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XV. 



ON A BEONZE-AGE INTEEMENT WITH ASSOCIATED STANDING- 

 STONE AND EAETHEN EING, NEAR NAAS, CO. KILDAEE. 



By E. a. S. MACALISTEE, E. C. E. AEMSTEONG, and 

 E. LLOYD PEAEGEE. 



Plates XXXIX-XLI. 



Eead December 9, 1912. Published jANrAEY 20, 1913. 



1. Description of the Site. 



At the northern extremity of the Wicklow mountains, where the granite of 

 the highlands sinks down towards the Hmestone of the plains of Dublin and 

 Kildare, foot-hills of Silurian rocks intervene. They project towards the 

 north-west as low cultivated spurs, which form the extreme outposts of the 

 hills, and, standing out into the plain, command wide views over a great extent 

 of fertile country. Lyons Hill is the most conspicuous of these. Eound its 

 base all traffic, whether by rail or canal, must pass before it can turn south- 

 westward across the plain. The great south road (in Dublin known as the 

 Naas Eoad), pursuing a more southerly course, cuts across the back of this 

 ridge and re-enters the curving LifPey valley beyond. Further to the south- 

 west, a couple of miles to the east of Naas, another low Silurian ridge stands 

 out in the townland of Eurness. Its summit commands a magnificent 

 view northward and westward ; and this was the place selected for the 

 sepulchral monument described in the succeeding pages. The summit of the 

 hill is 560 feet above Ordnance datum, and to the north and west the ground 

 falls sharply. The Silurian slates proje&t here and there through the grassy 

 surface, drift being now almost absent from the site. A few hundred yards 

 down the slope on the north-western side, the limestone comes in, and quarries 

 reveal the beds dipping at 30° to 40° towards the north-west. 



The belt of Silurian rocks, on the edge of which the site lies, is some 

 7 miles wide, stretching north-east and south-west between the limestone and 

 the granite. The nearest point to which the granite approaches lies near 



B.I. A. PBGC, vol.. XXX., SE(1T. C. [50] 



