Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/380

236 SEPULCHRAL DEPOSIT IN HOLYHEAD ISLAND. The question naturally occurs, whether the tumulus at Forth Dafarch ought to be regarded with certainty as a British burial-place ; or whether, situated so close to the shores which, from the earliest times, must have been exposed to piratical incursions of Danes and Northmen, and especially to the assaults of the restless plunderers from the opposite coasts of Ire- land, the vestiges of olden times now described may not be assigned to the strangei", to whose aggressions these parts were, even as late as the thirteenth century, frequently a prey. The inquiry is one of considerable interest. It is very probable that the Irish made occasional sojourn on these coasts : Camden, indeed, asserts distinctly that, upon the decline of the Eomans, invaders from Ireland came into Anglesea, and cites in proof, the existence of certain hillocks, surrounded by a foss, which are called "the Irishmen's huts," as also the spot named from that people, " Yn hericy Gwidil," the scene of their victory, under Sirigi, over the aborigines.^ The annotate rs on Camden have questioned the correctness of the woi-ds " Yn hericy Gwidil," and suppose them to have been printed erroneously for Cerig-y-Gwijdel, " Irish stones ; " for a place so called is found in Llan Gristiolis parish, adjacent to Din Drivel, a fortress near which Caswallon routed the Irish. In a wood at Llygwy, on the north-east coast of Anglesea, there were to be seen certain walls, rudely constructed of large stones in circular order, enclosing spaces about fifteen feet in diameter ; these were commonly called " Cittier Gwydhelod," or Irish cots. Rowlands, in his Mona, describes these sites of primitive dwellings upon the open heaths, and Rhosydh, or habitable lands, of Anglesea, consisting of oval or circular trenches, universally admitted to have been occupied by small dwellings, and called " Cyttie'r Gwyddelod, viz., the Irish men's cottages. He questions, however, their having been occupied by Irish, who came only for pillage, and had no occasion to construct cottages ; whilst the term Gwyddelod, — sylvestres homines, — as he asserts, denoted the aborigines, — the wood-rangers, by whom the island was first cleared.' Sir William Betham appears to concur in this notion. On the west flank of Holyhead mountain, at the farm belonging to Lord Stanley, Ty Mawr, as also on the north-east side, near the quarries lately opened, there exist mounds of the kind in question, which have always been called the " Irishmen's huts, — Cyttir Gurddilod." They are situated above a creek on the coast, not far from the South Stack, favourable for the landing of pirates from Ire- land ; and in these mounds were discovered, about the year 1834, various objects of bronze, spear-heads, celts, rings, &c., resembling such as are frequently found in that island.^ The little inlet is still known by the name Porth-y-Owyddel. The probability that this spot, at no gre/it dis- tance from Porth Dafarch, might have been occupied by the pirates, appears to favour the popular tradition ; whilst the ancient designation of the spot where Sirigi made slaughter of the natives, near Aberfraw, — Cerrig ' " Hoc tamcn attcx.im : Romanoium in eo loci fudorunt, ut Triadum libro memo- Britannia jam divergciitc impcrio, quidam r.-Uur." Camden, Brit., p. .540, ed. 1607. ex Hibernia in hanc (Anglesey) ctiam irro])- • Rowlands' Mona Antiqua, p. 27, edit, scrunt. Nam prtcter tumulos fossa circun- 1766. datoB, quos Hibcrnicornm casnlas vocant, - They were exhibited to the Society of etiam locus est Yn hericy Gwidil ab Iliber- Antiquaries by Lord Stanley, May 21, 18.S5. iiicis dcnominatus, qui duee Sirigi, Britannos Arcliacologia, vol. xxvi., p. 48.'1