1893-94.] 39 



I (>tk September. 



LOUGHBRICLAND AND DONACHMORE. 



Although the season was advanced, yet the usual Club 

 weather favoured a large party, when the sixth excursion of 

 the year took place to Scarva, Loughbricland, and Donach- 

 more. At Scarva the party was met bv a local member, the 

 Rev. H. W. Lett, M.A., whose knowledge of the district was 

 of much service throughout the day. The extensive demesne 

 of J. Temple Reilly, J.P., was entered, where, through the 

 kindness of the proprietor, an opportunity was afforded for 

 investigating the very extensive ancient fortification known as 

 the Dane's Cast, a characteristic portion of which extends 

 across the lawn. It is recorded how the Norwegians, under 

 Turgerius, in the reign of King Feidlin, in the ninth century, 

 occupied this part of the country, which they intersected with 

 deep trenches, and erected many castles — some singly, some 

 doubly, and some triply entrenched. The rampart is traceable 

 from Scarva to Killevy. In some places it is shallow, and in 

 other places it is faced with stone, measuring seventy or eighty 

 feet across at its widest part. At Loughadian many years 

 ago a variety of implements of war, such as celts, spear-heads, 

 bronze swords, hatchets, and a large oak canoe, were dug up. 

 This rampart was called by the Irish " Gleann-na-Muice- 

 Duibhe" — the Glen of the Black Pig — whilst the great wall of 

 Antoninus Pius in North Britain, to which it has a strong 

 resemblance, is called " the Swine's Dyke." Perhaps the most 

 admired thing about Scarvagh House is the well grown trees of 

 oak and ash, but there is no finer sight in arboriculture than 

 the huge Spanish chestnut growing close to the house, whose 

 sweeping branches, loaded with fruit, cover a very considerable 

 area of ground. There were also some fine specimens of walnut 

 trees, well fruited, specimens of which and of the chestnut 

 were, with the permission of Mr. Reilly, gathered by the 

 members. Mr. Reilly showed some members the treasures of 

 the house — the large branching antlers of the Irish elk, mingled 



