SEPTEMBER . 355 



boulder, likewise standing upon three stones coincidences that can 

 scarcely be accidental. Further, I observed that on all the highest 

 points of the surrounding hills, where they could be most readily 

 seen from the lowland, are other boulders of like character, though 

 whether or no they stand upon three stones I cannot say, for I 

 have never visited them. Lastly, I have seen a photograph of a 

 similar rock which is to be found somewhere on the mainland, and 

 is also arranged upon three stones. Why they were placed thus 

 nobody can say with any certainty, but my own belief is that they 

 formed the altars of Druids or Sun-worshippers, whereon the priests 

 may have offered human sacrifices or stood to celebrate their rites. 



While I am talking of the antiquities of Coll, I may mention 

 that when laying a golf green my host discovered four skeletons 

 buried beneath the turf. On investigation it was found that the 

 ancient name of the site was Croc-na-Crochadh, or Hangman's Hill. 

 Until the year 1745 the Lairds of Coll had power of life and death 

 over its inhabitants, and without doubt these bones belonged to 

 the victims of their justice or their vengeance. 



In company with a brother, once I made a similar discovery. 

 At Bradenham in this county is a furze-covered heath known as 

 the Gibbet Common, and in the centre of it the spot where stood 

 a gallows. Digging in the soil with our spuds here, we came upon 

 the ancient irons, and the hook, nearly worn through, to which 

 they hung. In the horrid cage that enclosed the head we found, 

 moreover, a portion of the skull of the murderer who, so says tradi- 

 tion, killed his wife and child by throwing them downstairs. In his 

 curious work, ' Hanging in Chains,' wherein these irons are described, 

 Mr. Albert Hartshorne, F.S.A., states that there exists a legend in 

 the neighbourhood that this man was hung up alive and watched 

 until he died. I can prove, however, that this is not the case, for 

 on the skull a mark of the searing of a hot iron could be seen 

 distinctly, showing that the smith had set them there after death. 

 Even during the last century hot irons would not have been 

 welded on to a living man. I recollect that Miss Mason, of 

 Necton Hall, an old friend of my family for several generations, 



A A3 



