CHAPTER II.

Monuments of Druidism--Druids--Cairns--Cromlechs--Baal, worship of--Zodiacal rings--Sacred fires--Druidical religion--Sir Edward Coke, on--Groves--Immense fortresses--Dun Ængus--Its situation, dimensions, etc.--Dun Conor--Christian remains--St. Enda, romantic story of--His hapless love--Becomes a monk--Obtains grant of Aran from King of Cashel--St. Brendon--His leaving Aran for countries beyond the Atlantic--Rendered into verse by Denis Florence MacCarthy--St. Columba, his grief at leaving Aran--Rendered into verse by Sir Aubrey De Vere--St. Fursa--Residence in Aran--Pilgrimage to Rome--Buried in Aran--Aran monuments, pagan and Christian, vested in Board of Works--Churches facing the east--The north--Cloghauns--Dwellings of the monks--_Teampul-Chiarain_--_Teampul McDuach_--Holy well--Childless marriages--Description of churches--Lonely lives of the monks--One of the Popes said to be buried in Aran--Ordnance Survey--Its vast stores of learning unprinted 13