200 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the woman milked her into the sieve (which in Co. Clare made the " seven 

 streams "and their waterfall at Teeskagh , it was said in Co. Waterford to 

 have been at Pairc an Iarla, in the valley of the Mahon river. 1 Spirits 

 abound ; magic music is heard at Fail a geerane near the fort and ogham-stone 

 in Island, and the " Gormog," an undefined spectre, haunts the sandhills of 

 Tramore, where also the spirits of the military band, drowned in that most 

 tragic wreck of the " Seahorse," play the " Eeel na daibche," or " sandhill reel," 

 at night. 2 I will give another shore legend near Ardmore at the end of this 

 paper. 



The Fortified Headlands. 



Two curious facts meet us when we come to study the promontory forts — 

 that none of them, unless we allow Dunhill to be such, was strengthened by 

 castles or gatehouses in later days (as is so usual in Cork and Kerry, and not 

 uncommon elsewhere), and that Irish names of the forts are extremely rare ; 

 only two dun names and two uamh names being found — Dunabrattin, 

 Dunmore, or Shanooan, and Technanooan. This, too, is on a coast where (as 

 the Eev. Patrick Power has shown) nearly every reef, headland, and cavern 

 has a native name. Even of these forts I have found none mentioned before 

 the reign of Henry III, when "Dunmore" appears, and (as the charter 

 probably dates as early) Garrarus and Dane's Island. The forts have high 

 mounds and deep fosses in most cases, but their dry-stone walls have been 

 nearly removed in every case for building purposes. 



The name "island" is here applied to peninsulas, and therefore to pro- 

 montory forts, as at Island Hubbock, Islandobric, Kilfarrasy Island, and 

 Great Island. The usage is not unknown elsewhere ; we have Dooneen 

 " Island " promontory fort in Muntervara ; the " Island " of Dunloch at Three 

 Castle Head, Dunworley " Island," and other examples in Cork ; in Co. Clare 

 we have the peninsula and fort of Illaunadoon. 



I may repeat the types here for reference — (a) The simple headland fort, 

 with a single rampart and perhaps a fosse; (b) similar, but with several 

 defences ; (c) the entrenchment on the mainland, with a citadel behind it on 

 a headland, of which there are three exceptionally fine examples here; 



1 " Place Names of the Decies," p. 369. 



2 Ibid., p. 158. I was told, when a child, that a black pig haunted the sandhills, but 

 question if it was a genuine legend. For the " Seahorse " wreck see AVaterford and S.E. 

 Ir. Archseol. Soc, vol. xl, 151. The wreck took place in 1816. The towers on Newtown 

 and Brownstown Heads to either side of Tramore are to distinguish that dangerous 

 death-trap from Waterford Harbour. 



