541 



Me, Eugene A. Conwell read the following Paper : — 



On an Inscribed Cromleac neae, Eathkenny, Co. Meath. 



At page 105 in the late Dr. O'Donovan's manuscript letters, contain- 

 ing information "relative to the antiquities of the county Meath, 

 collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1836," refe- 

 rence is made to a very remarkable cromleac in these words : — 



"Near Eathkenny House are two large stones, which, though de- 

 scribed in Name Book, p. 23, as part of a cromleac, are not known, how- 

 ever, by that name among the people. They are sometimes called 

 large stones, and are said to have been thrown from Tara Hill by 

 Fionn Mac Cumhail." 



From the fact of the stone which forms the subject of the present 

 notice being about twenty tons in w r eight, and its distance from the 

 Hill of Tara, in a northerly direction, about eighteen statute miles, the 

 correctness of the above information may be very fairly doubted. This — 

 improbable, nay, impossible as it is — is all that the country people, up 

 to the present day, can tell you respecting the remarkable memento of 

 very remote ages which still exists at Eathkenny. 



Seeing mentioned on the Ordnance Map of the district about Eath- 

 kenny, which is a village lying four miles 1ST. "W. from the town of 

 Slane, what is there marked as a " Druid's Altar," I had the curio- 

 sity to visit the place on the 27th February, 1865 ; and I was astonished 

 to find that the singular and elaborate inscriptions on this cromleac 

 had not attracted previous notice. 



On the 11th March following I spent several hours in a fruitless 

 attempt to get a good rubbing of the upper surface of the slab, although 

 I succeeded in taking accurate rubbings of seven circles on the under 

 side, and of seven other circles picked on the opposite face of the 

 single upright stone against which it leans. The circles on the under 

 surface are not on, or about, the middle of the large slab, but nearer 

 to the lower edge of the stone, which rests upon the ground, than to 

 the upper portion of it. In Plate X., fig. 1, their relative positions are 

 shown, the circles being nearly one-twelfth of the actual size. 



The single upright stone against which the cromleac slab rests 

 stands about four feet over ground, is four feet broad where it emerges 

 from the ground, tapers slightly as it ascends, and varies from eighteen 

 inches to two feet in thickness* The interior face of this supporting 

 stone presents the appearance of having been picked all over with 

 minute hollows for the purpose of ornamentation ; and the seven circles 

 hollowed out on this face are grouped in the manner shown in Plate X., 

 fig. 2, being there represented nearly one-twelfth of their actual size. 



The construction of the circles is rude and irregular, formed by lines 

 about half an inch in breadth, and about a quarter of an inch in depth, 

 which appear to have been picked out of the stone with a metallic im- 

 plement. 



proc. r. i. a. — -VOL. ix. 4 b 



