Browne — Ethnography of Bally croy, Co. Mayo. 107 



2. Antiquities. — There are not many ancient buildings or monuments 

 in Ballycroy, which must always have been a thinly-populated district, 

 and of those that exist, all, or nearly all, are of far earlier date than 

 the Ulster colony. The remains still in existence are in much the 

 same condition as when O'Donovan noted them in 1838; the people 

 generally respect these old monuments, and so the only destroyer in 

 the meantime has been the weather. 



The object of this section is to point out the objects worthy of 

 note to archaeologists, not to enter upon a description at length, which 

 is left to more competent hands, and so only a short notice is given 

 here. The most ancient remains seem to be a cromleach near Claggan, 

 a " druidical circle" at Tallagh, and numerous small earthen forts 

 scattered through the district. At a place called Kildun ( Cill-a-dhuin), 

 where a peninsula juts out into the bay, is an ancient buryiag-ground, 

 and an upright monumental stone or slab inscribed with a cross within 

 a circle. The other buildings and monuments are apparently of more 

 modern date ; they comprise churches, holy wells, two castles, and a 

 monument. At Bunmore there is the ruin of Tempull Mma (St. 

 Enda's Church), a small ancient building of which, as in O'Donovan's 

 time, there is but little standing ; not far from the church is Tola/r 

 Mma (St. Enda's Well), ^ which is covered by a beehive-shaped struc- 

 ture of stone, on the front of which is a slab rudely marked with a 

 cross. The church and well are the scene of the "Legend of Knock- 

 a-Thample," which has been already referred to in this paper. Not 

 far from the well is what is poiated out as "the Red Pedlar's Grave," 

 in which the murderer is said to be interred. At Claggan, in the 

 south of the district, outside of the graveyard, is, or was. Teach 

 Fiontainne (the house of St. Eintanny), the site of a small church. 

 O'Donovan says that " St. Eintanny was the author of the Pagan 

 History of Ireland, and is said by tradition to have lived longer than 

 Methusalem {sic), and to have been contemporary with the very old 

 woman called Cailleach Bheartha." Inside the graveyard is the "Well 

 of St. Eintanny, where stations are performed. Just outside this 

 graveyard is a small rocking-stone. 



At Castlehill [KnocTc-a-chaislean) there are the foundations of a 

 castle torn down for building materials some time in the last century; 



1 Some call this -well St. Catherine's ; it is helieved hy the people to possess 

 anti-Ma] thusian properties ; also, to be efficacious in curing eye troubles, abscesses, 

 and dog-bites. Stations are performed here. 



At Bunmore there is also a killeen, or ancient burial-place. 



