2 48 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Bally heer, I adopt his decision. The dun is a very striking structure, on the 

 end of the chief ridge, between the parallel valleys so characteristic of Turk 

 and Caher Islands. The builders knit their walls into every projecting rock 

 at the head of the steep slopes, 100 feet up, and fenced the weak spot where 

 the ridge continued eastward, at its most narrow point, by a strong curve of 

 wall, with blocks 4 feet to 5 feet long. The ends are now nearly levelled. 

 The rampart is usually from 4 feet to 6 feet high, and 6 feet to 8 feet thick 

 along the flanks. It was probably once 10 feet to 12 feet high. The part to 

 the north is a fine piece of work, well preserved, and rarely under 5 feet high 

 outside. It is of large blocks with their smaller ends out, like " header " 

 masonry, and is in a single section, with two faces and large filling. It 

 has two opes in the face of the wall resembling gateways, but I think only 

 gaps under the larger slabs. The south wall is more dilapidated. It forms 

 a revetment, and is, in parts, 6 feet to 8 feet high. Near the gateway it 

 was of two, if not of three, sections. Two remain. The bonding with the 

 crag is worthy of the builders of Langough and Ballydonohan 1 forts. 

 The sections near the gateway are 4 feet 6 inches and 3 feet thick. There 

 may have been another section, 3 feet thick, on the edge of the crag. 

 The outer faces were, as usual, of the larger stones, and the sections sit 

 on low ledges of various heights. The gateway was in the middle of 

 the south wall. It is 3 feet 8 inches outside and 3 feet 10 inches inside. 

 The passage was 12 feet long to the outer section of the wall. It is levelled 

 to the foundations, but seems to have had side walls projecting inwards. 

 The passage runs down a crag, with natural steps as at Dun Aengusa in 

 Aran. The first step is 10 feet long and 3 feet high ; the next 7 feet 3 inches 

 and 3 feet. Thence narrow ledges, bare footholds, descend 5 feet or 6 feet to 

 a narrow path down the south-west flank. This descent is broken, steep, and 

 overgrown. The garth enclosed by this wall is 171 feet east and west, 

 varying, of course, greatly, as it is a long oval in plan, like Dundomnall near 

 Belmullet. It is 14 feet 6 inches wide near the west bend, 46 feet to 47 feet 

 towards the middle and at the rock outcrop, and 38 feet 6 inches at 30 feet 

 from the east. The wall is nearly all removed at the west end. A heap 

 of stones and earth, perhaps a collapsed hut, lies at the east end; and a 

 heap and hollow may represent another house-site, at 60 feet from the west. 



So very well-built and simple a fort on so commanding a position is 

 probably of early date. The type of wall is found in Ireland connected with 

 1 'ronze Age finds, perhaps of the fifth to the seventh century before our era, and 

 was abundant in Gaul several centuries before its reduction by Julius Caesar 



1 P roc. E. I. Acad., xxvii (c), Plate xv. and p. 396. 



