Wks'I'ROPP — Earthworks and Ring-toalls in Countij Limerick. 473 



ere a dark rain-storm blotted it out, and, in the strong light and shade, all 

 the plain and its ridges Dromasail, Eatheannon, and Knockainey started out 

 like an embossed map. 



The great gap between Seefin and Sliabhriach, up which we see the 

 H-shaped " Oliver's Folly "' and the rich woods, has a curious legend.* St. 

 Patrick desired a site for a monastery at Ardpatrick, but the local dynast 

 opposed him, unless the saint " would remove the mountain iu that place so 

 that he might see Loch Lungae' over it to the south " ; only then would he 

 believe. In a moment the mountain of Cenn Febrat began to melt into the 

 pass of Belach Legtha, " the melting pass." The legend fails in local know- 

 ledge, if the lake lies iu Co. Cork, and Ardpatrick does not look down 

 Clonodfoy pass, but across that behind Cenn Febrath or Sliabh Eiach. There 

 are several marshy places marking old lakes in the plain below. 



The mote (as Mr. P. J. Lynch* correctly states) is 34 feet 6 inches high. 

 It is 39 feet across the summit, nearly 50 feet, if we include the ledge ; but 

 the edges are broken by cattle. The fosses and mounds are regular. The 

 outer ones at the south-east are 18 feet across, the inner fosse 22 feet : all 

 are levelled to the north-east. The rings vary where best preserved from 

 14 feet to nearly 17 feet high, rarely under 12 feet ; they are 8 feet to 

 10 feet wide on top, and 15 feet to 20 feet below, the sides very steep and 

 in parts furzy. The outer fosse is wet to the north-west ; a small brook runs 

 along that and the west side. The mote has a core of stones under the thick 

 clay cover ; it was dug into many years ago, near the fair green to the north- 

 west, but the hole is now closed up. The field to the south is level on the 

 ridge, but there is no trace of an annexe or baily.'* 



Without excavation and full weighing of the results it were foolish and 

 idle to lay down any hard and " final " theory as to the origin of such an 

 earthwork. It may have been a burial mound,* but the great fosses and 

 rings tell against the view ; or a residential fort, or feudal castle, but the 

 small storm-swept summit, barely 41 feet across, is too small. The " Book 

 of Eights," circa a.d. 900, regards it as a fort. I ventui'e to suggest that it 



■ Built 1760 (census of 1821). The old name of Castle Oliver was " Castle na Doon." 



2 Tripartite Life (ed. Stokes), vol. i, p. 209. 



^ The poem on the Two Fermoys in the Book of Lismore gives their northern bound 

 as Glaisi Muilin Mairtel, in Sliabh Caoin, and " Loch Loinge on the plain." 



* Mr. P. J. Lynch and Dr. G. Fogerty, Journal U. Soc. Antt. Ir., vol. xsxiv, p. 325. 

 For other views and notes see Dr. Joyce's "Social History of Ancient Ireland," vol. ii, 

 p. 55 ; "Ancient Forts of Ireland," p. 147 ; and Lenihan's "Limerick," pp. 731, 732. 



^ See plan and view, Plates XL, XLI, No. 1. 



" Journal R. Soc. Antt., vol. ii, ser. ii, p. 123, for primitive burials in apparent high 

 motes, some with bailies; also ibid., 1882, pp. 152, 158. 



