Ordnance Survey Letters of Galway

[Hand of G. Petrie:]

My dear John,

I have read your letters of the 20th and 22d September with peculiar interest, having had a previous knowledge of the localities and the ancient remains noticed in them. One remark however, in the first letter surprised me, namely that the Chapel of Chargin is of mean architecture and evidently of no great antiquity; you add that, all its architectural features are destroyed. Now I do not mean to deny the truth of these statements but merely to say that I came to different conclusions respecting this ruin. What I find written in my note book on this church is: "Cargan is a very ancient church composed of ponderous stones - the door pointed - the window

of the lancet form". These notices certainly do not harmonise well.

You say there are no vestiges whatever, of ruins on the island of Inis-mor-na-Cuinn, and here again my note book speaks differently; it states that the ruins of the church still remain, and that the cemetery is much used as a burying place by the inhabitants of the neighbouring shores. But I confess I did not visit this island myself, and took whatever I wrote from others, and perhaps this is what you have done also!

You do not write any thing about the Castle of Cargin, of which I have a nice sketch in my note book, nor of the adjacent island of Inis-Creva in Lough Corrib which has a Cahir as large as the island itself, with a round tower within it. This Cahir is of an oval form 130 f. by 106 in diameter, the walls from 10 to 14 f. in height. It is surrounded by a ditch 30 f. wide with a high

embankment of stone outside. This is a remarkably interesting remain, and is spoken of by O'Flaherty in his acct. of Iar Connaught of which a transcript was sent to you.

Again you say nothing of Inis Gail*, one of the most interesting little islands for its antiquities in Ireland. You should try to see it {as well as Inis Creva} and would, I think, easily manage to do so by one of the turf boats returning from Galway.

The messenger waits so I can only add a farewell.