246 Gray — Irish Cromlechs . 
sive prospect to the south and west. The cap stone is shaped like 
a coffin, fixed north and south, eleven feet four inches long, four 
feet nine inches wide at the shoulder, and three feet wide at 
the foot or north end, in which direction it has a slope clearly 
due to its original construction. It is supported on three 
upright blocks— two at the south end measuring seven feet 
and six feet two inches respectively, while the upright at the 
north end is only four feet five inches high. This upright has 
been fixed on a bank as if to increase its height, and as all stand 
now on the bare surface, this northern prop is very unstable, 
and should be secured. Some years ago an urn was found in 
the open chamber below the cromlech. Mr. Ferguson, in his 
work on rude stone monuments,* gives a figure of this cromlech 
from a drawing by Sir Henry James, of the Ordnance Survey, 
and refers to it in his argumeut combating Mr. Lukis’ idea that 
all cromlechs were originally chambered tumuli. 
9 . KILKEEL CROMLECH. 
Sketch No. 9. 
Within a half mile of Kilkeel, in the south of Down, off the 
road to Newcastle, there occurs a megalithic monument known 
as the “ Crawtee Stone,” probably from the Irish word emit, 
meaning hump, which expresses very clearly the shape of the 
cap stone of granite, nine feet long and eight feet six inches 
wide, that covers the chamber beneath, measuring about five 
feet six inches square, and formed of four water-worn boulders 
of granite, such as were, doubtless, common in this district in 
pre-historic times. The sketch is taken looking towards the 
Mourne Mountains. Some years ago, the promoters of some 
local building speculation debated the advisability of destroying 
the monument for the materials it would afford. After due 
deliberation they fortunately abandoned the project, not moved 
by the laudable desire to preserve our ancient monuments, but 
they yielded to the dread of unlucky consequences. A similar 
dread prevents timid folk passing this cromlech alone after dark. 
* Rude Stone Monuments of all Countries, By J. Ferguson, D.C.L., F.R.S. 
London, 1872. Page 45. 
