Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 91 



depth of nearly two feet from the layer of rnortar, when coming to the solid ground that appeared 

 never to have been moved, and reaching the foundation of the tower without making any further 

 discovery, the examination was considered to have been completed. The following measurements of 

 the body were taken : from the crown of the head to the knee 4 feet, 3 inches ; from the hip- 

 joint to the knee 1 foot 10 inches ; length of the back bone 2 feet inch. The interior chamber 

 of the tower is 9 feet. The body, as it was found, appeared to be so placed that, had it been entire, 

 it would have occupied the centre of the ground, the head being about a foot, or rather more, from 

 the western side of the tower.' 



" The above notes were taken from an amended copy of a narrative of the examination drawn 

 up by me, and submitted for correction to the Rev. Horatio Maunsell, who, assisted by Mr. Dur- 

 ham of Belvidere, directed the operations. It was returned to me copied in part and amended in 

 Mr. Maunsell's hand-writing. I am thus particular, as Mr. Thomson and I did not go out to 

 Drumbo till the third day, when the skeleton was discovered. I may add that we were informed, 

 the plaster floor described was less perfect at the east side than to the west. It may either have 

 been disturbed by former enquirers, or more probably affected by the weather, to which from being 

 directly under the door, it was more exposed than other parts. This may account for the want of 

 the legs from the knee-joint. Mr. Thomson, on our return to Mr. Callwell's, the proprietor of the 

 estate, (the tower is in the freehold of the incumbent Mr. Maunsell,) observed traces of hair on his 

 shoes, which he considered had been mixed with the clay he trod on in the tower. The quantity of 

 stones thrown out of the tower had composed a very small portion indeed of the material of the 

 upper part of the tower, which most probably fell without, not within. The bones of animals found 

 I consider to have been carried in by persons who made a temporary abode there ; and the marks of 

 the fire may have been caused, if not by the flame from their rude hearth, by a burning from acci- 

 dent of an interior floor and stairs, if such things, as I think probable, had existed. 



" I delayed writing until I had received a reply from Mr. Maunsell, as I wished to give you a 

 perfect narrative of our proceedings. The part copied by him is marked by inverted commas." 



In the preceding account I see nothing to object to. But what is the con- 

 clusion to be fairly drawn from it ? not surely that it proves the Tower to have 

 been raised as a sepulchral monument in pagan times, or even that the bones 

 found within it were a deposit cotemporaneous with its erection. To me it 

 appears that the only rational conclusion to be drawn from the discovery of 

 these bones would be unfavourable even to the very early Christian antiquity 

 of the Tower, for, like the discovery of the imperfect skeleton at Ardmore, 

 it indicates that the Tower was erected on a spot which had been previously 

 used as a Christian cemetery, as the position of the remains clearly shows. 

 And this, too, would account for the imperfection of the skeleton ; for, though 

 it is obvious that in digging the foundation of the circular wall of the Tower it 

 would have been necessary to penetrate to the virgin clay, and thus run the chance 



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