Dali'OX — Cromm Cruaich of Magh Sleacht. 35 



but so was the oak-wood (doire),^ enfolding it like a sacred vestment at the 

 back and sides.' The hill-summit, standing 382 feet above the sea-level, is 

 to-day some 208 feet higher than the lake-surface underneath. At that 

 time the difference of levels between lake and hUl-top probably did not 

 exceed 180 feet. The depressions marked on the Ordnance map by 200-feet 

 contour lines lay under water in early and mediteval times. One of those 

 lines zig-zags for more than a mile north from Derrycasson Lake, winding at 

 its extremity around Camagh Lough, a short distance north-east of the rath. 

 It marks the course of a valley which hooks inward towards Kilnavart; 

 and on the Down Survey map it is replaced by a long, sickle-shaped fiord 

 that penetrates right up under the knoll surmounted by Kilnavart rath and 

 church. Camagh Lough^ is, in fact, but a pot-hole which, preserved from 

 obliteration by its greater depth, remained behind when this projection of 

 the lake receded southwards. 



The contour lines, when studied in conjunction with our earliest maps, 

 likewise show that, west of Darraugh, a branch of Guthard curved round to 

 Porturlan.* From the south, therefore, Grom Cruaich's hill looked a 

 promontory, broad-faced before and tight-laced with water for the greater 

 part of its girth. Its neck sloped down through Porturlan to Kilnavart, 

 over ground whose venerableness in pagan Ireland is still attested by the 

 number and variety of its prehistoric monuments.^ The isolation of 

 Darraugh, unbroken save by its secluded avenue of approach from behind, 

 was no doubt the determining feature that led to its appropriation for the 

 service of a national worship. 



Such was the hillock, adorned by Crom Cruaich's shrine for head-gear, 

 which St. Patrick saw immediately north of Guthard when he reached 

 Tuam Seanchaidh. Embarking there, at the neck where North and South 

 Guthard met. he had but a mile of water to cross in his vovage to Magh 

 Sleacht. From the lake shore opposite another half a mile of easy ascent 



' The Ordnance maps name the townland Derryragh. The spelling used in this 

 paper (Darraugh) is designed to convey the local pronunciation. 



- For the importance of the oak in druidical practices see Frazer's " Golden Bough," 

 vol. ii, chap. xx. 



^ As bearing on the older, or correct, pronunciation of Garadise, I may mention that 

 Camagh is pronounced in the locality as if it were spelt Gommagh. 



* The older name Portnerilinchy (see " Inquisition es Ultoniae," 10 Carol. I) would 

 indicate this fact. I take the etymology to be Port-7ia-h-TJrlaidhe-h-Innsi, i.e., "the 

 slaughter-bank of the island." 



-■ My inquiries in the district elicited that, some two or three generations since, this 

 ridge of Magh Sleacht was literally paved with pillar-stones, dolmens, and stone-circles. 

 The 6-inch maps show that a considerable number of them still survive. 



