94 Procetdings of tlie R.oyaI Irisli Academy. 



below the sm-face lay a passage 10 feet long and 2 feet 6 inclies wide, 

 of rather small dry masonry roofed with thick sandstone flags. The 

 passage 'ran ^v'.X.^. and S.S.E. At its sonthem end was a small 

 circular cell, domed in the usual way hy courses overlapping till the 

 space could be closed with a slab. Another slab was laid outside the 

 flank of the dome, as if to ease the pressure of the earth at that point. 

 Fragments of a human skull, including a portion of the lower jaw 

 with six teeth, lay at the north-west end of the gi'ave ; and a few 

 vertebrae in. the last stage of decay lay along the passage. Around the 

 remains lay charcoal and burned earth, while other traces of a fierce fire 

 were apparent on the side walls. Xothing was found in the round 

 cell, nor were there any traces of either metal or potteiy. On the top 

 of the covering slabs lay portions of the skull of a horse and " bones 

 of a goat or pig." Similarly, in an early caim-biirial near St. Cemin 

 de I'Arche, near Brive, in France, the bones of a horse lay outside a 

 cist covered by a cairn. In another caim lay the skeleton of a woman, 

 the upper part of which was i)artly cremated. An oval hearth of 

 sandstone blocks, including a portion of a quern, lay 1 foot 2 inches 

 south of the Clare grave, and 4 feet higher than its floor. It was about 

 2 feet 6 inches under the surface of the field. Mr. Creagh at once 

 wrote to me ; but when I next was able to visit Clare, in the following 

 April, the whole structure had been removed and stacked against the 

 fence of the field, and corn was sprouting in the slight depression 

 that marked its site. 



Some years before this, discoveries of some interest were made at 

 the little bog-pool of Coolosluasta Lough.' The jjeat had e>-idently 

 grown in and gi-eatly diminished the lake, and the CaiTahan drainage 

 works considerably lowered its waters. Mr. Creagh found several 

 planks under 4 feet of good peat, which had been covered by about 

 6 feet of water. One plank was worn along the edges as if by a rope. 

 It was 5 feet long, and had a round hole cut in it. The other boards 

 were in fragments, and so soft that the hand sank into them. All 



' Journal R.S.A.I., vol. xxv. (189-5 , p. 179. Fich and Coolsluosty appear in 

 Petty's " Book of Distribution" (1655 , p. 2. The latter is noted by Canon Dwyer 

 fromKing's "ChurchHistory of Ireland.' Suppl. vol.,p. 1047. " O'Sluaistifrom Cill 

 Osluaisti" ; and others, " these were they who stole the horses, the mules, and the 

 asses of the Cardinal who came from Rome to instruct in the time of Domhnall Mor 

 O'Brien, Kingof ilunster; and it was on that account the Cowarba [i.e. the successor) 

 of Peter sold the rent and right of Erin to the Saxon." If so this little marshy spot 

 is one of the most hietoric sites in the world, hut the story needs far better autho- 

 rity to support it. 



