Ferguson — On Ancient Cemeteries in Ireland. 



121 



A peculiar feature of the ground-plan has- been referred to as 

 corresponding to the external mound at Relig-na-ree. A minor en- 

 closure, annexed to the principal one, appears in two other instances 

 of cemeteries presumed ly of Pagan origin, which so far resemble those 

 already noticed as to induce me here to give some account and illus- 

 tration of them. 



One of these exists in Glenmaulin, in the county of Donegal, to 

 the left of the road leading from Carrick to Glencolumkill. It is 

 called Cloghanmore, and is one only of an assemblage of stone monu- 

 ments of the kind usually regarded as Pagan, which, when I visited 

 'the site in 1864, had withstood the progress of agriculture in this 

 remote valley. Seven great cromlechs were then standing, though 

 more or less ruined, in the lower part of the glen towards the sea. 

 One could not look at the scene without being impressed with the 

 circumstance so often remarked regarding such assemblages of rude 

 stone monuments on the Continent, that the builders seem to have 

 selected for the sites of their necropolises the wildest and most solitary 

 places accessible from the sea. So much does the aspect of Glenmaulin 

 confirm these impressions, that a general view of the site of Cloghan- 

 more (not marked on Ord. Map, sheet 89), showing the character of 

 the upper part of the valley, may not be out of place here. 



Glenmaulin, Co. Donegal, — Cloghan More, in the middle distance. 



Regarding the name Cloghanmore, " Great stone-heap," it may be 

 observed that this is one of a class of very significant names applied 

 by the native-speaking Irish to such monuments. They call them, in 

 Irish, "Beds of DermidandGrania," " Lifted Stones," " Griddles," and 

 other names, indicating an ignorance on their part of their origin and 

 uses, which is certainly suggestive of a pre-traditional antiquity in the 

 objects themselves. If the origin and uses of Cloghanmore had been 

 fresh in the minds of the native peasantry at any time since the present 

 race of Irish began to inhabit this coast of Donegal, it is not likely that 



