in the neighbourhood of Keady, and is augmented by various streams, in the course of its descent from the mountains. At present, two of the principal lakes are secured by strong ramparts of eighteen or twenty feet in perpendicular height, with pipes and sluices in front; and the water may (generally speaking) be let down at pleasure from these feeders. In the year 1798, four brazen trumpets were found in boggy land, on the borders of Loughnashade, near Armagh, in the property of Robert Pooler, of Tyross, Esq. At this place, it is generally believed, a portion of the Danish army was cut down by a division of King Nial's troops The trumpets, which are very curious remnants of antiquity, are of a golden colour, and nearly similar in size, form and structure. One of these now in the possession of Mr. Pooler himself, consists of two joints-the length of the whole sweep, which is nearly semicircular, is six feet. The diameter of the tube at the small end is one inch-at the larger end, three inches and three-fourths. No solder had been used in the construction of these trumpets. Yet they were perfectly air tight; for the edges of the plate of which each is formed had been very neatly and very ingeniously rivetted to a thin strip of brass, placed directly under the joint and extending the whole length of the instrument. One of these curious trumpets was presented by Mr. Pooler to Lieutenant-General Alexander Campbell, and by him removed to Scotland. The second was given to Colonel Hall, of Armagh. The third was purloined; the fourth and most imperfect of the whole, is the one now in possession of Mr. Pooler.r Near the trumpets, were found human skulls and other bones, which, by the antiseptic quality of the bog, had been preserved uninjured, though their colour had been changed to a dusky brown. We have seen one of these skulls in the possession of John Simpson, Esq. M. D. The teeth and other parts were in high preservation, but much of the skull is separable into distinct laminas, exceedingly thin, remarkably smooth, and retaining, like parchment, the impression of ink made with a pen. • A much finer instrument of this kind was found in a peat moss, in the townland of Arbrin, county of Down, about nine years ago, by Mr. Joseph Martin. In this trumpet there are two joints, which, when placed together, form an almost semicircular curve, eight feet four inches in sweep. The diameter of its smaller tube is uniformly the same from beginning to end, viz. three-fourths of an inch, and must have been connected with the larger one by an intermediate joint. The greater tube is in diameter three-fourths of an inch, at the smaller end, at the larger extremity three inches and five-eighths. Some of the rivets are finished with exquisite neatness, and, in various parts, the line in which the edges of the brass are brought together, cannot be discovered on the most minute inspection. The trumpet is so perfectly air-tight, that when the person who found it applied the larger tube to bis mouth, and blew strongly into it, the gong-like noise which it produced attracted the attention of many people, who resided in the adjacent townlands. See plate in page 512 of this work, Some of the townlands in the vicinity of Longhnashade are said to have derived their names from this great battle fought with the Danes. Thus we have Ballyrea, i. e Baile-rae, "Battlestown;" and on the east of Loughnashade, Drumcoote or Druimcode," the Ridge of Victory." The whole of that district seems to have been a continued chain of fortifications. Thus Ballyrath, Bailerath, is "Fortstown;" and the adjacent hill is Tullalost or Tulloch-loister, "the Tented Hill :" but far preeminent stood Dun-nathan, (now called Navan) "the Noble Fortress," which overlooked the regal residence of Eamhain Macha, or Eamania, in Creeverów. The tumulus of Nial Caille was the most remarkable sepulchral monument in the neighbourhood of Armagh, if we except the «Vicar's Cairn." This sepulchral monument and the townland on which it stands are called in Irish Carn-na-vanachan,* "The Monks' Cairn, probably because its site, &c. belonged to the friary. Immense quantities of stones had, from time to time, been removed from this mass. for building materials, before the year 1799, yet, at that period, it still retained its circular form, and was even then forty-four yards in diameter + It is situated on the summit of a very high hill, which lies four miles southeast of Armagh, and commands a noble prospect of seven different counties, viz. Armagh, Tyrone, Antrim, Down, Louth and Derry, with various beautiful sheets of water interspersed through a highly-cultivated country. In the summer of the year 1815, Mr. John Bell, landscape painter, and Mr. Henderson, a respectable farmer, collected a multitude of peasants, who, with infinite labour removed an enormous mass of stones from Carn-na-Vanachan, and opened a wide passage directly through its centre. They, however, found nothing worthy of notice, except a sewer which had been formed along the bottom of the tumulus. Mr. Bell had previously opened upwards of sixty different cairns, and in each of these had found that curious combination of stones called "Druids' Altars;" and on inquiry, he obtained authentic information, that many of those altars, which are now detached and distinct objects, § had, in the memory of man, been also completely enclosed in cairns, but had been left standing, as too ponderous for carriage, when the smaller stones which surrounded them had been removed for building and fencing materials. Under many of these "Druids' Altars" he had found urns of * Vanachan, in Irish, is written Mhanaghan, which is the genitive case of Manach, a monk; for mh at the beginning and end of words is pronounced v. †Transac. Royal Irish Acad. vol. viii. Antiq. p. 7· Mr. Bell and his friend exhibited to the country people some ancient silver coins, which they slyly hinted had been found at the cairn. Hence many of them were induced to work with eagerness, in hopes of finding treasure. Others, however, who entertained a high veneration for this ancient monument, replaced at night the stones which the stronger party had removed in the course of the day, and thus, for a long time, retarded the work Such, for instance, as Cairnban and Clochenrammur, near Newry, &c. &c. baked clay, burned bones, charred wood, and adepous or fatty matter; and in some cairns, glass bottles of a round form, contained in these stone buildings or chests, called "kisde vans,"* which seem worthy of the name conferred by the ancient Egyp tians on their enormous cemeteries—“ Eternal Houses." Hence we must necessarily infer, either that the art of making glass was a matter of great antiquity in Ireland, or that some of our stone tumuli are more modern than is generally supposed. In some of these stony masses, were found Tamlachtas or sepulchral monuments, similar to that represented in the annexed plate. This tumulus which is situated in the townland of Auchnacloghmullan, parish of Killeavey, is of elliptic form-in length forty-four yards, and if measured over the summit, twenty-four yards in breadth. Two rows of large stones, about nine feet in length and seven in height, extend nineteen yards into the interior, and support incumbent slabs of enormous magnitude. Within are four apartments, of which the reader will find an accurate ground plan in the plate. In one of these lay a broken urn. Similar Tamlachtas have been discovered by Mr. Bell in different districts. One of these was opened in the townland of Ballymacdermot, in the county of Louth, by Jonathan Seaver, Esq. and Mr. Bell. It contained three chambers; and here, also, an urn had been deposited in the interior, enclosing a pulverized substance resembling turf-mould, but which probably was animal matter. In the plate inserted page 512, the reader will find a representation of two ancient brazen weapons, the property of the Hon. Colonel Blacker, which were found in a bog in the neighbourhood of Carrick, the seat of Dean Blacker, in the county of Armagh, Here a battle was fought with the Danes, in which Murchard, prince of Ailech, of the Hi-Nial race, was slain, in the year 941, as narrated in page 115 of this work. One of the weapons is a very elegantly formed spear-head-the other, a doubled-edged sword. Armagh was sacked on the day after the battle, and the tradition of the country corresponds correctly with the written history of the event, as the reader may learn from a perusal of Colonel Blacker's excellent account of the parish of Segoe, published in Shaw Mason's admirable statistical collection. • In Irish, cisde bhana, that is, "Death's coffer." |