160 



No. 94. The last sketch of the Clonmacnoise tombstones is that of 

 one which bears evident marks of being of much more recent date than 

 any of the foregoing. The form of the stone is somewhat coffin-shaped, 

 and the ornamentation at its foot has quite a twelfth century look. The 

 inscription is as follows : — "Rom . llu loppon. 



Nos. 95-7. On the completion of the sketches of the Clonmacnoise 

 tombstones I was struck by the fact that the letters presented many va- 

 rieties of form ; and in the following three illustrations I have given 

 each variety ; thus we see that the 



Letter 





Forms. 



Letter 





Forms. 



a' . . 



. has . . 



. . 15 



I . . 



. . has . . 



. . 8 



b . . 





. . 6 



TTl . . 





. . 2 



c . . 





. . 5 



n . . 





. . 5 



t> . . 





. . 7 



o . . 





. . 5 



e . . 





. . 9 



P • • 





. . 1 



F • • 





. . 3 



q • . 





. . 1 



5 - 





. . 5 



P • • 





. . 16 



h . . 





. . 9 



P • • 





. . 2 



i . . 





. . 2 



c . . 





. . 6 



I 



It is not improbable that by the form of these letters the dates of 

 many of the tombstones might be roughly estimated, at least by cen- 

 turies, as we know that the Irish form of letter varied from century to 

 century, from the ancient Eoman or Uncial character to the more angu- 

 lar and current form of the modern scribe. 



I conclude this collection of ancient Irish inscribed tombstones by 

 sketches of two from Arranmore, in the Bay of Galway : — 



E"o. 98. The inscription on this slab consists of the following letters : 

 Op . up TTl elm a ch, and I found it lying near some ruins at the village 

 of Onurcht. 



No. 99. The tomb slab of St. Brecan, from the old church dedicated 

 to the Holy Ghost. According to Dr. Petrie, this saint died in the sixth 

 century. 



Mr. Samuel Ferguson, Q,. C, read the following paper: — 



Account of Ogham Inscriptions in the Cave at Eaihcroghan, 

 County of Eoscommon. 



The principal remains at Eathcroghan, formerly the residence of the 

 provincial Kings of Connaught, are indicated on sheets 21 and 22 of the 

 Ordnance Survey Map of the county of Eoscommon, and have been 

 described in some detail by O'Donovan in a note to his translation of the 

 " Annals of the Pour Masters," at A. D. 1223, and more fully in letters 

 preserved among the MS. materials for the intended " Ordnance Survey 

 Memoir," and now deposited in the Library of the Academy (14 P. 8, 

 p. 191, et seq.). 



Among these remains may be noticed on the map — 310 yards north- 

 west of the ancient sepulchral enclosure called Eelig-na-Eee, or the Grave- 

 yard of the Kings — a spot marked with the name Owneygat, that is, the 



