The principal buildings of this earliest monastery were, as Adamnan clearly indicates, constructed entirely of wood and wattles, and therefore we cannot expect to find any remains of them to mark the precise spot on which they stood. The present ruins are the remains of stone buildings constructed at a much later period; but we should expect to be able to trace the course of the _vallum_, or rampart, which bounded the original monastery, and must have been, as is usual, either an earthen rampart, or one composed of mixed earth and stones, if it was not a stone _cashel_. We should expect, too, to find some indications of what formed its cemetery or burial ground. Then the stream which issues from the Lochan Mor, and is termed the Mill-stream, must have turned the wheel of a small mill; and near it we should find the remains of the kiln, which was of course a stone building.[187] On the north side of the Mill-stream, near its issue from the lake, is an elevated piece of ground, rectangular in shape, flat on the top, and in part enclosed at the sides, which does not appear to be artificial, though adapted to some purpose. Where this abuts on the stream are the remains of a stone kiln. On its western side, at a little distance from where the stream issues from the lake, is the commencement of an outer rampart, composed of mixed earth and stones, which extends to the end of the plateau and then proceeds north between the lake and the plain, passing the two isolated rocky knolls on the east side, and terminates in two parallel straight terraces about one hundred and eighty yards long. These are termed _Iomaire nan achd ann an breithe_, or ‘the Ridge of the Acts in judgment,’ and approach within about fifty yards of the rocky knoll which bounds this plain on the north. Such indications as Adamnan gives of the site of the monastic buildings would place them on the sloping ground between this rampart and the channel. He mentions the _vallum_, or rampart, the _canaba_, or kiln, and the _horreum_, or barn by name; and, though he does not expressly mention a mill, he shows that there was one, as he tells us that one of the crosses was placed in a mill-stone as a pedestal.[188] He speaks of the _monasterium_, or monastery proper, in terms which show that it contained a refectory of considerable size, in which was a fireplace and a vessel of water.[189] He mentions the _hospitium_, or guest-chamber, which was wattled,[190] and the houses, or cells of the monks, with the _plateola_, or little court, which they surrounded,[191] and he indicates that these monastic buildings were constructed of wood.[192] He repeatedly mentions the church with its _exedra_, or side chamber, and terms it an oratorium, which shows that it was a _Duirthech_ or oak building.[193] He frequently alludes to the house, or cell, occupied by Columba himself, which he says was built of planks and placed on the highest part of the