332 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



There was. however, another considerable difficulty for the passage of an 

 army across Leitrim and north Longford south-west from either Derry or 

 Armagh. Anyone who has driven from Carrick-on-Sharmon or Mohill in a 

 north-easterly direction will not have forgotten crossing the heights and 

 hollows of the discontinuous long ridges that form the feature of that country, 

 with their intermediate furrows, formerly marsh, hog, and lakelet. This ridge 

 and furrow formation runs south-east by east and north-west by west, and 

 was the result of the ice stream that left glacial striae radiating from the ice- 

 cap at Slieveanierin across Ireland even so far as Howth. Add to this the 

 absence of roads and the wide districts of forest, and it is unlikely that many 

 forays in strength would be led from the north-east, if the Drumsna fords 

 were made defensible. Even towards the close of the seventeenth century the 

 following notes from a MS. of circa 1680 1 mention : — " Vast woods of excellent 

 timber overspreading the Co. of Leitrim, which supply the iron works at 

 Castlefour and elsewhere in great abundance. And generally throughout the 

 county are many herds of red deer. Wolves were very numerous, but latterly 

 much abated." Many eyries of eagles are mentioned, and ospreys said to be 

 numerous, who nested in old ruined walls. Their remarkable method of 

 catching fish when the sun was shining is also described. If this was the 

 condition of the county some 240 years ago, what was it a thousand years 

 earlier, with the drainage choked with vegetable debris, and the bogs and 

 marshes largely filling all the low-lying hollow ground ? No wonder that 

 every lakelet was studded with crannoge dwellings, when few open spaces 

 existed among the wide-spreading forests, except the intervening expanses 

 of bog. My special thanks are due to Captain Cooke, k.e., who most kindly 

 assisted in perfecting the Ordnance Survey map in some important particulars ; 

 to Mr. E. Devenish, of Drumsna, and to the Et. Hon. M. F. Cox, who has an 

 intimate knowledge of the Dun and its neighbourhood. 



1 A description of Leitrim. In the Library of Trin. Coll., Dublin. Ref. 1. i. 16. 



Note. — Though many antique weapons have been dredged from the Shannon and 

 presented to the National Museum by the Commissioners, I cannot find that any were 

 found at the fords of Drumsna. The construction of the canal to Roosky precluded the 

 necessity of deepening the river here. A sword was found in the river-bed at Carrick- 

 on-Shannon, three socketed celts at Athlone, and a large number at Keelogue ford, 

 and elsewhere, many bronze objects. At Belturbet ford a most interesting rind of bronze 

 weapons has Iteen also discovered. 



