Brennanstown (Glen Druid) Cromlech.—In a picturesque valley, close to Cabinteely, County Dublin, stands a very perfect cromlech. This monument may be reached in a short walk from the Carrickmines railway station. The site is a little over one mile and a-half from the sea-coast. The covering stone is of an irregular form, but the under portion, which forms the top of the chamber, is quite flat and horizontal. The following are its dimensions:—length and breadth, 15½ feet; thickness, 3 to 5 feet. It is not easy to calculate the weight of this mass, on account of the irregularity of form which the block presents; but it is estimated at 36 tons. It rests, as Mr. Borlase points out, on two antæ, as well as on the larger stones, and so forms an ante-chamber 5 feet wide at the entrance. A number of detached stones lying about this very perfect example would indicate that it was originally accompanied by a circle of standing stones.
Brennanstown Cromlech.
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Glensouthwell Cromlech.—Of this ‘Druid’s or Brehon’s Chair,’ already referred to (page 42), Beranger wrote as follows:—‘This piece of antiquity, the only one yet discovered, is situated at the foot of the Three-Rock Mountain. It is supposed to be the seat of judgment of the Arch-Druid, from whence he delivered his oracles. It has the form of an easy-chair wanting the seat, and is composed of three rough, unhewn stones, about 7 feet high, all clear above ground. How deep they are in the earth remains unknown. Close to it is a sepulchral monument or cromlech, supposed to be the tomb of the Arch-Druid. It is 15 feet in girth, and stands on three supporters, about 2 feet high, and is planted round with trees. The top stone is 8½ feet long.’ The so-called ‘chair’ still remains, and the above account fairly describes it. The three stones, standing north, west, and east, are, however, 9¼ feet, 8¾ feet, and 8 feet high, respectively. It never was a ‘chair.’ It is evidently a rather small but high cromlech that has lost its covering stone. The ‘cromlech’ noticed by Beranger was probably the block destroyed by blasting in 1876.
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Glencullen Cromlech.—This monument is situated on the eastern side of Glencullen, half a mile north-west of Glencullen House, near Kilternan, in a very wild district, extending to the west of the Three-Rock Mountain, and at a distance of some three miles, in a direct line, from the sea. It is described by O’Neill as having ‘a roof rock 10 feet long, 8 feet broad, and 4 feet thick, extreme measures.... The longest direction of the roof rock is W.S.W., or nearly east and west. The chamber is greatly damaged.’[34]
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Ballyedmond Chamber is ¾ of a mile north-west of Glencullen House, in the parish of Kilgobbin. O’Curry, writing of it, says: ‘It is a very fine giant’s grave, resembling the Bed of Callan More on Slieve Gullion, only that it is more perfect. I doubt if we have met so perfect a pagan grave in any other counties hitherto examined. This had been a tumulus, and the earth being cleared away, the grave was to be seen. The tumulus was oval in shape, and its axis, like that of the grave, was east and west.’ The side stones of the chamber were ten in number, one of the covering stones, measuring 7 feet by 5, remained in its place.
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