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for two mountain streams nearly surround it, at a distance of not two 
hundred yards, and forma junction farther down in front of the 
door. I do not think it would be possible to turn these streams from 
their course. A military gentleman observed, that it would be as- 
sailable by slings, or perhaps by arrows from the adjoining moun- 
tain. This may be the case, and slings and arrows are the earliest 
weapons of war, but it is very difficult to fix upon a situation 
totally unassailable. 
As a place of public exhibition, or as general Vallancey stiles it, 
an amphitheatre, we are greatly puzzled to conceive how such a 
structure could have been erected for such a purpose in such a 
place; and the cells are too small to admit any beasts but wolves 
or wild boars. However it is observable, that the stones used in the 
outside of the wall are not in general so large as those on the in- 
side, and the projecting eve on the inside was obviously intended 
for ornament, as for defence it would have been placed on the 
outside, and have been constructed with long and weighty stones. 
It is also to be observed, that no contrivance for fastening the door 
of entrance appears ever to have been used; at least there are no 
holes for transverse bars, or any other contrivance now remaining. 
The last conjecture is equally difficult to support. We know of 
no antient place of worship like it; and it has no appearance of a 
Druidical remain. I must not here omit the suggestion of my 
learned and ingenious friend Mr. Nimmo—lIt struck him, that it 
may have been intended for an observatory. How it could have 
been applied to this purpose, I shall leave to himself to explain ; but 
I believe the idea occurred to him from a supposition, that the 
door would be found exactly to face the meridian sun. In this con- 
jecture he is supported by fact. I have lately ascertained the bear- 
ing of the door to be sonth twenty-nine degrees west by the compass, 
