Lost Hoard of Viking Silver from Cave Hill, Belfast

Following up from the article on gold diggers and their exploits an article from C S Briggs printed in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology,26 1983 p152-3

At the sale of the Carruthers collecton of antiquities in 1856, two silver armlets were sold. One derived from the Magheralagan hoard (Briggs and Graham-Campbell 1976; Briggs 1978), the other was described as a 'portion of a silver armlet, ornamented but flattened', and was stated to have been' found at Cave Hill, Co Antrim' (Sotheby, Wilkinson and Co., 20th December 1856, p.8, no. 128). It was purchased by Eastwood, a dealer, for three shillings.
This piece is almost indubitably the same fragment as that illustrated in John Windele's MS Antiquarian Miscellany (R.I.A. MS 12.C.1., fol.133) stated simply to have been 'found near Belfast, 1845', and recently listed as a provenanced though unassociated Hiberno-Viking find by Graham-Campbell (1976,71). This weighed sixteen pennyweight (Fig.1). The only other reference to Carruthers's ownership of this half armring appears in the Belfast Exhibition Catalogue of 1852 (Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Antiquities, Belfast, 1852, p.18, no.2) where, most informatively, it is described as having been 'found together with an ingot of silver, in McAirt's Fort, Cavehill, Co. Antrim'. No further details were forthcoming from the same source; certainly no other exhibitor admitted to owning a find provenanced to the Fort, and no other contemporary source helps pinpoint the whereabouts of the accompanying ingot. Indeed, it is possible that this, together with other hacksilver from the discovery was melted down by a local jeweller.
One piece which did not find its way into the melting pot was a full Hiberno-Viking armring acquired by Alexander Colville Welsh of Dromore, Co. Down. Acquired by the National Museum in 1876 (24,115) the ring is stated to have been 'found at the Corn Hill, Belfast' (Boe 1940, 127; Graham-Campbell 1976, 71). It is described as 'a little enlarged towards the middle. the opening is now wide, the ends a little damaged. Ornamented with a cross and transverse grooves containing in regular alternation raised crosses and dots' (Boe 1940, 127). Its decoration (Pl.1) is of a similar punched pattern to that upon the Windele illustration (Fig.1).
There is no such place as 'Corn Hill' in the Belfast area and it seems reasonable to conjecture that this is a mistranscription of 'Cave Hill'. Carruthers and Welsh were contemporaries who moved in the same antiquarian circle, and must have shared certain of their sources of supply. It is thus hardly surprising to find artefacts from the same cache turning up in the collections of both men. It is perhaps more surprising that other provenanced pieces, including the ingot, were not also incorporated into these or other local collections, and exhibited alongside the armring fragment at Belfast in 1852. One reason why the objects did not appear together could be that Welsh did not then own the armring, and that someone other than Carruthers was in possession of the lion's share of the treasure at the time. Welsh may thus only have acquired his one piece later. It is otherwise odd that he did not exhibit it in Belfast at the 1852 exhibition, since virtually everything he owned seems to have been on view to the public at that time. 
Antiquarian sources therefore indicate the certain association of one armring fragment with a silver ingot, and the liklihood of an associated full armring. These comprised either the whole or, more likely, a portion of a Hiberno-Viking silver hoard, only the second with hacksilver from Co. Antrim. In NE. Ireland Viking hoards predominate, there being five, plus one of ornaments and coin (Magheralagan), over two exclusively of hacksilver (Graham-Campbell 1976, 43-5).
C.S. Briggs
Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer thanks Mrs B. Dolan and Miss E. O'Tuomey of the Library, the Royal Irish Academy, for their constant help in his manuscript researches; also the Royal Irish Academy for permission to publish the Windele drawing. Mr J. Sheehan of the national Museum of Ireland kindly provided details of Welsh's specimen, and the national Museum gave permission to publish the photograph.

REFERENCES
Boe, J. (1940). Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Shetelig, H. (ed.), part III, Norse Antiquities in Ireland (Oslo, 1940).
Briggs, C.S. (1978). 'The Magheralagan Hoard; an additional note', Ulster j. Archaeol., 41 (1978), 102.---------and Graham-Campbell, J.A. (1976). 'A lost hoard of Viking-age silver from Magheralagan, County Down', Ulster J. Archeol., 39 (1976), 20-4
Graham-Campbell, J.A. (1976). 'The Viking Age silver hoards of Ireland' in Almqvist, B. and Greene, D. (eds), Proc. Seventh Viking Cong. (Dublin, 1976) 39-74

A interesting article on armrings said to be found in Scotland exhibit remarkable similarity to those described above  http://mycoinpage.com/SCA/ArmRings/Scottish_ArmRings.pdf

Gold Diggers on Cave Hill

C.Stephen Briggs mentions an interesting account of gold mania on the Cave Hill in the 1840s in
ANTIQUITIES OF THE CAVE HILL, BELFAST, AN ANTIQUARIAN NOTE
Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol 60, 2001

In the Mining Journal for 1846 (Anon 1846,530) there appears an interesting narrative under the title Gold Mines in Ulster. Its text runs:
Sir R. Kinahan (1) has written a large volume regarding the resources of Ireland but we believe he overlooked its gold mines, or seemed to consider them of only minor importance. 'The enterprise of Belfast', has, however, gone in advance of the worthy knight's speculations; and amongst the wonders of the Cavehill, it appears that some persons have supposed that gold is included. One individual recently had a vision of a bedstead of gold, and three statues of the same precious metal, snugly laid up there, ever since the Danish invasion, by the marauders, on their retreat. Then another person, in some distant quarter of the globe, on the same night, at the same hour, had a similar dream which he communicated, per first mail, to his Irish correspondents: who, activated by a very laudable desire to increase the resources of the country, and meet the threatened deficiency in bullion, employed three or four men to dig in the indicated spot, McCart's Fort (sic), for the hidden treasure.
Of course, if there were a golden bedstead to be found, there must be other valuable chamber furniture in the neighbourhood, such as golden ewers and various odds and ends of that description. And if the statues of the illustrious kings were cut in gold, the pedestals must have consisted of very precious marble. In fact, there was no end, at least in the imagination of the visionary, to the riches which might be found. Young Ireland was to be gratified by the glory of the old bedposts, and the searchers by their value at £31.17s 6d per oz. For 10 or 14 days, even in the stormiest weather, three or four individuals left their employment and handled pick and shovel with surprising vigour and perseverance, until they formed a major and minor pit on the highest pinnacle of the Cave Hill. The largest mine is carried down 24ft (c8 m), and measures to 18 ft (c6 m) in diameter. We are sorry to state, that hitherto nothing more valuable has been reached than solid rock.

This account helps to explain the site's present condition aand poses questions about finds which might have at one point been attributed to it. Curiously, the account does not relate contemporary interest or activity to the origins or use of the cave (illustrated in Bazley 2002), excavated into the vertical face of the outcropping basalt some distance below the fort.
MacArt's Fort, a much eroded and arguably overvisited embanked promontory fort of unknown (though probably early medieval) age , lies on a spectacularly high point of the Cave Hill ( at 368 m OD) in Ballyaghagan townland, Co Antrim (IGR J3250 7960) overlooking Belfast Lough. Although today a well known landmark, and apparently a place where 'Sunday fairs were held in the last century' (Bazley 2002), little is known of its history or the reasons for delvings or hollows apparently cut into the local bedrock which currently hinder a better interpretation of its geomorphology and archaeology. One hollow is sketched as a V-shaped depression on the section across the fort made in undated field notes by the late Estyn Evans. Evans indicated on the plan 'here by entrance is a circular pit 10 (paces) across'. This hollow, still very much in evidence today, is presumably the larger of the two 19th-century 'gold pits' to which the anonymous account refers.
As regards contemporary artefact discoveries, in James Carruthers' antiquarian cabinet at Downpatrick around 1850 there were two or three silver ornaments and possibly also a coin, all supposedly from the Cave Hill (Briggs 1983). Rumour, or some unknown contemporary printed account of their discovery, could have helped motivate this mining venture or may even have resulted from it. And since the date Carruthers' artefacts were discovered remains uncertain, an open mind must be kept on the matter. Marketable commodities like Viking silver could have been found elsewhere; the Cave Hill provenance, at that time a topical findspot, may have been invoked through its vendor's hope of facilitating a credible sale.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The writer gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mrs Anne Given, Environment and Heritage Service, Dept of the Environment, for making the Evans notes available and for providing information from the Sites and Monuments Record.
NOTE
1. Kinehan is named in error for Robert Kane, whose book, The Industrial Resources of Ireland appeared in two editions, 1844 and 1845. Kane was knighted in 1846 (DNB). Kinahan was an important contemporary geoplogist and an accomplishe field archaeologist, who mush later was to publish a Geology of Ireland (in 1878). It is obviously relevant to this discussion that during the 1840s he was involved in mapping for official Geological Memoirs, sometimes in important mining regions.
REFERENCES
Anon 1846 'Gold mines in Ulster', Mining Journal 1846, 530
Bazley, A P 2002 'Walking with imagination', magazine of he Geologists' Association 1, No 4 (2002), 11.
Briggs, C S 1983 'A lost hoard of Viking age silver from Cave Hill, Belfast,' UJA 26 (1983), 152-3.
Kane, R 1844 The Industrial Resources of Ireland, Dublin (2nd edn 1845; repr Shannon 1971).

Medieval Pottery on Cave Hill
 Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 51, 1988 pp 132-134
  A Note on Medieval Pottery from Cave Hill and the Archaeology of Caves

 By R.J. Ivens (Milton Keynes Archaeology Unit, 16 Erica Road, Stacey Bushes, Milton Keynes MK12 6PA)

 This note describes a selection of medieval coarse pottery found on Cave Hill, Belfast and suggests that further studies of Early Christian and medieval cave sites could be rewarding. Ancient use and occupation of caves has received scant attention from archaeologists in the N. of Ireland. There were sporadic investigations in the nineteenth century: Bryce and Andrews in 1834, and Young in 1895 examined some of the caves near Ballintoy , Co. Antrim; Portlock reported on Piper’s Cave, Co. Londonderry in 1843; and in 1896 Steen investigated the Craiganogh Cave, Seaport, Co. Antrim (Jackson 1933, 230). (See also Steen, N. 1896 The Craiganogh Cave, County Antrim. Proceedings of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club 4: 295) For almost a decade, between 1931 and 1939, May and Jackson carried out a series of excavations in the caves worn into the chalk of Whitepark Bay, Co. Antrim May 1943; Jackson 1933-38). It was also during this period that Lawrie collected material from the vicinity of the caves on Cave Hill, Belfast (below). Since then the archaeology of Ulster’s caves has been almost entirely ignored. The excavations of both Jackson and May demonstrate that there was a substantial if intermittent use of these caves from prehistoric to post-medieval times, and the collections of pottery indicate that they were important in Early Christian and later medieval times. Both sets of excavations yielded a considerable range of artefacts and the reports make it quite clear that these were well stratified, alongside a series of hearths and other features. Such caves offer a considerable archaeological potential, not least as a contrasting ‘settlement’ type to the range of archaeological sites which have been excavated in recent years. The role of such caves in prehistoric times must await further study. Were they the settlements of a specialised coastal economy, or seasonal camps. Similarly, for the Early Christian and medieval periods, such questions cannot yet be answered. A detailed study of the quantities of well stratified pottery which are evidently to be found in these caves might assist in the dating of Everted-rim/crannog ware and perhaps even of Souterrain Ware as well. Any development in this field would be of the greatest value. (Everted-rim: A rim which turns sharply outwards and upwards from the shoulder of the vessel. Pic: http://edgarlowen.com/b4418.jpg ) (Souterrain Ware: a class of simple `saucepan' shaped vessels found almost excl usively in eastern Ulster and known to archaeologists as 'souterrain' ware.13 M. F. Ryan, `Native pottery in Early Historic Ireland', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 73c, 1973, pp. 619-645. Cave Hill Among the Ulster Museum collections are two small groups of pottery and other artefacts found on Cave Hill, Belfast. One of these groups was collected by Mr Angus Maconald from the scree immediately below the caves, the other was collected by Mr Paul Lawrie from several sites about the caves. None of the material has any context other than its find spot. These small groups contain a number of quite unusual, hand-made , late medieval vessels and a selection is described below and illustrated in Fig. 1. Nos. 1, 4, 7 and 11 are from the MacDonald collection. The remaining eleven are from the Lawrie collection and are labelled ‘1938 Lawrie – site near first cave’. The vessels have been divided into three distinct fabric groups. Fabric 1: moderately densely gritted with fine mica/quartz chips and round quartz grains of c. 0.25mm. diameter, together with occasional pebbles of black rock (up to 1mm. in diameter), large angular quartz grains (c. 2mm. in diameter) and fragments of limestone (c. 2-3mm. across). All the sherds are fairly soft and can be easily scratched with a finger nail and usually have, grey cores with buff-brown-red surface layers (though a few examples are buff-brown-red throughout). Fabric 2: moderately densely gritted with fine mica/quartz-chips, round quartz grains of c.0.25mm. diameter, large angular fragments of pink and white quartz, FeO nodules and red and grey rock fragments ( all c.3mm in diameter), together with occasional black pebbles (up to 4mm. in diameter). All the sherds are grey throughout, and are hard fired i.e. can be scratched with a knife but not with a fingernail. Fabric 3: moderately densely gritted with very fine round quartz, together with sparse amounts of sub-round quartz (c. 0.25mm. in diameter), very fine mica/quartz-chips and large black pebbles (up to 5mm in diameter); occasional large angular fragments of quartz and black rock also occur. All the sherds are grey throughout with thin buff-red to brown surface layers, and are fairly hard fired i.e. can only just be scratched with a finger nail. 1. Plain flat-topped everted-rim vessel. The exterior surfaces are wiped and heavily carbonised. Fabric 1. 2. Small section of flat-topped rim from a large diameter souterrain ware vessel. The rim top is heavily knife-slashed, though otherwise plain. The surfaces are roughly wiped and the exterior is smoke-greyed. 3. Simple pointed and everted rim with knife-slashing along the inner edge. Slight traces of incised zig-zag decoration can be seen on the body wall. The exterior is wiped and smoke-greyed. The interior rough and irregular. Fabric 2. 4. Simple pointed and everted rim with faint knife-slashing on the inner edge. The surfaces are wiped and smoke-greyed. Fabric 1. 5. Simple, plain, flat-topped rim from a very small diameter vessel. Fabric 3. 6. Everted, flat-topped rim with crude knife-slashing. The neck and rim are also decorated with irregular and crudely executed incised zig-zags and swags. The surfaces are lumpy and irregular though apparently carefully wiped. The exterior and interior of the rim are smoke-greyed. Fabric 1. 7. Everted, flat-topped rim. Decoration is limited to incised multiplication crosses on the top of the rim. Surfaces are all wiped. Fabric 1. 8. Slightly everted rim on a long, vertical and very thick neck which swells out into a fairly straight sided vessel. It seems likely that the rim was added to the body. Decoration is limited to knife-slashing on the inner edge of the rim. Fabric 1. 9. Rim and upper body of a large diameter and straight walled vessel, c. 30cm. in diameter. The heavy and rather clumsy rim seems to have been formed by adding a fillet of clay to a simple slightly flaring rim. The exterior is wiped and heavily smoke-greyed, the interior rough and unwiped. Fabric 3. See also No. 11 10. Large section of a vessel with a simple flat-topped vertical rim, strong shoulder and near vertical body walls. The rim top and exterior surface are wiped and densely covered with curving rows of c. circular stab marks which appear to have been made with a hollow tool such as a reed. Both the interior and exterior are heavily smoke-greyed. Fabric 1. 11. Flat, slightly rounded, vertical rim with very light slashing. A rather crudely made cordon has been applied just below the rim forming a heavy collar around the top of the vessel. The surfaces are wiped and smoke-greyed. Fabric 1. See also No.9. 12. A body sherd with a strong curve and applied handle, perhaps from a costrel. The handle was applied as a vertical lug and then pierced horizontally. The interior is rough and unfinished, the exterior smooth and wiped. Decoration is limited to two lightly incised, intertwined zig-zags. Fabric 1. 13. Large sections of a vessel with fairly straight sides and an everted rim. The rim is pointed and knife-slashed on the inner edge. The shoulder is decorated with a band of shallow, incised, intertwined zig-zags. The surfaces are smooth and wiped. Fabric 3. 14. Everted rim, neck and shoulder. The vessel is plain except for deep knife-slashing on the rim. The surfaces are heavily carbonised, the interior rough and the exterior smoothed and wiped. Fabric 2. 15. Base: flat bottom, strongly flaring side walls with a slight outward kick at the base. Very slight thumbing may be seen around the exterior base angle. The surfaces are smoothed and wiped. Fabric 1. REFERENCES Jackson, J. W. (1933). ‘Preliminary report on excavations at the caves of Ballintoy, Co. Antrim’, Ir. Naturalists. J., 4 (1933), 280-5 Jackson, J. W. (1934). ‘Further excavations at Ballintoy Caves, Co. Antrim, Ir. Naturalists. J., 5 (1934), 104-114. Jackson, J. W. (1936). ‘Excavations at Ballintoy Caves, Co. Antrim Third Report’ Ir. Naturalists. J., 6 (1936), 31-42

Old Photographs of Cave Hill

There are quite a few photos of Cavehill some dating back to the middle of the 19th Century. The earliest I could find is from the National Library of Ireland collection. It is not labeled as being of the Cave Hill but there is little doubt it is an image of the lowest cave. I notice the lichen visible on the pic is similar to that which can be seen near the area today. The fence is similar to one shown lower down in a print published in John Gray's booklet 'The Great Cave Hill Right of Way Case'. The photo is dated 1860 - 1890 - from the clothing I would put it at the lower of these dates.



The second photo again from the National Library of Ireland archives is from the 1880s -1914 or so and shows a group of walkers at the entrance to the first cave. The immediate area hasn't changed much in the intervening century or so. The big change is in the view over what is now Newtownabbey. Where once was farmland is now built up with housing and split by the M2 motorway.

Ballyaghagan

Ballyaghagan - the rath close to the Hightown Road carpark for Cavehill Country Park is alluded to in the Irish Itinerary of Fr Edmund McCana who travelled in the area in 1643 or rather in the notes appended to the Rev W. Reeves's translation of that document from the latin.
Rev Reeves notes : "Balliston, or Ballyvaston, near the Hightown Road, on the confines of the townlands of Ballyaghagan and Ballyvaston, at a place called Whurr's Pound. The traces of the chapel are observable in the nearly obliterated circle of a rath".
The Rev Reeves was writing in the early 1850's and is quoted in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology vol 2 Series 1 p 58.
I have heard people talking of there being an unidentified building in the rath area of much later date than the rath complex. Perhaps this is the chapel remains?

The Lord Deputy and Ben Madighan (Cave Hill) in 1556

The following is from the State Paper Calendars (Carew MSS., 1515-1574):{1 }
"On Wednesday 7 July 1556 My Lord Deputy [the Earl of Sussex] removed from Lisen Rie [?] and camped at Magre Blarras {2} by a river called Vene Laggan and a church on the hill called Church of Blarras, and this day we came through a geat pass called Kelleultahe [Killultagh] being the space of two miles in length, through which pass My Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sydney, Sir William Fitzwilliam with the rest of the army marched on foot in all armour. On Thursday the 8th My Lord Deputy removed from Maghre Blarras and camped that night underneath Benne Vadagane [Ben Madighan, now Cave Hill] by Lissetolloh Arde beyond Bellefarst. And this day we came through a pass called Bellaghlisle Clehan [? Ballydrain] a little from the church of Dromme by a river called Laggan."
I have little doubt but the camp "underneath Ben Vadagane by Lissetolloh Arde" was the large square fort in Wallace's fields, close to the castle wall on the Antrim Road, Belfast, and opposite the new church of St. Peter. The description exactly suits. The adjoining townland was Listollard,{3} comprising Parkmount, now Donegall and Ashley Parks. This earthwork has the appearance of sixteenth-century construction, and so has a similar one in Fortwilliam Park.{4} What a grand sight this must have been on what is now a grazing field - the Lord Deputy, his officers, and pursuivant (Athlone was the chronicler), and men-at-arms, "all in armour"! This is one of the most remarkable incidents in our local history, and yet how few are aware of it.
F.J.B.
1 Copied in O'Laverty's Down and Connor, vol. ii, page 251
2 Blaris Moor, near Lisburn, a favourite camp, much in use up till 1798
3 Liss-toll-gard, the fort of the head garrison
4 See Belfast Naturalist Field Club Proceedings, series ii, vol. iv, part i, page 71
The above is taken from Ulster Journal of Archaeology Vol 5 p. 185 and is by Francis Joseph Biggar
Immediately following the last sentence quoted by Biggar from the manuscript it goes on: "On the hill of Banne Vadegan is a great cave, wherein is the treasure of the country of Clanneaboy, being the country of Phelim Doehe."
The Lord Deputy and his entourage camp again in the vicinity on their way back to Dublin - "On Monday night he removed to Banne Vaddegan, by a town called Coille, in a plain betwixt two hills, where he remained till the Monday following, taking order with the gentlemen of the country, and expecting further news."
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=109-mss_1-1_7&cid=1-17#1-17

The Caves in Ben Madighan

The caves which have given Ben Madighan its later name of Cave Hill, though generally considered to be three in number, really consist of five distinct caverns, of which the topmost three are connected in one group. The first cave is situated on the public path, overlooking the great basin, at an elevation of about 700 feet above the sea. The second cave is on a ledge some 74 feet higher in the same cliff; while the entrance to the upper group, containing the third, fourth and fifth caves, is from a ledge about 129 feet above the first cave, and from the summit 174 feet. The caves face from E. to S.E., and are all regularly formed, especially the second, fourth, and fifth. The general shape is rectangular, with the corners rounded off.





The first cave, which is the second largest, measures 18 feet from the doorway to the rere, and 21 feet across, while the roof varies from 6 feet 6 inches to 9 feet in height. (More detailed measurements of all the caves can be got from the scale drawings.) The entrance to this cave, though now very irregular in shape, has probably once been rectangular; but by the action of the weather and other causes, the easily detached basalt has fallen away. Its greatest height is now 9 feet, and its breadth 8 feet 8 inches; but at the bottom, where it measures 3 feet 6 inches across, the original width seems to be preserved for a small way up. Though the walls of this cave are rough and broken, places still remain which show some regularity of form.








To reach the second cave one must gain the ledge by climbing up the rocks, a little distance to either side of the first cave, the usual way being from the south. The second cave is the smallest of the five, measuring only 9 feet 9 inches from the back to front, by 8 feet 9 inches wide, and 6 feet high. The sides of this cave are well formed and little broken, the roof being dome shaped. The doorway is also regular, with top and bottom parallel, and the sides curving slightly outwards. It is 4 feet high, 2 feet 6 inches wide at top, 3 feet 5 inches at middle, and 2 feet at bottom. The large ledge in front of this cave causes the rain to drain into it, where som 6 inches of rain is always lying, thus keeping a continual dampness in the first cave underneath. On the same ledge and close to the second cave is a small rounded chamber, which looks like a partly-made cave. It differs from the others, however, in that the cave widens towards the front, leaving no narrow entrance. The opening is 8 feet 8 inches along the base, and 4 feet 6 inches high; while the cave extends 5 feet into the rock. On the north side, about 3 feet from the floor, is a small hole, which seems as if intended to pierce through a wall of rock about 2 feet thick. It is 8 inches across by 4 high, and penetrates about 1 foot. (The site is indicated on the plan by an *.) A similar opening to this, perhaps intended as a spy-hole, pierces the rock in a cave on the Knockagh, a neighbouring hill.

The upper caves have the greatest interest; but, as the path is narrow and dangerous, they are seldom visited; and until within the last few years, it was considered almost impossible to reach them. We have, however, visited them repeatedly and carefully measured them, as shown in the illustrations to this paper. The path to them starts some way up to McArt's Fort, and is practically horizontal; but they can also be reached either from above or below; but the risk is great, and several lives have been lost in attempting it. The fourth and fifth can only be entered through the third, unless ropes are employed.
The third cave is open, and is probably an enlargement of some natural hollow or fissure in the rock. The mouth is square, measuring 12 feet 9 inches both ways. The floor is covered with earth from a large grass-grown bank in front, and slopes sharply towards the back of the cave and to the left. The cave extends 19 feet 3 inches into the rock, and is about 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. On the right hand side is cut a small chamber with well-squared sides. It is 5 feet 6 inches high, but part of the floor is 2 feet 9 inches below the general level. It stretches 8 feet back from the larger cave, and is 6 feet 6 inches wide. On the other side of cave 3 is a short tunnel communicating with the fourth cave. This tunnel, as well as the chamber opposite, has been opened out from a large crevice, which extends vertically N. and S. through the rock. The top of the tunnel runs horizontally for 7 feet 6 inches, and then drops 4 feet to the roof of the fourth cave. The floor slopes downwards for 5 feet, when it opens into cave 4. The height is 3 feet 9 inches, and the width 3 feet. This passage is rectangular, and the comparative smoothness of the walls and clear definition of the angles make it evident that they were formed by man.









The fourth is the largest of all the caves. It is 30 feet 3 inches long, 17 feet wide, and its height is 7 feet 8 inches at the highest. This cave is ovoid in shape, the corners all being rounded. At the outer extremity is the opening usually called "the Window" or "the Pigeon-hole," situated in the cliff below, and somewhat to the south of the mouth of the third cave. It is well formed with rounded top, and is very noticeable from the surrounding district; the height is 3 feet 8 inches, and the width 2 feet 10 inches. In the centre of the base of this opening a small channel has been cut 6 inches deep into the rock, for the purposes of draining off accumulated moisture. On the floor of the fourth cave, below the mouth of the tunnel, is a large heap of rubble, which has accumulated by earth and stones falling from the cave above.


The entrance to the fifth cave is situated to the north of the opening to the third cave; but, as it goes some distance back, it is not easily distinguishable from below. The cave is reached by climbing round an awkward hump of rock, where two steps have been cut to facilitate the ascent, but they bear a fresher appearance than the other work, and were probably cut by those who frequented these caves a century or so ago. The cutting of this entrance exhibits the same skilful finish as the tunnel below. This cave is very well formed, being almost hemispherical. It measures 15 feet from the back to front, 16 feet between the sides, and 8 feet high. The door, which is well squared off, is 2 feet 10 inches wide by 3 feet 2 inches high. It contains, near one side, a drain 3 inches deep, similar to the one in "the Window."









Little is known of the history of these caves, but in Sir Samuel Ferguson's fifteenth-century story of this district, Corby MacGilmore, the upper group (3, 4, and 5) is represented as being used for a treasure house and prison, and the first cave as a smithy, whilst the great basin in front is the camping ground, filled with booths and shielings. We would specially point out the form of the entrances, as shown in the illustrations, to further prove that these caves have been made by man. We do so, as it has been continually asserted that they are natural formations.





These are not the only caves of this class in our locality. There are four in the cliffs of the Knockagh, nad the small chamber in the Blackhead caves, known as "the Schoolmaster's Bed," is also one, thus affording examples of natural and artificial excavations made side by side. The general appearance of these caves clearly indicates artificial work. They may have been commenced by natural causes, but they have certainly been completed by the hand of man. The rock is the common one of the district, basalt, an igneous rock or lava, common in County Antrim, superimposed on limestone. The neck of an extinct volcano can still be trace at Dunanney, on the adjoining hill of Carnmoney. No distinct age can be credited with their formation, as no direct evidence of their occupation has been discovered. The floors of each are cut in the solid rock, and there is no accumulation of ages to contain any implements or other articles to indicate the age of man who formed and occupied them. We consider they may have been used from the earliest ages as places of retreat and residences in time of danger, or as storehouses for treasure, being improved and enlarged upon from age to age by different races and clans down to the time of the Plantation in the reign of James I. They may also have been used so late as the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries by the local tories and rapparees who fequented these parts, such as Niece O'Haughan, who resided in the immediate district for many years. We know that Henry Joy McCracken, in 1798, remained in hiding for some time in the woods near at hand. We may state, however, that we have been unable to find any direct reference to these caves in the histories or records of the district.