Wkstropp — Tlip Fori of Dun Aniffusa hi rnhhmorr. Aran. 7 



a setting of fact known to all his hearers. In more historic times our 

 oldest law code provides for the " erecting of duns," and for "joint labour 

 upon them " ; also " for feeding the labourers who are in the fort to fortify 

 it."' St. Enda, the chief saint of the very island in which Dun Aenghusa 

 stands, dug the great fosses and mounds round Eossovy Churcli in Fermanagli 

 {circa 460). St. Mochulla and his seven converts levelled the hill-top, made 

 walls, and dug fosses round Tulla Church in Clare, traces remaining at botli 

 places ; the last works, though extensive, are stated to have been completed 

 within a year [circa. A.D. 610). ■ The royal rath at Clonroad, in the same 

 county, with rings and outworks, was commenced by Donchadh Cairbreach 

 O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, and completed (1241-1260) by his son C'onor,^ 

 the traditional bviilder (? repairer) of Dun Conor, in the iniddle isle of 

 Aran.* In fact, the collection of the stones was the main trouble ; and if 

 horses or oxen were used, this was greatly lessened.^ Instead of " troops of 

 slaves,"" it is possible that a small tribe, working a few years at a time, at 

 intervals over a couple of centuries, could, in a place where stone so abounded, 

 build even a fortress as vast as the Ai-an " Dun." 



Those wlio have seen horses and cattle floated behind a canvas " curragh " 

 at the Aran Isles cannot deny that large animals may have been brought to 

 Aran in early times by means to all appearance as absurdly inadequate. 

 The " Fairy Chariot " tells how Cuchullin carried off three cows, swimming 

 strongly behind his " curach," through the " vast ocean,"' which shows 

 that before 1106, as now, such transport was known. Also in Magradin's 

 " Life of St. Enda," 1380, we are told of the horses of Gorbanus grazing at 

 Arduagcaorach on this very island, before 489, when King Aenghus, the 

 grantor, died. 



The question of the names of the Aran forts may be touched on in this 

 connexion. Do they commemorate their founders, even if Mac Liag's tale be 

 absolutely unreliable ? They are anonymous except three : Dun Aenghusa, which 



' Seanclms Mor, vol. i., pp. iai-137. 



'-'"Vitii S. Fiiiicheae," in Colgan's Acta; "Vita S. Mcicliullei," in Anale<ta Bollandiana 

 (vol. xvii., p. 145). There are several other fort -buililing saint.s, from St. I'atricl;, who directed 

 earthworks (evidently circular) to be dug at his monastery in Armagh, and St. Mochuda (or 

 Carthage), who dug the small "liss" at Lismore, county Waterford, which, -when his monastery 

 sprang up at it, became " Lismore," the great liss. 



* " Ciithreim Thoirdlie.iUihnith." 



^ "Dublin University Magazine," vol. xii., p. .50. 



= The "Second Battle of Moytura " (Eevue Celtique, xii., p. 79), four score yoke of oxen 

 employed to move a flat stone. For horses at the building of Grianan Aileach, see Dind Sencluis, 

 O. S. L., p. 41. 



" Such, sometimes, were employed to build forts ; a gang of apparently some thirty slaves appear 

 in the legend of " Tlu' Uaiile of llagli heana," as raising a rath ai .Magli Feimliin, in southern 

 Tipperary. 



'Journal K. S. A. I., vol. si., consec, p. 389. 



