history. Torfœus tells us that about the year 1150 Erling carried off the beautiful Margaret, mother of Harold, the then Earl of Orkney, and was besieged in Moussa by Harold, who, however, being unable to take the place, at length thought it politic to consent to the marriage. By far the greater number of the burghs are mere ruins, and the so-called Dun of Dornadilla, supposed to have been erected by the ancient Scotch king of that name, is the only one which is at all as complete as that of Moussa. Whether any of the burghs are referable to the Bronze Age it is impossible to say. It is remarkable, however, that in the Island of Sardinia there are archaic buildings known as "nurhags," which closely resemble the British burghs.
Fig. 84.—Staigue Fort, in the county of Kerry. From a model in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy.
In a future chapter I shall endeavour to show that Stonehenge and Avebury belong to the Bronze Age. Some of the ancient fortifications also probably are of this period, but a large proportion, as well as many of the earthen forts known as Raths and Duns and the stone forts known as Cashels or Cahirs, as for instance the Staigue Fort, in the county of Kerry, fig. 84, belong in all probability to a much later period. In Sligo alone there are said to be no less than 1800 forts.[1]
- ↑ T. R. Irish Soc. Ant., 1891.
