232 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



fosses are usually shallow, from 2 feet to 4 feet deep, and running into one 

 between the raths, so that the forts have their platforms barely 10 feet 

 apart. The trace of an old sunken road, marked by blocks at some points, 

 passes over the hill near these forts and to the west. The hill commands a 

 wide view towards the Fergus. 



Eollowing the southern branch from the cross-road to CuUeen townland, 

 we find a good example of the straight-sided fort. It consists of a platform, 

 7 or 8 feet higher than the marshy field, and measuring 150 feet along the 

 north-west and south-east faces and 168 feet along the other sides. The 

 south-east corner is perfect, so square and steep as to suggest the recent 

 survival of stone facing ; a few old poplars grow along the bank, and the 

 platform has no enclosures, and is dotted with hawthorn and sloe-bushes. 

 The fosse is 20 feet wide, with a slight outer bank, and is full of water and 

 masses of yellow iris to the south-west. A slight ring-fort, hardly 3 feet 

 high, with a shallow fosse, lies to the south. 



Eeturning by Killulla, we pass the large earthwork of Lislea. There is, 

 south from the road and east from the cross-road from Ballycarr, the trace of 

 a little fenced enclosure, where lies a sandstone block, 23 feet high and 



3 feet square, in which is ground an oval basin, 11 feet deep x 15 feet and 



4 feet deep. There is no trace of a burial-ground there, or of any fort or 

 ancient building. 



Monaf olia Eath lies a short distance up the Ballycarr road ; the name is 

 not given on the map, but is locally well established for the bog in the 

 south of Ballycarr townland and the fort near it, close to the edge of 

 Ealahine, opposite the bench-mark 126'2, shown on the road. The rath is of 

 the usual type, a low mound, 100 feet across, with a fosse, 12 feet wide and 

 4 feet to 5 feet deep, with outer and inner rings of earth and stones, 14 feet 

 to 15 feet wide; it has traces of being stone-faced. 



Ealahine^ takes its name from a rath, remarkable only for being the 

 scene of an important event in the medieval history of Clare. It is 

 a small circular earth fort, with a modern facing-wall. Here, on August 

 15th, 1317, in the absence of the Lord of the Manor, Sir Eichard de Clare, 

 and his rival, king Murchad Brien, who had gone to the Parliament 

 of Dublin, Prince Dermot Brien gathered the clans " to well-fenced 

 Eath-laithin." After hearing Mass, they consulted and agreed to invade 

 the territory of the rival house of Brien. Then they " mustered with new 

 standards and burnished arms," and marched " to that dim battle in the 



1 The map names are very unsatisfactory in this harony. If a pure Irish form is intended, why 

 use " Rathlahine " r The phonetic spelling, " Ealahine," is better, and is the form of general usage 

 from 1660 to 1840. 



