ce," its
name figures prominently in the list of the ancient cemeteries of
Ireland. _Relec in Broga_, "the Cemetery of the Brugh," is referred to
as one of "the three cemeteries of Idolaters," in an Irish manuscript of
the twelfth century (or earlier), the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ cited above.
Of the two others, one is "the Cemetery of Cruachan"; and, by glancing
at it, in the first place, we shall obtain a good idea of the Cemetery
of the Brugh. "We find that the monuments within the cemetery at
Rathcroghan,"[84] says Mr. 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 unburned bones."[85]
And the twelfth-century scribe whom Mr. Petrie largely quotes, says that
there were fifty such mounds (_cnoc_) in the cemetery at Cruachan. This
mediaeval scholar has copied a poem on the subject, "ascribed to Dorban,
a poet of West Connaught," wherein it is said that it is not in the
power of poets or of sages to reckon the number of heroes under the
Cruachan mounds, and that there is not a hillock (_cnoc_) in that
cemetery "which is not the grave of a king or royal prince, or of a
woman, or warlike poet." In another verse, he says that _each_ of the
fifty mounds had a warrior under it; and, altogether, it appears that,
although their number could doubtless be "reckoned," yet the burial
mounds of Cruachan, in or about the twelfth century, much exceeded fifty
in number. "Fifty" is simply used by the poet and his commentator to
show that, like the two other cemeteries of the triad (each of which is
also said to have had fifty) the Cemetery of Cruachan contained about a
third of the pagan notables of Ireland.

From this we see that, about the twelfth century, the Cemetery of the
Brugh contained at least fifty sepulchral mounds such as those described
by Mr. Petrie at Cruachan. Mr. Petrie further quotes two passages from
the _Dinnsenchus_, which specify in the following terms some of the most
famous of those "monuments" at the Brugh:--

"The Grave [or Stone Cairn, _Leacht_] of the Dagda; the Grave of
Aedh Luirgnech, son of the Dagda; the Graves of Cirr and Cuirrell,
wives of the Dagda--'these are two hillocks [_da cnoc_]'; the Grave
of Esclam, the Dagda's Brehon, 'which is called _Fert-Patric_ at
this day'; the Cashel [or Stone Enclosure] of Angus, son of
Crunmael; the Cave [_Derc_] of Buailcc Be