A Study of the Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore, Aran Isles, Galway

Transcription

A Study of the Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore, Aran Isles, Galway Bay: Its Plan, Growth,
and Records
Author(s): Thomas Johnson Westropp
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies,
History, Linguistics, Literature, Vol. 28 (1910), pp. 1-46
Published by: Royal Irish Academy
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PROCEEDINGS
OP
ROYAL
THE
PAPERS
ACADEMY
IRISH
READ
THE
BEFORE
ACADEMY
I.
A STUDY OF THE FORT OF DUN AENGUSA IN INISHMOEE,
ITS PLAN, GROWTH, AND
ARAN ISLES, GALWAY BAY:
RECORDS.
By THOMAS JOHNSON WESTROPP, M.A.
(Plates
13.
[Read December
Ordered
for publication
I.-III.)
Deobmbbb
:
Sections
Appendices
1. Legendary
2. Problems
3. The
Origin.
of the Legend.
Plan.
4. Records
5. The
16, 1909.
of its Features.
Published
Febeo
ah*
17,1910.]
:
A.
Bibliography
B.
Unpublished
1880.
C. Published
and View?.
Descriptions
Accounts
before
to 1880.
Wort in 1909.
we may
to
say that only one has appealed
as
a
to
of
the
the imagination,
and
the affection,
nation,
building, and
the type and symbol of the countless
similar
become, with most antiquaries,
Of
all the early
forts of Ireland
even
structures,
all subordinate
to it in interest.
At Emania
and Tara
it is the
seutimjent and tradition, not the remains, that so appeal ; but at Dun Aengusa
thie site and the building affect even the coolest mind as no blaze of mythic
It is easy to see how this pre-eminence
ox historic
could do.
association
aj-pse. Many of u$ still renumber the sense of almost inaccessible
remoteness
"
the spot feel
to
the Aras of the Sea." All who have visited
that attached
"
"
and the swirling abyss
of the gigantic
precipice
t|e
repellent attraction
over which the fort is so airily poised.
Then there is the pathos?no
less of
it the refuge of a doomed and hunted ratee than of its
that made
CheJeg^d
on the
the broken grey walls
own inevitable
invested
destruction?that
R.
I. A. PROC,
VOL. XXVIH.,
SECT.
C.
[1]
?Proceedings
farthest
notice
of
edge
of the
undescribed
the old world.
learned
for over
the middle
till
of the Royal Irish Academy.
facts
The
that
the
fort had attracted
the
its compeers
years, while
lay
on the revival of
and
that
century ;
two hundred
of the
last
sound archaeology it was studied and most
described by some of
impressively
our greatest
and Dunraven?all
scholars?P?trie,
O'Donovan,
Ferguson,
or the
told in its favour.
None
other of the forts-?not
Tara, Emania,
so honoured.
Grianan
of ?ileach?-was
a paper on it at present.
May I,
it over thirty years ago, ere its
an attempt
to record its
Irish Academy
It needs justification
to bring forward
as one of the few who noted and sketched
restoration, bring before the Boyal
and its present
architectural
condition ? No one, I believe, has as
history
"
in
it
in 1884, or
described
detail since its far,too thorough
."restoration
yet
to decide what of its present features are ancient, what warrant
endeavoured
there may have been for the restored work, or what
the remains have to tell
to scientific antiquaries.
In all this there seems, not only an excuse, but a
for another essay ; so I may venture
to give the results
of work
necessity,
in 1878, and many
invidious
occasions, without
subsequent
incurring
In this spirit
in the same field of study.
comparisons with great predecessors
I lay these notes before the members
of the Academy.
done
1.?Legendary
.-..
must
We
In
the
commence
of Irish
revival
with
of
Origin
an oft-told
the
tale?that
Fort.
of
"
the
sons
of Um?r."
nationalism
that great
under King
Brian, before
in
to
have
monarch's
death
is
versified a
his
Mac
said
1014,
bard,
tragic
Liag,
from a far remoter past.
The period was one of
derived
legend, probably
and towers
restoration
; law and order, arts and learning,
forts, churches,
an
were being restored everywhere;
other
matters,
and, among
attempt was
made
to recover
all that survived
and in these
the dark
of "tribal
and
and
destructive
ninth
historic
century;,
of
lies most
poems
compilations
lays"
"
"
of the
of the Dalcassian
realm.
These
knowledge
beginnings
on Tara, Eman,
the mythic
beginnings were obscure beside
glory that rested
or Kathcroaghan
of
banshee*wooer
the
; but the Dal gCais
(descendants
our
Oilioll
the
Olum)
and
the Corca-modruad
(sprung
and
from Fergus Mac Boigh
their
to hear what
befell
must
have
Queen Maeve)
longed
now
The
"in
the
and
ancestry
beginning,"
they no longer lacked a bard.
of
tribe
centres
at
Dun Aengusa
related to the period before the
legend that
on the hills of Burren
over three centuries
before Mghad,
Fergus settled
great
on the edge
and Enna,
the conquering
Dalcassian
Princess,
C?nall,
recorded history
added the southern fringe of Oonnacht
(a.D. 360-400),
from which it eventually
North Munster,
usurped the name Thomond.
of
to
ofDun Aengusa in Inishmore^ Aran.
The Fort
Westropp?
song1 told how a Firbolg
in the Hebrides,
exile
land
Oppressed
by the perennial
The
after
an
Sons
tribe?the
of Um?r,
in the
3
or Huathm?r?
Valley.
Boyne
to
Tara?
paid
question?their
"
of the
fled
Maeve
to
were
its
befriended
heroic
Connacht,
queen,
they
by
Cattle Foray," and were settled round Clew Bay and Galway Bay about the
of our era.
beginning
got
settlements
rack-rent
settled westward,
"They
along the pleasant
As far as Dun Aenghusa
in Ara :3
coasts,
......
They
Daelach
They planted
Aenach
constructed
settled
Irgas
took possession
The
prose
of
Beara
obtained
the Dind
of Ceann
:
Boirne
his just portion
Senchus3
in its account
independence
the poem.
at Dail :
'
a ' dun
in his neighbourhood.
at his headland
They
Concraid
:
at Muirbeeh
Mil
stationed
tells
of Ennach
;
in the sea at Inismedhoin."
a
and
like
Bir,
a
tale, with
but
otherwise
trace
of
closely
following
a rent which
on the children
of Um?r
"Cairpre"
(it says) "imposed
so they decamped
could not be endured,
from him, with their possessions,
to Ailill
the sea?Oengus
in Dun
and Medb,
and set up beside
westward
. . .Mil
near
Port
at
at
Mil
in
Ara
Murbech
Murvey,*
(perhaps
Aengusa,
on Dail
in
and
the last) ; Daelach
Corcomroe, Clare) ;
Ballydeely
(Lissydeela
Bir at Rind Beara Sirraim (Finnavarra, Burren, Clare) ; and Ennach,
from
. .
at
whom is Tech nEnnach
Rind
Doon
Fort,
Corcomroe).
Irgus
(perhaps
on Black Head, Burren)
at Inis
Boirne
; . . . Conchiurn
(Caherdooneerish,
"
.
.
.
Taman at Rind Tamain
Medon
(Tawin
(Dun Conor, Inismaan, Aran) ;
All
The knights
these lay round the bay of Galway.
Island, Galway).
who stood securities
for the Firbolgs to the King of Tara claimed the penalty,
of
so the Huamorian
warriors, Cing, Cimbi, Irgus, and Conall (son of Aenghus
Dun
Aengusa),
met
in
deadly
combat
the
Red
Branch
Knights?Ross,
1" Ossianic
vol. v., p. 287.
Society,"
2 If
that escaped
in Aran, a remnant
be right, there was an earlier colony of Firbolgs
Keating
or Picts
the carnage of the Battle of Moytura
banished
p. 199?The
Cruithnigh
(ed. D. Comyn),
them out of these islands.
3 " Revue
1894, pp. 478-480.
Celtique,"
'
4P?trie
p. 68 ; but there was a
regards this as reaUy Cill Murmhaighe?
Military Architecture,"
It is strange that Dun Oghil makes
the chief's name.
great fortification which may have originated
no mark in legend,
[1*]
4Proceedings
of theRoyal Irish Academy.
The Firbolgs
Conall-Gernach,
Cet, and OaefctdMiL1
fell, and the settlements
were broken up, leaving a legend and their reputed forts?"
vacuae sedes et
to our days.2
inania arcana"?as
their monument
is a curious
There
than
allusion
The
name, in the tale.
"
in the Book of Lismore
his misty
thus
described
Aengusa, more concrete
of Briun, son of Smethra,
helmet
is
"?" It was the brasier of
Oengus,
of Dun
to the founder
son of Umor, who made
it, even a helmet
a ball of gold above
the Indians, with
of the pure purple of the land of
It had strings of beads of
in variegated
stitching, and was one
it."
bronze,
carbuncles,
red-gold, and white
of the three chief fabrics of the realm of Erin.3
once stood with less blurred outline, for (if
the Firbolg
Prince
Probably
"
the taking of Dun Oengusa "*
it indeed allude to the Aran Fort) a poem on
a severe one to students of the fort.
once existed, and its loss is probably
about 617, alludes
that Tighernach,
these, it is barely possible
"
"
of Dun-ainega,"
for the Firbolg
to the place, in recording the
combustion
"
names
have been recast in some cases, into familiar forms, as Ghonchobhair,
Besides
and Chonchiurn,
and Fergus
to the forts of Inismaan
for Concraid
and later attached
Now
lived
as regards
in fortresses."
? Dun
eentury
for Irgus, in the legends
and Burren.
of 1684,
adds, "Thus
legend, one of its versions
they
forts were meant
the
bards
of the tenth
by
is certain.
in 1684, records the
Roderic OFlaherty,
the main
Which
Aengusa
Conor in Inishmaan
was named from Conquovar
("Concraid"
the
attributed
to
the
fort
Conor na
peasantry
legends);
of Thomond, who fell in battle, 1267,6 and whose
O Brien,5 Prince
Siudaine
in Clare (as it is still called
Caherdooneerish
tomb is with us to this day.
"
"
was
rendered
of
the
Caherdoonfergus
by the map-makers
peasantry)
by
seems
to
He
have searched for traces
1839, with the sanction of O'Donovan.7
legend
in the
that Dun
but
older
of Fergus,
son of Boigh,
and
so, probably
by leading
questions
(the deadliest
1The
in Ara is also given in Keating's
of Aonghus
of D?n Aonghusa
of Ireland
Legend
History
vol. iv., edited by D. Comyn),
p. 201.
in 1877 and 1878, nor my late brother
the late Dr. WY H.
Stacpoole Westropp
and I, in 1878, could find any local legend as to who was
the builder or
Ralph fiugh Westropp
of the Doon.
The same seems true of the Kev. W. Kilbride.
It is a great
what was the history
left his valuable
favoured student of Aran seems to have
paper on
only
pity that this last most
(Irish Texts,
2Neither
Iararna and some crude general notes in manuscript,
the latter now in the collection
of the Boyal
When
John O'Flaherty
Irish Academy.
about 1820, Tales of Cuchullin
and the Bed Branch
wrote,
in 1839 does not seem to have
heroes as well as of Finn, Oscar, and Ossian, were recited. O'Donovan
found any traditions of early date.
"
of the Saints, from the Books of Lismore
'*"lives
<ed. Whitley
'1890, p. xxx.
Stok?s),
"
4"
O'Arbois de Jubainvflle's
of the Epic Literature
of
Togail Duine Oengusa "?M.
Catalogue
p. 244.
Ireland,"
*" Dublin
vol. xli., p. 501.
Magazine,*?'
University
* So in Annals of Inisfallen
and the Four Masters,
but 1268 in those of Clonmacnois.
7
Co. Clare (ms. 14, B. 23, II. I. Acad.),
Ordnance
vol. i., p. 205,
Survey Letters,
Westhopp?
The Port ?f Dun Aengusa
in Inishmore, Aran.
?
names or folk-lore),
in collecting
found what he so greatly
"
"
never
The
who
heard of Irgus (or Eerish
desired.
peasantry,
phonetically),
"
"
"
names
and
the
Caherdooneerish
without
Doonirias,"1
gave
prompting;
indeed I was at the time obsessed by the name on the map, and only driven
source
of error
and I had collected
things by the names which Dr. Macnamara
on
at
different
a,nd
occasions.
Another
different
places
place
independently
on
the
is
the
Doon
Fort,a
contemplated
by
probably
legends
ridge at the
"
"
source of the Daelach,
near Kilfenora/
This
tallies well with
the Dun
to better
and called "Tech nEnnach,"."in
by Ennach,
From the latter the river Dail3 (or Deely)
Daelach.
of
the neighbourhood"
is supposed to be named,
Fort (which may have been
made
the existing
local names of Lissydeela
the place intended by the legend-makers)
and Bally deely
near Ennistymon.
?f Cairnconnaughtagh,
whence
(2) Problems
oe the
at the great
cairn
Lesend.
the legend has more
than a shadow of a true history at the most no
The Firbolgs dwelt in only nine raths in Meath;
thinker can assert.
the base
yet they covered with colonies the islands of Clew Bay (Innse Mod),
of Croagh Patrick
round
the
H?ck?tt
country
(Oigle),
(Cimbe), the
Lough
That
critical
in Burren, two in Corcomroe, one in
east end of Galway Bay, two divisions
over
for
Clare
to
eastern
the north, the west, and the s?uth-west
fifty miles
a struggle after the death of
of Aran.4
That such a tribe collapsed without
is fiction indeed, but not even artistic romance,
if either
nor
now
the
fort
state
that Aengns built the
the prose legends
poem anywhere
"
of the Dun;'**
the construction
bearing his name, though the poem mentions
of ?nha?h.
to a
Were we even dealing with history, we could not attribute
four of its warriors
short-lived
tribal
in
group the BOO forts of Aran and the alleged settlements
and the thirty near Tawin5 ; yet such ?
CJar?, the 100 near Lo?gh Haekett,
held by antiquaries
belief was complacently
from 1840, till wider views arose
at the close
of the
last century.6.
To us no type of earthen
or stone fort can
1 Journal
p. 4.
Ireland,
(referred to as E.S.A.
Royal Society, of Antiquaries,
1.), yol. xxxi.,
Ibid., vol. xxvii.,
p. 126.
3The river
into the sea between Lehinch
and Liseannor.
It should b? noted, However,
flowing
**
near Ennis.
is called
also a river Dahilyegh
Tarse? Flu"
that there was
The "Deely_"
"
in the map of 1610, but" Talegh
is marked beside it.
(P Farset)
4 Other
or Tory Hill,
a settlement
jound Drumassall
legends made Asal son of Timor establish
near Croom, in County Limerick.
5
In Aran
and over 100 round Lough Sackett
200 in ?orcomroe,
12, over 265 in Burren,
.
..
near Tawin Island.
-^
(Lough Cimbi), and 30
6 The
This of,course
of earthen forts, like.&athcroghan.
Firbolgs were better known as makers
their building
stone forts on bare crags.
Yet
the very curious earthy
does not ten against
Jbv?l
on the bare summit of
1044 feet above the sea,
pear Caherdooneerish,
Hill,
platform,
Aghaglinny
2
6Proceedings
be assigned to anyone
race or period.
all these types spread across
Nearly
and
to
from
Aran ; and they even occur in
Austria,
Perm, Esthonia,
Europe
North America,
in the great river valleys of the United
The ring
States.
fort was, there is every reason to believe, an instinctive
idea1 of our race in
from perhaps more
than twelve centuries
before
Europe,
than twelve after its dawn. We
also find circular defences
our era
to more
among the tribes
and of
; and the older races of the first continent
North America
made the ring of stone, earth, or palisading.
Thus children
on the seashore, without
rath and the high mote,
study, dig the triple-ringed
with
its bailey ; and the herdsman
and labourer build dry stone rings for
of Africa
and New
Zealand
or dig a fosse and ring-mound
to fence a plantation.
see no
We
cattle-pens,
to distinguish
the periods and uses of our early
short of excavation,
means,
while
anterior
the
to the twelfth century, depends
entrenchments,
stonework,
on the character of the stone,2 not on the fancy of the builder.
In face of all
or any other exclusive
how the Firbolg,
the Danish,
considerations,
seems
be
all
should
may have elements of
theory
adopted
amazing, though
much truth, short of the exclusive
truth in them?often
assertion.
a fortress as Dun Aengusa
or Dun Conor in
The existence
of so mighty
these
little
Whence
islands has puzzled many.
came "the troops of slaves
*'
?
in face of
has
been
Now
the
raised them
asked.
probable explanation,
in these and other stone forts,
the evidences
of modification
and addition
these
who
over long periods
of time, perhaps
at
as
for
As
and
intervals,
required.
taking place
organization
rebuilding
for the
collection
of materials
the legend
elsewhere?take
ring-walls
of the building
of the Grianan of Aileach, we find "the stones were drawn
"
or those of the origin of the name
where masses
of
by horses;
Firbolg/'
earth are carried in leather sacks; while the legend of Caherconree
tells of
is
that
their
construction
spread
of pillar-stones
for its construction.3
(standing or prostrate)
or the popular
We need not believe in'the Dagda "greyer than the grey mist/'
or legends, to see that even the wildest
romancer set his story in
etymology,
the
collection
near it?
amid the crags of Burren, and the liss of Doontorpa
the great earthen rath of Ballyallaban,
of raising the first two
The difficulty
in craggy regions were not unknown.
show that earthworks
forts must have been very great.
1This has
in his
of late, and is elaborated
several
by Dr. Gu?bhard
impressed
antiquaries
"
"
"
This most
at the
1907, p. 1004.
address,
Camps et Enceintes
Congr?s
Pr?historique,''
and motes all over Europe
illustrations
helpful
comparative
study of ring-forts
gives the following
and steps
the cliff to the east (fig.'3) ; fort from the north (fig, 49);
:?From
Aenghus
ope (fig. 57).
8
at Dun Aengusa.
I failed to find any ; but evidence
believed that he saw hammer-work
Windele
on the edge of Burre?
and
in the Clare forts of Ballykinvarga
and Boughan
for hammer-work
in eastern Clare is well established.
Langough
translated
in Ordnance
vol. i., p. 223 ; and Revue
3Dind Senehus
Survey Memoirs,
Celtique,
?f Dun
and
vol. xvi.,
p.'41,
J448,
Westropp?The
Fort
of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore, Aran.
7
a
of fact known
In more historic
times our
to all his hearers,
setting
"
oldest law code provides
and
for
for the
of
duns,"
"joint labour
erecting
"
"
are
to fortify
them
in
the
fort
for
the
who
also
labourers
;
upon
feeding
it."1 St. Enda, the chief saint of the very island in which Dun Aenghusa
round Bossory Church in Fermanagh
stands, dug the great fosses and mounds
seven
converts
levelled the hill-top, made
and
his
St.
Mochulla
(circa 460).
at both
walls, and dug fosses round Tulla Church in Clare, traces remaining
are stated to have been completed
; the last works, though extensive,
a year (circa A.D. 610) .2 The
in the same
royal rath at Clonroad,
Cairbreach
county, with rings and outworks, was commenced
by Donchadh
son Conor,3
Prince
of
and
his
O'Brien,
Thomond,
(1241-1260)
by
completed
places
within
isle of
in the middle
Conor,
was the main trouble ; and if
In fact, the
Aran.4
"
horses or oxen were used, this was greatly lessened.5
Instead of
troops of
a
a
a
at
that
small tribe, working
few years
time, at
slaves,"6 it is possible
intervals over a couple of centuries, could, in a place where stone so abounded,
"
build even a fortress as vast as the Aran
Dun."
"
"
Those who have seen horses and cattle floated behind a canvas
curragh
at the Aran Isles cannot deny that large animals may have been brought to
the
traditional
builder
of Dun
(? repairer)
of the stones
collection
as absurdly
to all appearance
in early times by means
inadequate.
"
"
The
tells how Cuchullin
carried off three cows, swimming
Fairy Chariot
shows
behind his "curach,"
the "vast
ocean,"7 which
strongly
through
in Magradin's
Also
that before 1106, as now, such transport was known.
"
Life of St. Enda,"
1380, we are told of the horses of Corbanus grazing at
Aran
on this
Ardnagcaorach
grantor, died.
The question
connexion.
Do
absolutely
very
before
island,
of the names
489,
when
King
Aenghus,
forts may be touched on
founders, even if Mac Liag's
of the Aran
commemorate
their
they
? They are anonymous
unreliable
except
three :Dun Aenghusa,
1Seanchus
Mor, vol. i., pp. 131-137.
'
'"Vita
S. Fanoheae,"
in Colgan's
There are several
(vol. xvii., p. 145).
the
in this
tale be
which
"
in Analecta
Bollandiana
Vita S. Mochullei,"
Acta;
from St. Patrick, who
directed
other fort-building
saints,
and St. Mochuda
earthworks
to be dug at his monastery
in Armagh,
(or
(evidently
circular)
who dug the small "liss"
at Lismore,
which, when his monastery
Carthage),
county Waterford,
"
the great lisa.
sprang up at it, became
Lismore,"
5<? Cathreim
Thoirdhealbhaith."
* " Dublin
vol. xii., p. 50.
University
Magazine,"
"
"
6The
Second Battle
of Moytura
xii., p. 79), four score yoke of oxen
(B?vue Celtique,
see Dind
to move a flat stone.
For horses at the building
of Grianan Aileach,
employed
Senchus,
p. 41.
O.S.L.,
6
some thirty slaves appear
to build forts ; a gang of apparently
Such, sometimes, were employed
in the legend of ?'The Battle of Magh
as raising a rath at Magh Feimhin,
in southern
Leana,"
Tipperar y.
7Journal
R. S. A.
I., vol. xi.,
consec.,
p. 3?9.
8Proceedings
'
"
at least 900 years ago ; Dun Conor, possibly Dun
Concraidh
John Windele
at that time ; and Dun Farvagh.
evidence'
(on the uncertain
of Comyn
about 1750) states that "Fearbach"
was ? demon monster,
and
"
"; for its
a
dracontium
the fort
it is
As to the name Aenghusa,
worship.1
b?re its name
a most
place
very
maris
as William
O. Borlase first pointed out, that ?
coincidence,
on
the
coast
of
in language
is described
"Enchusa,"
Holland,
6i
to
far
the
different
suitable
coast of Aran.
loci munitum,
Natura
curious
called
furore objectum,
situm despicit*"
terra? margine
quern in extremo
"
A proper name
Ancheusanus"
occurs in an inscription
at Mayence.2
Two
be advanced with
theories might
One
regard to the name of the Dun*
a
to gods or heroes,
the far
that, like other great works, it was attributed
for
famed hold, piled by the hands of giants
for godlike kings of old";
"
son
a
of Dagda is said, in the Agallamh,"3
to have given(<
fort (dun) and
Angus
a most
town
excellent,
,with lofty stockades"
stronghold
(dingna),
spacious
as
we
a
was
His
also
father,
noted,
fort-builder,
(sonnach).
having built the
fort of Grrianan Aileach
stone
The
and the earthen Eath
has
second
been
theory
possible
that Dun Aengusa
namely,
about A.D. 460.
It is true
Brese
with
advanced
already
was named
its "cladh."*
by Ledwich
and
of
after Aenghus,
others,
King
that "the three Aras of the sea" are
Cashel,
of the King
named among the forts
of Cashel
in the ^Book of Eights."6
son
of
?sTatfraich
lands in
the
islands
gave
(or rather perhaps
Aenghus
'
"
of King
Hatf raich, (Ml of
Cashel-builder
them) to St. Enda ; and a
Clochar, is named in a poem circa A.D. 1000, and stated to have built a fort
at C?shel for King A?nghus
the
its plausibility,
himself.*
However,
despite
lay so far away from every interest of a king of Cashel,
the name Aenghus
takes away any great weight
being very common,
from the theory,
The MLife of St? Enda '"asserts that Aran, in about 480,
fact that the islands
and
was
the residence
Ninuis
of OorbanuSi the pagan king of Corcomodruad
(in
terror
St.
Enda,.
who
fled
in
from
county Clare);
superst?tious
states that Aenghus King of Cashel knew nothing
about the island.
north-west
It also
This proves at least that
!
the latter prince.1'
about
1380
the writer
attributed,
no Aran
fort
to
?AVmdele's ms. "lar Mumhan"
p. 709).
(mss. It. I. Acad;),
2 "Dolmens
of Ireland,"
vol. iii., p. 1129.
^
3 Silva
vol, i., p. 103 ; vol. ii., p. 111. j
Gadelica,
"
4 " Revue
an Dagdae,"
vol. xii., p. 65 ; also the long lines of the
Slicht Loirge
Celtique,"
with his club, and perhaps the mound of N?wgra?ge.
5???Book of Rights"
p. 91.
(ed. 0'Donovan),
6Poem
on early masons
son of Flannacan
(c. 1000), O'Curry,[::iAManuscript
by Donnell
of
of Ancient
Irish History,"
l?erials
p. 222 ; Book of Leinster,
p. 27b. As to Goll being
come
it must be remembered
that the wife of King Aenghus
(the sister of St. ?nda) had
Cloch?r,
from that place.
1Vita S.
Endei,
Colgan's
"
Acta
SS."
In
its present
form
the
"
'
dates-as;late
Life
as 1380,
Westropp?The
Fort
?
"
to the name, Aran maintains
the primitive
title
Dun,"
which
so generally
elsewhere
"cathair''
A
replaced
by
(caher).
"
or
transitional
of
the
"Doon
Dun
the
Doon'ahaar,"
doo'haar,"
example
"
black cathair, is found;
in sight of Aran, on
similarly the fort of Eerish,"
the shoulder
of Black
is Caherdooneerish,
and a fort near
it,
Head,
'
a
seems
The
of
for
rather
late
'fort
'caher'
usage
Caherdoonteigusha.
method, perhaps derived from the monastic
forts, which again were suggested
'
the
word
The
Edmund Hogan, with his usual
cathedra/
Bev.
by
cognate
"
me
use
let
his
notes
from
Onomasticon
the
kindness,
forthcoming
With
regard
has been
from
of Imaine,
He
"Dun Aengusa"
the Books
gives
and
from
"D?n
and
MacFirbis*
Lecan,
Aongusay>
Ballymote;
Keating,
"
as Boderic
; and
Dun-oingnso"
Dun-Oengus,
Genealogies
O'Flaherty's
"
"
"
"
In
lar
it
is
Dun
Dun
1684,
Engus.
Ogygia."
Connaught,"
Aengus
as now, among writers
found
; but John OTlaherty
1790-1820,
prevailed,
name
be
Dun
in
to
the
in 1839 only one old
1825, while
locally
Aonguis
Go?delicum."
man
on Aranmore,
a descendant
of ? Cromwellian
the
family, remembered
name
"Dun
true phonetic
to
S.
Inn?es," according
O'Donovan;
Ferguson,
names "Ungust"
in 1853, gives
and "Unguish,"1
the latter evidently
^the
as Dun Eanees
It is given by Haverty
akin to Inn?es.
in 1858 ; but had
now
and
in
is
to Doon
hardened
"Dun Angus,"
1878,
usually
Aingus
it might
though
better
be anglicized
(3) The
Plan
Doon Hennessy.
of Dun
Aengusa.
It is strange that, so far as we know, th? plan of Dun Aengusa
has never
a
see
it
forms
whole
to
whether
or'has
been
consistent
been studied
modified.
now attempt
to carry out. Any ancient
of historic
building
of
and
of
fails
is
taue
the stone
this
restoration,
rarely
to-give proof
even
For example, earthworks
at Bathmore
of those of earth.2
in
forts, and
in
in
and
Lissadooneen
Waterford,
Kildare,
Kerry,
Ballyvoony
Lisnagree,
task we
This
times
near Broadford,
in the first case,
in Clare, show that layers of earth (several
two in the third) were added to raise the original structure
; baileys md outer
cases.
in
were
In
added
Cl^re, so closely bound
many
very probably
rings
the
stone
forts
and
Aran
in
evidence
up with
history,
give frequent
legend
.
*&;.^
"'""
It does not even
devoid of local colour.
is founded on older sources, though unusually
but probably
allude to the forts.
1Dublin
notices
the Pictish
character
of these
vol.. xii.,
p. 95. He
Magazine,
University
the Picts cleared out the Firbolgs
of Aran-and
the islands.
names, but then (according to Keating)
"
2
was
The Grianan of Aileach,
in Donegal,
records of the ruins."
coincides with
the
History
in Clare, rebuilt in %QG%and
1107 ; the stone fort of Kincora,
rebuilt in 674 and 937, and dismantled
in 1112 (Ohrojaicont,
was
It was again rebuilt^ to be finally demolished
levelled in 1098.
S?oJoruni)
/
or HI*8. (Annals of the Four Masters)
; other cases will be. recalled by antiquaries.
H.I.A,
PROC7
VOL. XXVIII.,
SECT.
[2]
10 Proceedings
of
At Moghane
in Clare,1 the two cahers were built across the.
older walls.
near the east, has been almost
Langough,
a
rebuilt on
different plan in early times.
and Cahergrillaun
Caherfeenagh
have been rebuilt in parts2 ; and the wall of Caherdooneerish
has been at least
twice rebuilt, the joints made at the three
periods being very apparent in the
walk3
The Kerry
forts, too, show unequivocal
signs of addition and rebuild
a
After
careful
of
Dun
we
believe the following views to
ing.
study
Aengusa,
:?
be justifiable
rebuilding.
great lines of
the
Fig.
The
Dun
?Proc. R.
8
Journal
Caherfeenagh.
is usually
I. Acad., xxvii,
R# S. A. L,
1.?Plan
supposed
of Dun
to >ave
(0), p. 221.
vol; xxviii.,
p.
s
Jbid,, vol. xxxi.,
364,
pt 6.
Aengusa.
consisted,
for
from the first, of three
; vol. xxxi.^
Cahergrillaun
p. 275,
*
refer to pp,
fetters
25, 27t
for
Westropp?The
Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore, Aran.
oval rings into which
the sea has
Such a plan is possible, warranted
cut
for almost
the
half
exactly
11
their
extent.
fine
of
hill-town
triple-walled
but
must
not
too
was
be
The
fortress
Moghane,
readily accepted.
probably
at first a simple oval ring-wall,
like its neighbour
the Dun
of Eoghanacht
and many others.
It was next strengthened
by a second ring nearly equi
on the same-island,
from the first, like the forts of Dun Oghil
distant
by
on Inishere, Glenquin
and others in Clare. Still later, a third wall,
on the cliff, was
either somewhat
in plan or a crescent, abutting
egg-shaped
built. This was regarded as final ; anil an elaborate abattis of close-set pillar
stones was made
round it, extending
to its foot, even where
it crowned a
Furmina
(and probably at a far later period) a large irregular
slope.
Lastly
to
east by a low ridge, was enclosed with another wall,
determined
the
space,
of Port Murvey.
the approach from the landing-places
We do not
defending
steep
or how far, the sea had cut into the hill when
assert whether,
seems to imply that the middle
were built.
O'Flaherty
ring was
"
"
on the brim
the bawn of a castle," in 1684 ; but it then stood
entire, like
of a high cliff."1 Probably
the old second wall was originally entire ; but this
for the moment
these works
is uncertain,
for the stone
fort of Cahercommaun,
ring and two crescent
in Clare, on the edge of the
walls.2
like
It is strikingly
Corcomroes, has a central
a
Dun Aengusa.
The central fort is even more massive
; but it overhangs
so
so
in its original condition
is evidently
far
dry valley rising at both ends,
as regards the plan.
is possible,
alternative
that
Another
(as at
namely,
Dun
forts of Caherlisaniska
and Langough)
Conor and the Clare
the
a ring with the outer enclosures
looping in to meet
on flat fields
in
forts
found
this
have, however,
looping
only
or
on
a
or
even
low
at
shore when
slopes,
ridges?never
high cliffs
central
fort was
We
deep
Lake.3
water
The
beyond
crescent
cliff, for it is common
and in America.
In Clare, besides
it, as
at
the
crescent
and Cahernacalla,
with
low
there
is
on Ballycar
a fall of the
fort at Cahernacalla
therefore, does not necessarily
wall/
prove
inland in Ireland, and indeed all over central
Cahercommaun
its wall.
and
Europe
a central
ring
1
of'"lar
p. 75.
description
(ed. Hardiman),
Connaught"
Chorographical
"
2A
the three mounds
of
poem of Seanchan,
dating about 640 (Book of Lecan, p. 17), mentions
"
on the
fort?as
this
in
Co.
?walled fortresses
(the only
triple-walled)
Burren,
Clare?perhaps
near
the fort of Caechan Boirne,
Burren hills, though now included in Inchiquin.
It is probably
" Book of
See
Rights."
Lake,
named, perhaps, about 800 (certainly ante 1014), in the
Inchiquin
ser. iii., vol. vi., p. 430, for plans com
vol. xxvi., p. 153, and Proc. E.I.
Journal R.S.A.I.,
Acad.,
parable with that of Dun Aengusa.
3Proc. E.L
Acad., vol. xxvii.
(C), p. 227.
4The crescent
cannot
fort that in some cases distinction
type is so closely akin to the promontory
the existence
be drawn save by regarding
**Earthwork
of England/'
them together in
of
a headland
iii.
behind
the defences.
Mr.
Allcroft
chapter
[**]
classes
12 Proceedings
and one or more
of the Royal IHsh Academy.
a single crescent
walls, We find Caherlismacsheedy,1
the
The type is very common in England
and Scotland,
two
the
of
forts
complex specimen being
conjoined
Coldingham,
crescent
on a cliff in Burren.
finest and most
each with
three walls.
and Blackers
"
of Nunmill
Devon,
"
Doon
note
We
in England
Hill, other typical
and Errickstane.2
a few : There
To select
examples.
at Caudebec,
and near it a promontory
has two stone walls built each in two
that in
too, is identical with
a
in
crescent
wall
Cantal,
Sarran,
single
105 feet deep on the edge of an inland
Beaulieu
The
fort.
we
Beacon,
Scottish
fine
many
on
a
crescent earthwork
spur
The camp of Bois de Eouret
have
sections, as in the Irish forts.
Ireland.
the forts of western
a garth 170 feet long
The fort of St. Maurice
encloses
cliff.
The
At
and
at
some of
enclosing many house-sites,
as
at Dun
inland
cliff
back
from
the
ground slopes
(C?te d'Or) has also two walls ; but, unlike the Irish
two crescent
(E.M.) has
the Eoman
forts of Embury
being the inland
examples
In France
is a double
masonry,
the
rings
period.
Mont Milan
Aengusa.
towers believed
to be of the same period as the fort. It
forts, it has flanking
is noteworthy
of their
that the Irish, no less in their forts than in many
later castle courts, were entirely
of flanking
to the advantages
indifferent
In Hungary
of three
defences.8
lies the great ring of B?ny, an earthwork
crescent mounds, extending
and Perm we have crescent
walls
are found
them."
works
in Sweden.4
The
of Dun Aengusa
were all crescents
from the first we
and the rock for over 300 feet
; for they, their foundations,
"
are devoured by the Atlantic
has perished with
and
their memorial
We
have no means of calculating
the advance of this destruction
;
Whether
can never
beneath
In Switzerland
feet along a steep bluff.
and
crescent ring
mountain
;
spurs
fencing
occurs
in
also
America.
type
for 1700
the walls
know
and it may have been very slow for centuries.
The fall of cliffs is nowhere uniform
; even at the same locality all depends
on the jointing, the currents, and the prevailing
A fort like Doon,
winds.
in Iraghticonor,5
1 Journal
2See Dr.
Kerry,
was
evidently
a crescent
from
the first
; the sea has
vol. xxxi.,
pp. 275, 276.
"
in Scotland,"
pp. 130, 131, Coldingham
Early Fortifications
; p. 206, Krrickstane
; Upper
204, Raecleuchead
; and Mr. A. R.
Cademur;p.
Arbory
"
of England,"
Earthwork
pp. 53, 54, 59, 63, and 113.
3" Soci?t?
de France,"
Bulletin.
Tome iv., p. 311 ; vi., pp. 231, 415.
Pr?historique
R.S.A.I.,
Christison's
; p. 134,
Allcioft's
Rapport,
Gu?bhard's
and Dr. Adrien
36, 52;
(1905), pp. 27, 30,
(1907), pp. 11, 12.
these continental
of
Forts
forts are brought
in "Ancient
together
"
sections 8, 11, 20, with plans, &c, figs. 2, 3. Fora
crescent
Scandinavian
Ireland,"
ring mur,"
**
Dolmens
of Ireland,"
For Russian
forts in Perm,
vol. iii., p. 1133.
shaped in plan, see Borlase,
see "Camps
Dr. A. Gu?bhard
in "L'Association
des
Retranch?s,"
pour Vavancement
Fran?aise
"
Sciences
Tolmatcheff.
(36th Congress,
1902), p. 3. From plans by M. Vladimir
5Described
in a paper read before R.S.A.I.
in July,
but as yet unpublished.
1909, now printed,
Tome
v., p. 76.
Comptes
"
"
Enceintes
Pr?historiques
4The notes on
of
many
Rendus
The Fort of Dun A?ng?sa in ?nishmote. Aran.
Westropp?
\%
run harmlessly
for centuries
strata,
along the smooth faces of the upturned
arid the fosse died out in the grassy slope above as its diggers left it, unworn,
"
save by
the slow tooth of the sky,if At the Black Port,
east from Dun
from two synclinal
curves, the
Aengusa, we see that the headland originated
worked
of which were constantly
into caves, eventually
falling
in and leaving long bays.1 The destruction
of the sides and even of the outer
end of the promontory
is slow compared with that at the ends of the bays, and
the fort between them may be very ancient, though hardly three thousand years
"
fancied.
As we noted, Loop Head,
the ancient
old, as O'Donovan
Leap of
inner arches
Cuchu?lin''
must
have
narrow
(probably from long before A.D. 850,8 when the name first occurs)s
been, in early times as at present, a high rocky islet divided by a
chasm
from the main
The
cliff, to judge from the name and legend.
over
at
Dun
for
of
is
that
only
Aengusa
seventy years
a slab from which
a man was fishing when it fell in 18373 ; but cliff falls are
more usually sudden and at long intervals than persistent
and gradual.
fall of rock recorded
So far we
have
only dealt with the changes made by the great forces of
turn to other evidences of mutability
in extensive alterations
us
as to how many
of man.
the
much-needed
They give
warning
;now we
nature
by the hand
features, what
found
extensive
additions
and what
of plan
eccentricities
puzzling
to be attributed
to the original design. Probably
of the greater outer wall; the defensive
value of the
forts, are not
in these
when, by the building
abattis and middle wall
was
less
(whether at the same time or on later
works were carried out on the inner walls.
felt
occasion or occasions)
extensive
The abattis, as we noted, clung even to the foot of the old outer wall (as it
and at Bally kinvarga
does also at the Black Fort, at Dunnamoe,4
caher in
a
tract
its
between
it
and
the
open
present
divergence
long
Clare);
leaving
wall,
along with
the
fragment
The builders
of wall
to the north
demolished
and west,
the old outer wall
tells the
story
from the
ridge
enough.
avenue
to
at
the
fort
the
north-east
central
the
face
of
the
east
opposite
of the materials
of these
bend, and also the eastern part of the second wall;
an irregular line from the east end of the curve of the latter
they made
clearly
out like a bastion, and then running in ? comparatively
straight line,
It joined the old outer
from over 50 feet to about 15 feet from" the abattis.
bowed
wall
at right angles, a new gateway being made at the sharp turn.
been built on the surface of the rock, every trace of the demolished
rather
Having
i Journal
-R.-S.A.I., vol. xxxvi.,
p. 345.
Ibid., vol.. xxxviii,,
3 <<0. S.
Co. Galway
Letters,"
4 If we so consider the former
2
landward
Tyrawley,"
edges of
p. 68.
the
fosse,
p. 2i?.
(ms., R. I. Acad., H d. 3.), 249.
and outwork
curious wall-loops
Caesar Otway
shown by the Rev.
and along the
at the gangway
in his plan,
1841, "?Erris' and
14Proceedings
was
walls
easily
removed.
of theRoyal Irish Academy^
The
north-western
reach
of the old
outer wall
was now useless, and, owing to the reach of the second wall
being retained,
so it was left
a
it was not required for material,
problem (like that
standing,
of the open space to the north inside the abattis) hitherto
It
unexplained.
extends
bastion.
not
did
middle
from near
P?trie
curve
in O'Donovan's
It ended abruptly
ring.
So far as can be seen, this is the true
ridge.1
and of the bare
the wall
the present cliff to the ridge nearly opposite the seeming
it to be an annexe, as at Dun Conor ; but th? end
supposed
nor
was there any connecting
wall
from it to the
inward,
and
to the south-east
space, so regularly curving
the abattis, now devoid of pillars.
The work
Fig.
to open a larger court beside
of the second wall was retained
done
exposed
time, as now, near the rock
of its existence
explanation
side, on the
inner fort.
the
turn, between
was probably
2.
central
the north-east
fort, while
part
to keep
the middle
rampart, at its most
from the
level of the hill-top, within
range of missiles
seem
to
been
have
little
used
the
Irish in
Arrows
by
towering
warfare ; spears were too scarce to throw, but the second wall, barely 30 feet
from the citadel, could be swept by stones slung or even thrown from the
wall
of the latter.
itself could be used as an
The fragment
commanding
extra line of defence
till the enemy had struggled
with
loss and
great
difficulty
through
the jagged
1 C. C.
Babbington
thought
defences requisite."
additional
"
and close-set
"
they
were
Archaeologia
built
"
pillars
where
Cambrensis,
round
its base.
the slope of the ground
iv?, ser. iii.
vol.
seemed
to render
The Fort
Westropp?
15
Till June, 1904,1 had on four previous visits
regarded the sharp curve of
the middle wall as a bastion, and the waving
part from it to the north-east
I then compared
bend amere wanton
it with O'Donoy?n's
and
irregularity.
so
and
found
as
these
inaccurate
Petrie's
to
the
this
and
outer
wall
?plans,
that
I was
led
to
reconsider
the whole
It is evident
that all
question.
"
to the
antiquaries who came to this fort hurried
citadel," after noting the
chevaux de frise and outer walls
to the west and south-east
(the two lines of
a
at most
casual glance,
and
the defaced
by, with
passing
approach),
even in plans they did not lay down its
Hence
showed
but
it as a curve.
I found
Then when
line,
remarkably
irregular
"
evidence for the occurrence
of the "bastion
in 1878, the need of a solution
unimposing
middle
wall.
of the problem became evident.
I accordingly
it a few months
re-examined
with
and
Boni
and
of the strip
realized
the meaning
later,
others,
Signor
a third
without
After
pillars along its base.
complete and leisurely exami
nation, made
last August,
I offer
this
solution
of the problem
of the middle
walls.1
seem to have required no modification,
fort might
but such
took
The
to
inside
its
to the
ope, leading
certainly
place.
wall,
nothing,
which Mr. Babbington
noted2 as closed by later work, the joints
north-west,
beside the gate, noted by Mr. P. J. Lynch, and a line of blocks to the south
of the gateway, outside
the face of the present wall, all imply considerable
The
central
in early times.
selection of the site (apart from the question
of where the cliff then
shows
much
in
and
skill
the earliest fort-builders.
The
existed)
forethought
a few feet high, its faces evidently
inner ring occupies a natural platform,
The outer wards were strengthened
scarped artificially.
against attack by
alterations
The
on the north-western
and north
the upper and lower ridges, the middle,
eastern, and it and the outer wall on the eastern
sides, towards the most
point of attack?Portmurvey.
in that bay, or coming from the Kilronan
Landing
had to struggle up a long reach of broken crag, and
probable
slippery
gate, or through
path to the north-east
in face of a lofty wall. AH these surmounted,
harbours, an enemy
either up the narrow
the hedge of jagged stone
the central citadel, once
spikes
over 18 feet high on its ridge, manned
by desperate men, had still to be
cannot endorse Mr. Burke's
that the middle
We
court
captured.
suggestion3
was
left
clear for "military
manoeuvres";
it was
"
in this paragraph may
11 hope the." personal element
for the theories clear to all.
responsibility
2 " Arch
vol. iv., ser. iii., p, 96,
ologia Cambrensis,"
3" gfouth Isles of
Aran," pt 16,
possibly
be condoned,
filled with
as making
the
huts
origin
of
of and
16 Proceedings
clay and wattles which have left no trace.1 The fort seems to have had no
traverses which, were attack much feared, should have been made
especially
across the great outer garth, a most
suitable position occurring at the upper
ridge.
The
weakest
water-supply;
the monastic
ring
in 1086.2
of water
As
to
in Dun Aengusa
and its congeners was lack of
does not seem to have been very probable, though
fort of Tulla was blockaded
and nearly reduced for want
point
and blockade
the
in the outer wall was described
the perfect gate
features,
before 1870 by Lord Dunraven
wall I
; the northern
gate of the middle
noted as a "creepy door"
in 1878, and dimly recall its narrow ope under
The perfect gate of the inner ring was noted by O'Donovan
large stones.
and many writers,
from 1839 to 1878, and its outer face sketched roughly by
P?trie
in 1821, and most
I made a camera
in 1859.
by Burton
accurately
sketch
of the inside in 1878.3 Miss
Stokes (or Lord Dunraven)
implies that
it had collapsed,4 but the gate now standing is the one sketched in 1859 and
It is strange that Lord Dunraven
1878.
did not secure photographs
of these
most
and characteristic
survived to
features, but they fortunately
interesting
be photographed
The
others.
broken
in
the
middle
the
by
wall,
gates
double sections or terraces of the two outer ramparts, and the
fragment and
the three sections of the citadel wall,are
all attested by several writers;
so is
"
"
blind ope
the
inside to the north-west
of the latter.
The steps near this
ope, and the traces of the terraces, and the steps to the north of the inner
"
The only features not named before the " restoration
gate, were recorded.
are the double
the
flight of steps
north-west.
O'Donovan
gateway
was
however,
most
entirely
defaced,
to the south of the gate, and the upper flight to
mentions
that the wall
to the south of the
and
it was
even
a shapeless heap
been recorded)
have
(and may
probable
of steps
firmly set parts of the two flights
were found in the debris, which
covered both
and
their
the upper
long
in 1878.
that
It is,
the lower
fallen
banquette
blocks
and
the
"
1
in his "Introduction
to Grose's
of Ireland"
Ledwich,
"Antiquities
(1807), was probably
he
of
where
Dun
houses having
been of wood
have long since
says
right
p. iv, "The
Aengus,
We find in 1162 that eighty houses had to be removed when
the fort of Cashel an
disappeared."
was
Urlair
at the church
rebuilt
of Derry
Hua Lochliunn
and Flathbertus
by Murcheartach
the coarb of St. Columba.
OBrolchan,.
2'*Anale0ta
vol.
nan espoc
xv.-xviii.
Tulla
is
Bollandiniana,"
xvii.,
p.
149, chapters
in this account,
translated
"Collis
in "the
distriot
of Lumbrecia,"
Luimneach
Episcoporum"
"
or
Limerick
under which
forms the editor could not identify
the places.
Limbricensis,"
8 See
The stonework
in this is easily recognizable
in a recent photograph.
p. 30, infra.
4 "Notes
on Irish Architecture,"
vol i., p. 4, implies
that the gateway
had "shared
the
fate of the rest of the structure."
The drawing of the outer face by Burton,
melancholy
and my
camera sketch of the inner face, show that as it stood in 1878 so it still remains.
Some who had
not seen the fort before its restoration,
of the
on no better
than
alleged the rebuilding
gate
*'
authority
"
Punraven's
words.
Westropp?The
17
in 1854, as in 1878.
Such firm-set bottom
steps often survive the wall
Two such flights wefre recently
and the upper steps.
uncovered
by us in
more in
we
two
and
find
Caherminaun.
There is one in Ballyshanny
c?her,
In Dunoghil
the remains of two such flights
fort, in Clare.
Caherfeenagh
base
were
not
restored
level
(its other
garth), the other
in 1884-5, one to the north of the gateway, at the ground
"
"
in the
then built
steps are used in the circular
thing
above
joints, evidently
The steps in Dun
south-east
the
stair.
In
the Black
Fort
near
of two unrestored
remains
are sloping
the huts.
sidelong flights
are exactly
The
like the untouched
Aenghus
examples.
the
sunken
in
of
the
about
the
way
rampart
supposed
top
allegations
"
of 1839, the
rest on a mistaken
internal
Letter
reading of O'Donovan's
"
in his letter the banquette
inside the rampart.
division
meaning
of chert and flint have been
As to the age of the fort, worked
implements
one probably
in it, and also bronze ornaments,
later than the fifth
small sharp masonry
The comparatively
century.
gives less impression of
well-marked
the
and
than
batter,
age
large blocks,
(as a rule) lower walls on
found
on
the
forts
wall
are not
in Mayo, Clare, and Oalway.
The blocks of the
as those in the ramparts of Moghane
as weather-worn
and the
so
It is hard to believe
forts on Kerry Head.
that walls
the mainland
Cahercarbery
slightly battered
age as they stand ; but the inception of the fort
the material
The
may date far back in the past.
of
its
the evident
of the tops
chevaux de frise, with
channelling
pillars, is
that the walls
very early; but we have seen reason to believe
probably
have been extensively
rebuilt
in the past ; and perhaps this was done when
and
the
repairs
1884.
are of vast
of
collection
were
required,
on
several
occasions,
long
before
the
restoration
of
of the sea give us no measure
of its age. We have no reason
were
to assert that its circles
either complete
It
rings or crescents at first.
on
a
or
have
stood
Dun
have
been
built
may
hill-side,
(like
Oghil)
(like
The
inroads
Cahercommaun),
cliff stood much
to an already
cliff, though, of course, the
adapted
existing
in the earlier times.
farther southwards
Its advanced plan
a
from
up gradually
though we agree with
simple beginning,
may have grown
Dr. Gu?bhard2
that its skilful
of builders
construction,
terraces, and steps imply the work
and
to guide them ; but these
traditions
experienced
long
masons
were probably
rebuilders ; and the original
fort may
with
accomplished
have
been as
rude
and
simple
as
some
of the
ring-walls
of Clare
and
Kerry.
"
1"
Dr. Colley March.
Proc. Soc. Ant., London, vol. xv.,
Age of Dun Aenghus
"
2
La structure
Pr?hist.
relativement
1907,
iii., Autun,
Congres
compliqu?e,
? une humanit?
attribuable
p. 998.
d?j? passablement
?loign?e de ses origines,"
$.1.4.
PKOC,
VOL. XXVUI.
SCOT. ?.
[8J
aer. ii., p. 226.
certainement
18 Proceedings
of the Royal Ifish Academy.
(4) Records
of
its Features.1
the fort as it stands at present, we must examine, in
describing
than above, the record of its features before 1883. The reference
"
"
are as follows :?P, Dr. George
letters
Architecture
P?trie,
Military
"Ordnance Survey Letters,"
1839;
(1821 and 1858) ; O'D, John O'Donovan,
"Dublin
John
F} Sir Samuel Ferguson,
1852; W,
University
Magazine,"
Before
more
detail
ante 1854;
C, Most Rev. Dr. George
"Supplement,"
Conroy,
ante 1870; D, Lord Dunraven,
of
"Aran
of
St.
Enda,"
Bishop
Ardagh,
ante
in
"Notes
writer
IB, anonymous
1875;
"
Irish Builder,"
notes, 1877 ; TW, notes and sketches taken 1878.
Windele,
Inner
Fort.
Its rising
the above writers.
"
in top." Views
TW,
stepstones
to
Stair
TW.
north-east.?F,
face),
Gateway.?Allinverted steps."
1857
Lintels,?O'D
"like
;W,
F.W.
Burton,
(outer face),
"
On the right are the
; (inner
remains of a flight."
Terraces??P
C,
(map); F, "lower
banquette";
"
"
" now no
on
east
the
side
trace9>
;
";
W,
;
banquettes"
D,
banquette
"
North-west
F
C
01)
D
;
;
;
; (? TW,
TW,
nearly gone."
Ope.?2
(map) ;
"
"
"
"
one or two
a hole "). Stairs next Ope.?P,
and map ;F,
traces of
; C,
"
"
"
a succession of stairs
stairs>? ;W,
in three
;TW,
slopes or steps." Wall
and
and map;
TW
and
D
sections.?P
sketch.
;
O'D; F; C;
photographs
Stone Platform.?P
(map) ; TW (sketch plan).
Middle
Walls,
&c.
Gate, P; D ;TW,
North-east
TW,
Gate.?O'D,
"creepy door."
to
thinks
it
ii.?O'D
(he
modern);
leading
Gateways.?Worth-west
pillars very
steep/'
Terrace.?P
P (and map); O'D; D
"gaps like doors." North Gate.?
"much destroyed";
Passage
"road
P; F; TW,
through
C; D; TW. Feagment.?
(and map); W;
(and photograph); Wilde
in "Lough Comb"; TW
"
1The Irish terms
a stone wall (Togail Troi) ;
of forts are?" Murelodh
applied to the features
"
*'
a wall of earth or stone (Mesca TJlad and many
fosse ;
other early works),
Cladh,"
Mur,'*
**
"
"
the garth or enclosure
flat summit of a fort of the mote type ; Iarom,"
; Fordorus,"
Tulchin,"
"
used for a lintel ; **Aurlann,"
the slope before that
the gate in the outer enclosure
;
Fordorus,"
'
'
"
"
"
a gate ; " Tairsech,"
its threshold
the porch
of
; Aursa," a jamb ; Aurduine,"
gate ; Dorus,"
*'
or
a porter's
in
the
'bawn'
the
and
a gate, "Erdam,"
;
Bodun,"
lodge (as
Mayo
forts)
Kerry
*
the green, or game-field,
before the
the
"Faitche,"
"Ithla,"
haggard'enclosure;
cattle-yard;
"
"
The
the palisade or abattis.
Sonnach,*'
ii., p. 408, for an
fort;
Aurla.")
(See Silva Gadelica
"
"
**
are given infra.
of Ancient
See also Dr. Joyce,
Social History
references
Sonnach
Ireland,"
"
in the introduction
and Customs of the Ancient
E. O'Curry,
Manners
vol. ii., pp. 34, 60.
Irish,"
Sullivan,
p. 107.
by Professor
s
of its steps and terraces
the good preservation
in his notes on Dun Oghil, contrasts
O'Donovan,
of those of the other forts on Aranmore
with the dilapidation
(0. S. L., p. .239).
Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore^ Aran.
Wkstropp?The
"Terrace
Terrace.?V,
plan).
writers
(save Ledwich, John
O Flaherty
in 1684.
and
(sketch
Abattis.?All
Eoderic
19
half
its height"
(and map).
since
and
O'Flaherty,
Windele)
Outer Wall.
Wall.?P
(and map); O'D ; D. (map and photograph)
"
Two sections.?O'D.
wall
(and sketch).
Gateway.?D.
over or only shown in maps by most writers.
in 1909.
(5) The Fort
two most
The
by a great stone
by Dun Aengusa,
; TW, "old tumbled
This wall is passed
are each crowned
of Inishmore
conspicuous
high grounds
over
western
hill
to
the
feet
above the sea,
300
fort,
rising
the eastern by the Dun of Oghil, the ridge rising over 400
the sea. As we pass round the shoulder of the Oghil plateau the
mass
of Dun Aengusa
its three
great
presents a most
imposing appearance,
to the
tiers of walls
at the fall of the steep slopes
being fully visible
"
"
Blind
We
Sound
and Portmurvey.
ascend the hill past the fuchsias
and low trees at Kilmurvey
their
the low crag cliffs with
House,
passing
feet above
full of
sweet, clear water : cross the craggy fields (their crannies
wild
of
sweet
and hartstongue
roses, cranesbills,
ferns,
small,
and dewberries)
and gain a view of stately and ever widening
spacious
and
ness, along the dark southern
cliffs, out to Clare, and even to Kerry,
across the bay of Galway.
next reach a low ridge of crag
northward
We
wells
of
maidenhair
which
has
been
with
a
thick rampart (unlike
the tottering
field-walls
the ambit of the great fortress or "town":
"
though high the situation of the cathair, not easy is its storming methinks
. . if
you come to the southern side/'1
strengthened
around), and enter
Eampart.?The
wall
is for the most part greatly
levelled
and
to
from
10
15
about
where
feet
better
it shows
but,
wide;
spread
preserved,
two faces of well-laid
blocks (many of fair size, 2 to 3 feet long, and 18 to
20 inches thick), being usually 6 or 7 feet thick from face to face ; it follows
Outer
a low, irregular ridge about 5 or 6 feet high, rarely
This wall has been passed by in silence by most writers, but is, when
higher.
a most
realized,
adjunct of the upper fort, being over 2000 feet
imposing
Its garth is over 1250 feet long by the
long in its wavy, irregular course.
cliff edge, 1174 feet across the clear garth east and west, and 650 feet deep
along
its eastern
reach
It is usually
face of the abattis north and south.
found
past the eastern
in heaps 3 to 4 feet high, and is 8 feet thick near the sea, and until we turn
1 " Caithreimh
"
Conghail
Clairinghnigh
(ed P. M. Mac
Sweeney),
p. 121.
[8*3
20 Proceedings
up the slope, where
east when
compared
The masonry
is coarser to the
preserved.
To the
walls.
and
the
inner
the upper reaches
it is better
with
north, we find its most
interesting
first described
by Lord Dunraven,
3 feet high (over the debris), with
the nearly perfect
feature,
gateway,
and
as
wide
4
feet
before
1875,
being
a lintel 9 feet long.
This is virtually
49 inches wide above, but only 45 inches
it to measure
a
The height, as now cleared,
block at the base.
below, owing to
projecting
is 4 feet 10 inches
to the east and 4 feet to the west, being on a steep,
The
wall
is 6 feet 7 inches to 7 feet thick on top, and nearly
ridgy slope.
correct,
as we
found
8 feet
at the base, the passage being covered by a huge inner lintel, 8 feet
4 inches long, 6 to 10 inches thick, and 15 inches deep and two similar outer
lintels.
The space between
them and the inner one is covered by short
"
which
is also the case in the north gate of the inner wall,
cross-bearers,"
it
and is a common
From
in souterrains,
feature
but rare in gateways.
a
to
westward
raised
the wall has been greatly
and unnecessarily
rebuilt,
level top, about 5 feet high, till we reach the upper ridge ; there it has been
repaired with
a terrace,
and is 2 or 3 feet higher.
The ridge crosses
it, and is
from 12 to 18 feet high.
OUTER
GATE.
WAtl, NORTH
Fig.
O'Donovan
untouched
wall.
notes
Aengusa,
Outer
Gate.
it had two sections.
They are not apparent in the
a
It (very likely) had
terrace, though none appeared (so far
in 1878.
He was fond of asserting
at that time (it was very
as I remember)
early in his field-work)
that
3.?Dun
that the sections
in fort-walls
were
to provide another
solid face against the enemy when
the walls were sapped and fell in a siege.
Most of the succeeding writers have adopted
that view. We have, however,
no
so
of
in
elaborate
in those early times;
Ireland
suggestion
siege-work
and I believe
the system was adopted
rather to allow the more equal settle
the dry-stone
of any great thickness, naturally
when
walls, which,
if the filling be small) bulge out, and even burst the faces of the
(especially
wall.
reason was
Another
that the terraces and outer sections
possible
ment
of
Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore, Ar an.
Westropp?The
were
to
added
occur
the first
in non-terraced
and
forts
lowest
bears
wall
out
; but
the fact
the view
that
that
such
it was
2l
sections
to prevent
or
for escalade in assault, or blockade?-not
bulging;
battering
mining?was
or triple
?f
the danger
double
fort-dwellers.
Walls
the
besetting
early
are
Dun
is triple
well authenticated
forts.
sections
in dry-stone
Aengusa
so are the Black Fort, Dun
in the citadel (double in all the other walls);
in Mayo;1
while
in Clare, and Caher na Spungaun
Conor, Ballykinvarga
double walls occur at Dun Onaght and Dun Moher
in the Aran Isles ;Lower
of
aliaban
and Caheridoula
the
fort
Caherscrebeen,
upper
Bally
Caherbullog,
in Clare; Bally lin Caher in Limerick;
and the forts of Dunbeg
(Fahan) and
in
the Cahercarberys
in Kerry.2
Of these, the two last examples
were so constructed
down to the foundation,
Clare and the Cahercarberys
a
defended
and evidently
The enclosure
the others are similar.
possibly
or osiers, and clay, for it is noticeable
that while
number of huts of wattles,
both
north-west
of Mayo,
Clare, and west
in
afforded
Aran
is only
for their existence
by Dun Conor
Kerry, evidence
and the Black Fort.
There were thickets of scrub (dwarf oak, &c.) at Oghil,
"
near the shore
the place (Eochoill, ?ak grove) and a wood
Leamchoill/'3
as
that
below
named
in the "Life of St. Enda,"
it,
twigs and
showing
stone
huts
branches
We
have
are common
could be procured
a historic mention
in the
forts
rocks.4
in ancient times even on these storm-swept
"
"
so
the dun
outside
of a
dun and the houses
;5 and indeed so late as 1675, in a deed where the caher of the
in Burren,
the fine existing
of Cahermacna?ghten
O'Davorens,
ring-wall
with the group of houses in and around the caher, is fully described.6
late as 1014
was struck by "sever?llong
in
Dun
at
Ledwich,
Aengusa.
slopewise against any assault,"
careful
his hearsay
and warped
and the usually
account, John O'Flaherty,
to note this striking
John Windele,
failed
alone, since that time, have
The
stones
Abattis.?In
1684 Roderie
O'Flaherty
erected
1Mr. Hubert
Hollywood.
2Walls
T. Knox
kindly
gave me notes
and a section
of this fort
: it is at Bushmount,
near
and
Casteouvasson
sections occur in French
forts in the Alpes Maritimes?e.g.
"
See
tome iii., p. 146, by Dr. Adrien G?ebhard
de France,"
Soc. Pr?hist
; and
l'Association
the volume of the "Congr?s
for 1905, p. 48 ; also "-Comptes Rendus'de
Pr?historique"
des Sciences,"
xxxiii.
pour l'avancement
1904).
(Session of
"
"
3 This is
that it is not a name
to be a mistake
for
Eochoill
; but there is no evidence
alleged
the Castelars
of three
in Var.
which
became extinct on the destruction
of the trees or bushes.
4 The Grant of the Aran Isles of 1586 in the Patent Rolls reserves "
and
great trees," minerals,
"
"
a conventional
We cannot, however,
saving
great hawks to the Queen.
regard this as more than
are even named by John
oak groves
Traces
of "druidical"
ignorant of the islands.
by people
and
in Aran.
He found fir, pine, and oak in the peat (? submerged),
-1825, as existing
O'Flaherty,
wild ash and hazel on the crags.
heard of dwarf oak scrub and hazels near Dun Oghil
O'Donovan
.
.
.
(0. S. L., p. 230).
$" Annals
of the Four Masters."
6
vol. i.
parish,
Copy in the 0. S. Letters,
County Clare, Rathborney
22Proceedings of the ?oyal ?rish Academy.
feature
of the- fortress.
The
consists
abattis
of a closely
middle
the whole
set mass
of little
in a band
walls
pillars, usually 3 to 4 feet high, girding
and northern
the north-west
from 30 to 80 feet wide, more
open between
to
and
the
the
to
north-west
east, at which
impassable
gates, but nearly
a
latter side they are set with wonderful
steep rock-slope below the
pains up
The tops of the pillars, as noted by Dr. Colley March,1 are greatly
rampart.
and give a
worn and furrowed by the weather,
like those at Ballykinvarga,
more convincing
proof of age than is afforded by the facing of the wall, which
when raised from the
is less fretted, though probably
already weather-worn
crag ; for in many forts on the mainland
We
on faces embedded
in the wall.
similar
evidence
crosses
of
century
Aengusa
did
to the twelfth
of Dysert
not afford
O'Dea
mich
seen
evidence
of such wear
must
that
bear in mind,
however,
on the upper parts of sculptured
century ; and the base of the twelfth
is found
of weather-wear
the ninth
cross
we have
is also
convenient
rock
The
deeply fretted.
to form sockets
crannies
at Dun
for the
; nor was
as were found at the Black Fort
the soil sufficiently
deep
pillars
to
fix
in
lean
them
at
cases,
;
so,
many
they simply
against
(as
Ballykinvarga)
There
confusion.2
is no outer kerbing
each other or fall over in picturesque
or the somewhat
similar
or later annexe
to the abattis, as at Ballykinvarga
fort at Mohne
in the Baltic
; nor,
like
former, have they lesser spikes
the side of a boot) ;
to cut through
when
he
O'Donovan
exaggerates
the
the pillars (spikes sharp enough
they are jagged and sharp indeed.
"
writes
that
many of them are so sharp that, if one fell against them, they
"
run
to pass, even when
him through
would
; but they are very perilous
in act of
He picturesquely
undefended.
compares them to an army petrified
between
but
attack.3
The band measures
and over 200 feet more
gate,
The
feature
Britain
patches
about
700 feet from the west
to the north-east
from it to the cliff eastward.
is very rare ; it occurs at Dun Aengusa,
the Black Fort, and
fort in Mayo,
and was once found at Dunnamoe
promontory
Ballykinvarga,
in Belmullet.4
In Great
the pillars from which were used for house-building
of such stones are set to form obstacles
at the more
1" Loe.
cit., vol. xv., ser. ii., p. 226.
2 See Plate
I., fig. 2 ; and Plate III., fig. 1.
3Mr. Burke chooses the less dignified and rather misleading
simile of "almonds
for the stones are not set out apart as drawn by Cheyne.
These
inaccurate
views
that they were tombstones
of those buried round the fort;
noted by Mr. Wakeman,
that they were to protect cattle from slingers.
"
* Journal
182 ; Trotter's
in Ireland,"
vol. xix. (consec.),p.
Walks
R.S.A.I.,
"
stone stakes of great size and height."
Rev.
Caesar Otway
calls them
says
"
" more
numerous
remembered
them
and much
than in 1841 ; but they had
larger
*
for sills and lintels."
See
Erris and Tyrawley,"
p. 68.
accessible
in a pudding,"
led to the theory
or by Dr. March,
pp. 503, 504. He
that O'Donovan
"
been
removed
Westropp-?The
23
to the forts of Pen Caer Helen
inWales1
and Cademuir and Dreva
approaches
in Scotland.2
of pillars of similar intent occurred
Rows
in the destroyed
fort of Cap Sizun in France,3 two Swiss forts near Laufen, Berne,4 and the
"
"
of Mohne
in Russia.5
Bauerberge
Irish
scholars
for mention
where
could help archaeology by searching in our early literature
a feature.
It could, however, hardly be expected
that
of such
our older writers
seem
to pass over our countless dolmens without
of so rare a feature confined to four
notice, they would have preserved mention
of our cathairs.
It is, however, very probable
that a similar timber defence
"
"
surrounded many
of our forts, and was called a
sonnach
; it may have
filled those narrow, flat spaces inside the outer rings which
gird some earth
and Lisheencroneen,
in Corcavaskin;
and it originated
forts, like Doonaghbwee
"
"
"
the place-names
a
Lisatunna
and
To
take
few
from
Sonnagh."6
examples
: there is mention
ancient works
of two mythical
forts ; one made by the
divine builder Aenghus,
son of the Daghda
(already noted),7 "with
lofty
"
sonna
seven
on
an
with
walls
and
iron
sonnach
each
;
another,
(stockades)
was pressed to fence the fort of Howth,
mur.*98 When
Cuchullin
he said :
"
A heap of spears closes it for me." He evidently
to
compared his warriors
an abattis.9
Aedh Gnaire, King of Connaught,
in the sixth century, built a
new house in a dun, and, " outside all, a sonnach of red oak round about his
dun."10
The breaking
of such a palisade
to admit the king's
spear, held
is alleged to have caused the quarrel of the Ardrigh Diarmaid
lengthways,
with St, Ruadhan,
the cursing of Tara, and its desertion.
"The Voyage
of the
Hui Corra," a tenth-century
island
romance, tells us of yet another mythical
"
a
a
on
with
sonnach
brazen
round
and
brazen
net
the
dun,
it,
spread
spikes
of spiked-wire
outside."11
It is as curious to find so early a foreshadowing
entanglements
as
of
another
modern
invention,
where
the Mabinogion
1
ser, iv., vol. xii.,, p. 345;
of Ireland,"
Forts
and "Ancient
Cambrensis,"
"Archaeologia
6.
2"
like Dun Conor;
in Scotland,"
pp. 225, 226*. Dreva has a side-annexe
botli are in Peebles.
"
"
3For
Ancient Forts
series iv., vol. ii., p. 287 ; and
Cambrensis,"
Cap Sizun, ~see
Archaeologia
of Ireland,"
fig. 4.
4 "Dictionnaire
tome i., p. 122.
de la Gaule, Epoque Celtique,"
Arch?ologique
"
5
of Ireland," vol. iii., p. 1130.
Dolmens
Borlase,
6 There
in Connaught,
and four named
are a dozen
called "Sonnach,"
townlands
chiefly
it is far from uncommon.
and compounds
; but in field-names
Lissatunny
"
i"
Silva Gadelica,"
Translated
ii., p. 3.
by S. H. O'Grady,
Agallamh."
Journal
Chariot
of Cuchullin"
"The
8Lebor na hUidre,
(Siabar charpat Conculaind),
Fairy
fig.
ser. iv., vol. i.,
vol. xi. (consec),
R.S.A.I.,
? "Kevue
vol. viii. (1887), p.
Celtique,"
" The
10" Silva
vol. ii., p. 70,
Gadelica,"
. ." " Revue
vol. xiv. (1893), p.
Celtique,"
p. 387,
65.
copy
circa 1106.
Story of Aedh Baclamh."
of the Hui
47, "Voyage
Corra, ".ante
1100.
24 Proceedings
flask
the wonderful
describes
that kept hot drinks warm
its non-magical
based
usually
and
cold
drinks
on
cool.
surroundings
fiction, however,
"
"
of
not;
evident
that spikes, if
stone,
brass," or
things seen/' and it is
"
iron," at least of wood, girt many a fort in ancient Ireland.
has been removed for a short distance at each
The abattis of Dun Aengusa
into the sea below.
end by idlers who love to hurl stones down the precipice
Old
80 feet long through
the pillars to
is, as we noted, an avenue nearly
to that at
it
is
similar
the north-east
ancient,
being
probably
gateway;
of all the cliff-edge
overlooked
the accessibility
O'Donovan
Ballykinvarga.
There
No
work
to give access to the sea-face.1
it a modern
supposed
former
lie to the north and north-western
the
(as we
"gaps"-;
tried to prove) is in the later reach of wall;
the latter was a shapeless
gap,
even to regard such an
It is not necessary
with no trace of piers, in 1878.
when
he
avenues
in ancient, but more peaceful,
times later than the actual
of the fort.
The gangways
fosses at Doon
foundation
left in the rock-cut
the Firbolg)
and
Fort2 (probably the reputed seat of the brother of Aenghus
near
show that the old fort-dwellers
little regarded this
Lisduff,
Kilkee,
avenue
as made
of their defence.
This was not from thoughtlessness
weakening
"
<f
in early times ; for in the Book of Leinster
the danger was noticed.
." It
a
is peril to be upon the fort unfortified
; and the shout of the person in its
door that has conquered
it."3 The only fairly defensible
gateway of an Irish
undoubted
fort known
entrance
The
to me
was
is at Dunbeg
in Kerry;
too, at Dunnamoe,
perhaps,
capable of more than mere passive resistance.4
the
Fragment.?To
the north and west of the central fort is a fragment
I
of
the
old
outer
wall.
It is 7 feet 6 inches thick and about the
(as
believe)
same height at the east end, and is about 250 feet long with a terrace 4J feet
It lies 54 feet from the middle
wall
at that end, but
high and wide.
to
to
within
20
it
feet
the
west.
It
is
levelled near the
approaches
entirely
cliff and from the upper
is very low.
ridge to the north-east
gate, while much
of its western
reach
The Middle
Wall.?The
eastern
part was
the old outer wall,
evidently
and the western,
from the
bastion
one.
the older middle
The
westward,
an
was
intermediate
is
It
terraced
and
varies
part
afterthought.
throughout
much in height, being from 5 or 6 feet at the north-east
to nearly 12 feet high
"
"
at the upper
ridge.
In 1878
1 " 0.
S.Letters,"
p. 213.
2Journal
R.S.A.I,,
yol. xxv?.,
3 " Book of
p. 37.
Leinster,"
4Miss St?kes notes the
advance
long reaches
of the terrace were
but no
p. 126.
implied by the gateways
forts (" Christian
Architecture
of Ireland,"
p, 26).
: some Irish ones have
lining sl^l?s.
gateways
British
extant,
of Irish
Perhaps
over the gaps in
stone-forts
the. " gaps"
had wooden
Westropp?The
*V
OTNAEN?UM
-
THEFRAGMENT
3
'?.'
OUTERWALL
vm,
Fig.
Jt.I.A.
PEOO.,
4.-^Dun
VOL, XXVIII.,
Aengusa.
Sections
of. the
'Walls.
SECT. C,
25
Irish
of the Rayai
26 Proceedings
Academy.
gate was nearly buried in fallen stones, so that one could
The
hardly creep under its lintels ; and the other gates were shapeless gaps.
to the east, but bulge in and out, showing traces of
walls
show little batter
The north
steps.
in every reach. Like the inner citadel, the masonry
long periods of settlement
is of good and at times fairly large blocks, largest at the north gate, the joints
The sections next the sea have been little altered.
It
packed with spawls.
line to the cliff, which
in an unusually
perhaps
straight
implies
even when
first built it ran to an earlier edge of the precipice
farther
a
to
note
similar
curved
two
is
with
It
to the south.
wall,
interesting
gates
runs
that
corner as at Dun Aengusa,
north, and at the north-east
turning
an
to a sea-cliff^ at
in
almost
line
and
running
straight
abruptly
starts
link-wall
from
in Sussex.1
the
eastern
The
Seafprt
part
a little
an abrupt
to the south of the corner gate.
bend
with
The
to
the
is 4
latter
feet
9
inches
wide
(4
8
feet
6
inches
in O'Donovan's
letter),
the wall being
feet 2 inches
thick, and the lower
little,
varying
From
it the gate of the citadel is seen
three feet of the jambs are ancient.
235
feet
The
and
about
away.
space between the walls at the cliff
facing
a
the same (234 feet), and is 240 feet at the middle of the
edge is practically
The abattis, which clings to the foot of the.old wall, curves out
east section.
from the "link," and is about 60 feet out from the "bastion."
The older
some 10 feet in advance of the present one at
gate was probably
"
on plan, p. 10.)
the steep avenue and slope.
( "h
runs in a wavy line3 shown as
wall
from
the
the
Westward
gate
regular in
so
P?trie
and
the two older sketch-plans
and
in
(of
O'Donovan),
reproduced
even
and
Dunraven.
Modern
th? maps used by Babbington,
Haverty,
steps
north-east
side of the gate ; an inward curve
50 to 70 feet westward;
the north gate (g) at 161 feet.
as in 1878.
It is 4 feet 3 inches wide and high outside,
to the ends of the terrace at either
ascend
is found from about
is perfect now
are over
in the passage.
over 6 feet wide
Some of the outer jamb-stones
4 feet long anda foot thick.
Inside, the piers being on a slope, are (like the
outer gate) of different heights (3 feet 2 inches to 3 feet 11 inches).
The
is 5 feet 2 inches deep, covered (like the outer gate) with
three
passage
This
the inner over 6 feet long and 10 inches to 14 inches thick ; the outer
5 inches long and 8 to 9 inches thick.
The width
inside is most
lintels,
5 feet
unusual,
and probably
had a narrowing
pier which
had fallen or was
ignorantly
1
vol. xlii., parti.,
in Sussex,"
Forts
p. 32, and plate vi. "Hill
Archaeologia,
by Col. A. H.
Fox.
2The outer wall of Tre Ceiri inWales
is as irregular and, like the " link-wall,"
is terraced, but the
as
at
in
the
Welsh
Cashlaun
and other rock-forts,
in the
fort,
Gar, Langough,
irregularity
originates
runs on an unimpeded
contour of the ground, while that of Dun Aengusa
floor of crag, the more
Lane
regular
reaches
of the inner walls
being
alone
on the rock
ridges.
Fort of Dun Aengusa k inishmore, Aran.
WkstropP?The
removed
was
by the restorers
rebuilt above them,
the two outer
between
in 1884.
and
two
lintels
and
cracked
This
the
lintels when
27
the wall
were
inserted.
The space
stone props
the inner one is covered by cross-bearers.
to verify this feature ; but (like the outer gate)
My notes of 1878 are too vague
is 6 feet high ; and the
correct.
it is possibly
The terrace at this point
a little curve at the west pier of the outer ope.
The
outer wall makes
a
to
it
otherwise
fine inner lintel of this gate probably belonged
predecessor;
of the citadel are, of very poor construction
is, and indeed the other gateways
forts.
The
several of the Mayo,
Clare, and Kerry
compared with
of
and poor, small blocks of the side-jambs
give the gateways
irregularity
account
and
a somewhat
for
Dun Aengusa
and
late
appearance,
quite
ragged
when
the complete
ruin of all those
of
OUTER_WORTH
the other
the islands.
forts of
CATEfPtlDOti WALL.
Fio.
tMNER
Westward
<+
5.
from this, at the upper ridge, the wall makes a curve like a bastion, and meets
Inside they, with their terraces,
the older portion nearly at right angles (/).
on
crown of the ridge, at 83 feet
meet in another practically
the
right angle
from the inner west pier of the gateway.
the junction with
This is evidently
runs thence, in a
wall, which
equi
regular curve, practically
from
30
has
been
demolished
to
the
wall
to
where
central
it
feet)
(27
the cliff. The terrace at the sharp bend is 4 feet high and 20 inches
on the " link," and 3 feet on the old wall, which
is 7 feet thick and
the old second
distant
near
wide
in
This bend appears
being from 3 to 4 feet thick.
camera sketches of 1878,1 and probably
in Dunraven's
photographs.
It is shown in
At 54J feet from the bend is the gap of another gate (e).
Dunraven's
and seems then to have had the foundations
third photograph,2
high, the
one of my
outer
of piers.
The probable
section
1 See
continuation
p. 40.
has been as entirely
- See Plate
11.,
removed
to the east
tig. 2.
[4*]
28Proceedings
of the fort as at the ends near the clifK
and west
by
200
feet north
and
This
is about 400
enclosure
south, but was
probably
feet east
at first very much
larger.
fine early citadel has, as a rule, nearly monopolized
before 1880
of all antiquaries
and visitors ; so the descriptions
the attention
are fairly satisfactory.
it
describe
We must,
however,
fully once again.
about the
this let us first examine what O'Donovan1 wrote
Before
doing
The
Fort.?This
Inner
ramparts, which
internal division
4 feet 5 inches
that the
misunderstood.
He writes
has been thoroughly
is 3 feet 4 inches thick, the central 5 feet, and the external
"
are
The two external divisions
thick; total, 12 feet 9 inches.
here raised to the height of 18 feet; but the internal division is... 7 feet high....
I find in all the other forts that the internal division
4 feet
is generally
lower than the other two/'
F.
This was understood
Lord
W.
Dunraven,2
by
Wakeman,3
myself,
and others*
to imply
that the central
1"Ordnance
Co. Galway,
p. 205.
Survey Letters,"
"
2
Notes on Irish Architecture,''
vol. i., p. 4.
Dunraven,
3 " Traces
of tlie Elder Faiths
of Ireland"
(Colonel Wood-Martin,
vol. i., p. 316.
It has /\ steps, which do not occur in Dun Conor, some
section
of the wall
view,
1902); Wakeman's
huts all over the
thirty-four
area, and the sunken way round the wall, all incorrect.
*As corrigenda
to my own
Soc. Ant.,
errors, see Journal Boy.
lr., vol.
"
Ancient
Forts of Ireland,"
section 81,
Handbooks,
ii., p. 66, and vi., p. 73.
"
Trans. R.I. Acad., vol. xxxi.,
Dr. Christison,
in
p. 692.
is also misled
non-occurrence
0*Donovan's
The
of
by
language.
equivocal
or at Dim Aengusa
untouched
itself in 1878, should have kept
stone-fort,
mistaken
interpretation.
xxv., p. 258, and its
and the same essay in
of Scotland,"
p. 151,
a sunken way in any
rne at
least
from
this
The Fort
Westropp?
ofDun Aengusa
Was 11 feet lower than the others.
Wakeman
%n
Iniskmore, Aran.
went
so far as to draw an ideal
Conor with a sunken way round the top.
for having obliterated
this interesting
feature,
that the wall had had an inner section till confronted
of Dun
restoration
the restorers
believe
Dunraven
This
I sketched
feature
29
Some
and
with
censured
refused
the
to
third
and well
(which
remember)
photograph.
account in 1904, when I saw that by
to reconsider O'Donovan's
"
the banquette,
the "internal
division he meant
being indeed the true inner
removes
of his further statement
the
which
section,
inconsistency
apparent
first
led me
4 feet lower
the section
were
of equal height, and explains his allusion to
in all the other forts which have
than the summit
that the two. outer divisions
describes.
exactly as O'Donovan
or
1
a
to 7), but is usually
to
has
5,
(usually 1
slight batter
but rose
It is 12 to 13 feet high at present,
and bulged out.
distorted
in parts to 18 feet high in 1839; resting on a low, and evidently
scarped,
or 4 feet high, all round which, when covered by debris, may
ledge of rock, 3
the outer walls
behind
banquettes
The rampart
The third Dunraven
old height to 18 feet.
photograph,
of
in 1878, show
two
in
and
1847,
my camera sketches
Cheyne's
the north-west
that a large patch of the facing opposite
gate had fallen,
a
I
in 1878.
and
condition
face
The
inside
recollect
this
second
;
showing
have
the
brought
view
Mr.
outer
section
middle)
had
only one face, with filling between
The
but the latter had two faces.
section;
the lower
it and
inner
the next
sections
(or
were
4 to 7 feet high.
The upper
is, I think, a modern
were
as
4
outer
the
sections
feet higher,
certainly of the same
development,
in 1839, and even in 1878.
As we noted, a line of large foundation
height
blocks on the ledge outside, and to the south of the gate, implies a later
terraces,
So do the joints, first noted by Mr. Lynch,
but shown
in
rebuilding.
Burton's
sketch of 1857 ; they lie 23 inches to the south, and 30 inches to the
north of the entrance outside,1 and 14 inches to the north, and 16 inches to the
This suggests a rebuilding of the present door and outer wall in
south inside.
under the terrace.
ope to the north-west
early times, as does the useless
*
The wall
is of unusually
somewhat
small, coursed masonry,
good, though
a facing of headers.
or perhaps
A few
with
only stretchers,
larger^ blocks,
as usual,
3 and 4 feet long, are found in the lower courses.
The masonry,
8 or 9 feet up, owing probably
to difficulties
in lifting
It is inconceivable
should have described
that so many persons
"
as
such masonry
That of the neighbouring
churches
better
cyclopean."
merits
term.
this oft-abused
gets smaller
the blocks.
The
about
gateway
is perfect,
facing
^See
slightly
PL III.,
to the
north
of east,
fig. 2.
and ?is a
$0Proceedings
a long outer
and two long relieving
structure, with
lintel,
it. It is 5 feet 9 inches high, but a step of the natural
rock
to at most
5 feet 3 inches.
inside it reduces jts height
The passage rises
steeply 18 inches in 5 feet ; the two outer ledges or steps are 14 inches and
16 inches high, so the garth inside is nearly 4 feet above the foot of the
fine
typical
stones over
ledge.
3 feet
The
from 3 feet 5 inches to
tapers very slightly
gateway
upward
4 inches wide;
it is 4 feet deep above, and 9 inches more below, of
some
3 feet 7 inches long, and 1 foot thick.
The lintels
stones,
large
fairly
rise inside
like
Fig.
inverted
7. ?Dun
steps,
Aengusa
such
: The
as we
find
inner gateway,
over
interior
stairs
in certain
late
and exterior.
are five covers,
There
15
their depths
outer,
peel towers.
being?the
inches (by 14 inches thick, and 5 feet 10 inches long), the next three 9 inches
to 10 inches deep, the inner being 4 feet 6 inches long.
They rise 9 inches,
6 inches, and 8 inches, the two inner being level, and keep the passage at a
The inner ope is 5 feet 9 inches high,
fairly even height above the slope.
and 3 feet 2 inches wide.
An unroofed
6 feet 7 inches wide, and
passage,
as
9 feet 6 inches deep, runs,
is usual in Irish forts, through the inner sections
of the wall.
9.inches,
upper
The
large ; *some are 3 feet 7 inches, 4 feet
15 inches to 28 inches thick; but the
and
long,
in
a
been
having
ragged, shapeless heap of blocks
lower
blocks
are
and 5 feet 9 inches
part
is rebuilt,
Westropp?The
31
The rampart is 13 feet 6 inches thick
sides of the gateway.1
feet 6 inches thick farther
to the
south, and 14 feet 2 inches
to both
1878,
here,2 12
north-east.
such as we find at Ballykinvarga
and other
terraces,
round the interior ; the lower is 4 feet to 5 feet high to the
forts,3 running
east, 6 feet to 7 feet to the west, the upper 4 feet to 5 feet high ; they vary
in width,
being usually 4 feet to 5 feet wide, but 7 feet 9 inches
greatly
The upper was noted by O'Donovan
wide at one point.
in 1839 ; there was
There
are
two
of it even
in 1853.
; the lower was noted by Ferguson
of steps run up the two terraces at 5J feet to the south
Two "ladder-flights"
: the type is common
in Aran
and Clare ; the other, or
of the entrance
"
more
common
in
Galway, Mayo, and Kerry,
sidelong flight," being
though
some
trace
in 1878
in the former districts.
The flights are each nearly 4 feet
are
and
six
of
five
and
at 9 feet
Northward,
wide,
steps.
slightly projecting
a
is
3 inches from the gateway,
4 feet wide,
flight of five "ladder-steps,"
and 2 feet 4 inches deep in all, up to the lower terrace ; it is mentioned
by
is an upward flight of six steps, 3 feet
; 27 feet farther northward
Ferguson
at this place.
4 inches wide ; the lower terrace is broadest
The north-west
not unknown
of two sidelong flights,4
the terrace, consisting
are reset, but they are
and
in
all
six
the
lower,
upper;
eight steps
"
"
on Petrie's
in 1878, with some trace
marked
plan, and there were
slopes
the foot is the
of a terrace.
The whole double flight is 12J feet long. At
a
in
in
the
lower
wall
is
lintelled
it
oft-mentioned
;
low,
ope
passage, ending
and is 3 feet 10 inches high, 33 inches wide, and over 6 feet
loose filling,
stair
is 61
feet farther
round
in the
deep, with four lintels, the outer being 2 inches thick ; it is 80 feet from
pier of the main entrance ; there are no other features seaward.
the
1The south side of the inner
sketched
the
passage appears to have been standing when Burton
in 1878; the sketch at that date tallies
and at least the lower part on the north remained
doorway,
stonework above the door up to the present
but part has been
with nearly all the existing
summit,
added to the ends at the terraces.
"
2Not 15 feet 5
Architecture."
inches, and 13 feet on top, as in Petrie's
Military
3
are found at Tre-eeiri
terraces
rare
inWales;
of
outside
Ireland,
Worlebury
(Somerset?
Though
there were six sections rising as terraces, each about 4 feet higher than the next
in England?where
in Scotland.
Dr. G-uebhard
illustrates
Dr. Christison
lower.
implies that some are extant
(from
"
E. Carfcailhac)
terraced stone forts in Majorca
des Baleares,"
and Minorca.
Monuments
primitives
at Baou de la Grande
in France,
are probable
and an apparent
(Alpes Maritimes),
examples
in Portugal,
all in primitive
structures
at Cidada Velha de Santa Luzia
to
closely comparable
Irish cathairs.
4This
in the very advanced
the later, as occurring
and elaborate
forts of
type is, perhaps,
It is also found in Moneygashel,
in Kerry.
and Cahergel,
;
Sligo ; Cahergel,
Galway
Staigue
are
in Aran,
save at Dun Aengusa,
in Clare.
The examples
and Cahergrillaun,
Caherahoagh
as we noted the sloping
before the works of 1884 ; hut some may be true restorations,
unrecorded
a record
in the Black
is also
Fort.
There
of a very
marks
of unrestored
flights
early
'
"
in the fort of Erimokastro,
in Rhodes.
N. S.,
(" Revue Arch?ologique,'
steps"
sidelong
flight of
vol. xviii.
(1886), p. 156),
There
terrace
32 Proceedings
The
it was
given
140 feet to 150 feet across, 150 feet at the cliff;
oval, but there seems no datum for the dimensions
"
of 225 feet north and south.
In the middle,
on the
is from about
garth
very probably
"
in the
Letters
is a rock-platform,
edge of the precipice,
scarped and squared, a
evidently
few feet high, 42 feet north and south, and 27 feet across.
From it we can
waves
in
stone
into
the
their
unwearied
drop a
raging,
sapping of the cliff
There are no hut-sites
in the garth ; if they ever existed, the
302 feet below.
materials may have been thrown over.
The view
from the summit of the fort is most impressive
"
the soil almost paved with stones,"
fields,
desolate-looking
to
crescent
of Kilmurvey
the
away
strand, and rise
golden
"
to the old lighthouse
hill, past the village of Gortnagappul,"1
runs the long range of steep, dark headlands,
Eastward
and solemn : the
as in 1684, fall
up the opposite
near Dun Oghil,
and deep bays,
the huge cliff, and
spray; while
beyond
by high-leaping
trouble
wall
of
qf the sea that cannot rest," we see the "great
Thomond
'?Moher?with
bastions.
The limits of the view
its violet-shaded
unsheeted
rarely
"the
on clear
days
of Connemara;
deep, whirling
reach
from
in Kerry
the giant peaks of Corcaguiny
to those
while
is only the horizon
of the landless
to the south-west
silver tideways.
sea-birds, and the sparkling
APPENDIX
A.
BlBLIOGKAPHY,YlEWS, AND PLANS.2
Forts on the Isles
(1858).
"Firbolg
ser.
vol. iv.,
Cambrensis,
iii, p. 25.
Archaeologia
"
of Aran/' p. 16.
Isles
The
South
Oliver
J.
Burke,
(1887).
"A Visit
of
Most
Rev.
Ardfert
George, Bishop
(1870).
Conroy,
Babbingtqn,
St.
Charles
C.
of Aran."
to Aran
of
Enda."
"
vol. i.,
Notes
Edwin, Earl of (1875).
i.?iii.
p. 1, plates
"
Dublin
Clare, and Arran."
Olonmacnoise,
(Sir) Samuel (1853).
Ferguson,
494.
xii., p.
University
Magazine,
"
"
The Irish before the Conquest
(ed. 1880), p. 6.
Lady (1867).
Ferguson,
"
On the Firbolgic
Forts in the South Isles
Charles H. (1853).
Hartshorne,
vol.
of Arran."
Cambrensis,
iv., N.S., p. 296.
Archaeologia
"
The
Section.
British
Arran Isles." Ethnological
Haverty, Martin
(1859).
Dunraven,
Association,
republished,
p. 19.
1
on the maps.
Oortnagappie
3
those earlier than 1880, or
Only
avowedly
founded
on notes
dating
before
that year,
are given.
"Irish Builder
April
"
15th,
G. H.
33
Westropp?The
on Aran,
Articles
writer).
anonymous
(1877,
1886.
commencing
of Ireland";
in the West
"Science
127.1
1875, p.
(Hardwicke),
Gossip"
to Grose's
In Introduction
of
Led wich, Edward
"Antiquities
(1797).
"
own
of
140.2
and
his
vol.
Ireland,"
ii.,
iv.,
p.
Ireland,"
Antiquities
p.
"
on County
MS. notes.
Letters
John
O'Donovan,
Galway."
(1839).
I.
Ordnance
Acad.).
(B.
Survey
Kinahan,
"Sketches
(1875).
John
(1821).
O'Flaherty,
vol. xiv., pp. 72-140.
Eoderic
O'Flaherty,
Archaeol.
Soc),
(1684).
p. 76.
of Arran
"Sketch
"Ogygia,"
p. 85.
Trans.
Isles."
"hlar
"
Architecture
P?trie,
Military
(1820 and 1857).
George
B. I. Acad.).
"
McNair
Stokes, Miss Margaret
Early Christian
(1876).
Ireland," p. 14, and plate I.
B.I.
Acad.,
(Ir.
Connaught"
"
of Ireland
(ms.
Architecture
of
and Christian."
"Aran,
Pagan
Duffy's
vol
i., p. 577.
Magazine,"
No. ii. (1895), p. 56; vi. (1904),
T. J. (notes, 1878).
Handbooks,
Westropp,
"
Ancient
Ant.
Forts
and
Journal
Soc.
73
;
Ir., 1885, p. 256.
p.
Boy.
123.
of Ireland."
Sections 46,49,
81, 94,
"
Sir W.
Corrib,"
p. 265, view by C. Cheyne, drawn
Wilde,
(1872).
Lough
1847.
F.
W.
Wakeman,
u
Hibernian
John (1858).
Windele,
vol. L, p. 740.
(1862).
Topographical
mss. Supplement
(Library, B. I. Acad.),
Views.
"
in Grose's
of
view given by Dr. Ledwich,
Antiquities
Imaginary
"
own
of
and
in
his
Ireland,"
Ireland,"
ii., p. iv,
Antiquities
plate xi.,
p. 140.3
"
in Ordnance Survey
of Dun Aenghus,
1839. Masonry
by W. F. Wakeman,
1795.
Letters."
1He
only mentions
2Ledwich
regards
any accurate view or
this kingdom
hitherto
the sea, and is a great
one rampart of flaggy limestone and the chevaux de frise,
it nor took any pains
fort as a monastery
visited
to get
; he neither
" There are
of the ruin.
many of these mandrae
description
dispersed over
. . . situated on a
is Dun Aengus
unnoticed
; one remarkable
high cliff over
The inaccuracy
stones without
cement."
and dogmatism
circle of monstrous
*
are very
attacks
characteristic
of the work
cited.
Windele
also grievously
this pretentious
a
who
while
his
Mr.
L.
the fort to
of
Thomas
Cooke,
supposed
giving
theory
friend,
antiquary,"
"
" a
be a pagan temple, and the little recess in the wall a room for
!
priest or two, with attendants
it being (as we noted) less than 3 feet wide, 4 feet high, or 8 feet long.
5The view is stated to be
in Grose, bot
by M. Hooper,
July 5th, 1795, engraved
by Sparrow,
"
we read "W. Beaufort
on the plate in
del. J. iFord sculp. Pub. by John Jones, 90 Bride S* Dublin
own work.
Ledwich's
8,
I. A. PBOC,
the
VOL. XXVIJI,,
SECT.
0,
[?]
34 Proceedings
"
Christian
in Miss
Stokes's
view, reproduced
from
the
east.1
fort
and
cliff
the
shows
It
of Ireland."
Antiquities
ut supra, and
and Wilde,
C. Cheyne,
1847.
hy Babbington
reproduced
"
of Ancient
Social History
Dr. Joyce's
Ireland,"
ii., p. 58. Fort from
Dr.
1836.
beautiful
Petrie's
the north-west.
F. W.
1857.
and Stokes,
by Dunraven
Burton,
reproduced
fort.
ut
supra.
Door
of the central
Lord
1875.
fine
Dunraven's
(2) Fort from north-west.
Camera
1878.
sketches?(1)
(3) From north-west.3
east.
(6) Interior
photographs.
(3) Portions
(1) Fort
of middle
from
distant,
inner gateway.
Fort,
(4) The
and
cliff
from
east.
and inner walls.2
north.
(2) From
(5) The inner fort from
east.
terrace.
showing
Plans.
O'Donovan
and P?trie.
O'Donovan
these
All
and Haverty.
an extremely
with gates.
crude
are
plan,
little
is followed
better
showing
only
APPENDIX
Unpublished
Descriptions
by Dunraven,
Babbington,
Windele
than sketch-maps.
gives
and
two crescent walls concentric
B.
before
1880.
of a fort whose
and which
origin is lost in the darkness,
no
course
must
of
consist largely of
finds
place in later Annals,
apparently
on its remains. An unrestored
fort is its own record ; but,
the papers written
in 1878, and contrasts
it
to one who recalls the weird chaos of ruin-heaps
The
records
six years later,
enclosures
left by the restorers
the neat, level-topped
no matter
and
how rude, assume a great importance,
old descriptions,
one's
readers.
We
those
of
collect
should be laid before
P?trie, O'Donovan,
and the result compiled from our own notes and sketches before the
Windele,
with
the
that these have exhausted
all the early
we
; but
hope to lead anyone who has notes on Dun
descriptions
unpublished
taken in or before 1884, to publish the same and perfect, as far as
Aengusa,
record of that great fortress.
the
possible,
restoration.
We
cannot
believe
1The
the antiquary
and the human
the size of the waves
artist
; by increasing
overpowered
a mere fraction of its height,
and overhanging
The fort, however,
too far.
figures he makes the cliff
drawn.
is accurately
to reproduce
these last two by Messrs.
31 have been kindly permitted
George Bell and Sons,
London.
The latter also appears in Journal R. S. A. L, vol. xxxiv,,
257.
York House,
3This was
in Journal R. S. A. I., vol. xxv., p. 257, in 1895.
I trace from it, as the
published
seems lost,
original
Fort of Dun ?engusa
Westkopp?The
George
"
Essay
Invasion
P?trie
on
"
and
(1821
The
35
for his
used by Dr. P?trie
of Ireland previous
to the English
12.0.9 and 10 in the collection
of the
1857).
Architecture
the Military
in ?nishmore, Aran.
notes
classed
(two manuscripts
B. I. Acad.),
most probably date from his leisurely
visit in 1821, not from
the confused picnic meeting
was almost
of 1857, when detailed
observation
We
and
the
other
but keep
condense
his
accounts,
impossible.
slightly
"
essential
feature,
cliff is 360 (error of
every
[p. 131]1 The
overhanging
recte
above
the
of
feet
level
ocean."
sketch of the
the
His
300)
copyist,
gateway, with strongly inclined jambs, and section of the wall, 13 feet wide
on top, and 15 feet 5 inches below, with a strong S curve, are both inaccurate.
is in the handwriting
Neither manuscript
of P?trie,
[p. 135.]
"
The keep or caher is 115 feet [150 on the plan] in diameter,
the wall
one
20 feet high, and 14 feet 6 inches thick.
It has
small entrance doorway,
a small chamber or cell
5 feet high and 3 feet wide.
contains
The wall
is of nearly equal thickness, making
it. The wall
for a
allowance
curve in its outer faces.
The steps which led to the parapet are destroyed.
within
of the area there is an oblong level elevation of rock, apparently
The keep is
by art, 42 feet long, 27 feet wide, and 2 feet high.
walls, on ledges of rock, each rising above
strengthened
by three concentric
the other.
The first [p. 136] varies from 10 to 12 feet, and is about 11 feet
In the centre
formed
in
thickness?
It
has
a
level
terrace
at
the
of 6 feet from the
height
in breadth
from 3 to 6 feet.
ground, and an entrance doorway, which varies
This wall is 30 feet from the inner, and at the
second
concentric
wall
is situated
only about half the circumference
6 feet wide ; this wall has also
234 feet.
The
doorway,
ledge of rock, and extends
on a lower
of the first.
a terrace
10 feet high and
is
its height, which
but not lettered, in the plan
It is about
at about
reached
half
by two flights of steps d and d [shown,
in the "fragment," which
is in the text confused with the second wall],
Its distance from the inner wall varies
and has a doorway about 4 feet wide.
as
from 20 feet to 30 feet.
ledge of rock,
distance
from
height
"
considerably
the former
The
third
below
from
and outer wall
the preceding
feet to 675
140
(E) occupies an irregular
[p. 139], and varies in its
feet ; it is about
6 feet in
and in thickness.
I have
feature in this great work,
yet to notice the most remarkable
a
sort
chevaux
de
of
of
formed
namely,
frise
high and sharp stones placed
an
This extra
in
with
their
points upwards.
position,
irregularly
upright
to a
the second and third [sic] walls, and extends
ordinary barrier surrounds
1The
amount
so that
smaller copy is paginated,
on each successive
page is the same.
p.
60
corresponds
to p. 135
in
the larger one.
16*1
The
36 Proceedings
of the ?oyal
?rish Academy.
from 50 to 70 feet. A passage
leads by a steep ascent of
varying
this
in
second
and
to
the
the
80 feet
wall;
passage has a wall of
gateway
3 feet on either side."
? The most
valuable
O'Donovan
John
of the
(1839).
description
one
has
coloured
and
which
account since it
fort,
every published
unrepaired
distance
was made
for the Ordnance
and is now given
Survey Letters,
D.
commences
in
extenso
E.
I.
14
Acad.
with
It
3, p. 197).
(mss.
practically
a long and controversial
we
a series of
section which
omit, as it is merely
on Kev. Mr. Healy,
and John O'Flaherty,
for their
Dr. Ledwich,
attacks
and
theories.
translations,
descriptions,
name now forgotten
"Dun Aengus.?A
197.]
by all the inhabitants
[p.
was written,
one
except
Cromwellian
tomed
old man
of
the name
who
to call
by descent),
it Dun Inn?es,"
of Wiggins,
at Killeany"
(a
dwelling
"
that the old people were accus
remembered
the correct Connaught
of the
pronunciation
"all
the other
inhabitants
it Dunmore."
"Dun
name;
style
a nAraind,"
Book of Lecan,
f. 277.
Aengusa
"
on the
Dun
is situated
pronounced Doon Inn?es,
Aengusa,
[p. 204.]
in
of
of
the
south side of the Great
south-west
townland
the
Island,
ancient
on the edge of a cliff which is 302 feet above the level of the sea.
Kilmurvy,
It is, perhaps, one of the finest specimens of barbaric fortresses
in the world,1
...
much
the
are
of
ruined
island
but very
the
the
;
boys
destroying
in
for
rabbits
which
burrow
in
its
walls.
As
it
stands
part
rooting
remaining
of three concentric
it consists
at present,
a tolerable
walls, of which the central one is in
but the two outer ones are nearly destroyed,
state of preservation,
. . . The central
in spots.
excepting
and interesting
thirds
It was originally
part.
of the oval remain, the Atlantic
fort or keep is by far the most perfect
of an oval form ; but now only the two
in the course of two thousand
having,
years, worn away
from the northern
It measures
from north to south?i.e.
the remaining
part.
feet, and from
part of the ring to the edge of the cliff?150
west to east, along the cliff, 140 feet. When
the oval was perfect, it mea sured
. . . The wall of the
225 feet in length from north to south.
keep of Dun
is built of large and small stones,
the large ones being
[p. 205]
Aengus
and
ones
in
the
small
the
face
of
in
the
This wall is made
centre.
it,
placed
of
three
distinct
walls,
stones
of considerable
is 18
feet.
of
This
the masonry
built up against
each other, each well
.
.
.
size.
of this wall
The greatest
height
is at
appear.
the west
The
side, where
internal division
"
1
Hibernian
W.
P. Wakeman
(in Duffy's
Magazine,*'
*'
of a century
later his recollection
of G*Donovan*s
wild
fortress of the days of Queen Maeve."
at present
characteristics
the
original
of the wall
vol.
joy'*
faced with
is here
i.? N.S.,
p. 470)
on first seeing
records
"the
3
feet
a quarter
old
palace
Westropp?The
4 inches
thick
division,
external
4 feet 5 inches
or central
; the second
thick?total
are here
divisions
raised
division
division
3t
is 5 feet thick, and the external
12 feet 9 inches.
The two
thickness,
to the height
of 18 feet ; but the internal
; but it is probable that it was originally
is at present only 7 feet high
feet
many
higher, though, I think, never so high as the
as I find in all the other forts that the internal division
two external
parts,
4 feet
is generally
are always carried to the same height."
lower than the other two, which
are next given.
some
Some pencil-notes
comments
and
207
; map
[pp. 206,
uses
which he
later on.]
give the measurements
[p. 208.] The doorway
which
led into this keep is still nearly perfect ; it is placed in the north-east
on the highest
is situated
side, facing the Aran
point of
lighthouse, which
the island.
It is nearly stopped up on the inside with stones which fell from
the top of the wall ; I removed them on the outside down to the solid rock
on which
the wall
in height
to measure
is built, and found the doorway
and rise of each of the four
exactly 5 feet.
[He then gives the dimensions
The doorway would be 21 inches higher on the inside than on the
lintels.]
outside were
it not that the solid rock on which the wall is built rises in
...
At
the external part of the wall
this doorway
proportion.
[p. 209.]
remains
4
in thickness, and the other
5
feet
inches
only
perfect, measuring
are nearly level with the area of the fort, but immediately
to
the north and south of it they are tolerably perfect.
"
In the north-west
side of this ring there is a passage, leading from the
inside into the thickness of the wall to the extent of 5 feet 6 inches, measuring
two divisions
to the
top, 3 feet 7 inches from the bottom
.
.
.
across.
stones
laid
it is covered by large
horizontally
"
the
210.
Middle
Outside
internal keep are the remains
[p.
Wall.]
a strong cyclopean
wall
distances.
surrounds
it at irregular
which
2 feet 9 inches
in width
at
the
roof where
of
28 feet of the keep.
to the west, near the cliff, it is within
Immediately
and by west
is 32 feet from it, and to the north-west,
To the north
To
42 feet 6 inches.
from the keep
this wall is in tolerable
the north
It
remain.
for here its original
thickness and perhaps height
preservation,
faced inside and outside with
is 6 feet thick and 12 feet high, and well
stones
against
of considerable
the other.
...
size.
It consists
A
line drawn
of two distinct
from
fort, or keep, measures
doorway
part of this external wall there is a doorway
is here
4 feet 7 inches in width, and the wall
of the
interior
this part
131 feet.
walls, one built up
to the
of the wall
In the north-east
now much
8 feet
It is
destroyed.
2 inches in thickness.
from this doorway to that of the internal fort or keep measures
235 feet. At the distance of a few feet to the east of this broken doorway
this wall forms an angle from which a straight
line, drawn to the doorway of
A
line drawn
88Proceedings
the keep measures
240 feet.
From this angle the wall turns southwards
towards the cliff, which [sic] is now very much destroyed.
Its length from
the angle above mentioned
to the brink of the cliff is 176 feet.
"
. . .
Outside
this second wall is placed a host of sharp stones slopewise
so
are
one
of them
them they
fell against
[p. 211.]
Many
sharp that if
would run him
some
of
This
stones
is
in
army
[p. 213.]
places 30 feet
through,
and
from cliff
extends
all
round
outside
the
wall
second
deep,
immediately1
to cliff.
are
They
nearly perfect on the west side, and also on the east ; but
on the north-east
to
of them have been removed
many
by the islanders
facilitate
the passage to the sea.
of Old Wall.]
[Fragment
"Outside
the
second
and between
wall
it
and the chevaux de frise
seems
a
[sicj there is another fragment of wall which
never to have been carried around more than about the one-tenth
of
the
part
and
The part of it at present
in
is
9
feet
inches
7
ring.
height
standing
6 feet in thickness.
"
of stones there is another
Outside
the chevaux de frise
a great extent of ground, and runs from cliff to cliff; a
line drawn from the north and by the west
side of the second wall to this,
measures
the
chevaux
de
129 feet, and a line drawn
passing
frise,
through
from the northern
a
to an
same
in
direction
of
the
wall
north-west
part
[Outer
wall which
Wall.]
encloses
393 feet.
point, measures
angle formed by this at the north-west
This wall is here very much
of
it
I have
remains
from
what
but
injured;
been able to ascertain
wall
was
second
similar
the
to
that it
built exactly
obtuse
that is formed [p. 214] of two distinct divisions which
described,
already
would
stand
A line drawn from the broken
of each other.
independently
to the north-east
doorway in the second wall, already mentioned,
point of
this measures
434 feet. At the portion
the wall was 8 feet thick, and well built
inferred from any fragment
of it now
I have
been
able
to ascertain
that
; but the original height could not be
A line drawn from this
remaining.
586 feet; and a line drawn from the
point to the edge of the cliff measures
second wall at the edge of the cliff to the extremity
of this at the edge of the
640 feet."
cliff, also measures
then rightly points out the
[O'Donovan
view, which imposed on Ledwich,
"Antiquities
imaginary
falsity of Beaufort's
of Ireland," p. 139, and gives,
found, not many months ago, by
on p. 221, sketches of the bronze antiquities
"
A
for rabbits.
fish-hook,"
3? inches
boys rooting
and pins, now in P?trie Museum.]
I need
only comment
1This
on the above description,
is only
true of the eastern
long, portion
that O'Donovan
face, as we pointed
out.
of a fibula,
does
not
Westropp^-?%<? Fort
from
39
seen
(or at least noted) any steps in the inner fort or either
in the middle
and outer walls.
The gates, we
gateways
before the restoration;
other sources, existed
but the lower
appear to have
of the northern
know
ofDun Aengusa in Inishmore, Aran.
lies buried
fort (as my sketch
in vast heaps of
shows)
so
were
debris,
any steps
probably hidden.
In that extraordinary
mass of rough notes
John Windele
(ante 1854).
on antiquities
one
most
and folk-lore
life-work
of
of
and
the
industrious
(the
terrace of the inner
We
Aengusa.
we find a description
of Dun
antiquaries),
rescue
a
so
to
of
the
work,
pleasure
fragment
so valuable,
of John Windele.
It is found in his
of the Munster
least-known
strive
with
ignored and yet
12 e. 27). We
condense.
vol. i. (mss. B. L Acad.,
Supplement,
"
on
Dun
It
stands
the
verge of the sea, high
Aongus.
[pp. 739-40.]
a
cliff
the
of
at
300 feet in height, and
least
perched upon
edge
perpendicular
more
than a half-circle,
of two enormous
forms something
consisting
unjustly
. . . The breadth
walls.
of the intervallum
to the left 14 paces
(39 feet), at the
east 94 paces
(300 feet)."
"
The appearance of the Dun as we first approach is that of a
[pp. 740.]
ruins ; but as it is reached, its general
chaos
of
form soon develops
great
itself.
The upper outline of the walls is jagged and most irregular, by reason
of injuries of one kind or another.
The exterior surface is tolerably regular ;
on the interior the face has fallen into terrible ruin ; and it is only at
particular
points that its outline [p. 745] can be descried.
They are built
but
of limestone, of moderately
large stones, of irregular surface and outline, and
without
about 20 feet, and thickness 12 feet ; the
any cement?the
height
on the outside, and diminishing
walls perpendicular
in thickness within
by
and
The
outer
of
interior wall has, at
face
the
banquettes.
stages
receding
of stairs, just as we find in the inside of Staigue
the west side, a succession
Fort.
whole
I am not prepared
circle of that wall.
measures
or deny that these staircases encompass the
The inner area has a horseshoe
form, and
[p. 747].
the cliff 48 paces (133 feet), and to the crown of the circle at the
to assert
along
51
A table of rock, square in form, crops up near
north,
paces (141 feet).
the cliff above the surface at a height
of about 4 feet.
It is in a rude and
In the eastern side of the inner encompassing
state.1
perfectly unwrought
.
a doorway
wall
is the only entrance,
of narrow proportions.
.Height,
5 feet 2 inches; breadth at top, 4 feet 3 inches [sic].
is
covered over with
It
four great lintel-stones,
which rise one over the other inwards like inverted
The
of
the
steps.
passage thus formed is only 6 feet, which would
length
indicate the thickness of the wall here.
The floor is now covered with loose
1 If "
P?trie
perfectly
to be
right
means
without
chisel marks,
unwrought"
"
as to its
been
formed hj art,"
having
Windele
is
right:
hut
I helieye
40Proceedings
and
probably placed there by design or fallen."
[He then examines
statement
that it is a
rejects the temple theory,
agreeing with P?trie's
"
on
and
continues
A
Dun
writer, describing
fortress,
p. 752.]
says
Aengus,
the larger of the three (there are only two) enclosures
is encircled
by a
stones,
This is a decided error ; the stones
rampart of large stones standing on end.
are polygonal
in form. . . sometimes
but never by the
hammer-dressed,
chisel."
so
is
indeed
It
remarkable that he
all outside the
entirely overlooked
middle
wall.
Fig.
Notes,
tion may
June
8.?Dun
Aengusa
1st, 1878.?The
from camera
rarity
sketches,
1878.
of records made
before
the restora
of my own very rough notes:
giving an adaptation
or
is
"an old tumbled wall;
There
very
Aingus."
Engus,
"
on
set
much is quite down" ; then,
end; inside is a piece of detached
pillars
"
'"
The
inner wall has a sort of terrace, nearly gone near the
wall
(sketch).
There is "a road through
like
with
doors, and one 'creepy' door."
cliff,
gaps
.
.
.
runs
back round a steep (ridge),
the second wall
the pillars, very steep
"Doon
excuse
my
Ainuss
The middle
fort wall has fallen down
pillars at the foot towards Clare.
in one patch, with another wall inside ; there is a hole (? the ope inside). The
wall was three times a man's height, of rough stones, naturally
very square.
An old gate looking towards Clare is perfect with a top stone, the wall rising
to each side (sketch) ; another gap higher than
like a gable over it, broken
on top
it has step-stones
Inside the door is perfect (sketch);
one can reach.
with
Westropp?
The Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore3 Aran.
4l
There was a sort of
; all the wall seems very shaken here.
(of the passage)
or
terrace round the inside (sketch), and slopes,
steps, up to the top, which ig
a square platform
There
is
and
loose.
of rock.
The fort is not
dangerous
a bit like Grose
in
of
view
Grose's
but like
(the
Ireland'),
'Antiquities
you can hardly
The
the stones."
are lots of
the pillars.
There
through
was
written
the month
following
probably
. . *
our
which
rises
with
tiers
of
three
walls.
visit:?"Dun
after
Engus,
a
chevaux d?frise of jagged
The outer wall is insignificant
; then you come to
a low middle
is
this
next
the great inner wall
behind
;
;
rampart
pillar-stones
a square-headed
we
in which,
interior?a
entered
the
level
door,
through
'Dunraven';
in
rabbits
get
rocky piece of ground with an oblong raised platform of rock, 2 or 3 feet high,
The Firbolgs were certainly no savages :
and so squared as to look artificial.
and flights
the smooth-faced
walls, well-built
door, clever chevaux de frise,
show this.1
of steps on the interior"
Published
For
it may
completeness
in
print.
descriptions
Boderick
APPENDIX
C.
Accounts
before
be well
to give
1880.
a short account
of the previous
O'Flaherty
(1684-6).?"
Ogygia," p. 175, "Dun Aengus,
ingens
.
...
sine coemento
altissimam
maris
.supra
crepidinem,
erectum."
"hlar
the
p. 76, "On
rupibus
Connaught,"
opus lapideum
e vastae molis
a large fortified place
on the brim of a
stands Dun Engus,
. . .
a
in
any mortar,
great wall of bare stones without
being
high clift,
as
a
as
castle
with
several
stones
erected
bawn,
compass
big
large
long
side
south
slopewise
against assault.2
ll,d.
of Ireland,"
Grose's
Edward
Ledwioh,
(1797).?In
"Antiquities
own
in
same
and
of
his
work
the
he follows
name,
iv,
Introduction,
p.
a
not
and
view
done
from
delusive
but
from the
nature
gives
"Ogygia,"
or monastic
He regards the fort as a mandra
enclosure.
description.
?
In
John
O'Flaherty
Transactions
Irish
(1824).
Boyal
Academy,
to his predecessors'3
accounts
of the fort,
xiv., p. 135, he adds nothing
even
any allusion
omitting
1 The
middle
shows
sketch-plan
wall with north-east
to the abattis.
the north-west
and north
gates,
in the inner ring ; the
steps, east terrace, and gateway
the ahattis
all round the wall,
and the
the fragment,
outer wall.
'*
"
2 Its
which might
contain 200 cows,"
of course refers to the inner fort.
measure,"
only
3
much
of druids,
"relics
space to futile theories on the non-existent
Though
devoting
open
of fire-worship,
miraculous
founts, and* evident vestiges
temples, altars, stone pillars, sacred mounts
"
writes of this author with much bitterness
-of oak groves."
in . O. S. Letters."
O'Dohovan
E.I.A.
MtOC,
VOL. XXVIII.,
SECT. C
[6]
42Proceedings
Samuel
vol. xii.,
Fbr0USO$
"
Dublin
the
(1853).?In
(as he also
"S. F."
p. 494,
sigaa
some
University
Magazine,"
of his poems1 in the same
rather inaccessible
being
this excellent
whidb,
?eserip^Bt
pages)
gives
:?
to antiquaries
living outside DufeKn, may be given in a condensed form
"
a walk
of Dun
of half a mile
After
rampart
(we) reach the outer
in
The
of
3
about
feet
thickness.
wall
a,
stone
(perhaps 8)
dry
Angus,
on
a
acres.
A
wall
of
11
similar
covers
about
circumvallation
space
side of
each
avenue
the
it onward
flanks
the outer
from
to a
entrance
This second
lying close to? the main body of the fortress.
.
.
.
a
a
All round
and
wall
consisted
o?
parapet.
banquette
apparently
. . .
rock are
of
the base of this second rampart
sharp-pointed
fragments
...
on
one
can
it
the
is
with
end;
approach
place save by
pitched
difficulty
.
.
.
.
.
of the
,
is still perfect
about the middle
the avenue.
The entrance
. . . The visitor must
eastern front.
climb in on his hands and knees,
second
line of wall
under
the wide
remains
two
massive
are the
the right, on entering,
.
.
.
one or
to the lower banquette
;
On
lintel-stones.
of a flight of steps conducting
of steps may be detected."
indications
Conroy
Most Rev. George
(1870).?The
other
Conroy, Bishop of Ardagh,
"
to Arranmore
of St. Enda," published
in The Irish Ecclesias
vol. vii., p. 24, follows S. F. closely.
tical Eecord,"
He describes
N.S.,
"
and
the beautiful
cliffs
Notes
the dry-stone
wall, an irregular
rock-pools.
"
built
the abattis
60 to 80 feet wide, where a
in two divisions,"
ellipse,"
Dr.
"
in A Visit
narrow
avenue
which
is 32
is left ; it runs all round the
of wall
it is "a fragment
about
covering
second wall,
to 42
fort
feet
in two sections.
"
like the coats
The
feet
central
one-tenth
from the central
fort
is a half
oval,
between
of the
second
to the north-west
the wall
and
which
line,"
and
in three
sections,
on the
stairs, and the banquette,
east side"; the nearly perfect
door 3 feet 4 inches wide, with a lintel and
two stones to shift the pressure,
and a passage
leading into the wall, are
"
are from the
mentioned.
The dimensions
Ordnance
Survey Letters."
"
"The Irish Builder
of
series
anonymous articles, partly from
(1877).?A
of an
onion,"
traces
of
a compilation
is described)
(so far as Dun Aenghus
from O'Donovan,
were
and
this
in
paper, from
Ferguson,
Conroy,
published
:
seem
notes
for
1886.
The
and
unrevised
hurried
loth,
August
example,
notes
taken
in 1877, but
as separate
and Dun Farvagh
they describe Dun Moher
Lord Dunraven
(ante 1875).?This
splendid work
forts, p. 237.
is too well known
to
"
and the Mariner,"
the Aran paper, on p. 506.
His history
example,
Archytas
following
of Clare are inferior ; he locates the Battle of Gorcomroe Abbey,
1317, at Doolin,
topography
"
Church to be "the Abbey"
and asserts Killilagh
; places Magh Adhair
(in eastern Clare) at Moy
"
near
Adha
Kilrash
with
confuses
and makes
Caherlaherta
; probably
(Moyadda),
Ballykinvarga,
de Clare survive the Battle of Dysert.
Richard
1For
and
ofDun Aengusa m Inishmore, Aran.
Fort
Westropp?iFfe
43
and views of Dun Aenghoasa
The account
(the? latter
require description.
are
known to have been taken before the Eestoration)
the only photographs
in volume i., "N?teseon
Irish Architecture."
The sketch of the door of the
"
central fort is also given.
from the Ordnance
The plan is only a sketch-plan
the writer
follows largely for dimensions/
He saw
which
Survey Letters/'
"
a
or
was
*no trace of inner platform
there
central
im
the*
chamber
;
passage
"
He
alone
in
outermost
fort.
the perfect gateway
describes
the
the
wall,"
"interior
covered with flags, the wal? being 8- feet high, and* & feet thick."
1 have
to thank
courtesy of the publishers, Messrs; ?eorge Bell,&
views of this work.
to reproduce two* of the photographic
the-kind
Sons, for permission
The other
accounts
Martin
hardly
are rarely
of any independent
That of
value;
is
Handbook
for
the
British
Association
very brief,
Haverty
(1859)
filling two pages,1 while- fourteen are devoted to the picnic and long
to the point?much
sack to but little bread.
other widely known accounts which have given many (as
the earlier gave the writer of these lines)1 their first interest in the fort. The
in "The Irish before the Conquest";
one, dating 1867, is by Lady Ferguson
"
a preface
to her
is
the other, by Miss Margaret
Stokes,
Early Christian
and impressive general descriptions,
Architecture,"
18T6; both are excellent
speeches, but little
There are two
but do not give details
of the ruin.
by English
Accounts
Writers.
?n this: fort in (iArchaeologia.
There fire two-papers
Cambrensis"
whichy
as being published
are perhaps more studied by antiquaries
in Great Britain,
outside Ireland,, and call for some comment
to? correct the, strange mistakes
made*, especially
. Charles
H,
in the first.
Hartshorne
of the
description
picturesque
details;: "The area includes
series,
(vol.. iv., new
site: of the fortress
half
an
acre;
this m
a very
gives
He theni gives
surrounded
by a
p~ 29?)
in 1853*
partly
... .
two
of
wall
most
and
unusual
character,
triple
by a glacis,
beyond:
on
two
out
the
south-east
to
concentric
die
whic&
ditehes,
walte,
gradually
om
a
the naked rock,; and lastly,,
chemtia d?frise?
He
the north side* by
the portal of,
from,20 to, 50 feet;, mentions
gives the height of the walls.as
" on.
tothe sonthreasfe;
the entrance
the north side is a much larger entrance,
a parallel
The lower part of the
with
sallyport
running
underground.
on which people can
interior wall at about half its height
forms an 'alure/
"
"
walk all round
to
the
; it. is reached by steps running
top of the wall, which
1
Haverty
gives the size of the inner fort as 144 feet on the cliff, and 160 feet north
" the
he calls it
of Aran?the
Acropolis
palace fortress of the days, of Queen Maeve."
and
south;
44Proceedings
a reticulated
The chevaux de
zigzag,'-1
regularly cross each other, forming
a
6
3
feet
of
to
set so
is of "slabs
limestone,"
frise
high, and
jagged
in the narrow fissures of the rock that it is rather difficult
to
insidiously
From the great skill of its works, he cannot believe that
extricate
oneself."
but regards
it as monastic.2
The rest of
the fort is of the first century,
the paper, where not concerned with slight notes on the other forts, wanders
and assertion.
into religious controversy
It must be noted that there are w ditches; the walls do not die out to the
th? chevaux de frise is not confined to the north part; the walls
south-east;
18 feet high ;where best preserved, not 20 feet (still less 50 feet) high;
the gate does not face the sowtfA-east. The other ope is smaller than the
or even pass
main gateway;
does not run 4underground,
the "sallyport"
do
cross
each
Thus
not
and
the
there are
the
other.
wall;
steps
through
were
eight
vital
errors
in
the paper,
which
nevertheless
has
been
as
treated
reliable.
absolutely
The other paper, by Charles C, Babbington3
(vol. iv., third series, 1858,
on
1859
much
; it makes the suggestions
Handbook,
p. 96), depends
Haverty's
was the oldest, the outer sections
section of the citadel-wall
that the middle
passage was an older
being added on its decay, and that the north-west
not
This
the
wall.
last
is
outer
closed
entrance,
improbable, as we have
by
outer
of
older
of
He
noted evident
the
section.
traces
rebuilding
suggests
that the Firbolgs were the Gwyddel
; that they were driven out of Wales
by
the Cymry,
description
of Ireland.
in Ireland
and conquered
by the Tuatha De Danann.
as yet published
of the fort is good, the best description
Though not falling strictly
being so late as 1894, and not
1884, we must notice a valuable
within
the
The
outside
of the papers noted here,
least) from notes taken before
limit
(avowedly at
paper on the date of the
fort by Dr, Colley
of
of
London
Society
Antiquaries
(vol. iv.,
no
on the
He found
second series, p. 224).
marks of any implement
stonest
The wall has a rubble centre, with
faces of dry stones, and is
compact
March
in Proceedings
of
the
its inner side run lofty
by passages and domed chambers.
Along
...
to which
He accepts
platforms
independent
flights of steps give access.
"
"
for
account
to
the
the
and
that the
wall,
(p. 226) suggests
siege theory
stones of the chevaux de frise were to shelter the cattle driven into the fort
from slingers.4 P?trie, Miss Stokes, &c, date the fortress before the Christian
penetrated
p;
1A confused
of Staigue Fort.
recollection,
2" All
these duns, cathairs, and cashels were
erected as defences
around the sacred buildings,"
303. He did not observe that all the existing
churches
in Arran are unfortified.
9 ? On the
Firbolgic Ports in the South Isles of Aran.'*
4 It seems
stones could be supposed to be cattle-shelters.
strange how the low, close-set
Westropp?The
45
"
an antiquary as Bev. Charles Henry Hartshorne
con
worn
were
chevaux
de
sidered it of monastic
The
of
the
pillars
frise
origin.
"
"
into deep digitations
; the bronze acus of a fibula of the
spring pin type
was found by Mr. Wakeman
;,and in the autumn of 1893 the auth?r found in
era; but
"socareful
a rabbit-earth
a small hinged
ring of a bronze pin, though the acus was missing.
and there is a socket opposite the hinge for some
decoration,
The Dublin Museum
The British
kind of setting."
has one inferior pin-ring.
has a perfect example..
Museum
It dates from the fifth to the tenth century.
It had a cable
In the enclosure
was
which
found,
minute
worked
up.
of Dun
Aenghus,
far from the spot where
arrow-head
picked up a leaf-shaped
flakes had been chipped, and also
favour the pre-Christian
These
The
The
not
the author
origin of the fort.1
Bestoration.2
"
conservation
(rather than
") of Dun
so much distrust,
severe criticism, and strong assertion,
studied the fort before the event is to some degree compelled
to
of
subject
has excited
the
restoration
Aengusa
that one who
"
find a verdict."
The unnecessary
rebuilding
"
the walls and the
tidy "and new appearance
it was that the work should have been
desirable
vision
Left
a small
the bronze pin
of chert, from
piece of true flint
and levelling
up of parts of
thereby produced, show how
under the super
constantly
of an antiquary who had studied our ring-walls
to non-antiquaries
and the natives,
the work was of course
and direction
carefully.
done un
like repairing a fence, and no steps were taken to differentiate
sympathetically,
the old work from the new, or (I understand)
to secure any full record of the
in its untouched
structure
who
condition.
studies the
however,
Anyone,
of the authorities
the tabular statement
for each
accounts, especially
"
"
arrive at the conclusion
that very little
falsification
took
feature, must
two
of
In
to
the
the
south
the
in
the
inner
fact
place.
(save
flights
gate
all the features are attested.
fort, and the upper flight in the north-east3),
above
in existing
steps (as we suggested) had probably warrant
in
In
and
the
debris.
this
blocks
case,
as^at
long
Dunbeg, want
steps,
a
of accurate
severe to be
to
has
led
"too
reports
antiquaries
judgment
the restorers.
justified by the evidence
against
Even
the unrecorded
bottom
The Appendix to the 48th Beport of the Commissioners of Public Works
1 Stone
were also found at Caherhlonick
near Corofin, and Cahermackmole
implements
(Caher
in Carran, Co. Clare, both in reputed Firbolg neighbourhoods.
See R.S.A.I.
mackirilla),
Journal,
vol. xxviii.,
p. 264, and xxv., p. 208.
"
2The fort was vested as a '*
National Monument
by order of the Irish Church Temporalities
October BOth, 1880.
Commissioners,
3Even the latter
See above.
may be implied in Most Rev. Dr. Conroy's account.
R.
I. A. PROC,
VOL. XXVIII.,
SECT. C
[7]
46Proceedings
says :?"I carefully
p. 75, in a note on "Dun Aengus,"
(1879-80),
examined
the fort, and although many stones may be put into the walls to
can be done towards its preservation."
further
ruin, little more
prevent
insertion of
The Superintendent
suggests
stopping boys from rabbit-hunting,
in Ireland
in gaps, and building up dry stone buttresses where the walls overhang.
of the level tops and of ranges of terraces
that the building
is evident
No money was expended at that time [see
was never contemplated
him.
by
stones
It
p. 51].
The
National
to the
mentioned
mention
sum
of
?591
Monuments
2s.
Id.
was
laid
out
32 & 33 Viet.
(under
No detailed
p.
55).
Eeport,
in the brief section, pp. 29,30.
on p. 53 of an expenditure
is made
53rd
in works
c. 42)
account
on the Aranmore
in 1884-5
appears,
(Appendix
nor is Aran
In
the Eeport,
1885-6,
only
of ?11
7s. 9d. for work on
for these and many
silence
Aran; while
years, complete
subsequent
on
as
of
the
works
to
the
the
extent
and
character
done
Ancient
prevails
that distrust
and hostile
Monuments.
It is hardly wonderful
(at times
and
others.
criticism
among antiquaries
prevailed
unfair)
North
These, so far as I have been able to ascertain,
of the ancient
and fascinating
the most remarkable
are the records
fortresses
of one of
of Ireland.1
1 I must
to those who helped me on the subject in various ways?
my indebtedness
acknowledge
the late Dr. W.
Miss G. C.
my late brother, Ealph Hugh Westropp,
Stacpoole Westropp,
s.j. ; and in photography,
Miss Neville,
and Rev. E. Hogan,
the late Mrs. Shackleton
of
Siacpoole,
b.n.
as already noted,
and Dr. George Fogeity,
to Messrs.
Also,
Lucan,
George Bell & Sons for
to reproduce two photographs.
permission
namely,
Proc. B. I. Acad., Vol. XXVIIL,
Fig.
Fig.
2.?Dun
1.?Dun
Aengusa
Aengusa
from
from
Plate L
Sect. C.
the East.
the Xorth.
W]>tu()!
(Photograph
Thutogiapii
]'.?Dun
by T. J. Westropp.)
by Dr. George
Fogerty,
Akngusa.
R.N.)
Fig.
Fig.
1.?Dun
2.?Dun
Aengusa
Aengusa.
Sect. C.
from the West
The
inner Fort
before
before
Westropp.?Dun
Plate
the restoration.
the restoration.
(Dunraven
Collection.)
(Dunraven
Aengusa.
Collection.)
II.
Fig.
Fig.
2.?Dun
Aengusa.
Plate
Sect. C.
1.?Dun
Aengusa.
The Doorway.
Westkopp.?Dux
The Abattis.
(Photographs
by T.
J. Westropp.)
Aengusa.
III,

A Study of the Fort of Dun Aengusa in Inishmore, Aran Isles, Galway

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