176 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 



Aghadoon, Kxocktokin" (0. S. 40). — The Sairuer, to judge from its old 

 channel, was once a goodly stream, and if it be the Saimer of a list of the 

 chief rivers of Ireland, got more than its share of recognition. Now, the 

 great rain-collecting forests being long felled, it, like the Cammoge, has 

 dwindled to a brook. It divided the Ui Fidgeinte from the Arada before 

 the Dal Cais intruded. The ford Aghadoon ( Athnaduin), also called " Doon 

 Ford," is marked by the old road from Knocklong to Kilmallock on either 

 bank. It is evidently the Athdunbari.' named, along with Laythyralaw (or 

 Templenalaw, on Slievereagh) and Garthagriffin (Ballingarry in Coshlea), and 

 was named from the Harrys. It is most probably the ford at the earth- 

 work of BaUhim "n Fmaraigh, " the little fort of the contest," where, in the 

 Battle of Knocklong," Colga, Bang Cormac'e chief druid, was slain by the 

 superior magic of King Fiacha's druids, who turned his "handstone" into an 

 eel or serpent,' for the ford lay west from Knocklong and had a little rath 

 near it. The utterly mythical oature of some Irish Sagas never affects their 

 accuracy in topography. 



The /< is a low mote in Knocktorin f a shapely mound, carpeted with 

 ferns, violets, and primroses, and planted with sycamore and beech. Through 

 thet il has beautiful views of 81ievereagh to the south, and a glimpse 



to the north of Thountinna, over Loch Derg. The mound is well Been from 

 the train. be< Knocklong and Kilmallock, to tli<- south. It is 16 Eeel to 



1 high, the top girt by a low i _ et to 10 feel thick, and rarely 3 feel 



high. The platform inside this i 123 feet al the 



base. Then are traces "f a fosse, but too defaced t" be measured. 4 The old 

 road runs from it to the ford, westward down the slope. 



Atiiknk'.- : O.S -"). — Like Aghadoon, the next ford down the stream t>> 

 the north of the railway has ^>t a high fort near it. but "ii the ether bank. 

 The name A//) to a tribe, the Deis denizens of the Tna 



district M ith, who t" have fled for refuge to < >ili«»ll 



Aulom in the Is ntury. Under his aegis, one section settled in 



the present baronies of Dei . Waterford, the other in Deisbeg, or 



Small County, in Co. Limerick. It is called Athenysy in a papal letter of 

 1260. In 1335, Elizabeth afilton, widow of Walter de Bermingham. had 

 owned Athnedess. The church of Aghnedesse was robbed by John Staloun ; 



1 Plea Roll, No. 22 of ixv. Edw. 1(12 "■ Pan iii, iu 18, and No. 42, anno xvii. 



1 Similar tales of yreat eels are f"und near Loch Gur, Rev. Celt., vol. iv, pp. 171, 18C. 

 In the Tain be Cualnge (ed. Dunn), p. 161, the Morrign turn^ into an eel to wind round 



''hulaind :it the ford; cf. also an eel peifll in Co. Kerry (mss. R. I. Acad., 12c 3 (13), 

 p. 147 ; B >:itt. Ir., x\v, p. 74), and Feis tiu'he chonain, Iturod., p. iii. 



3 Cnocktoren, mealing with Donmoone and Elt«.n, Small County (Civil Survey, p. 10). 



• Plate VI. 



