Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/375

GAULISH FORTRESSES ON THE COAST OF BRITTAXV. ."^15 nection -with its natural defences, was imprcf^naljlc. Tlicsc defences consist of five entrcncljnients, with two lines of stones set up edgewise, and running right across the tongue of land which gives access to the rock. The following is the arrangement of the various defences. At the entrance of the peninsula, and where the slope of the ground is such as almost of itself to serve as a defence, two banks start from a common point above a little creek, and run divcrgingly towards the south-west, thus forming an angle. They have no ditch or fosse on either side of them, and are about a yard high. The one which runs a little more to the south is composed of stones and earth, and loses itself on tbe hill which commands the beach at a distance of 44 j^ards from its commencement ; the other, formed almost entirely of blocks of granite, runs right across the strip of land. Be^'ond these two lines of defence the ground sliglitl}' inclines towards the north as far as that part of the isthmus where it rises to the platform of the rock terminating the peninsula. It is exactly at the spot where the ground thus begins to rise, and nearly 110 yards from the two lines just mentioned, that a system of defence occurs which I have not observed in other ancient fortresses in Lower Brittany. It consists of two rows of stones, from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, set upright, like little menhirs, in two rows, 4 ft. 8 in. apart, and running across the whole breadth of the neck of land. Some of these have been removed, principally in the central portion of the lines ; but the rows are very perfect at each extremity, and reach to the very edges of the precipices on each side, thus completely inter- cepting all approach to the interior. The escarpment which separates these lines of stones from the rocky platform has three entrenchments accompanied with fosses, and placed about 13 or 14 3'ar(ls from each other. The first two are composed of earth and stones, one of them measuring in height, from the bottom of the fosse, 2 yards 8 in., and the other, 11 yards 4 in. ; the third and innermost one, which touches the platform, serves as the base of a wall, 2 yards 2 in. thick, of dr}' but i-cgular ma- sonry. In its centre is the entrance, 5 ft. wide, the sides of which are flanked by two large blocks of stone. The lieight of this third line, including the wall on its summit, is 20 It.