36 Proceedings of the Rojjal Irish Academy. 



distance varying from 50 to 70 feet. A passage leads by a steep ascent of 

 80 feet to the gateway in the second wall ; and this passage has a waU of 

 3 feet on either side." 



JoHX O'DoxovAX (1839). — The most valuable description of the 

 unrepaired fort, and one which has coloured every published account since it 

 was written, was made for the Ordnance Survey Letters, and is now given 

 practil^ally in extaiso (mss. E. I. Acad. 14 D. 3, p. 197). It commences with 

 a long and controvei-sial section which we omit, as it is merely a series of 

 attacks on Eev. Mr. Healy, Dr. Ledwich, and John O'Flaherty, for their 

 translations, descriptions, and theories. 



[p. 197.] " Dun Aengus. — A name now forgotten by all the inhabitants 

 except one old man of the name of Wiggins, dwelling at Killeany " (a 

 Cromwellian by descent), who remembered " that the old people were accus- 

 tomed to call it Dun Innees," the correct Connaught pronunciation of the 

 ancient name ; " all the other inhabitants style it Dunmore." " Dun 

 Aengusa a nAraind," Book of Lecan, f. 277. 



[p. 204.] " Dun Aengusa, pronounced Doon Innees, is situated on the 

 south side of the Great Island, in the south-west of the townland of 

 Kilmurvy, on the edge of a cliff which is 302 feet above the level of the sea- 

 It is, perhaps, one of the finest specimens of barbaric fortresses in the world,' 

 but very much ruined . . . ; the boys of the island are destroying the 

 remaining part in rooting for rabbits which burrow in its walls. As it stands 

 at present, it consists of three concentric walls, of which the central one is in 

 a tolerable state of presenation, but the two outer ones are nearly destroyed, 

 excepting in spots. . . . The central fort or keep is by far the most perfect 

 and interesting part It was originally of an oval form ; but now only the two- 

 thirds of the oval remain, the Atlantic having, in the course of two thousand 

 years, woni away the remaining part. It measures from north to south — i.e. 

 from the northern part of the ring to the edge of the clifl' — 150 feet, and from 

 west to east, along the cliff, 140 feet. When the oval was perfect, it measmed 

 225 feet in length from north to south. . . . The wall of the keep of Dun 

 Aengus [p. 205] is built of large and small stones, the large ones being 

 placed in the face of it, and the small ones in the centre. This wall is made 

 of three distinct walls, built up against each other, each well faced with 

 stones of considerable size. . . . The greatest height of this wall at present 

 is 18 feet. This is at the west side, where the original characteristics 

 of the masonrj- appear. The internal division of the wall is here 3 feet 



' W. F. Wakenun (in Ouffjr's " llibemian Maguine," toL i., X.S., p. 470) record* a quarter 

 of a century later big recollection of O'Donoran's "wild Jot" on fint seeing "llic uld palace 

 fortnas of the daya o< Queen Maere." 



