Westropp — Fortified Headlands and Castles in Western Co. Cork. 271 



been denuded, and the earthwork or drystone wall destroyed. The Eev. 

 Mr. Desmond tells me that he never heard the name Doonlea of the maps 

 applied to the rock which is locally known as Gurteendyne. Balltdivlin 

 castle is utterly levelled. 1 We pass Goleen; just beyond it, overhanging 

 Crosshaven, is a group of low hills which local antiquaries should carefully 

 survey. There are several gdlldns or pillar-stones ; a stone circle of no great 

 size in Letter; two dolmens on the plateau where Arduslough and Tooreen 

 townlands adjoin, and another dolmen lower down in the former townland. 

 Several gallans lie north from Kilbarry. 2 



The large headlands of Streek and Brow Head seem likely sites for cliff- 

 forts ; there is none on the spurs of the latter, and I saw none at Streek, 

 but could not examine it closely. Beyond Kilbarry is a large tidal intake 

 studded with swans and their cygnets on the day of our visit and separated 

 from the sea by a beautiful strand at Barleycove. Passing the hill road west 

 of that bay we reach the new signal station on Iliaunbirrane, or Cruckaun 

 Island, at Mizen Head. I carefully examined the upland above the Head, 

 but found no antiquities. 3 



Mizen Head. — The headland bore in early times the name of Cam Hui 

 Neit, and its legend appears in the Dind Senchas. 4 Bres, son of Elathan, 

 son of Net, from whom the cairn was named, died there in the reign of 

 Nechtain the red-hand, or the fair-hand, a legendary King of Munster. 

 Bres demanded the milk of 100 hornless dun cows from the latter, for every 

 house in the province. Nechtain, maddened by the exorbitant demand, 

 singed or stained with a porridge of flax seed all the cattle to a dun colour, 

 and made sham cows full of liquid peat. The tribute was paid, and as Bres 

 was under a geis, or tabu, to drink all the milk, he swallowed the peat as 

 well ; he then sickened and died seven years seven months and seven days 

 afterwards. The meaning of this strange legend is obscure, like so much in 

 the Dind Senchas. Bres was not a human hero, but an early god : his 

 "date" alleged to be 1721 before Christ. He is divergently called "son of 

 Elatha, son of Delbaith," and " son of Eladan, son of Net ; he was High 

 King of exceeding greatness." In another legend " seven years were reigned by 



1 A bronze spear-head and socketed celt were found at Ballydivlin ; it is on a low 

 headland. See paper by late Robert Day, Cork H. and A. Journal, xi, p. 187. 

 3 Borlase, "Dolmens," vol. i, p. 45, merely names them. 



3 Lady Chatterton (Rambles in the South of Ireland during 1838, ed. ii, p. 82), on 

 seeing Mizen and Three Castles Heads from the sea, notes the rock from which a doctor 

 took two eaglets ; the parents offered no opposition. Caha mountain was then famed for 

 its 150 lakes and for its eagles {ibid., p. 100). 



4 Rennes Dind Senchas, Revue Celtique, vol. xv, p. 408, 



