Dounan Nose, Dally

NW96NE 1 9673 6874.

(NW 9678 6875) Earthwork (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

'Dally Fort' or'Dounan of Dally'. A promontory fort formed by isolating a long, narrow, flat-topped rock by a trench dug where it suddenly narrows to a width of 50', some 200' from its termination.

In rear of the trench has been erected a mound some 25' in thickness at base and now at the highest about 5' in height, and in rear of it some 10', an inner mound now reduced to a trifling elevation. The average width of the fort is about 60', and its internal length about 140'. There is a break through the centre of the mounds which is probably secondary.

At the west or seaward end, a small portion of the rock is disconnected by a road said to have been cut through after the Irish rebellion. RCAHMS 1912; R W Feachem 1956; G Wilson 1885

NW 9673 6873 Generally as described by RCAHMS except that, of the defences described, only the main rampart remains, the trench and the 'inner' mound having been ploughed out.

Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (WDJ) 15 February 1968

(NW 9673 6873) Fort (NR)

1:10000 map (1976)

This fort is situated on the Dounan Nose, a steep-sided promontory 360m WSW of Dally farmhouse. An area measuring 52m from ENE to WSE by up to 24m transversely at the W end of the promontory is cut off by an earthen rampart 4.5m thick by 1m high; at both ends of the rampart, which measures about 18m in length, there are traces of a external ditch cutting through the edges of the promontory. A 3m wide gap midway along the rampart may be of relatively recent date, and a cleft on the N side of the interior is a more likely position for the entrance.

Nothing can be seen of an internal ditch noted by Wilson (1885), but it may simply have been a hollow between the rampart and a slight 'inner mound' recorded in 1911 by RCAHMS.

G Wilson 1885; RCAHMS 1912; 1985, visited (SH) August 1984