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IV. 



MAGH ADHAIE, CO. CLARE. THE PLACE OF INAUGURA- 

 TION^ OF THE DALCASSIAIS" KINGS. By THOMAS 

 JOHNSON WESTROPP, B.A. 



(Plate IL) 



[Eead 13th April, 1896.] 



Ma&h Adhair, now Moyare Park, although, one of the best preserved 

 places of inauguration in Ireland, and historic as the spot where our 

 greatest monarch, Brian, was first made king of the little realm of 

 Thomond, has been only noticed, with unaccountable brevity, by our 

 antiquaries and historians,^ which encourages me to lay before the 

 Academy a description of its site and sketch of its history, with plans 

 •of the existing remains. 



In the townlands of Corbally and Toonagh, little over two miles 

 north-east from Quin, Co. Clare, the road to Tulla dips into the 

 depression through which flows the little streamlet, known by the name 

 of the Hell river. North of the bridge, over this rivulet, we find a 

 sort of amphitheatre, fenced by crags, and enclosed by a low bank, 

 marked here and there by blocks of stone. In the area of this levelled 

 space rises a large flat topped mound, girt with a fosse and bank. 

 The tumulus (Plate ii., fig. 1) measures from 85 to 100 feet on top, and 

 is over 20 feet high ; it is in perfect preservation, and does not seem to 

 have been opened. The top has only a few sloe bushes, and a worn 

 slab of limestone, level with the ground, on the north side. A sloping 

 way, with steep sides, leads across the fosse westward to the level of 

 the field. A second but much smaller mound, or rather cairn, of earth 

 and large stones, about 10 feet high and 17 feet on top, rises 30 feet 

 from the last on the brink of the stream. North of the great mound, 



^ The only attempt at description among our predecessors being that in 

 Ordnance Survey Letters, R.I.A., Clooney Parish, Co. Clare, and that only in 

 manuscript. See Annals Four Masters, note on 1599 ; Eoyal Society Antiquaries 

 of Ireland, Journal, 1891, note, p. 463. 



