30 Proceedings of the Royal Irmt Academy. 



feet deep. It has been altered ; an ancient road runs through it, from near 

 the east edge of the central fort, and goes eastward in two branches down to 

 the plain. It is banked along the flanks of the annexe, beyond which it is not 

 traceable. Below this road was the terraced outer enclosui-e, which was 

 replaced by a later and lai^r one farther down the slope, about -300 feet 

 north and south and 187 feet across : its mound is 4 feet to 6 feet high and 

 thick, with the usual slight fosse 6 feet wide. To the north of the main rings 

 is a similar annexe 118 feet across and 5 feet high. The fosses were carefully 

 kerbed by large limestone blocks. The mounds are dotted with a few weird 

 old thorns leaning from the west wind. There is a fine view from Shanid to 

 Eathkeale, with the Galtees beyond, and to the north the grey terraced hills 

 of ilullach and Glasgeivnagh, outposts of the Burren of Co. Clare. 



LiSMAKEEBT fO.S. 19). 



liismakeery was another appan^^e of Keynsham Abbey down to the disso- 

 lution. Its church is first named in the Papal Taxation of 1302—7. Xot to 

 follow the history, the name appears as Lismakyre, Lisvikerry, Lismackerry, 

 and Lismacdyrrye in 1591, and Lissakaire, alias Tryenlassamacdixry, in 

 1609. 



The fort is a fine earthwork on a low green hill, and is a low mote or 

 platform 16 feet higher than the fosse, and from 12 feet to 14 feet above the 

 field, save to the south, where it is only 6 feet high. It has no outer ring, and 

 the inner one rises hardly 2 feet above the garth to the west and south-west, 

 most being levelled. The fosse is 6 feet to 8 feet wide below and 10 feet to 

 12 feet at the field leveL The fort rises very steeply 16 feet, with a base of 

 6 feet, or 1 foot in 2\ feet to 1 foot in 3 feet ; much of the stone facing remains 

 to the south — small, beautifully fitted masonry ; the north facing has been 

 very recently thrown down, and Ues in heaps in the fosse. The platform is oval, 

 114 feet north and south by 102 feet east and west. The late fifteenth-century 

 church stands beside it, maVing a conspicuous object from Askeaton Station. 

 The low, broken castle is in the fields below. From the summit, Shanid Castle 

 is just visible over the ridge of Craggs, and the great keep of the Desmonds' 

 Castle, with the clustering houses of Askeaton, is well seen. 



On the opposite side of the Craggs ridge, in Ballinknockane, is a fort of 

 curious plan in outline like a barrel, the north and south ends straight, the 

 sides slightly curved. It is 120 feet long north and south, and from 54 feet to 

 90 feet across, a few feet high ; it had once a stone wall 9 feet thick, now 

 nearlv removed. 



