The antiquities of Cavancarragh, a district situated on a shoulder of Toppid Mountain, about four miles from Enniskillen, consist of two chambered cairns, a stone circle, and what appears to be a small but well-defined alignment. The latter, and the circle within living memory, lay buried to a depth of from 8 to 12 feet beneath the surface of a mountain bog. The alignment consists of a row of stones, four in number, extending, as far as it can be traced, 480 feet in a direction very slightly to the north-west and south-east. The blocks average about 3 feet in height by 2 feet in width, and 6 inches in thickness, and present the appearance of the ordinary red sandstone flags of the district. The extreme south-eastern portion of the work has probably been destroyed; but in that direction the lines could never have extended much further than they do at present, as the ground suddenly descends, forming one side of a deep ravine, through which in winter time a mountain torrent rushes. How far to the north-west the lines extend is at present uncertain, and cannot be known until the peat in that direction is further lowered. Probably, however, beyond the circle no considerable extension would be discovered. The cairns here are in a very ruinous condition, having for the greater part of a century served as a quarry for building purposes. The plan of one of them is very similar to that of the monument at the ‘Barr’ of Fintona already described. There was no central chamber; and only two of its circle of cists remain in a good state of preservation. The stone circle standing near the north-west side of the avenue is 20 feet in diameter, and is formed of twelve sandstone blocks which at present rise but 2 or 3 feet above the level of the bog.
There are, however, in Ireland lines of stones, sometimes single, but never more than double, which should not be confounded with those strictly of the alignment class. Some of these are the remains of passages which led to sepulchral chambers, and have been either stripped of their covering slabs, or were never finished. Such rows may indeed sometimes be looked upon as portions of ruined cromlechs, or skeleton traces of monuments like those of the Boyne or Maeshowe.
We find stones of various sizes, differing, as at Finner, near Ballyshannon, from 1½ feet, or 2 feet 6 inches above ground; or, as at Breagho and Killee, near Enniskillen, with an elevation of 6 or 7 feet, upon which no definite opinion can be formed as to the class of monument to which they should be assigned. In all probability they represent but wrecks of works of a sepulchral kind, which, at a time now forgotten, but doubtless in modern days, were exhumed during the process of turf-cutting. Of these, as well as of several other broken or never completed relics of a megalithic class, found in several parts of Ireland, it is only certain that they rest on the ‘till’ upon which peat, to a depth of from 8 to 12 feet or more, once lay.
Bird’s-eye view of Callernish Circle and Lines.
One of the most remarkable examples of a stone circle and lines known in the British Isles is Callernish, on the west coast of the Island of Lewis. The stones were partially embedded in peat. This was cleared in 1858, and found to exist to a depth of 5 feet. The stones were here securely sunk in a ‘rough causewayed basement.’ The circle, about 40 feet in diameter, is formed by twelve stones round a central one 17 feet high. Between this stone and the east side of the circle was found a ruined chambered cairn, 20 feet in diameter, which contained fragments of burnt human bones. The stones are set in the form of a cross, the east, south, and west lines single, and extending from the circle. To the north is a double row or avenue 270 feet long.
There are examples of these lines in the Dartmoor district, with rows in one case of seven parallel lines. On the Stalldon Moor is a single line of stones, starting from a stone circle, which can be clearly traced for one and a half miles, and imperfectly continued for three-fourths of a mile further, terminating at a kistvaen. Another perfect line is the Down Tor Stone Row, about 600 yards long, extending from a circle enclosing a small barrow towards a large cairn.[56]
CHAPTER V.
BURIAL CUSTOMS.—OGAM STONES.
NECESSITY FOR DISPOSAL OF DEAD—INHUMATION AND CREMATION IN BRITISH ISLES AND CONTINENT—BALLON HILL—CARROWMORE—DYSART—METHODS OF BURIAL—ORIGIN OF CREMATION—RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT—URNS, CLASSIFICATION AND USES OF—OGAM STONES—REFERENCE TO, IN IRISH MSS.—MOUNT CALLAN STONE—BISHOP GRAVES—OGAMS DESCRIBED—ALPHABET—GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
