Hundred Years After Christian Era Architecture
Above: Early Irish architecture
A hundred years after the Christian era the four great fortresses of Ireland were erected or enlarged by Tuathal Teachtmhar at Tlachtgha, Taillte, Teamhair and Uisneach. Tara was extended at the hands of many successive kings. Though the Fiana favoured the outdoor life, all the great kings of our race had their architects. The names of some, indeed, are preserved amongst those of the world’s great builders, notably Car, builder of Cashel; Righriu and Garb-ban, builders of Aileach ; Bole, builder of Cruachan ; Troigleathan, of Tara ; Balor, of Breise ; and Criceal of Ailinn.
The house of the flaith was called a lios. A lios surrounded by a clay fence, in the shelter of which was a pen for cattle, was called a rath. A wall of uncemented stones surrounding the lios was a caiseal; some of the caiseals exceeded 220 feet across. The dun was the residence of the king. A dun, on a point, headland or promontory, connected by a narrow neck with the adjoining land, was protected by a high wall drawn across the neck. A dun, with a stone wall inside, was called a cathair. Most of the cathairs, circular in shape, had platforms on the inside, connected by alternating flights of steps, and reaching almost to the top of the main wall: from these the defenders were able to fling volleys of stones or other convenient missiles. As in Greece, special compartments, over the front of the house, were set apart for the women. Other classes of buildings were the brugh, both, bothan and so on.
Religious buildings included the daimhliag, temple, cell, reilg, eaglais, cro, clochar, monastery. With the spread of the faith, many duns were converted into churches. Kings and chieftains on their conversion offered their duns to God, and cells and oratories soon arose within them. Some confusion thus arose in the naming of them, as in the case of Rathboth, now Raphoe. So, too, it would be difficult to say now whether buildings like Cathair na Mactireach in Corca Dhuibhne were originally duns or churches. Many cells are there enclosed, and the edges of the stones sometimes protrude beyond the door wall to strengthen it. The doors, moreover, are narrower on the inside. Though the measurements of St. Patrick‘s fearta near Ard Macha were, by the Apostle’s own advice, caiseal 140 feet, daimhliag 27 feet, kitchen 17 feet, oratory 7 feet, and these were the usual dimensions of the principal churches of the time, the early Irish monks, like those of the East, went into the wilderness and spent their lives in solitary contemplation of the goodness of God. Some of them lived in caves and cells ; and in the east of Ireland the cells, made of wood, soon perished. Examples are afforded by Mobhi’s cells at Glasnevin when visited by Colm Cille, and by Brigid‘s house at Kildare, which was made of wattles. Stone cells, accommodating at the outset a single person, were the order in the south and west, where, unlike the east, they still survive, and contrast very unfavourably with the Pagan architecture which preceded them. But disparities like these are true of all periods and of all countries, true of ancient Athens as of the modern capital of Greece.
