26 Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 



While this survey was in progress, a careful search was made in all the ancient 

 Irish manuscripts accessible, for such documents of a descriptive or historical charac- 

 ter as would tend to identify or illustrate these existing vestiges. The success 

 which had already attended this mode of investigation in respect to the ancient 

 fortress of the kings of Ulster on the hill of Aileach, near Derry, led us in 

 the present instance to anticipate an equally fortunate result, and we were not 

 disappointed. In the same ancient Irish topographical work — the Dinnseanchus — 

 in which the account of Aileach was discovered, we found several ancient docu- 

 ments relating to this spot, some of which describe with considerable distinctness 

 and accuracy the remains existing on Tara Hill at the periods of their com- 

 position. 



The topographical tract which contains these interesting documents consti- 

 tutes a portion of those invaluable miscellaneous compilations of ancient Irish 

 literature, called the Books of Ballymote and Lecan, which our Academy are so 

 fortunate as to possess. Other very ancient copies of this tract are preserved in 

 the library of Trinity College, and in that of the Duke of Buckingham, at Stowe ; 

 and a transcript of one of the documents which it contains — the poem of 

 O'Lochain, — is also preserved in our library in another work, namely, the 

 LeabharGahhala, or Book of Conquests. This transcript, which is very valuable 

 for its accuracy, is in the hand- writing of Peregrine O'Clery, one of the cele- 

 brated annalists called the Four Masters, and the best scribe among those 

 industrious compilers. Of these previously untranslated and unvalued docu- 

 ments translations were made by Mr. O'Donovan, a gentleman eminently 

 qualified for the task. 



The map having been prepared. Captain Bordes, Mr. Larcom, and myself 

 proceeded to the hill of Tara, where we called in the co-operation of Mr. 

 O'Donovan, then employed on the Survey in the district, that we might 

 have the advantage of his assistance in our endeavour to ascertain how 

 far the various monuments still remaining could be identified with those 

 anciently described. Our first labour was to go over the ground with the map, 

 in order to be satisfied of its accuracy, and that no vestige of any ancient remain 

 had been omitted. The propriety of this examination was soon apparent : in our 

 progress many important features were discovered, not previously noticed, and 

 which required the aid of antiquarian science to appreciate ; and some interesting 



