414 [P'oc. B. N. F. C, 



up the stream, closely shut in by the rocky sides and over- 

 arching bushes. The lower fall, in volume of water, is still as 

 fine as ever; but, alas ! the upper and loftier fall, the finest in 

 the district, has for the present, if not for ever, ceased, owing 

 to the diversion of the stream by the Water Commissioners. 

 These falls, like all the others in the country, are due to the 

 step-like character of the alternations of the harder and softer 

 beds of the great basaltic plateau, from whence these rocks 

 have derived the designation of " trap," from trappa, a stair. 

 In many cases dykes penetrating the softer beds have given 

 their character to our local falls, and also produce the sudden 

 turns and windings to which the streams owe their pictur- 

 esqueness. There is scarcely a stream leaves the basaltic 

 uplands without passing over one or more of these falls, some 

 of which are scarcely known to the generality of tourists — 

 those on the upper waters of the Glenarm River for instance. 

 Having reached the top of the glen, whilst a few of the more 

 enthusiastic botanists were engaged in searching every cranny 

 and recess for mosses and other lowly forms of vegetable life, 

 the rest of the party struck across to visit the ruins of Killyann 

 Church, or " the church at the river." Of this, one of the 

 relics of the times before Carrickfergus became an Anglo- 

 Norman county, only a fragment of the west gable now stands, 

 but the foundation can still be traced, having the dimensions 

 inside of about 41 feet long by 16 feet wide. This church was 

 also known as Duncrue Church, from the burial mound or 

 tumulus which still stands close beside it. Near the mound, 

 on the edge of the ravine in which flows the eastern branch of 

 the Woodburn River, is a third relic, of later date probably 

 than either church or mound. This is the site of a castle whose 

 foundations formed a square about 34 feet by 26 feet, and which 

 was surrounded by an earthen rampart, traces of which still exist, 

 forming a rectangular enclosure about 300 feet long by 1 50 feet 

 wide, having outside it a fosse or moat of considerable width 

 and depth. Tradition reports that this structure was occupied 

 by a family of the name of Russell. Descending to the stream, 

 the party proceeded for some distance up the bed of the eastern 



