Ferguson — On Ancient Cemeteries in Ireland. 127 



described as raths are of no imposing dimensions. It may possibly be, 

 however, that they are sepulchral, as their name would suggest; and, 

 if so, their central mounds would be large enough to contain chambers 

 vying with some of the minor monuments of Slieve-na-Calliagh. But 

 their appearance is military or residential, and not sepulchral. A 

 double ditch surrounds the central elevation, and, assuming them to 

 be the Claenferta of the tracts, it is historically known that one was a 

 species of gunaikeon, or female college, and the other the place in which 

 Lugaid, predecessor of Cormac, son of Art, held his court; for it is to 

 the unjust judgment there pronounced by him the tracts attribute that 

 shock of nature which caused the house to topple over, and gave it the 

 inclined appearance it still exhibits. In any case we must accept the 

 declivity of the hill on this side as the Fan-na-carpait, or " slope of the 

 chariots," which was the Tara terminus of the Slighe Asail, or great 

 north-western road from Tara. This appears to have been quite a 

 separate highway from the Slighe Midluachra or north-eastern road 

 which Petrie and O'Donovan agree in identifying with the present 

 highway leading from the crest of the hill opposite the church of Tara 

 by Lismullen towards Slane. This Slighe Midluachra certainly passed 

 near Bossnaree and the New Grange group. The Slighe Asail as 

 certainly passed near Broad Boyne, Bray Bridge, and Stackallen. But 

 in the Lebor na ft Uidhre, in the old tale of the Phantom- chariot of 

 Cuchulliu, it is distinctly stated that Fan-na-Carpait was on the way 

 to the Brugh of the Boyne. Unless, therefore, Petrie and O'Donovan 

 have been mistaken in giving the Slighe Midluachra an independent 

 terminus at Tara, this testimony of the undoubted voice of antiquity 

 would declare that Brugh should be sought near Stackallen, and not in 

 the neighbourhood of the New Grange group of tumuli. If so, the 

 whole argument drawn from the resemblance of the Slieve-na-Calliagh 

 constructions to those of New Grange, so far as it impugns the identity 

 of Teltown with the Cemetery of Taltin of the ancients, loses its 

 foundation. 



We are now in a condition to apply a more intelligent observation 

 to the remains at Teltown, which certainly occupy the site known as 

 Taltin to the writers of the early lives of Saint Patrick. If the ceme- 

 tery of Tara have diminished to remains so inconsiderable as we have 

 just been considering, it need not be surprising that all trace of that 

 at Taltin should have disappeared; for while Croghan, TJsnach, and Tara 

 have escaped the plough, there is no portion of the lands of Teltown 

 which has not, at a recent time, been under tillage. The plough has 

 been driven up the acclivity of Rathduff, the principal feature which 

 still shows the old importance of the place, and over its flat table-like 

 summit. This summit is still surrounded by the remains of a low 

 earthen rampart, on which, the country-people say, the spectators sat 

 while games were celebrated on the circular green sward before their 

 feet. This space comprises about an Irish acre, and would be sufficient 

 for such a display. If the tradition be well founded, this embankment 



