_Monasterboice._--There is a fine example at Monasterboice, within about six miles of Drogheda. The churches, the tower, and the magnificent crosses of this ancient foundation form a group of ecclesiastical antiquities in some respects unsurpassed in Ireland. A description of the crosses will be found in the previous chapter. The tower, the erection of which there is every reason to refer to an early period, is one of particular interest, exhibiting, as it does, a decorated doorway, the head of which is cut out of two stones laid horizontally one above the other. A band extends round the head and down the sides of the doorway, but terminates on a level with the sill, or rather turns off at a right angle, passing horizontally for a distance of eight inches, from which point it ascends, and running upwards round the doorway head, gives the appearance of a double band. A space between the bands, upon each side of the upper part of the doorway, and one upon the semicircular arched head, left uncut, appear suggestive of the cross. The window immediately over the doorway may be looked upon as a characteristic example of the opening found in a similar position in most of the towers, and which is supposed to have answered the purpose of a second doorway, or to have been designed for the purpose of affording persons within the tower some means of defending the entrance beneath. In this example, however, it is unusually small. The other windows are square-headed, as were also the large apertures of the uppermost storey.[127] The masonry is good, and characteristic of an early period; the stones are large, well fitted together, and pass through a considerable thickness of the wall, as was observed in the injured upper portion of the structure. The tower has been well repaired by the Board of Works, and flights of steps laid from floor to floor, by which the summit of the top storey can be reached. A church of very primitive construction, and probably several centuries older than the tower, stands in the cemetery, at a little distance to the north-east of the other remains. Its only doorway is placed, as usual, in the centre of the west gable. It is square-headed, and possesses every indication of great antiquity; but the accumulation of the churchyard soil has buried the lower portion at least to a depth of several feet. The church consisted of a nave and chancel; the latter has been destroyed, but a plain semicircular chancel arch remains. The church immediately adjoining the round tower is obviously an erection of the early part of the thirteenth century. * * * * * [Illustration: Doorway of Kildare Tower.]