School: Carrowreagh (roll number 16884)

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1. The Grianán of Aileach (continued)

   

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   inclination inwards as it ascends. The gateway is wider below than above, and its lintel is formed by a very large flat slab of stone, which supports the wall above it. The stone of which the whole cashel is built is the common grey schist of the district, interspersed with a few blocks of quartz, gneiss and granite.
   Outside the cashel, three concentric rings of circumvallation, or earthen enclosures, can be faintly traced, surrounding it at unequal distances. Between the first and second, east of the cashel, are the barely discernable remains of a tumulus; and between the second and third, due south of the cashel, an ancient well. The circular apex of the hill contained within the outermost enclosure, is 5 1/2 acres; within the second, 4; and within the third, about 1; and within the cashel itself about, 1/4 of an acre. The visitor will observe that many of the stones, outside and inside, are marked with tar: these were the uppermost found in their original positions when the cashel was restored.
   The architecture ("a work of art without art") is of that rude style of uncemented stone-work, called Cyclopean for want of a better name. It exhibits a specimen of the first attempts of savage man to construct an edifice of

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Location

   Grianan of Aileach, Co. Donegal

   Collector

   Samuel Scott

   Gender

   Male