Fig. 515.—Ballymena. ½
Moulds of the same kind have been found, though rarely, in England. In a field near Cambo,[1665] near Wallington, Northumberland, was found a block of sandstone, having on one face two moulds for flat celts of different sizes, and on the other face another such mould, and also one for a flat ring. It is now in the British Museum.
Stone blocks with moulds cut in them have been found in Scotland.
One with a mould for a large celt in the centre, and near it in one corner of the slab a mould for a very small celt, was found in a cairn near Kintore, Aberdeenshire.[1666]
Another large block, forming the end of a cist, near Kilmartin, Argyleshire,[1667] has nine depressions in it in the form of flat celts, which may have been used as moulds. They are barely an eighth of an inch in depth, and on this account have been thought to be pictorial representations rather than moulds. With a metal so imperfectly fluid as melted bronze, castings could be made thicker than the depth of the moulds, and it is by no means impossible that this stone and another forming part of the same cist may have been intended for the production of castings. The second slab of stone may have served for casting pins.
The stone moulds from Trochrig, near Girvan, Ayrshire,[1668] and Alford, Aberdeenshire,[1669] with depressions of various forms upon them, not improbably belong to a later period than that of which I am treating.
A mould for casting rings, 2½ inches in diameter, found at Kilmailie, Invernessshire, is in the Museum at Edinburgh.
One for two flat celts on the one face, and for a larger celt and perhaps a knife on the other, is in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh.[1670]
These moulds are more abundant in Ireland.
One in the Belfast Museum,[1671] polyhedral in shape, has moulds upon four of its faces for flat celts of different sizes. In the Bateman Collection is a slab of schistose stone (7 inches by 6 inches) with three such moulds upon it. It was found near Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim.[1672]