Westeopp — Types of the Ring-Forts and similar Structures. 223 



ordnance survey cairn of some size, and 5 feet high) down to the gaps. A 

 heap of small sandstone pebbles lies near the eastern gap, and outside it we 

 find a thin walled " half moon " enclosure to the north of the gap, very 

 probably a cattle pen, whatever be its age, as the pebble layer may be a 

 cooking-place. 



The second or middle wall is built of good blocks (3 feet and 4 feet 

 square, and 18 inches to 2 feet thick), especially to the south-east and east ; it 

 is 17 feet 6 inches thick at two measurable points. There are gaps to the 

 north and E.N.E. ; the former, like the western gap of the inner ring, has 

 traces of lining slabs, leaving a passage 8 feet wide between them : these two 

 named gaps, and the western gate, partly rock-cut in the outer wall, are the 

 only certain gateways of the fort ; the gaps without slabs may (or may not) 

 represent others. There is no limit of number for gates in such forts : the 

 hill fort of Turlough Hill has eight slab-lined gates, and the cashel of 

 Inismurray had at least four, if not five opes. Probabilities favour one of the 

 gaps in the northern face of the outer wall as another gate : it is impossible to 

 locate any to the south ; indeed the unbroken line of the fosse precludes any, 

 save on the crags. The opes of the gateway may have had built piers, and 

 must have been several feet more narrow than the passage, but no foundation 

 is discoverable, and no lintel blocks remain in the debris. At the north-east 

 gaps the space between the two inner rings is 124 feet : a traverse crossed this 

 space at 45 feet to the north of the gaps. The second ring is greatly defaced 

 to the south, where it lies 132 feet from the inner line : it was probably 

 removed to rebuild the little ring- wall built over its lines at this point. As 

 rebuilt, this structure shows little of the old base, and that only about 4 feet 

 high,^ and the new wall lies 5 feet inside the foundation blocks, where they 

 run through the main second line. The western segment of the main rampart 

 has fallen or been thrown down a steep slope which it entirely covers for 

 over 60 feet, making an impressive scene of ruin, the most prominent feature 

 in the fort, visible even from the Edenvale ridge 5-|- miles away ; smaller 

 " slides," but hidden by the trees, took place at the north-eastern curve of the 

 outer wall, and the eastern edge of the middle line. I may here correct a 

 mistake formerly made, that the outer wall has made the great slip of debris 

 to the east. A modern wall built upon its ruins at this point ran along the 

 brow to the second wall at the north-east gap, and along its foundations 

 above the slip. Following its course, one is easily misled as to which wall 

 crowned the slope at this mass of ruin. 



The great outer rampart is some 4400 feet in circuit ; so overgrown, and 



^ There is a view of a portion in Journal Roy. Soe. Antiquaries (Ireland), vol. xxiii., p. 283. 



