69 . 



of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, and are con- 

 tained in the ancient Irish topographical work called the 

 Dinseanchus, copies of which are preserved in the books of 

 Lecan and Ballymote, in the possession of the Academy, as 

 also in MSS. in the College Library, and in the library of 

 the Duke of Buckingham at Stowe. Of the poems, one is 

 the composition of Cinaeth O'Hartigan, who was chief his- 

 torian of the northern half of Ireland, and according to the 

 annals of Tighernach, died in 975. The other is the work of 

 Cuan O'Lochain, who, according to the same authority, was 

 killed in 1024, having been for the two previous years, chief 

 poet and lawgiver of Ireland, after the dismemberment of 

 the monarchy in the person of Maelseachlin the Second. 

 The prose tract is not of equal antiquity with either of these 

 pieces, but is more copious in its descriptive details, and is 

 of a date at least prior to the twelfth century. The writer ap- 

 pears to have personally examined the monuments remaining 

 in his time, and often describes their state of preservation 

 with remarkable exactness. 



From a comparison of the accounts given in these docu- 

 ments with the monuments ascertained by the survey to be 

 still in existence, not only all the remaining vestiges have 

 been identified with sufficient certainty to warrant the inser- 

 tion of their respective names on the map, but the localities 

 also of several other monuments of less importance, but 

 which are now wholly effaced, have been so far determined 

 as to furnish full materials for the construction of a ground 

 plan, exhibiting a restoration of the whole. 



The number of these monuments, and the great extent of 

 ground which they cover, will be at once evident from an in- 

 spection of the map ; and, as a striking instance of the his- 

 toric interest possessed by them, it may be shortly stated, 

 that the strongest evidence has been adduced, from MSS. 

 much more ancient than any hitherto cited on the subject, to 

 show that a remarkable obeliscal pillar-stone, which now 



