WESTiiOPP — Types of Ring-Forts remaining in Eastern Clare. 207 



making it to hold np the water and flood out his enemies in Connacht. It is 

 interesting to find Brian's energy, liis firm suzerainty over Connacht, and his 

 somewhat questionable sovereignty remembered at his ancient residence, even 

 in so mythical a form. As we noted, stone implements were found on the 

 spur, marking it as an early settlement,' probably for ages before the fort was 

 dug. Mr. Eobert Parker still retains one of the stone celts. The above 

 legend, found by Mr. and Mrs. S. 0. Hall- in 1840, subsisted down to 1906, and 

 probably to the present time. Brigdall, Latocnaye and Windele show how 

 firmly the great monarch's name attached to the fort for the last two 

 centuries. 



ORIAHAN-LACHTNA 



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BEALBORUMA 



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Forts near Killaloe, Co. Clare. 



I have been told that " bronze swords " were dredged up in removing the 

 Boruma ford. A bronze pin-ring was certainly recovered from the ford at 

 Killaloe Bridge. 



Popular legend regards the fort as Brian's parlour. This is also asserted in 

 an ancient poem attributed to his bard, Mac Liae. If this be genuine, we can 

 even form a clear picture of the arrangements of the hall. The cooking, of 

 course, was done on the floor, as we see in documents from the strange account 



' A number of stone celts found at the ford of Killaloe are preserved in the National Museum 

 with a flint arrow-head found at the Tipperary shore, and a bronze ring-pin. Many of the stone 

 implements were of the adze type for transverse work, and probably were used for making canoes, for 

 which the place (above the rapid?, nnd at the end of a long unimpeded waterway, with forests close 

 at hand) was a suitable factory. 



2 " South of Ireland," vol. iii., p. 420. 



