Wkstkopp — Ti/pes of Ring -Forts remaining in Eastern Cljire. 187 



affecting the Ireland of to-day. Documentary evidence for forts later than these 

 is rare — mention of a fort near Magh Adhair named Lismacain, from a Macan 

 who fell in the raid of King Flan to the inauguration place there in 877 ;' the 

 stone fort of King Chonchobhar Ua Briain about 1100 ; the Norman castle of 

 Huamerith,' on the Shannon, in 1199, possibly made near Cappagh and 

 Sixmilebridge, where a place called Baile an Mhuta, the townland of the 

 mote, was still known in ISSS,** but is now forgotten ; and the Norman castle 

 at Killaloe some teir or twelve years later. No trace is known to exist at any 

 of these ; but the square or oblong platforms at Bunratty* and CuUeen,^ so 

 different from the normal earthworks of the district, may have been made by 

 the followers of Robert de Musegros, in Tradree, about 1250. The latest fort 

 of all, the " rath of beauteous circles," dug between 1230 and 1'250, atClonroad, 

 has left no trace. Evidently late is the oblong earthwork of the " Earl's 

 House." Whether, and, if so, which of the numerous little ring-forts scattered 

 over eastern Clare may be late, I have no means of knowing. The Cathreim 

 Thoirdhealbhaigh abounds in mention of residence in forts, duns, cathairs, 

 and " uamhs " from 1280 to 1317 ; the " 1390 " rental names " MacNamara 

 and his servants in the rath " ; O'Huidrin, before 1420, tells of the family of 

 Muinter Duibhraic dwelling in Dun Brain in O'Gonnello. The peel towers of 

 Aharinagh, Ballyganner, Cahercloggaun, Cahermurphy, and others show forts 

 used as residences during the later fifteenth century. Cei'tain Elizabethan 

 documents name (apparently) inhabited forts, while the O'Davoren deeds of 

 1605 and 1675 show how late that learned family of lawyers dwelt in the 

 ring-wall of Caher MacNaughten. That the forts were inhabited down to very 

 late times by the gentry is certain ; several were occupied by the peasantry 

 far down the last century, and two (Cahir-Balleeny and Craghballyconoal) in 

 Burren to the present day ; small ring- walls, indeed, were built and ring- 

 mounds thrown up from a slight fosse to make a cattle-pen or a fence for a 



' Mr. K. Twigge, r.s.A., kindly gave me this reference fromtiie Book of tJi Maine, a very helpful 

 fourteenth-century ms., rich in extracts from earlier sources. It occurs on/SSidl. 



- Hu Amerith — Hiii Aimrit (Aimbrit).- — There was another ancient sept of the name (descendants 

 of Barren) in Ciarrhaighe Luachra, a branch of which may have crossed the Shannon. 



My former conjecture (R. S. Ant. Ir., vol. xjtiii., p. 1S9) that Huanierith is Buanerelh or 

 Bunratty is certainly wrong. Huamerith is the " Y Emrid " of Thomas de CLire's Inquisition, 

 1287, the " Ui Ainireth" and " Ui Ainniire" of Irish documenls. From the account of O'Brien's 

 march from Limerick to TuUa through TJi Amrid in 1318 (Cathreim Thoirdhealbhaigh), it commenced 

 not far to the west of Cratloe, and extended past Ballymulcashel to Cullaun Lake, i.e., the parishes 

 of Clonlea, Kilfinaghta, and Kiliintinan, down to the Shannon. The upper partis " Tuath na 

 hamhan " in the " 1390 " rental. 



' Domhnall Og Mac Cearnaigh had a pledge on the half-quarter of Baile an nihfita — apparently 

 adjoining Leckan (Carrownalegan) and Cappngh, south-west from Sixmilebridge, near the railway 

 station. The date is given, 1450, incoixectly in Proc. B. I. Acad., vii. (1857-61), p. 15. 



* If this be (as I am inclined to think) the base of one of tlie wooden tnwers that surroumlrd the 

 stone castle in 1290, see Pipe Rolls, Ireland, Edw. I. ^ Supra, xxvii., pp. 230-232. 



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