New York Acadtmy ot Scie.i<-.s 



XLII. 



PEEHISTOEIC SETTLEMENTS AT PORTj^AFEADOG, IN 

 THE PARISH OF MOYRUS, CONNAMARA. By 

 FRANCIS JOSEPH BIGGER, M.R.I.A. 



(Plates XXV., XXVI., XXVII.) 



[Eead Notember 30, 1895.] 



The importance of a careful investigation of all our prehistoric 

 settlements had been so fully brought home to me by my friend 

 W. J. Knowles, ii.e.i.a., who has himself done such valuable work 

 in this direction, that I took advantage of a visit to Roundstone last 

 July, during the excursion to Gal way of, the Belfast Naturalists' 

 Field Club, to make an examination of the sandhills at Portnafeadog. 

 The district is peculiar, two strands, with an intervening ridge, form 

 two crescents, back to back, connecting the mainland with an outlying 

 peninsula. The water to the west is called Dog's Bay, and that to 

 the east Gorteen Bay. The western point of this peninsula is called 

 Earawalla, meaning the place behind the town. Dog's Bay is evi- 

 dently a contracted form of the name Portnafeadog, the port of 

 the plover, and should not be used, as it now bears in English 

 quite a different meaning. The root word is fead, a whistle, so 

 the name would bear to be translated the port of the little whistle. 

 Gorteen means the little tilled field, and may refer to the small 

 sweet grass patches on the sandy ridge, or the little cultivated 

 fields on the side of Errisbeg overlooking the bay. This early settle- 

 ment is situated in the townland of Errisbeg West, in the parish of 

 Moyrus (Magh-ros, the plain of the rocky peninsula), and close to the 

 most interesting and beautiful village in all Connamara, Roundstone. 



The walk from Roundstone to the sandhills is along the base 

 of Enisbeg, that bare and rugged mountain with its jagged summit, 

 by far the finest in the district for its scenic beauty and varying 

 effects, surpassing any of the more exalted peaks of the Twelve 

 Bens or the Mamturk, that tower along the sky line to the north, 

 forming the feature of the district. The sandhills extend for about 

 two miles, levelling down to the water's edge where the sea line 

 forms a perfect segment of a large circle, even and unbroken. Here 



R.I.A. PEOC., SER. III., VOL. III. 3 C 



