Clare Island Survey — History and Archaeology. 2 5 



Farther to the north-west is the Lacht ree Moonni (leacht righ Mumhain) or 

 tomb of the king of Munster. It also was under a sandhill till nearly 1840 ; 

 a number of cists (containing scorched bones, steatite beads, and rings) lay 

 not far away near Kilmore graveyard. The Trunk na callighe, in Carn town- 

 land, is a square enclosure and cist of upright blocks. A smaller cairn lies 

 in Emlybeg North — a dolmen, 14 feet long, in a circle of stones, 36 yards 

 across. Near Cross, at Bealdorcha, another earthen mound, under the 

 sand, contained a cist and a skeleton. Some said the body had been buried 

 standing upright (like King Laoghaire in the fifth century, and King Eoghan 

 Bel in the sixth); others that it was seated on a stone chair, or cist; its face 

 (all agree) was turned towards the Lacht air Iorruis. This enumeration 

 sufficiently shows the importance of the sandhill settlements of Co. Mayo. 



Unfortunately none of equal importance occur south of the Mullet. 

 Middens and hut-sites, hearths and burned stones exist in the sandhills at 

 either end of Achill Sound. Those at the southern end, in the townland of 

 Gubnahardin, on the mainland, when examined by Messrs. Praeger, Lyons, 

 and myself, proved of interest, and are worthy of more methodical examination. 

 At the northern site, opposite Gubnahardin Fort and the coastguard station of 

 Achill Sound, the chief part is about 40 feet long, with charcoal (showing 

 wood fibre and burned twigs) hearths, and blackened stones. The shells 

 are (as so usually) Ostrea, Pecten varius, Buccinum, Littorina (littorea, 

 obtusata, and rudis), Anomia ephippium, Venus lincta, Nassa reticulata, 

 Trochus (umbilicatus and lineatus), Solen siliqua and Carduus; the vast 

 majority are Littorina. The whole heap seems to be 130 feet across. 



Farther to the south-east is a lesser one. A third, still farther eastward, 

 has a well-marked layer of black mould and burned slabs and pebbles; it 

 is in two layers with 6 feet of sand between, containing shells, vertebrae 

 and spines of fish; a quartzite hammer was also found here. Then a 

 layer of oysters, green clay, black mould, and charcoal, with a layer of peri- 

 winkles on top of it. The upper stratum was directly under the sward. 

 Mr. Praeger found here a large, finely polished bead of blue limestone. The 

 shells were mainly limpets, with only a few periwinkles. Hearth-slabs and 

 pebbles, blackened by fire, abound. On the shore of Keel West, just above 

 highwater-mark, Colonel Wood-Martin found three shell- middens. They 

 also yielded, like those I examined, a hammer stone and steatite beads, also a 

 half-made spindle-whorl, and a later green-glass bead — all of which passed to 

 the collection of Canon Grainger. No metal was found, but bones of deer, 

 swine, and rayfish occurred among the layers of oysters, mussels, limpets, 

 and cockles. 



As may be seen, I found no similar settlement till we reached Inishbofin. 



