SOCIETY AND SETTLEMENT IN GLENDALOUGH ... - Ian Cantwell

possible that routes such as these were the routes by which conversion to Christianitytook place.Early Christianity - A HypothesisAny discussion of Christianity ofthe area has to take into account the possibility thatearly Christian leaders were subsumed into the St. Coemgen legends, like St. PatricIc67,and their lives relegated to the shadow lands ofmythic history68. Christianity arrived inIreland by 400 and since St. Coemgen did not 'found' Glendalough till the latter part ofthe 6th century it is possible that the area was already christianised by that date.There is a concentration of Early Christian sites around the Arklow area on theWicklow-Wexford border which may have been founded by hermits, or refugees, fromBritain 69 . This fits in with the cultural pathways pointed out by Bowen70 who mappeddedications of 'The children of Brychan' of South Wales, and include saints such asCairpe and Mochonoc, who have Wicklow connections. This concentration is stronglyassociated with Glendalough in the later period up to the beginning ofthe 12th centuryaccording to the maps of Mac Shamhrain71.Early Christian settlement is associated with circular enclosures, usually greater than30m in diameter 72 . These started of simply but developed along different linesdepending on their histories and locations and notall developed into monasticsettlements73. Within the study area there are eight such enclosures at Glendalough,Derrylossary, Knockatemple, Ashtown, Glasnamullen, Roundwood, Tomdarragh and670'Cro~ op. cit. p.2268de Paor, Peoples ofIre/and, London, 1986, p, 5569pnce, op. cit. Historical Background p. xvii70a0wen op cit. 118-14271Mac Shamhrain Ailbe,Church andPolity in Pre-Norman Ire/and: The case ofGJenda/ough.Maynooth, 1996, pp. 194, 197 &.20272Swan L.~ Enclosedecclesiastical sites and their relevanceto settlementpatternsof the firstMillennium AD~ IrishLandscape Archaeology, Reeves-Smyth & Hamond, Oxford, 1983, pp. 275-673ibid. p. 27723