374 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the last were thrown up upon the inner rampart, so future explorers must 

 not be hasty to attribute the latter to the Iron Age, though it may be as 

 late, if not in origin, at least by rebuilding. Finds of the Bronze Age took 

 place on two occasions at Lahardaun, but in a bog, not in a fort. Some 

 apparently of a far earlier period, at Coolasluasta Lake, as already described 

 to the Academy in 1902.^ North from Tyredagh, Tulla, Maryfort, and 

 Coolreagh hardly any forts, dolmens, churches, or peel-towers exist, save 

 near Feakle and Lough Graney, till we cross the mountains of Slieve Aughty. 

 They, or at least their flanks, were uninhabited, impenetrable oak forests, 

 the same being true of Slieve Bernagh, except for the valley of Killokennedy 

 and its branches up to Formoyle. The opposite is the case in the plains. Here 

 were the earliest of Clare's churches and monasteries, the fifth-century 

 Kilbrecan, Doora and Clooney, the sixth-century Tomfinlough and Tomgraney, 

 the seventh-century church of St. Mochulla at TuUa, and many others of the 

 ninth to the twelfth centuries. Of forts Doora, Clooney, TuUa, a)id Kilnoe had 

 some fifty each ; Quin had over eighty. There are nearly fifty dolmens and at 

 least twenty-five peel-towers, showing how important a centre of population 

 the plain must have been from early time down to and past the Norman 

 Conquest. 



3. — As to name-phenomena, the most noteworthy is the occurrence of a 

 group of "Liss " names, chiefly round Tulla and Bodyke. This fort-name is 

 rare in Thomond, save in the extreme south-western angle, " the Irrus." In 

 the east we get Lisoffiu ("Fort of the Fair Hugh," Macnamara), Lismeehan 

 (Ui Miodhacain's fort), Liskenny, LiscuUaun, Lisduff (black fort), Lisbarreen, 

 Liscockaboe, &c. Lismeehan is found in the Macnamara's rental m the latter 

 half of the fourteenth century, provisionally dated " 1380."- Of " Cathair " 

 names, many sur\T.ve, as we have shown.^ Cahershaughnessy (L^i Seachnasaig's 

 stone fort), Caherhmiey (of Ui Urthaile, " 1380 "j, Cahermurphy (of 

 L^i Murchadha). Probably these names as little represent " the oldest 

 inhabitants" as do those of Caher-Pdce or Caher-Power, only called "Kagher" 

 in 1655.^ Cahercalla is supposed to commemorate the O'Xellys. Caher- 

 grady, in 1668, was probably a monument of the unlucky colony of the 

 O'Gradys, the Ui Donghaile, planted, about 1280, by Sir Thomas de Clare 

 in Tradree. The other names arise from natural or accidental circumstances, 

 such as Cahereiny, of the ivy ; Cahernalough, of the lake ; Caherloghan, of the 



^ Proceedings, xxiv. (C), p. 94. 



2 The rent was levied " 1330." Perhaps 1380, Maccon being chief at the later date. 

 ^ Proc, III., vol. vi., p. 437. 



* There are the foundations of the caher of fairly laid blocks on a small rock-plutform jutting 

 from the hillside below Mr. Knox Molony's house. 



\ 



