Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Flight of the Earls (Author: Tadhg Ó Cianáin)

section 53

Next they went round the walls of the town. Though the wall is not to be compared with the castle as regards strength, still it is in keeping with it, for the rampart and circuit is twenty-five feet thick without counting the breastworks and sconces, as strong as any in the world, and well protecting one another. There is a great wide ditch around the wall. We could not learn the depth of it because of the great sheet of ice. Although there had nearly been a disaster to the inhabitants of the city a short time before that, as stated above, still there were about twenty thousand persons then sporting and dancing at one time on the ice. The princes remained till evening viewing the city, and then went to their lodgings.