_Cairns at Loughcrew._--Loughcrew is a range of picturesque hills, three miles south-east of Oldcastle. The ridge of the range is about two miles in extent, and there are three chief heights: Slieve-na-Calliaghe, 904 feet; Patrickstown Hill, 885 feet; and Carnbawn, 842 feet: but the name of the first is generally applied to the whole range. Here, within the radius of a rifle-shot, may be seen grouped together the most extraordinary collection of archaic monuments to be found in the kingdom. These for the most part consist of megalithic sepulchres surmounted by tumuli, and surrounded by stone circles. These number ‘from 25 to 30 cairns, some of considerable size, being 120 to 180 feet in diameter; others are much smaller, and some are so nearly obliterated that their dimensions can hardly be now ascertained.’ It is, we think, not too much to say that on the stones among these cairns is found the greatest collection of rude prehistoric scorings yet found in Ireland or, perhaps, in Europe. Popular superstition has long attributed these cairns and other remains to be the work of a witch named Cailleach Bhéartha, who, in attempting a wild leap in the adjoining townland of Patrickstown, was unfortunate enough to fall and break her neck. Nothing was known of the character or contents of these cairns until 1858. In the autumn of that year Mr. Wakeman measured and made plans of several of the remains, and wrote a paper upon the subject, which was read in his name before the Architectural Society of Oxford, by J. H. Parker. We are thus particular in giving names and dates in connection with the _first_ public notice of the antiquities at Slieve-na-Calliaghe, as their ‘discovery’ was claimed and is still erroneously attributed to the late Eugene Conwell. He, however, did great service to Irish archæology, inasmuch as, with the liberal co-operation of the late J. L. W. Naper, owner of the soil, he was enabled to clear out the majority of the chambers, and investigate what had been left by former searchers of their contents. An immense amount of _débris_ was removed, and stones which had been buried for ages were brought to light. Many of the latter are singularly carved, and some presented designs previously unknown to archæologists. The result of Conwell’s investigations was given in papers read before the Royal Irish Academy in 1864 and 1866, accompanied with an index map of the cemetery, in which the letters of the alphabet indicate the cairns.[42] These, however, were of a sketchy nature, and the voluminous report, with the plans and sketches which he had prepared, seems never to have been published. A series of drawings of the incised markings on some of the stones of the chambers were prepared by Du Noyer; these remained unpublished until recent years, when a collection of seventy-six drawings and plans of six of the cairns fell into the hands of the late Dr. W. Frazer, and were reproduced by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.[43]