356 



thirty-seven miles all round, in a perfectly clear atmosphere, not taking 

 into account that atmospheric refraction would increase this distance by 

 about three miles. Now, a circle of thirty- seven miles in radius, swept 

 round Sliabh-na-Caillighe on the map, will include within its range, or 

 nearly touch, the counties of Fermanagh, Tyrone, Monaghan, Armagh, 

 Down, Louth, Meath, Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, King's County, 

 Queen's County, "Westmeath, Eoscommon, Sligo, Longford, Leitrim, 

 and Cavan. Following up this line of calculation, any mountain at- 

 taining the height of 2000 feet, under favourable circumstances, might 

 be visible, if not more than ninety-two miles distant ; which would 

 include every mountain of 2000 feet in height and upwards in every 

 county in Ireland, except in Cork and Kerry. 



Such a site, however, was no doubt selected in order that these 

 great tombs might form conspicuous objects in the horizon from the 

 greatest possible number of places. 



My first visit to these remarkable hills was on a pic-nic excursion, 

 accompanied by my wife, and was made on Tuesday the 9th of June, 

 1863 ; when, to my great astonishment, I found this commanding site 

 studded with the remains of a necropolis of pre-historic age, greater in 

 extent than anything of the kind yet thoroughly examined in Europe. 



Although at a distance of about twenty miles from my home, I soon 

 afterwards paid as many visits to the place as my limited time and the 

 inconvenient distance permitted me to do — some of the results of which 

 I have already had the honour of laying before this Academy on two 

 former occasions. 



"When I first stated that I had discovered a series of hitherto un- 

 noticed and undescribed cairns, extending for two miles along a range 

 of hills, within forty miles of the city of Dublin, I was laughed at, 

 naturally enough. I can only attribute their being left for me to in- 

 vestigate to the fact that, up to the time the omission was drawn at- 

 tention to by me, the only indication of their existence on the Ordnance 

 Survey Maps was a mere dot or two, with the word " Stones" appended : 

 and the local knowledge of their origin and use went no further than 

 what the late eminent Dr. O'Donovan so humorously describes in one of 

 his " Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the 

 County of Meath, collected during the progress of the Ordnance Sur- 

 vey," of which I submit a copy — writing of the parish of Loughcrew. 



"Kells, 30th July, 1836. 



" There are three hills about a mile asunder in this parish, having 

 three heaps [earns] of stones on their summits, with which the follow- 

 ing wild legend is connected. A famous old hag of antiquity, called 

 Cailleach Eheartha (Calliagh Yera), came one time from the North to 

 perform a magical feat in this neighbourhood, by which she was to ob- 

 tain great power, if she succeeded. She took an apron full of stones, 

 and dropped a cam on Carnbane ; from this she jumped to the summit 

 of Slieve Na Cally, a mile distant, and dropped a second earn there: 

 from this hill she made a second jump, and dropped a earn on another hill, 

 about a mile distant. If she could make another leap, and drop the 



