Gray — Irish Cromlechs. 227 



IRISH CROMLECHS. 



In the absence of any fixed code of terms, the author, like 

 many other writers on the subject, has to make his own selection, 

 and having undertaken to catalogue " The Cromlechs of Antrim 

 and Down," it will be necessary, in the first instance, to settle 

 what is to be understood by the term " Cromlech." This is all 

 the more necessary because of the conflict of opinion entertained 

 by archaeologists with reference to the proper application of the 

 term. 



The opinion that prevails most commonly among the country 

 people is, that the monuments were built by the Druids as 

 altars. An exposition of this erroneous idea is given in the 

 Dublin Penny Journal, 31st May, 1834, page 381, where the 

 writer says : — 



"This species of rude altar is very common in many parts of 

 Ireland ; it is called both in the Irish and old British language 

 1 Crom liagh ' and ' Crom-lecht,' which signify in both a crooked 

 stone, not from any crookedness, but from their inclining 

 posture. They are supposed to have been so formed, in order to 

 allow the blood of the victims slain upon them to run off freely." 



O'Curry, in his lectures,* refers to these monuments as 

 " vulgarly called Cromlechs," and says il they never were in- 

 tended, and never were used as altars or places of sacrifice of 

 any kind, that they were not in any sense of the word 

 ' Druidical,' and that they were in every instance simple 

 sepulchres or tombs, each marking the grave of one or several 

 personages." 



Professor Nilsson says — " They are called in Scania, dds, in 

 Denmark, dyss, in England, cromlech, and in France, dolmen" \ 



The Rev. H. Rowland, in his work on the Isle of Anglesea,! 

 says : — 



" These altars of stone (where stone served to raise them up) 

 were huge, broad, flattish stones, mounted up and laid fiat upon 



* O'Curry's Lectures on Ancient Irish History. Page 597. 



t S. Nilsson on the Stone Age. Page 159. 



% Mona Antiqua Restaurata. Dublin, 17*3. Page 47. 



