326 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



remains of an old tree called " The Bile," which was said to have served as a 

 gallows for Sir Charles Coote's victims, when any of the forays by his soldiers 

 proved successful in the neighbourhood. None seem to have survived or 

 returned in later days to hand down any traditions referring to the builders 

 of these remains. They are not said to be the work of the Black Pig, like 

 those at Roosky and Granard. But one thing is unquestionable. The 

 designers of these vast entrenchments were no tyros in the art of defence at 

 that epoch, when spears, swords, and sling-stones were probably the weapons 

 chiefly in use. Their careful economy of labour is evident where invaders 

 could cross over the shallow parts of the river. At such places up stream a 

 breastwork of stone close to the water's edge, of about (at present) 3 feet to 

 4 feet high, enabled the defenders in safety to assail their enemies when 

 struggling through the current, while a sufficient double rampart and fosse, 

 more inland, enabled thcrn to contest the further advance of such survivors 

 as gained the shore. But the works erected across the neck of the peninsula, 

 which I may call the Dun proper, were of far greater size and importance : for 

 the foemen here, having crossed on to the peninsula by wading or swimming, 

 advanced in masses to the attack on firm ground, and the fury of a sudden 

 onset had to be checked before they reached the defenders, lest they should 

 by valour or strength of numbers force their way across the frontier south- 

 ward. Here, therefore, for about a mile we find, as I have stated, a great 

 vallum or rampart raised, stretching across the isthmus, still in parts 16 feet 

 to 17 feet high, and 30 feet wide at top, with a base of about 100 feet through. 

 The slope facing north is very steep, that facing Eoscommon of an easier 

 gradient. This, with two other lines of entrenchment parallel to it, one in 

 front and one in the rear, here completes the scheme of defence. At the 

 eastern end the one in front is separated by only about 12 feet from the foot 

 of the vallum ; the other larger one in the rear runs at an interval of about 

 105 feet, leaving ample room for a camp, and consists of an inner bank with 

 a base of 15 feet, then a paved fosse or sunk causeway 25 feet wide, and an 

 outer bank perhaps 8 feet high originally, with a base of 35 feet. This 

 causeway seems to have been originally stoned, and similarly the flat space 

 or causeway at foot of the vallum on its north side. The works there are of 

 smaller proportions, but otherwise correspond in design. (See Plate XXIX, 

 Fig. 2.) 



Another important and very interesting feature which fortunately has 

 been well preserved is that two level passages through the triple line of 

 entrenchments have been provided. Measuring from the eastern end at the 

 Drumsna bend of the river, the first is 280 yards distant, and the second is 

 727 yards further west, being somewhat more than half way toward the other 



