r{Of) Proceeilinfis of the Roi/ul Irish Academi/. 



class of circle froiii tli»^ otliei-s as some liave done by supposing it to ha^•e 

 been a place of defence against eutaaies. 1 am uo military expert; but it 

 seems to me as if it would have beeu hard to discover a worse kind of place 

 for that purpose. Tou have a gentle sloping bauk externally, up which a 

 fierce rush could easily be made, and a sort of cockpit internally, from which 

 there could have been no escape for the defenders. It is in close relationship 

 with other circles and megaUthic objects which could have had no military 

 significance. Of course it may be argued that they were contiguous religious 

 edifices to the military station, like the chapel near a castle. Or it may be 

 argued that this particular circle was a cattle enclosure. That, at least, is 

 possible, but it may pertinently be asked why such large stones should have 

 been utilized, with the euonnous labour it must have required to move and 

 erect them for a purpose of that kind, when an ordinary earthen i-ing woiild 

 have equally well served the purpose. All the evidence at present available 

 seems to point to the fact that the stone circles were placed there for 

 religious observances, in some, if not all, cases, connected with the worship of 

 heavenly bodies. I see no reason for detaching this, or any other of the 

 circles about to be described, fi'om the general category of stone circles. 

 Certainly the remarkable astronomical fact quoted on page 287 Ls all in favour 

 of a religious explanation. 



(3) Circles with a double-ranked bank. This form is surrounded by an 

 earthen ring with two hedges of stone, one externally and one internally, a 

 kind of ambulatory lying between the two. These stones are more or less 

 continuous, that is to say they are often in contact with one another and not 

 separated by gaps as in Group I. There may be a single or nearly single- 

 ranked cii'cle of smaller size in the centre. Cucles " 0," " L," and " M." 



(4) Circles with double-ranked stones with an ambulatory between, but 

 without any bank. There may be a smaller central circle here also. Circles 

 " J " and " K." 



(o) Circles formed of stones surrounding a small mound with a flat top. 

 Circle"?." 



