312 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Dane's Oast has its terminal at Scarva, the whole country from thence to 

 Moira lay unprotected, and open to a direct incursion from the central portion 

 of Ulidia towards the capital of Oriel. This would naturally be made by the 

 shortest and most direct and level route. The alignment of the Dane's Cast 

 seems, however, admirably calculated to protect the north-east of Ireland, 

 including Down and Antrim, from invaders from the south, advancing by the 

 well-known aSTewry and Moira pass. Even in Elizabethan times the Lord 

 Deputy and General Xorris, attempting to force this pass, were repulsed with 

 a loss of 600 killed by a smaller Irish army before they had penetrated 

 further than Kilcloney, about eight miles north of Dundalk.^ I find that 

 Canon Lett^ has noticed that advantage is taken in the construction of the 

 Dane's Cast of the steep gradients of any slope upon which it runs, just as has 

 been described in the case of the Worm Ditch. This also is noticeable in the 

 Black Pig's Eace or " Duncla " in Co. Longford, for though that district is 

 more level or only slightly undulating, the deepest fosse and the steepest 

 side of the central rampart face the ancient Province of Meath. Before 

 passing on to deal with the western extension of this stupendous work, I will 

 ask, what explanation can be put forward for the southern termination of the 

 Dane's Cast at Meigh if it were never connected with the camp at Dorsey ; 

 and why the latter also was equally isolated from the Worm Ditch which so 

 nearly approaches it ? For the " Gap of the North," the passes of the Fews, 

 and Eorkhill and the southern foothills of Slieve Gullion would have been left 

 undefended. A comparatively short line here would have completed the 

 southern boundary defences of the Counties of Armagh and Monaghan from 

 Scarva to Clones. We can scarcely doubt, then, that such existed, though its 

 traces may have now become obliterated. It is possible, too, considering the 

 negligent way in which the traces of the Dyke in Armagh were passed over 

 in the Old Ordnance Survey, that careful examination even now might reveal 

 further unnoticed remnants of it. 



Here, perhaps, I may refer to a similar earth-work of whicli only a small 

 fragment remains, marked on the Ordnance Survey of Armagh, sheet 16, to 

 which Mr. Westropp has kindly directed my attention. It is marked " Dane's 

 Cast " ; but I have never considered it as an integral portion of the entrench- 

 ment which bears that designation in Glen Eee. Its total traces measure 

 about 1 m. and 800 ft. in length, lying 13 miles north of the Dorsey, and 

 4 miles south of Armagh, with a north-east alignment. It consists of three 

 well-defined portions in Ballyfaddy, Lisnadill, and LatmacoUum townlands, 

 and ends at Butter Water Stream. The words " Bull's track " in italics 



1 O'Sullivan Beare's Fifteen Years' War. - /« Utt. 



