58' on atitiquitlts in Scotland. March x/^, 



by an enemj. The stairs in the heart of tlie waH 

 were supposed to lead to the top, like the stairs of 

 a modern light-house, for the purpose of giving an 

 alarm. To render this conjecture more probable, 

 those who have adopted it, have afsumed as apostula- 

 tum, that no tower of this kind is to be found 

 that is not within sight of some others ; and that a 

 series of these towers may be traced, thus within 

 view of one another, all along the coast. Few words, 

 however, will be necefsary to refute this hypothe- 

 sis. 



In the first place, it is not true that these struc- 

 tures are always so placed, as to be seen from eaeh 

 other. I do not recollect- to have seen one that is 

 within sight of two others ; and I have seen one at 

 Dunbeath in Caithnefs, which is placed in a deep 

 valley, surrounded with high banks on every side, 

 that cannot perhaps be seen from any point of view 

 at two hundred yards distance ; this one, therefore, 

 could not have been intended for that purpose. 



2. The site of these buildings is almost in all cases 

 improperly chotn for this use. I have indeed seen 

 some of them on the top of an eminence, but in ge- 

 neral thev are placed rather in a valley, or on a decli- 

 vity, near the bottom of the hill, as at Glenelg and 

 Dun-agglesag. 



3. It happens that there are very often two of 

 these structures in the same valley, very near to one 

 another, as is particularlv remarkable at Glenelg, 

 where the two dhunes stand upon the southern decli- 

 vity of the hill, in the same valley, at the distance of 

 Bot more than half a mile from each other, which 



