Cairn and Cists at Bighy.—In some respects this is a very remarkable burial site. It stands on the lands of Bighy (a modification of the Irish word Beithigh, which signifies ‘Birch-land’), on a shoulder of Bennaghlin, a mountain almost overhanging Florencecourt. It is a cairn composed of sandstone, perfectly circular in plan, with a central chamber, and a number of cists, placed almost equally distant from each other, and ranged just within the outer edge of the mound, which measures 50 feet in diameter, and is at present about 10 feet high. The central chamber is of an oval form, 6 feet by 4 feet, and 4 feet in height. It is covered by two large flagstones and a number of smaller ones. Its greater axis extends exactly east and west. Of the surrounding cists—probably eighteen in number—but three remain in a tolerably fair state of preservation. The largest of these is of a bee-hive form; it is quite circular, and measures 3 feet 6 inches in diameter. Its height was probably 4 feet, but, from the disturbed state of the floor, there was difficulty in taking a very accurate measurement. Of the other cists, which are slightly smaller, two presented a rudely quadrangular plan, and were covered by stones laid horizontally. With considerable difficulty, owing to the shaky state of the walls, Mr. Wakeman carefully searched these cists, finding in all of them small portions of calcined bones, accompanied by wood charcoal. In the larger and more perfect chamber, situated to the south-west of the mound, was found, imbedded amongst a quantity of charcoal and burned bones, the base of a cinerary urn, 2¾ inches in diameter. It appears to have been quite plain. No other portion of this vessel was discoverable, and it was quite manifest that this cist, as well as the others in the mound, had been very roughly handled by seekers for the proverbial ‘crocks of gold,’ perhaps on many occasions. Elsewhere in the country, cairns exhibiting a somewhat similar arrangement of cists may be found; but the description here given of two representative examples must suffice.
* * * * *
The star-shaped Cairn of Doohat.—Doohat, the land upon which this monument is situated, will be found marked on the Ordnance Map just three and a half miles due south of Florencecourt. It is two miles from Bighy, on the opposite side of Bennaghlin mountain. The name of the site upon which it stands, Doohat—Irish, Dumha Ait, ‘Place of the sepulchral tumulus’—sufficiently explains that at one time its character had not passed out of local recollection. The plan of the work is, as far as we know, unique in Ireland, representing the star-fish, with five rays projecting from a central body or chamber of the usual ‘giant’s grave’ class. To the south of the chamber, and apparently forming a portion of the original design, occurs a semicircular ridge of stones. This feature is constructed in the same manner as the rays, and differs from them only in form and want of connection with any other portion of the cairn. To a fanciful mind the plan, on the whole, would most readily suggest the idea of a star and crescent. The rays are well-defined stony ridges, averaging 16 or 17 feet in breadth at their junction with the central cist, or dolmen, from which point they taper off to distances of 60, 46, 42, and 40 feet, respectively. They terminate very sharply with one, two, or three stones. The largest terminal stone—that which finishes the north-western ray—measures 3 feet 6 inches by 2 feet. The main chamber, which extends north and south, is divided by stone partitions into three compartments, of which the central one, measuring 8 feet by 4 feet internally, is the largest. From its north-west angle a rudely quadrangular offset, about 3 feet on the sides, projects westwards. This tomb differs in no respect from a number of ‘giants’ graves which are found in various parts of the country. No trace of covering slabs, if any such were ever used to overlap the chamber, can be discovered within or without the quadrangles; and it is not in the least likely that any considerable portion of the work has been removed. There is an over-abundance of stones, large and small, in the immediate neighbourhood ready at hand; and there are no buildings near which could have been furnished with materials from this source. This chamber was carefully excavated down to the ‘till,’ or undisturbed yellow clay, without finding any relics of the past beyond small pieces of wood charcoal, stones showing the action of fire, very dark-coloured, unctuous earth, and here and there some grayish matter, which may have been bone in the last stage of decomposition. Having carefully refilled all the pits necessarily made during the search, even replacing the rubbish which had fallen or been thrown into the chambers, the work was left in the same condition as that in which it had been found.
A number of small cists were then examined, some fifteen in all, which lie in the various rays. Most of these diminutive receptacles had evidently been previously searched. Of the six into which the spade was introduced, four yielded small pieces of calcined bone, burned earth and stones, black, greasy clay, and considerable quantities of charcoal. There was much osseous sediment, resembling gray turf ashes well moistened with water. The cists had, doubtlessly, all been originally covered by flags, and would have presented the appearance of miniature cromlechs. In design they were irregularly circular, composed of five or more small stones, which in a manner lined the mouth of a little pit sunk about a foot or so into the ‘till.’ The dimensions of the largest, and we may say perfect, cist were as follows: 2 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 3 inches; depth, as well as could be ascertained, 2 feet. That they had ever contained urns is highly improbable, as not a fragment of pottery appeared to reward the search.
‘Horned cairns,’ bearing a general likeness to the Doohat monument, are also found in the north of Scotland, and were first properly investigated by Dr. Joseph Anderson, as described in Scotland in Pagan Times (p. 230). In Scandinavia graves are found of various forms, triangular, square, oval, and ship-shaped, a description of which will be found in Fergusson’s Rude Stone Monuments (p. 281), and M. Du Chaillu’s Viking Age (vol. I., chap. xviii.). Triangular-shaped graves were generally supposed to be confined to Scandinavia, but at least one example, as noticed by Colonel Wood-Martin, in Rude Stone Monuments of Sligo (p. 176), occurs in Ireland, in Northern Moytura (Moytirra), the scene of the battle between the Fomorians and the Tuatha De Danaan, seven years after the latter had defeated the Firbolgs at Southern Moytura, Cong. Sir William Wilde describes some of the cairns which mark the latter battle-field in his Guide to Lough Corrib (chap. viii.).
* * * * *
Mounds.—Mounds of earth, occasionally mixed with stones, were sometimes erected as places of interment. In England these earthen mounds are called ‘Barrows’; they partake very much of the character of cairns, from which class of sepulchre they may be said to differ only in material, the cairns being entirely of stone. Some interesting examples may be seen in the immediate vicinity of Dublin, in the neighbourhood of Clontarf. These have been usually, but we believe without warrant, associated with the great battle fought on Good Friday, 1014, in which Brian, the son of Kennedy, commonly called Brian Boroimhe, or ‘of the Tributes,’ fell in defeating the Danes. The discovery of a Celtic sepulchral urn in one of these mounds, and a bronze sword, and other relics of the same material in the tumulus near ‘Conquer Hill,’ are evidence of an existence long anterior to the eleventh century.
Small cairns marking the place of a death, or a halting-place in a funeral procession, are still raised in some parts of Ireland—a practice also common among primitive people in other lands. Examples of cairns raised by devotees at some sacred spot are occasionally to be met with. The most remarkable instance we know of is that raised by pilgrims, who add stones to the heap after performing their stations, at Glencolumbkille, Co. Donegal. It stands high upon the side of the hill, close to the ruins of the old church, and measures about 30 paces long, 4 wide, and 5 feet high.
* * * * *
