12 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Prayee-stone at Ahane (0. S. 64). — In Ahane townland, on tlie 

 side of a higli ridge overlooking the old mountain road to Killorglin 

 from Glencar, and about three-quarters of a mile from the cross-roads, 

 is a small killeen with a number of rude, plain grave-stones. It has 

 one large slate slab, measuring 48 inches from the ground, 14 inches 

 wide, and inches thick. On it are a cross and a circle embracing 

 the horizontal line as a diameter, and cutting the perpendicular line. 

 (Plate IV., fig, 2). All the lines have been made by simply scratching 

 the surface with a small stone held lightly in the hand. This has 

 been done by the peasantry, who say rounds here, and who rub the 

 stone on the pattern indicated after each recital of their prayers. Set 

 in a heap of stones marking the site of a holy well at Kilgobnet old 

 ruined church, near Beaufort, is a small stone with what may be 

 called a cross-series scratched on the surface, and which has been 

 formed in a similar manner (Plate lY., fig. 3). I have visited a large 

 number of places throughout Ireland sacred to the peasantry, and 

 have found this practice sufficiently uncommon to mention it here and 

 give an illustration of the Ahane and Kilgobnet stones. 



Crosses at Cloon Lough (0. S. 82). — Hearing of some stones with 

 marks on them beyond Cloon Lough, Glencar, I visited the place by 

 boat, and after a heavy tramp across the bog at the head of the lake 

 found two crosses. Knowing how thoroughly the late Bishop Graves 

 had ransacked Kerry for ogam and rude stone monuments, I had a 

 lingering impression that these crosses could hardly have escaped him 

 or Mr. Hitchcock. On searching the Academy's Transactions, I found 

 that he had visited the place in 1870, and described the stone in 

 volume xxvii. The crosses are, I believe, unique, and of sufficient 

 importance to my mind to justify me in bringing them again before 

 the notice of the Academy after such a lapse of time. No one in the 

 neighbourhood, or at Glencar, remembered Dr. Graves's visit ; nor had 

 any stranger, as far as I could gather, seen them for the purpose of 

 any examination. This, as the Academy's Transactions show, was not 

 the case ; and it only exemplifies the thoroughness with which 

 Dr. Graves pursued his investigations. 



The stones lie about a quarter of a mile beyond the south-east 

 corner of the lake. Further south is a small sheet of water. Lough 

 Eeagh, at the foot of a steep amphitheatre of mountains, and the bog 

 lying between the loughs is of recent formation, as the waters were, 

 no doubt, at one time united. The spot w'here the crosses stand 

 seemed to me to have been a crannog. It is small and circular, 

 being 88 feet in diameter. The circumference is indicated by a low, 



