Macalister — Temair firry: Remains and Truth lions of Tara. 255 



writer in the Ordnance Survey Letters 1 records the local tradition of bhe mill 

 in a form quite differenl from that given by Petrie, namely, that Cormac's 

 mill was on the river Gahhra in Blundelstown townland, "erected by a 

 Scotchman named Hand"(!) These facts do not strengthen the case for 

 1'etrie's identification. 



There is a spring, now much bemired by the trampling of cattle, at the 

 south end of the ridge. It is marked "Well" on the twentv-Hve-inch map 

 (Meath, sheet xxxi, 16). The six-inch map indicates it, but without any 

 lettering. A streamlet Hows eastward from it. The stream from Nemnach 

 Howed eastward, according to the L text of Dind-shenehas Mrenn (f/lassi 

 bee theid [a NJemnig saiv. The word sair is omitted in the other Dublin 

 MSS.). This spring would satisfy the conditions for identification with 

 Nemnach better than the spring indicated by Petrie. 



True, VD hi 103 sqq. says, or appears to say, that Nemnach is east of Miir 

 Tea, and that the houses of Temair were scattered around Tech Mah'iserid, 

 which was on its margin. This, so far as it goes, would seem at first sight 

 more favourable to Petrie's identification : for bis Nemnach is close to the 

 modern village, and is about east of the site of Mur Tea. But, in the first 

 place, it is a mere assumption that the houses of the ancient village, which 

 doubtless stood at or near the royal dwellings, were on the site of the 

 modern village." In the second place, it is not certain that the passage 

 before us really asserts that Nemnach was east of the structure called Mur 

 Tea ; rather does it intend to say that it was east of the whole site of Temair, 

 a condition satisfied by its being on the eastern slope of the ridge. Metrical 

 exigencies prevented the author of the poem from saying that the well was 

 south-east of the settlement. The writer of PD had no such difficulties to 

 contend with, and his version of the direction in which we are to look for 

 the well is therefore to be preferred. Against Petrie's identification it may 

 further be argued with fairness that, if it were sound, it would not be easy 

 to understand why the author of I'D mentioned Nemnach first in the list of 

 notable places of Temair; while if the well were at the place now suggested. 



1 0. S. Letters, Meath, pp. U3-4. 



- That there was such a village may be taken for granted: the royal establishment 

 would need servants, caterers, and other ministers, who would have to be housed in the 

 neighbourhood. The well-known block of red enamel from Temair, now in the Royal 

 Irish Academy's collection (Trans. K.I. A., x\x, "_'77 : Journal Roy. Soc". Ahtiq" 61 

 Ireland, xli, p. 61), which was meant to supply material for enamel buttons 66 he pinned 

 on to metal objects for their enrichment, is a proof that artificers in metal and enamel 

 were established at Temair in the time of La Tene II, when this, particular technique of 

 enamelling prevailed. 



