246 Gray — Irish Cromlechs. 



sive prospect to the south and west. The cap stone is shaped like 

 a coffin, fixed north and south, eleven feet four inches long, four 

 feet nine inches wide at the shoulder, and three feet wide at 

 the foot or north end, in which direction it has a slope clearly 

 due to its original construction. It is supported on three 

 upright blocks — two at the south end measuring seven feet 

 and six feet two inches respectively, while the upright at the 

 north end is only four feet five inches high. This upright has 

 been fixed on a bank as if to increase its height, and as all stand 

 now on the bare surface, this northern prop is very unstable, 

 and should be secured. Some years ago an urn was found in 

 the open chamber below the cromlech. Mr. Ferguson, in his 

 work on rude stone monuments,* gives a figure of this cromlech 

 from a drawing by Sir Henry James, of the Ordnance Survey, 

 and refers to it in his argumeut combating Mr. Lukis' idea that 

 all cromlechs were originally chambered tumuli. 



9. KILKEEL CROMLECH. 



Sketch No. 9. 

 Within a half mile of Kilkeel, in the south of Down, off the 

 road to Newcastle, there occurs a megalithic monument known 

 as the " Crawtee Stone," probably from the Irish word emit 

 meaning hump, which expresses very clearly the shape of the 

 cap stone of granite, nine feet long and eight feet six inches 

 wide, that covers the chamber beneath, measuring about five 

 feet six inches square, and formed of four water-worn boulders 

 of granite, such as were, doubtless, common in this district in 

 pre-historic times. The sketch is taken looking towards the 

 Mourne Mountains. Some years ago, the promoters of some 

 local building speculation debated the advisability of destroying 

 the monument for the materials it would afford. After due 

 deliberation they fortunately abandoned the project, not moved 

 by the laudable desire to preserve our ancient monuments, but 

 they yielded to the dread of unlucky consequences. A similar 

 dread prevents timid folk passing this cromlech alone after dark. 



* Rude Stone Monuments of all Countries, By J. Ferguson, D.C.L., F.R.S. 

 London, 187a. Page 45. 



