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