Annual Meeting. 105 



Professor (iregg Wilson, D.Sc, M.R.I. A., Mr. Arthur Dcane ; 

 (elected) Mr. E. S. Lepper, M.A., F.R.Hist.Soc, Mr. Alex. 

 Wilson, J.P., M.R.I.A., Mr. Thomas Edeus Osborne, Mr. W. B. 

 Bnrrowes, The Rev. William Adams, M.A., The Rev. Canon 

 Carmody, M.A., Mr. Fergus Greeves. 



The Hon. Secretary (Mr. H. C. Lawlor, M.R.I. A.) read a 

 re})ort upon the investigations at the Mo\uid of Downpatrick and 

 Rathkeltchar, already referred to, and exhiliited a number of 

 articles of great anticiuarian interest discovered thei'ein. (See 

 pp. 105—120). 



EXCAVATIONS AT THE MOUND, AND ON THE SITE 

 OF RATHKELTCHAR, DOWNPATRICK. 



About a quarter of a mile to the N. of the Cathedral of 

 Down lies the remarkable fortified hill, to which only in recent 

 years, the name "Rath Keltchar " or "Dunkeltair" has 

 eiToneously been applied. It will not be without interest if I 

 briefly trace backwards in chronological order references to this 

 mound, showing what I may call the gradual growth of this 

 misnomer. 



In an admirable and instructive little book called "'The 

 Official Guide to County Down and the Mourne Mountains" 

 by Mr. R. LI. Praeger, it is stated that the place is referred to 

 as early as the year B.C. 1030, in its early form Aircealtair or 

 ArasCealtair, the habitation of Celtchar : but a few lines further 

 on it states that Celtchar, or Celtchar of the battles, as he 

 was called, was one of the heroes of the Red Branch of Ulster, 

 and a companion of Conor McNessa, King of Ulstei'. Now 

 Conor McNessa lived in the first century, A.D , so that there 

 seems to be some confusion among the authorities as to the 

 real origin of the name. This remarkable confusion occurs, 

 though not in ((uite so pronounced a manner, in Father 

 O'Laverty's "Diocese of Down and Connor" (vol. 1, pp. 266-7). 

 Reeves also attributes the name to Celtchar of the battles, 



