4° 



ist February, 1887. 



W. H. Patterson, Esq., M.R.I.A., in the Chair. 



Seaton Forrest Milligan, Esq., read a Paper on 



RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN 

 COUNTY SLIGO. 



Mr. Milligan said : — The opening meeting of the present 

 Session of this Society was inaugurated by an address from the 

 President on " Some Later Ideas Concerning the Round Towers," 

 when the theories propounded by various writers on this subject 

 were fully discussed. It has occurred to me since this paper 

 was read, that amongst people not conversant with the subject 

 the notion largely prevails that the round towers are the most 

 ancient stone buildings in Ireland. This idea is not by any 

 means accurate, as we have other remains of circular stone 

 buildings or forts that were hoary with the lapse of centuries 

 before the first round tower had its foundation laid. 



I am considerably within the mark when I state that there are 

 structures of this class existing in Ireland for more than 2,000 

 years. If the Annals of the Four Masters are accurate, we have 

 one in Ulster — the Grimian of Aileach, the building of which 

 was completed 1,700 years before the birth of our Lord. These 

 structures have not been written about so extensively as the 

 round towers, and there is less of mystery as to their erection 

 and use. We have not so many perfect examples of them as 

 the round towers ; many are dilapidated, and others have only 

 their foundations left to show where once they stood ; but the 

 remains that are left point to a period and a civilisation long 

 departed. I refer to the Cashels, or, as they were commonly 

 known to the ancient Irish, the Cathairs, of which I will have 



