Marks of Time
Historic Buildings as  illustrations of the past.
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Doire Colmkille

Three miles to the east of Grianan, the monastic settlement of Doire Colmkille was thriving by 1100. Reputedly founded by St Columba in the Fifth Century, no maps exist of the settlement before 1600. This drawing is a suggestion of what it might have looked like in 1100. The monastery  was located  on the west side of the hill. A round tower was located further to the north and  three holy wells between these at the base of the hill. The sacred oak grove  which gave the city its name – Doire- was located  nearby.

The form of the monastery before 1000 would have been similar to that  established elsewhere in Ireland, with a focus on a wooden church placed within a circular palisade enclosure or ‘rath’. By their  nature such buildings are not durable but representations can be found in the  form of reliquaries and very often at the top of later high crosses. None  directly linked to this monastery appear to survive  however and the illustration  is an example from Monasterboyce in Co Meath. 


With time, such buildings became replaced with stone ones which  copied the form of their predecessors. These displayed projecting stone columns  (antae) and roofs at each corner and often ‘winged finials’ at ends of the ridge  mirroring the form of crossed timbers. Entrances had flat heads with angled  sides (jambs). Good examples of
such churches no longer survive in the local area but small buildings in the  form do survive as mausolea for founding saints at both Banager and  Bovevagh.


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