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VII. 



THE CISTS, DOLMENS, AND PILLARS, IN THE EASTERN 

 HALE OE THE COUNTY OE CLARE. Bx THOMAS 

 JOHNSON WESTROPP, M.A. 



[Plates Y. and VI.] 



[Read April 14, 1902.] 



So important are methodical field surveys to antiquaries, and so 

 few persons have even attempted to treat exhaustively the early 

 remains of any of the counties of Ireland, that I venture again to 

 trespass on the time of the Academy by further notes on the dolmens 

 of the county Clare. The present paper is an attempt to give the 

 position and description of all the oldest sepulchral remains, cists 

 and pillars of rough stone, in the baronies of Upperjand Lovrer Bunratty. 

 I do not anticipate that it will prove exhaustive ; it is still probable 

 that other cists may be found in the northern portion of upper 

 Bunratty. There, among a network of fields with rocks and boulders 

 (very like dolmens when seen at a little distance), some actual cists 

 may even yet be found. It is an undulating country difficult to 

 examine without passing through every valley, if not thi-ough nearly 

 every field, and on this account this paper only claims to contain de- 

 scriptions (or notes where the monuments have jDerished undescribed) 

 of the eleven dolmens in Upper Bunratty, and seven in Lower Bun- 

 ratty, as marked on the maps of the Ordnance Sui'vey of 1843, together 

 with ten which I have been able to add to the list of the first barony 

 dm'ing a series of researches from 1870, but more especially since 1892. 

 I hope to continue these notes to include the other dolmens of Clare. 

 This paper is a continuation, or rather an expansion, of one — '' The 

 Distribution of Cromlechs in the County of Clare" — read before the 

 Academy in May, 1897, and (as any detailed descriptions of the Bun- 

 ratty dolmens in Mr. Wm. Copeland Borlase's book, " The Dolmens 

 of Ireland," were from my notes), I must here ask forgiveness for 

 any repetitions needful for the completioa of this paper. 



