Oak paddles, well formed, and measuring about 4 feet in length, often occur in connexion with the canoes. It is very probable that the _Currach_ or ‘cot’ formed of basket-work, covered with skin of the cow, horse, or deer, was in use amongst the lake-dwellers. Owing to the perishable nature of the materials none of these have been found. That they were used at an early period in the British Isles is attested by Roman writers. The primitive willow-ribbed and basket-woven cot, with water-tight covering, has been used by the fishermen on the Boyne down to our own day. The canvas-covered skiffs of to-day in Clare, Galway, the Aran Isles, Mayo, and Donegal are the survivals of a similar type which have been used by the dwellers on the Atlantic coast from early times. CHAPTER X. ORATORIES: EARLY CHURCHES. EARLY MONASTIC LIFE--SKELLIG MICHAEL--GALLERUS--KILMALKEDAR--BISHOP’S ISLAND--HIGH ISLAND--INISMURRAY--DESCRIPTION OF EARLY CHURCHES-- KILLINEY--KILTERNAN--ST. MAC DARA’S CHURCH--GLENDALOUGH AND ITS CHURCHES--STONE-ROOFED BUILDINGS--FRIAR’S ISLAND--ST. COLUMBA’S HOUSE, KELLS--ST. FLANNAN’S CHURCH. It was long considered an established fact that the churches of Ireland, previous to the twelfth century, were altogether constructed of wood, or wattles daubed with clay. It was consequently held, on the authority of Ware, that there remained in the country not a single example of church architecture of a period much antecedent to A.D. 1148, in which year died Malachy O’Morgair, who is stated to have erected at Bangor the first ecclesiastical building of stone that had ever appeared in Ireland. The well-directed labours of George Petrie, in seeking among the archæological remains themselves for evidence by which their era might be determined, and in adducing the testimony of Irish manuscripts relative to such structures as were in use at the time of their composition, removed the veil of obscurity which had so long shrouded the subject of Irish ecclesiastical antiquities. He showed that the country not only contains examples of church architecture of the earliest period of Christianity in the kingdom, but also that they exhibit many characteristics of exceptional interest. Though wood appears to have been the material of which the first churches were built, where stone was not abundant and otherwise unused, they were subsequently constructed of stone, and from their small size and peculiar features are among the most interesting remains now existing. The buildings called oratories were evidently intended for the private devotions of the founders, whose graves are so frequently to be found in their immediate neighbourhood. The most singular of these are in the west and south-west of Ireland, and they are generally in sequestered and isolated spots, not only on the small and almost inaccessible islands off the coast, but on mountain tops and lonely lake islands. [Illustration: Clochaun na Carriage, Aran Island.]