Westropp — Types of the Ring-forts of Eastern Co. Clare. 69 



a small segment to the south of the railway wall alone has escaped. It, too, 

 had a good though rough facing of blocks. All through the surrounding 

 fields rude foundations exist. One field to the south-west of the group has fences 

 of considerable thickness. Another site with three loops adjoins the railway 

 wall in the next field. A small ring- wall lay beyond this, eastward and to 

 the north of the railway, but is, 1 think, entirely swept away. Lastly, over 

 the bound of Castlefergus and in Ardsollas is a cathair, the walls 4 feet high 

 and 17 feet thick, of irregular stonework; it is oval, 81 feet east and west 

 by 99 feet north and east, with no foundations in the garth. The whole 

 group affords another remarkable example of the curious remains being so 

 rapidly obliterated from the face of the land. 



There are several forts of considerable size beside the railway to the 

 south of Ardsollas Station. Ballykilty has the Race Park Fort and Bally lassa; 

 while a large double fort is in Ayleacotty. The first is 219 feet across, but 

 is levelled, and barely rises 3 feet over the park. It probably had no fosse. 

 Ballylassa Fort is a stone-faced platform, 102 feet wide, and was probably a 

 ring-wall. 



Ayleacotty is of a more interesting type, being double ; ] the north fort 

 is a ring-mound stone-faced 12 feet thick, and 3 feet above the garth, and 

 8 to 10 feet over the field outside ; the fosse is barely 2 feet deep. There are 

 two enclosures to the north-east of the garth ; and the fort runs into an angle 

 to the south-east. Divided from it by a shallow fosse, 9 feet wide, is the 

 southern enclosure of the usual shield shape of such an " annexe." It is 

 84 feet north and south, of stone- faced earth, with a shallow fosse 10 feet 

 to 12 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, with an outer ring of large stonework. 

 The whole of the mounds are planted with large hawthorns, and an old 

 laneway runs along its eastern face. It has a wide view from Slieve Bernagh 

 to the hills beyond the Fergus, but that river is not visible. The railway 

 runs through a deep cutting close beside its western face. 



Moykeisk (O.S. 34). — A large group of forts, which I shall barely note, 

 lies between Quin and Moyreisk. There are three low earthen rings in 

 Keevagh, and a curious little cathair in Drim ; the latter rests on a low 

 limestone knoll, and has been much rebuilt. The wall had faces of poor 

 masonry and is 10 feet thick, and 6 feet high. The gateway faced N.N.W. 

 A path leads down from it to a cleared space, 70 feet by 36 feet. 



In Moyreisk, across the road, westward from the lodge, a large double- 

 ringed cathair, nearly levelled, lies in a plantation on a thicket-covered crag. 

 It is about 253 feet north and south, by 220 east and west, and consists of 

 heaps of mossy stones of fair size. It has an outer ring 50 feet to 72 feet 



1 Plate IV. 



