[1054] It must be admitted that in the most recent and most learned edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the topographical identifications are quite on a level with O’Donovan’s.
[1055] The Annals have not been used, partly because in their present form they are not contemporary, and partly because the difficulties of identifying many of the castles they mention appeared insuperable.
[1056] See especially two papers on “Motes and Norman Castles in Ireland,” in English Historical Review, vol. xxii., pp. 228, 240. Mr Orpen has further enriched this subject by a number of papers in the Journ. R. S. A. I., to which reference will be made subsequently.
[1057] The only castles still unidentified are Aq’i, Kilmehal, Rokerel, and Inchleder.
[1058] It should be stated that the great majority of the castles in this list have been visited for the writer by Mr Basil T. Stallybrass, who has a large acquaintance with English earthworks, as well as a competent knowledge of the history of architecture. The rest have been visited by the writer herself, except in a few cases where the information given in Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary or other sources was sufficient. The castles personally visited are initialled.
[1059] Annals of Loch Cè.
[1060] Orpen, Eng. Hist. Rev., xxii., 249.
[1061] Orpen, Eng. Hist. Rev., xxii., 450, citing from MS. Annals of Innisfallen.
[1062] The poetical list enumerates the places which were “of the right of Cashel in its power.” The prose version, which may be assumed to be later, is entitled “Do phortaibh righ Caisil,” which O’Donovan translates “of the seats of the king of Cashel.” But can one small king have had sixty-one different abodes? Professor Bury says “The Book of Rights still awaits a critical investigation.” Life of St Patrick, p. 69.
[1063] Ibid., p. 449. See Westropp, Trans. R. I. A., xxvi. (c), p. 146. Mr Orpen informs me that the Black Book of Limerick contains a charter of William de Burgo which mentions “Ecclesia de Escluana alias Kilkyde.” No. cxxxv.