Mr. Muir then describes “another building, an underground cell of irregular oval shape ([Fig. 27]), measuring 5 feet 4 inches by 4 feet 5 inches, with a depth of rather more than 4 feet. The roof is formed simply by a few heavy slabs laid across the walls on a level with the ground outside, and the entrance is by a slanting aperture ([Fig. 28]), just where the roof and the walls unite. Two other buildings ([Fig. 29]), forming a part of this curious group, remain to be described. These are dome-shaped and joined together; the larger one internally 14 feet in diameter, the other about a foot less. The two buildings communicate with each other by means of a square-shaped doorway through the point of contact, and the larger one with the outside by another doorway of the like kind facing the south-west; but with the exception of a square aperture at the ground, more like a gutter hole than a door, there is no external opening in the smaller building.”[63] The dome of the smaller structure is complete, but that of the larger is ruined. ([Fig. 30.])
The island of Naomh was often visited by Columba, and the establishment of which the above fragments are the remains is believed to have been that originally founded by St. Brendan, and afterwards refounded by Columba. Near the shore St. Columba’s well still survives.
One cannot fail to recognise in the above description a striking resemblance to the early monastic establishments of Ireland. We here find the same dry-built quadrilateral church, with door having sloping jambs, and the same beehive huts with domed roofs.[64]
Fig. 30.—Beehive Huts on Eilean Naomh. (From Scotland in Early Christian Times.)
SKEABOST, Skye.
“In an islet in the river Snizort at this place there is an open burying-ground
