Westropp — Types of the Ring- Forts and similar Structures. 383 



These forts which we have been describing, with three small and levelled 

 rings in " Moyar's Park " (Moyri and Moyross Park) in Corbally, and 

 a ring- wall and four other foundations in Toonagh (Tuanomoyre, 1584, 

 Tuanamoyree, 1655-1683), show how important a centre lay here round the 

 mote and triple-walled caher, and may account in part for the selection of 

 the former by the proud conquerors of the plain of Adhair, as the place 

 " where the Kings were made." 



TuLLA Group. 



9. — The most striking feature in this district is the number of low 

 rounded green hills, on one of which TuUa itself is seated ; nearly every one 

 of these (ten) is crowned by an earthen fort. They are not in any sense 

 contour forts, not following the natural lines of the hill,' but are usually 

 oval or round, with steep banks, once stone-faced, and fosses. In some cases 

 the ditches are filled up with the outer rings to enlarge the field space ; but 

 local feeling was, till very recent times, everywhere (and is still in some places) 

 averse to meddling with the earthworks. When a landlord insisted on his 

 men levelling a fort, a sort of ceremony was performed, the men making him 

 stick the spade into the ground ; they waited to see if it was expelled or 

 knocked over by the fairy occupants. If not, the invader of the " sheevra's " 

 abode cut the first sod, assuming thereby full responsibility, and then the 

 men went to work without scruple,^ 



No "finds" in forts are recorded, but the parish has yielded bronze 

 antiquities from several spots : a fiat axe is said to have been found in Mary- 

 fort — some said, very doubtfully, in a fort. The townland of Lahardaun, near 

 Tulla, yielded, in May, 1861, a number of antiquities. They consisted of two 

 small socketed celts, a dish-headed pin, plain bronze rings, and a fibula, with 

 slightly expanded ends, rare in bronze but common in gold, numbers having 

 been found at Moghaun, and one at the dolmen of Knocknalappa. Since 

 then Dr. Michael Molony, of Tulla, has shown me a flat axe-head, also found 

 at Lahardaun.^ When the Kennedys and others removed the dolmens of 

 Miltown, they found a bronze sword and numbers of fragments of clay vessels, 

 all now lost ; stone implements were ploughed up in the lawn before 



1 This disregard for contour is well marked at Moghane, where the outer rampart at either side 

 " climbs " down and up steep slopes. 



- This was the procedure in more than one case told to me. In one, a relation of mine was 

 struck in the eye by a splinter of rock, which the workmen long regarded as a case of undoubted 

 fairy yengeance. 



^ The first group were found by James Moroney at a depth of 7 feet below the bog. Proc. 

 E. I. A., XXVI. (C), p. 124. The other was found " under 6 feet of bog" in the same place, and 

 was shown to Dr. Molony as a "tobacco-knife." The finds may belong to the seventh or eighth 

 century before our era. 



