32 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



While I was told by a young man, of his own accord, a story of two 

 giant brothers, residents in the Dun and the Dangan, one of whom by 

 mistake killed the other, " with a shot," and then slew himself, I found some 

 unexplained hesitation in giving any information about the graveyard. The 

 altars (so the older men said) were over the giants ; but they denied that 

 Kilmore was a Christian burial-place, or that pebbles on the altars were ex 

 voto. The natives, duriag our two visits, treated us with the utmost kindness 

 and courtesy, nor, save in that matter, showed any unwillingness to tell all that 

 they knew of the places or themselves. As to bmial in promontory forts, such 

 eases oecm- as the ogham pillar in Dunmore on the Blasket Sound in Kerry 

 and the " giant's grave " in Doon Eask in the same county. There is a very 

 curious case, datiug about 990, given in the Eyrbiggia Saga. A certain 

 Thorulf died, and his body acted as a vampire, slaying men and cattle. The 

 neighbours, as the Ulstermen did in the case of Eoghan Bel in this very 

 pro\'ince, exhumed the corpse and removed it with some difficulty to a little 

 headland, where thej^ re-interred it. His son Ai-nkel then raised a wall right 

 across the promontory, to the landward of the " howe " (mound), sufficiently 

 lofty " that none might come thereover," and imprisoned the vampire. 

 The remains of the wall about 18 feet high, remaiaed on " Haltfoot's Head " 

 in Iceland when the saga was written.' 



It would be unpardonable to dogmatize as to the age of these singular 

 defences. Whether the inner headlands were first entrenched and then the 

 outwork or the ring-fort was made nearer the land, or whether the outwork 

 was the afterthought, I dare not try to decide. I incline to believe that it 

 was later than the ring-fort — first, because such an annexe to ring-forts 

 (whether of earth or stone) is always later than the principal fort and also 

 because the cuttiug away of the northern part of the ring while the northern 

 bend of the annexe remains, suggests that the original full width of the cliff 

 was occupied by the fort. There is no reason to assume that the latter was 

 a crescent, or it is more likely to have been closed to the north for shelter, as 

 there was an equally safe cliff on the south side, on which it could have been 

 made to abut. 



It is, however, very evident that an early Christian church (or churches), 

 perhaps of wood and clay, was built inside the ring-fort. Churches — for 

 "Kilmore" may imply a "Kilbeg," timber — because in a place so little 

 disturbed traces of stone oblong buildings might be expected to remain.^ 



' " The Story of the Eiedwellers-Eyibiggia Saga " (W. Morris and E. Magnusson), pp. 91, 92, 

 and Notes, pp. 281, 282. It was written about 1220 ; but the hero is alleged to belong to the end of 

 the tenth century . 



-As we have more than once pointed out, the present nearly treeless condition of the dislriut 



