248 REPORT— 1902. 



Kesh, or as it is locally spelled 'Keash,' is fifteen miles south of tlie 

 town of Sligo, and consists of a few scattered buildings, with farms about 

 them. The spot is at the foot of Keishcorran Mountain, an isolated mass 

 of Carboniferous limestone which rises to 1,183 feet ; and the country 

 which extends south and west from this mountain for miles from Kesh 

 presents an array of gravel eskers and elongated mounds of glacial material, 

 with here and there a small lake or marsh in the hollows between them. 

 Sprinklings of erratic boulders and stones occur up to the very summit of 

 the mountain. These consist principally of red sandstone, with a few 

 of yellow sandstone and of dyke rocks. It is believed that these rocks 

 could be found in place on the next hill range to the S. and S.E. of Kesh, 

 around Lough Key, but this point has not been definitely established. 

 Though no continuous deposit of drift was seen on the mountain, these 

 erratic blocks are sufficient to show that it has been overwhelmed by ice. 



On approaching Keishcorran from Kesh one sees a grass-grown talus 

 which extends up from the plain at a steep angle for several hundred 

 feet. Surmounting this is a range of clifls running along the mountain 

 face like the gigantic walls of an ancient city. These are pierced along 

 the top of the talus by a range of some thirteen caves. Towards the 

 northern end of this series is a cavern whose large orifices, about 15 

 feet high, can be seen for miles. The other caves are of various sizes, but 

 the type which prevails is that of a vertical fissure enlarged down\t^ards 

 into an 'A ' shape. The cliff which they penetrate faces S. W., or S.W. by W., 

 and their direction is approximately parallel. These caves are intersected 

 at various distances from their mouths by cross fissures, which in several 

 cases form connecting galleries from cave to cave. This feature is more 

 or less common to them all. The whole system of excavations, in fact, 

 clearly depends upon the jointed structure of the limestone. The great 

 cliff is due to the flaking away of the mass along one series of vertical 

 joints, and solution works along the same series within, and produces 

 passages and fissures parallel to the face. The caves connected by these 

 fissures have also been worked out by solution, acting along the second 

 vertical series of joints which run in perpendicularly to the great cliff face. 

 The general slope of the cave-floors is from within outwards , and the 

 contained deposits are mainly the detritus and residue of the limestone 

 rock, with fallen blocks from the walls and roof, set in a soft calcareous 

 tufa. 



Coffey Cave. 



Our excavations were commenced in May 1901 at the mouth of one 

 of the larger caves, which is about central in the series, and which we 

 distinguish as the Coffey Cave. It has a lofty A-shaped mouth, and a 

 large deposit of clay occupies its lower portion. The section made in this 

 across the cave's mouth disclosed the following deposits in descending 

 order : — 



1. Surface soil of a blackish brown, containing charcoal, a tyne of Red 

 Deer antler, the broken bones of domestic animals, and a few implements 

 indicating temporary occupation by man rather than fixed settlement. 

 The bones and implements are such as are commonly found in raths and 

 crannogs, and the depth of this layer is from 6 to 12 inches. 



2. Breccia, consisting of limestone blocks and fragments fallen from 

 the roof, in a deposit of calcareous tufa. This bed contained numerous 

 land shells {Helix, Uyalinia, Clausilia) and bones of small mammals. 



