52 Recent Archceological Explorations in Co. Sligo. 



already referred to are situated— a very strong place for the 

 Connaughtmen to fall back on. The graves and pit can be 

 accounted for as the place where those slain in this battle were 

 interred. The large cairn answers to the description of the 

 place where Eoghan Bel was buried, and the chasm down the 

 northern face of the cairn is explained by the body having been 

 removed from that side, and thus causing a displacement or 

 gap in the structure still quite visible. An explanation is 

 required as to the name of the place where the battle was 

 fought. The Annals say it was a place called Crinder. No 

 name like this is now known in county Sligo. If this place 

 was anciently known as Crinder, or Crune Tyr, probably, it 

 would be very appropriate, as referring to the rounded or 

 globular-shaped country, viz. — crune, rounded or globular, and 

 tyr, a country. Cams Hill is of this shape. 



This townland could only have been known as Cams 

 from the time the cairns were erected, and must have had a 

 previous name, which I conclude was the now lost name 

 referred to — from the fact of the burial of the King and the 

 erection of his cairn, and also the erection of the other cairn 

 known as Ton-na-f hoble, or the cairn of the people — the town- 

 land from that period would be referred to and called Cams, 

 and the older name would lapse. The lecturer proceeded to 

 prove that the place the body of Eoghan Bel was re-interred in 

 would correspond to the structure now known as the Giant's 

 Grave in the Deer-park. Ancient stone worship was exhaus- 

 tively dealt with, and the decrees of the various Councils of the 

 Church against stone worship, well worship, and the worship 

 of trees, was referred to. 



The use of stones in the inauguration of chiefs and kings in 

 Ireland, and Edmund Spenser's account of such a ceremony 

 which he witnessed in the South of Ireland, was related. The 

 chief was placed on a large stone reserved for that purpose, 

 usually on a hill ; he took an oath to preserve all the 

 ancient customs of the country inviolate ; he then received 

 a wand, after which he descended from the stone. The ancient 



