Quarry — On Monataggart Oghams. 291 



meant for some place of concealment. I asked Mr. Cogan, who is a 

 very intelligent man, if he had ever heard of illicit distillation having 

 been carried on in the neighbourhood, and he at once pointed out to 

 me the remains of an old house, from one to two furlongs distant, at the 

 other side of an adjacent road where in his father's time a private still 

 had been worked, until more than fifty years ago it was put a stop to 

 by an invasion of soldiers from Ballincollig, who had been sent by 

 night in consequence of some information which the authorities had 

 received. The apparatus, however, was not discovered, and may 

 have been safely deposited in the place now brought to light. I think 

 this statement may be relied on, as the disposition would naturally be 

 to assign some' more mysterious origin to this curious underground 

 structure. 



And now as to the place from which the Ogham stones were 

 brought, I think there can be no reasonable doubt that it was the 

 neighbouring keel known as Kilcullen. This is about a furlong in a 

 direct line, and not half a mile distant by road, and is an exceedingly 

 interesting and remarkable place. Within the inner side of the road, 

 which takes a circular sweep, there rises a mound of considerable 

 extent and elevation, beautifully round and smooth, on the top of 

 which is a circular wall, very old, and inclosing a considerable span, 

 in which are some old half-blasted Scotch firs. The summit is on a 

 level with the adjacent land on the other side, but the rounded part is 

 more than a semicircle. Outside the wall, about twenty paces to the 

 west, there appears the trace of an oblong inclosure about ten ft. 

 by four ft., the stone edges of which rise a few inches above the sur- 

 rounding sod. On the northern side of this there are standing two 

 upright stones, of about the same size as the largest of the incised 

 stones sent to the Academy, about four ft. apart, and one of these still 

 presents distinct traces of an Ogham inscription, but very much effaced 

 by the operation of the weather. A gentleman who resides at the 

 other side of the road informed me that the tradition of the country is 

 that these stones mark the burial-place of an officer of Cromwell's 

 army, who was killed there by a fall from his horse. But this story 

 may be dismissed, as almost everything ancient in this country is 

 referred either to the time of Cromwell or of the Danes. The same 

 gentleman also told me that on the side of the mound there was an 

 excavation which he said the late well-known antiquary, Mr. Windele, 

 of Cork, had explored, but the entrance of which had been since then 

 closed by the falling in of the earth above it. I suppose there can be 

 no reasonable doubt that the incised stones now the property of the 

 Academy had been brought from this keel, there being no other place 

 near from which they could have been probably removed. 



[See the two papers which follow — Ed.] 



