SOME of the readers of the DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE may remember having accompanied me, in the month before last, to the Isles of Arran; and that, on my taking leave on that occasion, we had left the chief village of the island, Kilronan, and were on our way to Dun-Angus. It may also be in their recollection that we had already, on the middle island, visited Dun-Conor, a very grand example of the same species of building, also erected in the first century of our era, by another son of the Fir-Volg king, Uaithmore. Connor O'Brien, one of the great lords of Clare, of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter, is confused in local tradition with this Fir-Volg prince, although twelve hundred years elapsed between their epochs. In fact, no distinct tradition of the Fir-Volgs remains in the islands; and but for the written records preserved in the book of Leacan, we should have known as little of these barbaric fortress-palaces as the Scotch antiquaries know of Dun Dornadilla, or the Burgh of Mousa. The traditions of the people of Arran are either hagiological, or have reference to the exploits of such personages as Croohore-na-Suidine O'Brien, Emun Laidir O'Flaherty, or Oliver Cromwell. The saints and their miracles supply the great historical topics of these simple people, as, next to the pagan fortresses and clochans, their ruined churches and sepulchral monuments constitute the main attraction of the islands for the ecclesiastical and architectural antiquary. And for any one imbued with these tastes, the way westward from Kilronan is, indeed, on both sides full of objects of curiosity.

On the right, in the low tract between the road and sea, are the remains of Manister Connachtach, with the chapel of St. Kieran. It was here the founder of Clonmacnoise disciplined himself for his subsequent mission on the mainland. If the reader have any curiosity in early Christian architecture, I would direct his attention to this chapel, as a work of, I should suppose, the ninth or tenth century, not

withstanding its added Gothic doorway. The east window exhibits an early and interesting attempt at decoration, being pillared externally, and having a scroll on the inside, terminating in some rude symbolic representations. Hard by are the ruins of Teampul Assurnuidhe, with its wondrous bolaun or font, which always contains water, be the weather wet or dry. Colgan takes the name to be that of St. Iserninus, mentioned in the lives of Patrick; but from the name given to the place at present, Teampul Sournich ni Cealla, I apprehend the saint was a female, and a daughter of the Hy-Manian family. Sourney's font is a hollowed bowl of granite, overhung by ferns and underwood, and carefully covered over to prevent evaporation. When I saw it, it contained some much-soiled water, derived, as Mullen expressed it, and I dare say truly, "from the climate." The church site itself is a mass of stones and bramble, but distinguished by the presence of a venerable thorn, one of the few trees on the island, and the haws of which are the largest I have ever seen. These brambly dells are, it appears, rich in rare ferns and other objects as interesting to the naturalist as their stone monuments to the historical student.

On the left hand, at a little distance up the craggy ascent of the hill, which is crowned by the pagan fortress of Dun-Eochaill and the lighthouse, stands another of the little churches mentioned by Colgan, Teampul Ceathair Aluinn, the Church of the Four Beautiful Saints. These Colgan states to be Fursey, Brandon of Birr, Conall, and Barchann. Fursey was the founder of the Abbey of Lagny on the Marne; and no one, certainly, walking through the beautiful aisles and cloisters of that once sumptuous establishment, could suppose that so much ecclesiastical grandeur took its rise from these little Irish cellulæ, scarce better at their best than well-constructed hovels. Still more surprise would the visitor of the splendid French foundation experience, were he told that Fursey's at

tachment to his Irish hermitage had brought him back to spend the evening of his life on those rugged crags, and to seek a grave under the rude pillarstone which at a little distance still marks the sepulchre of the Four Beautiful Saints.

The "Church of Beauties" preserves its altar-a not inelegant piece of masonry, with a corniced slab or top. A bracket, adorned with a corresponding moulding, projects from the wall at the north side, just above. A square hole in the centre of the altar slab may have received the foot of a cross. The remains of an ogeed window, however, lying among the ruins, indicate a comparatively recent period for these remains. Closely adjoining their cell is the equally diminutive and ruinous one of the Ladies of Honour. Of these ladies I find no mention made in the books. About two hundred yards higher up the hill, stands one of those singular stone cave-houses illustrated by Petrie, called Cloghan-a-Phooka. This Cloghan differs from all others that I have seen or heard of, in being divided internally into two apartments. Externally the structure presents the appearance of a rude cairn, or pile of stones, about thirty feet in length and eighteen in breadth, by twelve or fourteen feet high. Two low doorways, like entrances to an artificial cave, in the middle of either side, admit to the interior, an oblong apartment twentytwo feet long by ten broad. One end of this space, about ten feet by seven, is cut off by a low cross-wall, having a doorway in the middle, and apertures serving as windows at either side. The inner apartment derives its light through these, and over the top of the cross-wall, from the outer one, but this latter enjoys no light save what enters by the low doors. The cross-wall may have been of subsequent erection, but it appears to be of contemporaneous workmanship. The roof of this singular dwelling is formed by the approximation of successive stone courses of the building, to within a couple of feet at the top, where it is covered in with Hat stones. No trace of chimney, hearth, or window is discernible. The door towards the north is now blocked up by the fall of debris from above, but appears to have been formerly flanked by walls forming a little enclosure externally at each side. In many cabins I have observed the same arrangement

of two opposite doors, one of which, according to the quarter from which the wind blows, excludes the cold, while the other serves for the admission of light. I find it hard to reconcile myself to the idea that these were the dwellings of Christian ecclesiastics. They betoken far more of the power and energy of the Pagan period, when great fortresses were erected for the living, and great sepulchres for the dead. Mortar has been employed in all the early churches, but in none of these; neither have I seen nor heard of any Christian symbol, such as a cross or other ecclesiastical token, on any of them. Yet from the situation of some of these, represented by Dr. Petrie, they appear to have formed portions of monastic establishments. O'Flaherty (West Connaught, p. 68) speaks of some of greater size than any that now remain. 66 They," he says, speaking of the Arran people, " have cloghans, a kind of building of stones layd one upon another, which are brought to a roof without any manner of mortar to cement them, some of which cabins will hold forty men on their floor; soe ancient nobody knows how long agoe any of them was made. Scarcity of wood, and store of fit stones, without peradventure, found out the first invention." Clochan-a-Phooka would hold about twenty persons. It is not within any ecclesiastical precinct; and the same may be said of Clochan-a-Carrigy, illustrated by Petrie, which lies to the left of the road, beyond the creek of Kilmurvy, at a still greater distance from any church. My own impression would be that they are gentile dwellings, found vacant by the first Christian recluses, and by them inhabited for want of better.

Proceeding towards the creek of Port Murvy, which penetrates a considerable distance into the island, we arrive at a series of wayside monuments, pillars, crosses, standing-stones, and cairns of modern as well as ancient date, marking the boundary between the two divisions of the island, the southern pertaining to the monastery of Enda, at Killany, and the northern to that of St. Brecan, at the Seven Churches, lying about three miles north from Port Murvy. From the traditions of the islanders, as well as from some passages in the Acta, it would appear that this division was not effected without considerable

commotion. Descending to Port Murvy we catch sight of Dun-Angus, lying inward from the head of the vale, on the Atlantic brow of the opposite eminence. But before reaching Dun-Angus we have still further Christian antiquities to encounter.

Port Murvy derives its name from the Fir-Volg chief, Muirbheach Mil, some remains of whose Dun still encircle the precinct occupied by the Church of Mac Duagh. Teampul-Mic-Duagh is an edifice of the end of the sixth, or beginning of the seventh century. The Cathedral of Colman, the son of Duagh, on the mainland of Clare, was founded in A.D. 610, and this church, probably, was erected at an earlier period of his la bours. The body of the church is evidently the original building. It is of considerable size, and built of stones which in any other region would be regarded as enormous. Four and five stones in length, and five and six in height, form some of the courses of the side walls. It is distinguished by the "flat rectangular projections or pilasters of masonry at the angles, described by Petrie, in connexion with his illustration of the Church of Mac Dara. Mac Duach's Church wears an iron aspect, as well on account of the rusty colour of the stone, as of the severity and solidity of the building. The east end of the original edifice has been thrown open, and a chancel has been added. The heavy limestone block, with its semicircular indentation, which formed the top of the original round-headed east window, still lies on the ground, at the end of the church; just as at Clonmacnoise, the stone which served the same purpose in the east window of the cathedral there, having been removed, to make way for a Gothic chancel, in the thirteenth century, has been preserved at the foot of the great cross, where it now serves as a species of chair-back within which rheumatic patients repose their shoulders. The addition at Teampul Mic Duach is easily distinguished from the original building by the appearance of the masonry, as well as by the parapetted side walls rising, as I have already remarked, to so great a height, for the protection of that end of the roof. A cairn and standing-stone, decorated with an ornamental cross, mark the grave of some unknown holy person, immediately in front of the western doorway. This church stands immediately be

Leaving the curtilage and grazingfields of Kilmurvy, and turning to the left, we again ascend the rocky eminence, and after a walk of half-a-mile, reach the outer rampart of Dun-Angus, a dry stone wall of about three feet in thickness. This circumvallation encloses a space of eleven acres. A similar wall on each side of the avenue flanks it onward from the outer entrance to a second line of rampart, lying close to the main body of the fortress. This second wall apparently consisted of a banquette and parapet, as it is built in two sections, each about four feet thick. All round the base of this second rampart, and extending from it over the space between it and the outer wall, sharp-pointed fragments of rock are pitched on end, covering the whole surface with an abbatis of stone, so thick and intricate that even now it is with difficulty one can approach the place save by the

avenue.

This multitude of long grey stones, standing arrayed round the base of the fortress, like infinite headstones of the dead, amazes and confounds the eye. Within the second rampart, the space to the central fortress is clear, and the avenue conducts direct to the entrance, which is still perfect, about the middle of the eastern front of the building. On a larger scale, it exactly resembles the lowbrowed doorway to a clochan, and must at all times have been entered on foot. Owing to the accumulation of debris at present, the visitor must climb in on hands and knees under the wide, massive lintel stones. At the right, on entering, are the remains of a flight of steps conducting to the lower banquette, the form of which is with difficulty traceable among the masses of fallen stone. One or two other indications of stairs may be detected; but were it not for the very distinct construction of the rampart in three concentric sections, one would be at a loss to understand the principle of the construction. ascending the mound, however, the three concentric walls are seen in perfect distinctness, the middle one rising through the ruins of the other two, save in one or two points, where the exterior envelope still stands to near

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its original height; but all are so shaken and disjointed, that heaps of the loose masonry slide down at every footstep; and after a few years, I fear, the whole will be involved in undistinguishable ruin. These several circumvallations, and the ramparts of the inner fortress itself, abut on the verge of the cliff, which all along overhangs its base, and is constantly parting with fragments, that plunge into the depths of the Atlantic. It cannot well be supposed that the builders would leave one-third of the central area unprotected; and as there is no fence whatever towards the verge of the cliff, and the walls are continued close up to it, without any indication of a regular termination, the inference can hardly be resisted, that a considerable portion of the area of Dun-Angus has been swallowed up in the sea, and that in process of time the whole will follow. Although it was moderate weather when I visited it, the Atlantic, breaking among the undercut cliffs beneath, sent up a sound like distant artillery. A log of timber from a shipwreck, jambed in a fissure of the rock, sixty or seventy feet above high-water mark, showed what the sea must be in time of storm. I quitted the dizzy, crumbling ramparts with a profound impression of wonder and sadness.

Turning northward from Dun-Angus, a rough walk over crags and down rugged pathways, brought us to the minor fortress of Dun-Onagh, which is in somewhat better preservation, owing partly to its less exposed position, and partly to the more massive character of its masonry; and thence regaining the highway, which we had left at Port Murvy, proceeded to the Seven Churches, the ecclesiastical establishment of St. Brecan. Dr. Petrie has given an engraving of the tombstone of Brecan, with its inscription, ci Brecani, and also of a singular spherical black stone, found in the saint's grave, with the legend, or ar Brecain n'ailither"Pray for Brecan, the Pilgrim." It is startling to find these memorials of a person who died in the early part of the sixth century. Of their authenticity, there cannot be the least doubt:

"The monumental stone was discovered about forty years ago, within a circular enclosure, known as St. Brecan's tomb, at a depth of about six feet from the surface, on the occasion of its being first opened to receive the body of a distinguished and popu

lar Roman Catholic ecclesiastic, who made a dying request to be buried in his grave. Under the stone within the sepulchre there was also found on this occasion a small waterworn stone of black calp, or limestone" (being the stone with the second inscription above referred to).-Round Towers, p. 139.

Brecan's churches nestle, like several of the others, under the brow of rock, in a ravine opening towards the sea. A well, springing forth at the foot of the crag, adds its inducement to those of shelter and accessibility. All the extremely old buildings have disappeared, and the place at present shows the remains of an Irish monastic establishment of, I should suppose, the tenth or eleventh century. Two walls encircle the precinct, of which the inner one has been battlemented, and both preserve their ancient entrancedoorways, the external one being of the antique square-headed pattern, and the internal one semicircular. The tombs of Brecan, and of the Seven Romans, and of certain "Mainach" (Monachi, I suppose), are the only inscribed monuments. In the west wall of the principal church, an inscribed stone has been let into the wall, which appears to be another monument of the same Brecan. In the Continental churches one often sees the sarcophagi of early Christians built into the walls; and the insertion of this stone in the Church of St. Brecan seems to be an example of the same practice. The principal church here has its chancel, and well-wrought semicircular chancel-arch. А сара

cious circular font is sunk on a level with the ground at the back of this building. All betokens a considerable advance on the rude condition of the first recluses. In the eastern portion of the cemetery, are pointed out the graves of certain unknown saints. One stone only in this precinct bears an inscription, that mentioned by Petrie, in memory of the Seven Romans. In the fifth and sixth centuries, the passion for eremitical seclusion prevailed to an extent that may be called epidemical; and Gauls, Saxons, Romans, and Egyptians, males and females, wandered into different parts of Ireland in search of solitude and its contemplative excitements. It might very well be called another Thebais, filled as it was with societies leading this kind of visionary and ecstatical existence. To sit habitually on these rocks of Arran, and listen to the continuous

sound of the waves, were enough in itself to throw the mind into a kind of trance open to the reception of a thousand fantasies. Certainly, there are other intoxications besides those of drugs and liquors, which unfit men for a useful existence, and are equally open to the reproach of selfishness. These islands, when Enda first obtained his alleged grant of them from Angus King of Cashel, had no population to instruct all the souls to be cured were on the mainland. It seems to have been solely as a place of retirement for the indulgence of contemplative gratifications, that Arran was selected by him and by his followers. Thence, indeed, they afterwards sent out ecclesiatics, who built churches and preached the Gospel for the people; but here, as in all the other eremitical Lauras of Christendom, the objects immediately sought were retirement from the duties of social life and opportunity of visionary enjoyment. Curiosity and antiquarian zeal, and the fashionable character of the topic in certain circles, will render these places, wherever they remain, objects of increasing attention to travellers; and as their true character becomes more generally known, it will probably shake, with a rude concussion, the fabric of Protestant opinion founded on the supposed perfection of the early Irish Church. Any Protestant who looks outside the Scriptures for corroboration of his faith, will find little to strengthen him in Irish ecclesiastical antiquity. He may see much to reflect on with philosophical profit; much to increase his respect for the historical traditions of a people whose annals are corroborated out of every corner of their island; but evidence of this kind he will find little to reflect on with complacency. It is not surprising that the pursuit of this branch of antiquity has excited an alarm which manifests itself so palpably in one of our learned institutions. But it is surprising, that means more philosophical have not been resorted to for counteracting one of the necessary evils of increased knowledge; and that the demonstrations elicited should have betrayed so much more of boyish petulancy than of the grave resistance of men of learning. people themselves, so fine-natured, genial, and intelligent, are more worthy of regard than all their monuments from the fifth century downward. The project of getting rid of such a people,

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with the view of supplying their places out of any other population, can only have been conceived in ignorance of what they are, or in the wantonness of a malevolent ethnological jealousy. The same obliging disposition that characterises the people of the less frequented islands, shows itself in equally amiable ways among the inhabitants of Arran More. In the neighbourhood of the Seven Churches they preserve a grateful recollection of the interest taken in the preservation of their antiquities by Dr. Wilde, during a visit to these islands several years ago. At his instance the fragments of a richly-sculptured stone cross, which had long lain scattered in different directions about the ruins, were brought together, adapted to one another, and laid in their places on a smooth, flat rock, forming part of the threshing-floor of Martin O'Flaherty, the guardian of the ruins. The fragments have been surrounded with a low wall of dry stone, to keep off the trespass of cattle, and are an object of much respect and the source of very grateful feeling towards their restorer. I also succeeded in collecting from various quarters of the ruins and surrounding stonewall fences, the fragments of another cross of greater dimensions, but ruder workmanship, which is now laid side by side with that restored by Dr. Wilde. On one side is a sculpture of the crucifixion, of extremely barbarous design; the other is carved with knots and patterns of interlaced work of the usual kind. It is understood that the Dublin Exhibition of 1853 will contain plaster casts of several of the most sumptuous of this class of monuments. They were the chief objects of sculptural ornamentation among the ancient Irish, as with the Scots, Manx, and Britons. Nothing of the kind, however, in other countries, can compare, either in size or richness of decoration, with the Irish crosses of Monasterboyce, Clonmac noise, and Arboe, all of which will, it is said, be represented by accurate models in the "Darganeum." The use of the interlaced pattern as peculiar to early Christian monuments, is by no means confined to the western parts of Europe; it figures on all the earliest Christian remains on the Continent, although, strange to say, its first appearance as an adjunct to architectural decoration, is on the palace of the persecuting Dioclesian, at Spalatro. That it had