214 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Ptolemy, to the Tower of Hook, 1 oldest of Irish lighthouses. Some of the 

 rock next the harbour has been quarried to make the pier along its flank. 2 

 The convex work is fairly preserved to the south, having a fosse about 4 feet 

 deep and 15 feet wide, with a slight outer fence and a bold inner mound. It 

 is formed by shaping the natural rise to the north of the entrance, and raising 

 the southern part to equal height. Its slope in parts is again 1 in 1. I 

 have rarely met such a batter in the forts of other counties. The mound, 

 12 feet high, 9 to 12 feet wide on top, and 24 feet at the base, nearly 6 feet 

 higher than the inner field. It curves from Oonagollum, for 105 feet, to the 

 large set stones in the entrance gap ; behind it is an apparently early house 

 site, 10 feet in diameter, the walls 6 feet thick. For 20 feet at the gap the 

 mound is levelled ; then its remains reappear. After 40 feet it is nearly 

 perfect for 30 feet more to the quarry, being in all nearly 200 feet round its 

 curve. There is a low enclosure, 160 feet across, in the north-west segment., 

 and a mound, or traverse, of equally doubtful age, at 110 feet to the east. 

 The high rock platform is 360 feet long, after which it falls into a slope of 

 60 feet more. 



The Eev. 6. H. Beade found a flint knife of very early type within the 

 ambit. 3 I cannot too often warn against building any strong theory of the 

 age of forts on such isolated finds. Systematic exploration is yet to be made, 

 and in a poor country and unsettled period, with attempts to prejudice the 

 public against scientific excavators in certain districts, we cannot afford to 

 dogmatize. "We have come to the most critical period in the existence of the 

 forts. Since they passed out of use they were protected by superstitions ; 

 these are gone, and no enlightened interest has taken up their ward over our 

 ancient strongholds. Even where safe from violence, " time and change 

 happeneth to them all," and it is most important to try and get a safe and firm- 

 based theory established before this branch of archaeology is choked, like 

 others, by the parasites of unfounded assertion, prejudice, and absurd 

 philology. 



Second Type. 



The type includes the normal forts with more than one series of defences. 

 There are only two examples to be dealt with among the Co. Waterford 

 cliff-forts. 



1 The Rinn Dubhain, Dundoaban of the Portolan maps, from a saint's name, Dubhan, 

 translated "hook." The tower was built by the citizens of New Ross in the middle of 

 the thirteenth century See Proc. R. I. Acad., vol. xxx, p. 420. 



2 See plan on Plate XXI, fig. 7. 



Journal Royal Soc. Antt. lr. (R.H.A.A. I.), vol. x (consecutive), p. 227. 



