Building in Reachlainn Uí Bhirn

This building may well be a small oratory structure. It is described by Herity (1995, 87-8) as follows: ‘This is a tiny building of trapezoidal form, its long axis oriented 20 degrees south of east, with outer dimensions of 3.40m and 3.30m on the north and south sides and 2.85m and 3.12m on the west and east. The diagonals measure 4.45m SW/NE and 4.42m SE/NW indicating that the trapeze plan is symmetrical. The inner dimensions are 2.2 by 1.7 metres. The outer faces of the walls appear to be ancient, being built in a roughly coursed style of oblong blocks of the local granite. A very long stone, 2.20m in total length, forms the outer basal course of the north wall of the oratory. The inner faces of the east and south walls appear to be ruined or restored. The walling remains to a height of 85cm, the east wall being thus too low to preserve the remains of an east window, if one existed. The west wall appears to have been 46cm in thickness and the inner part of a doorway 52cm wide on the outer face is preserved near the centre. It seems likely that the original roof was an A-roof. Along the inner face of the north wall is a dry-built structure 1.45m long and 72cm high formed of flat blocks of felstone and topped with flat slabs of dark schist and some rounded beach-pebbles of quartz. Its east end is 20cm from the inner face of the east wall of the oratory, where it is 50cm deep; at a point 64cm to the west it is stepped out to a depth of 70cm. On analogy with sites like Falmore and Inishglora, county Mayo, and Teach Molaise on Inismurray nearby in Donegal Bay. This seems best interpreted as the leaba or tomb-shrine of the founder saint. At its east and west ends are two cross-slabs (01, 02); a broken cross-slab (08) [DG089-018008-] was discovered among the stones lying on top of it in 1992.’ Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 2 February 2014 The attached image (taken 1983) is a view of the south-eastern element of the remains: the cross-slabs (DG089-018014- and DG089-018015-) are standing on the altar feature in this oratory sturcture.