548 



son is probably the long stone of the Neale. JSuada, the Dannan king, 

 lost his hand ; and from the circumstances stated in the Bardic legends 

 of an artificial arm having been supplied, he is ever after mentioned 

 in history as " Nuad of the Silver Hand." Whether Belor of the basilisk 

 eye, another well-known character in our early tales, was at the battle 

 of Southern Moytura is doubtful ; but all the legends respecting the 

 petrifying qualities of his eye, and even where he stood, &c, at the 

 time of the engagement, are still related of the "Fothach Rua," or 

 great red giant. JFintan, the sage ; Eden a, the poet-prophetess ; Dian- 

 checht, the physician ; Credne, the artificer ; Gobnen, the smith ; and 

 all the Druid celebrities of early historic romance are said to have been 

 at this battle. The site of the fiercest combat, and that which is still 

 called Cath naBunnen, or the Valley of " The Battle of the Butts," be- 

 cause it is said that, the weapons of the belligerents having been injured, 

 they fought with the butts, like the " Faigh-a-Ballaghs" of later days, 

 is still pointed out. 



Several years afterwards the second battle, on the Northern Moytura, 

 was fought ; and after it, as well as on the occasion of the previous defeat, 

 the Belgae, or Firbolgs, fled for security westwards, and entrenched them- 

 selves in those stupendous fastnesses of Arran, in Galway Bay — so that 

 even then we see that the destiny of the Celt was Westward. But that 

 they did not all go is manifest from the very marked characteristics of the 

 two races, the dark and the fair, still remaining in the West. 



These few particulars and the foregoing brief sketch are worth men- 

 tioning, inasmuch as heretofore some misconception has occurred, and 

 some erroneous statements have been put forward by writers who have 

 jumbled up the two battles of Moytura, although many years took place 

 between them, and the intervening space from the Sligo to the Mayo 

 locality is about fifty miles. Between the western slopes of Knockma, 

 in the barony of Dunmore, to Shrule, and through the rich pastures of 

 the barony of Kilmaine, the plain is studded with forts and circular 

 raths, showing the early cultivation and comparatively dense population 

 of that district. As, however,, we advance westward through the ba- 

 rony of Kilmaine, over the great plain where the limestone crops out 

 above the surface, in many places to the extent of several acres, the 

 grass-grown circles are replaced by immense cairns, artificially con- 

 structed caves, circles of standing stones, many of gigantic size, mono- 

 liths or pillar stones, and great duns, cashels or stone forts, resembling 

 some of those in Kerry and the Western Islands of Arran. All these 

 accumulate, and finally culminate into a narrow space of about four 

 square miles, the eastern line of which would run from the village of 

 Cross to the Eeale, and thence by Ballinrobe, to the western shores of 

 Lough Mask, and the narrow neck of land between it and Lough Corrib 

 to the waterport of Cong, where the wealth, taste, and liberality of our 

 distinguished church restorer, Mr. Guinness, have done so much to beau- 

 tify the landscape, to benefit the people, and to restore the crumbling 

 columns of that Abbey, wherein was preserved the greatest artistic, as 



