■56 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



and ^vitLin the levelled enclosirre, is a boulder of purple conglomerate, 

 embedding pebbles of rose quartz and red porphyry ; it is about 4 feet 

 long by 3 feet high, and has, in its upper surface, a small oval basin,^ 

 apparently hollowed by grinding. Across the stream, 141 feet to the 

 west, in Toonagh, stands a rough slab of limestone, 6 ft. 3 in, high, 

 from 3 ft. to 2 ft. 6 in. wide, and 10 in. thick, forming a pillar in the 

 line of the two mounds and the sloping footway ; between it and the 

 stream is a shattered block like the base of a second pillar. 



Half a mile towards the S.-W. we find a large stone fort, Cahercalla 

 (Plate II, fig. 2), with the triple enclosure said to characterize a royal 

 residence.- It is built of smaller stones and with ruder masonry than 

 the beautiful cahers in north-western Clare and its larger neighbours 

 at Dromoland and Spansil Hill, still it is an interesting ruin, and of 

 sufficiently imposing size. It consists of a massive central cashel, 

 1 00 feet internal diameter, with walls 1 7 feet thick, where best pre- 

 served, and still 8 feet high, having a defaced gateway to the east, no 

 stones long enough for lintels remain in the ruin. The second ring is 

 a wall 8 feet and 9 feet thick, and 6 feet high, with gates to S.-E. and 

 S.-V., and a break or gate to X.-E., enclosing a space 214 feet in 

 diameter. The third, and outer, ring- wall has one existing gateway 

 to S.-E., and is 345 feet in diameter; the segment to the X.-"W. is 

 levelled. Xihell, the present tenant, states that his grandfather, when 

 engaged on its demolition, was suddenly taken ill, and, fancying he 

 had been " struck " by the fairy inmates of the fort, desisted from his 

 work of destmction ; this fortunately saved the caher, and beyond the 

 removal of a small late enclosure in the central ring, no harm has 

 since been done. Several shapeless objects of iron were found in this 

 part of the wall, and thrown into the rubbish, which was heaped 

 against the rampart. This recalls the iron axes, described by Sir 

 "William "Wilde, -^ found in Caherspeenaun, near Lough Corrib. There 

 are several forts of earth and stone, and an overturned dolmen in the 

 adjoining townlands of Caherloghan and Creevaghbeg, which cannot 

 be considered part of the group at Magh Adhair. 



Let me briefly indicate those points in which the remains may be 

 identified with the ancient ceremonial. Besides the elaborate article 



' Round basins also occur, \ritli prehistoric remains, in Co. Clare in a block of 

 the dolmen in Xewgrove, and another block near the de&ced dolmen of Kiltanon, 

 both a few- miles distant to the north. 



- As triple Celtic forts exist outside Ireland, from Scotland to Hungary, the 

 statement needs further examination. 



* Lough Corrib, p. 245. 



