Westropp — Earhj Forfs and Stone Huts in Inishmore^ Aran. 175 



poor for use. No views even of portions of ihr inasuiay or steps are in the 

 Ordnance Survey Letters ; there are the noble views of the two lesser duns 

 and a defaced one of Dubh Cathair in Lord Dunraveu's Notes' and a sketch 

 of a trilithic door of a fort, near Baile na sean, by Mr. Kinahan. More 

 material for the huts is extant; ^•iews of the Clogliaunnacarriga by I'etrie, 

 some plans of others by Mr. Kinahan and Mr. Kilbride, and a camera-sketch 

 of tlie first taken in 1878. The plans of the forts are poor, and in some cases 

 incorrect when compared with the old descriptions and present remains. The 

 eaher of Killeany we describe, giving a view of its wall for the first time, as 

 also that remarkable cloghaun in the same townland near Pouldiek cove.- 



The forts, like Dun Aengnsa, give signs of early rebuilding in some 

 instances. One promontory fort, noted by O'Donovan, we failed to reach on 

 any of our visits. It is, however, probable tliat O'Donovan missed no feature 

 of interest, and that little now remains to be seen. 



As to the huts, the question of their age is complicated ; some seem very 

 early, and were so regarded in 1685 ; others are hardly distinguishable from 

 work little over a century old. As in Kerry, so in Aran, such huts long con- 

 tinued to be made ; Init as a rule massive work may be assigned to an early 

 period. That any are of pre-Christian times we are imwilling to assert. 'J'he 

 cells on Skellig Eock and at Temple Gobnet in Inishere are almost certainly 

 Christian, and those at the former probably date fi-om the seventh and eighth 

 centuries ; none on Aranmore seem more primitive than the last, and many 

 have the rectangular interiors which occirr also at Skellig. Some of the slab- 

 liuts are as primitive as dolmens ; but, on a small scale, slab-houses were made 

 down to recent times as pig-sties, dog-kennels, and lamli-shelters. The larger 

 dry-stone house near Temple Benen seems late indeed, and the cloghauns near 

 it, and those that stood in the Dubh Cathair and remain in Dun Onaght, are 

 late and rectangular, one with late-looking ambries. Of cells in the walls of 

 forts (other than at Dun Aeugusa) we only found a small one in Dubh Cathau- ; 

 but it was too much filled with loose stones to examine fully. O'Donovan 

 notes a second m the unnamed promontory fort near the latter place.' Dun 



» Vol. I., Plate TI. ■ Page 19S. 



^ Cells in walls are rare in Aran and unknown in County Clare, but occui- on the coasts of Jfavo 

 and Kerry in many stone forts. As we have occasion to use Mr. G. H. Kinahan's interesting 

 articles on Barren and Aran in Hardwicke's " Science Gossip," vol. for IS7o, we may here note 

 some necessary corrigenda : — Page S3, the forts in Burren are rarely (not "often ") on " conspicuous 

 heights" ; "the number of remains and sites of antiquity" do not "' seem small," but are sur- 

 prisingly numerous ; '• most of the large ones (forts) seem to have chambers in the wall," page S4 ; 

 no such feature is known to have existed in any of the forts of Burren ; same page, the path to a 

 fort there named is straight, not "serpentine," and the ab«ttis from .50 to 100 feet, not " two to 

 three lumdred yards." But the articles have many field-notes and sketches of value apart from the 

 preface. The series begins on the geological features of Burren and round Gort in 1872. 



I26*j 



