12 ANCIENT FORTIFICATIONS In 



lar out-work was made fo narrow as to be eafily defended, or 

 even blocked up with ftones and earth, upon the fliorteft notice 

 of danger. 



We come now to the inner wall furrounding the fummit of 

 this hill, and inclofing a level fpace, of the form of an oblong 

 fquare, about feventy- five yards in length and thirty in breadth, 

 rounded, like the outward wall, at each of the ends. This inner 

 wall is nearly of the fame thicknefs with the outward one, and 

 is of confiderable height. There is fome appearance that it has 

 been armed with four baftions or turrets ; as, at regular di- 

 ftances, at thofe places marked d, d, d, d, (Plate II. fig. i.) 

 the wall enlarges itfelf confiderably in thicknefs, in a circular 

 figure, like the foundation of a fmall tower. Of this, how- 

 ever, the traces are fo imperfedl, that I will not take upon me 

 to fay whether they may not be entirely an accidental irregula- 

 rity. In the fame light I was at firft difpofed to have confider- 

 ed the circle C, confifting of a number of fmall tinnul'i of earth, 

 with a (lone placed in the centre, which I fuppofed might have 

 been nothing more than an accidental appearance, till lately, 

 that, from the defcription of fome ancient fortifications of a 

 fimilar kind in Ireland, I find there are, in many of them, cir- 

 cles of fmall tumuli, like what I have mentioned, which are 

 fuppofed to have marked the place fet apart for the chief, as the 

 pratorinm in the camps of the Romans. 



But within this inner fpace, there are other marks of artifi- 

 cial operation, which are lefs ambiguous. On looking at the 

 ground-plan, (Plate II. fig. i.) there appears, on the eafl fide, 

 a portion of the internal fpace, marked S, which is feparated 

 from the reft by two ranges of ftones ftrongly fixed in the 

 ground, in the form of a retlangular parallelogram. This fe- 

 paration is immediately difcernible by the eye, from this cir- 

 cumftance, that the whole of the inclofed fummit has been 

 moft carefully cleared from ftones, of which there is not one 

 to be feen, unlefs thofe that form this divifion, and the fingle 



ftone 



