220 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



grassy hollow of the neck, only accessible by a path like a goat track. A 

 large entrenchment on the mainland formed a somewhat crescent-shaped 

 enclosure, but was nearly swept away by 1841. I was unable to climb into 

 the citadel, but the platform is (I am told) accessible to young cragsmen; it 

 can be well seen from the cliff to the east. The names Oilean Ui Bhric and 

 Templeobric are derived from an important branch of the Desi 1 ; what name 

 the fort possessed in pre-Christian or even Norse times, I do not find ; but 

 later writers put it back to the period before a.d. 400, and traditionally 

 after a.d. 260, when the five-fold division of Munster took place between 

 the descendants of Ailill Olom. 2 One of the mearings was a line from 

 Bearnan Eile (" The Devil's Bit ") to Oilean Ui Bhric. The name, more 

 probably, is late mediaeval, after a.d. 1050, and has been superseded probably 

 in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century, by the name " Dane's Island," 

 based on the revival of the " Danish Fort " theory of Giraldus Cambrensis. I 

 again have no early Irish document; the first record is the early charter, 

 perhaps 1250-60. Henricus Poherus grants to John fitz Walter and his heirs, 

 as we noted under Dunhill, " the land of Ilanobrich by making service of five 

 parts of two knights' fees." 3 The next notice is a lawsuit, in 1317, of Johan, 

 wife of tbe late Stephen le Poer, with Richard his son for dower off 1 messuage 

 and 4 carucates of land, besides 40 shillings off Ilanybryk or Uanhybrik, 

 Co. Waterford. 4 It remained in possession of that family to the reign of 

 Elizabeth at least, for "William Power, of Imokyll, temp. Henry VIII, and 

 then John, his son, held it. Next I find that Sir Thomas Butler, Earl of 

 Ormond, alienated Hyllanyvriec to James Sherlock, fitzJohn 5 Thomas, Fitz- 

 John, fitz Edmond, Poer of Illanyvrik, kerne ; John fitz Edmond Poer, alias 

 " Mac Eustace," horseman, and John Duff Flyn, of Tamplevrik, were pardoned 

 in 1566. 6 As to the O'Bric family, we first find it in the " Annals of Ulster " 

 in 1057, when Finnguine Ua Finnguine, royal heir of Munster, was slain by 

 Maelsechlainn Ua Brie, who, two years later, was smothered in a cave by 

 Maelsechlainn Ua Faelain. In 1103, the two O Brie were "royal heirs " of 

 the Desi in the great battle of Magh Cobha, while, seven years later, Bran 

 Ua Bruic, the senior of west Munster, i.e. the sruth, was the monk who used 



1 The names Templeobric townland and rock, Illaunobric and Tobar Uibhric in 

 Monksland Parish, remain on our maps. Templeyvrick church site lies among a 

 number of disused mine shafts ; the building has been entirely removed. Tamplabric is 

 shown in Petty's map, 1655. Karriggyvrick was owned by David Condon in 1584 

 (Inq. Exchr., No. 24, Eliz.). 



2 Keating (ed. Irish Texts Soc), vol. i, p. 127. 



3 Plea Rolls No. 121, xi Ed. II, m. 18 and No. 122, m. 19. 

 1 Cited in Inq. Exchr. Jas. I, No. 10. 



5 Inq. Exchr. No. 5 Eliz. 6 Fiant 977. 



