218 Mr. Petuie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 



appears to have had but a single rampart and ditch, as shown on the map and 

 section following, which is taken from «outh to north, and on a scale of 60 f. 

 to an inch : 



Of the other monuments, or artificial features, noticed in the ancient docu- 

 ments there are no distinct remains, but the localities which they occupied are so 

 accurately described as to leave little difficulty in ascertaining them with consi- 

 derable exactness. 



Of these the first in the order of the prose account are the two Claenfearts, 

 which are described as being situated to the west of Rath Graine, or, as the verse 

 states, down to the west. Of the nature of these monuments it is now perhaps 

 impossible to speak with any certainty, as the etymological meaning of the name, 

 which would simply express a sloping trench, fosse, or grave, gives a very un- 

 certain idea of their character. These localities are memorable in Irish his- 

 tory. The first or southern Claenfeart was the scene of the massacre of the young 

 females by Dunking, king of Leinster, in the year 222, as recorded in the Annals 

 of Tighearnach, and already given in page 36 of this memoir. O' Flaherty, p. 

 335, calls this Claenfeart a Gynceceum ; and Lynch, in his very learned work, 

 entitled Camhrensis Eversus, p. 70, gives as his opinion that the young females, 

 who were of royal birth, were vestal virgins, who were at Tara as if in a Par- 

 thenion. " Ausus est Rex Lageniae Dunlingus Endaei Niadi filius triginta 

 regias virgines, quarum singulis, triginta virgines alias famulabantur, Temorse 

 Clonfartam [Claenfeartam, Tecte'\ tanquam Parthenion incolentes internecioni 

 dare." 



The northern Claenfeart, as the verse states, was memorable as the place of 

 the treacherous covenant, and, according to the prose, as the place where Lughaidh 

 Mac Con, the predecessor of Cormac, pronounced the false judgment, concerning 

 the grass of the green field which was eaten by the sheep. The account of this 

 judgment, as given in the Leahhar Gabhala, or Book of Conquests, compiled 

 from ancient documents by the O'Clerys, is as follows : 



