Burial Customs of Ancient Ireland. 47 



ception of Carrowmore, there is no such collection of cromlechs 

 in the United Kingdom as in the districts of Malinmore and 

 Glencolumbkille, on the property of Messrs. John and James 

 Musgrave. After Carnac, in Brittany, and Carrowmore, in 

 Sligo, this district in Donegal has the third finest collection of 

 cromlechs in Europe, numbering about thirty in all. Messrs. 

 Musgrave have recently vested these monuments in charge of 

 the Government, under Sir John Lubbock's Ancient Monuments 

 Act, and they will be taken charge of in the future by the Board 

 of Works. This district, in addition to these ancient monuments j 

 has great attractions for the ordinary tourists. Words do not 

 convey any idea of the impression made on the mind on obtain- 

 ing a view from the sea of the stupendous cliffs of Slieve Liag, 

 2,000 feet in perpendicular height ; or of the wild and rugged 

 scenery of the mountain passes which the traveller may explore. 



There are a great many sepulchral monuments and inscribed 

 stones scattered over County Donegal. One of the finest stone 

 circles in Ireland is situated on a hill within two miles of Raphoe, 

 at a place called the Topps. There is in this circle a very 

 curious stone covered with cup marking. There is another fine 

 circle between Carndonagh and Culdaff, as well as a huge 

 kistvaen. In County Tyrone there are a great many sepulchral 

 monuments. One of the most notable is on the hill of Knock- 

 many, near Clogher. In another district of Tyrone, adjoining 

 the towns of Castlederg, Newtownstewart, and Plumbridge, I 

 noted nine cromlechs, some of them cup marked, beside pillar 

 stones, and cairns, none of which have been heretofore described. 

 In other districts of Tyrone there are cromlechs, so that when 

 it is systematically gone over, Tyrone will be found to con- 

 tain a great many interesting relics of the past. If we accept 

 Schlegel's maxim, we may assume that a country so rich in 

 tombs and traditions, with its heroic history embalmed in 

 verse, has had a civilisation equally remote. 



Amongst the ancient sepulchral monuments in Ireland are the 

 cairns, cromlechs, kistvaens, giants' graves, stone circles, and 

 pillar stones, which are found in the country singly and in 



