169 



Such another enclosure stands on the top of Cahir-Curree moun- 

 tain, county of Kerry, built of massive stones: the stones are very 

 rugged and of great size, most of them being from eight to ten feet 

 square,* Dr. Smith conjectures it to have been a monument of 

 some great action, or a sepulchral trophy ; but it seems more con- 

 sistent with the other remains of antiquity, to invest it with a reli- 

 gious character, since the summit of hills and mountains were fa- 

 vourite situations for pagan worship, and more especially for that of 

 the sun.-f- 



At Killymore, county of Tyrone, is a lofty rath, on whose top a 

 strong rude wall surrounds an area of ninety-nine feet in diameter ; 

 on this is a parapet six feet high ; round the inside of this wall are 

 projecting stones, which rising to the top in oblique directions form 

 a kind of rough staircases. J This structure brings immediately to 

 mind the Staig-fort so lately described by Mr. Bland ;§ it seems, 

 though much coarser, to have been built with the same object : the 

 area contained within the wall is nearly equal, and perhaps a closer 

 description of the northern fort might bring to view other particulars 

 of resemblance. 



An erection of precisely the same nature as the Staig-fort has in 

 the course of the summer of 1826 been visited and measured by an 

 accurate observer ;|| according to his description it is not in so good 



gives a view of a very ancient church placed within a stone circle — Clarke's Travels in Scandina- 

 via, ix. p. 220, oct. edition. — Gough's Camden. — The Beauties of Wicklow, p. 154'. — In Caernar- 

 vonshire the monument of Pen-y-dinas is extremely like this ; Gough and Pownal pronounce it a 

 druidical sun temple Camden's Brit. II. p. 557. 



* Smith's History of Kerry, p. 156. 



t Herod. Clio. p. 131. 



J Parochial Surveys, I. p. 118. 



§ Transactions R. I. A. xiv. 



II Captain Beaufort, R. N. 



VOL. XV. Z 



