462 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academij. 



the grave of Garban, son of Dedad, on the hill-side, to the east (i.e. np the 

 slope), not far from the tomb of Dubthach's wife. The grave of Diibthach 

 was on the south side of the slope, near the grave of Lugaid Laigde. To 

 the north-east was an unfailing well, above the grave, and near the Dun of 

 Dubthach. It was famed " for its virtues and solemn spells." (This is perhaps 

 the watercourse to the north-east of the group of rings, tumuli, and pillar- 

 stones, at G-lounnacroghery, or else, possibly, the mote and well a little 

 farther north, in Gush.) Then there were " the tombs of three (four) 

 women"— the wife of Daire, Eithne, Mair, and Mugain — side by side, on the 

 great hill (perhaps the conjoined rings in Cooloughtragh, on the south-west 

 slope). East of these was the grave of Dodera (the jester and friend of 

 Lughaidh Mac Con)' "on the mount" (i.e. up the slope, perhaps at the two 

 stones of Gatabaun). The poem then names Cend Febrat, Cend Cuirrig 

 (evidently not the mountain of that name far out of his horizon in 

 Co. Waterford),' Cend Claire, and Cend Aife. Cend Febrat and Cend Claire 

 are unmistakably the heads of this mountain mass ; Cend Aife probably 

 the Deerpark Hill, with its fine dolmen, over Glen Aife or Gleneefy. Nearly 

 all the persons named were of the Clan Dedad, or Erainn, of Munster : 

 Lughaidh Laighde being ancestor of the Dairfine, and thereby of the Corca 

 Laighde. It is evident that we had here a veritable sanctuary of the Ernai 

 of Clann Dedad. A sidh mound was more than probably a "haunted holy 

 ground " of the old religion, if not a temple. I dare not dogmatize, but will 

 simply show that on the north and west slopes of Cenn Febrat, all capable 

 of being taken in at one view as one looked eastward to the mountain,^ as 

 the poem implies, is a group of earthworks and ceremonial places, coinciding 

 remarkably well with the monuments therein described. It is especially 

 notable that we have three conjoined rings of the sepulchral or ceremonial 

 type, with another of the same period conjoined to the side (the fifth being 

 a manifest afterthought, of di£terent type), where we might expect to find 

 the graves of " the three women," and a fourth ; also there is a group of 

 graves and forts to the south-west of the " unfailing " well (either at Gush 

 mote or Glenacroghera) on the side of the mountain. 



Going round the old hill road, round Sliabh riach, we pass near the wind- 

 swept little graveyard of Laraghlaw or Templenalaw, Lathrachlauii, in the 

 Charter of Magio, 1182,' a few lonely pine-trees and the bare foundations of 



' Battle of Magh Muciamha, " Silva Gadelica,'" vol. ii, p. 349, Revue Celtique. 



2 Met. Dind., x, p. 234. 



^ Certainly not on the east side, for the all-important Dun Claire on that slope is never 

 mentioned, nor Rathbroccan, or Glenbroghaun. 



' See Proc. R. I. Acad^ vol. xxv, p. 453. Laythyrathlau claimed from Peter le 

 Botiller by Alicia Roche in 1396. 



