1876-1877.] 231 



ances were again mounted, and the party drove off to visit Navan 

 Fort, distant some two miles west from Armagh. 



The ancient Emania, or as it is now called " Navan Fort," is 

 one of the most celebrated places in early Irish history. Long 

 before St. Patrick founded upon the hill of Drumsailech (the hill 

 of sallows) his church, and around it laid out a city, Emania was 

 known. There it was that the Ulster Kings had their chief resi- 

 dence for nearly seven centuries (from 350 B.C. to a.d. 332), 

 ranging from Cimbaeth and Macha Mongruadh to Fergus Fogha, 

 who fell at Achalethderg in the latter year. There, too, it was 

 that the Red-Branch Knights, so. celebrated in song and story, 

 had their residence. A place close to Navan Fort, still called 

 Crieve Row, from the Irish " Craebh-ruadh," i.e., the Red Branch, 

 perpetuates in its name the memories of these knights of old. 

 The foundation of the palace of Emania by Cimbaeth and his 

 wile, Macha, is assumed in the Annals of Tigernach as the start- 

 ing point of authentic Irish history ; and we find numerous refer- 

 ences to it up to a.d. 332, when it was burnt and destroyed, and 

 never inhabited again. The site of the old palace, now called 

 Navan Fort (from the compound An-Eamhain), now consists of 

 an elliptical entrenchment enclosing an area of about twelve acres, 

 and separated from the central " dun," on which the residences 

 were erected, by a deep ditch or fosse. After a thorough examin- 

 ation of the Fort by the party, a meeting was held on its summit, 

 and a vote of thanks conveyed to the members of the Armagh 

 Natural History Society — viz., Edward Rogers, Esq., Rev. J. 

 Elliott, Dr. Riggs, and Rev. George Robinson, A.M. — for their 

 kindness in making arrangements for the reception of the party, 

 and for their accompanying the excursion. Near to Navan . is a 

 small lake called Loughnashade, which O'Donovan considers to 

 be probably the same as that called Lough Kirr, in the following 

 notice in the Annals of the Four Masters, under the year 907 : — 

 " The privileges of the Cathedral of Armagh were violated by 



