Wkstropp — Types of Ring -Forts remaining in Eastern Clare. 199 



it was taken by that howling, furious, loathsome crew, and plundered, neither 

 was there concealment underground in Erin "' that was not discovered by 

 them. The fact that the forts and monasteries were often palisaded and 

 crowded with wooden houses greatly facilitated their destruction. Although 

 (save in the case of certain Scotch forts) our Annals do not record sieges, the 

 storming and burning of forts was very common, and made its mark on our 

 legends, history, and fictions of many periods. To give a very few examples 

 from history: — In 622 "Fire seized Eath Guali; save ye a little from it; 

 vehemently the wicked have lighted fire in the rath " : in 680, " Burning of 

 the kings in Dun Cethinr (the " C4iant's Sconce "),^ sorrowful to look at their 

 stony graves, to see your dogs, your greyhounds, and your women in the 

 possession of your foes." 925. " Destruction of Dun Sobhairche (Dunseverick, 

 Antrim) by the foreigners." Burnings of the forts (duns) of Dun Echtach 

 (Duneight, Co. Down), by Flathbertach Ua Neill, 1010 ; 1081, &c., of Cenn 

 Ooradh, which we give below ; 1088, of Dun Aiehed (in Co. Limerick) ; 

 1101, of Aileach (Grianan, Donegal), and in 1165, the lake fort of Inislachain 

 (Co. Antrim) ; the above are pre-Norman. In the medieval lives of the saints 

 such episodes also occur ; we recall the destruction of Dun mechair (Co. Clare) 

 in the early sixth century in the life of St. Senan and the burning " Castle " 

 near Ardmore (Co. Waterford) in the previous century in the Life of 

 St. Declan. In the " Sagas " we may quote from the " Wars of the Gaedhil " 

 — " Thou didst plunder their dun at the time ; thou didst surround it with a 

 wall of fire."^ In the romances — we may select fi'om the " Cath Euis na Eig " 

 — " she (Queen Medbh) left not in our province (Ulster) m?w (rampart) or 

 stead without ravage, nor dim in which they boasted not, nor miir without 

 fiercely burning it " ; and in the same tale the " murrads, dangans, duns, and 

 dromthelchas (entrenched ridges) are burned." In the late romance, " Cath 

 Finntraga," three duns in Co. Kerry, with their inhabitants and domestic 

 animals, are burned. 



" BORUMA " — Borama means " reckoning of cattle," i.e., for tribute. The 

 position of the lower end of Lough Derg, with a convenient ford from the 

 present Co. Tipperary, was very suitable for such a purpose, while the 

 number of stone weapons secured here and at the ford of Killaloe, a little 

 below it, shows the importance of the pass in very early times. The fort may 



^ " "Wars," pp. 41, 115. In 836 the Norse plundered the dims, churches, and houses of Magh Life 

 and Magh Bregh, from the Boyne to the LifFey. A band, fitly called "the Sons of Death," ravaged 

 Louth and Meathlrom a laku fort in Cavan. This was destroyed by the Irish in 846 (Ann. of Ulster). 

 Professor Zimmer dated the conversion to Christianity of the "D.ines" of Limerick about 943 

 (Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland, ed. Kuno Meyer, 1902, p. 95) ; but the prosperity of Mungret 

 Abbey, close to Limerick, after the first raids of the invaders, shows their toleration, even when 

 pagan. 



- " Ancitnt Forts of Ireland," section 87, p. 116. ^ " Wars," p. 81. 



