382 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



planted with hawthorns. It is of earth, with a fosse, 3 to nearly 6 feet deep 

 and 12 feet wide ; it has no outer ring. The rampart is 6 feet to 8 feet high, 

 15 feet thick ; the garth is oval, about 187 feet across east and west by 

 116 feet north and south ; it has no house sites or traverses, and it slopes gently 

 towards the east, being nearly level with the main field.^ 



The Hahi'S of Cliu. 



The remarkable natural feature of the " Two Harps of Cliu " stands out 

 as clearly on the mountain as in the legends of Crotta Cliach. To anyone 

 wiio has seen them by evening light, when " the setting sun leaves a rich 

 fringe of gold " on the edges, or in snow, when they stand out in strong 

 silhouette, the resemblance is most striking, even from a distance like 

 Knocklong. The eastern lies in Ballygeana; the western in Baunteen, 

 The first " Harp " comes down in a shallow coomb, the thin parallel water- 

 courses falling into a large curved catchment gully from tiie edge of the 

 high plateau of Carrignabinnia, or Slievecushnabinnia, 2,700 feet high, a 

 flanker of Galteemore. The " Harp " is formed by the junction of live 

 streams in the coomb of Lyre (Ladar^ fork) ; beyond it, after crossing 

 Glenageehy (breezy glen), the great western "Harp " of ten channels, from 

 Carrignabinnia and Lvrenagappul (2,712 feet liigh), is reached. The eastern 

 forms part of the l>ound8 of Counties Limerick and Tipperary. Tlie hollow 

 between the mountains and Baunteen rings perhaps once contained a lake. 



Conjoined Kings ok Baunteen. 



Two miles to the west of tlie castle, and just Ijelow the " Harps," is an 

 interesting example of the somewhat problematical " conjoined rings," and 

 near them remains of a cairn and cist. 



By an old laneway, past a brook and a small earthen house ring (about 

 5 feet liigh and featureless), we pas.s the farmhouse, and turn acro.ss the 

 fields, south-eastward, to a mass of hawthorns, on the grassy ridge of 

 Baunteen. The western ring, tliough planted on both concentric mounds 

 with large old hawthorns, is open, grassy, and easily examined. Much of 

 its outer ring is levelled into tlie fosse; it is 9 feet thick, and rarely 2 feet 

 high. The fosse is from 2 to 4 feet deep, and 9 to 12 feet wide below. 

 Tlie inner level platform is nearly circular, 68 feet to 70 feet inside, 78 feet 

 to 86 feet over its ring, which is 6 feet to 9 feet thick. Between it and the 

 eastern ring a deep drain has been cut through the drift clay of the ridge for 



• Longford Bridge, l>elow Dun Crot, is apparently named from another fortress 

 CO. S., map 50). 



