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XXX. 



REPORT ON THE EXCAVATION OF TOPPED MOUNTAIN 

 CAIEN. Ey THOMAS PLUNKETT and GEORGE COEFEY. 



[Eead 24t]i January, 1898.] 



Topped moTintain is situated about five miles east of Enniskillen, Co. 

 Fermanagh. (Ordnance Map, sheet 23).^ It is a dome-shaped hill, 

 somewhat isolated from its neighbours, and rises to a height of 909 feet 

 above the sea-level. The summit commands a wide-reaching view of 

 the surrounding country. On the west side the upper and lower lakes 

 of Lough Erne are extended at the spectator's feet. The cairn which 

 crowns the summit of the hill is symmetrically formed in the shape of 

 a truncated cone. It measures about 90 feet in diameter at the base, and 

 50 feet at the top, and averages about 12 feet in height. It is locally 

 called "the moat." At the centre of the flat top was, as is frequently 

 the case in such cairns, a small depression about 6 feet in diameter by 

 2 feet deep. The cairn has been a favourite station for bonfires, and 

 whether the depression has been made by treasure-seekers or by the 

 bonfire-makers, or is an original feature, it would be impossible to say. 

 In a cairn excavated by Mr. Plunkett the previous year on Belmore 

 mountain, a similar depression, locally called "the Eagle's Nest," 

 appeared in his opinion to have been artificially lined with stones. 



The excavation of the cairn was begun on the 30th June, and con- 

 tinued, with the exception of two days, to July 10th. Eight labouring 

 men were employed on the first day, and ten to eleven men on the 

 subsequent days. In the first instance a face was cleared at the east 

 side, which was carried round to the south side as the work progressed. 

 The excavation was pushed in well past the centre ; in fact the entire 

 body of the cairn was excavated to the ground level with the excep- 

 tion of the outer slope of the mound on the north-west side, wliich 

 it was thought undesirable to disturb, so as to preserve the outline of 

 the mound as a feature in the landscape. In plan, fig. 1, the dotted 

 line shows the extent of the excavation. 



The cairn proved to be formed chiefly of slaty stones with a 



^ See Paper by "W. F. Wakeman, Jour. R. Hist. Ai-ch. Assoc. Ireland, 4t]i 

 Series, Vol. 3, p. 529.— Ed. 



