314 Proceedings of the Royal trish Academy. 



2. Xakrative of the Ixa-estigations. 



We assembled at Tower Hill House on the afternoon of April l^ith. 

 Professor Alexander MacaKster and E. A. S. Macalister had gone down a few 

 days before that, and had siu-vejed some fifty of the ring-forts, of which a 

 remarkable nirmber occui-s in the district. On the first afternoon we walked 

 over the hiU, examined the different cams, and decided upon our plan of 

 operations. 



We began work on the morning of Apiil 14th, with two labourers, begianing 

 with the nearest earn (Cam G). Like most of the others, it is a conical 

 mound of angular limestone blocks, shattered by weather into material 

 resembling road-metal on the outside ; but inside the blocks were intact, many 

 of them being as large as a man coidd lift. Some indications of an entrance 

 were found about half-way up the slope on the west side, and an hour's work 

 here revealed a deep fissure, caused by the upright slab which blocked the door- 

 way having fallen a little outwards. On removing a cover-stone iiamediately 

 adjoining — a block measuriug about 2 feet 6 inches long by 12 inches 

 broad by 9 inches deep — we were able to enter. To our delight, the 

 chamber proved to be not a simple cist, but a large crueifoi-m stmcture 

 formed of tall slabs, high enough to stand upright in, and consisting of an 

 entrance passage, a central chamber, and tlu-ee side chambers — resembling in 

 general structure the tj'pe of monument which in the British Islands was not 

 known previously to exist except in the County of Meath. The chamber, 

 which is described later, proved intact, and e\'idently had never been opened 

 since the last sepultiu-e in Bronze-age times. The floor was quite clean, save 

 for a few stones apparently left there by chance. A careful examination of 

 ever)' comer of the passage and chamber was made before any of the bones or 

 stones were removed. Then the materials — burnt bones, earth, and stones — 

 from the thi'ee side chambers were brought out into the open aii', sifted, and 

 carefully examined. By the time the work was finished the light was fading. 

 Meanwhile, two of us, with the two men, had begun work on the promising 

 cam higher up the lull, marked Cam K. Xo indication of the probable 

 position of the doorway coidd be detected, so, reasoning from analogy, an 

 extensive excavation was made half way up the western slope, by pitching out 

 the ragged lumps of limestone. This proved fruitless, but an attempt on the 

 northern side was more successful, and three houi-s after commencing work 

 we had repeated the experience of Carn G, and had efi'ected an entrance 

 immediately behind and above the large upright slab which had closed the 

 passage, and which had sagged outwards. The chamber of this cai'u proved 



