eM 
OLpEN—On some Ancient Remains at Kilmaclenine. 123 
fields are still known as ‘‘ the feays,” evidently the same word as ‘‘ the 
fews” of Armagh, and representing the Irish, yo, ‘‘ woods.” Such 
a village would soon disappear when deserted by its inhabitants, and 
the only traces of it now remaining are the Mote and the Church, 
which, being built of stone, have survived, though much injured by 
time and the violence of man. 
The enclosure known as ‘‘ The Mote”’ is a solid wall crowning the 
summit of a limestone rock (Plate VII.), which rises abruptly from the 
plain to a height of about forty feet, like a miniature copy of the Rock 
of Cashel. At the eastern end, where the sides are precipitous, it has been 
enclosed by a wall about eight feet high, the area within being 128’ 10” 
x 105’ 4”. The wall is 3’ 9” thick. There is now no proper entrance, 
and access to the interior is obtained by a breach in the western wall. 
The entrance seems to have been at the east, and was evidently cut 
away when the rock was quarried at that part, some centuries ago, on 
the building of the modern castle of Kilmaclenine, which stands about 
fifty yards off. Two projecting bastions, having small windows at the 
side, command the face of the north wall and the supposed entrance. 
This little fortress is termed in the Roll the ‘‘ castrum,’’ the primi- 
tive name of the rock being given simply as ‘‘le carryg,” so called 
before any building was erected on it. 
Here it was that the bishops of Cloyne resided when in this part of 
the diocese, and here they held their court and received the homage of 
such of the tenants of the See estates as were resident in the neigh- 
bourhood. Thus such entries as the following are frequent :—David 
Barry cognovit se tenere de domino Hpiscopo et castro de Kylmaclenyn cas- 
tellum suum de Bothon® (Buttevant). Again, ‘‘ Dominus Johannes Roch- 
ford miles apud Kylmaclenyn in curia fecrt domino homagium,”® and so 
on. - But while to the bishop it was the “‘ castrum,” his “ fortified 
residence,” it served a different purpose to the colonists, and was 
known to them by a different name. It was the place where they 
held their assemblies, and the Provost and burgesses transacted the 
business of the settlement. In Spenser’s State of Lreland occurs a 
dialogue in which Hudoxus says, ‘‘ These round hills and square bawns 
which you see so strongly entrenched and thrown up were (they say) 
at first ordained for the same purpose, that people might assemble 
themselves therein, and therefore anciently they were called folkmotes, 
that is, a place of people to meet or talke of anything that concerned 
any difference between parties and townships.” Jrenaeus replies: 
“Those hills whereof you speak were appointed for two special uses, 
and built by two several nations. These folkmotes were built by the 
Saxons, as the word bewraieth, for it signifieth m Saxon a meeting of 
folk; and these are for the most part im form four-square, well en- 
trenched.”° ‘This use of the enclosure is evidently the origin of the 
name ‘‘ Mote,” which has survived the destruction of the village, being 
that by which the peasantry designate it at the present day. 
8 Pipa, p. 12. 26s.) ps oe 10 View of the State of Ireland, pp. 127, 128, 
