24 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



sacred tree ; but this is more than doubtful, and seems to rest (like too 

 many of his derivations) on a guess, for in the earliest documentary form the 

 confirmation of Prince John's grant to Monasteranenagh, in 1199, calls it 

 Imelach dregingi. Crecora is a more probable example ; it is Craebh eumhraide 

 accorduig to Dr. Joyce, who, however, nearly always preferred the local to 

 the record form. Still it is doubtful whether even the local form was con- 

 sistent, for, in 1839, it was Craobh comhartha, and interpreted " bush of the 

 token," and the site of the venerated hawthorn bush, 300 feet north from the 

 church, was pointed out.' These Mleda frequently gi-ew on or near forts- as at 

 Magh Adhair, Eoevehagh, Craebh Theleha, and TuUaghog, and even in 

 Christian times were objects of veneration, and centres of ceremonial, 

 assembly, and even devotion, still maintained for trees and venerated thorn 

 bushes in some forts in Munster and Leinster.' The fort may have been a chief 

 " port " and inauguration place of the Ui Chonaill, as Magh Adhair was of 

 their over-chiefs of the Dal gCais. The earliest record of the name known 

 to me is in one of the Inq'iisitions, taken after the death of Thomas fitz 

 Maurice, on July 5th, 1298, giving the manor of New Castle in OconyL 

 There we find a name group Addouan, Glengort ; Eouscath mor and beg ; 

 Berne 60s. ; Asdare40s. ; DonkonewaU 13s. M.. ; Lystenbretenauch (Walshes- 

 town) 40s., &c. ; here the form DonkonewaU is evidently a wild attempt 

 to reproduce the unfamiliar Irish name.* The name appears as Donnwyll in 

 1452, in the Geraldine Eental of OcouyU, in OBaithin, with most of the 

 others, notably Asdare (Asteragh in 1299), and Dowathkatyn, and again as 

 Downgonewoolly in Peyton's Survey of the confiscated estates of the Earl of 

 Desmond in 1586 (p. 117b), Glandowngonwell wood being also named 

 (p. 118), with Astaregh, Gknestary, and Doacatteen, all in Toghe Meaghan 

 "Woughtragh. Eushkeighmore and begg and Downegonewylhy were parts of 

 Castlenoa or Newcastle granted by the Crown to Sir William Courtenay 

 of Powderham Castle, Devonshire, in 1591.' In the Ci^il Survey about 1657 

 (LB. 11. 22) George Courtney held (p. 6i Doonigoniweele, and the Courtney 



' O'Hudhrin's Topographical Poem ; see also Ord. Surv. Letters, vol. ii, p. 387. 



- In " The King and the Hermit " Tract, 44 g, 101, T.G.D., No. 8 (ed. Kuno Meyer), 

 p. 12, Marban describes the hermitage as near a " Bili ratha," venerated tree of a 

 rath. 



3 "They cut down the Rnadh Bheiteach, and demolished its cashel,"]143 (Chron. 

 Scotorum, &c.). 1099, Craebh theleha (tree of inauguration of the chiefs of Uladh at 

 Creive, Antrim) cut down. " The 2s eids were near it, in a longport" (fortress) (Ann. 

 Loch Ce). Holy trees grow in forts of Forenaghts, Kildare, and Skeaghavanoo, 

 Co. aare. 



* C.D.L, vol. iv, p. 257. 



' Fiants, No. 5586. 



