468 



Proceedings of tlie lloyal Irkh Academy. 



fosse to the south-west, and within the ring, all being much defaced 

 by a plantation. Three pillars remain, two together, 10^ feet by 

 15 inches to 13 inches wide and thick, and 6 feet 7 inches by 

 26 inches square at the ends, and 32 inches in the middle. The 

 third rests at its east end upon these ; it is 9 feet long, 20 inches 

 wide, and 13 inches thick. Another small pillar, 5^ feet long, lies a 

 little distance away. They were probably a group of rude stone 

 pillars removed from the ring. It is much as we first remember it 

 in 1875. The curious story of the sacrifice upon it is given in our 

 preceding paper dealing with Clare cists. ^ An imaginative poetical ver- 

 sion^ tells of a sacrifice by "a maiden on a coal-black steed " circling the 

 grove thrice, and sprinkling " with human gore " the stone unhewn 

 by human hands, stone hither brought from distant lands" ; but the 

 legend is re -cast, combined with the authentic legends of the Stamers 

 and Quin Abbey, put back some fifty years before the Stamers 

 obtained the place, and absolutely valueless. The place lies in Clare 

 Abbey Parish, and once belonged to that monastery. 



Ballybeg. — On the opposite side of the Fergus, but in the same 

 parish, on a ridge not far from the E^ewhall cave, recently excavated 

 by Mr. Richard Ussher,^ is a monument. It is an octagonal enclosure 

 of some eight stones of irregular height (up to 4 feet high, and 3 feet 

 wide), and is about 13 feet across. The stones have the flat faces 

 inward, and the tops and faces have evidently been a longtime exposed 

 to the weather. There are traces of a cairn round them. They lie 

 near a stone ring- wall, which, with three others and an earthen 

 rath, lies on the ridge between the ancient "Pilgrim's Way" to 

 Killone Convent and Ballybeg Lake. 



Ballysallagh West. — This lies in the Barony of Bunratty Lower, 

 not far from the west of Kilnasoola church, and to the east of " Bally- 

 sallagh East " ! In a tilled field, near the road, we find a large block 

 of coarse sandstone lying over certain prostrate stones, one a limestone 

 slab of some size : it is very probably a fallen dolmen. If so, the 

 cover is 11 feet long by 6 feet to 7 feet wide, and 31 inches thick. 



FoMEELA. — In the Barony of Upper Bunratty. I have recently 

 examined the spot, and find the evident remains of two very small 

 cists. The better preserved, 3 feet wide and 4 feet long ; the south 

 side, 18 inches thick ; north side out of place. To the west is an end 



1 Vol. xxiv. (C), p. 130. 



2 By the Duchess de liovigo, 1838. 



3 Traus. li. I. Acad., xxxiii. (B.), pp. 13-16. 



