HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- G OSSIP. 



teristic structure of the ancient people of Burren, 

 are their flag-houses, or fosleacs (6gs. 54 and 55). 

 These fosleacs usually were built of five large flags, 

 four placed upright on edge, the fifth covering them, 

 and lying nearly horizontal, while in one corner was 

 left a space as a doorway. In some, however, the 

 doorway was put in the centre of one of the ends. 

 It is remarkable how soon flag-houses, of much 

 ruder forms than those in the Burren, can be made 

 airtight and comfortable ; as all that has to be done 



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Fig. 57. Doorway into Liss (Clay-fort), Einoyle, co. Galway. 



Fig. 58. Plan of ditto. 



is to stuff the holes and crannies with heather, and 

 plait a thick mat to use as a door. The latter class 

 of door, in many places in West Galway, is in use 

 at the present day, and is a favourite on account of 

 its warmth and cheapness. 



These fosleacs, and many other megalithic struc- 

 tures of a similar type, have been called cromleacs 

 by the English settlers, and are supposed by them 

 to have been erected by the Druids as altars. But 

 that these structures in the Burren were human 

 habitations seems suggested on account of the fol- 

 lowing. We know from the ancient annals that 

 the early Irish built flaghouses, and those to which 

 we now refer are all placed in situations from which 

 long stretches of pasture can be viewed, while some 

 of them at the present day are still used by the 

 herds during the grazing seasons. Furthermore, 

 in the Burren fuel is, aud always was, scarce, and 

 fires are rarely used except for cooking purposes ; 

 at other times the "live seed" is kept in abed 



of ashes in a round hole cut in the solid rock, and 

 covered with a flag ; and such holes are found in 

 the vicinity of the fosleacs. It may be said that 

 the latter have been recently made by the modern 

 inhabitants : this is possible, but it is more pro- 

 bable that the present mode of preserving the 

 " live seed " has been handed dowu from generation 

 to generation since the country was first inhabited. 







Fig. 59. Kistvaen cam, Maccaul, co. Antrim. 



Fig. 60. Plan of ditto. 



A true altar, although of the same type, is of a 

 different form. There is one at Kernanstown, co. 

 Carlow, where it may be seen that one side of the 

 cover-stones rests on the ground. This, however, is 

 not always the case, as they are often raised on all 

 sides ; but the cover-stone always has a greater or 

 less slope toward the south, as in the cromleac near 

 Castlewellan, co. Down (fig. 56). 



Wear Binoyle, co. Galway, there is a structure 

 represented in figs. 57 and 58, which originally was 

 the doorway into a liss or fort, surrounded by a foss 

 and clay rampart. In the immediate vicinity of this 

 ancient doorway the rampart has been removed, but 

 its original use is quite apparent. 



Other very similar structures are the Kistvaens, 

 in earns (sepulchral mounds made of small stones), 

 and Tuaims (sepulchral mounds formed of clay), 

 one of which, exhumed from a earn in the co. Antrim 

 (Cam Maccaul), is represented in figs. 59 and 60, 

 the end stone being removed in the latter. 



From the above examples it is apparent that 

 although megalithic structures may be of the same 



