78 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



save at- the Seefins iin BaUyhoura, and near Pallas), also at Ai'dpatrick, 

 anciently called Tulac'k na Feimie^- whence the warriors marched to the fatal 

 battle of G-abra, in the niid-thii'd centmy. Glenoisin, near Seefin, in Bally- 

 houraj also recalls the great poet's name, and the ruling piiaces claimed 

 descent fi-om Ossian's daughter, the wife of Cormac Cass. One always 

 suspects a comparatively late origin for attempts to bring the later Finn 

 cycle into vital relation with the older ti'aditions, pedigrees, and usages. I 

 need only add that the Fiana were represented rather as violators than as 

 makers of such mounds. Amid the many instances, notably ta the " Aeallam 

 na Senorach," where the tradition of Xorse and Danish treasure-seeMng- gets 

 transfeiTed to the thu-d century warrior bands, I need only recall how Finn's 

 warriors dug into the &id, mound of Cuillean, at Cullen, four miles from 

 CromweU Hill, to force its di\dne inhabitants to rejuvenate Finn himself. 



The Sidedn has been carved out of a natural ridge of red earth, and 

 carefully shaped and raised. Save for its veiy shallow fosse, hke that at 

 " Sheenafinnoge " and other tumuli in the county, it resembles the inaugui'a- 

 tion mound of the Dal Cais princes at Magh Adair in Co. Clare. Like the 

 latter, it has a ramp, or gangway ; this featiu'e is not found at other motes and 

 tumuli of the district, so far as I have examined them, though gangways 

 across the fosses are not uncommon. The fosse is usually 9 feet wide, and 

 often barely one foot deep. It, like the top of the mound, was evidently left 

 imfinished. The sides of the mound are steeply scarped, save to the south ; at 

 the ramp they lise 15 feet on a base of 12 feet to the west, and 19 feet on 

 21 feet to the north-east down to the hill slope. The flat-topped mounds at 

 Bruree, Ballingarry Down, Ballinvreena, and Gush' are like it, made on slopes, 

 and even more uneven in height, so as to keep the summit fairly level. 



The platform measures about 100 feet north and south, and 85 feet east 

 and west, the base being about 125 feet and 110 feet. There is a teiTaee or 

 " set-back " 10 feet to 12 feet wide round the edge, and the centre is occupied 

 by a rude, unfinished-looking mound, in parts 10 feet above the terrace and 

 27 feet aboAe the field. It may be recalled that the mound of Magh Adair 

 is 24 feet high, and the Eagle Mount 23 feet. North from the Sidedn in the 

 next field is a circular hollow. 



The terracing of the top of the mound is better shown in the finer mound 



1 Acallamh, Silva Gad., ii, p. 118. 



- Wars of the Gaedhil (ed. Todd), p. 115, " Xever was there ... a mound . . . which 

 was not plundered by the collectors, . . . neither was there in concealment belonging to 

 the Fiana or the Sid folk anything that was not discovered by these . . . men of Denmark 

 through p^anismand idol-worship." 



'Proc. R. I. Acad., ssxui (c), pp. 452, 474. 



