.238 



Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Counties. 



Localities. 



Remarks. 



Cork. 

 Kerry. 

 Limerick. 

 Clare. 



Mayo. 



Sligo. 



Roscommon. 

 Leitrim. 

 Fermanagh. 



West Munster Coal- 

 fields. 



Slievecarna. 



CONNAUGHT COAL- 



FIELD. 



Tyrone. 



46 



47 



46 & 



47 



39 



Drumglass (Dungannon). 



Annagher. 



Coal-island. 



Annaghone 

 hogue). 



(Tulla- 



Layers and nodules of clay-iron stone : 

 principally associated with the lower 

 coals — they were worked very ex- 

 tensively in the 16th and 17th centu- 

 ries in the counties Limerick and 

 Clare adjoining the Shannon. Iron 

 ore w r as smelted at Glin, Loghill, &c. ; 

 hut a portion of the ore seems to 

 have been sent up the Shannon, to 

 the furnaces on Lough Derg, to he 

 mixed with Bog and Ordovician ores. 

 — (See County History.) 



The hills northward of Balla. — Clay- 

 iron stone associated with the low r est 

 coal. — (See County History.) 



This field, although in general called 

 after the province^of Connaught, lies 

 nearly equally in the province of 

 Ulster. The iron-producing measures 

 are in the Middle Coal Measures, 

 and considerably below the geological 

 horizon, in which the more profit- 

 able beds are found in Leinster and 

 Munster. The iron (clay-iron stone) 

 was extensively smelted formerly, 

 and apparently at a later date than 

 in the southern province — the fires 

 having been put out when the wood- 

 fuel was exhausted. In the Co. Fer- 

 managh, at the foot of the Cuilcagh 

 mountains, there were extensive ex- 

 cavations, furnaces, and mills ; also 

 in the Co. Leitrim — the last fire, at 

 Drumshambo, having been put out 

 in a.d. 1765. In the Co. Boscom- 

 mon the three brothers O'Reilly first 

 attempted in Ireland to smelt iron 

 with coal : they, in 1788, establish- 

 ing the Arigna Iron Works, and 

 opened coal pits — the adventure, by 

 them and others, being carried on 

 till 1808. Since then others have 

 tried. Full particulars of the more 

 recent works are given hereafter in 

 the County History. 



Tyrone Coal-field. — These are more 

 or less detached. In none of them 

 has much clay-iron stone been re- 

 corded. This possibly may be due 

 to the measures — which in Connaught 

 and elsewhere have produced most 

 ore — being in this country more or less 

 covered up by deep drift, and con- 

 sequently not explored. 



