Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Pococke's Tour in Ireland in 1752 (Author: Richard Pococke)
entry 55
On the 26th I went two miles south west, passing by an uncommon oval Castle at Newtown; the mountains of Burren appear to be stony, but the summits of most of them are round and appear as in beautiful Terraces. I came to Kilmacduagh situated on a rising ground over some little Loughs which are to the west. It is the See of an ancient Bishoprick now united to Clonfert and consists only of old buildings and of two or three Cabins; it was called the church of Duah: About the middle of the 6 th Century, it had the name of Kil-mac-duah, that is the church of the son of Duah, commonly called it seems Kil-macough. The first building that offers is the ancient Cathedral in the form of a Latin
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Cross; on the south side of which is an ancient Altar in good taste; under a relief of a Bishop is this inscription ‘Sanctus Coloman Patronus Totius Diecesis Duacensis’: In the middle is a crucifix and a person on each side with ‘ Ave Maria’ and some devotion round it: In the Oshugnussy chapel, the old Proprietors, is their tomb of the Corinthian order and I observed their arms the Castle of Gort supported by two Lyons. In that chapel there is a tomb with this inscription. ‘Orate pro anima Edmondi ocahel Praepositi et Canonici Duacensis 1742.’ To the south is a chapel called Shatrany. To the west in the church yard is a small cell where they say the Patron Saint was buried, and that the body was afterwards carried to Agherrim. Between this and the church is Macduagh's Chapel, in which there is a standing large dead Tree, of which they take pieces by way of Relicks; and to the south of this is a raised work of stone, which they call the Saints Bed. In the church yard is one of the round towers, if I mistake not; fifteen feet in diameter: it is finely built of stones well chosen, but do not seem to have been hammered and they are not all laid in regular courses, the lower Tier sets out 9 inches, the entrance is about twenty feet above the ground: there are five small windows round at top with pointed arches, and there about six others without any order in different parts: By measuring the shadow I concluded it to be about 82 feet high, a little of the point at top is broken off; this I think is the best I have seen after that of the church of Ardmore. To the east of the church is our Ladies chapel and to the north of it St. John Baptist's. To the north of it is the Monastery of Kilmacduagh, said to be of Regular Canons; it is on a neck of Land between two Loughs, of which authors mention, that they empty in summer by whirlpools; but I found that
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the water goes off only in a very dry summer and that rarely; when they do empty they catch Eeles and other fish. The church tho' small is a very neat building the pillars and arches of the entrance to the Altar part and of the east window are in a beautiful style, and the Angles at the east end, are work'd as in pillars, as at Lismore Cathedral: To the south of the church is a Sacristy, and adjoining to that a room, in which they probably deposited the valuable effects of the church, which because it is arch'd they call the jail. There is a chapel on the south of these, and a room which I conjectured might be a Refectory, and from the buildings, I imagined the Canons might live in separate houses not built in the best manner. To the north of the church is an old wall about two feet from the other, it is out of its level, and they have a story of its being a place of penance, and that penitents were used to get in between the wall and let themselves down by way of punishment. The Bishop's house to the north of St. John's Chapel, or as some call it the Seminary is a building of two rooms on a floor; what is singular is a building on the outside like a chimney, but from what I could gather, it was the stairs to which there is a passage, by a sort of a bow window which rests on one stone in the wall, from which they say the Benediction used to be given.