222 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



lines, full evidence that the ramparts had regularly built faces with slab- 

 filling of various sizes, usually large. The most curious phenomenon is the 

 systematic overthrow, unlike even half-levelled ring-forts elsewhere, where 

 we simply find materials removed, not overturned and left in heaps for their 

 full length. The enormous masses, poured like avalanches from the second 

 and outer walls down the steeper slopes, are very striking, especially to the 

 west and east of the second wall, and to the south-west and north-east of the 

 outer. Only towards the east and behind the gate-lodge has the material of 

 the outer wall been removed to any considerable extent ; but the ditch, 

 foundation, and slight outer mound are traceable, save down the bare crag 

 near the small ring-wall, and where buried in its own fallen masses. When 

 this elaborate destruction took place we have of course no means of knowing, 

 save that it evidently occurred before the building of the two small ring- 

 walls in the outer and middle lines. It is extremely unlikely that this great 

 enclosure can date after the Dalcassian conquest, circa a.d. 380-400, or be 

 the work of the feeble Tradraighe. If the ornaments found at the railway 

 were plunder of this fort or " town," experts date it in the later bronze age ; 

 but this would far outstate our evidence, and we have never heard of any 

 find within the walls, or seen any object in the spots upturned by rabbits 

 or fallen trees, save two shapeless pieces of iron, of any possible age or use, in 

 the outer garth. What was the height of the wall we have no means of 

 discovering; but where it has been spread out to at least three times its 

 proper breadth, it is 6 feet high or even more. Walls of 12 feet to 16 feet, 

 and even 18 feet high, are found in more perfect cahers, and here the walls 

 may have been quite as lofty. Nowhere have traces of more than one section 

 of the walls or foundations of steps been disclosed. Of the foundations of 

 gateways more remains to be said. 



First, as to the general dimensions, we must amend our former " round 

 numbers," though, owing to the spreading of the stones and the practical 

 impossibility of getting any cross-measurements between the existing faces, 

 more than general accuracy is unattainable. The whole enclosure measures 

 north and south 1512 feet, the second 705 feet (657 feet between the walls: 

 this internal measurement has been given by mistake for the over-all 

 dimension as 650 feet in our former description) ; the inmost is 363 feet over 

 all north and south. The dimensions east and west are — the whole (across the 

 middle) 1118 feet, the second 664 feet, and the inmost 386 feet. 



The inner wall is 20 feet thick to the north, and 22 feet in several other 

 places where facing blocks remain. There are gaps to the west and E.N.E., 

 the former with set slabs; the garth is 312 feet across, north and south, and 

 342 feet east and west. Traverses run from the highest point (where is an 



