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skill, and collected with such wonderful industry by our remote ancestors, were to be confounded with common stones of irregular figures, to be hidden from the eye by cement and mortar, after the manner of more improved ages in the arts of architecture. Thus those curious monuments of antiquity were pulled asunder, and swept away, to gratify the mean avarice of servants in the pay of government. Disgraceful barbarity! It is to be hoped that the proprietor of those singular monuments of rude architecture, will in future pay particular attention to the preservation of their remains, which cannot but afford a delicious entertainment to the eye of curiosity."

These sentiments of a zealous and learned antiquary, must be congenial to every cultivated mind. It is unfortunately too often to be regretted that the interesting remains of ancient art fall into the hands of those who have no veneration for the works of antiquity, nor admiration of the ingenuity of former ages. Arthur's oven, that unique and curious specimen of ancient architecture, standing near the river Carron, was razed to the ground for the construction of a mill pond! This venerable monument, of which Stukely and Gordon give engravings, was of a circular form. The walls were bent over in the manner of a vault, without closing, a considerable aperture being left in the centre, which with an arched door and small window lighted the interior. It has been supposed a Roman temple erected to Terminus. Horsley thinks it a sepulchre, and Pinkerton believes it gave the hint for the erection of the Duns. It is certainly of the same character, and resembled some structures in Ireland that will be briefly noticed.

The following sections of two of these buildings, dun Dornghil, in Strathmore, parish of Durness, in Sutherland,

(A,) and the burg of Mousa, (B,) supposed of Norwegian construction, shew no further difference than a greater rudeness in the latter.

[graphic][subsumed]

The stairs of these Duns were sometimes, as before observed, carried up in a rude winding form, as in that at Mousa; but the general plan appears to have been in the manner shewn by this section.

[graphic]

Dun Dornghil, erroneously called Dornadilla, is represented at the termination of this Chapter. It was, in the memory of man, about thirty feet high, but is now much dilapidated. Not a stone of this fabric "is moulded by a hammer, nor is there any fog or other material used to fill up the interstices among the stones; yet the stones are most artfully laid together, seem to exclude the air, and have been piled with great mathematical exactness."

VOL. II.

B

The following verse concerning it, is repeated by the inhabitants.

Dun Dornghil Mac Duiff

Or an taobh ri meira don strha

Sehcht mille o manir

Er an rod a racha na fir do Gholen.*

TRANSLATION.

The Dun of Dornghiall, son of Duff,

Built on the side of the strath next to Rea,

Seven miles from the ocean,

And in the way by which the warriors travel to Caithness.

Castle Coul, situated upon a rock at the black water of Strathbeg, parish of Clyne, in the same county, is another remarkable edifice of similar construction. The walls are now only about eleven feet high; they are thirteen and a half feet thick at the base, and leave an area of twenty-seven feet clear. The stones are large and well joined, without any cement, and the building inclines inwards nine inches in three feet. In the middle of the wall, on each side of the entrance, which is three and a half feet in height by two and a half in width, is a small apartment, about six feet square and five feet high, that seems to have been intended for a guard room. Six feet from the base of the wall are the remains of another, which surrounded the dun.

* In a more correct orthography these lines will appear thus :

Dùn Dornghil Mac Dhuiff

Air taobh na mara do'n t'srath;

Seachd mile 'o mhanir,

Air au ròd 'n racha' ná fir do Ghallabh.

The Dun of Dorngil, son of Duff;

On the side next to the Sea of the Strath;
Seven miles from Rea,

On the way whereon men go to Caithness.

ED.

w Rev. A. Pope, in Archæologia, v.

This appears to have been for the purpose of forming, by means of large flag stones stretching to the castle walls, an additional security from assault. In this place it is said the cattle were kept during the night, and when the country was invaded. The water of the river was carried by a ditch round the castle.

In the parish of Dunse, county of Berwick, is a ruin called Edwin's Hall, which is supposed to have been erected by the Picts, and will be seen from the description' to be of the same class as the Duns just described, only exhibiting an arrangement of three walls, with a mode of connecting the stones extremely ingenious and uncommon. Like all similar structures, it is situated on an eminence. Cockburn Law, the site of this fort, is 900 feet above the level of the sea. The circular walls, seven feet in thickness, are concentric, and the clear interior area is forty feet. The stones are chiefly a hard whinstone, and are fixed without any cement, but are attached to each other by alternate grooves and projections, or, in technical phrase, are dove-tailed.

In Ireland, from statements in a foregoing page, it might seem there were anciently no buildings of stone. Such observations are to be taken in a general sense, or with so much allowance, as will prevent the appearance of contradiction. The subterraneous structures already noticed were rude, but successful attempts in masonry and although it is believed by some of the antiquaries of that country, that the Domliag, or stone house of St. Kianan, was the first of that kind, there is some reason to entertain another opinion. Many curious buildings are scattered throughout that interesting island, which, from their sin

* Henderson's view of the Agriculture of the County.

▾ Traveller's Guide through Scotland.

gularity of style, and unknown appropriation, are in all probability of extreme antiquity. On the Skelig isle, off the coast of Kerry, are the remains of several cells, which are built of a circular form, and arched over. No cement whatever is used, but the stones are dove-tailed together in a very ingenious manner. On the island of Innis Mackellan, opposite Dunmore Head, and at Gallerus, are similar cells; and at Fane, all in the same county, are the ruins of another." These buildings are perfectly impervious to water, and, consequently, were well calculated to resist the injuries of the weather for many ages.

The ROUND TOWERS, so numerous in Ireland, and which are spoken of by Giraldus Cambrensis as of great antiquity, even when he wrote, have attracted not merely the notice of the antiquary, but excited the admiration and curiosity of all who view them. Their singularity, and the mystery which envelops their origin and design, have drawn towards them much attention, and elicited many curious speculations on their apparent uses and probable era of construction.

It has been supposed that they served as edifices wherein to preserve the sacred fire of the Druids. It has been also said that they were places of residence and probation for devotees, who, by religious exercises and privations, gradually ascended from story to story, as they mortified the flesh and improved in holiness, secluding themselves from society, and acquiring a high reputation for superior devotion, and perhaps supernatural powers. This supposition, which may receive some countenance from what Tacitus relates of the Prophetess Veleda, that she did not permit herself to be seen, but lived in a high tower, having an

z Luckcombe's Tour. At Ithaca, a building resembling these still exists, supporting Grant's idea of the origin of the Gaël. Poems and Translations from the Gaelic by Mr. Donald Mac Pherson.

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