(36 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



their reference-numbers identify them. 1 (a) A house-ring, barely 50 feet 

 across, with a thin wall, 6 feet or 7 feet thick, of coarse crag-stones, (b) A 

 larger ring-wall, with a similar house-ring in its garth, (d) A bawn, D- 

 shaped in plan, with nothing in the site to necessitate this shape, (c) A 

 rine of small blocks to the south-west, 10 feet to 12 feet thick, and now 

 only 3 feet 6 inches high, the garth of very rough crag. Its inner diameter 

 is 90 feet, its outer 114 feet. All these are nearly levelled; the wall of C 

 alone has filling ; the rest are of two badly bonded faces. 



A long, shallow valley runs eastward to Creevosheedy Bog ; north of it 

 the ground is free from thickets, and the remains often better preserved. 

 (e) On the edge of the hollow is a faint ring of small field-stones, evidently 

 a house-ring. It is 55 feet inside ; the wall is about 9 feet thick, (f) On the 

 northern edge of the same field (at the first " E " of the townland name on 

 the new maps) is a late ring, 60 feet inside ; the wall of large blocks without 

 filling is 3 feet 8 inches to 4 feet 3 inches thick, and 3 feet to 4 feet high. In 

 its garth to the north-west is a circular house-site, 30 feet across, touching 

 the outer wall. Its gateway faced the east, and had two lintels, 4 feet 

 8 inches by 2 feet 6 inches by 1 foot, and 4 feet 3 inches by 2 feet by 

 10 inches, (g) Beyond the east wall of this field, 100 yards from the last, is 

 a levelled ring ; the wall is only 6 feet thick and the garth 65 feet across. 

 (h) Beyond the second " Cloghlea Bock," to the north-east, is a barely trace- 

 able ring, somewhat smaller than the last, (i) Beyond the last, near the 

 stream and the Earl's House, is another levelled ring. 



(10) The Earl's House. The curious ruin called " the Earl's House " lies 

 near the bend of the stream at the north-east corner of Gorteen. There is 

 not even a tradition to suggest its origin ; the " Earl " may be (if not some 

 Earl of Thomond) a legendary " Bed Earl " — perhaps a De Burgo. 



The 1390 rental names the " half townland of the Bed Earl, in Glen, 2 near 

 Glenomera. In the " History and Genealogy of the family of De Burgo," in 

 Trinity College Library (F. 4. 13), we are told that " the Bed Earl's lands 

 extended from Forbach in hlar Connacht to Ballymacscanlon, near Dundalk, 

 and from Luchud, in Thomond, to Ballyshannon, on Lough Erne." Even 

 this statement (accepted by MacFirbis) does not include any land in 

 Thomond. Bichard. the Bed Earl, died in 1326. Elsewhere in Clare we 

 have a division of Coolreagh called Coolreagh Earl, and also Earlhill, near 

 Ahareinagh. 



The structure is more like one of the lesser Norman motes than an 

 ordinary Clare fort. 3 A small knoll has been cut off from an angle of the low 



1 Plate V. 2 Trans. K. I. A. Acad. (1826), vol. xv, p. 47. 3 Plate V. 



