264 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



with their corresponding joints, in the columns representing the inner side 

 aisles without troubling to indicate the subordinate divisions. 



The middle aisle is not encumbered with pews, and was evidently the 

 thoroughfare through which the pews in the inner side aisles were reached. 

 A- there seems to have been no right-of-way provided from the central 

 to the pews in the outer aisles, these must have been entered by 

 externa] doors in the sides of the hall. The ms. plans omit these doors, but 

 they are mentioned in the Dindshenefms description. PD says " there are 

 twelve or fourteen doors in it. namely, seven east and seven west." If we 

 take the smaller number of these alternatives, twelve — six on each side — we 



■ me door for every pair of pews in tl titer aisle, which is the most likely 



arrangement. 



There are a number of gaps in the mounds which now represent Tech 

 Midchuarta, and these were taken by Petrie as being the remains of the side 

 doorways. At p. 186 of Tarn he makes the naive comment. " It may be re- 

 marked, as a curious proof of the accuracy of the prose description, that the 

 uncertainty as to the number of doors being twelve or fourteen remains a 

 difficulty at the present time." It cannot, however, be sustained that these 



nl tl riginal doorways. The remains have been mutilated by 



ad by agriculturists seeking top-dressing, and some at least 



of tl to be comparatively modern. In any case the number 



of doors mentioned by the Dind-shenchns account is wrong : for as there wasa 



hi .-iid as well as at the sides (teste the ancient plan), there must have 



been an odd number of d ways in the original structure. The Hind-shenchns 



write) does not aim at meticulous accuracy; he merely Bays" there were 

 twelve or fourteen doors in it " as a careless approximation, such as any of 

 us may throw cut in conversation at any hour of the day: and we cannot 

 assume, as Petrie tacitly does, that the remains were in the same ruinous state 

 when he wide as they now are. 



A i difficultly is raised by the presence of the doorkeepers at 



the end doorway. These would Beem futile if there were six unprotected 

 doors in each side of the building. But i cording to VI > iv .".7. 38, the whole 

 hall was surrounded by nine ramparts; these are perhaps to he opiated to 

 Miir na iii cogur. liven if this anheard-of number of fences is an 

 ition, there very likely \\as some sort ,,i thicket fence surrounding 

 the whole hall ; there is no existing to uch a fortification, so that we 



cannot think of earthen mounds. Unauthorized intruders would he stopped 

 at the d n, so that the porters' would he needed 



in the ho only to guard the Common Hall from disturbance. 



1 What was " Mol, doorkft-per of Teinair," of whom we read in Cormac's Ghimry 

 (a. v. Mil. • .: Prom the way in which the word is there used it would appear to be 



ruler R technical term f"r the office than the proper name of some person who held it. 



