41 8 Cup- Marked Stones. [Sess. 



my mind is that a Christian family still held it in so much 

 veneration, probably for good luck, as to have brought the 

 lady to it from her own home at such a critical time. The 

 size of the stone is about eight feet long by six feet broad 

 and one and a half feet thick, fairly flat, and slightly raised 

 from the ground around it. It bears no trace of any build- 

 ing, either permanent or temporary, having ever been raised 

 over it. Its situation is on a slightly elevated ridge of culti- 

 vated land, from which there is a good outlook all round, I 

 saw no other stones like it in the immediate vicinity. Besides 

 the stone being held in reverence as the actual spot of St 

 Columba's birth, a curious belief is attached to it, that who- 

 ever sleeps on it will never know home-sickness ; and many 

 a man starting for America is said to have tried the remedy. 

 May this be a reverential reflection on the grace obtained by 

 St Columba, who was able to transfer his affection from 

 the land of his birth in pious devotion to the land of his 

 adoption ? 



About a mile from this stone there is a small roofless 

 chapel, said to have been the first ecclesiastical building 

 erected by St Columba ; and among his other foundations in 

 County Donegal and neighbouring counties were the monastic 

 establishments of Kilmacrenan, Eaphoe, and Londonderry. 



St Columba remained in Ireland vintil he was forty-two 

 years of age, when, on account of a dispute with a chieftain 

 concerning the possession of a manuscript copy of the Psalms 

 written by him, and which had come to be used as a charm 

 to be carried into battle, he was forced to accept the protec- 

 tion offered to him by a chief in Scotland. It is worthy of 

 mention that this charm, called the Cathach or Battler, which 

 is enclosed in an ancient silver and gold case, and which had 

 been retained and handed down through the generations of 

 O'Donnells, is now lodged in the Royal Museum in Dublin. 



On my return from this short tour in Ireland I went to 

 spend the rest of the summer in Strathtay, and when there 

 I learnt from a Perthshire newspaper that near to Birnam 

 there is the " cup - marked rock of Eohallion." On the 

 Ordnance Survey map there is shown the modern mansion- 

 house of Eohallion, as well as the old castle of the same 

 name on Birnam Hill, about two miles from Birnam railway 



