50 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



strictures on the errors of Mr. Du Noyer. He failed in these instances 

 from the same causes ■which make failure the almost normal condition of 

 outdoor inscriptional study. 17 If the instances hare heen numerous, it 

 is only because he has been industrious beyond others. Without a 

 diligent study of the eleven magnificent volumes presented by him to 

 the Academy, no archaeological student can go into any district of Ire- 

 land assured of a full "acquaintance with the objects which ought to claim 

 his observation. These volumes will always be a source of antiquarian 

 knowledge, as indispensable to the Irish topographer as the collections 

 for the Ordnance Survey. Let me beg of all who use them as charts to 

 discovery, to be candid in acknowledging their sources. If justice be 

 done to Hr. Du Noyer to this extent, his reputation may well afford 

 the admission of such errors as duty to the subject has led me, I 

 trust not invidiously, to disclose in this communication. 



The moulding process necessitates such an exploration of the 

 surface as gives a certainty of discovering any inscribed traces 

 which may have been overlooked by the draftsman. Of this ad- 

 vantage I shall adduce two instances. The principal inscription 

 on the northern face of the pillar on Dunmore Head has often 

 been copied ; and Mr. Du foyer's observation enabled him to pro- 

 long the legend down a part of the north-western angle. But 

 the effects of the weather on the laminated structure of the stone at 

 this side have been very destructive, and no one can be surprised that 

 the characters noted by him are few and fragmentary. The moulding 

 process, however, brought out a considerable number of groups in 

 addition. Some of these indentations were choked with a growth of 

 lichens, which obviously had never been disturbed since they first 

 germinated. The name or formula, "whatever it may be, is, at all 

 events, now consultable without exposure to any of the accidents 

 which the student may expect who pushes his investigations to this 

 "western limit of the Irish main land. 18 Dunmore Head is around- 

 backed promontory, which runs out at an elevation of about 800 feet 

 from the foot of the higher inland chain of mountains forming the 

 general profile of this extreme western coast. Even in that stormy 

 region it is especially exposed. On our first visit, after a three hours' 

 struggle against the wind, and after securing the mould of the lower 

 portion of the north face, we had the mortification just before sunset, 

 when proceeding to draw the mould of the western angle, to have our 



17 It will probably appear that the Bishop of Limerick (see post) is one of the 

 very few entitled to claim substantial exemption from errors of this nature. 



ls From this legend, so far as it remains, we obtain dofinia. Compare north side 

 of xix. (5th of Ballintaggart group) Maqqi Muceoi doffinias. The ias termination 

 has an inflectional appearance, as in paterfamilias. Compare Haqi Ercias, here, 

 and on the Roovesmore stone in the British Museum. On the Lough stone (vn.), 

 one of the Ballinrannig group, the i is wanting— Broinionas ; query, Brendan ? I 

 have heard the name pronounced Bronion by a peasant of the neighbourhood of 

 Cloghane. 



