CONWELL — On the Cemetery of Taillten. 



89 



seat hollowed out of the centre, and leaving an elevation at each side 

 of about nine inches above the seat, the back having now fallen away. 



Ollamh Fodhla's Chair (Back View- r - 



The apparent cross carved into the centre of the seat, as well as two 

 others on adjoining marginal upright stones, are not to be mistaken 

 for characters of ancient date, as they were cut for trigonometrical 

 purposes in the year 1836, by the men then encamped on Sliabh-na 

 Caillighe, and engaged in the triangulation survey of the country 

 under Captain Stotherd and Lieutenants Greatorex and Chaytor, R. E. 

 If, then, it can be satisfactorily concluded that this earn is the 

 tomb of Ollamh Fodhla, the internal evidence for which being the 

 sculptured stone-chair, or judicial seat, the question is settled ; and 

 all doubt as to the identification of the ancient cemetery, whose name 

 and history had become lost in the various changes and troubles through 

 which the country passed during the long lapse of upwards of 3,000 

 years, from the days of Ollamh Fodhla to our own time, must at once 

 disappear. We may, indeed, fairly conclude that we have disin- 

 tombed from the relics of time the last resting-place of one who, 

 in this island, was a great pioneer in the civilization of his fellow- 

 men at a period when the actions of the human race, in most other 

 parts of the world, were probably governed by no better laws than 

 the impulses of animal passion, dictated on the spur of the moment . 



The Tomb of Ollamh Fodhla. 



The above view, from a slightly north-westerly aspect, is en- 



II. I. A. PKOC.-VOL. T., SEK. IT., POL. LTT. AND ANTIQ. 



