302 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



evidence that in Saxon times the true significance of that structure was then 

 unknown. The farmers living near the Worm Dyke, in the Co. Monaghan, 

 say truly, however, that it was an ancient boundary between the territories of 

 two chiefs, and that anyone transgressing its limit incurred the penalty of 

 death, 



I found its course traceable in this part of its alignment through the 

 following localities ; and though since the plotting of the original Survey 

 maps many parts of the work have been either partly or entirely obliterated, 

 in the new survey not only will the extant portions be set out, but the site of 

 the embankment, even where now effaced, will be also recorded. I may here 

 acknowledge my very great indebtedness to the officers and staff of the 

 Ordnance Survey, both at headquarters and those in charge of the field-work, 

 for the interest shown and the practical assistance rendered in the discovery 

 and identification of the remains or original site of this great earthwork in 

 every district through which I had reason to think it might have run. 



In the parish of Currin, south of the town of Clones, there is a townland 

 called Cornapaste (the round hill of the worm), near the present boundary 

 of the Cos. Monaghan and Cavan. A schoolhouse here is built on the site of 

 the dyke. Thence it formerly ran westward towards the Finn river, about 

 l|-mile away, which joins the Erne at Wattle Bridge. Hereabouts was a place 

 anciently called the Cummer (or meeting of waters) of Clones, a designation no 

 doubt preserved in the present Cumber Bridge near that town. Eastward the 

 earthworks are traceable to Laurel Lake, and thence again from its further 

 shore through the townland of Killark into Drumcor lake. From its eastern 

 shore its course runs into Drumavon, then north-east by the boundary of 

 Callow hill to Skerrick West, Corrackan, Aughnaskew, Lettercrossan, 

 Aughareagh West, Corinary (here turning abruptly direct north up hill for a 

 few hundred yards), then easterly again by the north boundary of Drumurcher 

 into Drumgrone, then to a marshy hollow, formerly a lakelet, but now 

 drained. Thence into Corrinshigo, and along the road near the fort of 

 Magheryshackery to the house at the cross-roads, where all further traces seem 

 obliterated. Portions in the townland of Lettercrossan, Drumgrone, and 

 Corinary are still in good preservation. An examination of the best-preserved 

 lengths now extant shows that the original construction, where not necessarily 

 modified by an irregular conformation of the ground, consisted of a central 

 earthen rampart or vallum, with two fosses of equal depth, one on each side, 

 generally margined by outer banks ; and from excavations made by owners 

 of farms through which the Worm Ditch runs to remove for topdressing the 

 material which had accumulated therein, it appears that these side-ditches 

 were originally from 10 to 12 ft. deep, measured from the ground-level outside. 



