182 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



About 1870 Lord Dunraven' gives us the only other description of vahie. 

 Repeating O'Donovan's figures for its lengtli, and the length and height of the 

 headland, he notes that the wall had two faces or sections, each 8 feet thick 

 and 16 to IS feet high, the top being nowhere perfect. The stones were laid 

 as headere, the masonry poor, the eastern gateway utterly ruined. He noted 

 (what O'Donovan overlooked) that there was a chamber in the wall, and 

 adds : — " Scarcely any of the inside face of the walls now remains." 



Tlie author in the " Irish Builder "' seems to confuse notes on tlie walls of 

 the I'.lack Fort with those on Dun Onacht, following (even in the error of the 

 cliffs height) the "Lcttei-s." He independently, in June, 1877, noted the 

 abattis, inside wliicli were the remains of several buildings, one a beehive 

 cell, part of the roof remaining, but tlie facing was nearly all gone. In the 

 rampart was a small chamber, 3 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 4 inches liy ."] feet 

 8 inches. One hut (inside the fort) liad a midden of bones and periwinkle 

 shells. Mr. Kinahan's notes in 1875 l«rely name the fort;^ my own notes and 

 views in 1878 are of little (if any) value— "a big, broken wall across the 

 head, with a lot of low stones set in front over a hollow. It has no doors, 

 and all the inside is upset ; but it had huts just inside the wall, and, I think, 

 a terrace, too." The view was only a general one of the headland and distant 

 wall. 



The total result, as bearing on the existing features, is that the wall 

 exhibited two sections, a chamlx?r in its thickness, two (lights of steps, traces 

 of a terrace, four huts along the wall base, with two outstanding, and the 

 defaced remains of a gateway at the east end, close to the clifl". 



As restored, it exhibits an imposing interior, with two lines of terraces, 

 and a lower one in the central hollow.' There are three flights of steps from 

 terrace Ui terrace, the centre Iteing sideways, the othere ladder Ihghts. Tliere 

 are two sidelong flights to the west of the huts, and one to the east, from the 

 ground-level to the middle terrace, and a short fliglit to the lower one. The 

 wall at the east end forms two sections, 8 feet 6 inches inside, and G feet out- 

 side ; between them \s a stone set with its edge just outside the wall face, a 

 late feature found in Scottish brochs, the forts at Fahan and near Dingle, and 

 a few f>thei-s (like Moherarooan, and the .sfpiare caher of (."ragl)allycnniial) in 

 Clare ; 9 feet from the end of the wall are two large set .slabs, evidently the 

 facing of the south pier of the gat-eway ; they stand hardly 9 feet frf)m the clifl' 

 edge. Measuring first from the north gate-pier, we find that the wall miming 

 northwanl makes an abrupt turn westward, aljout 54 feet away, and that the 



> Soc hig rintc vi. » HaHwiclie'i '• Science Oowip," vol. for 1R7S, p. 128. 



' Volume ixTiii for 1886, p. 255. • Sco Mate V. No. 2. 



