1910-1911.] Griddle or Greidell Ine or Een. 289 



rence of Dolmens on either side of the British Channel, 

 coupled with the fact of their absence in North England and 

 their great scarcity in Scotland, while the coasts of Ireland 

 possess them in plenty, all tend to give plausibility to a 

 theory that the route by which those who erected them 

 arrived was from the south." 



With our present knowledge it seems impossible to form 

 any very definite opinion as to the details of the mythological 

 period of Irish history. However, certain events are referred 

 to so clearly that we cannot doubt that these happened, and 

 if so, they take us back to a period that many people are 

 hardly willing to accept. This may be said regarding the 

 battle or battles of Magh Tuired, to which I have already 

 referred. The old Irish historians refer to two battles fought 

 some distance from each other, an interval of about thirty 

 years intervening between them. More recent investigations 

 make it seem possible that there was only one battle fought, 

 but that there were two parts of the fight. The site of this 

 conflict seems to have been identified with a place on the 

 northern shore . of Loch Arrow, named Motuire, Moytuir^, or 

 Moyterra. The first part of the fight appears to have been 

 between the Tuatha De Danann and the Firbolg, and the 

 second part between the Tuatha De Danann and the Fomorians, 

 who were the allies of the Firbolg. 



It would have been unnecessary to have referred to the 

 mythological history of Ireland had it not been requisite to 

 show to what an early period it goes back. That Greidell 

 Ine or Een owes its name to the influence of a people who 

 had settlements in Ireland as well as in Scotland I think 

 cannot be doubted, as, so far as I know, the name Greidell 

 or Griddle is quite unknown in connection with any other 

 megalithic monument in Scotland, although there are many 

 such monuments known as Griddles in Ireland. In Welsh 

 the word Greidell is said to be derived from greidiaiu, to 

 heat, to scorch. In Ireland the word greidell or greidain, 

 to scorch, is used, and also means a broad disc of iron used 

 for baking wheat-meal and barley-meal cakes, &c. It is from 

 this latter meaning that the word Griddle has become asso- 

 ciated with those circular mounds or cairns. 



It is rather curious that in Ireland the griddle was not 



