To the Ui Briuin race, the new possessors of Magh Sleacht, the Masraighe represented a hostile and interior people, and it is not surprising on this account that in the Ui Briuin tradition the Masraighe should be remembered in an unfavorable light.

In their mountain fastnesses of Tullyhaw the Masraighe must have long survived the inroads of the Ui Briuin.

Throughout the mountain region there exist great numbers of pagan monuments, dolmens... incorrectly known as giant's graves... and upright pillar stones.  Formerly the number of these monuments was much greater... but in recent years many of these have been removed or destroyed.

The number of raths, or ring forts, throughout Tullyhaw is very great, an indication of the large population existing there in pagan times.

In the Annals of Ulster, we find Ballymagauran referred to as 'the town of Mac Samradhain' and the entry of the latter year shows clearly that it was Magh Sleacht.

How far the plain of Magh Sleacht extended in various directions may be established with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

No part of Magh Sleacht can be described as flat... the region is a mountainous one.. 'A large rhomboidal area,' writes Dalton, 'on the southeast side of Tullyhaw, through presenting everywhere crumpled and twisted elevations of surface, appears low lying in contrast with the towering Slieve Anierin which dominate it from the west.

The immediate neighborhood of Ballymagauran, when surveyed from the summit of Derryragh 382 feet above sea level... appears as a flat plain in comparison with the towering peaks of Sliabh Ruisen on the north and Dliabh an laraind on the west.

Away to the northwest towers the summit of Cuilcagh like a giant in the landscape.

Standing in the rath, which crowns the hill of Derryragh, the observer cannot fail to understand why this rugged and hilly region, with its chain of lakes, should be termed a plain...Magh... when viewed in conjunction with the mountainous background.

The view to be obtained from the rath is a striking one, and the suitability of the summit, as the position of the pagan shrine is immediately obvious.

The name, Magh Sleacht, is usually understood to signify the "Plain of Adoration”.  O'Donovan translates it as the "Plain of Genuflections”.

The Latinized form, Campus Adorationis, finds favor with Colgan.  Some authorities have suggested the "Plain of Prostrations”, as a more correct rendering and this latter explanation seems to be more in accordance with the historical facts of Cromm's worship.

We have it on the authority of the Dinnsenchus poem that human sacrifices had been offered, at an early period, however, to appease the dreaded anger of Cromm. These human sacrifices appear to have been finally abandoned a few centuries before St Patrick's time. nevertheless the worship appears to have been continued in a manner which entailed

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