Plan of Cashel and Monastic Settlement, Inismurray.
In addition to the beehive cells already mentioned there are within the cashel of Inismurray three small churches. Teach Molaise, ‘House of St. Molaise,’ named after the patron Saint of the island, is the most interesting; it measures internally 9 feet by 8 feet, with walls of great thickness sustaining a complete stone roof. They are built of stones, generally of large size, and set with mortar in irregular courses; all except those forming the doorway and window casings are rough and unhewn. Teampull-na-Bfear is perhaps more of a church than an oratory, and forms an oblong 25½ feet by 12 feet. The ground on which it stands is the burial-place for men, that for women being at Teampull-na-mBan, or the ‘Women’s Church,’ outside the cashel to the north-west. It is believed by the islanders that if a woman is buried in the men’s ground the corpse will be removed, during the night, by unseen hands to the women’s cemetery, and vice versâ. Teampull-na-Teindh, or the ‘Church of fire,’ is the most modern, and probably dates from the fourteenth century. There are three altars also within the cashel, besides others without, numerous cross-inscribed stones, two holy wells with beehive stone coverings, and the stations of the pilgrims. The last station is Reilick Odrain, the ‘Cemetery of Odrain, or Oran,’ the companion of St. Columba, who also gave his name to a burial-place, Reilig Oran in Iona. St. Molaise or Laisrén, of Inismurray, is not to be confounded with St. Molaisi Diamhinsi, or Devenish, son of Nadfraoich, whose festival day is the 12th September. In Devenish Island in Lough Erne will be found the house or oratory of this saint, the walls of which were built of massive stones, but the cell is now in ruins.
The progress of Christianity in Ireland in the first few centuries of its establishment, and the missionary zeal of its apostles abroad, brought the Church into close union with ecclesiastical foundations in Britain and on the continent of Europe. To the connection thus established is doubtless due the marked improvement in the architecture of the early Christian churches from the primitive oratories, although in these we see an advance in certain features on the pagan clochaun. The early Churches show a further development in dressed masonry, mortar-built walls, and high pitched roof, and, in point of antiquity, they may be classed amongst the most remarkable structures of primitive Christian times now to be found in Europe. Of their usual characteristics we shall here give a brief description, referring the reader who may desire more than a general sketch to Petrie’s work, the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, in which the subject has been fully discussed.
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Doorway, Church of St. Colman Mac Duach, Aran Island.
Doorways.—The doorways are generally inclined and are covered by a horizontal lintel, or headed with a semicircular arch, springing from plain, square-edged imposts. Occasionally the arch is cut out of a single stone. At Glendalough are examples in which the lintel is surmounted by a semicircular arch, the space between being filled up with masonry. The stones generally extend the whole thickness of the wall. Few of the very early doorways exhibit any kind of decoration beyond a plain projecting band, of which there are some fine examples at Glendalough. The door appears to have been placed against the interior face of the wall, as in many instances the stones, for a distance of about three inches from the angle, have been slightly hollowed, evidently for the reception of a frame. Great blocks of stone form the lintels of some of the churches; that of St. Fechin, of Fore, Westmeath, measures 6 feet by 2 feet, and is the full thickness of the wall—3 feet. The lintel of St. Colman’s, Kilmacduagh, is nearly of the same dimensions; and the doorway of the church of the same saint within the cashel, at Kilmurvey, has a lintel 5½ feet long, 1½ feet high, and extends the full thickness of the wall—2½ feet.
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Window, Teampull Ceanannach, or Kilcananagh, Aran.