264 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



extensive list of those discovered before his time * (1804), Con- 

 cerning this place he makes the following observations : — 



" It is remarkable that the antiquities were found under the wood ; 

 for that was removed at about six feet depth, and some of them were 

 found very deep ; that is near the natural soil on which the bog was 

 formed. It was apparently a manufactory situated in a wood — in a 

 valley — for the convenience of fuel for smelting. This wood had been 

 blown down, and formed the bog in which these things had been found. 

 A stratum of earthy bog had formed on this bog, in which grew another 

 wood, which having been blown down like the former, had formed the 

 upper bog of six feet above it." 



This depth of peat probably represents an age since the relics 

 were deposited, of between 2,000 and ,'5,000 years.t 



Of other finds in later years some of the largest recorded seem 

 to have been those at the ancient fords on the Shannon, from 

 which they have been exhumed during the excavations for the 

 improvement of the navigation. 



In the ancient annals there is a record that may fix the date 

 of the first working of gold in Ireland. Thus, in the Annals of 

 the Four Masters, we find during the reign of Tighernmas, in the 

 year A.M. 3656, the following entry : — 



'' It was by Tighernmas also that gold was first smelted in Ireland in 

 Foithre-Airthir-Lifie. (It was) Uchadan, an artificer of the Feara- 

 Cualann, that smelted it. It was by him that goblets and brooches were 

 first covered with gold and silver in Ireland. "J 



As a proof that Ireland, in early historic years, was rich in 

 gold, Colonel VaUancey quotes the following passage from the 

 history of Caen in Normandy, by M. Delarue : — 



" The exchequer (i.e. of Caen) acquired very great consequence and 

 extent when our Dukes became masters of Anjou, Poitou, Aquitane, the 



* See "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," by Colonel Charles VaUancey, vol. vi.; also 

 " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish," by Eugene O'Curry, vol. iii., page 205 

 (lecture xxix.) 



t See " Geology of Ireland," by G. Henry Kinahan, page 273. 



J This is also recorded in the book of Leacan. Keating in his History of Ireland gives 

 the date as A. jr. 2813, and states that " this Tighernmas was the first who discovered gold 

 ore in Ireland." The Leinster people were formerlj^ called Laighnigh-an-Oir, or the 

 Lagenians of the gold, " because it was in their country that gold was first discovered 

 in Erinn." Foithre-aithir-Liffe was the main ridge of the Wicklow Mountains. 



