Chapter XXVIII: Appendix: A

(_Referred to, page 225._)

DUNMINNING, GLARRYFORD, CO. ANTRIM,

_August 18, 1871_.

MY DEAR SIR,--I was unable to get to Glen Columbkille till
this week, and I am afraid that I shall be too late to be of use
to you. As, however, I did not forget to examine the monuments, I
send the notes I made on them. All were written down at the stones
themselves. Glen Columbkille is about 4 miles long and 3 broad. Its
eastern boundary is a steep rocky mountain, from which the floor of
the glen slopes down to the sea, and ends westward in Glen Bay. Glen
Bay is of considerable width from its southern point, Rossan, to its
northern, Glen Head, but it has only a short beach. There is also
a dangerous bar, so that it is an almost impossible landing-place
except for curraghs, and in smooth weather for boats. The north side
of Glen Columbkille is rocky and steep, and is chiefly formed by the
mountain Ballard. The south side, though in parts precipitous, and
nowhere a very gradual slope, is not so steep as its opposite. The
coast south and north of Glen Bay for miles is a range of cliffs, of
from 1900 to 100 feet, with here and there a small beach, but no safe
landing-places. South of Glen Columbkille is a smaller and shallower
valley, Glen Malin. The sides of Glen Malin are all gradual; its
coast is precipitous; on the south it is bounded by a mountain of
large base, Leathan. Both Glen Columbkille and Glen Malin are in the
parish of Glen Columbkille and barony of Banagh. Most of the great
stone structures are in Glen Malin.

The monuments are of three kinds: (1) cromlechs;[600] (2) stone
chambers; (3) solitary stones. They are in groups of various size and
compactness. There are five distinct groups, a considerable distance
apart, and with no apparent connexion of arrangement. Three groups
are on the north and two on the south side of the glen. The stones in
each have been more or less disturbed, and have been made to serve
in lime-kilns and byres and as malt stores. While examining one set,
I felt my foot sink, and, lifting the edge of a piece of heather,
found an excavation filled with barley, soaking. On getting into
another cavity, I found two black lambs inside, and in another some
pigs, in another calves. The most remarkable general feature of the
architecture that I noticed was that the stones in each group were
much of a size, but that in some groups they were a good deal larger
than in others. I shall speak of the groups as they are marked by
letters in a plan I made for my own use on the spot.

D. This group, which is that nearest the sea on the south side of the
river, consists of six cromlechs, arranged in line, with considerable
intervals. A few yards west of this group are several mounds of
stones with some large blocks amongst them, but no blocks more than 4
feet long. These extend for some 50 yards in line from west to east.
A few yards above them is a large pile of stones, in the midst of
which is a stone 6 feet high and 3 feet wide. These heaps have been
augmented by stones collected from the fields, but I think there are
indications that they were originally of the nature of the cromlechs.

There are six cromlechs, and from the first the other five are in
sight. The line in which they are placed along the glen side is not
quite straight. The westernmost cromlech is some yards south of the
others, and the west to east line is not exact with regard to the
others, but is nowhere so much departed from as with the first pile.
The first is about half a mile from the sea. I shall describe them
from west to east.

I. This was a cromlech of five huge stones and a top. The top stone
has fallen to westward, and the uprights are all somewhat displaced.
Three of the upright stones are still erect; two are fallen, but not
quite to the ground. At the west end are some smaller blocks and
another slab. These are hidden by small stones and earth; I think
there were two support stones and a slab. After examining all the
monuments of the two glens, I came to the conclusion that this (D I.)
was a cromlech with a stone chamber beside it. There is a space 2
feet 6 inches wide between the two tallest uprights. The annexed plan
shows the arrangement of the uprights. The top slab has fallen over
_e_; _d_ and _e_ are fallen; _a_, _b_, and _c_ are upright, but slant
more or less. The dimensions are:--

Ft. In.

(_a_) Height 12 9 (_a_) slants somewhat to
Breadth 9 4 westward; the height from its tip
Thickness(about) 3 0 to the ground is 10 feet 2 inches.
Widest girth 23 0

(_b_) Height 7 5 (_b_) from tip perpendicular
Breadth 4 3 the height is 6 feet 6 inches.
Thickness 2 0

(_c_) Height 7 0
Breadth 2 10
Thickness 1 0

(_d_) Length 10 0
Breadth 5 0
Thickness 2 0

(_e_) Length 7 0 (_e_) is hard to measure, as it
lies under earth, stones, and the
top slab.

All these are of a gritty stone, veined with quartz, a rock plentiful
in Sliabh Liag, Sliabh Leathan, and the cliffs of the coast. Their
shape is rugged.

The top slab is of pure quartz. It is about a foot thick, and is
smooth on both sides. This sort of stone splits with a smooth
surface, as may be seen on Sliabh Liag and in some of the cliffs.
The slab is a tolerably regular oblong, 9 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 6
inches. The smaller slab alluded to above, and which was, I think,
the top of the chamber, is about 6 feet by 3 feet.

D II. lies about 40 feet east of D I. It, too, is a cromlech, but the
stones of which it is built are of smaller size than those of D I.
There are no traces of a chamber, but otherwise it is constructed as
D I. The highest standing stone is 4 feet high. There seem to have
been five uprights. The top slab has fallen to the west side. It
measures 6 feet 3 inches by 5 feet.

229. Plan showing the actual position of the Stones of D III. ]

D III. is situate 55 feet east of D II. It is a cromlech of five
uprights and one slab. One upright only is erect now. Its height is 5
feet, its width 3 feet. The slab which was atop is 8 feet by 7 feet,
and averages 2 feet in thickness.

D IV. is 31 feet east of D III. It is a small-sized cromlech. The
uprights are all fallen. The slab measures 6 feet 8 inches by 6 feet.
A series of low mounds with large stones sticking out here and there
forms a sort of connexion with the next cromlech, which stands 48
feet farther east.

D V. Its slab has fallen to eastward, and the uprights in several
directions. The tallest upright is 6 feet high. The slab is of
quartz, and measures 10 feet by 7 feet, and is about 13 inches thick.
Around this cromlech are numbers of loose stones. They are from 1
foot to 2 feet long, and are of mica-schist and quartz. They are not
such as would be picked off the meadow, and seem to have been in some
way connected with the cromlech.

D VI. stands 96 feet farther east. It is a very large cromlech. It is
a good deal fallen; all the stones of which it is built have more or
less the character of slabs. It is used as one side of a respectable
byre. One great smooth piece of quartz seems to have been the roof.
It measures 18 feet 7 inches by 11 feet. The biggest of the stones
seems to have formed the east wall of the chamber. Its dimensions are
12 feet by 14 feet, and it is 4 feet thick. I took the dimensions of
three others:--1. Length 5 feet 6 inches, width 4 feet; 2. Length 11
feet, width 8 feet; 3. Length 9 feet, width 3 feet, thickness 3 feet.

From the flat nature of the component stones, the chamber inside
would have had few gaps in its walls. Near this cromlech is a low
stony mound.

From a few yards east of D VI. a ridge runs slantwise up the side
of Leathan. Many stones stick up out of it, but I could make out no
arrangement. The highest projecting stone is not 4 feet high. This
ridge is about a quarter of a mile long. It might be natural, but it
has very much the look of a human work. Some 150 yards up the ridge
I noticed a slab projecting from the heather. It might possibly be
the top of a chamber, of which the walls are beneath the earth. This
seeming road does not lead to another group of stones, but disappears
a short way up the mountain side. Near the mountain top there is a
small bare cliff, the only bare bit of rock on the otherwise smooth
slopes of Leathan. The rock exposed is quartz, and the position of
the little cliff leads one at a glance to imagine that it may have
been the quarry whence the slabs were brought. In this case the ridge
may have been the road down the mountain. When one goes up to the
crag, it looks less like a quarry than from below, but at the same
time I could perceive no geological reason for the exposure of so
small a surface of rock.

Some distance up Glen Malin, and on the same side of the river as D,
but not in sight from it, is another group, E, of stone monuments.

The large stones of this group are surrounded by numbers of rough,
weather-worn stone blocks, averaging 2 feet in length. The monuments
seem to be all cromlechs or chambers, and, as far as I could tell,
are about a dozen in number. One cromlech stands a good deal higher
than the rest. West of it are two stony mounds; these seem to have
been chambers. They are built of long flat slabs, with similar slabs
at the ends and top.

The ground beyond the cromlechs is moorland, and without loose
stones. The stony area is oval, and measures east to west 130 feet,
north to south 50 to 60 feet.

All the cromlechs are about the same size. In the construction
of all, the aim seems to have been a well shut-in chamber. The
easternmost one is a chamber 9 feet 10 inches long. At each end it
has a flat stone 3 feet high. The side stones are 7½ feet long
and 3 feet high The width of the chamber is 4 feet 6 inches. At each
side, and at each end, are heaps of loose small stones. The top slab
is about 1 foot thick, and is almost a square of 9 feet.

On the north side of Glen Malin, there are three groups:--

A. This, which is the group furthest from the sea, is of five or six
cromlechs, but only one is in good preservation. It consists of a
slab resting on four flat blocks, and encloses a chamber. The side
stones are each 5 feet 8 inches long. This group stands on a small
flat piece of ground below a crag and above a stream. Leading from the
chamber there seems to have been a passage, the sides of which were
formed of slabs of stone, of which a few remain.

Some distance lower down the glen, on the north side, is a solitary
pointed stone. It is 6 feet 1 inch high, and its girth is 5 feet 5
inches. Higher on the slope by 110 feet, and 18 feet farther west,
group B begins.

B. The first of this group is a chamber cromlech. It is much buried
in the heather. Some loose stones lie around the cromlech. What seems
to have been the top slab is 10 feet across and nearly square, and 2
feet thick. One of the side slabs of the chamber is 10 feet 8 inches
by 4 feet. The tallest stone is at the east end, and is in height 6
feet 8 inches. Lower down the slope, below this cromlech, are several
low mounds, from which there are no projecting stones; 200 yards west
in a straight line is a huge cromlech. It seems to have consisted of
a gigantic slab, supported on three upright stones, not forming a
closed chamber. The top slab is still on its supports; it is 3 feet
thick, and measures 13 feet by 10 feet 9 inches. The tallest of the
uprights is 9 feet high, and is rather pointed at top. The third
upright seems to have been broken into several pieces. Some 10 yards
from this is another cromlech of equal dimensions, and a little south
of these several large loose stones are lying on the ground. Forty
yards west is a chamber cromlech of small dimensions, and near it are
many mounds with stones projecting, possibly artificial.

C. This group is some distance farther down on the same side of the
glen; it consists of two cromlechs, separated by a short ridge, so
that I think they are really parts of one structure. The eastern part
is fallen; it consists of three uprights and a top slab. The western
part consists of two stones leaning gablewise against one another.
Between the two there is a short ridge, from which several stones
stick out. Each of the western pair of stones is about 7 feet high
by 6 feet broad. The dimensions of the eastern part of the monument
are:--Top slab, 11 feet by 7 feet; thickness, 1½ foot. Uprights:
(_a_) 8 feet (and I think 2 feet below ground) by 7 feet 7 inches
broad; 2 feet 3 inches thick. (_b_) 9 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 8
inches; thickness 2 feet 5 inches, (_c_) 9 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 5
inches; thickness, 1 foot 9 inches.

The other groups do not command remarkable prospects, but from this
last group there is a fine view of the sea, with the island of
Rathlin O'Beirne close below, and beyond the mountainous coast line
of Mayo as far as Belmullet.

So far the stone monuments of Glen Malin.

In Glen Columbkille is but one group. It stands in the townland of
Farn MacBride, on the north side of the glen, and at the foot of the
mountain Ballard. Its monuments are all of the chamber kind. The
chambers are made of huge slabs, one at each side, one atop, one at
each end. I measured one, and found the sides each 12 feet long and
4 feet broad. Most of the monuments project but little above the
ground. One is used to keep calves in, one for pigs, and one for
lambs. A native of the townland told me that his brother had dug up a
skull and a piece of earthenware near one of the cromlechs. The skull
was buried in the churchyard, and its grave is forgotten. The same
man also told me that, digging to clear a cromlech for a malt-store,
they found that the side slabs rested on a basement slab. The ground
is very rugged about these monuments, and some are quite beneath
ground, but I think there are altogether six.

I hope that, if these notes are too late to be of use for your book,
they may yet be of some interest to you, and

I remain, my dear Sir, yours sincerely,

NORMAN MOORE.

_James Fergusson, Esq._

On receiving the above communication, I forwarded to Mr. Moore an impression of the woodcut No. 80, representing Calliagh Birra's Tomb or House, and received the following reply:--

DUNMINNING, GLARRYFORD, CO. ANTRIM,

_August 28, 1871_.

MY DEAR SIR,--The cromlechs of Farn MacBride, as they stand
apparently undisturbed, exactly resemble in plan that depicted in
the woodcut. With one or two exceptions the cromlechs of Glen Malin,
as far as one can tell in their fallen condition, are built on the
same plan. The shape of the stones at the sides and of the top slabs
of the cromlech in the engraving is exactly the shape of the stones
of the cromlechs in both Glen Malin and Farn MacBride. In one or
two of the cromlechs I noticed stones which might correspond to the
buttress-like outside stones of the ground-plan in the cut.

The number of slabs in the side walls of the Glen cromlechs is
smaller than the number in the woodcut.

The very large cromlech, easternmost of the group the first described
in my letter, is in every particular, except the number of its
component blocks, the counterpart of your engraving.

_In fine_, the plan of all the cromlechs of Glen Columbkille, except
one or two, the variety of which may be owing to disarrangement, is
that of the Meath cromlech.

NORMAN MOORE.

[Footnote 600: Throughout this paper Mr. Moore uses the term
"Cromlech," as is usually done by English antiquaries, in the sense
in which "Dolmen" is employed in the body of the work.]