54 H. C. Latvlor on 



vallum being entirely formed of carried soil from some distance, piled 

 on a natural foundation of obtruding rock. From the section dis- 

 played in the trench which we sank and the layers or pockets of 

 cremated bones found, it would seem as if Donegore was an 

 ancient place of cremation, the bodies being buried after crema- 

 tion by sackfuls of earth brought from elsewhere and heaped over 

 the remains. This interesting investigation I hope to pursue fur- 

 ther in future. 



With regard to the ordinary ring fort, with or without souter- 

 rains, built either of earth, as is generally the case, or of dry built 

 stones, as prevails chiefly in the Mourne Mountain district and in 

 other districts where loose boulders are found in vast quantities, 

 this type is by far the most common. Some of these have a 

 parapet round the central plateau some have not. Of the 

 latter, Randox near Crumlin, and Farrell's Fort, Drumbo are 

 perhaps the finest examples that I have seen ; each of these 

 has an encirclement of double or threefold trenches and ramparts, 

 but in none of these flat topped, deeply entrenched forts have I 

 been able, on probing or sinking trenches across, to discover 

 souterrains. Farrell's fort, Randox, Phil's Fort (Dromore) and 

 others of similar type seem, from Geraldus Cambrensis' description 

 of forts built by Targesius the Northman " both many and great 

 entrenchments, very deep circular and often threefold," to belong 

 to the Danish or Norweigan type. The less elaborate simple flat 

 ring forts, with one trench and one low rampart seem to be older, 

 and it is in these that occasionally souterrains are found, but it 

 must be remembered that for one souterrain found within 

 a rath there are probably forty unconnected with raths As 

 a rule raths are deceptive to the eye. One would think to inspect 

 them casually that immense quantities of earth must have been 

 carried from elsewhere to make them. This is rarely so. In 

 nearly all cases the excavation of the trench supplied all the soil 

 required for the ramparts. One will naturally say that these 

 immense ramparts could not have been built out of the soil 

 excavated from the trench. Yet it is so. It must be remembered 

 that the trench is always of much greater diameter than the 



