Westropp — Types of the Ring-Forts and similar Structures. 225 



Moghane Fort stands much apart from its congeners in more ways than 

 its great size. Its shallow fosse, outside the strong rampart, recalls those of 

 Staigue Fort and other cahers in Cork and Kerry ; the slab facings recall the 

 great and probably early ring on the top of Torlough Hill, and the caher of 

 Bally donohane. Such slab-lining occurs in other forts, notably at Bally- 

 ganner and Carran in Burren, and has also been recorded in certain dry-stone 

 enclosures among the Berbers in North Africa. We hope the elaborateness 

 of our description will be forgiven as an attempt to put before students this 

 riddle of the past, whose origin, purpose, and builders seem lost in the night 

 of the centuries. 



Langough Caher^ ('i^). — When we examined this remarkable fort in 

 1892, it was greatly overgrown, and surrounded by thorn-bushes and hazels. 

 The outer part to the west, and a portion of the annexe, have since been 

 cleared ; this, and the perhaps less happy removal of a mass of stone, have 

 revealed the foundations of a gateway, and some portions of the facing of the 

 inner caher. The long enclosure walls to the south have, however, entirely 

 vanished. There were abundant traces in heaps of stones when I first saw 

 them to justify the plan of 1839. They enclosed along, hollow field, perhaps 

 the green or " faitche " of the fort. 



As it has been described in these pages and elsewhere,^ we will merely take 

 the opportunity of adding the results of more favoured examinations. The 

 central wall has the unusual slope or batter of 1 in 2| to the west, where it 

 has been very carefully built into the masonry-like layers of natural crags at 

 the low cliff. It is 6 feet 7 inches to 7 feet 3 inches thick, with small filling 

 and very good facing, showing signs of hammer-work, to let wedge-like angles 

 fit into the layers above them — an unusual feature, though traces of hammer- 

 work are visible in the great cahers along the southern edge of Burren, 

 in this county. The wall is much broken down to the south, but some 

 of its fine masonry can be sketched even there. The inner face is nearly 

 destroyed, and there are no remains of hut enclosures or traverses. To the 

 west the wall is from 65 feet to 8 feet thick, of beautifully fitted blocks, and 

 strongly sloped batter, about 1 in 2 J. What purpose this served in a wall of 

 large, good masonry is hard to see. It is comprehensible at Cahermurphy in 

 south-western Glare, where the stones are small, thin shale blocks, and a 

 considerable slope is absolutely necessary for stability. The gateway now 



1 Locally pronounced Longa or Loonga. 



- For Moghane and Langough, Journal Koy. Soc. of Antiq. (Ireland), vol. xxiii., pp. 281 

 and 284 ; Proc. R. I. Acad., Ser. III., vol. vi., p. 440 ; Trans, il. I. Acad., vol. xxxi., p. 648 ; 

 all give plans ; the first gives views of masonry. 



R. I. A. PROC, VOL. XXVII., SECT. 0, [34J 



