554 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



fields for a considerable distance till they cross another road and reach the 

 north shore of Longh Owel. This latter portion of the entrenchments is more 

 complete than any of the rest, owing to its having been planted with trees. 

 The present earthworks there consist of a vallnm, about 10 feet high, in the 

 best preser\'ed portions, and on its southern side, on the edge of the timber- 

 belt, another about 5 feet above the central level. This is bordered by a 

 fosse, from 5 to 8 feet deep, measured from the field-level outside. This fosse 

 shows also in part the remains of a low rampart of about 2 feet high on the 

 outer side. A hedge runs along its inner side. 



On the northern border of the plantation I am of opinion (judging from 

 similar works constructed on level ground) that a corresponding low 

 rampart formerly ran, bordered by a fosse, as on the southern side. But at 

 present there is only a steep hedge and ditch. From the top of the high 

 vallum to the top of the smaller one measures about seventeen yards. This 

 portion of the entrenchments, therefore, seems to have been a formidable 

 defensive work. At the road end of this belt of timber containing the 

 earthworks, and some few hundred yards from the lake shore, a rath was con- 

 structed alongside, whose central platform is about forty- eight to fifty yards 

 in diameter, with a ring or bank in some places ten to fifteen feet above the 

 enclosing fosse. Possibly this may have been put up as a place of residence 

 for a guard. Two names are locally applied to these ancient earthworks. 

 The portion at the Multifarnham end was named by the postman, who 

 resides there, " Boreen na hulka " (teste the late Mr. Tuite, of Mullingar, a 

 well-known antiquary). An old woman, whose cottage is on the edge of the 

 trenches, in Wilson's Hospital, also gave me the same name. I have been 

 unable to get any explanation of this word. But I heard a different one 

 from the farmers living near the remainder just described, a length of, 

 perhaps, three-quarters of a mile running into Lough Owel. Here the works 

 go by the name of Boreen na tauna or Botheen na tauna (spelt phonetically), 

 otherwise Boher na tauna. I thought, at first, it might refer to the 

 "ramparts" (sonnagh, in Irish, which, with the article prefixed, becomes 

 t' sonnagh; but, if this were the case, I am informed, the article would 

 become "an," giving "an t' sonnagh," pronounced "a tunny." A variant 

 explanation would be " an tamnagh," usually pronounced " towna," or, in 

 some of the counties of Ulster, " tavnagh" or " tonnagh," meaning " field of 

 grass." Seeing, also, that the country through which this frontier line 

 passes in Westmeath is, and apparently always was, a pastoral district, that 

 appellation would not be a distinctive one. But, with the article " na " 

 prefixed, as in Boher na tawna (pronounced as "saw"), it apparently refers 

 to the Tain, " the I'oad of tlie Tain." The versions as pronounced to me were 



