yO Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



grayed from, a photograph taken by Charles "William Hamilton, Esq., 

 J. P., Hanm ood, in September, 1865, while the original explorations 

 were in progress. The upright stones seen on the left must not be 

 mistaken as belonging to Ollamh Foclhla's tomb, being the boundary 

 stones of the remains of an adjoining earn. 



The original shape of this earn still remains comparatively perfect, 

 consisting of a conical mound of loose stones, nearly all apparently 

 fragments of the native rock, Lower Silurian grit. It is thirty-eight 

 and one-half yards in diameter at the base, having an elevation of 

 twenty-one paces in slant-height from base to summit. A retain- 

 ing wall, consisting of thirty-seven large flags laid on edge, and 

 varying in length from six to twelve feet, surrounds the base ex- 

 ternally ; and, on the eastern side, this surrounding circle of large 

 stones curves inwards for a distance of eight or nine yards on each 

 side of a point where the passage to the interior chambers commences, 

 the bearing of the passage being E. 10° S., probably intended to face 

 the rising sun at that period of the year when the occupant of the 

 tomb was laid to his rest, or when the fabrication of the earn was 

 commenced. The peculiarities of construction and the internal arrange- 

 ments of the chambers will be better understood from the following : 





" Ground Plan of Ollamh Pocll la's Tomb. 



