Roads.

which is chiefly employed in finishing woollen cloths manufactured at the farmers' houses.

Two principal roads pass through this parish. The Derry mail-coach line traverses it from the southeast, near Ballygawley, in a north-western direction, for a length of five miles. This road is in good order, though, when the sums expended on it are taken into consideration, this does not seem to merit a high degree of praise. The breadth of it seems unnecessary; in many places it appears an unmeaning waste of land. Roads should be wide near large towns, where there must be a concourse of carriages, and villages adjoining; such a mode of laying them out may prevent accidents, from cows and pigs straying about the outskirts; but the grass and tall weeds growing on the sides are a sufficient proof how unnecessary such a breadth is in the open country, at a distance from a town. The extra breadth, beyond the gravelled part, would certainly be useful in case of accidents, if made level and firm. Should carriages encounter, or horses become ungovernable, there would then be room for exertion to prevent danger, or for extrication out of it; but to be serviceable in this manner, the sides ought to be as level, though they need not be so hard, as the middle.

The other line crosses the southern extremity of the parish for scarcely a mile. This is part of a new line of road, continued on for two miles more, towards Augher. This length is very level, and nearly half a mile shorter than the old line, which seems to have been purposely run over the hills. The road from Aughnacloy to Augher is generally good, but

this part of it is certainly the best made road in this Roads. quarter of the country; and is a proof of what can be done by influence exerted to a beneficial purpose, by judgment in laying out, and integrity in disposing of the public money. It forms part of the communication across Ireland, from Newry, through Armagh, to Enniskillen; and the same kind of attention paid to the other parts of this line, would be productive of great advantage to this part of Ulster, through the benefits arising from the improvement of the carrying trade, by means of a general good line of road. It is even thought that a coach could be profitably run between Armagh and Enniskillen, if the state of the road would admit of it; yet so it is, that this short line lies, as it were, insulated, between a neglected piece of road from Caledon to Aughnacloy at one end, and the hills about Clogher at the other. The carmen consider their arrival on it as a relief to their horses from the fatigue of the sloughs and the hills at each extremity. Beside these, there are about thirty miles of road in this parish, which are in as good repair as bye-roads generally are. In the townland parts they may be pronounced good; but among the mountains, when a road or a bridge is injured by winter floods, it sometimes remains long in that state, from the difficulty of getting money presented for the repair of it, without very.. particular application.

The bridges are in good repair. At the southern Bridges. extremity of the parish, the Blackwater passes under a handsome arch of thirty-six feet span. There is another of the same dimensions in Ballygawley; about half a mile lower down is a bridge of four

Bridges.

Gentle

small arches, and about the same distance, at Drumcork, is another of two, but larger and higher than the last. In the townland of Ballymackleroy, on the mail-coach road, is a great pile of a bridge over a smaller rivulet. Its size, and heavy appearance, are caused by the necessity of raising the road to the requisite level. In many places, the summer traveller would be surprised to see bridges so much larger than the streams creeping under them would seem to require, till he learned, that, flowing from the mountains, they frequently in winter, or after heavy rains, assume a very formidable appearance.

Green-hill, the residence of the Right Honourable men's Seats Sir John Stewart, is seated on a rising ground, on the north side of the mail-coach road, about a mile beyond Ballygawley. The name is a literal translation of Tullyglush, the appellation of the townland. A description of gentlemen's seats is rather complimentary than consistent with a compilation of this kind. Their beauties, when put into writing, appear so similar, as to discourage any attempt at detailing them. The situation of Greenhill is commanding, and may be observed at a considerable distance; the precipice, called the Craigs, which rises at the back of it, marking its place to the eye of the traveller. The residence of George Spier, Esq. in Cleanally, is a neat specimen of the cottage style. The remains of Ballygawley castle are inhabited by Richard Armstrong, Esq. These, with the glebe house, are the only gentlemen's residences in the parish; but there is a great number of excellent farm-houses, which bear the appearance of ease and comfort. These are the genuine ornaments of a country; and while they

serve as a foil to its splendour, are the support of the more elegant mansion.

IV. Ancient Buildings, &c.

Raths, or forts, of that conical form which are Raths. always observed to be in elevated situations, and therefore seem to have been erected as memorials of great events, or monuments of deceased heroes, are numerous in Errigall; as are also circular enclosures, whether intended as places of strength, as dedicated to religious ceremonies, or as residences of families. These are often found in low, and sometimes in marshy situations; frequently consisting of little more than a circle of stunted trees. This circumstance is apt to call to mind the manner of encampment used by the Cossacks, on their march across Europe to Paris: each horde, clan, or division, used to form round themselves an enclosure of wattles, or branches of trees. Now, if this happened with an Irish clan, on an expedition early in the year, many of these temporary pallisadoes would become trees, and produce circles similar to those just mentioned. They would at first, in many cases, grow up equally, whether nursed as a residence, or deserted on a sudden removal; and it is well known how much veneration for antiquity and superstitious respect have conduced to preserve them since. The resemblance is striking, but the conclusion hazardous.

The site of the most remarkable of these is pointed out upon a steep height, called the Craigs, in the townland of Tullyglush, behind the house of Sir John Stewart. From thence the eye can trace the

remains of many raths, diverging from this as a centre, through the parish, on every side, except into the mountains toward the north.

The different accounts of this spot, whether traditionary or written, which have occurred to the compiler's research, have been since found collected in a note, in the Anthologia Hibernica for August 1794. The note is annexed to a quotation from a translation of an account of the Norwegian colonization of Ireland, in which mention is made of "Askeal Knokkan, "son of Dufthaks, son of Kiarvals an Irish king.” On this sentence the translator has the following note. "From this it appears, that the Irish prince Kiarvals 66 was one of the O'Nials, princes or chiefs of the "Eirgals; which the Norwegians wrote Kiarvals; "Gal, or Gall, in Irish, being the same as Vals in "Icelandic. The principality of Eirgal compre"hended the present counties of Tyrone and Donegall. Dufthacks, in Irish Dubhteagh, was the son "of Dubhnial, or Nial Glundubh, king of Eirgal in 951, and fell in battle against the Danes in 954.” Ware mentions a bloody battle having been fought on the 15th of September 918, between Nial Glundubh, king of Ireland, and the Danes, near Dublin, in which the king and many of the nobility were killed. And also, that in 956, a bloody battle was fought, between Congelach, king of Ireland, and the Danes of Dublin, at Tiguiran, in Leinster, where Congelach lost the day, and was slain. To him succeeded Donald Neal. In the former, there is a resemblance between the names; in the latter, the dates approach nearer. The note goes on: "The remains "of the seat or fort of the ancient princes of Eirgal,

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