The well _Neamhnach_ was first identified. Tradition asserts that the first mill[174] erected in Ireland was turned by the stream which flowed from it, and even at the present day a mill is still worked there. The situation of the _Rath-na-Riogh_ was then easily ascertained. This is the most important of these ancient sites, but it is now, unfortunately, nearly levelled to the ground. This rath is oval and measures about 853 feet from north to south; it contains the ruins of the _Forradh_ and of _Teach Cormac_ (the House of Cormac). A pillar-stone was removed in 1798 to the centre of the mound of the Forradh. It formerly stood by the side of a small mound lying within the enclosure of Rath-Riogh. This stone Dr. Petrie considers identical[175] with the famous _Lia Fail_, or Stone of Destiny, which other authorities suppose to have been removed to Scotland, and subsequently to Westminster. The _Rath-na-Riogh_ is identical with Teamur, and is, in fact, _the_ ancient Tara, or royal residence, around which other scarcely less important buildings were gradually erected. It was also called _Cathair Crofinn_. The name of _Cathair_ was exclusively applied to circular stone fortifications built without cement; and stones still remain which probably formed a portion of the original building. In ancient Irish poems this fortification is sometimes called the Strong Tower of Teamur, an appellation never applied to a rath, but constantly to a _Cathair_, or circular stone fort. The Rath of the Synods obtained its name at a comparatively recent period. The situation is distinctly pointed out both in the prose and verse accounts. Here was held the Synod of Patrick, the Synod of Ruadhan and Brendan, and lastly, the Synod of Adamnan. The next existing monument which has been identified with certainty, is the _Teach-Miodhchuarta_, or Banqueting Hall, so famous in Irish history and bardic tradition. This was also the great house of the thousand soldiers, and the place where the _Fes_ or triennial assemblies were held. It had fourteen doors--seven to the east and seven to the west. Its length, taken from the road, is 759 feet, and its breadth was probably about 90 feet. Kenneth O'Hartigan is the great, and indeed almost the only authority for the magnificence and state with which the royal banquets were held herein. As his descriptions are written in a strain of eloquent and imaginative verse, his account has been too readily supposed to be purely fictitious. But we have already shown that his description of the gold vessels which were used, is amply corroborated by the discovery of similar articles. His account of the extent, if not of the exterior magnificence, of the building, has also been fully verified; and there remains no reason to doubt that a "thousand soldiers" may have attended their lord at his feasts, or that "three times fifty stout cooks" may have supplied the viands. There was also the "House of the Women," a term savouring strangely of eastern