Cromleach
Taken from Inishowen Its History, Traditions and antiquities by Maghtochair

The ancient Irish were Fire Worshippers; and their superstitions consisted in believing the hills, rocks, and wood, peopled with hosts of fairies. They chose the summit of a hill or eminence for sacrificing upon, probably with the view of having the sacred fires visible at distant places, and here they erected the temple, cromleach, circle, or pillar stone. Cromleach meant stone or altar of their god; it might also mean a slanting stone from crom, a downward slope, and lech, a flagstone. They were usually dedicated to the sun. They vary in size, but consist generally of an altar-stone, lying nearly horizontal, and supported by three upright ones, with an open passage underneath for cattle and children to pass under the sacred fire. 'Twas this sort of worship which prevailed among the Israelites when they were reproached for passing their sons and daughters under the fire to Moloch, one of the names given to the sun. At Magheramore, in the parish of Clonmany, is a very perfect specimen of the cromleach, consisting of a table stone of above 30 tons, supported by three upright pillars. It is here called Fionn McCool's finger-stone.

The following observations on the cromleach are taken from Hall's Ireland:- "The altar known to English antiquaries by the Greek name of Trilithon (three stones), received in Ireland the appropriate name of Cromleach, or stone of Crom, and a particular class of the priesthood was named Crumthear. It consisted of a great incumbent rock, or flag, in its rude state, untouched by chisel or hammer, and rested on a number of pillar stones; sometimes we find the altar-stone resting at one end of the ground, whilst the other was lifted upon a single supported; and again, but rather rarely, the natural rock is adopted as the basis."

But to return to the cromleach of Magheramore. In aftertimes, when Christian sects hated each other for the love of God, and when the weak were obliged to fly from the oppression of the strong, this same stone often served as an altar for offering thereon the Catholic Mass. A garden convenient, yet known by the name of Garra-na-sogarth, was the priest's hiding-place, and scouts were posted on the hills, to give notice of the approach of danger, while the people knelt at their devotions beneath the blue vault of heaven.

There is no locality in the north of Ireland I believe, richer in druidical remains than the parish of Culdaff. At a place named Doon-Owen, near Carthage, in this parish there is a magnificent cromleach. It is situated on a cliff; it faces the east, and overlooks the ocean. In this parish too, is another cormleach named Cara, or Cloughtogal. It consists of an altar stone, about two tons weight supported by four upright ones, four feet high. The temple in connexion with this altar is in a good site of preservation, and consists of three separate apartments - that occupied by the altar, and two outer ones - and the whole was enclosed by a wall. At Drung, in the parish of Upper Moville, are the remains of a cromleach, and on the mountain named the Scalp, in the parish of Upper Fahan, there is one in excellent preservation.

On the left hand side of the road from Culdaff to Moville, and at the distance of a few hundred yards from Bocan Catholic Church, is a beautiful specimen of the Druidical Temple. It is situated on a rising ground which commands a view of the sea and the adjoining country. It consists of a number of stones placed in a perpendicular and circular form. Druidical Temples were circular, for the principal deity of the Druids was the sun; and, like the ancient Germans, they entertained such a sublime idea of the majesty of the deity that they did not confine him within the limits of space, hence their temples had no roof, and the stones which formed the circle, in almost all cases, stood at short intervals from each other. The circle was availed of for other purposes: thus it served as a court of justice and as an observatory, in which they marked the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies, the seasons of the year, and periods of day and night. In that locality last named, in the Parish of Culdaff, there seems to have been an assemblage of Druidical temples, for at Larahirl are a number of stones, which stand at intervals from one another, and which form an oblong temple, 27 feet in length by 12 feet broad. This oblong is surrounded by a circle of 70 yards in circumference, the stones of which are similar to those in the internal figure, and placed at like intervals. This temple at Larahirl deserves special remark, on account of the combination of the oblong and circle which it exhibits. At Carrowmore, in Glentogher, there is a small Druidical circle.

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