74 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



feet thick : a deep modern ditch, 6 feet deep and wide, has been dug outside 

 them. At the upper end is an annexe, curved, 96 feet long and 12 feet wide. 

 The main annexe runs southward for 171 feet, and is 75 feet wide ; it then 

 bends eastward, and is 624 feet long in all. Large old trees grow on the 

 mounds ; the enclosed plantation was recently felled. The object and age of 

 the curved work are to me enigmatical. 1 



Cahershaugelsessy. — In 1892 I made a careful plan and notes on this 

 fort for a paper by the late Mr. Arthur Gethin Creagh and Mr. Henry Harris 

 in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland ; ; but a few 

 more notes seem desirable, as it is too important to pass over in any 

 purporting survey of the forts of East Clare. 



"When Mr. Creagh discovered it in 1860 (for the 1839 map is most 

 inadequate, and does not even show the double ring or give its name), it was 

 one of the finest cathairs iu Clare, if not in Ireland. The great walls, with 

 their facing of large blocks, were nearly entire, though the gateway was 

 defaced, and some house-sites remained that are now entirely removed. Of its 

 previous history I know no earlier record than that of 1585, when 

 MacXamara Fynn held Caharshagenis. 3 



The fort lies in low, wet, but craggy ground, almost overhung by one of 

 the green fort-capped drift hills so common in the parish. The inner ring is 

 evidently very ancient, of the best type of construction, splendid regular 

 masonry of large blocks, and large packed filling, still 6 feet to 8 feet high 

 and over 12 feet thick, with a regular batter of 1 in 3 to 1 in 4, and at least 

 three upright joints to the south and south-east ; the gateway faced the west. 

 The garth is 148 feet to 166 feet across, and has several hut-rings and oblong 

 enclosures ; some of these walls are continued as traverses between the inner 

 and outer ring, but are built up to, not crossed by, the ring-fort, as at 

 Ballykinvarga and elsewhere. The outer ring is thin, and of poor masonry, 

 evidently an afterthought, for herding and keeping separate the cattle of the 

 various persons connected with the fort : it is irregularly circular, and 

 about 570 feet across. Its line is greatly overgrown with bushes. 4 



Much of the outer facing of the inner ring had been removed by a road 

 contractor just before 1892 ; but at the persuasion of Mr. Creagh, the farmer 

 (I greatly regret to be unable to record his name) most creditably prevented 

 any further demolition since then. Can nothing be done, however, to vest in 

 the Board of "Works or County Council such importaut remains as it, 

 Cahercalla, and Magh Adhair, not to speak of Cahercommaun, Ballykinvarga. 



1 See Plate VI. 



- Vol. xxiii (1893), p. 287. See also Proc. R.I.A., vol. vi, ser. iii, p. 438. 



3 Chancery Inquisitions CCh. Reraem. Office), P. R. O. I. i See Plate VI. 



