of architectural knowledge, or the force of conservatism, or the
advent of the Christian missionaries, checked any further
development on these lines.

Elsewhere the tomb, instead of developing as a tumulus or barrow,
produced the effect of greatness by huge circumvallations of earth,
and massive walls of stone. Such is the temple of Ned the war-god,
called Aula Neid, the court or palace of Ned, near the Foyle in
the North. Had the ethnic civilisation of Ireland been suffered to
develop according to its own laws, it is probable that, as the
roofed central chamber of the cairn would have grown until it
filled the space occupied by the mound, so the open-walled temple
would have developed into a covered building, by the elevation of
the walls, and their gradual inclination to the centre.

The bee-hive houses of the monks, the early churches, and the round
towers are a development of that architecture which constructed the
central chambers of the raths. In this fact lies, too, the
explanation of the cyclopean style of building which characterizes
our most ancient buildings. The cromlech alone, formed in very
ancient times the central chamber of the cairn; it is found in the
centre of the raths on Moy Tura, belonging to the stone age and
that of the Firbolgs. When the cromlech fell into disuse, the
arched chamber above the ashes of the hero was constructed with
enormous stones, as a substitute for the majestic appearance
presented by the massive slab and supporting pillars of the more
ancient cromlech, and the early stone buildings preserved the same
characteristic to a certain extent.

The same sentiment which caused the mediaeval Christians to