14 Mr. PETKIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



SECTION III. 

 THEORIES OF THE PAGAN USES OF THE ROUND TOWERS. 



1. That they were Fire-temples. 2. That they were used as places from 

 which to proclaim the Druidical festivals. 3. That they were Gnomons, or 

 astronomical observatories. 4. That they were Phallic emblems, or Buddhist 

 temples. 



The theories of the Pagan uses of the Round Towers above enumerated, 

 have been so blended together by their most distinguished advocates, that I 

 have found it impossible to treat any one of them separately from the others, 

 without involving myself in repetitions, which would be tedious to the reader, 

 and unessential to my purpose. I shall, therefore, take the arguments adduced 

 to sustain them, in the order as to time in which they appeared, commencing 

 with those of General Vallancey, their great originator. 



The earliest conjecture as to the Phoenician or Indo-Scythian origin of the 

 Round Towers, and their uses as fire-temples, appears in Vallancey's Essay on 

 the Antiquity of the Irish Language, first published in 1772, and afterwards 

 reprinted in the eighth number of the Collectanea de Reb. Hib, in 1781, and is 

 to the following effect : 



" The Irish druids caused all fires to be extinguished throughout the kingdom on the eve of 

 May day, and every house was obliged to light his fire from the arch-druid's holy fire, kindled on 

 some elevated place, for which they paid a tribute to the druid. This exactly corresponds with 

 Dr. Hyde's description of the Parsi or Guebri, descendants of the ancient Persians, who have, says 

 he, an annual fire in the temple, from whence they kindle all the fires in their houses, which are 

 previously extinguished, which makes a part of the revenues of their priests ; and this was un- 

 doubtedly the use of the round towers, so frequently to be met with in Ireland, and which were 

 certainly of Phoenician construction. 



" I will here hazard a conjecture. I find bn2 gadul to signify magnus ; I find also that the 

 oriental nations at length so named the tower of Babylon, &c., mbtlJi magudaluth, turres ab 

 amplitudine dicte. Bochart. p. 42. Geog. Sacr. Gad i. e. gadul turris ; may not our Irish name 

 doghad for the round towers built in Ireland, which apparently were of Phoenician workmanship, 

 be derived from this word gad, and ckgh, stone. It must be allowed that dug is a bell, and hence 

 these towers have been thought to have been belfries ; but we have many places called dogh, i. e. 

 saxum. 



" Again, the druids called every place of worship doghad, alluding to the circles of stones they 



