Wkstropp — Tlie Fori of Dun Aengusa in tnishinorc, Ai-an. 19 



(sketch and plan). Terrace. — P, "Terrace half its heigiit" (and map). 

 Abattis. — All writers (save Ledwich, John O'Flaherty, and Windele) since 

 Eoderic Flaherty in 1684. 



Outer Wall. 



Wall. — P (and map) ; O'D ; D. (map and photograph) ; TW, " old tumbled 

 wall " (and sketch). Gateway. — D. Two sections. — O'D. This wall is passed 

 over or only shown in maps by most writers. 



(.5) The Fort in 1909. 



The two most couspicuous high groimds of Inishmore are each crowned 

 by a great stone fort, the western hill rising to over 300 feet above the sea, 

 by Dun Aengusa, the eastern by the Dun of Oghil, the ridge rising over 400 

 feet above the sea. As we pass round the shoulder of the Oghil plateau the 

 great mass of Dun Aengusa presents a most imposing appearance, its three 

 tiers of walls being fully visible at the fall of the steep slopes to the 

 " Blind Sound " and Portmurvey. We ascend the hill past the fuchsias 

 and low trees at Kilmurvey House, passing the low crag cliffs with their 

 wells of sweet, clear water : cross the craggy fields (their crannies full of 

 maidenhair and hartstongue ferns, of small, sweet wild roses, cranesbills, 

 and dewberries) and gain a view of stately and ever widening spacious- 

 ness, along the dark southern cliffs, out to Clare, and even to Kerry, and 

 northward across the bay of Galway. We next reach a low ridge of crag 

 which has been strengthened with a thick rampart (unlike the tottering 

 field-walls around), and enter the ambit of the great fortress or " town " : 

 " though high the situation of the cathair, not easy is its storming methinks 

 . . if you come to the southern side."' 



Outer Eampart. — The wall is for the most part greatly levelled and 

 spread about from 10 to 15 feet wide; but, where better preserved, it shows 

 two faces of well-laid blocks (many of fair size, 2 to 3 feet long, and 18 to 

 20 inches thick), Ijeing usually 6 or 7 feet thick from face to face ; it follows 

 along its eastern reach a low, irregular ridge about 5 or 6 feet high, rarely 

 higher. This wall has been passed by in silence by most writers, but is, when 

 realized, a most imposing adjunct of the upper fort, being over 2000 feet 

 long in its wavy, irregular course. Its garth is over 1250 feet long by the 

 cliff edge, 1174 feet across the clear garth east and west, and 650 feet deep 

 past the eastern face of the abattis north and south. It is usually found 

 in heaps 3 to 4 feet high, and is 8 feet thick near the sea, and until we turn 



' " Cuitlireimh CoDghail Claiiinghnigh " (ed V. M. Mac Sweeney), p. 121. 



[8*j 



