Westkopp — Larger Cliff Forts of West Coast of Co. Mayo. 17 



The types which I suggested, in 1906,' as a basis of a survey of the 

 promontory forts, nearly all occiu\ They are : {a) the simple promontory 

 fort with a single wall or mound and fosse — e.g. Spinkadoon, Dunaneanir, 

 and Forth ; (&) the complex fort of several earthworks, with or without a 

 stone wall, e.g. Dunnamo, Dun Fiachrach, Dunacurrogh, and Dunnaglass ; 

 (c) the " entrenchment and citadel,"^ of which no example occurs in the 

 district under examination ; (d) the multiple fort, with a fenced promontory 

 and lesser fortified headlands connected with it, such as Dun Kilmore. The 

 predominance of the prefix " Dun," so marked all round Ireland, is especially 

 marked in county Mayo. 



Of the features of the Mayo Forts from Broadhaven to Achill, we find, as 

 usual, no perfect gateways ; but enough remains to show the structiu'e of the 

 entrances at Dim Fiachra, Dunnamo, Forth, and Kilmore. Dunnaglass has 

 a banquette or terrace — a very rare feature in such forts ; it. Dun Kilmore, 

 Dunnamoe, and Forth have the remains of huts. Steps — as is also true of 

 Irish cliff forts in general — do not occur. Another rare feature, the earth- 

 work with a banquette, which I noted in two cliff forts in Corcaguiny, Kerry, 

 occurs in Dunnagappul on Clare Island, but is not in the scope of this 

 paper. Fresh water, as a rule, is found close to, but not in any of, these forts. 



Dun Fiachea (0. S. 2). 



Dun Fiachra, or more correctly Diin Fiachrach (pronounced Doonfiera), in 

 Aghadoon.' Local tradition only remembers Fiachra as the owner of a famous 

 " water-horse," mounted on which he used to leap across the narrow gullies 

 into the Dun.^ As we suggested, he may be perhaps identified with 

 Fiachra Foltsnathach, ancestor of the Tireragh and Tii-awley chiefs. Living in 

 the latter half of the fourth century, a generation before the introduction 

 of Christianity into northern Connaught. It is interesting that Ms de- 

 scendant, king Eogan Bel, was buried in a fort named Eathobhfiachraeh 

 and Eatliuifiachrach, upright, holding his spear, and with his face tui-ned 

 northward against Ulster.* 



Paliitino-Vaticamis " (ed. liev. itr. MacCarthy). Same series, vol. iii., pp. 147, 14S). See 

 also Dindsenclias (ed. W. Stokes), Revue Celtiqtte, xv., p. 448 (ed. E. Gwynn), Todd Lecture Series 

 vol. vii., p. 57. 



' Jouin;il Eoy. Soc. Antiqq. Ir., vol. xxxv., p. 240. 



- Like Islandikaiie and other forts in county Waterford. 



^ Aghdoon in Petty's maps, "Down Survey" 1652, and " Hibernia Deliueata," 16S3, No. S3. 



■• There is also a legend that the dun was a resting-place of the hapless swan maidens, the 

 daughters of Lir. 



s " Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach or O'Dowds' Country " (ed. J. O'Donovan, 1854), p. 472. 

 Kathuifiachrach was probably on the opposite (north-eastern) border of Connaught. 



