582 [Proc. B.N.F.C 



monuments of the most interesting description — earns, tumuli, 

 stone circles, and richly-sculptured stones of the most primitive 

 type, any one of which would be worth a day's journey to see, 

 yet there are some twenty-eight ready to be inspected, so 

 numerous and so scattered as to justify the local legend that a 

 celebrated witch in the " ould ould times " scattered the stones 

 out of her apron. The monuments are mainly chambered 

 tumuli. A circle of forty to fifty large stones, from 5ft. to 12ft. 

 in length, encloses a heap of ordinary field stones piled into a 

 cone, and beneath the pile is a great chamber formed cf large 

 stones, 5ft. to 6ft. high, and a passage from the outside to the 

 chamber formed of similar stones, all being covered over with 

 incised markings of circles, chevron patterns, and numerous 

 other devices now wholly unintelligible. These monuments 

 have been thoroughly explored and fully described by the late 

 E. A. Conwell in the " Transactions of the Royal Irish 

 Academy," and also in a separate work by Mr. Conwell on 

 11 Ollamh Fodhla." The monuments are also described in Fer- 

 guson's " Rude Stone Monuments." 



We have several references in the ancient annals of Ireland 

 to justify the conclusion that Slieve na Galliagh constitutes the 

 site of one of the Royal Pagan cemetries of Ireland. One of 

 the most correct of our manuscripts is known as <k The Book of 

 the Dun Cow," compiled at Clonmacnois, a.d. 1,100. This 

 book includes a number of tracts, one of which is *' TheSenchas 

 na Relic," or " History of the Cemetries,'' which tells us — 

 " The three cemetaries of idolaters are 

 The cemetary of Taillten, the select, 

 The ever- clean cemetary of Cruachan, 

 And the cemetary of Brugh." 



And it states further — " At Taillten the kings of Ulster were 

 used to bury — viz., Ollamh Fodhla, with his descendants, down 

 to Conchobhor, who wished that he should be carried to a place 

 between Slae and the sea." According to the Four Masters, 

 Ollamh Fodhla died B.C. 1277, and, according to the annals of 

 Tigherneach, Conchobnor died a.d. 33, thus giving a period of 

 thirty-one centuries during which the cemetery was used ; and 



