546 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Roosky to Driimshanbo (Lough Allen) formed a part of the frontier between 

 Connacht and Uladh. A reference to the present map will make this 

 clear. 



The corrected data afforded by the old MS. from which Keating quoted for 

 his Meath frontier were found by investigation on the spot to be roughly 

 approximate. Local research indicates that the alignment from Knock-na- 

 miiice at Roosky (Lough Bofin) must have gone thence to Lough Rinn and 

 by Lakefield to a point on Belsearra stream, about half way between Mohill 

 and Cloone. Here I noted some probable remains of a defaced rampart. 

 Near Cloone are some townlands whose prefix of Sonnagh retain evidence of 

 the proximity of a rampart at an early date on the route past Cloone to 

 Balliuamuck, namely, Sonnaghmore, Sonnaghbeg, Sonnagh Connor, Son- 

 nagheenachty (Finerty). The latter lies a little east of Lough Adoon (Ath- 

 da-on, Keating's " Athlone "). Mr. Thomas O'Reilly, Master of Loughduff 

 National School, near Cavan, who has rendered me valuable assistance on 

 many occasions, writes that when on a visit to the neighbourhood of Adoon 

 in the year 1870, he was shown an extraordinary cutting or dyke, which as 

 well as he can remember was about 20 feet deep and 30 feet across, with a 

 low broad embankment on the east side. He was told by the owner of the 

 farm that this " had been made by an enchanted pig." Nor had he thought 

 of the matter since, until I interested him in my quest. This cutting seems 

 subsequently to have been partially filled so as to be in no way remarkable 

 now. From this place I was told that ramparts had formerly run to Fenagh. 

 There a man named Thomas Greenan at once informed me that he had learned 

 from an old resident that " the Black Pig's Valley had gone from Adoon to 

 Fenagh, passing through the hollow near the glebe house and alongside of 

 'The Commons' of the abbey." He then pointed to a distant hill with a 

 plantation on it called Drumkeen, past the eastern side of which he stated 

 that the Black Pig's track led to Drumshanbo. Through the hospitable 

 courtesy of the Rev. William Welwood, Rector of Fenagh, I was enabled to 

 follow up the inquiry from place to place, and interviewed various old residents 

 in the parish of Oughterach. The following appears to have been the route : — 

 To St. John's Lough into which a point of land extends called Muckros, " the 

 pig's point." From the lake it again ran, traversing the townland of Mayo^ 

 through which an obliging farmer named Roddy conducted me by an ancient 

 roadway (probably carried through the original earthworks) to the top of the 

 hill where the banks ran far apart, and the ground seemed to have had a 

 rampart roughly levelled while the farm track ran through the fosse. From 

 thence he pointed out a disused roadway alongside of the Yellow River 

 through the townland of Kiltybardan, and round Drumkeen (where is the 



