184: Procecdhuis of the Roijal Irish Academy. 



auother fortified lieadland to the north-west of the ha.st.' The cliff had fallen 

 in, and storms had reduced the remaining part of the wall to a shapeless ruin. 

 A small chamber, not unlike that at Dun Aengusa, remained in the thickness 

 of the wall. It was 3 feet 8 inches long and high by 3 feet 4 inches wide. 

 The use <A such cells is very problematic, sa^•e for storing some very precious 

 small possessions. To the east of the fort are the remains of a cloghaun, 18 feet 

 6 inches in diameter, the wall 6 feet 7 inches thick. No such fort is marked 

 on the maps to the north-west of Dubh C'athair; but a short headland at 

 Poulbriskenagh has a cloghuun to the east of it, and is probably the place 

 intended. Therc may be some confu.sion in O'Donovan's notes." I can only 

 regret tliat the difliculty of exploring the fine south coast (froni useless 

 tottering walls, extended to the clill' edge) did not permit nie to vci il y the 

 "Letters" in this case. I s<iw no oliject resemliling a fort along the cliffs 

 from Hensheefrontee to Whiqieas; but among the endless walls and rock- 

 ledges this proves notlving. 



Bensheefrontee, the headland next to the west of Dubh Cathair, is 

 apparently walled in an unusually nia.ssive style. A vast and regular pile 

 of lai-ge slabs runs across tiie neck, tlie space to either side being clear. There 

 is no evidence of human work, and (tliough only credible to those who have 

 Bccn the blocks in Clare and Gralway' wliich Jiave been thrown up liy the sea, 

 and cajiecially those by the gale of January, 1839, along tiie coast to the other 

 side of Dubh (.'athair) the l>and is possibly natural. 



Still further westward the long, Iwld lieadland of Nalhea, Aedh's cliff, 

 Boemed so likely a site that I, at some trouble, examined it. However, the 

 wall sliown on the maps proved a slight modern one, and there was no trace 

 of older work or anything to reward one for traversing the complicated and 

 rugged bohereens, save the beautiful outlook along many miles of foam-girt 

 precipices extending to the Brannocks past Dun Aengusa, which presides 

 over all at the highest point of the view. 



DUX-KlLLKAXV. (0. S. 119.) 



This ring-wall, though it ha» sulFered to a very great extent, was once of 

 lietter masonry, and in some respects more tyjiical tiian the great " Duns " of 



' Ordnance Surrey I>ctt«rs, C'oualy Galway, p. 250. 



' They were tnken in April, 1839; tho li-ltcr wm written on August •liM\. 



' As near Ross in mutb-wost Clare, Oiinamoo in CVunty Mayo, and elsewhere. As u less 

 incredible fact, Lord OunraTen notices a large mast wedged into the face of the cliff near Dun 

 Aenghus, 70 or SO ieet above the sen. The destruction of the street of huts in Dubh Cailiaii, and 

 the sweeping away of all their debris, render the flinging of these great stones up on the cliffs at 

 this most exposed spot the less incredible. Also waves gain strength when the wind chases them 

 sideways down a long range of coast, and rush over a projceling headland, even if of considerable 

 height. 



