Of the ordinary plain gallaun, or pillar-stone, the annexed illustration, representing one of several remaining in the vicinity of the tumulus of Newgrange (hereafter to be noticed), will afford a good idea. It measures 10 feet in height, and in circumference 17. A similar monolith, in the village of Ballynacraig, i e. ‘Rock town,’ to which it probably gave its name, about half a mile from Newgrange, measures 24 feet in girth, but its present height above ground is only about 6 feet. There are monuments of a similar class in the valley of Glenasmole, ‘Valley of the thrushes,’ beyond Rathfarnham, about five and a half miles from Dublin.
Pillar-stone near Newgrange.
Some of these remains, whether monuments, boundary stones, or idols, appear to have been known by particular names, as, for instance, a fine example standing, amongst a group of megalithic structures, in the sandhills of Finner, a wild district lying towards the sea, between Ballyshannon and Bundoran. It is called ‘Fleatuch,’ and what that appellation means we have failed to ascertain. Nor were we more successful in a search after the significance of ‘Eglone,’ the name by which a boulder near Highwood, rising 18 feet in height, and measuring on two sides 7 feet 6 inches, and 11 feet 6 inches on the others, is known amongst the peasantry of Moytura, Co. Sligo. This massive monolith stands perfectly upright, is rudely symmetrical in form, and has the appearance of a pillar-stone. It is in all probability by the agency of ice that this mass of grey magnesian limestone was torn from its natural bed and deposited as we now find it. No legendary tale concerning the ‘Eglone’ at present remains, but the stone, or rather rock, is regarded by many of the neighbouring people as possessed of mysterious attributes, of some kind or other, which they cannot explain: it may have been an idol. At a place called Keimaneigh, the fine mountain pass between Macroom and Bantry, is a true pillar-stone, which is supposed by natives of the locality to represent a woman who, for her numerous sins and scorn of repentance, had been thus petrified by St. Fiachna in the sixth century. The pillar, which is about 6 feet high, bears a rude resemblance to a female human figure; hence, no doubt, the origin of the legend.
Of the hundreds of pillar-stones remaining in Ireland the great majority are prehistoric. The date of one example, however, has been satisfactorily settled. Cruachan, or Rathcrogan, situated about five miles from Carrick-on-Shannon, consists of a stone ditch, circular in form, but greatly defaced. ‘Within this,’ writes George Petrie, ‘are small circular mounds, which, when examined, are found to cover rude sepulchral chambers formed of stone, without cement of any kind, and containing unburnt bones.’ Outside the rath, or enclosure, in the centre of a small tumulus, is a pillar, referred to in the following notice of it by Duald Mac Firbis: ‘The body of Dathi was brought to Cruachan, and was interred at Relig-na-Riogh, where most of the kings of the race of Heremon were buried, and where to this date the red pillar-stone remains on a stone monument over his grave, near Rath-Cruachan, to this time (1666).’[4] Dathi was the last pagan monarch of the Milesian race. He died in the beginning of the fifth century from the effects of lightning while leading his army on a continental raid. The scene of his death was in the neighbourhood of the Alps.
‘Tomb of Dathi,’ Rathcroghan.
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Holed-stones.—Perforated stones, very similar to the ordinary pillar-stone, are found in many parts of Ireland, Scotland, France, and, as appears from Wilford’s Asiatic Researches, in India. Abroad, as well as at home, their origin has been a matter of much speculation, and it is not likely that any definite solution can ever be arrived at. Colonel Wood-Martin, speaking on the subject, says:—‘The original purpose for which the larger apertures were utilised seems to have been a literal as well as a symbolic means whereby an ailment, disease, or sin might be left behind or got rid of, also as a symbol by which a compact could be ratified, or an oath taken, by a well-known and public act. The postulants, at first, probably crawled through the orifice; then when it, through change in custom, became diminished in size, they probably passed a hand, or if a compact was to be made, clasped hands through it.’[5] Wilford[6] states that perforated stones are not uncommon in India, and devout people pass through them when the opening will admit, in order to be regenerated. If the hole be too small, they put the hand or foot through it, and with a sufficient degree of faith it answers nearly the same purpose.
In Ireland they are generally associated with prehistoric remains, and are occasionally found in connection with church buildings of the earliest type. It is probable that, dating from prehistoric ages, they were in time pressed, as it were, like the holy wells, into association with Christian rites. The following are some of the many places where holed-stones may be found in connection with our old churches: Kilmalkedar, Co. Kerry; Castledermot, Co. Kildare; Inismurray, Co. Sligo; Roscam, near Galway; Mainister, on Aran Mór, Co. Galway; Layde, Co. Antrim; Holy Island, Lough Derg; Glendalough; and on the Island of Devenish in Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh.