There are two circles of enormous stones on the tongue of land between Dundrum Bay and Strangford, both very perfect and marked each in its own way from among the rest.  The first, at Legamaddy, has every huge boulder still in place.  There is a lesser ring of stones within the first circle, with many outliers, of enormous size, dotted among the fields.  It looks as if a herd of huge animals of the early world had come together in a circle for the night, the young being kept for safety within their ring, while others, grazing longer or wandering farther from the rest, were approaching the main herd.  But nightfall coming upon them with dire magic turned them all to stone; and there they remain, sentient, yet motionless, awaiting the day of their release.  By fancies like this we may convey the feeling of mystery breathing from them.

On the hill-top of Slieve-na-griddle is another circle of the same enormous boulders.  A cromlech is piled in the midst of it, and an avenue of stones leads up to the circle.  Its form is that of many circles with enclosed cromlechs at Carrowmore, though in these the avenue is missing.  The thought that underlies them is the same, though they are separated by the whole width of the land; a single cult with a single ideal prompted the erection of both.

At Drumbo, on the east bank of the Lagan before it reaches Belfast Lough, there is a massive cromlech surrounded by a wide ring of earth piled up high enough to cut off the sacred space within from all view of the outer world.  Like the earthwork round the cromlech of Lough Rea, it marks the boundary of a great nature temple, open to the sky but shut off from mankind.  Even now its very atmosphere breathes reverence.

At Finvoy, in northern Antrim, among the meadows of the Bann, there is a cromlech within a great stone circle like that on Slieve-na-griddle in Down, and like many of the Carrowmore rings.  The Black Lion cromlech in Cavan is encircled with a like ring of boulders, and another cromlech not far off rivals some of the largest in the immense size of its crowning block.

Three cromlechs in the same limestone plain add something to the mystery that overhangs all the rest.  The first, at Lennan in Monaghan, is marked with a curious cryptic design, suggesting a clue, yet yielding none.  There is a like script on the cromlech at Castlederg in Tyrone, if indeed the markings were ever the record of some thought to be remembered, and not mere ornament.  The chambered cromlech of Lisbellaw in Fermanagh has like markings; they are too similar to be quite independent, yet almost too simple to contain a recorded thought.

We come once more to Donegal.  On the hill-top of Beltaney, near Raphoe, there is a very massive circle formed of sixty-seven huge blocks.  Here again the Stonehenge ring might be set up within the Irish circle, leaving an avenue eight paces wide all round it.  The sacred fire was formerly kindled here to mark the birth of Spring.  The name of the old festival of Beltane still lingers on the hill.  At Culdaff in north Donegal, at the end of the Inishowen peninsula, stands another great stone circle, with which we must close our survey of these titanic monuments.