Page:Rude Stone Monuments.djvu/548

522 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.



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.



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