Ferguson — On Rath Cares. 129 



XVIII. — On some Evidence touching the Age of Rath-Caves. By 

 Samuel Feegtjson, LL. D., Q. O, Vice-President. 



[Read April 22, 1872.] 



Artificial Caves, constructed within raths, or earthen, or dry stone 

 places of defence, are of very frequent occurrence in Ireland. As early 

 as the beginning of the last century they attracted the notice of the 

 philosophic Molyneux ; and Harris, another writer of excellent judg- 

 ment, has given a chapter in his " History of the County of Down" 

 (a. d. 1744, c. 14, p. 194), to the description of those which, up to his 

 time, had been discovered in that county. All these were destitute 

 of inscriptional marks. The rath-caves, however, which in modern times 

 have been explored in the south and west of Ireland,* are occasionally 

 found to contain Ogham legends inscribed on the stones used in their 

 construction. These stones obviously have borne their inscriptions 

 before being built into their present positions. Hence it may be in- 

 ferred that they were originally used for some other purpose ; and this, 

 judging from the proximity in most, if not all, cases, of disused 

 burying grounds, would seem most probably to have been sepulchral. 

 The circumstance of these dismantled burying-grounds or killeens 

 being only used at present as places of interment for unbaptised 

 infants gives reason for a further speculation as to the reason of the 

 popular disregard for objects which, had they been the grave-stones 

 of Christians, might prima facie have been expected to escape that kind 

 of desecration ; and hence it has been, not unreasonably, suggested 

 that these monuments must have been taken from Pagan cemeteries ; 

 and that, in their Ogham legends, we may expect to find names of 

 gentile persons and divinities, t 



* The principal Ogham caves are those at Dunloe, Co. Kerry (" Kilk. Arch.," 

 N. S., vol: 5, p. 523) ; Drurnloghan, Co.Waterford, (" Proceedings," R. T. A., vol. 10, 

 Part 2, p. 103) ; Roovesrnore, Co. Cork, the stones of which are now in the British 

 Museum (described hy Colonel A. Lane Fox J ; Ballyhank, near Cork city, one stone 

 from which is now in Museum, R. I. A. ; Croghan, near Tulsk, in Roscommon 

 (" Proceedings," R. I A , vol. 9, p. 160) ; hesides others noticed in various papers 

 by Mr. Brash, and in the MS. Collections of the late Mr. Windele in Library R. I. A. 

 To these is to be added the rath-cave of Aghacarrible near Dingle, three of the 

 stones of which bear inscriptions in the Ogham character. Two of these cannot be 

 satisfactorily read without a removal of the incumbent earth. A portion of the 

 legend on the third is probably concealed in the masonry of which it forms part. 

 A cast of it, as far as the inscribed edge is visible, is deposited in Museum R. I. A., 

 (L. 22. xxvii.) 



t Even the solid-minded 0' Donovan was awed into an impression that he stood 

 in presence of a Pagan Literature whea he first entered the crypt at Dunloe. 

 " The only monument with an Ogham inscription yet discovered," he says (' Irish 

 Grammar, Introduction,' xliv.), " which exhibits all the apparent features of a Pagan 

 monument, is an artificial cave near the Castle of Dunloe, in the couuty of Kerry. 



