The Life of St. Declan of Ardmore | Page 6

ORATORY near the Cathedral and Round Tower in the graveyard, (b)
his STONE on the beach, (c) his WELL on the cliff, and (d)
ANOTHER STONE said to have been found in his 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 Stone" was a small, cross-inscribed jet-black
piece of slate or marble, approximately--2" or 3" x 1 1/2". Formerly it
seems to have had a small silver cross inset and was in great demand
locally as an amulet for cattle curing. It disappeared however, some
fifty years or so since, but very probably it could still be recovered in
Dungarvan.
Far the most striking of all the monuments at Ardmore is, of course, the
Round Tower which, in an excellent state of preservation, stands with
its conical cap of stone nearly a hundred feet high. Two remarkable, if
not unique, features of the tower are the series of sculptured corbels
which project between the floors on the inside, and the four projecting
belts or zones of masonry which divide the tower into storeys
externally. The tower's architectural anomalies are paralleled by its
history which is correspondingly unique: it stood a regular siege in
1642, when ordnance was brought to bear on it and it was defended by
forty confederates against the English under Lords Dungarvan and
Broghil.
A few yards to north of the Round Tower stands "The Cathedral"
illustrating almost every phase of ecclesiastical architecture which
flourished in Ireland from St. Patrick to the Reformation--Cyclopean,
Celtic-Romanesque, Transitional and Pointed. The chancel arch is
possibly the most remarkable and beautiful illustration of the
Transitional that we have. An extraordinary feature of the church is the
wonderful series of Celtic arcades and panels filled with archaic
sculptures in relief which occupy the whole external face of the west
gable.
St. Declan's foundation at Ardmore seems (teste Moran's Archdall) to
have been one of the Irish religious houses which accepted the reform
of Pope Innocent at the Lateran Council and to have transformed itself
into a Regular Canonry. It would however be possible to hold, on the
evidence, that it degenerated into a mere parochial church. We hear
indeed of two or three episcopal successors of the saint, scil.:--Ultan
who immediately followed him, Eugene who witnessed a charter to the

abbey of Cork in 1174, and Moelettrim O Duibhe-rathre who died in
1303 after he had, according to the annals