222 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The remains are of no slight interest 1 ; the portion on the land has two 

 straight sections meeting in a rounded corner : the western 268 feet, the 

 eastern 320 feet long. There are slight traces of an outer mound 9 feet 

 thick, then a fosse, 3 feet to 6 feet deep and 18 feet wide; there is a spring 

 near the east end of it. The rampart is about 18 feet thick, and 9 feet to 

 11 feet high; parts have been repaired, but it is so steep that it must have 

 been stone-faced till recent times. The garth is thickly sheeted with heather 

 in which we failed to find the house-site marked on the 1841 map. The 

 cliff-edge has a slight modern fence and is rapidly crumbling away. The 

 trace of a long narrow neck remains at the south-east corner. It originally 

 was 300 feet long and led to the present island in a deep dip. It got pierced 

 by two natural arches which fell in, apparently in fairly recent times. Three 

 narrow ones run under the island, and a larger one fell in, cutting off another 

 islet. Beyond the present breaks the neck rose up to the Island ; just at 

 the top of its slope are slight traces of a fence and a well-marked hut- 

 foundation, apparently oblong. Father Power 2 notes others, and says they 

 were "primitive stone houses of the beehive type." The island is still joined 

 to the land by a strand, bare at low water. It recalls in the general shape and 

 cutting off of the neck the bolder but similar natural fortress of Bishop's 

 Island, Co. Clare. 3 



In the second field, to the west of the earthwork, is a great ditch running 

 north and south, 16 feet 8 inches wide and 4 feet to 5 feet deep, with a fence 

 11 feet high and nearly 10 feet thick. It is evidently ancient, far larger 

 than the other field fences, and is not on the present bounds of the townland ; 

 it may, however, be an ancient mearing.' The fort seems to have been left 

 undescribed till 1906, and I regret that my former paper has not led to its 

 excavation or further elucidation. 



Fourth Type. 



Dl'Xabrattin (O.S. 25). — Attracted by the name, distant view, and general 

 plan of the headland, though then unable to visit it, I noted it as a promontory 

 fort. 5 Later on I asked Mr. Ussher to examine, and had the satisfaction 



1 For Plan see Plate XXI, fig. 1. 2 "Place Names," p. 379. 



3 Journal, Pv. S. Antt. Ir., vol. xliii, pp. 335-6. 



4 Mearing is provided for in the Senchus Mor (Rolls edit.), vol. iv, pp. 143-5. Mears 

 could be a rath, ditch, mound, stone wall, flat stone, water, &c. ; where no such mark 

 existed two comharbs could divide it. Provisions are also made for local defence against 

 wolves. 



5 See " Ancient Forts of Ireland," sect. 120. 



