179 



the excavation ; but in connexion with them we observed wicker walls, 

 made of hazel rods. Where the wicker walls cross the oak beams, there 

 were round holes through the latter for the stakes to go through. In 

 the vicinity of these beams a small rude stone implement made of Silu- 

 rian grit was found, but it was so rotten, that it broke while the dirt 

 was being removed from it. 



The beams in bed No. 3 were charred on the under surface as if they 

 had been the beams which supported the roof of an edifice that was de- 

 stroyed by fire ; near the north of the island, immediately over these 

 charred beams, there was a 'N.-W. and S.-E. plank about ten feet long, 

 twenty inches wide, and two inches thick ; at about one foot nine inches 

 from its N.-W. end there were two holes through it, four inches by two 

 inches, that ran north and south in a line with the north and south piles 

 seen on the north shore, and on each side of the plank were upright 

 stakes ranging in the same direction. In bed No. 5, near the centre of 

 the island, a large heap of wood ashes was found, and innumerable 

 quantities of hazelnut shells and a few of walnuts. The bones found 

 in the different beds seem to be those of pigs, sheep, and cows. 



From the facts we were able to collect, we may draw the following 

 conclusions: — That the base of the artificial work is more than 5*5 feet 

 below the present surface of the island ; that it was inhabited at least at 

 two different periods, the first of these being when the east and west 

 beams formed the floor of the habitations; those habitations seem to have 

 been destroyed by fire, which would account for the charred beams. 

 After this period the oak sticks and stones irregularly laid were placed 

 to form a floor for new habitations. Between these periods we must 

 suppose that the waters of the lake rose considerably. 



Within a mile of Lough Nahinch we find that there are the remains 

 of nine raths and raheens in the county of Tipperary, and five or six in 

 the King's County ; that there were more would seem likely, as the 

 name of the townland on the south of the lake is Lissadonna, and yet 

 there is now no trace of a liss or rath in it ; and in other places raths 

 are said to have been levelled with the ground. The old castle at Bal- 

 lingarry lies about a mile K-W. of the lake ; it may have been built to 

 prevent the natives from re-occupying their island home. 



The Very Bev. the President read a paper 



On Inscribed Monuments in the County of Kerry 



(Lately discovered by himself and his son, Mr. Alfred Graves). 



The monuments now brought under the notice of the Academy appear 

 to be nearly related to a class which formed the subject of a paper read 

 by Dean Graves to the Academy in February, 1860. The monuments 

 then described exhibited inscribed circles, or groups of concentric circles, 

 having at the centre small cup-shaped hollows, of from two to four inches 



