amply verified by the
magnificent gold ornaments, found within a few yards of this very spot,
now in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy. We shall see, at a
later period, when the cursing of Tara will demand a special notice of
its ancient glories, how amply the same writer has vindicated the
veracity of Celtic annalists on this ground also.

A remarkable resemblance has been noticed between the pagan military
architecture of Ireland, and the early Pelasgian monuments in Greece.
They consist of enclosures, generally circular, of massive clay walls,
built of small loose stones, from six to sixteen feet thick. These forts
or fortresses are usually entered by a narrow doorway, wider at the
bottom than at the top, and are of Cyclopean architecture. Indeed, some
of the remains in Ireland can only be compared to the pyramids of Egypt,
so massive are the blocks of stone used in their construction. As this
stone is frequently of a kind not to be found in the immediate
neighbourhood, the means used for their transportation are as much a
matter of surprise and conjecture, as those by which they were placed in
the position in which they are found. The most remarkable of these forts
may still be seen in the Isles of Arran, on the west coast of Galway;
there are others in Donegal, Mayo, and in Kerry. Some of these erections
have chambers in their massive walls, and in others stairs are found
round the interior of the wall; these lead to narrow platforms, varying
from eight to forty-three feet in length, on which the warriors or
defenders stood. The fort of Dunmohr, in the middle island of Arran, is
supposed to be at least 2,000 years old. Besides these forts, there was
the private house, a stone habitation, called a _clochann_, in which an
individual or family resided; the large circular dome-roofed buildings,
in which probably a community lived; and the rath, intrenched and
stockaded.

But stone was not the only material used for places of defence or
domestic dwellings; the most curious and interesting of ancient Irish
habitations is the _crannoge_, a name whose precise etymology is
uncertain, though there is little doubt that it refers in some way to
the peculiar nature of the structure.

The crannoges were formed on small islets or shallows of clay or marl in
the centre of a lake, which were probably dry in summer, but submerged
in winter. These little islands, or mounds, were used as a foundation
for this singular habit