Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
The distance of the spot from Telltown, the modern representative of
Talten, is twelve miles, which to some might appear an objection, but
it must be remembered that Brugh is ten miles from Tara, where all
the kings resided, who were buried there; and as Dathi and others of
them were buried at Rath Croghan, sixty-five miles off, distance seems
hardly to be an objection. Indeed, among a people who, as evidenced
by their monuments, paid so much attention to funeral rites and
ceremonious honours to their dead, as the Pagan Irish evidently did,
it must have mattered little whether the last resting-place of one of
their kings was a few miles nearer or further from his residence.
It must not, however, be forgotten, that the proper residence of the
Ultonians, who are said to have been buried at Talten, was Emania or
Armagh, forty-five miles distant as the crow flies. Why they should
choose to be buried in Meath, so near the rival capital of Tara, if
that famed city then existed, is a mystery which it is not easy to
solve; but that it was so, there seems no doubt, if the traditions
or Books of the Irish are at all to be depended upon. If their real
residence was so distant, it seems of trifling consequence whether it
was ten or twelve miles from the place we now know as Telltown. There
must have been some very strong reason for inducing the Ultonians to
bury so far from their homes; but as that reason has not been recorded,
it is idle to attempt to guess what form it took. What would appear
a most reasonable suggestion to a civilized Saxon in the nineteenth
century would in all probability be the direct antithesis of the motive
that would guide an uncivilized Celt in the first century before
Christ, and we may therefore as well give up the attempt. Some other
reason than that of mere proximity to the place of residence governed
the Irish in the choice of the situation of their cemeteries; what that
was we may hereafter be able to find out,--at present, so far as I
know, the materials do not exist for forming an opinion. If, however,
this is not Talten, no graves have been found nearer Telltown, which
would at all answer to the descriptions that remains to us of this
celebrated cemetery; and, till they are found, these Lough Crew mounds
seem certainly entitled to the distinction. I cannot see that the
matter is doubtful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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