The  monks  in  surrounding  the  ecclesiastical  village  with
a  rath  or  caiseal,  adopted  no  new  contrivance.  It  was  the
custom  of  the  country  to  surround  the  home  of  everv
chieftain's  family  with  a  similar  defence,  which  the  unsettled
state  of  the  country  at  the  time  rendered  very  necessarv

The  principal  building  within  the  monastic  enclosure  was
of  course  the  church.  If  it  were  a  cathedral  church,  or  one
of  the  greater  abbey  churches,  it  was  usually  built  of  stone


THE    BUILDTNns.  9,5

nnd  termed  in  Graer^hlica  daimhliag,  that  is,  the  stone-house
by  excellence ;  because  very  many  of  the  churches  of  an
inferior  kind  were  built  of  more  perishable  materials,  com-
posed of  clay  and  wood,  or  wattle*!.  Hence  Colgan  used  the
Latin  word  '  Basilica,'  as  equivalent  to  the  Irish  term,
daimhliag.  Churches  of  this  kind  varied  of  course  in  dirnen-
iions,  but  were  relatively  large ;  generally  speaking,  they
were  about  60  feet  in  length  and  30  broad.i  If  the  church
were  merely  an  oratory  for  the  abbbt  and  his  monks,  along
with  such  casual  strangers  as  might  happen  to  be  present  at
the  time,  it  was  called  a  duirtheach,  and  in  the  southern  and
western  parts  of  the  country,  where  stone  abounded,  and
wood  was  scarce,  it  was  frequently  built  of  stone  as  in  Kerry
and  Galway.  But  far  more  frequently,  especially  in  the  east
and  north-east,  it  was  built  of  wood,  which  explains  the
frequent  reference  in  our  annals  to  the  burning  of  buildings
of  this  character.^  The  term  itself  was  derived  from  daire,
an  oak  wood.
