Cooke — Antiquarian Remains in Beaufort District^ Kerry. 9 



refuge, or for storage, and little else. In none did I find any traces 

 of ashes or cinders ; nor could I hear from any of the peasantry that 

 they had ever heard of their being used by men " out on their keeping," 

 to use a well-known phrase of bygone days ; although I have no doubt 

 they were used as hiding-places in modern times, by men who had 

 reason to fear the strong arm of the law. In one case I was told that 

 cinders and ashes had been found at the entrance to a set of chambers 

 within a rath which had been cut up into potato plots. This was on 

 the farm of a man named Scully, of ^^'untinane. Eut as there was 

 much di:fference of opinion locally as to where the opening lay, and as 

 the entrance had been filled in, I did not make any exploration. 



The Goetboy Stone (O.S. 65). — On the north side of the slopes 

 of Knocknafreeghaun, a low ridge of the Reeks, and three miles to the 

 south-west of Beaufort, and due north of the Hag's Glen, is Gortboy 

 (Ordnance), 'the yellow field'; and to Dr. Digby is due the credit of 

 having discovered this stone some few years ago. It is reached by 

 a road on the left, half a mile short of Gaddagh Br., and up a bohreen 

 crossing the OwenacuUin river. It is a wild, wind-swept district, 

 and much of the land is rocky and bare. In one of the fields is a huge 

 boulder, or rather earth-fast rock, somewhat rectangular in shape, of 

 the purple grit of this district, and lying north and south. It measures 

 7 feet 8 inches long, 5 feet 8 inches broad at the south end, and 4 feet 

 6 inches at north end, the heights respectively being 2 feet 6 inches, 

 and 2 feet 3 inches. A section from north to south would show a 

 slight curve, as the rock is a few inches higher in the middle than at 

 either end. The greater portion of this massive rock is covered with 

 an extraordinary number of cup-markings, and cups with concentric 

 circles. There are connecting channels everywhere, and the whole, 

 though apparently intricate and unmeaning at first, yet shows, on 

 examination, evidence of intention and design. It is much worn and 

 weathered, and the north end has no markings. It is difficult to take 

 a good rubbing of it, and still more difficult to sketch the markings, 

 as the more it is examined, the more work does it show (Plate III., 

 fig. 1). As far as our experience goes, it is one of the finest examples 

 of this particular class we have yet seen in Ireland, and the wonder 

 is that it has remained so long unknown to Irish archaeologists. It is 

 not my intention to enter on the vexed question of tlie origin and 

 meaning of the cup and circle-markings upon which so much has already 

 been written, or upon their distribution in so many lands, even to dis- 

 tant Australia. I have little doubt that had the stone been known to 

 Dr. Graves he would have used the markings in support of his theory, 



