Description of a remarkable Building, on the north side of Ken- 
mare river, commonly called Staigue Fort. By F.C. Bland, 
Esq. of Derriquin. 
Read November 19, 1821. 
Tuis singular and interesting structure, which has latterly excited 
a great deal of curiosity amongst antiquaries, is situated nearly in 
the western extremity of the county of Kerry, in the barony of 
Dunkeron, and parish of Kilcrohane, upon the north side of the river 
Kenmare, in Lat. 51°. 46’. 0” N. and Long. 9°. 53’. 20” west of 
Greenwich. It is a circular building, raised with the stone of the 
surrounding: country, (a silicious slate, not splitting into thin lamin) 
bearing no marks whatsoever of a tool; and, though evidently 
constructed with a consummate degree of regularity and ingenuity, 
yet as obviously built before masonry had become a cultivated art. 
Its local situation is very imposing. It stands upon a hill compa- 
ratively low, between four and five hundred feet above the level of the 
sea, in a kind of basin or rather amphitheatre of lofty moun- 
tains; open to the sea on the south, with a gradual descent to it, 
and distant about a mile and a half from the coast. When the ap- 
pearance of the country, which is barren and uninviting, is consi- 
dered, it must create surprise, what could have been the induce- 
ment to erect such a structure in such a place; and, when the 
traveller, whose curiosity has supported him through a long journey, 
the latter part of which for ten or twelve miles has been through a 
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