358 Proceedings of the Roi/al Irish Academi/. 



(2) The meaning of the extensive layer of charcoal. 



(3) The manner of formation of the stratum of made earth covering the 

 layer of charcoal. 



(4) The purpose of the enclosure. 



(1) Is the association of the cist, the stone, aiui the enclosure intentional oi' 

 fortuitous ? To this question there can be but one answer. No one would 

 doubt that the stone was meant to mark the site of the cist : that the cist 

 should be placed where it was found without disturbing a previously existing 

 standing-stone, or that the stone should be set up (a process involving, in 

 this case, the quarrying of a socket for it in the rock), without disturbing a 

 previously existing cist, is, to say the least, improbable, unless the two 

 formed one scheme, designed at one time. 



That the stone -and-cist group is independent of the enclosure is a less 

 inadmissible hypothesis. The enclosure in all respects resembles the 

 common ring-forts, some of which are known to be as late in date as the 

 early Middle Ages ; and it is possible to suppose that such an enclosure had 

 been drawn at some later date around a spot which happened to contain a 

 Bronze-Age burial. But two things render this unlikely. In the first 

 place, such a structure would presumably have been erected (on this 

 hypothesis) for some defensive purpose, and would in that case be almost 

 sure to contain evidences of human occupation : we have seen that the 

 contrary is the case. In the second place, it is not likely that the builders 

 would have taken the trouble to get the centre of the enclosure exactly 

 coincident with the standing-stone if the latter had nothing to do with the 

 former. For these reasons we adopt what, in any case, is the more inherently 

 probable hypothesis, that the cist, the stone, and the enclosure form a 

 single group of mutually dependent details: The cist is the burial-chamber ; 

 the stone marks the position of the grave ; and the ring encloses both. 

 The wishing-tree may be the last vestige of a sacred character which at one 

 time attached to the enclosure. 



IFTifti, then, was the order in u'hich the varioxLS structures were erected? 

 We take it that the order was as follows : — 



(a) The construction of the cist and the burning of the bodies.' 



' As an aliernatiTe to this, the process (a) may be divided into two, tlms (o") laying down the 

 foor of the cist and burning the bodies, (a') erecting the side-stones of the cist. The total absence 

 of smoke-blackening on the side-stones, remembering the remarkable permanence of smoke -stains and 

 the intensity of the fire as testified to by the state of the cist-floor, favours tliis theory of the course 

 of events. On the other hand, it would liave been difficult to manipulate the heavy side-stones of 

 the cist without trampling to dust any objects that had been deposited on its floor. 



