1 6 Proceedings of the Boj/al Irish Academy. 



clay and wattles which have left no trace.' The fort seems to have had no 

 traverses which, were attack much feared, should have been made especially 

 across the great outer garth, a most suitable position occurring at the upper 

 ridge. The weakest point in Dun Aengusa and its congeners Wcas lack of 

 water-supply; and blockade does not seem to have been very probable, though 

 the monastic ring fort of Tiilla was blockaded and nearly reduced for want 

 of water in 1086.' 



As to the features, the perfect gate in the outer wall was described 

 before 1870 by Lord Dunraven; the northern gate of the middle wall I 

 noted as a " creepy door " in 1878, and dimly recall its narrow ope under 

 large stones. The perfect gate of the inner ring was noted by O'Donovan 

 and many writers, from 1839 to 1878, and its outer face sketched roughly by 

 Petrie in 1821, and most accurately by Burton in 1859. I made a camera 

 sketch of the inside in 1878.' Miss Stokes (or Lord Dunraven) implies that 

 it had collapsed,' but the gate now standing is the one sketched in 1859 and 

 1878. It is strange that Lord Dunraven did not secure photographs of these 

 most interesting and cliaracteristic features, but they fortunately survived to 

 be photographed by others. The broken gates in the middle wall, the 

 double sections or terraces of the two outer ramparts, and the fragment and 

 the three sections of the citadel wall, are all attested by several writers ; so is 

 the " blind ope " inside to the north-west of the latter. Tlie steps near this 

 ope, and the traces of the terraces, and the steps to the north of the inner 

 gate, were i-ecorded. Tlie only features not named before the " restoration " 

 are the double flight of steps to the south of the gate, and the upper flight to 

 the north-west. O'Donovan mentions that the wall to the south of the 

 gatew^ay was entirely defaced, and it was a shapeless heap in 1878. It is, 

 however, most probable (and may even have been recorded) that the lower 

 firmly set parts of the two flights of steps and their long fallen blocks 

 were found in the debris, which covered lx)th tlie upper banquette and the 



• Ledrich, in bis "Introduction " to Grose's "Antiquities of Ireland" (1807), was probably 

 right where be says of Dun Aengiis, p. iv, "The houses having been of wood have long since 

 disappeared." We find in 1162 that eighty houses had to be removed when the fort of Cashel an 

 Trlair was rebuilt at the church of Deny by Murcheartach Ilua Lochliunn and Flalhbertus 

 OBrolchan, the coarb of St. Coiumba. 



' " Analerta Bollandiniana," vol. ivii., p. 149, chapters rv.-xviii. TuUa nan espoc is 

 translated in this account, "CoUis Episcoporum " in "the district of Lumbreoin," Luimneach 

 Limerick or " Limbricensis," under which forms the editor could not identify the places. 



' See p. 30, infra. The stonework in this is easily recognizable in a recent photograph. 



•"Notes on Irish Architecture," vol i., p. 4, implies that the gateway had "shared the 

 melancholy fate of the rest of the structure." The drawing of the outer face by Burton, and my 

 camera sketch of the inner face, show that as it stood in 1878 so it still remains. Some who had 

 not seen the fort before its restoration, alleged the rebuilding of the gate on no better authority than 

 " Dunraven'* " words. 



