Lough

“ Most of them cover only an acre or two, but Lough Corrib is the largest in Ireland except Lough Neagh, near Belfast. Lough Mask and Lough Cong are also several miles in length and two or three miles in width. There are said to be 365 lakes in Ireland, and one would judge that the larger number of them are in Connemara. They are fed by springs and rainfall and are said to abound in fish. The railway companies advertise this as the best fishing ground in the world, and announce that they have leased several of the loughs in order to provide free fishing to all excursionists. ”

“ The river rises in Lough Gowna, county Longford, 214 ft. above sea-level, flows north through Lough Oughter with a serpentine course and a direction generally northward, and then broadens into the Upper Lough Erne, a shallow irregular sheet of water 13 m. long, so beset with islands as to present the appearance of a number of water-channels ramifying through the land. ”

“ Immediately below this point lies Lough Beg, the “Small Lake,” about 15 ft. lower than Lough Neagh, which it excels in the pleasant scenery of its banks. The smaller streams are of great use in working machinery.
Geology.—On entering the county at the south, a scarped barrier of hills is seen beyond the Lagan valley, marking the edge of the basaltic plateaus, and running almost continuously round the coast to Red Bay. Below it, Triassic beds are exposed from Lisburn to Island Magee, giving sections of red sands and marls. ”

“ Near Loughbrun, ’twixt the Lough, and an hill, they grow in such quantity, that from the spontaneous fall, ruin and decay of the trees lying cross one another to a man’s height, partly covered with mosse, and partly earth, and grass (which rots, fills up, and grows again) a considerable hill has in process of time been raised to almost their very tops, which being an accident of singular remark, I thought fit to mention. ”

“ Lough Guir is a kind of centre of the operations of the Munster fairies. When a child is stolen by the "good people," Lough Guir is conjectured to be the place of its unearthly transmutation from the human to the fairy state. And beneath its waters lie enchanted, the grand old castle of the Desmonds, the great earl himself, his beautiful young countess, and all the retinue that surrounded him in the years of his splendour, and at the moment of his catastrophe. ”

“ Subsequently, at a season when the water was exceptionally low, the locality was again examined, and a shoal or ridge, evidently the remains of a piled causeway by which the islands in Lough Eyes had been connected together, was then discovered. In the neighbourhood a tradition existed that in ancient times “a road passed through Lough Eyes.” This lingering belief would be fully explained by the existence of a kesh or causeway—and upon this, as well as upon the main crannog, was found a quantity of bones of the Bos longifrons, red deer, ass, sheep, goat, and pig. ”

“ Mitchell Henry of Stratheden House, Rutland Gate, London, both of whom possess many works by him. Seven of his statues were at the Great Exhibition in 1851, and were favourably noticed at the time. Lough worked in a broad, powerful, and energetic style; but owing to lack of refinement his works have not sustained their original reputation. He was a familiar figure in the society of the day.
Lough married a sister of Sir James Paget, the surgeon, and died of bronchitis at his residence, 42 Harewood Square, London, on 8 April 1876. ”

“ As Lough Rea had been dedicated to the moon, so was the other luminary also honoured with a [Pg 209] lake,—called after his name,—which we find in the adjoining country, where Lough Grany signifies the Lake of the Sun; as we do also Beal-ath, or Ath-en-righ, that is, the Ford of Baal, or the Ford of the King, i.e. the Sun ”

“ To the north of it are Loughs Lene, Glore, Bawn and others, and to the south Loughs Iron and Owel. Farther south is Lough Enncll or Belvidcre, and in the south-west Lough Ree, a great expansion of the river Shannon, forming part of the bou-idary with Roscommon. ”

“ PROVINCE OF MUNSTER. COUNTY TIPPERARY.
Annagh, in the parish of Kilbarron.—There is here (as stated by the Rev. James Graves) a piled crannog, situated at the extremity of a shallow spit—submerged except when the river Shannon is very low—and at the outlet of a great circular spring or small lake, six or seven hundred yards in diameter, which runs into Lough Derg. This site has not yet been examined, but a map of the locality is here given.
Fig. 210.—General Plan of the neighbourhood of the Crannog of Annagh. A. Piled Crannog. B. Shallow Spit, usually submerged. C. Spring, or Lough. ”

“ Loughrea is situated in the barony of same name. In the locality there lingered a tradition that a city lay buried under this lake, and indeed on a clear calm day—where the waters are shallow—there may be observed various heaps of stones, placed with a degree of regularity that renders it probable they may be remains of ancient lake dwellings. Upon examination it was ascertained that four of the islands in the lough were undoubted crannogs, and it was quite possible that another (known as Blake Island) might prove to be also of artificial formation. ”

“ In the neighbourhood are a cromlech and two ruined towers, and crannogs, or ancient stockaded islands, have been discovered in the lough. Apart from the surroundings of the lough, the neighbouring country is peculiarly desolate. ”

“ The extreme breadth is 7 m., but the outline is extremely irregular, and the lough narrows near the centre to a few hundred yards. Lough Corrib is very shallow, hardly exceeding 30 ft. in depth at any point, and it is covered with islands, of which there are some 300. ”

“ At this place the Loughor river pursues its course between steep banks clothed with various trees and shrubs. On one of the descents a walk is traced, with some ingenuity, in front of a small picturesque cascade formed by a tributary stream to the Loughor. This might be mistaken for the object sought; but, crossing a rustic bridge, the eye on a sudden encounters the whole river rushing beneath a portal of trees, and throwing itself over a ledge of black rock in a single fall of eighteen feet. The effect of the whole, seen through the gloom of pendent trees, is undoubtedly striking ”

“ In Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, and in Keller’s Ancient Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, may be seen representations of beads, greatly resembling one from the crannog of Lough Ravel, county Antrim, as shown in fig. 168. Fig. 169, from the same locality, is somewhat similar, but the yellow, raised and rope-like decoration which encircles it does not form an integral part of the glass; it has been produced by laying the colour on the surface, instead of its being fused into the glass. ”

“ Of this class of miniature lakes, Loughrigg Tarn, near Grasmere, is the most beautiful example. It has a margin of green firm meadows, of rocks, and rocky woods, a few reeds here, a little company of water-lilies there, with beds of gravel or stone beyond; a tiny stream issuing neither briskly nor sluggishly out of it; but its feeding rills, from the shortness of their course, so small as to be scarcely visible. Five or six cottages are reflected in its peaceful bosom; rocky and barren steeps rise up above the hanging enclosures ”

“ When the ground has been cleared, the farmers wait for the rain, which falls in torrents, and in due course makes the ground soft enough to permit of ploughing. The plough is made of wood, and consists of a bent stick stuck in a pointed wooden block. ”

“ Markus stood back; and I took the plough by the horns.
The plough in the neighbourhood of my home is [143] different, certainly, from the bent bough of the savage, but it remains a clumsy, imperfect implement. The farmer puts it together himself out of birch-wood, fetching only the iron portions from the smith and the wheels from the cartwright. The chief parts of the plough are the coulter, or plough-iron, which cuts the turf vertically, and the share, which slices it horizontally, thus creating a grassy sod which has four sides to it, and is about a span wide and half a span thick. ”

“ The Yule log plays a great part at the festival of the winter solstice in Perigord. The countryman thinks that it is best made of plum-tree, cherry, or oak, and [pg 251] that the larger it is the better. If it burns well, it is a good omen, the blessing of heaven rests upon it. The charcoal and ashes, which are collected very carefully, are excellent for healing swollen glands; the part of the trunk which has not been burnt in the fire is used by ploughmen to make the wedge (técoin ou cale) for their plough, because they allege that it causes the seeds to thrive better ”

“ Young Volgá ordered five strong young men out of his brave body-guard to pull the plough out of the ground, to shake the earth from the ploughshare, and throw the plough behind the broom bush. The five strong young men rode up to the plough of maple wood, they turned the plough about by the shaft, but could not pull the plough out of the ground, or shake the earth from the ploughshare, and throw the plough behind the broom bush. ”

“ Loughrigg tarn, which we visit before getting over the ridge to Grasmere, is of a 220 different class to any we have yet met with. Christopher North described it as “a diamond set in emeralds,” and he was not wrong. Where are waters more sparkling, or meadows greener than these? In a secluded corner of the world, Loughrigg does nothing but look pretty: there is no message to the mind from its beauty save that of surpassing beauty in repose.
Coniston is a splendid place to start from for another journey. The nearest point is Gates Water, under Dow crags. ”

“ On the same expedition O’Donnell took the castle of (ii.) Baile-an-locha, and he found much property, consisting of arms, armour, brass, iron, butter and provisions, in those castles. O’Donnell also took after that (iii.) Inis-locha-Burrann, and (iv.) Inis-locha-Leithinnsi, in which he likewise found much property.” (i.) Inis-an-Lochain (i. e. the island of the little lake) lies in the river Bann, about a mile and a-half to the south of Coleraine. It is now called Loughan Island. The crannog had been erected, or perhaps, re-erected in 1170. ”

“ There is no lake in Ireland now known by that name; but to the south of Coleraine there is a small island in the river Bann called “the Loughan,” which bears all the appearance of having been artificially constructed. [177] In 1150 an Irish chief was killed “on the island of Loch-Laighaire.” This crannog lay in the country of the “Sliocht O’Neills,” and, as appears from subsequent references, was situated to the south of Lifford, in the barony of Clogher, county Tyrone, and was the residence of that branch of the O’Neills. It is written Loch-Laoghaire and Loch-Laighaire, i. e. ”

“ To give a recipe for getting a rough idea, in case you want to, I recommend the following procedure. Select a flat ten-acre ploughed field, so sited that all the surface water of the surrounding country drains into it. Now cut a zig-zag slot about four feet deep and three feet wide diagonally across, dam off as much water as you can so as to leave about a hundred yards of squelchy mud; ”

“ The present church seems by no means of modern erection; the church-yard is in a very romantic situation near the river Lochy, there joining the Tay, and both entering the lake within sight. The Lochy river issues from a glen of that name; which, about Killin, is finely wooded, and through that wood, under a crag, peeps a picturesque ruin of a large castle, once inhabited by the Breadalbanes. Both the rivers Lyon and Lochy, take their source from some small lakes, and the high mountains, which tower to the north of Tyndrum, and near it, on the right of the road, from thence to Fort William. ”

“ At the bottom of the Cuagh, far down, a little loch gleams, an oval of emerald or of sapphire, according to the sky above that smiles into its depths. On dark days the loch can gloom, and in storm it can rage, white-lipped, just like the people of the Glen. ”

“ It lies in a prodigious wilderness with which perhaps no man alive is conversant, and in which you may travel for days without seeing even any symptoms of human life. We speak of the regions comprehended between the Forest of Athole, and Bennevis, the Moor of Rannoch, and Glen Spean. There are many Lochs—and Loch Ericht is their grisly Queen. Herdsmen, shepherds, hunters, fowlers, anglers, traverse its borders, but few have been far in the interior, and we never knew anybody who had crossed it from south to north, from east to west. ”

“ Little farms lay in the heart of the forest of Creag Dubh,—or rather more on the upper edge of it,—their fields scalloped into the wood, their hills a part of the mountains that divide Loch Finne from Lochow. To-day their roof-trees lay humbled on the hearth, the gable-walls stood black and eerie, with the wind piping between the stones, the cabars or joists held charred arms to heaven, like poor martyrs seeking mercy. ”

“ The rain blew in their faces, the mists came down over the great mountain range which separates Loch Arroch from Loch Long, and the Castle Farm lay damp and lonely in its little patch of green, with the low ruins on the other side of the house shining brown against the cut fields and the slaty blueness of the loch. ”

“ It had happened so far well for the sufferers, that the cattle, terrified by the shouts of the conflict, and still more by the first blaze of the bothy, had fled up the bank from the hollow, and, forgetting their fatigue, they had charged full-tilt through the forest, routing and bellowing in that direction which led to their own Loch Lomond pastures, from which they had been so unwillingly driven. ”

“ The scenery is everywhere of the most awful, the wildest, and most extensive. The weather is at its best, and every peak, and scaur, and wrinkle are visible to the naked eye. Below us to the left, winding under Ben Lochain, Ben Bheula, and Ben Cruach, is Loch Goil, flashing back the blue sky, and holding the sun-softened lines of the great hills in its bosom. To the north-west we can see the greatest of all those lochs that do so much to adorn, and draw tourists to, the west coast of Scotland, and which even from a commercial point of view is not without its value as our “great herring pond.” ”