In examining the existing ruins there is a peculiarity which cannot fail to be observed. On the north side of the abbey church, and at a little distance from it, is a chapel or oratory, about 33 feet long by 16 broad. This chapel, however, is not parallel to the abbey church, but has an entirely different orientation. It points more to the north, and the deflection amounts to no less than fourteen degrees. If the chapel was connected with the abbey church, it is impossible to account for this variation; but if it existed before the abbey church was built, we can quite understand that the orientation of the latter may have been quite irrespective of the former. Alongside of this chapel are the foundations of a large hall, probably a refectory, which have the same orientation. Then on the west of the ruins is a building which goes by the name of Columba’s House, and this, too, has nearly the same orientation. It was, no doubt, the abbot’s house. On the south side of the present ruins there is, at a little distance, another chapel called St. Mary’s Chapel, and here again we find the same orientation. It can hardly be doubted that these buildings formed part of the establishment which preceded the Benedictine monastery, and this is confirmed by the discovery, between the abbot’s house and the abbey church, of the foundations of an enclosure, the pavement of which consists of monumental stones, two of them bearing Irish inscriptions of the same character as the two oldest in the Relic Orain. Footnote 564: Martin, in his account of Iona, speaking of St. Martin’s cross says—‘At a little farther distance is _Dun Ni Manich_, i.e. _the monks’ fort_, built of stone and lime in the form of a bastion, pretty high. From this eminence the monks had a view of all the families in the _Isle_, and at the same time enjoyed the free air’ (page 259). Dr. Reeves remarks ‘that the artificial part does not now exist.’ He looked for it, however, on the small eminence called Torr Abb; but immediately behind it is a higher rocky eminence which better answers the description, now called _Cnoc nan Carnan_, or the hillock of the heaps or cairns, on which the remains of a fortification with outworks are still quite discernible. Footnote 565: Printed in Messingham’s _Florilegium_, p. 399, and Pinkerton, _Vitæ Sanctorum_, p. 459. Footnote 566: From _Blath_, beautiful, and _Mac_, a son. Footnote 567: ... Quam quippe suis de sedibus arcam Tollentes tumulo terra posuere cavato Cespite sub denso.... This reminds one of St. Cuthbert’s ‘sarcophagus terræ cespite abditus.’ Footnote 568: The shrine appears to have been hid by the monks, and Blathmac purposely remained ignorant of the spot where they buried it. Footnote 569: