Promontory fort - coastal

The National Monuments Service's description

Dunmore/An Dún Mór: This large headland, rising 328 feet/100m OD, projects W into the Blasket Sound at the extreme W tip of the Dingle Peninsula. A bank and external fosse, with a low outer bank, run N-S across the headland for about 500m. They are located at the base of the slope on the landward side, at a height of about 110 feet/34m OD, and are incorporated into the modern field boundary system; for most of its length the inner bank is surmounted by a stone-faced field fence. The outer bank, present only intermittently, is .5m high and 1.5m wide, and does not differ significantly from the field boundaries on the promontory. The fosse is c. 3.5m wide and rises up to c. 1m to the outer bank and up to 2m to the top of the inner bank. This latter is c. 4m wide at base and falls an average of .75m to the interior. These earthworks are relatively insubstantial when compared with the great size of the promontory itself; an area of about 80 acres is enclosed by the defences.
Macalister (1899, 279-80) was informed that a souterrain, containing bones and a cross-inscribed stone, had once been uncovered on the headland. Two inhumed burials (199) were also discovered near the S end of the defences. The only other feature of note is an ogham stone which stands upright on the summit of the headland. This lay prostrate when first recorded (Windele 1838, 153), but was subsequently re-erected (Chatterton 1839, 187). It stands 2m high and is .45m wide x c. 0.3m thick. The inscription reads:
ERC MAQI MAQI-ERCIAS (MU) DOVINI(A)
The 2nd last word, as recorded by Macalister (1945, 171), is now unclear. The final A is not visible either, but is included in most earlier accounts. Westropp (1910, 291) suggests that Dunmore may have been a place of ritual, a sanctuary of the goddess Duibhne.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 268. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 4 August 2013

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 1/2004).