549 



well as the most historic memorial of piety and skill to be found in 

 north-western Europe — the Cross of Cong that now adorns our Mu- 

 seum. 



About forty years ago, our great Petrie, in company with our bard 

 and artist, Samuel Lover, visited this locality, and greatly regretted the 

 obliteration of many of the monuments which he expected to find there. 

 In 1838, O'Donovan, then an officer in the Ordnance Survey, under our 

 distinguished Academician, Sir Thomas Larcom — who for upwards of 

 forty years has been more Irish and more useful than many of the Irish 

 themselves — went over this locality ; bat his observations thereon were 

 not as full as might be wished. O'Donovan, however, has left behind 

 him what is even more valuable than a mere enumeration and identifi- 

 cation of forts and cairns, in a translation, executed with that facility 

 of diction in which he excelled, of one of those metrical histories which 

 abound in our early literature, and which, although defective in the 

 romance of the epic, is more truthful in its history and topography than 

 the " Tain Bo Cuilne ;" but, like it, it was probably derived from varied 

 and earlier sources than the times of the transcriber or collector. 



Having spent much of my youth in this memorable locality, where 

 my ancestors sheltered the ecclesiastics who fled with the Palladium of 

 the West, to which I have already referred, and having the honour to 

 own a small bit of this battle-field myself, I have during my occasional 

 visits to the country thoroughly investigated all these monuments on 

 Southern Moytura ; and, as an instance of what may be done by local 

 investigation, I may mention that within the space of a single sheet of 

 the Ordnance Map I was enabled to point out no less than twelve most 

 interesting monuments previously unnoticed, consisting of forts, raths, 

 stone circles, caves, lisses, and cashels, &c, all of which will be 

 marked upon the new edition of that great work ; and upon a future 

 occasion I hope to be able to bring these and others in detail under the 

 notice of the Academy. I may also mention that, through the kindness of 

 my friend George Crampton, Esq., I have been supplied with a map and 

 measurements of Caher-Mac Turk, the Dannan fort at Nympsfield, which 

 was removed at the time of the building of the glebe house there, nearly 

 fifty years ago : so that upon the whole we can even now enter upon 

 the consideration of the battle-field of Southern Moytura with a fair 

 prospect of success. The legendary lore and traditional accounts re- 

 specting this and other battle-fields, and the events for which they were 

 celebrated, have now almost ceased to exist. The locality can, how- 

 ever, be recognised by the topographer, and the monuments thereon 

 identified by the antiquary, while much of the old sagas may be culled 

 from the popular superstitions of the district, or gleaned from the tale, 

 surrounded as it is by all its incongruities, of the old Sennachie, whose 

 language one understands, and whose feelings one reverences. Yet, 

 although this traditionary and popular remembrance of the battle-field 

 affords no more information than can be gleaned from similar sources 

 respecting the raths of Tara, the monuments on the banks of the Boyne, 



E. I. A. PEOC. — VOL. IX. 4 C 



