The "Circuit of Ireland" and the Fortress of Aileach [pp. 213-221; system: 212-220]

THE FOR TRESS OF AILEACH.
but incredulous antiquarians got samples of the stones remaining
in the ruined fortress of Aileach, and compared them with the
stones of a building that was erected near Limerick by this same
Munster king, O'Brien, and they found absolute verification of
the statement made by the Four Masters. The stones that re main at Aileach are very peculiar; they are just what the poet
describes them in the rann above quoted-that is, "grit stones."
They are all flat; there is the strongest possible "family like ness" between them, and they must all have been taken from the
same quarry. Although bearing no mark of hammer or chisel,
the stones of Aileach are all of nearly the same size and shape,
and their geological construction is entirely different from any
stones found in Limerick or its vicinity; consequently the archae ologists who doubted the statement made by the Four Masters
found, on examining the stones of the building erected by O'Brien
near Limerick, that it was built in a great part of the very same
kind of stones that still remain of the" lordly Aileach," which fully
proves the truth of Irish history on that point. It is very pro bable that whoever wrote the quatrain quoted by the Four Mas ters never "heard of the billeting of grit stones" until he heard
of the destruction of the great fortress of the O'Neills; he might,
however, have not been so satirical if he had waited to see what
O'Brien would do with the stones, which was to build a wall to
protect himself.
But O'Brien, the Munster king and destroyer of Aileach, did
not carry away all its stones; that would have been too heavy
an undertaking, unless his army had been much more numerous
than can easily be supposed; there were many scores of tons of
them remaining in I873 when the writer of this article examined
the ruins. It was even then evident that extreme violence had
been used in the destruction of the fortress, for the walls were
razed to their very foundations, and the stones that remained
were cast down the hill-side, some of them being at a distance of
a hundred feet from the wall of which they had once formed a
part.
The ruins of Aileach present one of the most curious and interesting sights that can well be imagined. The awful desolation and nakedness of the wild, heathy mountain on the summit
of which they stand, the hoary antiquity of the ruins themselves,
and the magnificent prospect that extends south and west over
the rugged hills of Donegal, remain fixed for ever in the
memories of those who have seen them. There is not, perhaps,
in the whole province of Ulster another spot so well suited for
is86.]
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