320 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



We now proceed to trace the connexion between Roosky and Bundoran. 

 Here the frontier of Meath fails us ; but fortunately the line of demarcation 

 between Connaught and Ulster is well known to have been along the course 

 of the Shannon. No earthworks were therefore needed where the waters 

 ran broad and deep, past Oarrick-on-Shannon, and northwards towards 

 L. Allen. Whether the stream flowing out of this lake was broad enough, or 

 had to be supplemented by earthworks, I am not aware. At Drumshambo, 

 however, the country people say that the Black Pig's Valley ran thither from 

 the south into L. Allen ; and at Dowra, on the northern shore of the lake, 

 the same name is applied to the valley of the Shannon ; and it is said to have 

 reached northward to L. Macnean. So far away as Mohill I found that the 

 route of the Black Pig's Valley was traditionally said to end at " The Shannon 

 Pot," i.e., its subterranean source on Cuilcagh mountain, near L. Macnean. 

 This tradition preserves, therefore, the true direction of this part of the old 

 frontier with surprising accuracy for a stretch of about 40 miles. Up to the 

 present I have no knowledge, nor have received any intimation from the 

 officer in charge of the Ordnance Survey for this district, as to the existence 

 of any remains of an entrenchment between L. Macnean and L. Allen. Nor 

 would any have been constructed, except where the river formed an insufficient 

 defence. From L. Macnean the Dyke ran west to Bundrowes and the sea. 



I shall commence at the western terminal, and follow it back to L. 

 Macnean in the order in which its remaining portions were discovered. I 

 have already mentioned my indebtedness to Rev. Canon Naylor, Incumbent 

 of Finner Parish, for identifying the Black Pig's Valley in response to my 

 query as to its existence in that neighbourhood. Writing from Bundoran, 

 he says — " The rampart is of course fragmentary. From the Bundrowes it 

 comes right across to the road which passes my house (townland of Maghera- 

 car), it then runs a few yards north of, and parallel with, Strahanafulla 

 (streamlet of blood), the brook which tradition declares was formerly the 

 boundary of Ulster. Running east of it, through the townlands of Druma- 

 chrin, Rathmore, and Rathglas, it goes into the Co. Leitrim (townland of 

 Boynagh), making for Lough Melvin. You will of course understand that it 

 only crops np here in short lengths or traces. I was wrong when I said that 

 it ran towards Belleek; the 'Moy ' extends right away in that direction, but 

 not the rampart. The Moy (Magh) is known traditionally as the plain of the 

 Black Pig — here they say it was actually killed." " All that I have learned 

 bears out entirely the theory that you formulated." A former rector of 

 Bundoran, Dr. Crawford, now of Kilconnel Parish, Ballinasloe, informs me 

 that it was he that levelled the part of the great rampart which ran through 

 the Glebe grounds. I then made inquiries at Lough Melvin, and foimd that 



