g chief, Celtcar, whose huge
embattled hill of earth still rises formidable over the Quoyle River. In
the year 823, we read, Dundalathglas was plundered by the Gentiles; but
the story does not stop here, for we are further told that these same
Gentiles were beaten by the Ulad armies not far from the great fort of
Celtcar. This is the first entry of this tenor. Hitherto, the Northmen
seem to have fallen only on outlying religious communities, in remote
islands or on the seashore; but this last raid brought them to one of
the very few church-schools which had been built close to a strong
fortress, with the result that the Northmen were beaten and driven back
into their ships.

Three years later the Gentiles plundered Lusk on the mainland opposite
Lambay, but in that same year they were twice defeated in battle, once
by Cairbre son of Catal, and once by the king of Ulad. The raids of the
Norse warriors grow more frequent and determined from this time; in
itself a testimony to the wealth and prosperity of the country, the
abundance of gold and of accumulated riches, whether cattle or corn,
ornaments or richly dyed stuffs, red and purple and blue. Word seems to
have been carried to the wild hills and fiords of frozen Scandinavia
that here was booty in abundance, and the pirate hordes came down
in swarms.

Thus we read that Armagh, the center of St. Patrick's work, and the
chief home of learning, was thrice plundered in 830, the raiders sailing
up Carlingford Lough and then making a dash of some fifteen miles across
the undulating country separating them from the city of churches. This
is the first time they ventured out of sight of their boats. Two years
later they plundered Clondalkin, nine miles inland from the Dublin
coast, where the Round Tower still marks the site of the old church and
school. To the growing frequency of these raids, it would seem, the
building of Round Towers is to be attributed; they were at once belfries
and places of refuge. We find, therefore, that the door is almost always
many feet above the ground, being reached by a ladder afterwards drawn
up by those inside. The number of these Round Towers all over the
country, and the perfect preservation of many of them, show how
universal this precaution was, and how effective were the refugees thus
provided. It is instructive to read under this same year, 832, that "a
great number of the family of Clonmacnoise were slain by Feidlimid king
of Cashel, all