282 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



because spiders did not make tlieir webs on Irish timber : our Science 

 section reports differently. We have grants of oaks from Cratellauch 

 to Godfrey Luttrel in 1215 ; and it was sold to Philip Marc, four years 

 later for 20 ounces of gold. Prince Murchad O'Brien, after his useless 

 conference with Ptichard de Clare at Limerick in 1318, traversed " the 

 Cratalachs — thick, sheltering, fruitful-branched, mast-abounding woods " ; 

 and his remote descendant Conor O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, in 1536 

 (alarmed by the taking of Carrigogunnell Castle, and the threatened 

 advance of Lord Grey), felled its trees across the passes to stop the English, 

 or at least their cannon, from entering his domains. Mac Grath, in the 

 above-cited passage of 1318, mentions " hazel woody Ballymulcashel," 

 as appropriate after six centuries at that time.^ In 1420, O'Huidhrin speaks 

 of the " yewy plain " of the Ui Bloid, which possibly extended into this 

 barony. We will notice the corroborative name Killuran later in this 

 paper. 



There are, of course, numerous old documents referring to woods in this 

 part of Clare, but we only select the more explicit. Many grants of the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mention timber and shrubs ; but the 

 mere citation would help us little in trying to get definite ideas on the 

 Clare forests. The 1655 Survey shows little evidence of the Cratloe woods 

 being then of importance. There were only 75 acres 2 roods of timber trees 

 and 365 acres of dwarf wood in Kilfinaghty ; 65 acres of woody mountain 

 with 114 of shrubs in Kilfintenan, and 212 in Killeely ; while the mountains 

 of Kilquane and St. Munchin's parishes were bare and heathy. In 1680 

 Thomas Dyneley's sketches show us, as we might expect, shrubbery, but 

 rarely even detached trees of any size. In 1752 Dr. Pococke noted the 

 plantations of Mr. Burton and Sir Edward O'Brien, as hs came through 

 Quin from Moyreisk and past Sixmilebridge ; he writes : — " The ride from 

 this place to Limerick is very delightful, being well wooded and in sight 

 of the fine river Shannon." The O'Briens kept up the woodland character of 

 their beautiful demesne of Dromoland ; Sir Edward O'Brien alone planted 30 

 acres in 1806, chiefly those larch " screens " that were so cruelly " reaped " by 

 the great gale of 1903. Cratloe Wood covered 180 acres in the year 1808.^ 



(12 J The Tulla Baronies. — We have dealt with the northern parts 

 of Tulla Upper, and now turn to the more level country. A wood called 

 Coilldruinge is mentioned in the Cathreim in 1279, as lying near Eortanne 



^ The apparent holly-name, Ballycullen, is shown by the same author to be a personal or family 

 name, Baile Ui Cuilen, in 1311. 



2 Pococke's " Tour in Ireland in 1752 " (Eev. Dr. G. T. Stokes), pp. Ill, 112. " Statistical 

 Survey of Clare " (Hely Dutton), pp. 272, 273. Lady Chatterton describes the Cratloe Woods in her 

 " Rambles in the South of Ireland" (1839), pp. 170-173. 



