Westropp— 7'y/?e-s of Ring -Forts remaining in Eastern Clare, 203 



Probably in the fifteentli century two peel towers were built at the 

 bridge. Mr. White, of Kincora, tells me he saw the removal of the remains of 

 one, standing in the river, at the Clare end of the great weir. The other stood 

 on the Tipperary shore, near the bridge.' In Cromwellian times the bridge was 

 guarded, and gates set upon it. It was apparently unprotected when 

 Sarsfield sallied from Limerick in 1690, and crossed by it on the raid that 

 destroyed King "William's guns at Ballyneety in 1690. 



Previous Descriptions. — Six hundred years had nearly passed since the 

 destruction of Kincora and Boruma before any description of the Killaloe 

 forts, however brief, appears to have been written. Even that one gives us 

 nothing about Kincora, which the writer confused with Boruma. At this 

 point — for no relic is known to exist of the lost palace of Brian, celebrated in 

 the touching elegy of the great King's bard and friend, Murceartach 

 MacLiac' — I may briefly note its probable site. The " weir," at whose 

 " head " it stood, was most probably the great one above the bridge, where the 

 old castle stood. There is a high bluff, on the platform of which the modern 

 town for the most part stands, round the Eoman Catholic church. The latter 

 was probably not far from the site of the fort, but the long occupation has 

 obliterated the Norman castle and any traces left of the fort and well, which 

 obviously occupied a commanding position near to and above the bridge. For 

 instance, when the offended King of Leinster, with his courtiers, rushed from 

 Kincora, he led his horse over the narrow wooden bridge,^ and was mounting 

 at the farther end when Brian's ill-fated page, sent with a message of peace, 

 overtook him. That it was a large house is implied by the 160 heroes, 

 Irish and Danes, captured in it by Euadri Ua Chonchoblair, King of 

 Connacht, in 1091. 



Keating (as we saw) confused the two residences as " Ceann Choradh 

 na Boroimhe," and at the close of the same century, Hugh Brigdall, about 

 1693, repeats the confusion in the following words^ : — " The ancient palace 

 and habitation of the O'Briens, called Teachcincore, no great remarks (sz'c), 

 there are only some heaps of stones fallen ; it was built just where theri\-er 

 Shannon grows small." Brigdale's accoimt of Clare shows but little interest 

 in the ancient buildings and none in the numerous earthworks ; but it is more 

 than probable that in his day, as in ours, no vestige of the real Kincora was 

 to be seen. 



' A bronze ring pin and stone implements were found near this end of the bridge. 



-"Where, oh Ceann Choradh, is Brian?" It is well known in the versified translation of 

 Mangan, "Where, oh Kincora, is Brian the Great ? And where is the beauty that once was thine ? " 



^The Chronicon Scotorum, in 1119, mentions " the plank bridge of Cill Dalua." 



^Account of Clare in "The Commonplace Book relating to Ireland," 1693 to Jan., 169.5. 

 (MSS., Trinity College, Dublin, i., 1, 2, p. 225.) 



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