Maca lister — Temair Brcy ; Remains and Traditions of Tara. 247 



This is the reading of R, B, II, and U : though the last-named MS., by an 

 accidental lipography, has dropped the first four words. 1 L inserts eturru 

 " between them *' after the opening words Mur Tea—" them " being the 

 Forrad and Tech Cormaic, described in the sentences immediately preceding. 

 The same MS. also interpolates an intrusive gloss, explaining who Tea was, 

 enumerating the previous names of Temair, and stating that the site received 

 its present name because Tea was buried etir Idthravh ind Foraid 7 vnd 

 Bigthaige, " between the site of the Forrad and of the Royal House." 



In the current section we are concerned with the topography only, so that 

 we must not at present follow up the side issues raised by this note, such as 

 the previous names of Temair or the personality of Tea. These are subjects 

 for later consideration. We therefore concentrate our attention on the 

 nature and position of Mur Tea. The first thing which we notice is that the 

 ramparts surrounding Tech Cormaic and the Forrad are actually in contact, 

 and there is, therefore, no room for any structure between them ; it follows 

 that there must be something wrong withL's reading eh(,rru,a,nd with the asser- 

 tion based upon it in the interpolated gloss. Looking back to the other mss., 

 which omit eturru, we see that Mur Tea was a hillock (cnoc beco), that is, a 

 burial tumulus, which is just what we should expect it to be from the 

 legends associated with it. Such a structure would not naturally be described 

 as a mur. We are therefore justified in concluding (as has already been 

 suggested) that the name current in our authorities is artificial, devised in 

 the interests of their etymology of the name Temair. 2 We learn further 

 that it was situated between two ramparts, and that it was south of something 

 —presumably at the south side of Raith Rig itself. 



It has apparently never been noticed that in the very place indicated — at 

 the south side of the Raith and just inside the great rampart— there is a 

 slight rise in the ground, which has all the appearance of being the base of a 

 levelled mound. Its diameter is about 33 feet, and its place can be fixed by 

 the following compass-bearings 3 : — 



To Trim Yellow Steeple 278° 



To a gap in a plantation of trees on a hill bo the north-east, . 330 D 



To the statue of St Patrick, 30° 



To the south-east pinnacle of Tara Church Tower, . . 40° 



1 The scribe has, indeed, omitted the whole of the previous description of the Forrad ; 

 his eye having wandered from fades, which in the text precedes that description, to the 

 same word in the sentence quoted above. 



- A more suitable, perhaps the original, name (Lecht Tea) is preserved in a line <>f a 

 poem quoted in O'Clery's Glossary, s. v. toinneamh. 800 Retnw celtique, v, p. 57. 



3 Taken with a prismatic compass in the middle of July, 1!M7. 



R.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXXIV, SECT. C. [85] 



