Wkstropp — Earthworks and Ring-iualls in County Limerick. 469 



low fort behind G-lenlara house, which I did not visit ;' the " Down " of 

 Ballingany ; and the dolmen of Ballyfroota. The last is in the fence of a 

 by-road, and is utterly defaced ; it consists of three stones, the cover cracked 

 and partly supported by a pier-. It is 7 feet by 2 feet 8 inches by 7 inches 

 thick, the whole 3 feet high. Persons suffering from pains in the back are 

 believed to be cured by stooping or creeping under its shelter, and this belief 

 alone secured its preservation. 



The " Down "^ is called " the mote of Glenbruaehain "^ in the Ordnance 

 Survey letters ; but the term, I am told, is applied, at least in Glenbroghaun 

 village, to Dun Claire. It is a neat, regular, low mote, not far from the grave- 

 yard of Ballingarry Down, with a fine view of Sliabhriaeh, Dun Claire, the 

 Galtees, and the endless branches of their stream channels. It is on a 

 slope, and is 18 feet high to the west, and 8 feet to the east. On the west 

 and north it has a deep, dry fosse, 9 feet wide below, 23 feet at the field, 

 and 9 feet deep. The flat summit is 53 feet east and west and 42 feet north 

 and south; on it is an oblong late house foundation, 21 feet by 27 feet, an 

 unusual object on such forts.* One recalls here, in 1387, Niall O'Neill built a 

 house in Emania. " There had not been a house within it for a long time 

 till then." 



KiLFINNAN (0. S. 56). 



The name Kilfinnan is explained in the " Book of Fermoy."" It tells how, 

 on Samhain night, Fingin mac Luchta, king of Munster, was at Drum Fingin. 

 A fairy, Bacht, from Sith Cliath (Cnoc Aine Cliach, a mound of the Tuatha 

 De Danann) came and told him of the wonders on the night when Conn Cead 

 Cathach was born. From its connexion with the Sidh of Cliu, Kilfinan and 

 Dromfinghin are evidently intended. 



Somewhere near it was the spot where St. Patrick sat on " the three 

 tulachs," to watch the hunting of the mighty stags, roes, and boars at Osmetal 

 Hill. People (as at Croaghateeaun, Co. Clare)* feared to sit there because 

 of the Tuatha De. Three glens met below Cenn Febrat of Sliabh riach, at a 



' Its plan from O. S. map is given, Plate XL. I only saw it from a distance ; it seems 

 of little interest, and featureless. 



^ Besides "Ballingarry Down," we have a townland " Mitcliellstown Down," not far 

 distant. 



2 Perhaps the Rath Corbre, "beside Clar, at the Rath of Corbre and Broccan," 

 "Silva Gadelioa," ii, p. 201. Cairbre Muse was connected with Claire : he, his brother 

 Cairbre bhasCoinu (ancestor of the Corcavaskin), and Cairbre Riada were sons of the 

 High King, Conaire II, "a.d. 234" {ihid., p. 540). 



* View, Plate XLII, No. 2, plan and section Plate XL. 



■' Irish Texts (R. I. Acad., vol. i, part i), p. 9. 



'' Journal R.S.A.I., vol. xxxv, p. 345. 



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