294 Griddle or Greidell Ine or Een. [Sess. 



Upon the sides and north end of this ridge the principal 

 vitrified fortifications appear to have been built. The clachan 

 of Shielfoot is at the foot of Torr famhair, near the mouth 

 of the river Shiel, which at this point divides Argyllshire 

 from Inverness-shire. As this place is marked as the site 

 of a vitrified fort upon the Ordnance Survey Map, one-inch 

 scale, it is quite easily located by anyone interested. 



As Daire Borb is described as a man of gigantic propor- 

 tions, he may have belonged to a race of big men, hence 

 the name the " Giant's Hill." 



In the Dean of Lismore's Book, at p. 70, there appears 

 a poem in which an interesting reference is made to Finn 

 MacCumhal having been buried in a mound. The editor, 

 the Eev. Dr Thomas M'Lauchlin, says that this ancient 

 poem is manifestly of the period of Ossian, or others of the 

 Fenian bards, but the name of the author is unknown. 



The translation given of the first two lines of the poem is 

 as follows — 



" There lies beneath that mound to the North 

 MacCumhel's son, in battle firm." 



This tends to prove that Finn MacCumhal was buried in a 

 mound, but the bard mentions no definite locality. 



Some Irish writers claim that Finn and his Feinne belong 

 to the third century after Christ, but Dr W. F. Skene, in 

 his valuable Introduction to the Dean of Lismore's Book, 

 shows clearly how these mistaken views arose. The Feinne 

 were a people who were connected with Alban or Scotland 

 north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde ; also with Breatan 

 or Southern Scotland, which probably included Lennox, of 

 which Dun Breatan or Dumbarton was the capital. The 

 Feinne also were found in Ireland, and Lochlan or North 

 Germany. 



In the Irish records only two races are mentioned who 

 had settlements in Ireland, and who were also connected 

 with Alban, Breatan, and Lochlan. These were the Tuatha 

 De Danann and the Cruithne : the former of these tribes 

 was the prior colony to the Milesian Scots in Erin ; the 

 Cruithne were the race who preceded the Scots in Alban. 

 It was to the race of Ir that the Feinne belonged, and 



