Kanp: — Additional Researches on Black Pig's Dt/ke. 551 



No. 1 frontier ran to Lough Lene, and so past Castlepollard to Coolure on the 

 north shore of Lough Derravaragh. But a branch ran on from Killallon west 

 to Stirrupstown pohce barracks, and past Crosskeys close to a fort at Bally- 

 fore, where is said to be a deep fosse, possibly a portion of the earthworks, 

 and thence to Lough Bane. Still following westerly the boundary of Meath 

 it ran to the Mote of Fore, where remnants of the old ramparts and fosse can 

 be traced close to the remarkable dun. This stands on the edge of what 

 must have been formerly a lake of which Lough Glore is the shrunken 

 remarnder. Out of what was the ancient lake the Vallum runs out, and 

 passes the north side of the Mote, and a hollow in the field, about 8 feet wide, 

 marks the accompanying fosse. I was not able to verify the above description 

 personally, but give it as the result of Mr. O'Eeilly's examination at my 

 request. The line then passed by Sallymount to Balnacart Bridge or 

 thereabouts, and to Lough Kinale through the townlands of Tullyowen, 

 Tullyshammer, Cuiilentragh, Togher, Croekakane, and Cornacreevy. I 

 consider this portion from Killallon to Lough Kinale to be a subsidiary 

 Ijranch in connexion with those of Duncladh, which run from the north shore 

 of Ijough Kinale past Granard to Lough Gowna, and were described in my 

 former paper ; and I am inclined to think it referable to a later date than the 

 main line Xo. 1, which I now proceed to follow to Athlone. At Coolure 

 demesne, on the northern shore of Ijough Derravaragh, is a large rath, shaped 

 like a horseshoe, called the Eath of Moileen. Opposite it in ihe lake is a 

 wooded crannoge. In the same field as the rath may be seen about 150 yards 

 of a depression or fosse bordering the remains of a rampart, only one face of 

 which survives. All the rest seems to have been levelled and obliterated. 

 They pointed towards Castlepollard. 



The extensive bogs whieli border the Inny Eiver north of Derravaragh 

 Lough and reach to near Castlepollard forbid any expectation of trenches 

 and ramparts having been brought across them. And I know of no instance 

 of works of the kind having been found across a marsh or bog. Nevertheless, 

 it is possible that in some cases, if the turf were cut away to a lower level, 

 ramparts might be found which, by the growth of bog during the lapse of 

 many centuries, have been buried deeply. Similarly, turf cutters in these 

 same tracts of bog near the Inny have found causeways well preserved 

 6 feet below the present surface. At Granard, Castlepollard was stated to 

 be situated on the line of the Black Pig's race. I therefore visited that 

 locality, but could find no existing remains. But I learned that a line of 

 entrenchments is said to have been carried from near Castlepollard to Lough 

 Lene by Kinturk (the pig's headland), near the very remarkable dun which 

 occupies the highest summit of a hilly point over the lake, called Eandoon 



