396 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



to the route of the regiment is worth recording. All agree that it was not a 

 castle ; certainly it is as unlike a medieval castle or peel-tower as it is unlike 

 an early caher ; and the silence of the records bears out their opinion. 



The caher stands on the eastern end of a low craggy ridge, highest to the 

 west, and surrounded by marshy meadows running up a valley and little 

 stream. The valley was probably once a lake, like the depression to the 

 south, further up the mountains. The foundations, evidently of some very 

 old fences, cross the ridge at intervals ; we then reach a rock-cutting forming 

 a path down the steep southern crags. Beside it is a massive stone wall 



THE CAHER OF BALLYDONOHAN 

 C?, CLARE 



''iV^VKsn!^i'\: 



Fig. 7. — Ballydonohan Caher, Bodyke. 



faced with large slabs set on end. The fort is very irregular in plan, some- 

 what resembling a footprint in outline.^ It is 132 feet long east and west, 

 and 72 feet across at 66 feet from the east end. The wall is of large 

 gritstone slab masonry, roughly coursed to the south, and of fine but rude 

 blocks, 3 feet to 5 feet long, 24 feet high, to the north ; the filling is of small 

 stones and earth ; no upright joints occur. The inner face, like the outer one 

 to the west, is " veneered " with long, thin slabs, 4 feet to 5^ feet high, and 

 from 5 feet to 7 feet long. This feature is not unknown in more " orthodox " 



1 The curved end, side-lines, and rectangular cross-line of the plan suggest (on a very small 

 scale, and of different material) the plan of Winkelbury, near Salisbury. See AUcroft's "Earth- 

 work of England," p. 82. There is a somewhat similar structure, with three cross-walls, at 

 Ranguin Carimai, in Alpes Maritimes, France. It has dry-stone walls, and is over 130 feet lono- ; 

 it in no way resembles the true Castellaras (or French cathairs). "We, of course, suggest the 

 resemblance -nith all reserve, aad refer to the '•' Rapport," No. sxiv., t. -^-i., p. 37, of ihe 

 Prehistoric Society of France. 



