Westropp — Cists, Dolmens, and Pillars of Co. Clare. 457 



far more elaborate than ours. At times they resemble some "vrhich we 

 have seen in Scottish brochs, formed by "scoops" out of the edges 

 of two slabs, put together to leave an oval opening. 



In Germany we find similar monuments. The mounds in many 

 cases rise just to the level of the roof-slab, as in several Clare cists 

 {e.g.^ Baur South). The dolmen, tapering and sloping eastward, is 

 common. In Brandenburg we have Giants', Huns', Heathen, or 

 Heroes' graves, bridges, beds, or gates. The latter term recalls the 

 "Gates of Glory" pillars in Kerry. In Ireland, as in Scandinavia 

 and many other regions, the monuments seem to belong to the 

 iSTeolithic and Early Bronze Ages, though probably, as usual in Ireland, 

 surviving to unusually late times here. The " beetle-browed " cover- 

 slabs are not uncommon in Portugal and Germany. 



The French dolmens are too well known to require us to give 

 many details ; but they are closely similar to our " labbas " in design 

 and folk-lore. In Holland the popular legends give not only to the 

 giants, but to the strong and gifted dwarfs, a share in the erection of 

 the dolmens. The legends of persons changed into stones, as at 

 Classagh in Clare, show that our "fearbreags" have analogies across 

 AVestern Europe from the Baltic to the Pyrenees. It would carry us 

 too far from our necessarily brief treatment of the subject to trace the 

 structures and traditions farther afield. Instead, then, of carrying our 

 thoughts through the monuments of Northern Africa, Syria, and 

 Central Asia, past India, out to the dolmens and giants' graves of 

 Japan, ^ we return to the limited field of half an Irish county. 



Finds. 



Still more scanty than traditions are the finds in the Clare dolmens. 

 Pottery has often been found in these in the older days of the last 

 century ; but it is long since an undisturbed cist has been noted. In 

 our time only one find has been made, that of the gold fibula, near the 

 "labba" of Knocknalappa ; but it was not in the chamber: so its 

 connexion is disputable.^ At Roughan two skeletons were found in a 



^ For the last group there is a most interesting paper by Mr. "W. Gowland, read 

 before the Society of Antiquaries, 1899. He examined 406, some true "giants' 

 graves," some cists in tumuli, others with passages. Their ages varied from the 

 Bronze Age even into the Iron Age. 



- It was, amazing to state, buried with its iast owner ; but Mr. George Scott 

 fortunately has a photograph published in the Limerick Field Club Journal, 

 vol. iii., pp. 27-32. The cover has partly fallen since the date of our former paper, 

 Proc, vol. xxiv. (C), p. 103. 



