[ 305 ] 



XY. 



ON SOME CAYES IN THE SLIEYE NA CAILLIAOH 

 DISTRICT, CO. MEATH. By E. C. EOTHEP.AM. 



(Plates YI. and YII.) 



[communicated BT GEORGE COFEET, A. I.E.] 



[Read June 12, 1893.] - 



Having been asked last summer by a Member of the Royal Irish 

 Academy to examine any dry-built caves I might hear of in the 

 neighbourhood of the Slieve na Cailliagh Hills in Co. Meath, I made 

 inquiries as to the existence of such caves, from which the follow^ing 

 list has resulted : — 



Knockrath. Loughcrew. 



Moat. Millbrook. 



Ballinlough (2). Newtown. 

 Stonefield. 



It is also reported that there are caves somewhere in Drumlerry 

 and near Oldcastle, but these reports are so vague that I have not 

 thought it worth while to follow them up. Some years ago I was 

 told that a cave had been found by a farmer not very far from Old- 

 castle, about the borders of Meath and Cavan, and that he had broken 

 down the roof and filled up the interior. Caves of this class also exist 

 and I believe are at present open, at Bective and Lucan, Co. Dublin, f.-'^*'^.^^^ 



The general features of these caves are a passage leading fromthev^ i*-"* . j 

 open air to one or more subterranean dome-shaped chambers, circular 

 or nearly so in plan, built of dry masonry, and covered at the top of p^, 

 the dome by a flag. The passages I have examined are also, without:^ 

 exception, roofed with flags, and the masonry in every case consists^-of y'^ 

 rough stones, put together with great ingenuity without the assistance ■o'* 

 of mortar, and held in their place by the pressure of the earth which -■'^' 

 must have been filled in at frequent intervals outside the building 

 during its erection. 



It is not easy to arrive at any accurate conclusion as to what these 

 caves were made for, unless it be that some of the overground habita- 

 k.i.a, peoc, see. ni., vol, in. y 



