12 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



platform forts of any height. It no more connotates a work of one type, or 

 of any one period, than do the cognate words " dun," " Hss," or " rath."' 



It might have heen hest to put together all the examples of a particular 

 type under that head ; but I think (as this paper is intended to subserve a 

 topographical purpose as well as an archaeological one) that it is better to 

 select in each case a district, and give all the more instructive forts in it, 

 along with the early legends and history, so far as bearing on the forts. 1 

 will endeavour to select these groups so as to illustrate the main sections of 

 the county. The tract from the Shannon to Dunganville may serve to 

 illustrate the forts of Ui Chonaill, or Connello ; those from the River Deel 

 to Ix)ugh Gur may represent the north-eastern and central parts ; and 

 Bruree and the group from Aherloe to Bruree and Ardpatrick, in Coshlea, 

 along the BaUyhoura Mountains, are sufficient to show the earliest legends 

 and residences of the royal Dalcassian race. 



Eablt Dmsioxs. 

 As so often, the first glimmer of light shows merely the names of obscure, 

 otherwise forgotten, tribes, such as the Gann, and possibly the Siol Gengann 

 (the Ganganoi of Ptolemy' in a.d. 160}, then the ubiquitous Ui Catbar and 

 Ui Corra, who had settlements down the west side of Co. Clare and 

 Connacht, and south of the Shannon, are said to have had colonies in western 

 Limerick. The more definite Gebtini gave their name to Askeaton (Eas 

 Geibhthine) and its island fort Iniskefty, or Inis Geibhthine. A reputed 

 tribe of the Mac Uraoir, or Huamorian Firbolgs, named Asal, is said to have 

 given its name to Drom AsaU, or Tory HUL' The Mairtinigh lay round 

 Emly;* these, and possibly kindred tribes (the Dilraighe, Margraighe, 



' Compare local Irish usage with the "buttes" and "motes'" in France: low forts 

 as well as high are so called. 



- Petrie identified the Magolicon of Ptolemy with Caherguillaraore, " an extensive 

 city" (" Military Architecture," mss. R. I. Acad., p. 77). If St. MocheaUoc be a real 

 person, it can hardly be Kilmochealloc or Eilmallock. Some take Brughrigh Bruree) 

 to be Rigia HiUra, but others place it at Athenry. An alleged poem of St. Columba 



(Ossianic Soc., vol. iv, p. 252) : "To Gann was given the country to the pass of 



Conglas (Co. Cork), and thence to the Luimneach." From the Dal gCais territory only 

 reaching to Camarry it is possible that the Toath Luimneach were once strong enough, 

 perhaps with aid from Connacht, to hold them back. The poem gives the country from 

 the Luimneach to Eas Ruadh (Asseroe, Ballyshannon) to Seangan and Geanand. 



3 Revue Celtique, vol. xv (1894), p. 481. 



' " The fleet of Luimneach plundered the Martini of Mumhan," Book of Leinster. 

 Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill (ed. Todd), pp. 15 and 227, and note, p. xlii. The 

 Martini of Imleach are named in O'Huidhrin's Topographical Poem {ante 1426\ line 

 601, but OHuidhrin is rarely up to date, and ignores the English occupation and other 

 changes. Todd, quoting from Book of Lismore, f. 172, and O'Curry, " Battle of Magh 

 Lena," p. 76n, notes this tribe, and the former suggests that Cluain Comairde (Colman's 

 Well) was in their territory. 



