126 



In Grose's Antiq. of Ireland " (vol. i. p. 1 7, Introd. ), a description is 

 given of two cromleclis of gigantic proportions, one at Tobinstown, Co. 

 of Carlow. ^' The west end (is said to be) sustained on two upright 

 pillars, somewhat round but irregular, each eight feet high, terminated 

 behind by a broad flat stone set on the edge, eight feet high, and nine 

 broad, making a portico (an open space more properly) of six feet wide^ 

 and four deep. This is covered by the cromlech or large sloping stone, 

 twenty-three feet long, eighteen broad at the upper end over the open 

 space between the two front supporters, and six at the lower or back 

 part, where it rests on small stones about a foot high. Its thickness at 

 the upper end is four feet, and at the lower two. The under surface is 

 plain and even, but the upper convex. The upper part has a large 

 channel, from which branches off a number of smaller ones; to some they 

 appear natural, to others artificial for sacrificial purposes. The sides are 

 enclosed and supported by several upright anomalous stones from three 

 to six feet high, making a room eighteen feet long ; eight at the upper 

 or west end, and five broad at the opposite one, and from two to eight 

 feet high, perfectly secure against every inconvenience of weather." 



The other cromlech at Brownstown, Co. Carlow, referred to by 

 Grose, consists of an immense rock stone raised on an edge from its na- 

 tive bed, and supported on the east by three pillars. At a distance is 

 another pillar by itself, nearly round, and five feet high. The dimen- 

 sions of the supporters and covering stones, are as follows : — 



Feet. Inches. 



Height of the three supporters, 5 8 



Thickness of the upper end of the covering- stone, . 4 6 



Breadth of the same, 18 9 



Length of the same, 19 0 



Length of the outside, 23 4 



Solid contents in feet 1280, weighing nearly eighty- nine tons, five 

 hundreds, making an angle with the horizon of 34°. Such are the 

 accounts which I have received of these curious monuments, from my 

 learned and ingenious friend, Mr. William Beauford, of Athy." Among 

 the existing African monuments identical with our cromlechs, there are 

 none at all approaching to the dimensions of those referred to by Grose. 



A cromlech in Louth, in the parish of Ballymascanlan, is described 

 in "Wright's Louthiana, the covering stone of which has three sup- 

 porters, and measures twelve feet in length, by six feet in width. By 

 the inhabitants it is called the Giant's load. The African monuments 

 seen by me approach more in their dimensions to those of the one above 

 described by Wright, than those referred to by Grosej 



Cromlechs in Ireland, Cornwall, Anglesey, the Isle of Man, several 

 parts of England, in Brittany, N^ormandy, in Denmark specially, some 

 near Holstein, have common characteristics. They are rude monuments 

 of unwrought massive blocks of stone, the supporters of the large su- 

 perincumbent horizontal covering unhewn stone almost invariably laid 



