148 The Irish Naturalist. Oct.-Nov., 



DERC-FERNA : THE CAVE OF DUNMORE. 



BY R. LLOYD PRAEGER. 



A GOOD many years ago — in 1901, to be precise — Prof. 

 Haddon, Prof. H. J. Seymour, Mr. J. N. Halbert and I 

 spent a December day in exploring the Cave of Dunmore. 

 Our intention at the time was to make a complete survey, 

 including a map, an account of the cave fauna, and a report 

 on the human remains, to the abundance of which previous 

 writers have drawn attention. With reference to the last 

 item, Prof. Haddon examined the remains which strew the 

 floor of the cave in several parts, but could come to no 

 definite conclusion regarding them. As to the cave fauna. 

 Mr. Halbert and Prof. Carpenter have published already 

 anything there was to be said. An accurate map of the 

 cave could not be completed on one visit. There remains 

 an account of the history of the cave which I wrote at 

 the time, and which, as it has a certain permanent interest, 

 is printed here. 



The Cave of Dunmore, which lies six miles due north 

 of the City of Kilkenny, has a literary history which carries 

 us far behind the era of scientific cave-hunting. In the 

 " Annals of the Four Masters," under date A.C. 928, we 

 read : — 



Godfrey, grandson of Imhar, with the foreigners of Ath-Cliath [Dublin], 

 demolished and plundered Dearc Fearna, where one thousand persons 

 were killed in this year, as is stated in this quatrain : — 



Nine hundred years without sorrow, twenty-eight it has been proved, 

 Since Christ came to our relief, to the plundering of Dearc Fearna. 



And again, in the ancient Irish " Triads " as edited and 

 translated b}^ Kuno Meyer, ^ which enumerate, among 

 proverbs and wise sayings, three of each of the most 

 remarkable natural or artificial objects in Erin, it is stated 

 that the three " dark places " of Ireland are Uam Chnogba, 

 IJam Slangae, Derce Ferna. We have the authority of 



1 R. I. Academy, Todd Lecture Series, xiii., 1906, p. 4, 



