Westropp — Fortified Headlands and Castles in Western Co. Cork. 251 



his life is of course late, and throws little light on the topography of the 

 Island. One tale of his boyhood 1 is characteristic of that lovely tenderness 

 for animals that so often appears in the Lives of the Saints? like the stag and 

 blackbird of Kevin, the deer and bull of Mochulla, and the old horse of 

 Columba. Ciaran as a very young boy on Cleire found a bird sitting on her 

 young. As he stood looking admiringly at the pretty sight, a kite swooped 

 and carried the mother away in its claws. The boy wept, and lo, the 

 kite dropped its prey. " Arise ! and be made whole," cried Ciaran, on a 

 sudden impulse, and the bird returned to its nest. The Irish saints did not 

 need the bitter lesson of the Ancient Mariner ; and to one who has startled 

 a hawk, and made it drop a young pheasant uninjured, the story seems very 

 credible. Ciaran is, however, more closely connected in history with the 

 great monastic centre of Saighir Ciarain, in King's Co. 3 At Cleire, however, 

 his memory is green ; the little, far later, church at the north harbour, the 

 strand Traghciarain, near it, and the rounded pillar scribed with two plain 

 Latin crosses, bear his name ; the latter may well date from his day. The 

 island continued in possession of his kindred, the hEidersceoil, or 

 Driscolls. I have given some details of their history in connexion with 

 their castle of Dunalong on the neighbouring island of Sherkin and else- 

 where in the first section of this survey, 4 so need not repeat it ; the poem of 

 Huidhrin, before 1418, tells how "0 hEidersceoil assumed possession of the 

 Harbour of Cler." It was of some importance to the foreign traders in wine 

 and spices, and so figures in all the early portolan maps. Angelino Dulcert, 

 in 1339, calls it Cap de Clar ; the subsequent portolans, Cauo de Clara, 1375 

 and 1426 ; Clarros, 1436 ; C. d'Clara or Claro, 1450 and 1552, and, to give no 

 more, Cauo de Chlaram, in 1490. a The Driscolls' Castle probably dates 

 between 1450 and the last date. It was probably on an earlier headland fort, 

 as it is called Dunanore. In 1 602 it surrendered without resistance to the 

 English, who burned it. 6 Six years later the place is described as " Cap Clyre, 

 upon the mayne sea, one of the mearings of Driscolls' country." It 

 had twelve ploughlands and dues upon trading ships from the Stagges of 

 Castlehaven westward. Fynan Driscoll, alias Caragh, late of Dunalong 

 (Sherkin), held the castle, vill, and three carucates of land, with a half carucate 



'■ Corca Laidhe [Miscellany Celtic Society, 1849), pp. 334 sqq. and p. 21. 



2 See his Life in Colgan, " Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae " (1614), March 5, sect. 3. 



3 "Dublin Penny Journal," vol. iii, p. 113, gives a rough sketch and brief description 

 of the place. 



4 Proc. R.I. Acad., vol. xxxii, pp. 92, 109. 



5 Kretschmer, Die Italienisclieit, Portolane Mittelalters (1909), pp. 427, 56S. 



6 Cal. State Papers of Ireland, 1001-3, p. 237. 



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