Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 161 



It may also be observed, that between the Irish and Scottish accounts of the his- 

 tory of this stone there is a total want of agreement, which shews that the Scot- 

 tish writers, when they recorded this tradition, were not acquainted with, or dis- 

 regarded, the accounts of it preserved by the Irish. The Irish accounts uni- 

 formly state, that the Lia Fail was brought into Ireland from the north of Ger- 

 many by the Tuatha De Danann colony ; the Scottish, that it was brought from 

 Spain by the Milesian chief, Simeon Breac, who, according to the Irish histories, 

 was not a Milesian but a Fir-Bolg, or Belgian. The oldest Scottish authority 

 for the tradition is the Chronicon Rhythmicum, written, as Innes would infer, 

 at the close of the thirteenth century. But as this was about the period when 

 the dispute commenced respecting the respective claims of the British and Scot- 

 tish crowns to the ancient monarchy, and which shortly afterwards gave birth to 

 the acknowledged forgeries which Fordun put into historic order, such accounts 

 should be received with a caution proportioned to their improbability : and it is in 

 the highest degree improbable that, to gratify the desire of a colony, the Irish 

 would have voluntarily parted with a monument so venerable for its antiquity, 

 and considered essential to the legitimate succession of their own kings. How- 

 ever this may be, it is an interesting fact, that a large obeliscal pillar-stone, in a 

 prostrate position, occupied, till a recent period, the very situation on the hill of 

 Tara, pointed out as the place of the Lia Fail by the Irish writers of the tenth, 

 eleventh, and twelfth centuries ; and that this was a monument of pagan antiquity, 

 an idol-stone, as the Irish writers call it, seems evident from its form and charac- 

 ter. Shortly after the year 1798, as already stated, it was removed from its 

 ancient situation to the adjacent mound in Rath na Riogh, called the Forradh, 

 to mark, as a grave stone, the remains of the rebels who fell there at that 

 memorable period. And whether this stone be considered as a monument of 

 remote antiquity, or as a record of the events of our own times, it must be 

 regarded with interest ; but if, in addition to this, such evidences have been 

 adduced as may justify the supposition that it is the Lia Fail of Irish history, 

 it will be difficult to find a rude monument of antiquity with which so many 

 national associations can be connected. 



The material of which this monument is composed is a granular lime-stone, 

 very probably from some primary district ; but whether it be Irish or foreign 

 has not been ascertained : it may be remarked, however, that no granular lime- 



VOL. XVIII. X 



