* * * * *
Castlederg Cromlech.—This monument lies about three-quarters of a mile to the north of the town of Castlederg, 140 yards to the east of the old Strabane road, leading through Churchtown townland. The principal cap-stone was dislodged many years ago by the owner of the farm. ‘It appears,’ says Sir Samuel Ferguson, ‘that the structure had previously been rendered insecure by a stone-mason, who had abstracted one of the supporters for building purposes; and it was suggested that the motive for casting down the cap-stone was an apprehension lest the owner’s cattle, in rubbing or sheltering under it, might do themselves a mischief. That the inscription was there at the time of the first disclosure of the upper face of the support on which it is sculptured, is the common and constant statement of the people of the country; but the case rests more satisfactorily on the fact, wholly independent of testimony, that a collateral covering stone remains in situ, and that the line of scorings is prolonged underneath it into a position too contracted for the use of a graving tool.’[37]
The work here consists of a continuous series of straight scorings, accompanied by a number of dots or depressions more or less circular in form. There can be no doubt that a generic resemblance may be noticed between them and many of the markings of the Lennan inscription. This, if there were nothing more, would raise a serious doubt of their being merely accidental or capricious indentations. The great majority of such irregular scorings should, nevertheless, be looked upon with suspicion. Those which occur on the pillar-stone at Kilnasaggart, Co. Armagh, though long considered to be Ogam characters, are now universally pronounced to be nothing more than markings made by persons who utilized the monument as a block for the sharpening and pointing of tools or weapons. The same remark applies in full force to certain scorings and scratches which disfigure a fine pillar-stone standing close to the railway station of Kesh, County Fermanagh, on the right-hand side of the line as you face towards Bundoran. They are found abundantly on the coping stones of the walls of Londonderry, and indeed in other localities too numerous to mention. At Killowen, County Cork, they occur on a stone most significantly called Cloch na n’Arm, or the ‘(Sharpening) Stone of the weapons.’
CHAPTER III
STONE MONUMENTS (continued): CHAMBERED TUMULI.
TUMULUS AT NEWGRANGE—TUMULUS AT DOWTH—TUMULUS AT KNOWTH—CAIRNS AT LOUGHCREW—PREHISTORIC ORNAMENT.
In the Senchas-na-Relec, or ‘History of the Cemeteries,’ a tract in the Leabhar-na h-Uidhre, we have a list of the regal cemeteries of Erin during a long period prior to the advent of St. Patrick. This was compiled at Clonmacnoise, and transcribed by Maelmuiri in the twelfth century. In the opinion of Petrie the tract ‘must be referred to a period several centuries earlier than that in which its transcriber flourished.’[38] It says:—‘These were the chief cemeteries before the Faith (i.e. before the introduction of Christianity), viz. Cruachu, Brugh, Tailltiu, Luachair Ailbe, Oenach Ailbe, Oenach Culi, Oenach Colmain, Temhair Erann.... At Tailltiu the kings of Ulster were used to bury, viz. Ollamh Fodhla, with his descendants, down to Conchobhar, who wished that he should be carried to a place between Slea and the sea, with his face to the east, on account of the Faith which he had embraced.’ In the same MS. there is also a poem ascribed to Dorban, a poet of West Connaught, dealing with the deaths and burials of Dathi, the last of the Milesian kings, and other princes of the race interred at Rathcroghan. It contains three stanzas:—
‘Fifty mounds, I certify,
Are at Oenach na Cruachna,
There are under each mound of them