Ferguson — On Bath Cares. 131 



most fertile spots. . . . They vary from 30 to 100 and 200 feet 

 in diameter. The largest I know of in the South of Ireland, called 

 Lis-na-raha, has a diameter of 280 feet, with a ditch 12 feet deep, and 

 30 in width at the outside. . . . The interior space of the rath is 

 almost invariably undermined by a set of chambers, called by the 

 natives 'pol-fatalla,' or 'hole of a house' (say, rather, pol-follaeha, 

 ' hiding- hole') ; the entrance to which is usually by an opening so 

 small as barely to admit the body of a man creeping on the belly. 

 These chambers vary in size, but average 9 feet in length, by 3 to 4 

 in height, and the same in width. Similar narrow openings commu- 

 nicate onwards to the other chambers ; and sometimes these under- 

 ground galleries diverge into two or more strings of chambers, 

 occupying the whole interior space within the circuit of the intrench- 

 ment. The main entrance is frequently in the ditch of the rath, and 

 is not unusually the smallest When the nature of the ground admits 

 it, they are often excavated in the natural earth, and domed over 

 without any artificial support ; but others are lined, in the inside, . 

 with undressed and uncemented stones, the sides converging towards 

 the top, which is usually flagged over with large and heavy slabs of 

 stone, serving to roof the chamber, and, at the same time, by their 

 weight, to prevent the sides from falling in ; at other times, though 

 rarely, they are formed by upright jambs of unhewn stone, like the 

 crypt at Roovesmore. 



" As regards the probable date of these works, all that I have been 

 able to ascertain respecting them tends to show that however ear±y 

 they may have originated — and their construction would lead us to 

 assign a very early period to some of them — they must, in all proba- 

 bility, have continued in use until comparatively recent times ; for I 

 have on two occasions found them to be associated with implements of 

 iron. In my collection there is an iron axe, and part of the pointed 

 ferrule of a lance, the former of which was derived from one of the 

 underground chambers, and the latter was excavated from the centre 

 of a rath, in which it was found three feet from the surface, together 

 with a quantity of ashes, and fragments of burnt bones." — " Rooves- 

 more Port," pp. 13, 16. 



Seeing the profusion of lapidary Ogham writing in so many of 

 them, it is singular that, so far as I am aware, there occurs no instance 

 of any rath-cave in Ireland containing an inscribed legend in ordinary 

 alphabetic characters from which a legitimate argument may be 

 drawn as to its age, save in the case of that near Seaforde in the 

 county of Down, which I am about to submit to the notice of the 

 Academy. Although we are obliged to take this inscription on the 

 authority of a copy made by one who was ignorant of its meaning, 

 and unacquainted even with the form of its letters, it will, I think, 

 be found to furnish a solid ground for some reliable conclusions as 

 regards the probable age of the particular structure in which it was 

 found ; and so may cast some light on the general question. 



K. I. A. PKOC. — VOL. I., SER. II., POL. LIT. AND ANTIU. U 



