| Earthworks and Buildings
Fairy forts and mounds have been dealt with in Section
iv., haunted houses in Section viii., and
foundation sacrifices in Section xi.
Forts
The ring walls and mounds in County Clare are probably residential, or,
more rarely, sepulchral, but certainly not military. They consist of one
or more walls (or banks), usually slightly oval, and the earthworks have
fosses and traces of stone facing. They are named dun, lis, rath,
and even caher (cathair), but the last name is usually reserved
for the dry stone ring walls. Ooan (uamh) is used both
for forts and for artificial caves in them, and also, for a fort-souterain,
in 1317 in the ‘Cathreim Thoirdhealbhaigh’ (History of the
Wars of the O’Briens and de Clares). The country people have no
limited views as to the makers of the 2400 forts in Clare. Croaghateeaun
near Ballinalacken is attributed to the ancient deities the Danánn,
and one should cross oneself in entering its garth.[223]
Mohernagartan and Mohernaglasha were made by the smith god
Lon,—the latter for the grey ‘cloud and rain cow,’ the
Glas. Oisin the poet lived in Caherussheen near Corofin, and the great
stone fort on Turlough Hill probably belonged to the ‘Irish Militia’
(Finn’s warriors). Chonan, one of Finn’s men, dwelt in the
now levelled fort on Keentlae (ceann tsleibh) on Inchiquin Hill.[224]
Three contemporaries, Crochaun (lumped hill), Dahlin, and
Sall (the brine), made the forts bearing their names at Loop Head, and
one at Cahernaheanmná near them for their sister the beloved of
the hero Dermot O’Duine.[225]
Oircheannaigh ‘of the golden cap’ made the vast
triple Moghane for his ‘fighting ring’.[226]
A giant dwelt in the promontory fort of Doonaunmore at Ballinahown
who lost his magic staff and was slain.[227]
Another Fhir mór (or huge man) was hunted from Cahermurphy
stone fort to Kiltumper, where he was slain and buried.[228]
Caherdooneerish was in the tenth century reputed to have
been made by Irgus, a Firbolg, at the beginning of our era; it was wrongly
attributed by scholars to Fergus, son of Roigh, but the peasantry never
abandoned the name of the brother of Aenghus of Dun Aengusa in Aran.
Unlike some old schools of antiquaries, the people did
not overlook the later origin of some forts, for they attributed the Grianan
and Bealboruma to King Brian Boru (c. 1000), the former to defend
his horse-paddock (parc an each) on the shoulder of Craglea.
The fort of Lisnagry, in the heart of the hills near Broadford, was reputed
to be the hiding-place of the great king’s cattle from the Danes.
King Croohoore (Conor) na Siudaine O’Brien (slain 1267) was said
to have built Dunconor, the great stone fort in Inishere Aran which MacLiag’s
poem (c. 1000) attributes to Conchraid the Firbolg. The same king, we
may note, executed the latest earthworks of a fort recorded in Clare history,
at Clonroad, completing the royal rath commenced by his father
and left unfinished in 1241. Some rebuilding of Dun Conor may quite conceivably
have been undertaken in his reign.
To the fairy forts previously
mentioned should be added Lissateeaun, near Lisdoonvarna. The people of
Tulla had an observance by which the instigator of the destruction of
a fort assumed the blame and freed the workman.
Churches
The church of Clonlea once stood at the opposite side of the lake, near
St. Senan’s well in Killaneena, whence one night it travelled down
the old lane that runs into the lake, passed under the water, and reached
its present site. King Conor na Siudaine built Corcomroe Abbey, and, as
soon as his five skilled masons had completed the beautiful chancel and
chapels, he put them to death lest they should build a rival masterpiece
elsewhere. This legend is now being transferred through modern guide-books,
the careless compilation of which is a great source of corruption of our
legends, to Donald O’Brien, the actual, but not traditional, founder
of the building, and is held to explain the rude and inferior work of
parts of it. Quin ‘Abbey’ was built by the famous Master Mason
Gobbán Saor, who twisted the spiral pillars of its beautiful cloister
with his own hands. The builder of the south transept (1433) fell from
its gable, and was killed where a tombstone with the scribed figure of
an axe marks his grave. The north-west corner of Carran church overhangs,
and is destined to fall on the wisest man that shall pass below it.
Castles
A belief similar to that about Carran church was attached to Ballymulcassel
or Mountcashel castle. It is a peel tower, built by King Conor na Srona,
about 1460, on a steep little knoll of rock beside the road from Sixmilebridge
to Kilkishen. It was to fall on the handsomest person, and gossip told
of a very ugly man who always took a longer road to avoid passing it.
The same legend and gossip was attached to Newcastle peel tower, near
Limerick and not far from the border of Clare. A wizard who lived in Shalee
castle was so pestered by his wife that he flew away with half the tower,
which remains as Glen castle near Ennistymon station. A guest praised
Dysert castle to its owner, O’Dea, and wished that it were full
of gold. ‘I’d rather have it full of O’Hiumhairs,’
replied O’Dea,[229]
the family so complimented being a small but warlike clan,
of which one member fought in the wars of 1313-8 and is reported to have
slain Richard de Clare at Dysert in 1318. I heard in 1869 that the castles
near Doonass were built by seven brothers, and that six came to an untimely
end at the hands of the seventh, but the legend seems now forgotten at
Clonlara.
Round Towers
The peasants seem never to have adopted the various druidic, Cuthite,
phallic, and other theories of 1770 onwards from the so-called ‘educated
classes.’ To them, as to our earlier writers, the towers are steeples
built by saints. John Lloyd, in 1780,[230]
calls that of Scattery ‘the loftiest old Steeple in
the Kingdom.’ Michael O’Brannan, in 1794,[231]
tells how St. Senan ‘built seven churches and a beautiful
high belfry’ there, and how ‘St. Caimin, a vigorous chieftain,
erected seven churches and a high belfry’ on Lough Derg. Legend
told that St. Senan, while building his tower, was interrupted by a woman,
and left it unfinished.[232]
St. Blawfugh (Blathmac) built two towers at Rathblamac,
one of which was stolen and brought to Dysert O’Dea by St. Manawla.
Of the bells of Dromcliff and Kilnaboy towers I have already told.[233]
Kilnaboy tower was broken down by ‘the bombardment
of Cromwell.’ The round tower at Tomgraney was faintly remembered,
in Petrie’s time, as like that on Iniscaltra, but it has long since
been forgotten.
Crosses and Monuments
I have already mentioned the cross of Dysert O’Dea,[234]
which was unusual in having portions of its carvings on
separate pieces of stone, some of which are lost. The cross fell twice,
and was re-erected by Conor Crone O’Dea in 1683 and by Col. Synge
of Mount Callan in 1872; each benefactor died in the year following his
restoration of the cross. The breaking off or fall of any portion of the
monument of Sir Donal O’Brien, the first of the baronets of Dromoland,
in Kilnasoolagh church, is fatal to his descendants, and so is any attempt
to clean or repair it, tradition alleging that one of the O’Briens
always dies in either case.[235]
My own family believed that, if the family vault were opened,
it had soon to be opened twice again to receive new occupants.
Underground Passages
One is said to lead from Cahercrochaun to Dundahlin on Loop Head, and
another from the great promontory fort of Dundoillroe eastwards, where
a brown track, probably an old road, still remains. A third ran through
Barnagoskaigh to the Tuamnagoskaigh in Ballynahown, near Lisdoonvarna,
where there is a roofed cleft of some length. A fourth went from Bealboruma
fort under the Shannon; through it the angry Brian Boru sent soldiers
to waylay and kill his slandered son-in-law the King of Leinster. Others
connected Killone with Clare Abbey, and Quin Abbey with St. Finghin’s
church at the other side of the ‘Rine.’ |
