164 



built before the Christian era by Cimbaoth, king of Ireland. It is 

 mentioned by St. Fiech, who wrote in the sixth century, and 

 O'Flaherty *says some of the ruins were to be seen in his time. The 

 Navan rath is encompassed by a fosse, which takes an ellipti- 

 cal course, enclosing; eleven acres ; within this boundary are two 

 small moats, probably forts for the protection of the royal resi- 

 dence. Close adjoining appears a mound of a large size, straight, 

 with a return at right angles at either end ; this always receives the 

 designation of the king's stables.-f 



In the neighbourhood of the large raths, are often several of small 

 dimensions ; these latter are supposed to have been inhabited by the 

 families composing the sept, as the greater ones were by the king or 

 chief and his immediate retainers. A rath situated near the foot of 

 the hill of Mullagh Creevagh affords a good instance of a chief's 

 rath with its dependencies. Its shape and arrangements may be 

 judged of from the slight accompanying map. 



A, encompassed by a bank five feet high, is the highest division, 

 and was probably the residence of the chief, as the entrance to it 

 was protected by a small moat D, which commanded the fosse, or 

 covered way, in three directions. 



C was, it is likely, the abode of the retainers, and defended the 

 outer entrance. The fosse surrounding A and C, is twenty-two feet 

 wide at top, six at bottom, and twenty feet deep : all round on the 

 sides of the banks next to it still remain a vast number of very old 

 twisted thorn treess. B is a smooth hanging level, having no fosse, 

 and a bank only at each end, while the front, F, shews merely a 

 perpendicular face, ten feet down to the field. 



E appears a sort of road-way, rudely walled on each side, and it 



* O'Flaherty 's Ogygia, vol. I. 



■f Stewart's History of Armagh, p. 578. 



