202 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



western side, and the force of six men with three powerful levers 

 applied to the other. The dimensions of the stone will account for the 

 force employed. It is, 'in its extreme measurement, nearly twelve feet 

 long by two and a-half feet broad, and two feet thick ; solid contents, 

 about sixty cubic feet ; approximate weight, four and a half tons. 



Its position is not elevated or otberwise remarkable. In relation to 

 the Cromlech on the north, and to Mullaghnacross and the small deno- 

 mination of Fallataggart, on the south, it is in a hollow. Neither does 

 there appear any trace of a surrounding enclosure or of adjoining inter- 

 ments : but it lies over what seems to be a grave, at the southern end of 

 which it has formerly stood, as may be inferred from the remains of the 

 cavity at that end, from the friable nature of the soil which was exca- 

 vated, and from the position of a slight elevation marked by lines of 

 stones, lying north and south, on which it rested. 



The cavity in which its base had formerly been planted was 

 covered over with the vegetable soil which, before the stone was 

 turned, covered also one-fourth of the whole upper surface. An 

 iron screw-bolt, with its nut, was found in removing the earth ; but it 

 was explained by the bystanders that a forge had formerly stood at a 

 little distance, from which, as the bolt was turned up within a few 

 inches of the surface, it probably proceeded. 



The extent of inscribed arris at first visible was four feet : when, by 

 turning the stone, the under angle was brought to light, and the whole 

 length of both arrises exposed, traces of Ogham were observable 

 through a total length of not less than eighteen feet, being by far the 

 longest legend yet discovered in that kind of writing : but, unfortu- 

 nately, throughout much the greater portion of its extent, so worn and 

 abraded as to be almost, and, indeed, in considerable parts, altogether 

 illegible. 



The inscription, as the stone originally stood, occupied the two 

 arrises of the eastern face. On that to the north, it begins at four feet 

 from the bottom, and reads in the usual manner upwards. No traces 

 now remain from which it can be said to have been continued over the 

 top : but along the opposite or southern arras it exists, either as a con- 

 tinuation or as an independent legend, from end to end, through an 

 extent of nearly eleven feet. 



Out of such a copious display of material, it is mortifying to have 

 to state that the only portion of which I can offer an absolutely clear 

 exposition is the commencement of the legend on the northern side: — 



MAQ, COKRBRI MAQ A * * 



Nothing can be clearer than that the person commemorated is one 

 of the family of Corbri, son of some one whose name commences with 

 the letter a ; and it is also plain that this initial a is followed by two 

 oblique digits crossing the arris, which may either stand conjointly for 

 g or separately for mm. ; for they are twice as widely spaced as a normal 

 g might be expected to be found here, having regard to the spacing of 

 the other associated groups of stem-crossing digits ; and, if the artist 



