2 Proceedings of the Enjial Irish Academy. 



farthest edge of the old world. The facts that the fort had attracted the 

 notice of the learned for over two hundred years, while its compeers lay 

 undescribed till the middle of the last century ; and that on the revival of 

 sound archfeology it was studied and most impressively described by some of 

 our greatest scholars — Petrie, O'Donovan, Ferguson, and Duuraven — all 

 told in its favour. None other of the forts — not Tara, Emania, or the 

 Grianan of Aileach — was so honoured. 



It needs justification to bring forward a paper on it at present. May I, 

 as one of the few who noted and sketched it over thirty years ago, ere its 

 restoration, bring before the Eoyal Irish Academy an attempt to record its 

 architectural history and its present condition ? No one, I believe, has as 

 yet described it in detail since its far too thorough " restoration " in 1884, or 

 endeavoured to decide what of its present features are ancient, what warrant 

 there may have been for the restored work, or what the remains have to tell 

 to scientific antiquaries. In all this there seems, not only an excuse, but a 

 necessity, for another essay ; so I may venture to give the results of work 

 done in 1878, and many subsequent occasions, without incurring invidious 

 comparisons with great predecessors in the same field of study. In this spirit 

 I lay these notes before the members of the Academy. 



1. — Legendary Origin of the Fort. 

 We must commence with an oft-told tale — that of " the sons of Umor." 

 In the revival of Irish nationalism under King Brian, before that great 

 monarch's tragic death m 1014, his bard, Mac Liag, is said to have versified a 

 legend, probably derived from a far remoter past. The period was one of 

 restoration ; law and order, arts and learning, forts, churches, and towers 

 were being restored everywhere; and, among other matters, an attempt was 

 made to recover all that surnved the dark and destructive ninth century ; 

 and in these compilations of "tribal lays" and historic poems lies most of 

 our knowledge of the " beginnings " of the Dalcassian realm. These 

 b^nnings were obscure Ijeside the mythic glory that rested on Tara, Eman, 

 or Kathcroaghan ; but the Dal gCais (descendants of the banshee-wooer 

 Oilioll Olum and the Corca-modruad (sprung from Fergus Mac Koigh and 

 the great Queen Maeve) must have longed to hear what befell their 

 ancestry " in the beginning," and now they no longer lacked a bard. The 

 legend that centres at Dun Aengusa related to the period before the tribe of 

 Fergus settled on the hills of Burren over three centuries before Lughad, 

 Conall, and Enna, the conquering Dalcassian Princess, on the edge of 

 recorded history (a.d. 360-400), added the southern fringe of Connacht to 

 North Munster, from which it eventually usurped the name Thomond. 



