The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-04
THE LAKE OF SH4DoU;s
And the Prehistoric Ruins on the Coast
 of Donegal.

And the Prehistoric Ruins on the Coast
 of Donegal.
 Although the northern coast of Don, egal is sculptured into numerous gulfs and bays of great beauty the inlet which certainly carries off the palm for fine effects is Lough Swilly-which has been poetically and appropriately named ''The Lake of Shadows" The shores of the Lake of Shadows, beauti- ful as they are, acquire still deeper interest from many historic and pre- historic remains with which they are studded. Feudal strongholds, crum bling castles, relics of ecclesiastical architecture and quaint old towers crop up everywhere. While in some parts there are monuments of van quished races of such extreme antiqui- ty that their origin and even their very names are so completely forgotten that nothing remains to attest their exist ence except these rude works of their hands. Among the latter-that is to say, the prehistoric remains-the most curious is the, far-famed Grianan of Aileach, which stands on the summit of a small mountain at the head of Lougn Swilly This extraordinary Cyelopean structure is surrounded by three con centric ramparts of earth intermixed with uncemented stones, having a dun, or stone fortress, in the center. The circular wall enclosing the cashel is not vertical, but rises with a curved in cline-with galleries, terraces and door ways cut in it's thfckness:a and some idea of the vast size of the whole building may be gathered from the fact that the outermost inclosure covers five acres of ground At a little distance, the Grian- an looks like a truncated cairn of Ti- tanic dimensions; but on nearer ap- proach it is found, on the contrary to be a carefully constructed edifice, whose stones, though polygonal in form and wholly uncemented, are adjusted to fit each other perfectly. Tn short, the masonry is of character precisely similar to that of ruins found at Myce- nae and Dacia; and it likewise so close- ly resembles the Cyclopean remains scattered over eastern lands that this circumstance is regarded as furnishing an additional proof of the Oriental character of the ancient Irish
 When or by whom the Grianan was erected is unknown. Even it's original purpose is shrouded in mystery. But the generally received opinion is that it was both a temple dedicated to the sun (of which the aboriginal Irish were worshipers) and the balance of their northern kings, from the most remote antiquity down to the twelfth century. when it was demolished In any case, there is abundant evidence to show that it was an initial effort of savage man to construct stone editice which would prove an enduring monument of his workmanship; and tradition asserts that when Solomon was building his temple at Jerusalem, wild Irish kings were reigning in the Grianan, and the smoke of sacrifices to Baal, the sun god, rose morning and evening from it's came here to preach Christianity; and having succeeded in converting the reigning king, Owen, the Druids were expelled from their stronghold, and pa ganism was abolished throughout the land. After that, the Grianan assumed a different character, and became the theater of many stirring scenes and hard-fought battles-until in 1101 the king ofAMunster captured and sacked it.-Belgravia.