Perhaps the most noted example of the pillar-stone, as found in Ireland, occurs on the celebrated Hill of Tara, Co. Meath. This interesting monument at present occupies a position in the centre of the _Forradh_, one of the principal earthworks still remaining on that memorable site. The stone formerly stood upon, or rather by the side of, a small mound lying within the enclosure of Rath-na-Riagh, and called Dumha-na-nGiall, or the ‘Mound of the hostages.’ In 1824 it was placed in its present position, to mark the grave of some men who were slain in 1798 in an encounter with the king’s troops. It was suggested by George Petrie that this pillar, or menhir, was no other than the celebrated _Lia Fail_, or ‘Stone of Destiny,’ upon which, during many ages, the monarchs of Ireland were crowned, and which, according to the early bardic accounts, ‘roared’ beneath them at their inauguration. The Coronation Stone at Westminster was generally supposed to have been removed from Ireland to Scotland, in the beginning of the sixth century, for the coronation of Fergus Mac Earc, a prince of the blood-royal of Ireland, there having been a prophecy that in whatever country this famous stone was preserved, a king of the Scotic race should reign. In the MSS. to which Petrie refers, one of which is probably of the tenth century, the stone is mentioned as still existing at Tara; and ‘it is,’ he writes, ‘an interesting fact, that a large obeliscal pillar-stone, in a prostrate position, occupied till a recent period the very situation on the hill pointed out as the place of the Lia Fail by the Irish writers of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries.’ After remarking upon the want of agreement between the Irish and Scottish accounts of the history of the Lia Fail, and on the questionable character of the evidence upon which the story of its removal from Ireland rests, he further observes: ‘That it is in the highest degree improbable, that, to gratify the desire of a colony, the Irish would have voluntarily parted with a monument so venerable for its antiquity, and deemed essential to the legitimate succession of their own kings.’ We cannot here enter into a discussion of this question, in which numerous conflicting traditions are involved. The removal of the Coronation Stone from Tara to Scotland is now generally admitted. The use of the present pillar-stone at Tara for the purpose of inauguration has not been established: its very shape is strongly presumptive against any such theory, as the custom usually was for the king or chief to stand upon the stone. That the monument is an original relic, raised for some memorial use, may reasonably be accepted.