Geography in Kilkenny
The granite in south-eastern Kilkenny (Holiday Apartments, Kilkenny, Ireland) has converted the Ordovician shales along its margins into gleaming mica-schists. Tlie Old Red Sandstone of the same region is not affected, and tlie early Devonian age of the intrusion is thus evident. The Old Red Sandstone appears on the flanks and crests of the Armorican domes that break the plain- land. An important area of Old Red Sandstone borders the eastern prolongation of Slieve- naman into the county of Kilkenny (Hotels, Kilkenny, Ireland), and the road from Kilkenny (Holiday Cottages, Kilkenny, Ireland) to 
Carrick-on-Suir climbs tlie north flank of this anticline south of Callan. A Silurian core is exposed, contrasting with the more barren sandstone edges ; but the cover of Old Red Sandstone is complete where it laps across the south-west end of the Leinster Chain. The road and railway from Kilkenny to Water- ford, forming part of the main routes from the latter town to Dublin, cross the watershed between the Nore and the Suir upon Old Red Sandstone. The uppermost beds of this Devonian series are of the flaggy Yellow Sandstone type that prevails in southern Ireland, and were formed on worn-down flats near the edge of the Caledonian continent, just before this continent sank and admitted the Carboniferous sea. near Kiltorcan House. Ballyhale, midway between Kilkenny 
(Bed and Breakfasts, Kilkenny, Ireland) and Waterford, the type of these strata is found in a quarry that has given the name Kiltorcan Beds to the Upper Old Red Sandstone series of the south. Here relics of the earliest well-marked flora of the globe, characterised especially by the fern-like plant Archaeopteris hibernica, abound in the fine-grained and argillaceous sandstones. The freshwater shell Arch- anodon also occurs. The Kiltorean flora and fauna are now known from beds over a very wide region, including eastern America, Bear Island in the Arctic seas, and northern Russia.
Neolithic stone celts have been discovered in various parts of West Leinster. Dolmens are rare, except in Co. Kilkenny, where there are about twenty-eight, including a remarkable example called Leac an Scail (the grave of the champion), situated about 10 miles S.S.W. of Thomastown, the upper stone of which is 45 ft. in circumference.
Co. Kilkenny has produced a number of Bronze Age antiquities; an interesting series of iron objects and two Ogham stones were obtained there about forty years ago in excavating a group of forts known as the Dunbell Raths.
At Kilree, close to Kells, Co. Kilkenny, are the ruins of an ancient church, a round tower, and a High Cross. Bealin Cross, Twyford, Co. Westmeath, situated about 5 miles cast of Athlone, may also be mentioned : almost the only early ornamented High Cross to be seen in this county, it measures nearly 7 ft. in height : it is carved all over with spiral and interlaced patterns.
