Westkopp — Fortified Headlands § Castles, S. Coast of Minister. 105 



though pierced under the fort by a beautiful natural arch, seems to have 

 suffered but little (and that at the end) since the fort was made. Who " Big 

 Dermot " was, with whom the name of the " Little Fort " is connected, neither 

 history nor tradition seems to tell. It is in the townland of Gortacrossig. 



The neck dips into a deep hollow, down to which runs a patch 6 feet wide 

 for 15 feet, and exposed to missiles from the tower-like fort. At the actual 

 neck in the bottom of the hollow the path for 12 feet is at most 2 feet 

 8 inches wide, sloping down to the sea like that in the legendary fort of 

 Aeife, where Cuchullin so nearly perished, or in that of Scathach in the same 

 saga, 1 The path ends at a steep up-slope under the revetment, which was of 

 beautifully neat flag-masonry, 7 feet 6 inches thick and over 10 feet high 

 outside. The garth is 90 feet long and 42 feet wide across, north and south. 

 At its southern end, where the 1S45 map seems to mark a house, is a curious 

 souterrain. It has a small circular cell, 6 feet in diameter, at its western end, 

 whence a passage 3 feet wide and high runs eastward for 15 feet; at 3 feet 

 from its eastern end is a similar south passage 12 feet long under the wall 

 to a natural staircase leading to a lower shelf on the south flank of the rock. 

 I saw no other remains in the grassy garth. 2 



Duxouke (O.S. 144). — This is one of a group of four castles and forts 

 at and near Galley Head, attributed to the Cowhig, but more likely built by 

 the Barrys. "We have already examined Dunnycove, the most eastern, as 

 this is the most western. I learned but little of its history. Dermod, son of 

 Tiege Daley, made a deed of feoffment of the eight gneeves of land in 

 Dunuoyre, October 29th, 1629, 3 and Dunowre was mortgaged with Dundeady 

 and other lands by John Barry, of Liscarroll, to Sir Philip Percival, 17th April, 

 1640, J and confirmed to him after the war by the Act of Settlement in 1667. 5 

 Windele calls it Dun v.air. The Dun must have closely resembled Dooneen- 

 dermotmore, being a great flat -topped mass of silver-grey uptilted slate 

 jutting out into clear shallow water. The path across the hollow of the neck 

 is rarely over 3 feet wide, where it reaches the platform; a pier of flag masonry, 

 evidently part of a gate-house, rises beside it. Some other low grassy mounds 

 alone remain. 



Dtisowex (O.S. 141). — The third of the same group of castles occupies a 

 prominent headland opposite to Dundeady and to the east. It is mentioned 

 in " Corca Laidhe" before 1360 as a mealing of the Tuath Fithcheallaigh 

 " from Goilin na Gaithneamha (Gyleen) to Inis Duine (Inchydoney in 



1 See Proc. Soc. Antt. Scot. , xsxiv, p. 60, for a similar Scotch fort. 



2 View, Plate YIH ; Plan, Plate X. 4 Inquis. Exch. No. 26, Cromwell. 



3 Inquis. Chancery, No. 425, Car. I. ' Boll six, Car. II, pars 2, f. No. 3. 



K.I.A. PROC, VOL. XXXII., SECT. C. [16] 



