Clare Island Survey — History and Archaeology. 2 23 



once better defended by a diy-stone wall, which, like those at Spinkadoon in 

 the Mullet, Minard in Kerry, Doonaunroe in Co. Clare, and others, was 

 removed, leaving little trace. Part of it has been destroyed long since by a 

 landfall, now grassed over. I found no trace of hut foundations on the platform. 



Dunnagappul (0. S. 85). — To the south-west of the Abbey are the 

 remains of what was probably once the strongest artificial fortification 

 on the island. All (save Ooghbeg) of the other duns owe their strength to 

 their natural features, and this is eminently the case with the next we must 

 describe, at Ooghaniska. It is strange that the Bun of Ooghnagappul should 

 have been overlooked ; it is conspicuous from the road, graveyard, and the 

 Abbey roof, from which its character is unmistakable. It says little for the 

 archaeological qualifications of those who made the great maps of our Ordnance 

 Survey that so many forts, even such complex or well-preserved ones as Dun 

 Kilmore and Port Conaghra in this county, and Dunruadh, Doon Castle, 

 and Brumore in Kerry, have been omitted from the maps. 



The fosse is cut across a deep mass of drift, about 50 feet thick, on low 

 rocks protected to the north and west by the narrow creek of Ooghcappul 

 or Ooghnagappul. The grassy slopes along the creek are intact, but the 

 storms and weather rather than the sea are eating away the side to the south- 

 east. The works consist of a nearly straight ditch 13 feet wide, and 75 feet 

 long; there is no trace of an outer mound. Inside the fosse is a rampart 

 reduced to only four and a half or 6 feet high, and 10 feet thick ; behind it 

 was a platform or banquette such as we find in the Kerry forts of Doonbinnia 

 and Ferriter's Castle on Doon Head ; it is 6 feet wide. Inside this to the west 

 is a curved fosse slightly convex to the landward side as usual. It is 

 59 feet long, 6 feet wide in the middle, and 9 feet wide at the ends, and 

 is nearly 10 feet deep at the latter points. The inner defence is levelled; it 

 was evidently a stone wall, nearly 50 feet long and 9 feet thick ; many large 

 foundation blocks remained firmly set in the sward. The north end of the 

 works are very neatly rounded, curving into the face of the slope, as we see 

 in some of the uninjured Kerry forts. The garth is at present 90 feet long 

 and about 60 feet wide ; the gangway and entrances were not central, being 

 about 20 feet from the northern edge ; the platform was surrounded by the 

 usual fence of no great thickness, which is now nearly levelled. It is evident 

 that on Cliara dry-stone walls and very slight earthworks Were the rule. 

 Inside there is a trace of a small circular mound, while outside, to the east, at 

 the edge of the north slope, is an equally faint trace of a ring, 30 feet north 

 and south by about 24 feet, probably for a hut near which a levelled fence 

 (crossed by the modern one) runs aslant across the headland from 6 feet to 

 70 feet from the fosse. (Plate III.) 



