es to Irish houses and oratories that are
regarded as having been built two or three centuries before the date
even of the of the Danes in the island.

The manuscript copy of the _Scotichronicon_, which belonged to the Abbey
of Cupar, and which, like the other old manuscripts of the
_Scotichronicon_, was written before the end of the fifteenth
century,[103] describes Inchcolm as the temporary abode of St. Columba
himself,[104] when he was engaged as a missionary among the Scots and
Picts. In enumerating the islands of the Firth of Forth, Inchcolm is
mentioned in the Cupar manuscript as "alia insuper insula ad occidens
distans ab Inchcketh, quae vocatur AEmonia, inter Edinburch et
Inverkethyn; _quam quondam incoluit, dum Pictis et Scotis fidem
praedicavit, Sanctus Columba Abbas_."[105] We do not know upon what
foundation, if any, this statement is based; but it is very evidently an
allegation upon which no great assurance can be placed. Nor, in alluding
to this statement here, have I any intention of arguing that this cell
might even have served St. Columba both as a house and oratory, such as
the house of the Saint still standing at Kells is believed by Dr. Petrie
to have possibly been.

The nameless religious recluse whom Alexander found residing on Inchcolm
is described by Fordun and Boece as leading there the life of a hermit
(_Eremita_), though a follower of the order or rule of Saint Columba.
The ecclesiastical writers of these early times not unfrequently refer
to such self-denying and secluded anchorites. The Irish Annals are full
of their obits. Thus, for example, under the single year 898, the Four
Masters[106] record the death of, at least, four who had passed longer
or shorter periods of their lives as hermits, namely, "Suairleach,
anchorite and Bishop of Treoit;" "Cosgrach, who was called Truaghan [the
meagre], anchorite of Inis-Cealtra;" "Tuathal, anchorite;" "Ceallach,
anchorite and Bishop of Ard-Macha;"--and probably we have the obit of a
fifth entered in this same year under the designation of "Caenchomhrac
of the Caves of Inis-bo-fine," as these early ascetics sometimes betook
themselves to caves, natural or artificial, using them for their houses
and oratories.[107] Various early English authors also allude to the
habitations and lives of different anchorites belonging to our own
country. Thus the venerable Bede--living himself as a monk in the
Northumbrian monastery of Jarrow, in the early part of th