INTRODUCTION


"If thou hast the right, O Erin,
to a champion of battle to aid thee
thou hast the head of a hundred
thousand, Declan of Ardmore"
(Martyrology of Oengus).


Five miles or less to the east of Youghal Harbour, on the southern
Irish coast, a short, rocky and rather elevated promontory juts, with
a south-easterly trend, into the ocean [about 51 deg. 57 min. N /
7 deg. 43 min. W]. Maps and admiralty charts call it Ram Head, but
the real name is Ceann-a-Rama and popularly it is often styled Ardmore
Head. The material of this inhospitable coast is a hard metamorphic
schist which bids defiance to time and weather. Landwards the shore
curves in clay cliffs to the north-east, leaving, between it and the
iron headland beyond, a shallow exposed bay wherein many a proud ship
has met her doom. Nestling at the north side of the headland and
sheltered by the latter from Atlantic storms stands one of the most
remarkable groups of ancient ecclesiastical remains in Ireland--all
that has survived of St. Declan's holy city of Ardmore. This embraces
a beautiful and perfect round tower, a singularly interesting ruined
church commonly called the cathedral, the ruins of a second church
beside a holy well, a primitive oratory, a couple of ogham inscribed
pillar stones, &c., &c.