280 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



all in the district save Kilcoe and Cloghan. The Carew manuscript of 

 June 13th corroborates this, adding notes of the burning of Eincolashy, 

 Donnegall, and (Dunanore) Castle on Cape Clere. In 1636 Daniel MacCarty, 

 alias MacCarty Eeogh, held Dunnieanus, with " lez tribus carrucatis terrae de 

 Twovintery dorcke," and in 1655 Dermod na Buolly and others held Dune- 

 manus, which was sold to Emanuell Moore with 200 acres, and 754 acres 

 sold eventually to Sir William Petty. 1 



Dolmen. — Passing round the creek, we find (in a swampy field, overflowed 

 by high tide) a large block, evidently a dolmen. The monument is irregular 

 in plan ; it has a chamber of three blocks, one lying E.N.E. and W.S.W. The 

 cover is irregular, 30 inches to 36 inches thick, rudely octagonal, 6 feet 

 2 inches across to the east, 6 feet 4 inches along the south. The question of 

 dolmens on tidal land is important ; the upheaval of the raised beaches has 

 been dated in Neolithic times, but evidence as to the date of subsidence on 

 the Irish coast is very vague. The case of the Bostellan dolmen, also in 

 Co. Cork, has been treated with equal confidence and scepticism by various 

 writers, for the reconstruction in the last century vitiates the evidence; the 

 tide rises a couple of feet up its side at present. 2 The Gortbraud dolmen, 

 near Murrisk, on Clew Bay, is another case in point as within tidal range, 

 at least at very high tides. 3 Its alignznent leads to a low earthen ring 

 from which it is separated at half- tide. In the centre is a line of six 

 stones, 20 feet long, E.N.E. and "W.S.W. (like the axis of the Dunmanus 

 cist), and a seventh one now fallen. The ring-work is about 5 feet 

 thick and rarely 3 feet high, with a shallow outer fosse ; there are ten 

 large blocks to the south. An ancient stone causeway, only seen at lowest 

 water, crosses the muddy creek to the west. These three cases suggest 

 submergence of the Irish coast in the human period, and deserve to be very 

 carefully studied without prejudice by a scientific expert. As Dr. Eobert 

 Munro points out, there is a great mass of evidence for submergence in the 

 Neolithic period. Not merely implements, which might have been dropped, 

 but " a chipping-tloor or implement factory," occurs in the submerged area 

 in Caermarthenshire. Implements are found in many such deposits. Still 



1 Pacata Hibernia, Book ii, pp. 544, 546, 585 ; Cal. Carew siss. under date; Inquisition 

 No. 410, 163C ; " Book of Distribution," p. 255. 



: Dolmens of Ireland, vol. i, p. 16 ; also Irish Naturalist, vol. xvi, pp. 265, 269 ; Cork 

 H. and A. Journal, vol. iii (1894), p. 164. Human remains were found in this dolmen, 

 which proves it to be an ancient cist. The submergence of the Ardmore crannog, as well 

 as of the Rostellan monument, has been questioned. See Windele's Supp., vol. ii, 

 p. 665. 



3 Proc. R.I. A., vol. xxxi, Part 2, p. 44. I have seen its earthwork submerged. 



