Wkstkopp — Dun C rot and the '^ Harps of C I'm.'''' 381 



Winding throngh pleasant woods and crossing a parallel valley, we reach the 

 plateau of the foot hills. On its angle, over a deep, bushy stream glen, 

 rises a little fragment of wall, in curious outworks, the last relic of Dungrot 

 Castle. 



The outworks are a notable instance of the ingenuity of the old fort- 

 makers in adapting natural features. The platform was naturally precipitous 

 to the south and east, so they made a dry-stone revetment along it, and 

 scarped and raised the landward faces into a high and efficient rampart, with 

 a fosse along its foot. They carved and adapted a knoll in the south-west 

 bend the same way, and levelled its summit. Examining the outer defence, 

 we note the fosse, 9 to 12 feet wide, a few feet deep, but deepening eastward 

 towards the gully. In the reach from the eastern edge is the gap of the 

 old gateway, the entrance ramp rising to the platform ; it is 6 feet wide, and 

 lies to the north-east of the Castle. To either side of this are large, shallow, 

 oval hollows, or house rings on the platform; that to the south-east abutting 

 against the wall at the precipice. The other site lies to the north-west of the 

 entrance. The garth here is 13 feet above the field: the rampart from 

 12 feet to 18 feet high outside, and about 25 feet thick at the base, and 6 feeb 

 to 12 feet wide on top. At the north it turns sharply to the south-west, 

 curving back to the upper garth, and, as the natural rise of the field is not> 

 counterbalanced in the wall, the latter is rarely o\gv 6 feet high at the neck, 

 where it joins the upper ring fort. This has a bold scarp, 20 feet to 30 feet 

 high, till it returns to the gully, and is somewhat irregular, generally speaking 

 oval, about 100 feet east and west and 90 feet north and south. Its revetment 

 is from 3 to over 6 feet thick, and on the side of the outwork it usually rises 

 about 10 feet over the fosse, which is rarely 3 feet deep and from 9 to 12 feet 

 wide. Near the centre of the platform on the summit of the knoll stood the 

 Castle tower. The whole foundation is not traceable; the fragment of the 

 north wall is featureless, but of fair masonry, about 9 feet high, 15 feet long, 

 and 6 feet thick.' 



There is a fair and extensive view down the glen and the wide valley ' 

 of Slievenamuck, the open plain and the blue distances of Co. Tipperary. 

 Beliind us the great green and bronze flank, marked with the " Hai-ps," on to 

 the shapely peak of Temple Hill (2,570 feet high), at the western end, is seen 

 in its noblest aspect. 



Down the grassy slope, to the north-east, is a fine normal ring fort, thickly 



• See Plate YII. 



-The view iu Aheiloe is accurately describetl in the ''.Pursuit of tho Uilla Dechnir." 

 Silva Gadelica, ii, p. 293. 



