nd
are often crowded together in masses. There is no attempt to depict
scenes of any kind, nor is there, indeed, any example of animal life. In
fact, the designs seem to be purely ornamental. The most frequent
elements of design are cup-shaped hollows, concentric circles or ovals,
star-shaped figures, circles with emanating rays, spirals, chevrons,
reticulated figures, parallel straight or curved lines. There seems to
be no clue as to the meaning of these designs. They may have been merely
ornamental, though this is hardly likely.

At New Grange, near Drogheda, there is a similar series of tumuli, one
of which has become famous (Fig. 8). It consists of a huge mound of
stones 280 feet in diameter surrounded by a circle of upright blocks.
Access to the corridor is gained from the south-east side. This corridor
leads to a chamber with three divisions, so that corridor and chambers
together form a cross with a long shaft. The walls are formed of rough
slabs set upright. In the passage the roof is of slabs laid right
across, but the roof of the chamber is formed by corbelling. On the
floor of each division of the chamber was found a stone basin.

[Illustration: Figure 8. Corridor-tomb at New Grange, Ireland (Coffey,
_Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, 1892.)]

Around the edge of the mound runs an enclosure wall of stones lying on
the ground edge to edge. A few of these are sculptured. The finest is a
great stone which lies in front of the entrance and shows a
well-arranged design of spirals and lozenges. There are also engravings
on one of the stones of the chambers. These designs are in general more
skilful than those of Lough Crew. They consist mainly of chevrons,
lozenges, spirals, and triangles.

The monuments we have so far described are all tombs. Ireland also
possesses several stone circles. The largest are situated round Lough
Gur, 10 or 12 miles south of Limerick. There was at one time a fine
circle west of Lough Gur at Rockbarton, but it is now destroyed. On the
eastern edge of the lough is a double concentric ring of stones, the
diameter of the inner circle being about 100 feet. The rings are 6 feet
apart, and the space between them is filled up with earth. In 1869 an
excavation was made within the circle and revealed some human remains,
mostly those of children from six to eight years old.

Further north is a remarkable group of monuments known as the
Carrigalla circles. The first is