Page:Rude Stone Monuments.djvu/548

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
522
GLEN COLUMBKILLE.
App. A.

All these are of a gritty stone, veined with quartz, a rock plentiful in Sliabh Liag, Sliabh Leathan, and the cliffs of the coast. Their shape is rugged.

The top slab is of pure quartz. It is about a foot thick, and is smooth. on both sides. This sort of stone splits with a smooth surface, as may be seen on Sliabh Liag and in some of the cliffs. The slab is a tolerably regular oblong, 9 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 6 inches. The smaller slab alluded to above, and which was, I think, the top of the chamber, is about 6 feet by 15 feet.

D II. lies about 40 feet east of D I. It, too, is a cromlech, but the stones of which it is built are of smaller size than those of D I. There are no traces of a chamber, but otherwise it is constructed as D I. The highest standing stone is 4 feet high. There seem to have been five uprights. The top slab has fallen to the west side. It measures 6 feet 3 inches by 5 feet.

229. Plan showing the actual position of the stones of D III.

D III. is situate 55 feet east of D II. It is a cromlech of five uprights and one slab. One upright only is erect now. Its height is 5 feet, its width 3 feet. The slab which was atop is 8 feet by 7 feet, and averages 2 feet in thickness.

D IV. is 31 feet east of D III. It is a small-sized cromlech. The uprights are all fallen. The slab measures 6 feet 8 inches by 6 feet. A series of low mounds with large stones sticking out here and there forms a sort of connexion with the next cromlech, which stands 48 feet farther east.

D V. Its slab has fallen to eastward, and the uprights in several directions. The tallest upright is 6 feet high. The slab is of quartz, and measures 10 feet by 7 feet, and is about 13 inches thick. Around this cromlech are numbers of loose stones. They are from 1 foot to 2 feet long, and are of mica-schist and quartz. They are not such as would be picked off the meadow, and seem to have been in some way connected with the cromlech.

(Seven Stones in all.)

230. Plan (excl. Top Slab).

D VI. stands 96 feet farther east. It is a very large cromlech. It is a good deal fallen; all the stones of which it is built have more or less the character of slabs. It is used as one side of a respectable byre. One great smooth piece of quartz seems to have been the roof. It measures 18 feet 7 inches by 11 feet. The biggest of the stones seems to have formed the east wall of the chamber. Its dimensions are 12 feet by 14 feet, and it is 4 feet thick. I took the dimensions of three others:—1. Length 5 feet 6 inches, width 4 feet; 2. Length 11 feet, width 8 feet; 3. Length 9 feet, width 3 feet, thickness 3 feet.

From the flat nature of the component stones, the chamber inside would have had few gaps in its walls. Near this cromlech is a low stony mound.

From a few yards east of D VI. a ridge runs slantwise up the side