Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

54 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[70]Unfortunately these monuments are not intact; they were openedand plundered by the Danes in the ninth century, 43 but enoughevidence remains to show that they were sepulchral in theirorigin, and were also associated with the cult of a primitivereligion. The most important of them, the tumulus of NewGrange, has been thoroughly explored and described by Mr.George Coffey, keeper of the collection of Celtic antiquities inthe National Museum, Dublin. 44 It appears from the outside likea large mound, or knoll, now overgrown with bushes. It measuresabout 280 feet across, at its greatest diameter, and is about 44 feetin height. Outside it there runs a wide circle of standing stonesoriginally, it would seem, thirty-five in number. Inside this circleis a ditch and rampart, and on top of this rampart was laid acircular curb of great stones 8 to 10 feet long, laid on edge, andconfining what has proved to be a huge mound of loose stones,now overgrown, as we have said, with grass and bushes. It isin the interior of this mound that the interest of the monumentlies. Towards the end of the seventeenth century some workmenwho were getting road-material from the mound came across theentrance to a passage which led into the interior, and was markedby the fact that the boundary stone below it is richly carved withspirals and lozenges. This entrance faces exactly south-east. Thepassage is formed of upright slabs of unhewn stone roofed withsimilar slabs, and varies from nearly 5 feet to 7 feet 10 inches inheight; it is about 3 feet wide, and runs for 62 feet straight intothe heart of the mound. Here it ends in a cruciform chamber,20 feet high, the roof, a kind of dome, being formed of largeflat stones, overlapping inwards till they almost meet at the top,where a large flat stone covers all. In each of the three recesses ofthe cruciform chamber there stands a large stone basin, or rude43 The fact is recorded in the “Annals of the Four Masters” Under the date861, and in the “Annals of Ulster” under 862.44 See “Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,” vol. xxx. pt. i., 1892, and“New Grange,” by G. Coffey, 1912.