o06 Proceedings of the Roi/al Irish Academy. 



Smyth, not only for the free permission he gave to carry out the research 

 but also for the friendly and practical interest with which he followed it. 



The antiquities on the demesne are — (i) a small dolmen, (ii) the now well- 

 known circle called the Jlasoubrook Ring, (iii) a magnificent earthen ring- 

 fort with triple vallum and souterrain, and (iv) a remarkable tumulus-like 

 mound. The dolmen did not seem to offer any chance of excavation, and the 

 ring- fort was too large to attack with any hope of success : I therefore 

 confined my attention to the King and the Mound. 



The Masonbrook Eing has been brought to notice in recent years in 

 papers by Mr. H. T. Knox. The fullest account which he has given of it 

 will be foimd, accompanied with a good plan, in the pages of the Galway 

 Archaeological Society's Journal, vol. ix, p. 71. This makes it superfluous to 

 give more than a few words of description here. It is a ring of earth, about 

 70 feet in external diameter, and about 3 feet high, on which are implanted 

 a series of seven stones four to five feet in height. In the centre is a low 

 mound of earth, capped with a pile of stones. The accompanying diagrammatic 

 sketch (Plate XLIII, fig. 1) is offered in lieu of a photograph : the monu- 

 ment is in the middle of a thicket of trees and lam-els, which makes a 

 satisfactory photograph impossible. 



In the middle of the ring was a mound of earth and stones, between 

 three and four feet in height, and 12 feet in diameter. The stones were 

 above, the earth forming a little boss below. It was strongly suggestive of 

 a small burial cam, and I had very little doubt that it would prove to contain 

 an interment, the circle of stones being analogous to the great circle that 

 surrounds the mound of New Grange. 



This hope was, however, disappointed. Xot only was there nothing in 

 the heap of stones, but unmistakable evidence came to light that it was of 

 quite recent formation. One of the stones at the very bottom of the heap 

 had been broken with a modern crowbar from its native rock, as a channel 

 on its fractured surface clearly showed. This verifies tlie hypothesis put 

 forward in Mr. Knox's paper just mentioned that it " possibly was a station 

 of the first Ordnance Survey, when the ridge may have been free from tlie 

 present surrounding wood." One of Mr. Smyth's workmen, who had been 

 put at my disposal, had a tradition to the same effect. 



Beneath the boss of earth, on which the pile of stones stood, and just 

 under the surface of the earth, was a layer of large stones. Under this was 

 a thin stratum of dark earth, in which were found what Dr. Scharff' has 

 identified as the teeth of a cow and of a small horse. Nothing else was 

 brought to light in the excavation. Under the dark clay was a bed of light 

 sandy soil, which did not appear e\er to have been disturbed ; the rock 



