sheep-pens and lamb shelters). layer) a—Rurxs ox Brorxtsa ann Cuvecn Istann. Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry 79 W. —O.8. letters, Kerry, 128 (John O'Donovan) —Archdall, Mon. Hib., p. 233. Proc. RALA., vol 15 (1870-79), pp. 107 ff. (John O'Hanlon, * On the identification of St. Malachy O’Morgair’s ‘ Monasterium Ibraeense’ (read 1872) ") —-Dunraven, Notes on Iv. 7 Arch., wol, T (1875), pp. £ --J-RS.A.T.. 1900, pp. 151 ff. (E. M. Beeby, “St. Malachy of Armagh”) —Hd., pp. 103 ff. (B,J. Lynch, * Church Island, Valenti Harbour, Co. Kerry”) —J. Cork H.A.S8., 1954, pp. 101 ff, (Michast J. O'Kelly and Séamus Kavanagh, “An ogam inseribed croas-slab from County Kerry”). CHURCH ISLAND (lllaun a teampull, according to O'Hanlon) (No. Lon map of Section; Figs. 2 and 3). The island is only a small rock, less than 100 yards in diameter, bounded by cliffs and partly covered with sand, It was probably part of Beginish at one time, as at low tide it is sometimes possible to reach it from Beginish by walking on the sand. ‘The western side of Church Island, which is mostly sand. collapse due partly te wave-action and partly to rabbits. ‘The islet is covered with ruins of dry stone buildings. Part of the attention it has attracted is duc, however, to a confusion with the other Church Island. in Lough Currane and to the consequent speculations as to its connection with St. Malachy. The ruins consist of an oratory, a beehive and traces of other huts (Fig. 3). Remains of a very ruined enclosing wall about 5 to 6 ft. wide ean be traced on the north side of the island and to the west as far as the door of the oratory. Both beehive and oratory are in fairly good condition, the walls standing: toa height of nearly 8 ft. for the beehive and 9 ft. to 10 ft. for the orato ‘They were restored by the Office of Public Works in 1904 and the top of the walls was cemented at that time. in a state ofAcademy. Proceedings of the Royal Irish 52 Saruay pray Plo & Soa} ayspeuruy 2) SUSIE OE os Sashoy ODHenry—Karly Monasteries, Beehive Huis, and Dry-stone Houses. 53 Repairs were carried out several times since and a concrete base was built to prevent the south corner of the oratory from collapsing into the sea, The oratory (Pl. XV) is very large: at ground level it measures internally 19 ft. 6 in, by 12 ft. 8 in. The walls are 5 ft. thick qn an average at the top and are buttressed on the outside all round the building by a step 1 ft. wide.t The corbelling is very pronounced both in the end and side walls and there can be no doubt that the building was of the usual boat-shaped type. The door is 8 ft. wide; only its lower courses exist; they were probably found under the debris in the course of the repairs and this explains why both O'Donovan and Dunraven sey that they could not find any trace of the door. The ruins must have been fillod up to a great extent and that explains both the discrepancy in the measurements given at various dates? and the curious statements concerning the windows. O’Donovan mistook one for a sort of low door; this is also the description given by Lynch when he visited the island prior to the restoration and reported to Cochrane that the interior was filled up “to the level of the lintel covering an opening in the east end.” There are in fact two windows, one in the eastern gable (1 ft. 10 in. high) and the other in the south wall (2 ft. high). ‘They are both 1 ft. 8 in. wide internally and are only slits outside. The finial stone of the west gable was found in the sea below the ruins. It has @ very worn decoration which may include an animal head full face or two animal heads seen in profile (Pl. XLI, 8). The beehive (Pl. XV) is round both inside and outside with walls about 6 ft. thick. The door has lost its lintel and is 2 ft, 3 in, wide outside and 1 ft. 8 in. inside. There may have been a window on the north-west side. There can be no doubt that this hut had a stone roof as O'Hanlon, who saw it in 1871, gives a sketch of it showing half of the dome still standing, which explains his slightly obscure statement: “the walls remaining are coved to an obtuse point” (Fig. 27). There are traces of other buildings on the island. Though no more than round heaps of stones, they are fairly distinct. It is necessary to stress the fact in view of the difference of opinions among various writers on the subject. O'Hanlon says: “what appeared to be the debris of somewhat similar structures were seattered in other points” of the island; Dunraven, who must have visited the place at about the same time? is even more emphatic: “one oratory with three clochauns or cells and a square building formed 4 Dunraven describes it before the repairs as follows: “ The wall outsido is strengthened. at the base by a projection [like a rude plinth] whieh on the west side is 3 ft. high and 1 ft. deep while on the east it ia on a different level and rises 2 ft. higher.” 2 O'Donovan gives 19 ft. by 10 ft. 6 in., Dunraven, 18 ft. by TI ft. 3in, Though in this case thoro is an explanation for these discrepancies, it is necessary to stress the fact that they do exist in the case of everyone of the buildings surveyed: I shall not mention them heneaforward, axeept when they have some significance. They aro due probably to the difficulty of measuring dry stone buildings whose walls are uneven, #0'Hanion’s article appeared in 1871, the yoar of Dunraven’s death,Sa Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Church Island (Beginish), Fig. 3.Hexrv-—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 55 the group within this wall” (the “square building” may be the tomb). On the other hand, Lynch, shortly before 1900 says, after describing beehive and oratory: “I have not noticed the remains of other buildings on the island", Tn addition to these remaing there seem to be faint traces of a wall parallel to the rampart, so that there may have been a covered passage leading from the beehive to the oratory similar to those existing on Tnish- murray and Inishglora. The sandy ground south of the oratory seems to contain several burials; bones and large round pebbles protruded here and there when I visited the island in 1947. In the summer of 1954, Professor M. J. O'Kelly, when excavating on Beginish, found a pillar lying face downwards over a burial in this part of the island (PL XXXII, ¢). This pillar is decorated with a fine engraving of a cross in a circle with a long shaft. An ogham inscription has been cut on the edge of the slab, eneroaching on the design. On the rocky patch of ground to the south-cast of the oratory there is a rectangular tomb, about 5 ft. by 2 ft., lined with erect slabs connected in the north.west and south.west corners by vertieal grooved stones (Pl. XL, 2). A plain slab stands now against a short pillar across the tomb, more or less, in the middle of it—no doubt a recent arrangement. BEGINISH. (Hig. 2.) All the promontory of Beginish which faces Church Tstand. is made up of jagged rocke partly covered with sand (No. 2 on map of section). The sand is being blown away and traces of human habitation ave gradually being exposed as a consequence, When I visited the island in 1947, the foundations of two civeular huts could clearly be traced near the shore opposite to Church Island (P] XX, a}. Their walls were in a very ruinous condition and they were filled with thick middens of shells in which I found a few rusty and unidentifiable fragments of iron. Field fences made of very large stones could he traced in all directions in the neighbourhood of the huts (Fig. 2). A short distance to the west of these two huts there were some faint indications of the presence of another building. Storms having uncovered there the top of the walls of a hut, Professor M, J. O'Kelly excavated it in the summer of 1954 (H. 1 on Fig. 2)? ‘The hut was round, built by making a pit 4 ft. deep in the sand and lining its sides with stones up to ground level and. then building a wall 7 ft. thick above that, The hut was 21 ft. wide at floor level; the walls were 11 ft. high inside and 5 ft. high above ground level outside, The room was reached by a sloping entrance passage cut in the sand and lined with stones; the entrance was lintelled and the 1A map whieh is amongst the Carew manuscripts in Lambeth Library shows feo islets in a position corresponding to that of Church Tsland; one has a sketch of the oratory and the other those of two bechives. (See: Mary Agnes Hickson, Selections of old Kerry records, second scries (1874). p. 2.) #1 wane to thank here Professor O'Kelly who made available to me with utmost gonerosity all the data concerning bis excavation and the map on which Fig. 2 is based, before the publication of his report on the excavation,56 Proceedings of the Royal Trish Academy. last lintel-stone (inside) turned out to be a re-used pillar with a runic inscription and a small cross cut on its surface, There was a hearth in the centre of the room. Ata height of 7 ft. above the floor there were in the wall six downward sloping sockets. Originally, timbers inserted in these holes met in a kmot in the centre of the hut and supported probably lighter timbers forming the roof proper. There was a small room, very badly built, on the side of the main room; its floor was at ordinary ground level and this room had all the appearance of a later addition. There was a hearth in it and post-holes in three of its corners but not in the fourth. The main room was filled to a depth of 18 in. by a thick layer of shells mixed with animal and fish-bones, stones, etc. In this deposit were found a bronze and an ivory pin, a fragment of bone comb with iron rivets, pointed slips of bone used probably to extract periwinktes from their shells and an iron knife. There were no querns amongst the finds except a saddle quern, which had been used as a building stone in the wall. One of the houses I had seen near the shore (H. 2 on Fig. 2) was also excavated; only the foundations were left; in fact, it seems to have been by that time in a worse condition of decay than when I first saw it and only some shells were found in it. Traces of another house were found further south (House 4). Everywhere there were field fenees running in curved and irregular courses. Further west on the headland there were traces of two other round houses (House 5 and House 8) as well as two rectangular ones side by side (6 and 7). Everywhere there were little cairns of field stones showing that there had been some tillage in the past (one of the cairn was excavated to ascertain their nature). ‘There were also in several places sheltera for cattle, consisting of little curved walls. In one place, some distance to the west of House 8, there were traces of iron smelting (they were already visible at the time of my visit). I had also found clinkers to the east of houses 6-7 and a large patch of charcoal and burnt stones west of House 5. At the other end of Beginish, near some houses, there is a small cellurach (No. 3 on map, section 1), marked “burial ground for children” on the 0.8. map, which contains the very ruined remains of a rectangular building oriented east-west. It seems to be about 8 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft. inside, with walls 5 ft. thick and to have had door in its west wall. It may have been an oratory. A few yards to the west of it there are the very confused ruins of a rectangular enclosure or building. é—Rovtxs ox Dounvs Heap. Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry 79 NW (the cellurach is marked by a circle without any indication; the huts are not marked on the 1842 map; on the 1895 edition ‘a few “ sheepfolds ” marked here and there correspond roughly in position with some of the huts). —Mentioned by John Lecky in : Kerry Arch. Mag., vol. IIT, p. 49, as “ bee- hives in Killelan east” with “a curved entrance passage”.Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stane Houses. 57 The two townlands of Killelan cover practically all the steep hill (92 ft. high) which forms the promontory of Doulus Head. The west end of the Head is all pasture. The modern ficlds start only east of a fence continuing the north-south part of the boundary between the two townlands. East of that fence, the fields run pretty high up the hill and there are several modern farms there all of them at a higher level than the present road (the 1842 0.8, map shows a lane running at this upper level). There are also at various levels amongst the ficlds half ruined houses which have been abandoned at a fairly recent date. The 0.8. map has a fort marked by a circle with no other indication in Killelan east (No. +}. This is a small fort—its entrance pillars still standing —which has been used as a cellurach and is now completely filled with graves. Any structure there may have been inside the rampart has disappeared, its stones probably used to mark the graves, In both townlands there are remains of stone huts and of the old field fences connected with them. In Killelan east, these are fairly high up on the hill on either side of the modern fence which runs more or less west. east as a limit to the modern fields, In Killelan west, they form two groups, each connected with an elaborate system of fields. One is at a short distance to the west of the last modern field fence; the other is near the Head in a steeply inclined little valley running down the hill. I shall examine this group first, as it is the least disturbed of the three. KILLELAN WEST, GROUP I (No. 5; Fig. 4}. There are no modern fields in this part of the Head. The only modern fence is the stout wall which runs just above the top of the cliffs all around the promontory. It is easily distinguished from the old fences which, instead of being made of horizontal courses, are composed of large slabs and blocks of stones planted erect; there were probably originally smaller stones or sods piled on to these which have disappeared in the course of time.t These old fences delimit some fields in the little valley as well as the course of a lane coming from the direction of Group II and they run from one house to the other mostly in curved lines. All the western part of the old fields had become covered over by heather-turf which has recently been partly cut away, exposing a roeky surface mixed with some earth. The stream which runs through the valley is hardly noticeable in summer but its course is so clearly marked that it is obvious that it must have quite a lot of water in winter. Near its beginning there has been an attempt at damming it into @ small pond by building across it a causeway on which passes the lane going to House 3. There are remains of four houses all on the western side of the valley. House 1, the lowest in the valley, is in very bad condition and most of its stones went probably into the building of the modern wall. However, the foundations of a round hut about 13 ft. in diameter inside are perfectly distinct. 1 Walle of this type aro still in use in some parts of Spain, for example in the western part of the Province of Zamora.58 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, House 2. some distance above House 1, was also a round hut, about 20. in diameter inside. The edges of the walls, with their horizontal courses, can be seen perfectly clearly though the roof has fullen ling the span of the walls with a jumble of enormous slabs. == Old field Fences Jo 130 Fig, 4—Killelan West, Group I, House 3 is the most elaborate of all the constructions of this group and the one to which the lane led. It had at least. two rooms, and possibly three, Though here again the roof has fallen in, making investigations difficult, the outline of two round rooms can be traced perfectly inctly, They must have been at least 15 ft. in diameter at the lovel at which they can he measured now. The passage connecting them seems to be more or less intact: it is 6 ft. long and covered by an enormous slab, The entrance passage can tinguished also. In the most. western of the two rooms where the walls can be examined more easily the corbelling is very pronounced and there can be no doubt that these huts were of the beehive type and covered with corbelled cupolas. From the present level of the lintels of the door and passage and from the eurve of the corbelling it appears clearly that these huts are deeply buried and that about 4 to 5 feet of the walls are still in existence. At the eastern end of the house is a square enclosure built in very irregularHenry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 59 fashion with a small room, 7 ft. by 2 ft., near its entrance. All this seems. to be built at a completly different level from the rest and is likely to be a later addition possibly constructed over the ruins of a third room. House 4 is a small round hut; it is perfectly distinct still though a small sheepfold has been built with the top stones of its wall. About 20 yards to the north. west of this house [ found two fragments of two different querns (Pl, XXVIE,¢). Both must have been, when complete, 1 ft. 7 in. in diameter. The hole of one of them was not perforated right through, I found them both half embedded in the heather-turf, in a place where it had been recently cut. They were lying on the rocky bottom of the turf bed and were quite clearly older than the formation of the heather turf. KILLELAN WEST, Group IL (No. 6). Going cast from Group I, one passes a rounded spur of the hill where there are no distinct traces of fences and the lane itself practically disappears. ‘Then before reaching the first. modern fence one comes into another valley, more open than the first, which is filled by a very complicated system of ald field fenees. The lane ean be traced again, passing between a geries of fields and wide enclosures. Amongst these are the ruins of two houses and less distinct traces of two others, House 1 is at first sight a very perplexing structure (Fig. 5, a, Pl. XXIV). It has been tampered with by shepherds in such a way that it has become very difficult to disentangle what they built and what remains of the original construction, It seems to have consisted of two round rooms, both about 15 ft. in diameter inside, and to have been altogether very similar to House 3 of Group I. The first room is entered by a passage about 7 ft. long, covered by large flags, which has a stout double lintel over the door opening into the room (Pl. XXIV). Exactly opposite to this door is a passage, also abaut 7 ft. long, which connects the two rooms. This also has an enormous double lintel with some space between the two slabs. The walls are very thick and wherever they are not too tumbled on the outside to allow measurements they are about 7 ft, wide. The shepherds alterations consist of a series of very well-made shelters covered with long, natrow flags and built probably with the stones of the top parts of the walls and the roofs of the huts. There are three of these shelters opening into the first room; they measure respectively 6 ft. by 5 ft., 34 ft, by 2 ft. and 7 ft. by 3 ft. Between the second and the third there is a gap in the wall, probably the entrance of the pound formed by the outside walls of the hut (the original entrance is filled up to sueh an extent that it eould not.have been used by the sheep to get in and out). The passage conneeting the two rooms seems to have been kept clear though it is at a much lower level than the pound and an arrangement of slabs60 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. in the second room was probably used as a shelter, though if is difficult to say whether it did not belong to the original construction: there is in the centre of the room a half ruined circular block of dry stone masonry which Fic. 5.—Houses on Doulus Head. a, Killelan West, Gr. Il, House 1; 0, id, House 4; ¢, Killelan East. acts as a support for flags which are let into the wall at their other extremity. These form a sort of curved tunnel—probably the “‘ curved entrance passage ” of Lecky.1 Outside the house, to the north of the second room, there is an isolated shelter of the same type as those which are built into the wall of 4 Though Lecky speaks of the hut aa being in Killelan Hast.Henry—Karly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 61 the first room, and there were at least two others which were crushed by the fall of some rocks, ‘There is a spring some distance from the house between it and the top of the cliff, House. 2 is hardly distinguishable in its present state; it is little more than a jumble of huge slabs, just below a widening of the lane forming a sort of square bordered by field fences. In places the curve of the wall can still be seen clearly and the entrance passage seems to be intact under the fallen slabs. House 3 is also reduced to a heap of huge slabs in a similar position to that of House 2, at the side of another square or large pound, much higher up on the slope. House 4 (Pig. 5, 6) seems to have been a two-roomed house like Honse I, but of a smaller size. It has been interfered with by shepherds even more and its original plan can only be understood if it is compared with House 1, Group IL or House 3, Group I. The first room must have been about 11 ft. by 12 ft. Part of the eastern wall being destroyed, nothing remains of the entrance. But the passage into the second room is well preserved: it is 4 ft. long and covered with slabs. The second room has been altered very much. It was probably about 13 ft. in diameter. Three shelters have been built over the remains of the original wall. They are respectively 4 ft. by 2 ft., 10 ft. by 5 ft. and 4}ft. by 2 ft. Between the first and the second a flimsy wall has been built over the original wall of the beehive, which seems to have been specially thick at that point owing to the steepness of the slope and the necessity of buttres- sing the shole construction. KILLELAN EAST. Immediately east of the north-south part of the townland boundary wall, above the last modern fence, there are many old fences and remaing of habitstions connected with them. However, the first building one meets when walking east from the boundary wall, a small round hut about 6 ft. by 7 ft., has all the appearance of being only a comparatively modern structure erected by shepherds. The next feature, a little further east, is difficult to explain: it is a round platform cut into the slope and held up on the downslope by a few large stones. But a little further east still, across a little stream, there is a complex collection of ruins similar to those of Killelan West (No. 7; Fig. 5, c). Here, again, the shepherds have interfered with older work, but in this case their additions are so clumsy and so defiaitely at a different level as to be easily recognisable. There seem to have been two—or possibly three— beehives built against a curved retaining wall about 6 ft. wide (possibly PROC. LA, VOL, 58, SECT. C. [F]62 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. a fragment of a round enclosure). A thick wall gas been built more or less on the original wall of one of the beehives to turn it into a sheep-fold. The hut must have been about 8} ft. by 94 ft., but it is hard to tell exactly as the wall of the modern pound encroaches probably on the surface of the hut; the outside kerb of the hut wall is perfectly distinct and an enormous slab which lies across the wall may well cover the entrance passage. The other room is in a more ruinous state, and only the top of its walls shows on the surface of the ground, Several shelters have been erected, obviously by using the stones from the roofs of the beehives, but they have not been integrated, as in Killelan West, into the primitive construction. A large one, 6 or 7 ft. long inside, has been built actually over the enclosing wall. Another, 5 ft. by 4 ft., has been built between the two original beehives. A third, 4 ft. long, is built very close to this Jast one, but opens in the other direction. There are two other small, rounded shelters a short distanee further on. Other remains of houses are included in the modern field fences. The most distinct I saw was to the north of the small fort-cellurach just below the last field fence (No. 8). It has not been altered by shepherds, but it is im @ very ruinous condition. It consists in a two-roomed house, one room, 5 ft., the other, 10 ft., in diameter. There are two other nondescript ruins in the same field a few yards from this one. c—Tux Forts BETWEEN Dovnus Heap aNp Surevacu. There are several forts in the townlands of Mountluke, Ballycarbery and Kimego West. Two small ones are on the flat ground at the foot of Killelan hill. They are, more or leas, featureless, But over the gully which runs nearly north-south from the little harbour of Cooncrome to the mouth of the Valentia River, there are threc large stone forts all built in com- manding positions and.containing the remains of houses—Cahergal, Leaca- nabuaile and Caher na Gath. CAHERGAL (No. 9). Bibliography. This fort has been mentioned and described many times; tho chief references are: —Lady Chatterton, Kambles in the south of Ireland, 1839, vol. I, p. 263. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 79 NE (“ Cahergal”). —O.8. Letters, Kerry, 129 (O'Donovan, 1841; "Caher Gheal”). —Dunraven, Notes on Ir. Arch. vol. I (1875), p. 22 (Cahir Gel”), —Kerry Arch. Mag., vol. I (1912-14), p. 155 (Kathleen Benn, “ Caher Gall”). ~Id., TIE (1914-1916), p. 49 (John Lecky and M. J. D., “ Notes on some Kerry Antiquities, Cahergal and other fort.)Henry—Early Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 63 Cahergal is a large atone fort with a rampart 12 ft. to 14 ft. wide and a series of stairways climbing diagonally to the top of it as in Staigue fort. It is built on the summit of a small hillock. It contains the ruins of two dry stone buildings, a round beehive and a little rectangular construction built against the rampart. The beehive is nearly exactly in the centre of the fort, with about 25 ft. between its outside wall and the rampart. It is about 20 ft. in diameter inside and the door, 2} ft. wide, opened to the north. The wall is 5 ft. thick, very carefully built in regular horizontal courses, with the stones fitting very closely and some of them protruding on the outside. The corbelling is very marked. Lady Chatterton says that the grandmother of a peasant, whom she met on her visit in 1839, remembered this building “ with a roof narrowing to one stone ”*—i.e., covered beehive fashion. She adds that “a shed for lambs has been constructed out of the fallen stones". This is still to be seen, very tumbled, inside the ruined hut. A flat stone, 3 fb. 5 in. long, with a hole 4 in. wide, which lies to the south-east of the hut comes probably from the door (Pl. XVII). We will see these perforated stones ‘in situ in one of the huts of Killabuonia (see p. 103). The square building is a flimsy structure built of loose stones with walls about 2 ft. thick, It is 9 ft. north-south by 7 ft. east-west. John Lecky suggested that it was an oratory, an interpretation which would be in any case most unlikely, as it has all the appearance of a recent cattle-shed, and which is made untenable by the fact that it is not indicated on Dunraven’s map made sometime before 1871. LEACANABUAILE (No. 10). Bibliography. —0.8. maps: Kerry 79 NW (marked on 1842 but not on 1895 ed.). —J. Cork H.A.S., 1941, pp. 85 ff. (8. P. © Rfordéin and J. B. Foy, “The excavation at Leacanabuaile stone fort, near Caherciveen, Co, Kerry”). —S. P. 6 Riordéin, Antiquities of the Irish Countryside, 1942 ed., Fig. 23 1953 ed., p. 6, 37, and Fig. 7. Leacanabuaile is a stone fort of the same type as Cahergal, only very slightly smaller, with a less elaborate system of stairs in the rampart. It is built on top of a steep rocky hillock, It has been excavated in 1939-40 and the buildings which are inside the rampart can in consequence be studied specially well. It contains several houses of different dates. House A is 2 round hut, 14 to 15 ft. in diameter inside, with walls 6 ft. thick, clearly corbelled (Pl. 23). It resembles very closely the bechive of Cahergal, As postholes have been found inside the hut a doubt was raised by the excavators as to whether it was roofed with stones or not. But the posts were ot necessarily supports of the roof and [v2]64 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, may have belonged to some inside arrangement of the hut. At this same level were found the foundations of two round huts, At a higher level are remains of more recent, more or less rectangular houses, one of them, House B, built against Hut A. It has corbelled walls and may have been covered by a stone roof. A flat holed stone, which was found in the centre of its floor, is practically identical with the holed flag which occupies the centre of the roof of one of the Skellig beehives (PI. XXVII). There is a chamber in the thickness of the wall and a souterrain, very carefully built, opens in House A, These date obviously to the construction of the fort. The finds were not numerous and do not give a very clear indication of date, except that all their parallels are in the Early Christian period or the Viking times. They consist of querns, a plough sock, iron knives, bone combs and a bronze ring-pin. CAHER NA GATH (No, I). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 70 NW. —See art. on Leacanabuaile. Caher na Gath is also a large stone fort, built about 300 yards to the north of Leacanabuaile, on a rocky spur of Slievagh. It has not been excavated and is filled up with debris but remains of stone huts can be seen inside. KILN IN EMLAGH TD. Bibliography. —O.8. maps : Kerry 79 NW, —See art. on Leacanabuaile. A small structure was excavated less than a quarter of a mile from Leacanabuaile. It turned out to be a small kiln built of erect flags forming a lintelled gallery which opened into a round space about 4 ft. in diameter, also lined by flags. There wore no traces of walls supporting a roof, so that part of the building was probably of wood. There was quite a lot of charcoal in all parts of the construction, but specially in the gallery. d—Rvrns ON THE SLOPES o¥ SLiEvacH. Bibliography. —0.8. maps: Kerry, 79 NE and 69 SE; the ccllurach near Cahergal is marked on the 1895 map. The other remains are not marked and, as far as 1 know, have never been deseribed.Hexry—Karly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 65 To the east of the gully with the three forts is a low system of hills which culminates over the sea in the summit of Slievagh (691 ft.) and in another less defined summit (1,190 ft.) above Castlequin. Seen from Caher- civeen, this massif appears as a very steep hill with a long, straight top. On that side most of the modern houses are built at a rather high level, very, much above the present road and the modern field fences run pretty high on the slope. The old road which passes immediately under Cahergal ran just below most of the houses and can still be traced in several places. From the nearly straight ridge overlooking Caherciveen to the summit of Slievagh above Dingle Bay stretches a slightly hollow plateau, whose surface is covered nearly everywhere with a thick layer of turf. There are a few modern houses at the edges and six farms, fairly recently abandoned, on the north slope of the ridge, but all the centre is an uninterrupted, uninhabited bog. ‘As could be expected, the archaeological remains of various periods are to be found only at the edges. There is a eairn just over the sea west of the summit of Slievagh. There is a curious line of standing stones, possibly megalithic, across a narrow, rocky hill over Coomcrone Harbour and there are several remains of ancient habitations on the outside slopes of the massif to the south-west and to the east. We shall examine these in detail. SOUTH-WEST SLOPES. There is a cellurach (No. 12) some distance to the north-east of Cahergal, adjoining the east side of a lane which crosses the modern road not far from Kimego school and a short distance above the old read (which is hardly discernible here). It is a featureless field of graves marked by rough stones enclosed hy a rather high bank. Below this bank, to the south-east, there ig a conspicuous standing stone, 4 ft. 8 in. in height and 3 ft. 5 in. wide. Beside it are two prostrate stones cach about 13 feet long. Whether this enclosure originally contained buildings is now impossible to decide. Further east, another lane roughly parallel to the first one leads up to a sort of recess in the mountain, where some modern houses are surrounded by good fields in an excellent southern aspect. From there several small valleys cut the ridge deeply and open up on the upland bog; they are really no more than narrow corridors, each with a stream flowing through it and steep rocky slopes on both sides. There are ruins at the entrance of the three most northerly of these valleys (No. 13). Starting from the north, the first is a rather complicated arrangement of slabs surrounded by a circle of slabs put on edge; it has a very definite entrance, marked by standing slabs, which opens on the path running through the valley. From this monument to the beginning of the valley and a little further beyond there is a line of standing stones which may be an old fence. It is hard to decide without an exeavation whether the structure itself is the ruin of a caim or of a house.66 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. A little lower down the slope there is a very ruined building which may have been a double beehive. At the entrance of the next valley there are the ruins of a round hut 15 ft. in diameter inside with walls 6 ft. wide lined by large upright stones and a door opening to the east bordered also by erect flags. SOUTH SLOPE. There seem to have been old houses on the slope of the hill facing Caherciveen, but there the modern farms are so high on the hill that these houses were included in the modern fields and they were generally destroyed in recent years as a result of the development of tillage. Tn 1946 I arrived only a few weeks after the destruction of some of them on the farm which is above Castlequin demesne. EAST SLOPES (No. 14). On the eastern slopes of the hill over the valley which opens to the north on Coonanna Harbour, there is a series of ruins above and below the highest modern fence. There is a very delapidated small stone fort with some traces of huts inside. Above it on the other side of the fence there is a small oval building, 7 ft. by 54 ft. inside with a door in the middle of the long side facing north. There is another similar structure some distance to the north of this one; it is 14 ft. by 9 ft. inside. Both of them are very ruined but the second has much flimsier walls than the first. e—Rurxs ox Kronurny Commons (No. 15). Bibliography. —O.S. maps : Kerry 69 E. (The ruins are not marked and, as far as T know, have never been described. I am glad to thank Mr, A, Farrington for telling me about this interesting group.) There is a complex group of buildings in a sort of deep bowl-shaped recess on the western slope of Knocknadober, above the harbour of Coonanna, ‘These buildings may be due a good deal to the industry of shepherds, but may include also older buildings. ‘The bottom of the depression is practically flat and a little stream flows through it, separating into two branches to enclose a fairly large island. The buildings are on this island, which is mostly covered with grass, and on both sides of it, including part of the heather-covered northern slope. Several of them are in a very bad state of preservation, One is quite dis- tinctly a cireular hut, 12 ft. in diameter, Shelters similar to those added by the shepherds to the buildings on Doulus Head exist in two of them: one is on the island; it has a central courtyard 7 ft. by 11 ft, inside, withHunny—Larly Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 67 two shelters opening into it (Fig. 6, b); they are both 6 ft. by 5 ft. inside; one of them is still covered by long, narrow flags laid parallel to each other and covered by some heather-turf. When I visited it in 1946, after a period of heavy rains, the interior was quite dry. 1g 2 ft a Fig. 6.—Huts on Killurly Commons. The other building with shelters (Fig. 6, a and Pl, XXII) is on the slope of the hill a little above the main group, Tt consists of a room 8 ft. by 10 ft. inside, built in fairly good masonry, slightly corbelled. It has a door to the west and at the other end there are three shelters side by side, built exactly like those on the island and opening into tho large room. They are about 8 ft. by 5 ft. and are covered with long flags parallel to each other. The walls of the main room are about 3 to 4 ft. thick and though their masonry is fairly good it ix not to be compared with that of the Cahergal or Church Island bechives, The masonry of the shelters, like that of all the buildings with shelters on the island, is very poor, stones of all sizes and shapes being used indiscriminately, with the result, that large holes appear here and there in the walls, On the whole, it seems likely that the hut on the northern slope is a modified beehive, whilst the other buildings would be, as well as the shelters added to this one, later constructions. The depression in which are the ruins is closed by a moraine through which the stream cuts its way, On the outer edge of the moraine are two abandoned farms each surrounded by huge dry stone walls with small domed rooms built inside them as hen- and dog-houscs. f-Kinioparnavy (No. 16). Bibliography. —0O.8. maps: Kerry 79 NE. —O.8. Letters, Kerry, 127, 128 (“ Killavarnoge ” or “ Killavarnaun ”).68 Proceedings of the Royal Trish Academy. There is a ruined oratory in the cemetery of Killobarnaun on the right of the road which goes towards Slievagh after crossing the bridge of Caher- civeen. Tt is built of horizontal layers of flat stones, The roof has collapsed but about & to 6 ft. of the walls are still standing above the present level of the ground and a further two or three fect are probably buried. ‘The oratory is oriented east-west and was certainly boat-shaped, as the corbelling is perfectly clearly seen inside. Outside, the walls are buttressed on the north and south sides by a wide step similar to that of the oratory of Church Island. The inside measurements are 16 ft. 5 in. by 13 ft., whieh, allowing for the sloping of the buried parts of the walls would give at floor level about the same length as that of the Church Island oratory and a greater width. The door is 2 ft. 2 in. wide at the bottom and 1 ft. 7 in. at the top and is covered by an enormous slab (Pl, XXI, 6). There is a small window in the east wall. The walls are 4 ft. 5 in. wide above the step. The Ordnance Survey Letters mention an altar “a few perches to the east of this little building ... at which stations are preformed". I eould find no traces of other buildings in the churchyard than a heap of stones, including some large flags, about 20 ft. from and directly opposite the door of the oratory on the west. SECOND SECTION: SOUTH OF CAHERCIVEEN (Parish of Caher). (From the estuary of the Valentia River to the Inny River.) (Pl, XLV.) General description. "This section is limited to the north by the estuary of the Valentia River, to the west by the valley of the Derreen River, to the south by the Inny River, and to the cast by a line passing some distance east of Rehil lake and then following the road to Caherciveen at the foot of Bentee Mountain. {t consists chiefly of two mountains, Bentee and Foileloch, joined by alow hill. To the cast and to the weat, at the foot of Bentec are large stretches of deep, marshy bogland which may never have been fit for human habitation during the last fifteen centuries or so. But the coast near Caherciveen is a mixture of rocks and good pastures and so are most of the slopes of Beentce and Foileloch. Between the two mountains there is a very deep bog, and turf is to be found fairly high up on the northern slope of Foilcloch, but only in patehes,Henry—Karly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 69 Monuments. A, There is no absolutely definite monastic site in this section. Sites which may be ecclesiastical or may have had an ecclesiastical association at some period (note the kil-, kill beginnings) are listed below: —an oratory (4) in Killoe, —a site with rectangalar and round buildings and a crass. bearing ogham stone in Killogrone. —a similar site, with rectangular buildings, the remains of a monumental tomb of unusual shape and a pillar bearing a rough incised cross, in Kilpeacan. —a site in the townland of Reenard with remains of beehives and a small stone cross (perhaps late). —a cellurach at the Glebe House, near Caherciveen, with remains of various buildings and a small stone cross (perhaps late). B. Round huts, isolated or in groups are to be found: —on the west, north and east slopes of Bentee (some in cireular enclosures or in forts). —on the north and the south slopes of Foilcloch. C. Stone houses. associated with old field fences are found: ——on the east and north slopes of Bentee (some in circular enclosures). —on the north slopes of Foilcloch, D. Shepherds have certainly modified several of the buildings on Foileloch and added to them. a—RUINS ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST. Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry 79. —O.8, Letters, Kerry, 126 (O'Donovan, 1841). CAHERCIVEEN, the fort which gave its name to the town, is probably the nearly levelled caher to the east of the town in the field behind the hospital (No. 1 on map of section). There are no distinct remains of habitation in it, It is marked on the Ordnance Survey map as having “caves”, ie. a souterrain,70 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. CELLURACH AT THE GLEBE HOUSE (in Garranebane td.) No. 2). This is & large, rectangular cellurach, between the railway and the sea. It is marked on the Ordnance Survey map with the indications: “ grave- yard”, ‘‘stone cross", “‘ cloghauns”’. It is extremely difficult to examine, as it is overgrown with every possible kind of thorny bush. There are some lines of standing slabs parallel to the enclosing wall, and many other slabs amongst the bushes: some of them may simply mark late interments. In the contre, there is a slightly raised surface, with some slabs, partly fallen. A small and rather crude cross (Pl. XX XV, a) stands in the centre of this raised. space. It is about 4 ft. high and cut out of a piece of slate. It is really quite impossible to date and may be fairly modern. Amongst the heap of stones where it stands are some pieces of white quartz. CELLURACH IN GARRANE TD. Just behind a farm which is at the first bend of the road from Caherciveen to Waterville and to the west of it, there is a roond enclosure marked on the Ordnance Survey map as “burial ground for children”, It is a small, round fort with no distinct remains inside the rampart. CELLURACH IN REENARD PD. (No. 3) (Fig. 1). Continuing from there on the road to Waterville, one comes about a mile further to a lane going towards the sea. Following it nearly as far as the sea and then crossing a field to the south of the lanc, one finds some remains which are marked on the Ordnance Survey map as “ burial ground for children ” and “ stone cross”. These ruins are in a large field which has a patch of rocks in the centre. East of the rocks and partly built on them are the ruins of two or three round huts adjoining each other; the wall of one of them is perfectly distinct in the grass, It is made of horizontal courses of stones and has a well-marked door. It is about 18 ft. in diameter and its wall is about 4 ft. thick. The other hut is more than 20 ft. in diameter and not as well preserved as the first; the wall between the two huts is 10 ft. thick and there are no traces of a connecting passage. There may have been a third hut partly built on the rock to the west of the two others. There are some traces of walls to the south-west of the huts. In the south-east corner of the field there is a cellurach with the usual amall tombs marked by pieces of stones of various shapes. A rough cross (Pl XXXVI, c), 4 ft. 10 in. in height, stands amongst them, a slab which is at a distance of 4 ft. 7 in. to the west of it may mark the other end of the same tomb. Such a cross is quite undatable, 6—Rurxs on Bente Mountain. Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry 79 E. ‘There are remains of old habitations practically all around Bentec. They are to be found only at » fairly high level, even where there are noHexry—Farly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Mouses. 71 modern fields on the slope, as over Caherciveen, and most of them are connected with a flat shelf of good dry land which exists in many places about half way up the hill. RUINED HUTS OVER CAHERCIVEEN, There are ruins of houses in two places immediately over Caherciveen and in another place some distance farther south. modern Fence - 3 - 2. e = ¢ @ cross. 2 < v ANS Yili, a 7 ME \ 19 2030 ft Fre. 7,—Cellurach im Reenard Townland,72 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Starting from the cast, the first site is very high up the mountain at the edge of a comparatively flat ledge above a sheer slope overlooking the hospital of Caherciveen (No. 4). There are two beehives there which are marked “cloghauns” on the Ordnance Survey map. One of them is about 18 ft. in diameter with the door quite well marked and a cupboard in the south wall (Pl. XXIII, }). As the cupboard is flush with the present level of the ground, two or three feet of the wall must be buried and at least three feet are standing above the ground. The walls are 4 ft. thick and show a marked corbelling. A little further down the slope near a well, there is another beehive, 7 ft. in diameter with walls 4 ft. thick. It is in a much more ruinous condition than the other but the corbelling is still perfeetly visible, About 9 ft. from its door, there is a sort of terrace made of large blocks of stone. The second site is not marked on the Ordnance Survey map. It is about half a mile from the first at the same level (No. 5). It is more or less above the post-office at Caherciveen and a steep path which starts between the houses some distance over the post-office passes very near it. It is on a wide ledge of the mountain, which has some good pastures and where traces of old fences are very numerous. Quite near the edge of this ledge, there is the ruin of a rectangular house about 6 ft, by @ ft. inside, whose walls, about 2 ft. thick, were lined by erect slabs (PL XXV, c). The door is well marked by two tall slabs and some of the rubble which filled the walls between the slabs is still in position. A few feet from it, on the slope of the mountain, there is a rather strange well, a sort of cave-like hollow bordered by enormous stones, It had practically no water when I saw it in June, 1947, but the weather was exceptionally dry. The little girl who showed it to me said that there was usually water in it, that it was “a sort of holy well” and that “a hermit used to live there and get his water from the well”. This statement of hers had obviously nothing to do in her mind with the presence of the ruined house, which she described as “a ring built by the fairies”, and it was certainly not influenced by it; so it may embody some local tradition, The third site is hardly half a mile from the second,! very high over the old road which skirts the mountain above the modern road from Caherciveen to Waterville (No. 6). It is marked ‘‘ cloghaun” on the Ordnance Survey map. There is a beehive on a grassy slope of the mountain amongst some rocks. It is 12} ft. in diameter, very well built of horizontal layers of stones, with a distinct corbelling. The roof has disappeared. Two large stones, which lie on the ground at the entrance, must have been the door-posts; the walls were about 3 to 4 ft. thick, but as the beehive is half buried in the slope on one side and in a ruinous condition on the other, measurements cannot be very accurate. There is 4 cupboard in the wall on the side of the slope and a little above the beehive on that side stands a sort of stone pillar 1 T was told, after concluding researches for this survey, that there are the ruins of 4 double beehive in an enclosure between No. 5 and No.Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 73 shaped very vaguely like @ cross. A slightly terraced curved path leads up to the door of the beehive, It can be traced further down across the field below, where it is marked by a sories of large standing stones—probably the remains of a fence. Just below the bechive, a curved wall parallel to the rock on which the beehive is built seems to be the ruin of a lamb shelter. SOUTH SLOPE OF BENTEB. To the south, the modern fields extend rather high on the slope of the mountain, Nevertheless, several forts have survived at a fairly low level. ‘Two of them, near the gap between Benteo and Foilcloch were destroyed recently during road making operations. In spite of repeated attempts I could not find another one which is indicated on the Ordnance Survey map as having cloghauns both inside and outside the rampart. A fourth, Gortlissaline, built in a very commanding position on the edge of a stream, has no visible remains of buildings inside. The only remains of real interest I saw in this part of the mountain are a cellurach in Letter townland and the ruins in Killoe. ‘The cellurach (No. 7) oceupies part of a small fort with rampart and entrance pillars fairly well preserved. The tombs are grouped in the western half of the fort; they are marked by the usual shapeless small stones; in the middle of them there is a slab higher and better fashioned than the others but devoid of pattern or cross. An ogham pillar stands on the edge of the rampart?’ There are no traces of buildings in this fort, ‘The remains in Killoe (No. 8) are just south of the road, at a place where, arriving perpendicularly to the front of @ house it turns abruptly to skirt round it. They are not marked on the Ordnance Survey map and I am indebted to Mr. Patrick O’Neill, of Caherciveen, for telling me about them. ‘The ruins appear to be those of an oratory (Pl, XXI, a). The south and west walls only have survived ; the west wall, which is 4 ft. 4 in. thick, is ended to the north by very well defined corner stones, though there is no trace of the north wall, A door with a stout stone lintel across it opens in the centre of this west wall, The south wall is also 4 ft. 4 in. thick and stands above a marshy slope. On the inside, there is a very definite indication of the south-east corner though any other trace of the east wall has disappeared. But on the outside the south wall goes on for some distance without any trace of a corner. It looks as if this oratory—if oratory it be—was partly included in the enclosing wall, which is most unusual, The building must have been about 15 ft. by 13 ft. inside. There are some indistinct traces of buildings to the north of this one. A stone font, which lies at present against the door, was found in the field to the west of the ruins, EAST SLOPES OF BENTEE MOUNTAIN. The ruins on this side seem to be concentrated around a slight depression in the side of the mountain, whose centre is occupied by a small modern 1 Macalister, Studies in Irish epigraphy, vol, 11, pp. 87-8; Corpus, vol. 1, p. 283,74 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. reservoir. In the immediate vicinity of the reservoir there are acveral forts and eircular enclosures all containing remains of buildings. All of them are at a slightly higher level than the old road which connects the farms half-way up the slope very much above the modern road. The most southern of these forts (No. 9) is immediately south of the reservoir, The enclosure is 63 ft, by 57 ft. inside with a rampart about 6 ft. wide, a deep fosse surrounding it and a second bank marked nearly all round. ‘The entrance is on the east side and there is & amall room immediately beside it on the inside of the rampart, similar to the room which occupies the same position in Leacanabuaile, though smaller (it is only 3 ft. by 5). All the northern part of the enclosure is occupied by the ruin of a rectangular house, possibly of much later date than the rampart, 37 ft. by 16 ft. inside with walls 4 ft. thick. It has traces of one or two doors in the south wall. There are no remains of buildings in the south part of the enclosure. There is another small fort (No. 10) to the north-east of the reserved it is 60 ft, in diameter inside with the ruin of a round stone hut, 18 ft. in diameter very near the west end of the enclosure. A souterrain seems to start from the south-west side of the hut. A little further, to the north of the reservoir, and nearer to the highest: modern fence, there is a large fort, about 150 ft. in diameter inside, with a very high rampart (No. 11). Though its surface shows traces of cultivation the ruins of three round huts can still be traced inside the enclosure. The only one which is in a fairly good state of preservation is 18 ft. in diameter inside. A little further along the old road, in the direction of Caherciveen, there is a cellurach on the west side of the road (No. 12), which is not marked on the Ordnance Survey map. It is surrounded by a rectangular wall; the enclosed surface is about 32 ft. by 42 ft. and is covered by the usual numerous small graves. Ib seems probable that it occupies what was originally a habitation site, as I found a fragment of a sandstone quern amongst the graves (Pl, XXVII, d). This quern appears to have been about I ft. 5 in, in diameter. Two stones which stand 8 ft. apart in the northern part of the cellurach may be the remains of a door, There is # well immediately below the cellurach. ¢—RUINS ON THE NORTHERN SLOPES OF ForLeLocH Mountain. Bibliography. —O.8, maps : Kerry, 80 SW and 89 NW (Tds. of Killogrone and Canburrin), —not mentioned in the 0.9. Letlers. For the eellurach of Killogrone, see : —Proc, R.L.A,, vol. 15 (1870-79), p. 157 (Graves). —Brash, The Ogam inscribed Monuments of the Gaedhill, 1875, p. 239. Macalister, Studies, vol. 11 (1902), p. 2.Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 15 —Kerry Arch. Mag., vol. 1 (1908-12), p. 185 (W. J. and M. J. Delap, “ Three old Kerry burial grounds”). —J.B.S.A1., W912, p. 238 (H. 8. Crawford, “ List”). —Macalister, Corpus, vol. 1 (1945), p. 227. —J.RS.AT., 1953, p. 1 ff. (A. T. Lucas, “ The horizontal Mill in Ireland”), Some of the other ruins, near Lough Rehil or below it, are roughly indicated on the 0.8. map of 1895 as ‘‘ shoepfolds ” but, as far ag T know, they have never been described. Foilcloch and Bentee Mountains are jomed to each other by a low hill over which the road skirting Bentes passes through a slight gap. Two valleys start on each side of that hill. One opens to the west towards the sea; in it are the forts on the south side of Bentee already described and the oratory of Killoe. The other valley, rather deep and narrow at first, opens widely after a mile or so, towards the north-east, into the marshy expanse of the valley ‘of the Carhan River. The road coming from the gap passes on the north side of the valley at the foot of Benteo. Thero is a farm immediately after the gap to the south of the road. A little further below there are modern farms on the north side of the valley amongst fields and meadows. Tho bottom of the valley is occupied by a deposit of turf several metres thick lying on a rocky substratum, which is exposed in the bed of the stream as well as in a few places where the turf has been cut recently. The south side of the valley (the northern slopes of Foilcloch) is completely devoid of any signs of modern human activity—except for a few stone fences running straight up the slope of the mountain—and the modern farms appear only a little further, under Knockavahaun Mountain (beyond the limits of this survey). The deserted slope shows many signs of ancient occupation, either above the level of the turf, or in rocky patches of the slope where the turf has not spread. They are probably of very varied dates. CELLURACH IN KILLOGRONE TD. (No. 13; Fig. 8). Just after passing the gap coming from the west, there are on the left of the road (to the north of it), a gallaun, and some distance further up, a dolmen. There is also an ogham stone. Standing in a field by the side of the road, there is a small pillar, 4 ft. 6 in. high, with an ogham inscription. The cellurach which gives its name to the townland of Killogrone is to the south of the road and very much below it. The enclosure is about 120 ft. by 150 ft. and is divided into two sections by a curved wall. All the distinct remains of buildings are in the south part. Practically in the centre of the enclosure stands a stone pillar bearing an ogham inscription and a small incised cross. The pillar is surrounded by graves marked by small stones. 3 Macalister, Corpus, p. 223 (Canburrin, No, 229).16 Proceedings of the Royal Trisk Academy. a 10,20 30 feHenrx—Harly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 77 Some of the buildings in the enelosure are round and others are rectangular. There seems to have been two round or oval huts; it is impossible to know whether they had corbelled roofa; the only one whose ruins are fairly distinct is about 15 ft. by 10 ft. inside and is made of very large blocks of sandstone; its walls arc 5 to 6 ft. thick. The other circular building which is in the wall, to the west, is very badly preserved. The other buildings are rectangular but not of the boat-shaped, corbelled type. There are two large constructions, one to the cast of the pillar, the other to the west of it. That to the east is 30 ft. by 16 ft. inside, with walls 2 to 3 ft. thick, That to the west is 21 ft. by 15 ft. inside, with walls 3 ft. thick. There may have been buildings in the northern part of the enclosure but they have left only shapeless traces. There is also a small building included in the wall of the enclosure, to the north-east; it is only 2 ft. by 3 ft. inside, opens on the outside of the enclosure and may be a late alteration (it is indicated as “sheepfold” on the 1895 map). The only other feature of interest inside the enclosure is a row of erect slabs a short distance from the oval hut, which may be the edge of a slightly raised terrace. ‘Two points in this description need discussing, the ogham pillar and the mill. The ogham pillar. The pillar is a slender piece of slate about 7 ft. in height. It has had various adventures which I tried to reconstruct and which seem to be as follows : In 1868, Graves was in Caherciveen. Having been told of a “ giant's grave in a killeon”, he visited Killogrone. His description is very valuable, as it is the only indication we have of the original state of the tomb: “at the head of what looked like a long grave stood . & tall slender stone bearing a rudely incised Greek cross; at the foot a much smaller stone with an elaborate cross and a dove engraved upon it in @ very peculiar manner ”. A few years later Brash saw the pillar in Cahereiveen, as it had been re- moved to the Christian Brothers’ school, He gives more or less the general de- scription of the tomb given by Graves, but adds that the pillar stood originally “the cross end upwards" and gives 3 ft. as the height of the second stone, Brother Dineen, Superior of the Christian Brothers’ Monastery in Caherciveen, kindly gave me what information he had been able to gather from old diaries of the school about the transfer: shortly after the opening of the school in 1867 a party of senior pupils of the school went to Killogrone and, as a result of their visit, the pillar was removed and planted in the garden of the monastery, where it stood for some time. This appears to have been very shortly after Graves’ visit, It seems that the Office of Public Works objected to the removal and the stone was brought back. PROC. K.LA., VOL. 58, SECT. C. [a]3 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1902, Macalister tried to see the pillar in Caherciveen but the school was closed for the holidays. He does not scem to have visited the killeen and it may be that the pillar had already been sent back. About 1908-10, the Misses Delap saw the pillar in the killeen, but planted upside down (with the cross at the base) and were told that it had been taken away about forty years previously, together with the other stone, which they describe as another ogham stone and that “they were beth removed and sent to Dublin by the Prineipal of the Christian Brothers’ establishment in Caherciveen. The day after their removal, several cattle on the land died mysteriously and so great an outcry was raised by the neighbouring farmers that one of the stones was brought back and restored to the original site, but upside down, which accounts for the cross being half buried in the ground.” For once, H. 8. Crawford has erred completely, as, in his “* List ’ of 1912, he gives the location of the stones as at the Christian Brothers (following Brash, his only reference). In his Corpus of 1945, Macalister says that the stone was moved to Caherciveen in the early seventies but brought back afterwards. His only reference is Graves, but he must have known from Brash at the time of his earlier visit that the stone had been moved to Caherciveen. From what we have seen, little weight is to be given to his statement that “this is evidently a very late example of the use of ogham but not necessarily Christian, as the cross is cut on the base of the stone—a sure sign of late tampering ”. The slab which was at the other end of the grave seems to have disappeared. It was apparently never brought to Caherciveen. Mr. Patrick O*Neill, who tried to find it amongst the stones lying about in Killogrone, heard an old woman describing it and got her to make a rough sketch of it. It seems to have had a decoration more or less similar to that of the pillar at Kil- labuonia (PI. XXXIIT, 6) : a cross with arms ending in a sort of outstretched herring-bone pattern. The mill. This very interesting ruin has been described by Brash in the most amusing way as “a curious structure somewhat of the clochaun type . . The walls converge towards the top and probably finished like the oratory of Gallarus but of a much ruder type. The holed slab at the end seems quite incongruous with the rest of the structure”. He mentions in this connection holed dolmens, etc. The reality is much more practical and it was indicated already quite correctly by the Misses Delap that the structure was an old mill, of which they give plan and section. Mr. A. T. Lucas, Director of the National Museum, has studied this mill in detail so that a brief description of it suffice. It consists essentially of a square block of dry stone masonry hollowed in the centre by what could indeed easily be mistaken for a circular hut with two opposite doors. A large slab with a round perforation, which is now slightly displaced, was lying across the top of this circular hollow,Hexay—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 79 the shaft connecting the wheel with the grinding stone passed through the hole in the stone. ‘The water of the stream entered by a trough supported by a slab through one of the “doors ” setting the wheel (and consequently the grinding-stone) in motion, and ran out by the other “door”. It is a typical horizontal mill of a type still in current use in Scandinavia and the Balkans, The ruin of the mill haying blocked its path, the stream has now sunk into the ground and is only traceable by a very marshy pateh existing between the mill and the enclosure. REMAINS OF HOUSES ON THE SLOPES OF FOILCLOCH MOUNTAIN (Killogrone and Canburrin tds.), To find the other ruins, the best way is to take the path which starts from a shed some distance above the modern farm house of Killogrone and goes in the direction of Lough Rehil. Not very far from the farm there are the remains of two round huts, probably of th beehive type, at some distance from each other along the path (No. 13). ‘They ate very well built in horizontal courses of flat stones and are about 10 to 12 ft, in diameter, Reaching the stream which comes down from Lough Rehil a little below the lake, one finds on the eastern bank a compact group of dry-stone erections (No. 14). [t seems that there was originally a large cairn at this spot. There are still two small dolmens, respectively 5 and 6 ft, long and traces of others, much tumbled down and quite a lot of loose stones are lying about around them. ‘The rest of the stones was probably used in building a large cattle-pen on the edge of the cliff-like bank of the stream and two round huts whose tuing are about 12 yards to the south-east of the dolmens. One is 8 ft. and the other 7 ft. in diameter. A-standing stone to the north-east of the dolmena is connected with them by a line of erect stones which may be an old fenee. In the large reetangle which forms the southern half of Canburrin town- land there are several ruins of habitations at different levels on tho slope. ‘Two groups, which I shall call Group I and Group II are high up on the slope at a level where there is no real turf, only some heather-turf; another (Group ITI) is just below Group I on the slope outside the zone of thick heather growth. Group IV is low down in the valley, at about the same level as Killogrone, Tn addition there are in some places traces of round enclosures of various sizes and of old fences. Group I (No. 15) is at a level slightly higher than the lake, in a very rocky patch covered with tall heather. It consists of a compact cluster of four huts, traces of others sometimes hardly distinguishable in the heather, and a two-roomed house in a large rectangular enclosure. The four huts (Fig. 9) are close to each other at a distance varying between two and ten feet; they are well built of large blocks of red sand- stone and are either roughly rectangular or more or less pear-shaped inside. They are small—9 ft, by 7 ft, and 7 ft. by 5 ft. for those which can be measured—and their walls are thick, 3 or 4 ft. on an average. Two of them [e2]80 Proceedings of the Royal Trish Academy, are very collapsed and are full of fallen slabs, which make inspection difficult, One is in a fairly good state of preservation, with its door well marked and walls showing traces of corbelling. The enclosure, which is roughly square, is to the east of this group and at a short distance from it, The hut is nearly in the centre of it, One of its rooms, which is 6 ft. by 7 inside, is well preserved, with the base of the walls partly lined by erect slabs. A more or less oval room is adjacent. to this one; it is 8 ft. by 5}, with very distinct traces of corbelling and a half blocked opening at ground level, which may be either a cupboard or the entrance of a souterrain. A curved wall jutting out of this is probably no more than a small shoep-pen. 20 Fie. 9—North slope of Foilcloch Mountain, Group 1. Tn other parts of the enclosure and also in several places outside it below the four beehive huts, there are traces of circular huts half buried in the heather turf. Group II. Going due cast from the enclosure and keeping on the same level of the mountain, one comes after walking about 80 yards, to a rather conspicuous pointed rock. Immediately below it is a circle of very large blocks of stones, 8 ft. by 7 ft. internally. Some of the blocks are standing, others are prostrate on the ground. Hardly 30 yards below this is « group of ruins on a flat ledge of the mountain (No. 16), The main building is a rectangular houso, 10 ft. by 12 ft inside, with walls 3 to 4 ft. thick and a door which is not in the middle of the length of the wall and is marked by upright stones. ‘This house is partly built of enormous, roughly dressed pieces of rock and partly, on the north side specially, of horizontal courses held up by upright slabs. There are on the same terrace other ruins which appear to be those of three or four small, round huts; as far as it is possible to measure them, they seem to be about 6 ft. in diameter,Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 81 Growp LIT (No. 17) is about 300 yards below Group I. It is surrounded by remains of claborate field fences which include enormous blocks of stone planted vertically (Fig. 10). The ruins of houses are all grouped. together. ‘They consist of & square hut built of very large erect slabs, a large, round hut and ruins of smaller huts and sheep-shelters. There is no doubt that shepherds have interfered with older buildings, possibly of various dates, and some of them may have been defaced beyond recognition. Also it is very difficult to decide whether one of the buildings is a dolmen or simply a dolmen-like sheep-shelter, ¢20GBEEO OQ of Be wer OO a oF CZ NY Beaaaagboase fate 0 N S 10. 20 ft Fie, 10.—North slope of Foileloch Mountain, Groyp IIL. ‘The rectangular and round huts are the only two buildings which, though severely interfered with, have kept recognisable features. The rectangwar hut ia built of very large erect sandstone flags. The82 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. inside space is 11 ft. by 7} ft. It is difficult to judge of the original thickness of the walls, as nearly all the small stones which filled them have been removed. The shepherds have built a little lamb-shelter of the usual type covered with large slabs, which occupies half of the inside space of the house. The round hut is 12 or 13 ft. in diameter; its walls are lined with very large erect slabs and the entrance is still recognisable. But it has certainly been used as a shcep-pen and has suffered considerably as a result, What is left of the walls is, in inost places, not much more than 2 ft. thick but much wider foundations can be traced at ground level. Group 1V (No. 18) is a group of ruins on both sides of the fence which runs east of the stream coming from Lough Rehil. The fence is obviously later than the ruins and has been built regardless of their existence, ‘The ruins consist of several round enclosures built of loose stones and of remains of old fences. They may be no more than shepherds shelters and pounds, but they are a good deal more than a century old if—as is obvious—they are older than the fence which existed already at the time of the 1842 survey. d—Krrracan (No. 19; Fig. 11), Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 88 NE. —not mentioned in the’ 0.8. Letlers. ~Kerry Arch. Mag., vol, T (1908-12), p. 188 (W. J. and M. J. Delap “ ‘Three old Kerry burial grounds”). The large enclosure called Kilpeacan is in Aghatubrid townland, on a spur of Foilcloch Mountain, or more exactly of Aghatubrid Mountain, which is its continuation to the west, The enclosure is rectangular, about 140 by 100 ft. (The Misses Delap give 174 by 117, which is definitely too much), It has the remains of an entrance with two parallel rows of standing stones, one of thom 6 ft. high, This resembles closely the doorways of many small forts in that neigh- bourhood and probably represents the ruins of a covered passage. This entrance is in the cast wall. Directly opposite, near the west wall, thero is a gallaun, but no other indication of the existence of a second entrance passage. About the middle of the length of the enclosure but nearer to the south wall than to the north wall, there is a square space about 10 ft, by 12 ft., delimited by very large slabs of sandstone standing on edge (PL. 34). Some have nearly fallen down and a few have obviously been borrowed to sorve as headstones for some of the tombs of the cellurach which surrounds this square space. One of the fallen slabs has a large regular, round hole, 4 in. in diameter pierced right through it (Pl. XXXIV), A slab with a hole I in, in diameter lies on the ground inside the structure. On the west side of thisHexry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stene Houses. 8384 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. structure and nearly against its north-west corner, there is @ tall and slender pillar, 9 ft. high, which has a Latin cross erudely incised on its west face (Pl. XXXIV). ‘On each side of the pillar and some distance from it there are remains of buildings: on the west side a rectangular house, 30 ft. by 17 ft. inside with walls 3} ft. thick. To the east there seem to be two rectangular structures side by side, one about 30 ft. by 12 ft, with a partition across its length, the other the same length, but 16 ft. wide with a door clearly marked by two little standing slabs. These seem to have been the only buildings inside the enclosure. The north part of it is occupied by rocks which form a sort of small terraco extending the whole length of the enclosure. To the south of the enclosure the ground falls so stecply as nearly to form a small cliff, Fifty yards below the enclosure there is a slight terrace where a spring of water issues at the foot of the cliff; beside it is a very well- built stone hut in a perfect state of preservation (Pl. XXVIII, 6), its back formed by the hollowed rock and its front being of excellent dry stone masonry made of small, flat stones, carefully laid in horizontal courses, A little further down the slope, on both sides of a stone fence, there are some very large stones, which may be the remains either of a megalith or of & hut, About hundred yards west of the enclosure, on the last spur of the hill, ean be seen the remains of a megalith. e—Rvrns ON THE souTH sLopE ov Foitetocy Mountain, gast o¥ KiLPEacan. (Townlands of Aghatubrid and Cloghanecarhan.) Bibliography. —O.8, maps : Kerry, 88 NE and 89 NW (1895 ed.). ‘The 1895 map has quite a number of indications of “ sheep-folds " on the steep slope of the mountain east of Kilpeacan (the south side of the Aghatubrid-Foilcloch Mountains). Some are truly rather shepeless sheep- folds, but in two places they indicate ruins which are certainly of a very different nature, There is a group of ruins (No. 20) on both sides of the townland boundary mainly on the Aghatubrid side of it. It consists of the ruin of a round hut, 16 ft. in diameter inside, partly buried in the slope to the east, with a wall 6 tt. thick lined in a few places by very large erect stones, some buttressing it on the south west side (the side of the downward slope). On the south- easi side of the hut starts a very ruined retaining wall, slightly curved. Forty feet to the east of the hut, there is a little square building, 11 ft. by IL ft, inside, with a door to the east and walls about 2 ft, Gin. in thickness, It seems to be built at a much more superficial level than the half buried hutHenry—arly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 85 and to be more recent. On the Cloghanecarhan side of the townland boundary, there are more walls and the ground seems to have been terraced here and there. ‘A good deal further east, in the townland of Cloghanecarhan, some distance above a lane which branches from the road, there is the ruin of another hut (No. 21). It appears from a distance as a rather conspicuous heap of stones, which seems to have been held up on its eastern side by some large stones (Fig. 12). Tho ruin of a bechive is embedded in the centre of Fid. 12,—Ruin of hut in the townland of Cloghanccarhan. the mound. The bechive is half filled with the stones fallen from the roof, but the walls can be seen plainly and are distinctly corbelled, It is 17 ft. 5 in. wide at the top and there is at least 6 ft. of walls still standing, so that the diameter at floor level must be at least 20 ft. The kerb on the east side is 42 to 45 ft. from the edge of the beehive wall and it is not impossible that that space may contain another collapsed beehive. There seem to be the opening of a souterrain or of an entrance passage on that side. To the8E Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. south-west, a very well-preserved souterrain opens in the face of the mound. The opening is 3 ft. high, 3 ft. wide at the bottom and only 1 ft. 7 in. under the covering flag, as the corbelling is very pronounced. It is clear of rubble for a length of at least 10 ft., going in a direction which is not directly towards the beehive. At the foot of the mountain, south of the road, there is a fort, Keeldarragh, which deserves detailed study. Further south, on the slope of a low hill, there is a fort called Lissaphuea. It is surrounded by a rampart and a fosse and is about 55 ft. in diameter inside. It has no distinct remains of habitation, f--Kuerparraon (No. 22). Bibliography. —0.8, maps : Kerry, 89 NW. —J.RS.A.1., 1909, p. 164 (Lynch and Macalister, ‘‘ Ogham stone in Cloghane- Carhan”’), —J.RSAL., 1912, p. 238 (H. 8. Crawford, “ List”). Macalister, Corpus, vol. I, p. 224. Lynch gives the name of this fort as Keeldarragh. It is just beside the road, in a flat, rocky field, beside a stream and opposite to a modern house built on the other side of the road. It is 90 ft. by 63 ft. inside and contains some ruined buildings. The rampart is still very well marked on the north side but on the south side a great many of the stones have been taken away by the former owner ‘of the field to build the house on the other side of the road. According +o local tradition, it used to stand to a great height. Two entrance passages are still well marked. One, to the west, has six standing pillars and a lintel fallen between them. The other, to the east, has three standing pillars, one of which bears an oghem inscription of rather difficult reading (it may include the name of Mac Carthin, interesting for its similarity with the name of the townland). A ruined hut, near the south-west wall, is 15 ft. in diameter inside, with walls 4} ft. thick. A souterrain gocs from this hut to the rampart and seems to open in its outside face, A slightly raised surface in the northern part of the fort is surrounded by slabs standing on edge. Another souterrain seems to have led to it, ‘A small slab, 18 in. by 11 in., with a cross deeply incised on its surface, was found in this part of the fort (Pl. XXIX). It lies at present, face downwards, in the south-east corner of the fort.Hexry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 87 THIRD SECTION: VALENTIA ISLAND. (Parish of Valentia.) (Pl. XLVI) General description. Valentia! is a long and narrow island nearly 6 miles long, oriented WSW-ENE and separated from the mainland to the south and east by narrow channels. [t has a backbone of rocky hills and falls into the Atlantic by high cliffs on the north coast and at the western head, All the ground to the south of the hills is fairly good soil and rises gently from the coast. ‘The most northerly of the two roads running all the length of the island passes nearly horizontally half way up the hill from Glanleam to Bray Head through a terrace of rocky pastures where traces of ancient human habitation are very numerous, To the north-west of the hamlet of Coole, there is an extensive patch of bog stretching from the road to the northern cliffs, which, strangely enough, shows also some traces of ancient human occupation. In dealing with Valentia as well as with many parts of the same district it is well to remember that their eeonomie value in past centuries cannot be estimated in modern terms. Smith, in the middle of the eighteenth century, says: “the island is a fertile tract, and esteemed the granary of the country 2 Monuments. A—Here again, as in the preceding section, there is no perfectly definite and well-oriented oratory, though a ruined building in the cellurach of Feaghmaan may perhaps have been one, The remains which have probably an ecclesiastical character can be listed as follows : —a site called Kildrenagh (Td. of Coole E.) with a pillar bearing an incised cross and an ogham inscription, a stone tomb, beehives and rectangular buildings, —stone crosses near St. Brendan's well (td. of Coarha beg). —a atone cross in Emlagh (Td. of Coarha More). B and C—There is a conspicuous group of houses on Bray Head, which does not seem to be monastic. It includes a beehive and several rectangular houses. 1 According to O'Conor (G.8. Letters, p. 361) the original name of the island was Oilean Daishhfo {the island of the ogkwsodjs the naane 1s found already in the Boole of Lismore. On the name and all its variations in the texts sce: T. J. Westropp in J.R.S.AT., 1912, pp, 200 ff. Mr. Hayward (The Kingdom of Kerry, p. 181) proposes: Oilean Bhoil Inse (the island of tho flat ‘lands of tha river}; on ‘' Beilinche ” which appears on the Carew maps (Lambeth Library), see: M. A. Hinkson, Selections from Old Kerry Reeords, See, Series (1874), p. 255. Smith, The Anciont und Present State of the County of Kerry (1756), p. 106.88 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. General bibliography. —0.8. maps : Kerry 78, 79, 87, 88. —O.8. Letters, Kerry, 379-383 (Thomas O'Connor, 1841). —J.RS.A.1., 1912, pp. 285 £. (LT. J. Westropp, “ Notes on the promontory forts and similar structures in Co. Kerry”, part V). quoted as: Westropp. —Kerry Arch. Mag., vol. I (1908-12), p. 403 QL J. Delap, “ Some holy wells in Valentia and Portmagee”) quoted as: Delap. a—RUINS ON THE TERRACE ALONG THE NORTH ROAD, The road which runs half way up the hill is probably a very old one, having regard to its close proximity to remains of all periods. To the south of it stand, at distances of a few hundred yards of each other, several large gallouns. One of them, in the hamlet of Coole, bears an ogham inscription? Beside this gallaun are two small forts. There are two others in Tinnies Upper, above the road, with very indistinct remains of buildings and one or two souterrains, The two cellurachs, probably of ecclesiastical origin, of Kildrenagh and Feaghmaan are on either sides of the Tinnies forts, practically along the road. Above the Kildrenagh cellurach, there is a small dolmen in very good condition. KiLDRENAGH (No. 1 on the map of the section; Fig. 13). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 78 SE (‘Kildrenagh burial ground for children”), —Westropp, p. 296 (Killadreenagh). —Kerry Arch. Mag., vol. (1908-12), p. 191 (W. J. and M. J. Delap, “ Three olé Kerry burial grounds”). J.RSAS., 1912, p. 288 (Crawford, “ List”). —Macalister, Corpus, vol. I, p. 224, fig., p. 225 (Killenadreona). The cellurach is surrounded by sn irregular enclosure which was probably originally oval and has been modified by its inclusion in modern field fences. Tt measures about 150 ft. by 125 ft. In the southern part of the enclosure stands a stone pillar, 6 ft. high, which has a Latin cross cut on its west side (Pl. XXXVI, d). It has also an ogham inscription. Around this is the usual field of small graves, which have here the remarkable feature of radiating from the pillar instead of being oriented east-west? ‘There are the remains of three beehives in the enclosure, one at some distance from the pillar on each side of it and another to the north-west of it. A fourth has been indicated immediately north of the pillar by the Misses Delap, but I only found there a very ruined wall, which looked to me 1 Macalister, Corpus, vol. I, p. 226. A similar arrangers intel at Tinaanggaet (Co, armegh), See: SRSA 1857, pp. 315 ff. (G. H. Reade, “ The pillarstone of KilnasaggartHenry—Kurly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 89 N Pa pet 3 Yy YW) Fra. 13.—Kildrenagh.90 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. like the rounded corner of a rectangular building. The beehives seem to have been about 11 to 12 ft. in diameter inside, with walls about 4 ft. thick. ‘That in the south-west corner is the best preserved and has a distinct corbelling. There are, in the north part of the enclosure, where the cellurach proper does not extend, the remains of two small reetangular buildings, one about 12 ft. by 13 ft. inside, with walls 3 ft. thick. The other, not too distinct, seems to be about 15 ft. by 12 ft. At a short distance from two of its walls are several erect slabs and there are more large erect slabs to the south of it, but it seems impossible to trace the plan of any building to which they may have belonged. The last feature of interest in this site is a tomb to the north of the pillar and about 50 ft. from it. [t is 10 ft. by 7 ft. Its limits are marked by erect slabs now deeply sunk into the ground. The corners are joined by grooved stones, similar to those of the tomb on Church Istand (Beginish). At least, the Misses Delap seem to have seen all four corner stones, and as they are generally accurate in their statements, one may assume that they all exist or existed. I could only find two but the tomb is very overgrown, and without oxcavation it would not be possible at present to ascertain the real state of things. CELLURACH IN FEAGHMAAN WEST (No. 2; Fig. 14). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 78 SE (“burial ground”), —Mentioned by Westropp and Delap. This cellurach is surrounded by a ruined rampart about 90° ft. in diameter. There are some entrance pillars, partly collapsed, to the north- east of the rampart and two standing stones exactly opposite on the south- west side, Beside these two standing stones are the very ruined remains of a round hut, which seems to have been 6 or 7 ft. in diameter inside, All the centre of the enclosure is oceupied by loose stones and some graves, The eastern part has a complicated arrangement of slabs which may be, in part at least, the remains of buildings. There is a line of erect slabs, 20 ft. in length, which runs exactly north-south. Between this and the remains of the entranee are some very long, deeply buried flags standing on edge, some facing north-south, others east-west. Immediately south of these are more slabs which seem to have been the facings of the walls of a small building 9 ft. by 7 ft. inside with walls 34 ft. thick, oriented east- west. In shape and orientation it is very similar to an oratory, but the position of the door is doubtful and the construction is too ruinous to allow definite conclusion (PI. XXV, 6). A stream runs immediately to the east of the enclosure.Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 91 b—ReEMAINS IN THE BOG AND ALONG THE CLIFFS NORTH OF COOLE. The coast to the north of Coole has traces of habitation in several places. ‘There is a promontory fort, Dunroe, with the very ruined remains of a double beehive. There may have been other forts. Westropp mentions Dun- dagallaun, but it is now no more than a needle of rock and unless the sea has taken away a good deal of the cliff, which is possible, it is hardly likely ever to have been inhabited. There are also some very indistinct remains of what scems to have been a construction, including erect slabs near a burnt down modern house, which stands in the middle of the bog immediately south of Dundagallaun, Tn addition to this, there are stone crosses in two places in the bog: 30 Fro. 1d.--(ellurach in Feaghmaan West. See tt92 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, CROSSES AT ST. BRENDAN’S WELL (No. 3; Pl. 35). Bibliography. 0.8, maps : Kerry, 87 NE (not marked on the 1842 od.; on 1895 ed.: ““Lobar Olla Brenainn ”, “graves”, ‘stone crosses, “ penitential stations ”). —Delap, p. 405. —Westropp, p. 301, ‘The well of St. Brendan is at the end of a Jane which goes straight north from the main road. It is on the edge of the bog and very near the cliffs. It is connected with a legend of St. Brendan coming to Valentia from the Dingle promontory or the Blaskets and entering the island by scaling the cliff near the well. There are certainly one or two ereeks in this part of the coast where it would be possible to land and then climb up from the sea. Beside a holy well of the usual type, surmounted by a modern slate cross, are two crosses deeply sunk in the ground, one 2 ft. and the other 2 ft. 7 in. in width (it is impossible to ascertain their heights). (Pl. XXXV, 4, f.) To the east of the well is a fence from which protrude some erect slabs. On the other side of it is a knoll, about 60 ft. across, which may be a natural outcrop of rock, At the top of it stands a large pillar, 5 ft. 2 in. in height, roughly fashioned into the shape of a cross and with a cross scratched on its surface (Pl. XXXV, d). There are some erect slabs to the east of the knoll and, about thirty feet away, the ruins of a dolmen. CROSS IN EMLAGH (OR IMLAGH) (No. 4). Bibliography. —O.S. maps : Kerry, 78 SE. —Delap, p. 410. —Weatropp, p. 301. ‘To the west of a lane which goes from the main road to the cliffs is a large slate cross which has an engraved design of saltires at the crossing of the arms on each side (PI. XXXVI, 5). Beside it is a large gallaun. From the indications given by Westropp and the Misses Delap, it seems that there were originally two galleuns. On the other hand, the local tradition of which they do not seem aware, is that the cross was found in the bog and that it was planted upside down, by mistake, where it now stands, This would certainly explain its strange proportions. There is also a tradition, which they mention, that a bronze sword was found near the spot where the cross stands at present. ‘The situation of this cross in the middle of a deep, marshy bog, is certainly very strange and difficult to explain.Henry—Early Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 93 ¢—Remains on Bray Heap (No. 5; Fig. 15). Bibliography. —O.S. maps: Kerry, 87 N (1895 ed., “‘ sheepfolda”). —Weatropp, p. 298. On the south slope of Bray Head, which is covered with grass, there is @ group of rather unusual houses connected with old fences and very faint traces of tillage. = NR ._. : UW . i vr ‘RR ! ANY SS EQ \F I, Fid, 15.—Buins on Bray Head; a, Kiln; 6, House A; c, House C. ‘Two of the houses (A and C of Westropp) are built very nearly on the same plan. They are rectangular, both 18 ft. by 16 ft. inside, with walls 6 to 7 ft. thick which are built of horizontal layers of large flat stones very PROC. BLA, VOL. 58, SECT. C, [a]oF Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. carefully eut and fitted and distinctly corbelled. On the whole, the appear- ance of their walls bears a strong resemblance with those of Temple Cashel (see below, p. 106). They have a door with an enormous lintel in their east wall and a cupboard in the north wall. The door of house A (Pl. XX), which is well preserved, has on its inside face two protruding stones obvioysly the fittings of the wooden frame of the door. In the north wall of house A there are two decorated stones (Pl. XLII) : one, 13 in, across with four small circles, the other, 1 ft. seross, with three concentric circles. Both designs are punched in tho surface of the stone and are perfectly distinot. Both houses have, on the south side a very ruined addition at a lower level than the main building. In both cases, a low door (Pl. XX), probably 3 ft. high above the original floor level, opens in the south wall of the house, This door is continued, outside the wall of the house, by a flue covered with slabs which, in the case of House C turns at right angles along the wall and in the ease of House A continues in a nearly straight line. In both cases, the natural slope of the hill has been used to give a sharp incline to the floor of the flue. It is not very clear in the case of House C whether the flue was included in a room, whilst this is obvious in the case of House A (Fig. 15). These subsidary constructions can perhaps be better understood if com- pared with a small structure (Fig. 15, a) which is at some distance lower down than the houses and nearly on the edge of the cliff (Westropp does not seem to have seen it), This is obviously a drying kiln: it consists of a sort of corridor turning at right angle which is still partly covered with horizontal slabs. Inside the block of dry stone masonry which it skirts, there is a sort of cireular pit in the shape of an inverted cone connected at its top with the corridor. Mr, A. T. Lucas, who examined this structure and kindly gave me his opinion about it, considers it as a drying kiln in which the heat of a fire passed “through the flue on the lintels of which sheaves of corn (or the ears) would have been spread to dry. The heat would pass through the rectangular structure which may have been covered with a hurdle, on top of which further corn would be dried. The whole drying area must have been roofed in some fashion to protect the drying corn from the weather”. Mr. Lucas thinks that the circular pit is the place where the fire was lit,) but it may just as well have been used to dry a small quantity of corn on a hurdle, the fire being lit in the main passage. In any case, this structure explains pretty clearly the use of the adjuncts to Houses A and C: they must have been similar arrangements with the additional use of the heat at the end of the passage, as a heating system for the main building where corn was probably stacked after having boon dried on the slabs of the flue. Houses B and D are rectangular but they aro both very ruined and not easy to study. B is about the same size as houses A and C and D measures about 19 ft, by 15 ft. Both, instead of being built only in horizontal courses 1 He found some charcoal in it.Henry—Harly Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 95 like the others, have the lower part of their walls lined by upright slabs. D seems to have an_inside partition. E is a beehive, 13 ft. 6 in. in diameter inside. It has a cupboard in the wall and there may have been another room adjoining the existing one to the south-west of it. A short distance east of the fence which passes near the kiln, there is 4 very ruined hut built of erect slabs. All the slope around the huts shows distinet traces of tillage. Westropp speaks of a gallaun and lines of slabs, but these are only old fences of the same type as those on Doulus Head, but enclosing much wider areas; one starts from House C, another goes from House C to House D and others can be traced not only immediately around the houses but also on many parts of the Head. d—OTHER REMAINS. ‘There are several other forts on Valentia, especially between the two roads. Some have been destroyed recently to clear the ground for tillage. In the townland of Ballymanagh, little below the cross-roads (where St. John’s fire is usually lit) there was a group of stone huts near a spring. They were cleared away some years ago. The name of the townland suggests this may have been a monastic establishment. ‘The townland of Kilbeg, in spite of its name, does not seem to have any ecclesiastical remains. In Kilmore, there is a ruined church surrounded by an extensive churchyard, but it is only @ mediaeval building. FOURTH SECTION : PROMONTORY BETWEEN PORTMAGEE AND BALLINSKELLIGS. (Parishes of Prior and Killemlagh.) (Pl. XLVIL) General description. The massive promontory which juts out between the Portmagee Channel and Ballinskelligs Bay is constituted by two groups of steep hills meeting at an angle near the village of Cools and ending by high cliffs on both sides of St. Finan’s Bay. They enclose » wide and sheltered valley known locally as “ the Glen ”, which slopes gently towards a short beach framed by two lines of cliffs, On the north side the cliff’ are continued by a high, detached rock, Puffin Island. At 8 or 9 miles off the Bay, the two Skellig Rocks rise, isolated, from the sea, [22]96 Proceedings of the Rayat Irish Academy. Large stretches of bog extend along the coast of the Portmagee Channel and to the east of the hills. But the Glen is a fertile and pleasant valley of good pastures and fields which must have been inhabited fairly thickly at an early date. ‘The slopes over Ballinskelligs Bay have also some good land. The whole promontory is turned towards the sea, Fishing boats are very numerous all along the Portmagee Channel. Though the coasts of Ballin- skelligs and St. Finan’s Bays are less satisfactory for modern wooden crafts, they have many a place which would have been suitable for the landing of skin boats. Every calm evening, the boats go out fishing near the Skellig Rocks which, when seen on the spot, do not appear like the forlorn reefs which one would think them to be from merely looking at a map, but are, on the contrary, the centre of an intense activity. Monuments. A, The ecclesiastical sites in this section are: —The monastery of Ilaunloughan, with an oratory, a beehive and a shrine-shaped tomb. —the monastery of Killabuonia, with an oratory, an engraved pillar, a shrine-shaped tomb, beehives and huts of other types. —the monastery of Kildreelig, with an oratory, two engraved slabs and beehives. the oratory known as Temple Cashel. —an oratory in the townland of Kilkeaveragh, at Sea Mount House. —a building which is probably an oratory, between Killa- buonia and Temple Cashel. —a ruin which may be that of an oratory, called Keelma- lomvorny. —a cellurach with a shrine-shaped tomb and a stone cross in Killoluaig townland. B,C. Remains of huts appear in many places near Killabuonia and in other parts of the Glen as well as in the valley of the Ballin- skelligs River. .D, There are not many traces of the activity of shepherds, except in Kildreelig and in Coolaconan. a—Tue coast or THE PorTMAgER CHANNEL. ILLAUNLOUGHAN (No. 1 on the map of the section ; Fig. 16). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 87 NE (1895 ed.: “burial ground").Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 97 wecoe 1c {fj2-ftoms tua! Op entrance souter3in 40 to ro98 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Tllaunloughan is a very small, low island in the Portmagee Channel. It ig near Portmagee, opposite the last houses of the village to the west; it is at a very short distance from the coast and nearly connected to it at low tide. The surface of the island is entirely oceupied by the ruins of the monastery. There is a beehive at the west end partly sheltered by some low rocks. Tts walls ar 5 ft. thick on an average except on the edge of the island, where they reach at least 6 ft. The room is 15 ft. in diameter at the level at which it can be measured at present, but probably much wider at floor level, as the walls have a very pronounced corbelling and the room is partly filled. The door faced east but is no more now than a break in the wall. Exactly opposite to it, at a distance of about 55 ft. are the foundations of an oratory, 18 ft. by 7 ft. inside, oriented east-west, with a door in its west end, facing that of the beehive. The walls are about 4 ft. thick on the long sides and about 3 ft. at the door. About half way between the oratory and the beehive, there is the entrance of a souterrain, whose covering flags appear here and there on the surface near the opening, where some steps are quite distinct. ‘To the north of this and at a distance of about 14 ft, from the north of the oratory, there is a sort of rectangular mound with a shrine-shaped tomb made of two slabs meeting like the two sides of a tent. The mound (it may really be the ruin of an enclosure or a small building) is about 14 ft. by 20ft., Its outline is marked by half-buried erect slabs. There is a door to the west about 2 ft, 5 in, in width. The tomb is not exactly in the centre and con- sequently is not absolutely in line with the door. It consists of two large slabs emerging from the ground respectively by 3 ft. 5 in. and 3 ft. 10 in., both having a length of 4 ft. 3 in. One of them has slipped and is leaning on the other (PI. XL, 6). The end stones are missing (see the description of the Killabuonia tomb, p. 102). The southern slab has two notches and a small irregular hole, which are simply quarrying holes. It may be that the slabs are standing on two little dry stone walls, of which the edges seem to show in the grass. CELLURACH IN KILKEAVERAGH (No. 2). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 87 NE ("‘cellurach”, “ burial ground”, “ oratory "). —O.8. Letters, Kerry, 378 (ment.). This cellurach is to the north of Kilkeaveragh Mountain, a little above the road from Cahereiveen to Portmagee, on the slope behind Sea-Mount House. The cellurach is rectangular. It is full of graves everywhere, except in its south-east quadrant. There is the ruin of an oratory nearly in theHexry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 99 centre. It is deeply buried on the outside, the successive interments having raised the ground by at lest five foet. Inside, it is only very slightly filled ‘up and its walls are still standing up to the level of the top of the door. It is 9 ft. by 12 ft. inside, with walls 4 ft. 4 in. in thickness on the long sides and 3 ft. at the west end. The door, which is in the middle of the west wall is about | ft. 10 in. in width. Fragments of the lintel lie prostrate on each side of it. The walls have a very marked corbelling. A wall, 9 ft. long, probably recent, encroaches on the east end of the oratory. ‘Thero does not seem to be any remains of other buildings. KILLOLUAIG (N. 8; Fig. 17). Bibliography. —0.8. maps: Kerry, 88 NW ("burial ground for children”), —0.8. Letters, Kervy, 378 (ment.). —J.R.S.AT., 1902, p. 55 (P. J. Lynch, “Some of the Antiquities around &t. Finan’s Bay, Co, Kerry”). " 20 ___30 fe Fia, 17.—Killoluaig, plan of ¢ellurach,100 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. To the east of Knocknaskereighta Mountain, and at some distance from it, on a flat patch of grassy land, slightly raised above the bog which surrounds the mountain on that side, there is a small enclosure. A lane running north-south from the Caherciveen-Portmagee road passes beside it. Part of the wall of the enclosure may be ancient, but the northern section of it, which has a very irregular course, seems to be a modern fence. There is a large pillar stone 5} ft. in height, just outside the rampart to the south- west. But there is no definite indication of an entrance. The whole surface of the enclosure is covered with graves. Near the northern part of the wall, there is a slightly raised platform, long and narrow, surrounded by erect slabs on three sides (Pl. XX XIX, a). It is 15 ft. in length and 8 ft. in width. Across it stands a shrine-shaped tomb similar to that on Tilaunloughan, though a little smaller. It is 3 ft. 8 in. in length and 1 ft. Sin. in width. The two end stones are missing but the headstone of a nearby grave, which has a round perforation, might be one of them. There are human bones in the tomb, including part of a skull? A broken stone cross is lying on one of the ends. Among the stones which are piled in front of the tomb is a fragment of a shallow stone basin, This is probably a fragment of the stone basin which according to local tradition, lay at the foot of the stone pillar until a few years ago. There are many traces of buildings outside the enclosure, both to the north and, a little further away, to the north-west. These last ones seem to be the remains of a comparatively modern rectangular house built inside a protecting wall. But those immediately against the enclosure may be the remains of much older huts. They are covered with grass and no definite plan can be traced. On the other side of the lane from the cellurach, there is a small enclosure called on the map “ cellurachnabeepery ” (No. 4). All that is left there is the remains of a circular enclosure with a diameter of about 24 ft. and some large stones standing on edge at various angles inside it. b—Tue Gury. When coming from Caherciveen one enters the Glen by the gap which opens in the mountains near Cools. At once, the valley opens widely, ending by the large stretch of water of St. Finan’s Bay, with the Skelligs in the distance. The slopes on the left are rocky and abrupt and on this side modern cultivation exists only at a low level. On the right, on the contrary (the side on which runs the modern road) the modern fields reach at least half way up the slope and there are several modern farms as well as one or two others recently abandoned. With this modern activity, it is all the more remarkable that so many ancient remains survived without being destroyed by tillage. This seems to be due partly to the widespread fame of the holy well of St. Buonia situated amongst one of the principal groups of ruins, which has been a centre of pilgrimage for centuries. 1 Mentioned by Lynch as a hingo-stone of the door of @ hut. 2 Mentioned by Lynch in 1902,Henny—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses, 101 The old road seems to have run at the bottom of the valley, and not at a higher level than the modern road, as is usually the case. It can be traced from the ruined church of Killemlagh, and it reached the gap by a steep climb; lanes went up from it to Killabuonia and to the cellurach which is to tho west of it. KILLABUONIA (No. 8; Fig. 18; Pl. 1, U1). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 88 SW (‘St. Buonia’s well”). —0O.8. Letters, Kerry, 378 (Th. O’Conor; ment.). —D. O'Donoghne, Brendenniana, 1895, pp. 186 and 281. —J.R.S.A.L, 1902, p. 42 (P. J. Lynch, “Some of the Antiquities around ‘St. Finan’s Bay, Co, Kerry”). —Kerry Arch. Mag., vol. I (1908-12), p. 403 (M. J. Delap, “Some holy wells in Valentia and Portmagee ”). —J.BS.AL, 1912, p. 238 (H. 8. Crawford, “ List’). The ruins of the monastery of Killabuonia are about 100 yards above the modern road, a little below the last modern fence. They occupy a wide area where many remains of old fences made of very large stones can be seen, There is no trace of enclosure, but some large erect slabs planted side by side, where the path coming from the old road at the bottom of the valley reaches the monastery, may be the remains of the entrance. If the mention in Brendenniana is accurate, there were, about 1850, “nine beehives around a larger building in the centre”. There are at present the remains of a boat-shaped oratory, of four isolated beehives, of a double bechive and of two fairly large rectangular buildings. There may also have been a construction over the well. Lynch has given a general plan of the buildings which is nearly accurate except. that he has not seen the real plan of one of the rectangular buildings and that he did not find one of the round huts which is at some distance from the main group. According to tradition, the monastery is of great antiquity: it would have been founded cither by St. Buonia, sister of St. Patrick or, according to O'Donoghue, by St. Brendan or his disciple Beoanus. Nothing else is known of its history. The oratory is on a carefully made terrace held up by a retaining wall built partly of horizontal courses and partly of enormous erect slabs (PI. I, II). A few narrow steps lead to the level of the oratory. The roof of the oratory has fallen in but the walls are still standing, to some height (Pl. XIII, a), The door still has its lintel and the walls can be seen plainly enough under the fallen slabs to allow measurements, The building is 20 ft. 6 in. lomp outside and 18 ft. wide. The walls appear to be about 4 ft. thick, so that the inaide measurements would be about 12} or 13 ft. by 10 ft. The door is 2 ft. wide and has an enormous lintel. Tt is, as usual, in the west wall.102 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. There seems to have been a window in the south wall (1 ft. 2 in. in height and 2 ft. 9 in, in width), but it is doubtful whether there was one in the cast wall. atewce? eee lps ed ? [oa sete , fq © vs ie! | | <. ages # Se : ® Se, n Peer. ! st08 CO oy COREE ow afoot, q pte ones 5 Buonia’s went &, y Sy 78 oy oot gg ngs GEESE See CaS se oF OAs ott Fro. 18.—Killabuonia. To the south of the oratory were two and even possibly three tombs. One is a shrine-shaped tomb made of two large rectangular slabs leaning on each other at a sharp angle, with triangular slabs forming the ends (PI. XXXIX, 6). One of the side slabs is broken and the triangular slab at the east end has disappeared; but the slab at the west end ig still in position and it is perforated in its centre by a large round hole (6 in. wide) very regularly eut, The whole tomb is 4 ft. in length and 2 ft. 6 in. in width. A stone pillarHenry—Early Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 103 which stands near the tomb may have marked another grave (P. XXXII, d). It is 4 ft, high and has on its west side an engraved design consisting of a cross in a lozenge surmounted by another eroas with bifid ends. Beside these two tombs is a large space, 8 ft. by 8 ft. surrounded by raised slabs hardly appearing on the surface, which may have been another tomb. At a short distance west of the pillar is a small stone cross, possibly of later date (Pl. Tl), One of the large flags which make the parapet of the terrace near the top of the steps, has a shallow depression cut out of its surface and may have been uscd as a holy water stoop. A large beehive against which rests the extremity of the oratory terrace, but which opens on the terrace below, is fairly well preserved up to the lintel of the door (Pls. I, XVI). It is 18 ft. by 19 ft. inside, slightly irregular in plan and has a cupboard in the north wall. The door is 2 ft. wide, with a large lintel and two perforated stones protruding inside, as in House A on Bray Head (PI. XVII, XX). The walls are 6 ft. thick, built very carefully in horizontal courses. As in some of the Skellig bechives and the Cahergal bechive, a few stones protrude outside. One of them has a hollow depression in its upper surface, which may have been the lower part of an arrangement to hold the wooden shutter of a window, as is found in Temple Cashel (see p. 106 and pl, XIV). The other beehives, one above and the other below this first one, are both in a very ruinous condition. The upper one was probably about 13} ft. in diameter inside, but only the lower courses of the wall have survived. The other was probably about 12 ft. in diameter inside. The lower courses of the wall exist still on about half of the perimeter; of the other half nothing is left but two stout door-posts, 24 ft. apart. A rectangular building, in pretty bad condition, can still be traced some distance to the west of the first beehive. It is cut in two halves by a modern fence, but its plan can be followed from the position of the large slabs standing on edge which lined the lower part of the walls. It must have been about 24 ft. by 16 ft. inside, with a door 4 ft. wide in the west wall (Pl. XXV, a). Just below the oratory terrace and jutting out from it to the east of the first beehive are the remains of a rectangular enclosure about 23 or 24 ft. by 17 ft. Some of it may be a late modification of earlier constructions; it is built partly of enormous erect slabs and partly of horizontal courses of smaller stones. All the buildings described so far are on two terraces: that on which the oratory is built and another one immediately below it. The edge of this lower terrace is marked by a collapsed wall. Some distance below the beehive with the two doorposta are a few slabs which may be either the remains of a building or the edge of a path or stairs leading to the third terrace, ‘The third terrace has no remains of buildings, except perhaps around the well, which is at its western end. A stone cross, possibly fairly recent, stands over the well (Pl, XXXV, }); an eighteenth century slab is lying beside it.104 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Tt bears a figure crudely drawn and the inscription: “Saint (.....e) pray for her that Erected this ’’, in very elegant lettering. The name of the saint is unfortunately nearly completely broken off, but whatever it was, it doos not seem to have been Buonia (Pl. XIII). Below the wall of the third terrace is a double beehive. The two roofs have collapsed, but the walls, very deeply buried in the ground, are still standing to a level higher than the lintels of the doors. Ono of the rooms is 14 ft. in diameter, the other 10 ft., as they can be measured at present but, given the widening due to corbelling, they must be larger at floor level. ‘The rooms are connected by a passage 2 ft. 4 in. in width, covered by flags. ‘The entrance is in the larger beehive and is 2 ft. in width. In addition to these buildings, there are the remains of a small, round hut, about 8 ft. in diameter, near the last modern fence, above the main group of buildings, It is about 50 yards to the north-west of the oratory. There is not very much more left than the slabs which lined the lower part of the wall, and two large door posts. The door faces towards the main group of buildings. REMAINS ON THE SAME SLOPE AS KILLABUONIA. There are many other remains of buildings on the same slope. In fact, they are so numerous that at every visit I have found new ones, It is quite possible that I have still missed several. Slab Construction below Killabuania (No. 6). Bibliography. —not marked on 0.8, maps (Kerry, 88 SW). Lynch, op. cit. (at Killabuonia), p. 53. There are some remains of slab constructions some distance below the monastery, in a field which is just above the modern road. Lynch mentions them and says that they are called “the Giant’s grave”. One monument is no more now than a heap of fallen slabs. The other is a rectangular enclosure of large erect slabs, 17 ft. by 8} ft., with a few other slabs marking here and there a second line more or less parallel to the first. This may be the remains of a dry stone building, where only the standing stones forming the lower part of the walls persist. There is no indication of a door. Cellurach and rectangular buildings (No, 7). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 88 SW -(marked like = fort). Lynch, op. cit., p. 54.Henny—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 105 Lynch mentions that “400 yards west {of the monastery], in a field, there is a cellurach, with the foundations of an oratory and a Latin cross in the field outside’, This is a round enclosure, 60 ft, by 55 ft., which in- terrupts a modern fence running straight up the hill. There are traces of a rampart to the north and here and there to the south, and a series of upright slabs to the west seem to be the remains of an entrance passage. As indicated by Lynch, there is a small stone cross standing in the field outside the rampart, to the north-west of it. There are remains of two buildings in the enclosure. One is nearly exactly in the centre of it. Its outline is marked by a ruinous wall and by some low erect slabs. It is about 12 ft. by 12 ft. inside. The other is in the north-east corner and is built against the rampart. This is the building described by Lynch as ‘the foundations of an oratory’. In fact, there remains considerably more than the foundations, as the building is obviously very much buried. One corner is very well preserved: it is well built, with the same careful dressing of the stones as in many oratories. The building is 12 ft. by 9} ft. inside with walls at least 3 ft. thick and a door in the middle of the west wall, A large stone lying just inside the door is probably the fallen lintel. In the top corner of the next field to the west, there are remains of what scems to have been three other square buildings. One is quite distinct, with remains of a wall built of horizontal courses and of large pieces of rock and is about 8 ft. by 8 ft. inside. The two others are both half built over by a modern fence and their dimensions can not be ascertained. These buildings are not indieated on the Ordnance Survey map and Lynch does not mention them. Beehives. Two fields to the west of that which has the square buildings are the dilapidated remains of a round hut marked by standing slabs. It seems to have been 7 or 8 ft. in diameter inside. It is not indicated on the Ordnance Survey map nor mentioned by Lynch. Again two fields to the west of this hut and joined to it by a path, there is a small cellurach, which is not marked on the Ordnance Survey map nor mentioned by Lynch (No. 8). It is a short distance from the road, just above a farmhouse. It contains the ruined remains of several buildings; ‘one only is quite distinct in plan: a round hut built of horizontal courses of stones, slightly corbelled, with an entrance marked by two erect slabs. Some of the stones used in its construction are very large. It is at least 18 ft. in diamoter inside and the walls, wherever they can be measured, are 6 ft. thick. In the fence immediately to the west of the cellurach there is an enormous and very conspicuous standing stone. To the north-west of this cellurach, at the level of the ‘highest fence, there seem to be the remains of an enclosure with what look like the ruins106 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. of some buildings. But they are in too bad a state of preservation to allow of any description. A little further west and lower-down on the slope stands a gallaun. TEMPLE CASHEL (No, 9; Pl. XII, XIV), Bibliography. —0.8. maps: Kerry, 98 NE. —not mentioned in the O.8. Letters. —J.R.8.A.L., 1902, p. 56 (P. J. Lynch, “Some of the Antiquities around St. Finan’s Bay, Co, Kerry”). —J.RSAL, 1912, p. 288 (H. 8. Crawford, “ List”). —F, Henry, Irish Art, 1940, p. 26 and pl. 9. Temple Cashel is an oratory which stands in a field a little above the north shore of St. Finan’s Bay, on the edge of a stream which has cut a deep ravine in the side of the mountain and whose mouth could provide a landing- place for boats of the ourragh type. One may wonder what the “ cashel ” may have been. What is marked as a fort in the next field on the 1842 Ordnance Survey map is really only @ quarry. The oratory may have stood in an enclosure, but not of the usual cashel type; as Lynch has pointed out there are traces of a rectangular wall and possibly of other buildings around the oratory. The oratory is remarkably well preserved, Only a few feet of the roof are missing. Two or three feet of the lower part of the wall are probably buried in the ground. The construction is very well done, with horizontal courses of stones carefully dressed to bring them to an even surface both inside and outside. The oratory is 10 ft. 8 in. by 12 ft. 6 in. inside at the present level of the ground, The walls are slightly more than 3 ft. in thickness where they can be measured at the top and inside the door but seem to bo thicker in the lower part of the long sides, There is a door in the middle of the west side, 1 ft. 11 in. at the base and | ft. 7 in. at the top. It has a very large lintel, 8 ft. long and 3 ft. thick and protruding holed stones on the inside to hold the frame of the door. There is a window in the middle of the east wall which splays widely inside but is only 7 in. by 10 in. outside (PL. XIV). A ledge protrudes over the window on the outside ; it has a hole at each end (one is partly broken); another ledge, under the window has two round hollows corresponding in position to the holes above. This arrange- ment was probably meant to keep in position a wooden. shutter or the frame of a horn window. All the walls of the oratory are corbelled, even the end walls, From the curve it seems that, when the building was complete, the apex of the roof inside would have been at 12 ft. over the present level of the ground—I5 ft. over floor level, probably.Henry—Karly Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 107 OTHER REMAINS IN THE GLEN. ‘The other traces of early occupation in that part of the Glen are not as important as those in and around Killabuonia, There is a small cellurach along the road from Temple Cashel to Killemlagh which contains a few graves marked by small stones but no remains of buildings. Keel fort, some distance west of Killemlagh church, has traces of a round stone hut. ‘The ruined mediaeval church of Killemlagh itself has no bearing on our researches except for the fact that it is supposed to have been built on the site of a church founded by St. Finan, whose holy well is some distance further down near the shore. A strange ruin known as Keelmalomvorny (No, 10) and supposed to be the tomb of a giant, may have some relation with that tradition. It is to the south-west of the ruined church in a field bordered on one side by the river and on the other by perpendicular rocks. It consists of erect slabs marking three sides of a rectangle 10 ft. 6 in. north- south by 13 ft. east-west. There are no slabs on the east side of the rectangle. There is an interruption of about 3 ft. in the middle of the line of stones on the west side. At 6 ft. to the south of the south row of stones stands a small slab facing east and west. There is a possibility that this might be the ruins of an oratory. There is another construction of slabs half a mile south of Keel, not far from the shore of the bay. Higher up, over the road leading to Ballin- skelligs, there are a sheep-fold and a lamb shelter which seem to have been built over a ruined round hut and are surrounded by remains of old fences. These are a little below the gap, practically above two abandoned houses (No. 11). ¢~~BALLINSRELLIGS DISTRICT. The remains of ancicnt habitations in the south of Portmagee-Ballin- skelligs promontory are less numerous than in the Glen, The eastern aspect of the hills and the layer of turf which covers large areas are probably responsible for a sparser habitation—unless the search for ruins has been less fortunate in this area, which is possible. Late sites will not be considered. Ballinskelligs Abbey is a comparatively Jate foundation which partly superseded the Skellig monastery when a less bleak site was thought desirable (see p. 116). The ruins of the abbey, as well as those of a late church in a rectangular cellurach at Reglais are both irrelevant to our present researches*. Lin reality, thera are two saints called Finan, or connected with that part of Kerry: St. Binan the Leper and St. Finan Cam, Traditions about thom aro equally vague (seo: Lynch, op. cit., p. 61}. #The church at Reglais and ite enclosure are of Inte date, but. there are vague remains ‘of a fort (indicated on the ©.8. map) immediately adjoining the onclosure.108 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. KILLURLY TOWNLAND. Bibliography. —O.8. mapa: Kerry, 88 SW snd 97 NW. —J.RS.AJ., 1902, p. 54 (P, J. Lynch, “Some of the Antiquities around St. Finan’s Bay”). —Macalister, Corpus, vol. I, pp. 229-32, There are a few remains along the road which goes to Ballinskelligs from the gap at Cools: Coolaconan (No. 12). Coolaconan is above the road, about a quarter of a mile from the gap, The ruins are on a little knoll covered with grass; they are bounded above the road by a stone parapet, There seem to be the remains of three round huts. I could not discover which was the one indicated by Lynch as having a curved partition. In fact, they aré 30 ruined that I could not make a plan of them. One of them seems to be about 7 ft, in diameter, with a very large slab—possibly a door-post—fallen across the entrance. A modern fence, possibly built over the remains of an older wall, encloses the ruins to the west. Just on the other side of it from the huts there is a very well-built lamb shelter; it is covered by horizontal slabs resting on two little walls, whilst the end wall is formed by a very large rock. Killurly (No. 13). There is a cellurach of very little interest near the road and to the west of it, at the hamlet of Killurly, An ogham stone was found in a field on the other side of the road and is now at the side of a ditch; another stone used as a lintel ina small shed near the road, which has been described as an ogham stone, seems to have only accidental markings. ST, MICHAEL'’s WELL (No. 14). Bibliography. —O.8. maps: Kerry, 97 N.W. —O.8. Letters, Kerry, 41 (ment.). Some distance north of Ballinskelligs, there is a stone hut of bechive form (Pl, XXVIII) beside St. Michael’s well. ‘The hut is irregular in shape of very uneven construction and covers a patch of muddy ground, possibly the original site of the well. There are no other traces of buildings and it is quite possible that the hut may be a fairly modern erection.Henny—Harly Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 109 VALLEY OF THE BALLINSKELLIGS RIVER. Bibliography. —0.8. map : Kerry, 97 W (none of the sites marked). —J.RS.AL., 1902, p. 821 (P. J. Lynch, “ Antiquities around Ballinskelligs Bay”). ‘There are sites of houses in several places in the valley of the Ballin- skelligs River. One of them is in a field west of the road from Ballinskelligs to Bolus Head and at a place where the road turns twice at right angles (No. 15). The hut seems to be about 12 ft. in diameter inside, but is very ruined. Lyneh gives the site of two others. One, which he calls Clochan leaha is in reality called locally Clochén liath, a name readily explained by the grey colour of the stones. It is in the townland of Leabaleaha, exactly between the two arms of the river and very near their meeting point (N. 16). Tt is a very regular circle of stones, about 12 ft. in diameter, with some stones lying 7 or 8 ft. away from the circle. It is difficult to say whether this is really the ruin of a house or a small stone circle. There is a complex group of ruins of various dates (N. 17) at the head of the valley near the gap which Icads into the Glen. There are, a few fields from each other, a large dolmen (near the river), another one beside a huge gallaun; a stone circle 36 ft. in diameter; the remains of a fort with a souterrain. near the last farm before reaching the road at the gap. Lynch mentions ahut. It is some distance south of the stone circle, It is marked by upright stones forming an oval 11 ft. by 13 ft. There is a confused heap of stones to the east of it. I was unable to find the fragment of quern mentioned by Lynch as lying on this heap of stones. There are, on the other side of the road, quite near the gap, the remains of a very strangely shaped double hut (No. 18), whose rooms are 9 ft. by 9 ft. and 6 ft. by 6 ft, the latter with the entranco of a souterrain. Lynch describes it as a fort defending the gap. KILDREELIG (No. 19; Fig. 19). Bibliography. —O.8, maps: Kerry, 97 SW (“‘caher”, “cellurach”, “ graveyard”). —O.S. Letters, Kerry, 416 (ment.) —J.RS.AL, 1902, p. 321 (P. J. Lynch, “ Antiquities around Ballinskelligs Bay ") —J.RS.AL., 1912, p. 230 (HS. Crawford, * List”). Kildreelig, on the south side of Bolus Head, is the most important of the eeclesiastical remains in the neighbhourhood. Most of the ruins are inside a stout circular rampart which has all the massive appearance of the ciroular PROC. R.LA, VOL, 58, SECT. C. (t]Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Fic. 19.—Kildreelig.Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 111 stone forts. It is on an abrupt, rocky slope, to the south of the road to Bolus Head, a little distance east of the school. Just before reaching it, the road passes through a steep little valley with a cluster of modern farms, which is commanded, nearly at the top, by a small stone fort built partly on the rock, Evidence of earlier occupation is supplied by a row of standing stones in the gap right above the fort. The rampart around the monastic ruins is about 6 ft. thick. It is made. of very large, rounded blocks of sandstone, but in spite of the irregular material used in its construction, it is very woll-built and stands to a height of 12 ft. on the sea side, To the south, there is an entrance marked by large, upright stones. ‘The surface enclosed by this wall is crowded with buildings of all kinds crammed into 2 space which is no more than 60 ft, in diameter. There is a large beehive hut, 11 to 12 ft. in diameter, with what is left of its wall carefully built and distnetly corbelled. From it starts a gouterrain covered with large flags which goes towards the entrance in the rampart and turns at right angle in front of it, It may also, as Lynch says, have opened on the outside of the rampart. It opens into the beehive by a fairly high door, whose lintel was probably at about the same level as that of the oratory. To the north-cast of this hut there is another, about 7 ft. wide, which seems to have been square with more or less rounded corners. ‘There are two very ruined buildings in the south-east part of the enclosure, both jutting on to the rampart. One, near the entrance, is very little more than a few heaps of stones, The other is rectangular, about 10 ft. by 16 ft. with rather flimsy walls. It seems to be a late addition, as it is not deeply buried in the ground like the other buildings. Finally, there is an oratory, oriented east-west, with its door in the west wall more or Jess intact to the lintel and a few courses of stones above it (PL XXH). As Lynch has observed, it has a sort of dripstone protruding over the lintel. The inside space, at the level at which it can be measured at present, is 7 ft. by 9 ft., but as the building is very deeply buried its measure. ments at floor level would probably be at least 9 ft, by 11 ft. The walls are very thick on the long sides (nearly 5 ft.) whilst the end walls seem to be barely 3 ft. thick. The building seems to be completely independent of the rampart, in contrast to the other rectangular construction in the fort which uses the rampart as its end wall. On the north side of the oratory stands a slab 3 ft, high above the present level of the ground but deeply buried in rubble (Pl. XXXII, c). Ht has a rather unusual design of a cross in a circle engraved on its weat side. There may have been a covered passage from the beehive to the oratory. ‘The narrow space inside the cashel does not seem to have been sufficient for the needs of whatever religious establishment was in the fort. To the north-east of the enclosure thero is a large rectangular building, $1 ft. by 24 ft. inside, oriented north-west—south-east, which has a door in the long side facing the cashel, In spite of what Lynch says about it, it seems difficult 2]112 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. to accept it a8 a church, It is built of dry stones with the walls, which are 4 ft, thick, lined by erect stones at the base inside and outside as well as on both sides of the door. In most surviving parts of the wall, courses of small stones alternate fairly regularly with long ledges of horizontal flat stones, a rather unusual type of dry stone masonry which is not without some analogy with the horizontal courses of bricks alternating with stones which were still used, Roman fashion, on buildings of the Early Christian period on the Continent; but it is well to remember also that it is found occasionally in the walls of old cottages in the immediate vicinity of Kildreelig. A slab, 4 ft, 6 in. high, engraved with a Latin cross whose arms protrude out of a double circle (P]. XXXTIIT, @) is planted inside the building, a short distance from the door. It is almost certainly not in its primitive position; it may have been originally at the other end of the tomb marked by the other slab beside the oratory or—eonsidering the equal length of the vertical arms of the cross—it may have been a lintel, either that of the beehive in the cashel or that of the building itself where it now stands. This is not the only building outside the rampart. There are remains of ciroular huts at the further end of a terrace edged by a fence of large stones which extends to the south-west of the entrance of the cashel. One, near the lane, is very ruined and seems to have been 15 ft. in diamoter. The other, mentioned by Lynch, is deeply buried ; its west side is fairly well preserved. A modern fence is built over part of it and the door is to be found, all complete, opening out of this fence into the next field, which is at a lower level. . At a later date, shepherds built their usual constructions on all the slope below the terrace and on the terrace itself. There, two large stones standing in front of a large rock and a wall built parallel to it are probably the remains of a shelter whose covering slabs have disappeared, Lynch considered this ruin as a megalith, which is highly unlikely, considering its appearance as well as the fact that it is built at a higher level than the floor of the beehive and probably with some of its stones. Further down the slope there are two sheep-folds, using as one of their sides terrace fences probably belonging to the original constructions of the monastic buildings. These folds include shelters, one of them of very large size and built in the same way as the ruined one on the upper terrace. A ruined bechive may be inchided in these sheep- folds. Beyond Kildreelig, the road goes on towards Bolus Head. Tt passes through a valley with modern farms. There is a small fort in the hollow and traces of old fences, but there does not seem to be any old houses left, though some of the numerous heaps of stones produced by clearing the fields may cover their remains.Henry—Early Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 113 FIFTH SECTION: SKELLIG MICHAEL, (Parish of Killemlagh.) (Pl. XLVIIL) Though the monastery on the Skellig has been often described, it is essential to give in this survey a very detailed account of it, as it is the only one in this part of Ireland which still shows absolutely intact buildings and it has the added interest of being mentioned in the Annals and several early texts, Besides, a comparison of the previous descriptions and their dis. crepancics will in itself be very useful Bibliography. It would be useless to try to quote all the mentions of the Skellig in tavel and history books, These are the chief references (classified in chrono- logical order of the data given). —Contribution lo a Dictionary of the Irish Langua —O, Bergin, R. I, Best, Kuno Meyer, J. @. 0" Manuscripts, TI, 57-62 (Ms. Laud, 610). —Martyrology of Tallaght (Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. LXVIII) ed. by R. I. Best and Lawlor, p. 37. —Annals of Ulster, ed. W. Hennessey, vol. I, pp. 318-19. —Annals of Innisfallen, ed, Sedn Mac Airt (1951), pp. 124-25, 136-7, 208-9. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan, pp. 666-7. —War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, ed. Todd, pp. 4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 222-23, 228-29, —Giraldus Cambrensis, In Topographia Hibernie, ed, J, O'Meara (Proc. R.LA., 1949, sect. C), p. 149. —G. Keating, History of Ireland, vol. 1, lines 1342-46; ILI, 1. 2480, Miss Hickson, Notes on Kerry Topography (J.R.S.A.1., 1890-1), pp. 44 and 310-12, —Sir James Ware, De Hibernia and Antiquitatibus ejus, 1658 (trad. Harris, 1764), vol. IL, pp. 107, 199. —Aneient History of the Kingdom of Kerry, by Friar O'Sullivan of Muckross Abbey, ed. by Fr. Jarlath Prendergast (J. Cork H.A.S., 1900), pp. 152 ff, —Ch. Smith, The Ancient and Present state of the County of Kerry, 1766, p. 113 ff —Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, 1786, ed. P. Moran (1873), vol. I. pr 233, 246, 306. —Lady Chatterton, Rambles in. the South of Ireland, 1839, vol. I, pp. 263 ff. (includes a description by Crofton Croker). —O.8. maps: Kerry, 104 8.W. , Eelter 8, 80 (art. Seeillec). eofle, dnecdota from Irish114 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. —O.S. Letters, Kerry, 403 and 405-413 (Th. O'Conor, 1841). —Dunraven, Notes on Ir, Arch., vol. I (Publ, by M. Stokes in 1875), pp. 26-36. —Margaret Stokes, Early Christian Arch. in Ireland, 1878, pp. 29 ff, (repeats part. of the text of Dunraven). —J.R.S.A.L., 1892, pp. 277 ff. (J. Romilly Allen, “ Notes on the Antiquities in Co. Kerry visited by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and the Cambrian Archaeological Association, August, 1891”). —W.R.S.A.L, 1897, pp. 308 ff. (LT. J. Westropp, “ Cruise in connection with the Munster meeting, Descriptive sketch of Places Visited "(; the text of this article is included in: —The Antiquarian Handbook, published by the R.S.A.1, in 1904, as The programme of the Excursion and illustrated descriptive Guide to the Places to be visited in the northern, western and southern Islands and Coast of Ireland, June 21st to 29th, 1904 (compiled and edited by R. Cochrane), pp. 142 #f. —Patiick Foley, The Ancient and Present State of the Skelligs, Blasket Islands, ete., 1903, pp. 11-40. =—Kerry Arch. Mag., vol. 1 (1908-12), p. 403 (M. J. Delap, “ Some holy wells in Valontia and Portmagee”). —JLRS.AT., 1912, p. 240 (H. 8. Crawford, “ List”). —Th. Mason, The Islands of Ireland, 1936, pp. 107 ff. —R. Hayward, In the Kingdom of Kerry, 1946, pp. 192 ff. —I.R.S.A.1., 1948, pp. 175 fF. (F. Henry, “ Three engraved slabs in the neigh- bourhood of Waterville and the slab on Skellig Mhichil ”.). —J.RS.AL., 1956, pp. 1744. (L. de Paor, “A Survey of Sceilg Mhichil”). Name The word Sceillee means 2 rock and specially a steep rock. It is found also in the name of Temple-na-Skellig, the church in Glendalough, which is built at the foot of the cliff overlooking the upper lake. There is no reason why the dedication to St. Michael should not be ancient, as references to St. Michael are frequent in Irish texts from an early date (seo, for example, the numerous references in the Martyrology of Ocngus).t History We meet first the Skellig in legend, as the burial place of Ir, son of Milesius, who was drowned during the landing of the Milesians. The next mention is puzzling. It is contained in a text of the eighth or ninth century (Ms. Laud 610 in the Bodleian Library)? It appears in 4 The Maztyrology of Oengus the Culdee, od, Whitley Stokes (Henry Bradshaw Sor., vol, XXIX, 1905), pp. 12018, p. 128, pp. 181-2, p. 87, pp 212-13. 2 See: J. Cork H.A.S., 1954, enh 110 ff (Liam O'Buachalla, “Contributions towards tho Political History of MunatorHenry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 115 an episode of the strife between the Eoganachta of Loch Léin, kings of West Munster, and the Eoganachta of Cashel. Duagh,- king of West Munster, pursued by Oengus, king of Cashel, is said to have “ fled to Scellecc”. The event takes place at the end of the fifth contury and we have no means of knowing whether the Skellig was at that time a sort of stronghold of the kings of Loch Léin or whether there was already a monastery on the Rock. There is no early record of the founding of the monastery * or of how it came to be dedicated to St. Michael? Smith, writing in the eighteenth century, says that it was founded by St. Finan and Archdall follows him. ‘The vaguer assertion, quoted by Dunraven, that the Rock has been frequented by pilgrims “ since St. Patrick's time”, is obviously only a way of indicating the great antiquity of the pilgrimage.* But the monastery existed already in the eighth century and probably a good while before. This is proved first by the fact that one of its monks, “Suibni of the Scelig”, is mentioned under the 28th of April in the Martyrology of Tallaght written at the end of the eighth century.* In addition, the earliest mention of the monastery in the Annals being o record of its plunder in 823, we have to assume that it had been in existence for some time before that date. There are, in the Annals, various entries connected with at least four, and possibly five, events happening at the Skellig. 823 or 824.—A plunder by the Vikings is recorded by the Annals of Innisfallen under the year 824 : “‘ Scelec was plundered by the heathen and Etgal was carried off into eaptivity and he died of hunger on their hands ”. ‘The entry in the Annals of Ulster, at the year 823, runs : “ Kitgall Sceiligg a gentibus raptus est, eb cito mortuus est fame ct siti”. The “War”, amongst a series of events happening in 821-23 records : “ There eame another fleet after that and Cork was plundered and .... and Sccilig Mighil, and Etgal of Seelig was carried off by them into captivity, so that it was by miracle he escaped from them and he died of hunger and thirst with them ”.® Before 850.—The next event recorded, which is mentioned only in the “War ’t may be a clumsy duplication of the facta mentioned under $23: “There came after that a fleet into the south of Erinn and they plundered Seellig Michil and Inis Flainn [Tnnisfallen] and Disert Domhain and Cluin Mor and they killed Rudgaile, son of Trebtede, and Cormac, son of Selbach, the anchorite, and he it was whom the angel set free three times, though he was bound again every time”, 1Cf. Ware: “of the founder of this church I can say nothing”. 4'8¢, Michaol ip froquontly associated with high mountains and often with mountains containing a cave, this possibly in imitation of the site of his apparition, the cave of Monte Gargano in Southern Italy. ¥ ‘The reference to Keating is probably an orror. 4 Suibni (or Suibne) is recorded. also in the Martyrlogy of Marion Gorman. and in the Martyrology of Donegal, Colgan (Acta Se. Hib.) has: “Subnous abbas Schelelensis "”. 8"The text of the fragment in the Book of Leinster is not very different, except for the spelling of proper names. It has: Etgal, Scellic, Scelig. Archall records the same event under the yoar 812,116 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. In any case, the monastery was obviously re-occupied (Archdall says in the year 860), as shows the next event recorded: 882.—At this date, the Annals of Innisfallen mention : “‘ Repose of Flann, son of Cellach, abbot of Scclec”. The same fact is recorded by Archdall under the year 885. 950.-—The Annals of the Four Masters, at this year, mention the death of “ Blathmac Sgeillice” 1044.—The same Annals record at this year the death of “ Aodh 6 Sccelice Mhichil”’, The Annals of Innisfallen, more emphatic on local history, have: “ Aed Sceilic, the noble priest, the celibate and the chief of the gaedhil in piety, rested in Christ”. After this, there are no more mentions in the Annals, At the end of the twelfth century, Giraldus Cambrensis heard of the Skellig, and says that “the situation of this abbey being found extremely bleak, and the going to and from it highly hasardous, it was removed to Ballinaskellig on the continent”. In fact, it probably continued to be inhabited as a dependance of Ballinskelligs Abbey. In the ecclesiastical taxation of 1300 there is a mention of “ Ecclesia de Rupe Beati Michaelis ”, which is valued 20 sh.. But there is a possibility that the Abbey of Ballin- skelligs would have taken on the name of “ Church of St. Michael’s Rock ”, However, it remains that a chapel was added to the earlier buildings on the Rock towards the end of the middle ages and that the old buildings themselves were kept in repair. When the lands of Ballinskellige Abbey were disposed of in the sixteenth century, the possessions of “the late monastery of the Canons of Ballin- skelligga * were described (in the lease to Gyles Clinsher, 1578) as : “one earrucate of lande, the great Islande of Berhaven, and a small islande called Skellig michell, alias 8. Crucis, with a chapel on it .* This is the only mention of another dedication than that to St, Michael, and one may assume that it was the dedication of the late mediaeval chapel. The Skellig passed later with the rest of the possessions of Ballinskelligs to John Butler. Whether it had been partly abandoned before or not, in any case, the monastery ceased to exist then. But the pilgrimage probably went on. All Ware has to say is that there “was anciently * on one of the “ islands called the Skellix ", an abbey dedicated to St. Michael which was afterwards translated to the continent’. But Friar O'Sullivan, a Franciscan from 1 To the ond of tho eentury (about 993) belongs an event whieh may be connected with the Skellig—the baptism of Olav Tryggvason whe was to become king of Norway shortly afterwards and to bring about the conversion of Norway. The Syllingar, the islands montioned in the anonymous saga of Olav Tryggvason and in tho Saga written by Snorre Sturluson, have often been identified with the Scilly Tales, but the Skelligs would perhaps correspond better to these islands whore Olav meota a hermit who imprasses him 50 much by his knowledge of coming events and his predication that. he asks to be baptised and abandons henceforward his piratical life. Westropp (Antiquarian Handbook, p. 143) mentions the fact without discussing it, basing probably his assertion on tho authority of Worsae (J. J. A. Worsac, dn Accownt of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Seotland and [retand, 1852, p. 333). 1 am indebted to the Marquia de Saint Pierre for kindly supplying me with the texts connectad with the baptism of Olav, Seo: Misa Hickson, op. citHenry—Early Monasteries, Bechive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 117 Muckross, who lived as a refugee in St. Anthony, Louvain, wrote about 1750 an account of “ The Ancient History of the Kingdom of Kerry”, where he mentions : “the great Skelike formerly very much noted for pilgrimage over mést part of Europe”, After an allusion to the nearly superhuman difficulties of the pilgrimage and to the well, he adds: “ there are two or three stone work chapels each as by appearance capable to stow no more at most than thirty persons”—an overstatement which tends to prove that he had never been on the Rock himself. At about the same date, Charles Smith was writing his deseription of Kerry, where we find for the first time a detailed description of the Rock. Not that Smith had been there either. His topographical vagueness would tend to prove that he speaks by hearsay. He probably got his data from fishermen and pilgrims. He describes the pilgrimage in great detail and specially the most acrobatic part of it, which consisted in climbing to the top of the south summit of the island, squeezing through a rock chimney called “ the needlo’s eye ” and scrambling along an inclined rock called “the stone of pain” to finish, at the top, by crawling on a sort of overhanging slab in order to reach a cross cut at the end of it. His description has been copied, more or less, faithfully by all later writers and there is no other authority on tho subject. ‘These feats of pious alpinism were already getting obsolete in his time and he says that “ many persons, about twenty years ago, came from the remotest parts of Ireland to perform these penances, but the zeal of such adventurous devotees has been very much cooled of late”. Indeed, the Skellig is still looked upon as a place of pilgrimage in modern times, but the pilgrims now-a-days generally content themselves with going up to the much more accessible north summit and leaving some offerings of money in one of the oratories. Smith mentions the wells which he seems to think of as being only a few feet above sea level and filled with water seeping up from the sea through the rock, He mentions also the excellent quality of the fishing grounds around the Rock. He says that “the middle part of the island is flat and plain, consisting of about three acres of ground which were formerly culti- vated”, and adds : “the soil is but thin, and yet the herbage is short and sweet; the ridges where corn had formerly be sown are still visible”. He desoribes in detail the roofs of the cells and says that there was on the island “an abbey of canons regular of St. Austin founded by St. Finian *. Archdall’s entries, which are purely traditional have been mentioned already. In the beginning of the nineteenth century a new chapter of the history of the Skellig opens, So far it probably had no other inhabitants than the monks. About 1826, John Butler of Waterville, in whose property the Rock was, sold it to the Ballast Board of Ireland which wanted to erect a lighthouse on it. He stipulated in the sale that the old buildings should be carefully preserved and complained later that this clause of the deed had not been observed (see communication by Henry Stokes in Proc. R.I.A., vol. 15).118 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. He may well have protested judging from the next deseription of the site, that of Crofton Croker, who visited it shortly afterwards. He tells us that “the superintendent of works had his temporary abode ... on the summit of the lowest peak, surrounded by eight or nine little stone cells in shape resembling beehives " and that the huts were at the time “ converted into depositories for gun-powder to be used in blasting the rock" so that he could not examine more than their exterior. He gives also a useful description of the stairs which we will have to consider later, The building of the lighthouse resulted in the construction of a landing place and of a road leading from it to the lighthouse. Lady Chatterton, who travelled in Kerry some years later, did not visit the Rock and merely repeats Smith’s and Croker's descriptions. Thomas O’Conor, who was surveying that part of Kerry for the Ordnance Survey, did not go to the Skellig, and his account is but a series of extracts from Smith, the Annals of Innisfallen, ete. The first detailed archaeological account of the ruins is that of Lord Dunraven, who went there some time before 1871, made a plan of the ruins and described them in great detail? It seems that in his time the house of the superintendent had disappeared and altogether, except for a few minor details, the ruins appear from his photographs to have been pretty much in the state in which they are at present. Shortly afterwards the Office of Public Works took over the ruins. Sir Thomas Deane, Inspector at the time, went there to inspect the place for the first time in June, 1880. He found the retaining wall in bad condition, but did not have any other restoration to recommend than the replacing of a few stones on the apexes of the huts, as they had been removed by fishermen. The Office of Publie Works scems to have waged from that time on an endless struggle to keep the monastery in good condition in spite of repeated collapses of the retaining wall. It may be that the rock behind that wall is decaying slowly—possibly under the action of the pocket of water feeding the wells. The efforts at keeping it in position raised from time to time protests from various people who objected to the way in which the repairs were carried out. The three visita of the Society of Antiquaries, in 1991, 1897 and 1904, were specially occasions for what seems to have been rather groundless indignation, It seems on the contrary, that the repairs were done with the maximum of care, considering the difficulties and that (with perhaps one exception) there has been no essential alteration to the buildings. The visits of the Society of Antiquaries of Ireland were the oceasions of new descriptions, especially one by Romilly Allen and one by Westropp, accompanied by a plan which is slightly different from that of Dunraven. Since then, especially since the appearance of motor boats in the little fishing harbours of the mainland, many visitors have gone to the Skellig, 1 His deseription is repeated word for word by Margaret: Stokes, who may nevor have boon on the Skellig hersolf.Henry—Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, and Dry-stone Houses. 119 but only a few have given a really detailed description of what they have seen. Mr. Liam de Paor has done recently a survey of the monastery. He very kindly communicated it to me before publication, and we agreed to use the same letters and numbers of reference for the cells and the slabs and crosses. I checked my plan on his, Where my indications are slightly different, they are based on my own measurements. General description. The position of the Skellig monastery is well-known—nearly on the top of & pyramidal rock, whose highest summit rises 714 ft, above the sea, eight miles west of Bolus Head, the nearest point on the mainland. But its character is often misunderstood. Though the island is very steep and presents the most romantic architecture of rock, the Great Skellig is not an absolutely bare reef. Its south-east slope has enough earth to allow for the burrowing of a plentiful population of rabbits and puffins and is covered with a rich crop of sea-pinks. It must have been possible to grow at least some vegetables in the terraced gardens of the monks,® and there is no reason why they would not have kept, like the modern light-keepers, goats and hens, In addition, the immediate neighbourhood of the rock is very good fishing ground, as Smith already noticed. In many ways, the ‘hermitage on the top of Mount Brendan seems a much grimmer sort of retreat than the Skellig. The island has two summits. One, to the south-west, is a sheer and pointed aiguille of rock (Fig. 21). The other, to the north, has a rounded top, and although it falls in an abrupt and even overhanging cliff on one side, it presents a certain amount of gentle slope near the top to the south-east (PI. V1). This is where the monastery was erected, not quite at the summit, but about 60 ft. below it, so that it has a certain amount of shelter and is well exposed to the sun. This position a little below the summit explains the existence of the two wells which made life possible there. Miss Delap % ‘was at great pains to explain these wells on the top of a rock and describes them as “brackish”. Smith, who had not scon them, speaks of them as being “several yards” above sea level. The fact is that they are nearly 200 yards above it. This disposes of the theory according to which they are simply sea water secping up the rock in some mysterious fashion. One of them, in any cage, is in my experience a perfectly straightforward well of drinkable, fresh water, collecting in the most natural fashion in an underground pocket of the mountain. I found it full of water even in the middle of June, 1947, which was a very dry month. The other is certainly less appetizing and more temperamental. It was practically dry in June, 1947, but had some water in November, 1946, and in June, 1953. 1 Tho two Skellig rocks, like many parts of tho neighbouring mainland, are made of shaly sandstone. SCF. Smith's assertion that “Christ's saddle’ had been tilled. 1 She had been on the Reek in 1911.