tomb and preserved at Ardmore for long ages with great
reveration. The "Life" refers moreover to the saint's pastoral staff and
his bell but these have disappeared for centuries.

The "Oratory" is simply a primitive church of the usual sixth century
type: it stands 13' 4" x 8' 9" in the clear, and has, or had, the usual
high-pitched gables and square-headed west doorway with inclining jambs.
Another characteristic feature of the early oratory is seen in the
curious antae or prolongation of the side walls. Locally the little
building is known as the "beannacan," in allusion, most likely, to
its high gables or the finials which once, no doubt, in Irish fashion,
adorned its roof. Though somewhat later than Declan's time this
primitive building is very intimately connected with the Saint.
Popularly it is supposed to be his grave and within it is a hollow space
scooped out, wherein it is said his ashes once reposed. It is highly
probable that tradition is quite correct as to the saint's grave, over
which the little church was erected in the century following Declan's
death. The oratory was furnished with a roof of slate by Bishop Mills in
1716.

"St. Declan's Stone" is a glacial boulder of very hard conglomerate
which lies on a rocky ledge of beach beneath the village of Ardmore.
It measures some 8' 6" x 4' 6" x 4' 0" and reposes upon two slightly
jutting points of the underlying metamorphic rock. Wonderful virtues are
attributed to St. Declan's Stone, which, on the occasion of the patronal
feast, is visited by hundreds of devotees who, to participate in its
healing efficacy and beneficence, crawl laboriously on face and hands
through the narrow space between the boulder and the underlying rock.
Near by, at foot of a new storm-wall, are two similar but somewhat
smaller boulders which, like their venerated and more famous neighbour,
were all wrenched originally by a glacier from their home in the
Comeragh Mountains twenty miles away.

"St. Declan's Well," beside some remains of a rather large and
apparently twelfth century church on the cliff, in the townland of
Dysert is diverted into a shallow basin in which pilgrims bathe feet
and hands. Set in some comparatively modern masonry over the well are
a carved crucifixion and other figures of apparently late mediaeval
character. Some malicious interference with this well led, nearly a
hundred years since, to much popular indignation and excitement.

The second "St. Declan's