Westkopi' — Kdrlij Ftirh ((iiil iiioiic UuIh in. Iinslniinr,', Anm. 189 



run up the terrace, with several new steps at right angles, as if the "reach " of 

 the latkler-steps had been niiscalculateil, or the terrace raised after tliey were 

 built. These steps are not shown on the plan of lHo9, in its description, or 

 in that of 1877. Further to the south, 4 feet 9 inches from tlie last, a flight 

 2 feet wide, of wliich tlie three lowest steps alone remain, rises from the terrace 

 upward. At twenty feet to the south of the gateway is a Hight of eight 

 steps 4 feet ?> inches wide : it leads to tlie terrace, and is recorded in 1839 ; so 

 does another flight at 45 feet 10 inches from the gate. This has five steps, and 

 another embedded in the upper wall, where perhaps it once continued to the 

 summit. It has also a flight of five steps at right angles to the north. This 

 arrangement and that in the other flight has a counterpart in the noteworthy 

 ladder-steps in Caherahoagh, in Inchiquin, Co. Clare ;' but the transverse 

 flight leads from the terrace up the wall in that fort. For comparison wo 

 may note that the usual ladder-flights in Clare, like those in Aran, have no 

 spaces under the steps, as in the Caherahoagh stone ladder. The flight in 

 Dun Oghil had three (not five) steps in 1839; two were probably then hitlden in 

 the debris, which encumbered the foot of the fort walls at every point at that 

 period. A curious late arrangement of steps between two walls (dating 

 probably from 1884) leads to another ladder-flight of eight steps in the upper 

 section ; this latter was also recorded in 1839. It is 36 feet from the south- 

 east flight. About 23 feet west from it to the west-south-west is a ladder- 

 flight of five steps up the terrace ; it is 3 feet 5 inches wide, and seems 

 unrecorded, though probably, lilce other luu'ecorded steps, the firmly set base 

 stones and traces of the recess with loose step blocks were found in the debris 

 by the restorers. 



The garth measures 91 feet north and south, and 75 feet 6 mches east and 

 west ; there are no hut sites save to the north, where a round pile of stone, 

 with chamljers, once remained ; we find an anomalous " round thmg " with a 

 flight of steps, possibly made with the blocks of the "closed flight," just 

 opposite. From its situation on the central hill, and the large number of huts, 

 with three forts, beside it, Dun Oghil, though less imposing- than Dun 

 Aengusa or Dubh Cathair, must have been at one time the chief resilience on 

 the island; and it is regrettable that its ancient name and legend are 

 unrecorded and lost. 



Dun EociiANACiiTA. (O. S. 110.) 



One more perfect ring-wall stands on the edge of a bold rock-ridge, not 

 far from the so-called "seven churches." Among the older settlers of the 

 Corca-modruadh tribe in Clare we find, apparently, a branch of the East 



' Roy. Soc. Ant. Ir., vol. .\xvi., p. SG6. 

 P.I.A. PUOC, VOL. X.\Vni., SECT. c. [28] 



