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E R. R. IS
1N THE
“IRISH HIGHLANDS.”
A ND THE
1: Y
P. KNIGHT, C. E.
M RM BER OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVII. ENGINEERS OF LoNDoN,
AND OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF I) U BLIN,
DUBLIN :
MARTIN KEENE AND SON, 6, COLLEGE-GREEN. .
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & CO.
LONDON.
XI O C C C X X X W I.

DUBLIN :
Printed by WILLIAM WARREN, 140, Capcl Street,
**! - & > * > .
: ºn * ...-P. A. -S. ...’
J & & Cº…! ſº
º
&3.
TO
willIAM HENRY CARTER, ESQ.
SIR,
IN giving to the public an account of a por-
tion of the County of Mayo, (which at one period I
intended to continue, barony by barony, over the
whole,) in which you are the principal proprietor, I
cannot omit the opportunity of inscribing it to one
who, from the first time he saw the situation and
capabilities of it, set out at once to develope its
resources, and lay the foundation of permanent im-
provement; the ultimate result of which can only be
seen in future ages. That governments can do much
good, is true ; but that landlords can, individually, do
more than any legislature, however well-intentioned,
I am perfectly satisfied of, when accompanied by
sound judgment, liberal views, and steadiness of
purpose. Some one says, that the man who makes
two blades of grass grow where only one grew before,
deserves more praise than a thousand brawling
patriots. If this be true, how much more does he
deserve, who has raised up, as if by magic, a town in
a wilderness—an oasis in the desert, by which culti-
vation has been extended in a short space of time
o
1 Y
beyond the most sanguine imaginings. The history of
the present state of Erris will, in a few years, become
only matter of curiosity, as comparing it with progres-
sive improvements. To an individual who has been one
of the great causes of its commencement and steady
advance, after ages will be grateful, and he himself
will retire from this stage of existence with the happy
consciousness of being a benefactor of his fellow-
creatures, and that he leaves behind him a successor,
who has the judgment and good sense to pursue those
well-laid plans, which are the foundation of all
improvement.
I am Sir,
With the greatest respect,
Your most obliged,
Humble servant,
P. KNIGHT.
PREFA CE,
THE “Irish Highlands” have latterly become the
theme of writers of no ordinary talent.
The “O’Briens and O'Flahertys” have shewn
off the wilds of Connemara under the able pen of
Lady Morgan; and the “Letters from the Irish
Highlands,” from other fair hands, have given
the same district equal eclat with lovers of the
wild and fanciful; and they may have been the
cause of drawing forth the “Wild Sports of the
West,” from the gifted author—jealous, no doubt,
that his own portion of the “Highlands” had
not had its rank in works of genius which it
so justly deserved, and which, under his inspira-
tion, has surpassed the previously far-famed scenes
of Connemara. \
It is ſortunate that the “Wild Sports” relate to
the very district of which a plain, “unvarnished
tale” is now offered to the public. As they will be
vi PR.EFACE.
them read with more zest; having, in this publica-
tion, the map of the very country before you—the
rocks, the bays, the mountains, the corries of the
wild deer, the rivers, streams, and fishings, the very
names which fix the attention of the readers of that
splendid work of genius. Every man of the coun-
try is familiar to the author of this. The Priest,
his “honored friend,” and every character drawn
by that master hand, as true to the life as if they
were now standing before him. It is strange, but
not less true, that it is not until within these few
days that I read entirely through these delightful
“Wild Sports.” I saw some “extracts,” but no
more. Mine must be the task of plodding in
another road to combine my “ utile” with his
“ dulce,” but between both to endeavour to rouse
the attention of the government and the public to
a portion of our native country which hitherto
had been left almost “unnoticed and unknown.”
The following notice of Erris was written
chiefly in the year 1832: Notes in the Appendix
have been since added after a recent visit; in
1834, it was intended to be, in fact, one of nine
others, for each barony in Mayo, but professional
avocations which called away the author to another
part of Ireland prevented, for the present, the
completion of the design. His chief object being
to draw attention to this interesting portion
of Ireland, when plans for her improvement are
PR.E.EA CE. vii
rife from every pen, if any further good can
accrue to this portion of his country by clearly
shewing its resources, his object will be gained.
Early associations and recollections of friends,
as well as of scenery never to be forgotten, make
it dear to him; and that he may be the humble
instrument of any good to that portion of his
country, is one of the fondest wishes of his heart.
-ms-
Plans for improvement crowd upon us.
Scarcely had the above been written, but not
sent to press, when the project of the great
Atlantic Railway across Ireland, as a step to
connect England with America, was broached,
with a strong probability of its being carried into
execution. Erris stands decidedly foremost for
a termination of this step, both from its seaward
position and its magnificent harbours. Before
this book will meet the public eye, the survey
will have been commenced ; and an impartial
government, guided by scientific men, must at
once give the preference to such great natural
capabilities as Erris affords.
INT R O DUCTION.
IT has been the fate of many districts in Ireland,
particularly on the western coast, situated as the
subject of our present notice is, to remain almost
entirely neglected, or even unexplored, by persons of
science or influence, until the period of the inquiry
instituted by Parliament into the nature, extent, and
best mode of improvement of the bogs and waste
lands of Ireland, in 1810.
Something of the shape of the coast of Erris, in
common with other parts of Ireland, had been ascer-
tained by M*Kenzie, some seventy years ago; and,
from inspection of his charts, you could ascertain that
a river entered here, or that a village existed there :
along the coast, “ salt-pans,” and a “court” also, cliffs,
sands, and views of distant mountains were shown; but,
further, the interior remained a “terra incognita.”
We find, in Taylor's Map of Ireland, a bold attempt,
though on a small scale, to delineate some of the
leading features of the mountain country, particularly
noticeable in the shape given by him to the Lake of
B
2
INTRODUCTION,
Carrowmore, which is by no means unlike the true one,
and in not making a river from it run both ways into
the sea, as is represented in very old maps, insulating
thereby all within the Munhin river. Mr. M'Parlan,
in 1801, gave his statistical account of Erris, separate
from other parts of Mayo, to the Dublin Society; but
his materials being only Beaufort's Map of Ireland,
(of course, as to that portion, then very inaccurate,)
and the hearsay of the gentry, without much, if any,
personal exploration, it is but very short under the
different heads required by the Society, in many in-
stances by no means correct, nor tending much to
draw attention to the real state of the country.
In 1812, Mr. Griffith was sent by the Commis-
sioners for making the inquiry concerning the bogs
and waste lands of Ireland, into Erris, to report on
it ; and, although he made some surveys, (his in-
structions not allowing him to make a perfect
one,) his sketch, on the whole, gives but a meagre
idea of the country. His written report, how-
ever, gives more substantial and satisfactory in-
formation ; for he was, as he says himself, the
first geologist that ever explored that country : and
his general views for improvement, though subse-
quent events have proved some of them not to depend
altogether on the basis laid down by him, had the
effect of drawing attention to a hitherto unknown, and
neglected, but by his account, as well as subsequent
ones, a very interesting district. To this report
frequent reference will be made hereafter, in the
description, and particularly the geology of the
country.
INTRODUCTION, 3
immediately after Mr. Griffith's visit followed that
of Mr. Greenough, then president of the Geological
Society of London, accompanied by another lover of
science, and Mr. Nimmo, the engineer, afterwards
destined to take such a prominent part in the improve-
ment of this with other similar districts in the South
and West of Ireland. It was not until the end of
1813, that the true features of this country were
described in Mr. Bald’s Map of the County of Mayo.
The sea coast, rivers, and streams, to their very
sources,-lakes, roads, villages, mountains, with their
principal elevations, were absolutely measured, and
laid down; forming a perfect general topography of
the country. Though the survey of Erris was made
in 1813, (principally by the author of this, then assis-
tant to Mr. Bald,) it was not given to the grand jury,
in their general map, for two or three years after.
From that time forward, (some true basis being laid
for projected improvements,) attention was roused to
a portion of country containing more than one-sixth
of the whole county, with such a long line of valuable
sea-coast, forming the most conspicuous part of their
map in the North-West quarter. Major Bingham, the
principal resident proprietor in Erris, a gentleman of
great intelligence and acuteness, taking advantage of
the attention drawn to that district by these recent
reports and delineations, as well as other circum-
stances, not necessary to be introduced here, induced
the influential portion of the grand jury, in 1817, to
employ Mr. Bald to project a main road into it from
Castlebar, and to borrow a sum of money from the
4. INTRODUCTION,
government to effect this great object, as a commence-
ment of general improvement. This was then par-
tially effected, but completed under different auspices;
and our subsequent pages will shew what the result
of laying open to the world this country has been, in
the period since Mr. Griffith's report of 1812, or rather
from the opening of the road, in 1824, to the present
time. The principal result was, the creating a home
market for produce, which did not previously exist
nearer than 30 miles by land, with ways (for they
could not be called roads) impassable for a horse even
in summer, except by extreme exertion and immense
expense (a); nor nearer than 40 miles by sea, of
dangerous and precarious navigation. Scarcely had
the making of the projected road into Erris com-
menced, when Major Bingham set about building a
town within the Mullet, now called Binghamstown ;
got a patent for holding fairs and markets there, and
for fairs at Bangor, in the mountains. In the early
part of 1823, the first two-wheeled vehicle passed
through Binghamstown to the extremity of the penin-
sula, with the writer of this; and, in the latter part of
the same year, the first chaise, with Mr. Jennings, of
Mount Jennings, and his family, on a visit to Bingham
Castle. But it was not until 1824, that it was passable
generally for carriages of all kinds. On the first of
May of that year, William Henry Carter, Esq., sole
proprietor of one-third of Erris, (47,500 Irish acres,)
accompanied by his agent, the Rev. Cecil Crampton,
arrived in Erris, at the house of Captain William
Nash, of Leam. (There was not then a single hotel,
INTRODUCTION, 5
or house of public accommodation, in the whole
country.)
Mr. Carter, being the second of his family that ever
visited their Mayo estates, though in their possession
upwards of a century, was received with great enthu-
siasm : some ten to twenty gentlemen of his tenantry
usually accompanied him in his rides. After visiting
the greater part of his estates with the author, and
seeing the admirable situation of the isthmus of Bel-
mullet for a town, and taking into consideration the
vast importance the creating a market at home would
be to the extensive property of which he was owner,
as well as to the country generally, he determined at
Once on executing this great object, and directed the
author to make the necessary plans for the town, and
other improvements hereafter to be noticed. Before
the end of the year (1824), Mr. Ivers, a spirited
merchant, had built an extensive store, and exported
two cargoes of grain. He was followed by other
monied speculators, and, in two years after, when
Mr. Carter again visited Belmullet, he had not only a
comfortable hotel to sit down in, but many of his
tenants so well situated as to be able to entertain
himself and the friends who accompanied him in a
most respectable style. The erection of these towns
forming an era in Erris, and reference being fre-
quently made to them in the following sheets, it was
necessary to give this early notice of their erection,
the ultimate consequence of which can scarcely be
calculated. We shall now proceed to the
6 NAME, GEOGRAPHIC POSITION, AND EXTENT.
•
NAME, GEOGRAPHIC POSITION, AND EXTENT.
Erris, or Heer-russ, means the Western Peninsula,
and, strictly speaking, should be confined to the por-
tion within the isthmus of the Mullet, or Beal-mullet;
and it is even so considered by the natives; for they
call all beyond that “the mountains.” Erris is situ-
ated on the North-West part of the county of Mayo,
bounded on the North and West by the Atlantic Ocean
and Blacksod Bay, with its branches; on the South by
the barony of Burrishoole; and on the East by the
barony of Tyrawley. The latitude of the extreme
north point (the Stags of Broadhaven), is 540. 58. 50".
The longitude of the extreme West point (Black-
rock), is 100. 11'. 12". ; its latitude 54°. 4'. 0".
The greatest length of mainland East and West,
or say from a little East of Corick bridge to Annagh
Head, is 18% Irish or 23# British miles. The greatest
length of mainland North and South, or from Dookell
to Doonvinalla, at Portacloy, is 22% Irish, or nearly
29 British miles. The total superficial extent of
Erris is 142,000 Irish, or 230,000 imperial acres, or
nearly 360 British square miles.|
Let the reader who cannot easily comprehend large
extent, in acres or square miles, fancy that he has a
country before him as large as the county of Dublin,
* Arras-dundonald is the name in a map, from the state paper office,
London, made in the reign of Henry VIII., shewn me by Mr. Har-
diman, the talented author of the History of Galway.
# From Mr. Bald’s Map of Mayo.
GENERAL APPEARANCE, ETC. r;
or Longford, larger than Carlow or Louth, and he
will have some idea of the size of Erris; with a line
of sea-coast 336 British miles in length, of which 216
are embayed, and that Dublin has only 115 miles
altogether, and 70 embayed.
GENERAL APPEARANCE,
In approaching Erris from the Eastward, by the
central road, there is a tract of flat bog, of about one
mile in breadth, stretching to the foot of a range of
mountains, which, on the South, rising to a height of
upwards of 2,300 feet, fall off toward the North and
West to the low elevation of about 600 feet. Through
this barrier of mountains the Owenmore river makes
its way, along or near the banks of which the road
runs, upwards of six miles in the Valley of Bally-
monelly and Glenco. On emerging from this valley
at Bangor, or beyond it, there is a large tract of bog
stretching to the South, and, on the North, a fine lake
(Carrowmore), with an irregular group of mountains
on its Western and Northern shores, and the clift hills
of the North coast picturesquely rising in the distance;
on the Southern frontier, the bold and elevated
range of Maumethomaas, with its corries, like the
craters of burst volcanoes, and the grey towering
peak of Corslieve. Farther to the South-West the
Achil mountains rise singly and majestically from a
S CENTRAL ENTRANCE,
plain, which, on advancing further, is found to be
partly the spacious and beautiful Bay of Blacksod.
with the great Atlantic terminating the horizon,
beyond the low white-crested sand hills of the
peninsula of the Mullet. Near this point the road
would seem to terminate finally within a few perches,
but, on turning a low arm of the boggy mountain,
we suddenly find ourselves entering a deep ravine,
through the rock of which on one side, and after-
wards on the other, the road has been cut ; a moun-
tain stream occupying the whole breadth of the
valley besides: in front, a beautiful waterfall, if after
rain ; and still farther on, an isolated hill, in the
middle of the glen, crowned with an ancient fort or
doon, the former residence of a giant, who here closed
nightly the gates of Erris against all intruders. Here
are his corn-stack and his turf-stack, and, on the
plain beneath the doon, the head and footstone which
mark his grave, the length of which is only thirty
paces !!! (b) This ravine is the entrance of Glen-
castle, which, now expanding, shows a considerable
quantity of cultivation—a not ungrateful sight, after
the length of bog and mountain country one has tra-
velled through. In the distance of the vista is seen
almost the entire of the peninsula lying before you.
At one end, on the elevated ground, one of those
signal towers erected round the coast of Ireland by
the government, about the year 1805, in anticipation
of a French invasion, and, when but partially finished,
deserted as useless : nearer is seen Bingham Castle,
the residence of Major Bingham, backed by the high
G.L.EN CASTLE-BEL.MULLET. 9
grounds of the Iniskea Islands; nearer still the town
and church of Binghamstown: farther to the right,
high sand hills and the house of Carm, and towards
the extreme right, a low mountain country, (on the
highest point of which there is another signal tower,)
which terminates in the entrance of Broadhaven, with
Kid Island, its conical Stags, and Benwee Head
completing the panorama. Three miles farther on,
through a partially cultivated but populous country,
we reach the town of Bellmullet, where you see
industry in all its stirring shapes. Large and well-
built stores, crowded with sellers of produce ; shops
well stocked with all kinds of goods; the masts of
vessels rising at the end of the principal street lying
at the pier, loading and unloading commodities;
thronged quays; houses building, the sound of the
mason's hammer and the carpenter's saw alternately
saluting your ears; sailors, coast guards, revenue and
other police, in their different costumes, and, if our
friend Captain Nugent were there, the Union Jack
floating proudly in the wind to show the residence of
the inspecting commander. (c)
The entrance into Erris from the South, through
the Ballycroy district,” is equally if not more roman-
tic and picturesque ; for you skirt the mountains of
Maumethomaas, whose height at this point is from
700 to 1200 feet, and so steep that you fancy the
* This has been so beautifully described by the talented author of
“Wild Sports of the West,” that this might be here almost super-
fluous.
B 5
} {} SOUTHERN ENTRAN CE.
crags and rocks over your head are only waiting for
a victim to tumble on and overwhelm ;-the dark
gloomy Bay of Dukell so close on your left as to
oblige you, in some parts, to cautiously guard your
progress, and said to be as deep as the mountain is
high. In Ballycroy, you are within an amphitheatre
of beautifully varying mountain scenery; to the right,
the Maumethomaas and Cursleive range sweep
grandly and gracefully round to one-third the view.
On the left, Corraan and Achil, with the intervening
inlets and bays, are still more interesting points. The
entrance into Blacksod Bay, with the heads and
islands that form its exterior boundaries, and the
come of Blackrock rising where the great Atlantic
terminates the horizon,-the peninsula again, and the
lower and distant Erris mountains, form objects on
which the eye dwells with delight. By this route, a
person to reach Bellmullet must cross the ferry at
Tulloghaan; no perfect road being yet completed to
avoid this inconvenience, and hence the intercourse
by this way is very limited.
The most ancient way into Erris was direct from
Newport, by still a wilder, and, for scenery-loving
people, more interesting road, along the Furnace and
Fyough lakes, which are occasionally skirted with
matural wood. Buckough mountain on your right,
and, beyond the lake, the dark, deep glen of Glen-a-
Moa ; Sraigh-farna, with its proverbially crooked
river, in front, over which and many other streams
you have to cross unbridged, to the pass of Maume-
aratta, between the Corsleive and Maumethomaas
ANCIENT ENTRANCE, | |
ranges, where you enter Erris. In this part you
may, if fortunate, fall in with herds of the old
red deer, which are not yet extinct in these moun-
tains, or see them bounding along the rugged sides
ôf the deep corries. After passing over many lower
mountains and almost innumerable difficulties, &
pedestrian (for no one on horseback would now
venture life or limb on it,) may reach Bangor on the
central road, first either wading through the Owen-
more river, or, should it be flooded, obliged to take
chance in one of the miserable cabins on the South
side of the river. Mr. M'Parlan seems to have tasted
the sweets of this passage; for under the head of
“Roads, Bridges,” &c., he says:—“The roads are
but few ; all in this season of the year (November)
impassably bad, except one (neaning this), and ever,
that as rough and devious as those of the Alps or
Mount St. Bernard. In the course of thirty miles
from Newport to the Mullet, this Alpine road is
intersected by about twenty rivers, on the banks of
some of which one must stand if there be a flood,
until it subsides, without cabin or cover from the
storm ; as there are at least fifteen miles of this
tract without a human habitation.” This is the track
that is marked as a road into Erris in the old maps,
even in Taylor's and Arrowsmith's, but is never used
now except by illicit-whiskey dealers, or those brave
spirits who choose, on the 20th of August, to rouse
the echoes of the mountains in grouse shooting, or
venture on the track of the red deer into their almost
inaccessible retreats.
12 NORTHERN ENTRANCE.
The other entrance into Erris is from the North-
East, through Glenamoy. A road is being made in
this direction, communicating with Ballycashel and
Killalla. On entering Erris from this quarter, after
leaving a most remarkable cliff-coast, along which
"the road runs, you enter Glenamoy, in which is a
large extent of bog country to the right, as far as the
foot of the North coast hills, which constitute one side
of the glen, the low range of Glen-Colra, Barusky,
and Slieve Fyough, being the other. A not inconsi-
derable river flows down this glen, the banks of
which are thickly populated, but with comparatively
a small quantity of arable land, for reasons that will
be hereafter explained. Near where the tide of
Broadhaven, in the inlet of the Greyhound river,
meets the Glenamoy, we cross it, and the road
proceeds thence through some low mountain country
North of Lough Carrowmore, towards Broadhaven,
and near its Southern shore, to join the central road
within two miles of Bellmullet. If we except the
views of the North coast half cliff, half mountain
hills, averaging 700 to 900 feet in height, the one
half towards the sea being entirely worn away, and
that towards the land a smooth mountain side; at the
West end a signal tower, and another at the East end ;
the green streaks along the rivers and streams, and
a few patches of cultivated land on the mountain
sides, there is nothing very interesting in this entrance
to Erris.
On approaching the villages in this and other
quarters, it strikes a person as something worth
NoFTHERN ENTRANCE. i8
observing, the small marrow channels that are formed
through the bog, and conducted towards the houses,
as if for irrigation: on tracing them you find they
converge, and the waters are still conducted at a high
level into a small house or cabin For what
purpose P No mill-machinery appears. On enter-
ing, the secret is revealed: you have before you the
whole apparatus of making illicit whiskey, or poteen,
or mountain dew, or whatever other name its lovers
are pleased to call it by. A small still, generally
made of tin, sometimes copper, and not unfrequently
a metal pot, containing from twenty to thirty gallons,
is on a fire; a tin or block-tin worm stretches from
the head into a vessel full of water, kept cool
by this constant stream ; after passing through
which it distils, in a slender dribble or drop by drop,
the spirit, into a pot or other vessel; and the stranger,
if he have not the appearance or concomitants of an
exciseman, is pressed to take part of it out of an
egg-shell, (their usual “glass,”) and accompanied on
his way, with every mark of civility and attention, as
far as he requires to be guided.
These descriptions of the country, by the usual
entrances, will give some idea of the “general ap-
pearance.” The bold shores of the Northern coasts,
the great variety of bays and inlets, the peculiar
appearance of the Western shores of the peninsula,
with the great Atlantic Ocean rolling in its mighty
waves on a low sandy beach, with no greater barrier
than light sand hills, of a thousand varied shapes, on
the land side to obstruct its seemingly overwhelming
i4 NORTHERN ENTRANCE—ILLICIT STILL.
progress, the broken, irregular group of islands in
the South-West quarter, form the other most remark-
able “general appearances” of the country.
GEOLOGY..*
Erris having such high and beautiful ranges and
groups of mountains, and of such different forms, must
attract at once the attention, and gratify the taste, of
the geologist. Commencing at the Southern boundary,
we have the Maumethomaas range, whose general
direction is North-East and South-West; the highest
point is 2,400 feet, and the average through the
range generally 1700 feet; its length from the sea
at Dukell to the pass of Maumearatta is eight Irish
miles. This range is entirely mica-slate and quartz,
with its usual irregularity of dip, but generally much
approaching to vertical. From the summit South-
ward (out of Erris) diverge four broad and deep
glens, the sides of which are very steep. The
Northern or Erris side is hollowed out at small inter-
vals into deep circular excavations, whose diameters
may be half-a-mile, in the bottoms of which are
found lakes or “tarns,” from which issue streams
(sometimes, for a short distance, subterraneously,) to
the northward.
* This account has been published in the first number of the
Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin, of which the author is a
member.
GEOLOGY. 15
These are called by the natives Curries, which
means literally a pit or boiler. These “Curries,”
though very like the burst craters of volcanoes, exhi-
bit no volcanic appearance or extraordinary convul-
sion; the rock on the one side and the other being
the same nearly in dip and direction, or only that
various wavy undulation which mica-slate always
assumes; the direction being that of the general range
of the mountain, North-East and South-West. On the
Southern side of this range we find old red sandstone
overlaying the mica-slate and dipping Southward, at
an angle generally of 15°. This is a beautiful stone
for building and many other useful purposes. The
sandstone stratum reaches to the verge of Clew Bay,
where we meet limestone in the archipelago of islands
which crowd its head and sides, which, rising over
the waters after perhaps the bog soil or alluvion
which surrounded them in a plain, had been washed
away by the ocean. The Maumethomaas mountains
are only a portion of a range of the same component
parts which extends Westward, with the interruption
of Achil Sound to Achil Head, and Eastward to
Nephin the Ox Mountains, and the mountains South
of Lough Gill, in Sligo, in which, however, granite
frequently occurs. The same unmixed mica slate
and quartz continues through Ballycroy to the parallel
of Cursleive, where it assumes a very different appear-
ance. The soil towards the shore is perfectly fine-
grained quartzose sand, and may be supposed to be
the decomposition of the mountain rock in that
parallel. At the chapel of Cross, the rock itself
| 6 KG-3 OLO G.Y.,
appears a fine-grained quartz. Mr. Griffith seems in
doubt respecting the composition of the Cursleive
range commencing at the pass of Maumearatta and
ending at Owenmore river; the greatest elevation
(Cursleive) 2,370 feet, and the average elevation
I 500 ; the distance about seven Irish miles, and the
general direction North-West and South-East. Mr.
Griffith says:—“The Corlieve and Knockletteracuss
mountains are composed of mica slate and the gra-
nular quartz rock. At the summit of Corlieve the
latter rock occurs; it there contains some mica and
very minute particles (I cannot call them crystals) of
feldspar. If all rocks composed of quartz, feldspar, and
mica be granite, this is so. But, as I have before ob-
served, this rock alternating with decided mica slate,
I am inclined to believe it to be merely a variety of
that rock in which quartz greatly predominates.”
If Mr. Griffith's time would have allowed him to
have visited Trista hill, about six miles farther West-
ward beyond the Owenmore river and Tarmon hill,
in nearly the same parallel within the Mullet, he
would have found the most decided granite rising out
of or alternating (though, in this instance, I am unwil.
ling to use the expression), if he pleases with mica
slate.
We may then set the question at rest, that Cur.
sleive is granite, but so nearly on the borders of
the great quartz district that it partakes, in a great
degree, of its prevalent material; for, in fact, from
this, in a North and North-western direction to Broad-
haven and the North coast, the whole country is com-
GEOILOGY. 17
posed of granular quartz, often mixed with granular
quartzose and mica slate, and only interrupted at
intervals by porphyry or “whin dikes,” of which
more hereafter. North of the Owenmore, in the
irregular mountain range whose highest point is
Slievefyough, 960 feet over the sea, the junction of
the primary with the secondary country occurs.
About two miles East of Bangor, in the village of the
Owenmore, Mr. Griffith made the following obser-
vations, which I beg leave to repeat here, as some
of the readers of these pages may not have seen his
very interesting report to the Bog Commissioners in
which they are contained:
“The old red sandstone, which immediately over-
lays the mica slate at the base of Croghan mountain,
is composed of an aggregate of quartz pebbles and
sometimes hexagonal pyramids of quartz, with large
included masses of red feldspar. The rock is exceed-
ingly compact ; it väries from very coarse to very
fine grained. I found an average specimen to be
composed of an aggregation of quartz and feldspar
in nearly equal quantities and sizes. In this latter
instance, the feldspar is white, and apparently a little
decomposed. The colour of this rock is brownish
grey, that of the large grained is reddish brown. The
old red sandstone is covered by a series of rocks of
slate, clay, and floetz sandstone alternating. On first
viewing them, as they appeared in the bed of a preci-
pitous stream on the North side of Owenmore river,
I was of opinion they belonged to the coal formation;
18 GEOILOGY,
and although, upon examination, I was not able to
discover any beds of coal, I am still of opinion that
the beds do belong to that formation.”
SECTION OF ROCKS.
Feet,
The old red sandstone is covered by a bed of blue slate clay, 3 O
Over which sandstone, in thin beds, & tº . 12 O
Slate clay, 4 O
Sandstone, º - º 6 O
Argilaceous limestone . e o g e 3 O
Blue slate clay, 3 O
Grey sandstone, tº tº º 1 O O
Slaty sandstone, º tº © 1 5 O
Grey quartz sandstone © º e . 20 O
Clayey limestone, containing vegetable impressions º 3 O.
Calcareous clay, containing vegetable impressions much
resembling the substratum to a bed of coal, O 4
Black slate clay, - º • e © 3 O
Earthy limestone, containing shells, . 2 O
Black slate clay, Q g © O 6
Grey sandstone, - e © º Çe 2 O
Black slate clay, t ë © e O 6
Greyish blue clay stome, e º e 2 O
Compact limestone, . e º I O
Calcareous slate clay, much resembling the immediate sub-
stratum to a bed of coal, O 3
Black slate clay, tº 3 O
Greyish white sandstone, o © *- 3 O
Park grey compact sandstone, . o g t 2 O
Dark friable sandstone, with mica, e º º 1 O
White micaceous sandstone, s to t 6 O
I O2 7
From where these observations were taken the sepa-
ration of the secondary country passes a short space
(a tongue extending into Glencullen, from which it
turns,) East to the top of Sheskin and Glencolra, (for
GE OLOGY. 19
you find none of it in the Vale of Glenamoy,) and
passing by Rahavesteen, it is distinctly seen in the
shore about two miles East of Belderig, where a con-
siderable agitation of both strata occurs. I have not
observed, West of this line, any appearance of a secon-
dary formation; but there are alternations of light
mica slate with the granular quartz rock, which is, in
many parts, stratified and slaty, and dipping in all
directions and at various angles. In the ravine of
Glencastle, I have discovered (in seeking for sheeting
for some bridges,) primitive limestone, very much
crystallised, and in small layers, encrusted with mica.
This discovery, where lime of any kind is so scarce,
is of some importance here, and the people are already
beginning to use it for manure. The most remark-
able geological fact in this country is the existence of
porphyry dikes, of various thicknesses, but invariably
preserving a strict parallelism; the direction being
60° west of magnetic north, and 270 north of mag-
netic West. My attention to the existence of these
dikes was first drawn by the Reverend Archdeacon
Verschoyle, who, having discovered them in the
neighbourhood of Killalla, and traced their courses
Westward a considerable distance, and Eastward
through the counties of Sligo and Donegal, in the
same parallels, desired me to look out for them at
certain points on the coast of Erris, in continuation
of some he had noticed thirty miles farther Eastward.
Glencastle produced the first remarkable instance. In
cutting the road through the rock there, Mr. Bald
20 GEOI, OGY.
first discovered the existence of a dike ; but it de-
lighted me greatly to find the Archdeacon's produc-
tion of his Eastern ones develope itself here; further
&n in Claggan: then in Leam, within the Mullet; and
finally, on the West coast. He pointed out on the map
where I should find another (for at that time he had
not visited Erris); and, very nearly at that place, it
shewed itself distinctly, of considerable breadth, and
having all the appearance of the one corresponding
to it observed by him Eastward. I found another
farther North, and one much farther South, in the
parallel of Carn, within the Mullet. Where these
dikes occur, the dislocation and discoloration of the
mica slate is most remarkable, evidently occasioned
by an agent, accompanied by a great degree of heat.
The usually dark mica slate becomes palish, disturbed
in all directions and crumbling into dust; it seems not
almost the same stone, were it not for the still shining
appearance of the mica. It is to be hoped that Arch-
deacon Verschoyle will give to the world the very
interesting observations he has been for some years
collecting on these and other geological facts in the
Northern parts of Donegal, Sligo, and Mayo.” I have
before mentioned that Tarmon hill, at the Southern
extremity of the Mullet, is composed of granite. It
lies in beds of various thickness, from four inches to
four feet, dipping South at an angle of 109; it is very
close-grained ; the mica in small quantity, the feldspar
* I find he has done so in the Transactions of the Geological
Society of London.
G. E.O.LOGY, 2]
flesh colour, which gives this rock the appearance of
the Egyptian granite. It is a fine working stone,
and used in building all the piers and most of the
good houses of Erris. At the west end of this hill,
in the shore near Surgeview, I observed veins of
quartz, of different shapes and sizes, irregularly tra-
versing the granite in a very curious mammer. Farther
North and West of the signal tower, in the shore,
decided mica slate, with a large proportion of horn-
blende ; and this is the only rock found in the opposite
islands of Inniskea, and in Divilane: in some instances,
it is traversed by veins of flesh-coloured feldspar. It
would seem as if this granite hill of Tarmon had
rested on the mica slate, or forced its way through
it ; for, at Kanfinaltha, on the East side of the Bay
of Blacksod, it is mica slate of the same description
as that at the West shore of the tower. The stratified
appearance shews itself distinctly at Blacksod Point,
at the East end of the hill; at Surgeview, it has not
the same appearance of stratification, but appears in
irregular fragments; in no instance is it laminated.
North of Tarmon hill, the whole of the peninsula
is composed of a kind of slate rock, having large
streaks of red feldspar, mica, and horn-blende, very
wavy in its formation ; general direction East and
West, and dip, like all mica slate, very various. In
many parts, the grey or black mica slate occupies a
considerable tract; in others, the rock is almost ex.
clusively flesh or red brick-coloured feldspar, with
little mixture of mica. When the feldspar and mica
22 GEOILOGY,
are in nearly equal beds, this stone has an uncommonly
pretty variegated appearance, and is then a tolerably
good building stone. A floor or paving of them set
on edge, where the variety of colour would appear,
and roughly polished, would be very handsome and
curious. I find Mr. Griffith has observed a variety
of this slate at Knocknalyma, near the entrance of
Broadhaven, and, with Jameson, calls it horn-blende
slate.
Outside the peninsula, along the Broadhaven shore
and the North coast, I have not observed any other
stratum, with the exception of the whin dikes, than
granular quartz rock, having mica occasionally in beds,
and intermixed,
Mr. Griffith's section of the alternations in the
secondary country will suffice to shew the composi-
tion of that portion; but, I may add that, in the soil,
limestone in boulders and gravel is found in conside-
rable quantity, and has been judiciously applied at
Sheskin by Mr. M'Donnell, in reclaiming his moun.
tains. The sandstone of this secondary country is
whitish and close-grained, and peculiarly well adapted
for building. Mr. Bald used it for the bridge of
Carrick, where it looks to great advantage. The
limestone burns brown, and is as good as a water
cement. Soils being usually (except where great
alluvial masses are found, as on the plains,) the
decomposition of the rocks which are found in the
country, we find a great mixture, and consequent
fertility of soil in the secondary country. In the
GEOILOGY, 23
quartz country, very little below the surface, you dig
up a beautiful white silicious sand. Within the
Mullet, it is again various from the mixture of com-
ponent parts, containing also a considerable portion
of the sand which stretches in hills of various elevation
along the whole coast, from Surgeview to Tarmon-
carra, eleven Irish miles, and which, in storms, is
carried over the adjacent country to a very great
extent; rising in clouds upwards of fifty or sixty feet
on these occasions. In this sand there is a conside-
rable quantity of shell particles, and small specks of
mica and horn-blende. The existence of these masses
of sand on this West coast, and in other parts, North
Inniskea, Doohooma, Dooyork, Doolough, Doo-
creeghan, and Doona, on the East side of Blacksod
Bay, and Doonkeeghan, near the entrance of Broad-
haven,—is not the least remarkable geological fact in
Erris. Another curious fact occurs on the West coast
opposite Leam. At and under the level of high
water, and covered on the land side by sand banks
upwards of thirty to fifty feet high, bog soil is found,
though none exists at present within two miles of it;
it is so compressed that it has nearly the appearance
of coal, and produces a very lively fire. At Cartron,
within the Mullet, and at Doona, in Ballycroy, stumps
and roots of trees, standing as they grew, are found
far under the level of high water in the shore, resting
on bog soil, which has only a slight covering of drift
sand over it.
In describing the soils of a country as the decome
24, MIN ES.
position of its rock, the ingenious theory of the late
Mr. Nimmo, in applying this decomposition to the
perfecting of our charts and soundings, in approach-
ing the shores of any country whose geology is known,
forces itself on our attention as one extremely useful,
and worthy the consideration not only of the geologist,
but the scientific hydrographer.
I have dwelt somewhat at length on this subject
(geology), because, in new countries like Erris, it is
of importance to know of what it is composed, for the
various purposes of agriculture, in applying the
proper manures, and calculating the expense for
carriage, &c. as well as for building and many other
|UlSéS. -
There are no mines as yet discovered in Erris.
With respect to coal, Mr. Griffith has already said,
“I am still of opinion these beds belong to the coal
formation :” and again, in another part of his Report,
“Though I did not observe in either places (Erris
and Ballinglen), any immediate traces of coal, I am
still inclined to think they may be met with in the
country.” Bog iron ore is found in different parts—
at Clooneen, within the Mullet, near which Sir
Arthur Shaen, the common ancestor of Major
Bingham and Mr. Carter, formerly built a furnace
for smelting ; but, either from want of ore, or not
having charcoal to use, turf as a substitute being tried,
it was given up. Crystals of quartz are found in
Knocklettarcuss, near Bangor, as well as in many
other parts of Erris.
SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC. 25
Having given a general description of the land, we
will now turn our attention to a no less interesting
subject, the
SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, AND INLAND
WATERS.
On the North, from the boundary of Tyrawley to
Rinroe, at the entrance of Broadhaven, the coast is
high, bold, and picturesque, having only two inlets
in a distance of 3% English miles (including sinuo-
sities), Porturlin and Portacloy, affording only tem-
porary protection to boats, which are obliged to be
hauled up on the beaches. Porturlin might be much
improved, by cutting through the stony beach into
the lake behind it. There are only a few small boats
in it. Portacloy is wider, a vessel might stop a tide,
and be protected here from S.S.W. and Easterly winds,
but from the W. and N.W. such a surf sets in as to
render it dangerous, though its depth is from four to
twenty fathoms. There are about twenty row-boats
used for fishing : it is too wild for a sail-boat. These
two ports having been much resorted to by smug-
glers, but have now each a coast-guard station placed
in them.
Within Rinroe Point there is protection for row-
boats also, but only by hauling up ; and it might be
much improved by the erection of a pier. In the long
inlets of Farsadbeg and Sruffodacon, or the Grey-
hound River, (as it is sometimes called) there is ample
and safe protection for boats of all sizes at all times.
C
26 SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC.
The last inlet runs up six English miles, where it
meets the Glenamoy river; it is dry at low wate
for the greater part. At its mouth, being very
marrow, a rapid current sets in and out in flood and
ebb : there is a ferry here. Outside both inlets there
is a bar, which is very dangerous in blowing weather,
and, being a shifting sand, the channel seldom con-
tinues the same for any great length of time. The
length of sheltered coast in these two inlets, from
Rinroe round to the ferry, is 23 British miles, and
their extent of surface 3; square miles, or 2,200
& CI’éS.
Five miles from the ferry, along the trendings of a
very rocky coast, brings us to the entrance of Broad-
haven, which here is only half an Irish mile, or five
furlongs British wide, with a depth of water eleven
fathoms. The length of sheltered shore is 27 miles,
and its expanse about 10 square miles, or 6,400 acres,
British ; its upper half dries at low water, except the
channel, which, up to within a mile of Bellmullet, has
16 feet water, at the least, in high water spring tides.
From the entrance at Inver up to Bellmullet is 74
British miles, and out to a line between Erris Head
and Kid Island, it is 3% more; but this latter distance,
from its breadth, though evidently giving the name
“Broad” to the “haven,” is seldom considered as
part of it.
Broadhaven is said to be the safest on the West
coasts for anchorage of a limited number of vessels,
two or three large ones and four to six small ones;
but, any vessels drawing twelve feet water, may go
SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC. 27
up nearly to Bellmullet at high water, without danger
of touching on any thing but sand or mud. There is
from two to eight fathoms water in the anchoring
place, and it is sheltered almost from every wind.
From the mouth of Broadhaven to the entrance of
Blindharbour is five miles along shore. This har-
bour, if it may be so called, is often mistaken, in
coming from the Southward, for Broadhaven, and
hence its name; but it is so narrow that one ship only,
and that with some danger and difficulty, could enter
at one time: even for boats, except in moderate
weather, the entrance, though deep, from its narrow-
mess, is dangerous;–within they are completely land-
locked. Its length of sheltered shore is five miles,
and it nearly dries, at low water, the whole extent,
which is 200 acres. From Blindharbour round to
Frenchport, the coast is quite precipitous;–cliffs
about 300 feet high, and no landing place, except for
curraghs in fine weather, in a length of 27 miles,
counting the indentings. In this distance is Erris Head,
the most northern part of the peninsula, and Eagle
Island, on which a lighthouse is being erected; a des-
cription of which, from Mr. Halpin, jun., the engineer,
I hope to have to add to this before publication. (d)
Portnafrank, or Frenchport, is very narrow at the
entrance, and, being subject to a great swell, is dan-
gerous, particularly to strangers; but within, you are
protected from all winds in good lying ground. This
and Portnamalabnagh, or Scotchport, a little North of
it, afford good stations for boats, and even for some
larger craft; and, being the only ones on the West
28 SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC.
*
coast, are of some importance, having always the
difficulty to contend with, of being only available, in
or out, with leading winds and moderate weather.
The line of sheltered coast is seven miles.
Portmore, on the opposite side of the isthmus of
Annagh, is a landing place for boats in moderate
weather also, and might be greatly improved by
having a pier and breakwater built there; and having
a free, open offing, would be the most considerable
place for a station on the West coast of the mainland.
From Frenchport, by Annagh and the West coast
of the Mullet, the shore is chiefly low sandy beach,
with some points of flat rock jutting out,-quite
exposed, and of course useless for boats or vessels,
even in fine weather,-until we reach Surgeview,
where Portmore South affords some precarious land-
ing for boats, but they must be hauled up for protec-
tion. There being a number of boats here, and, in a
good fishing station, it might be worth while to
expend some money in making a breakwater and
landing place. On to Blacksod Point it is low rocky
shore; and from Frenchport to it is 21% miles, chiefly
unprotected coast.
I may here observe, that there is good anchorage
at Rusheens, between North and South Inniskea,
and shelter from S.W. to N.W. winds. It would be
most desirable, for the promotion of the deep sea
fishery, to have this harbour improved, of which it is
easily capable. In 1824, I gave a plan of it to Mr.
Nimmo, which he inserted in his Fishery Report for
that year.
SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC. 29
The sailing directions for entering this harbour
being incorrect in M*Kenzie's, and copied into Mr.
Nimmo's, piloting directions for the Irish coast, I
give my own. When the Southern one of the rocks,
near the South end of Inniskea, is on the most Easterri
point of the island, and the gut between the two
islands full open, or Surgeview tower bearing S.E.
# E., you are free of the shoal at the East end of
Rusheen –sail direct towards the gut, and, when
abreast of the Island of Rusheen, cast anchor in three
fathom clean sand bottom.
The Inniskeas have only 34 miles of sheltered
coast, the remainder being bold and wild, or low
sandy, with heavy surf; and of this description there
are nineteen miles. The Bivilanes and adjacent
islets have no landing places, except in very fine
weather;—their coast is upwards of six miles.
Innisglora and Inniskeeragh similarly circum-
stanced, four miles. A vessel might stop a tide
wnder the lee of these islands, tolerably well shel-
tered in four fathoms and good ground.
The Bay of Blacksod is only so counted from
Blacksod Point and Doohooma Head to Bellmullet,
ghough its exterior entrance is between Divilane or
Inniskea and Achill Islands, where it is 34 miles
wide; at Doohooma Head, 4} ; and at Kanfimalta
(the narrowest part), 3 miles wide. Blacksod Point
to Bellmullet, in a direct line, is 11% miles, and by
the coast, 29. The greatest breadth (opposite Elly)
of the bay is 8% miles, and its average, as far as
30 SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC.
Claggan, (that is, for 9 miles from the entrance,) is
5% miles; within Claggan, one mile wide.
The superficial expanse of Blacksod is about 45
square miles, or nearly 29,000 acres; and its average
depth of water, beyond the limit of low water mark,
3% fathoms. Not a single sunk rock in all this space,
except one off Saleen harbour; Corrigeenmore, near
the entrance far to the left, being a half-tide rock ;
and some two or three within Claggan of the same
description. The whole extent of sheltered shore in
Blacksod is 63% miles, within the limits of Doohooma
and the point. It is without a bar of any kind,
plenty of sea or tacking room, and protection from all
weathers on anchoring ground of the best description.
The sailing marks given by M*Kenzie, and copied
by Mr. Nimmo, (not having himself surveyed this
bay,) are in many instances extinct, and in others not
correct, serving only for the open bay anchorages.
I subjoin some additional ones to bring a vessel to
Bellmullet, the only exporting place now in Erris.
Sail in between Claggan and Ardmore, but nearer
Claggan, with Aghaglosheen tower E. of the end of
the road at the South shore of Belmullet, or bearing
two points W. of N. until Carn storehouse is on the S.
point of N. Emlybeg, or bearing N.W. 23 points W.,
when you take that course to within half-a-cable of
the shore. Sail along it to where it trends off to the
larboard; you then cross over to the pier of Bell-
mullet. These courses must be only taken at high
water spring-tides, or three-quarter flood, if your
vessel draw 9 feet water. There are two rocks, one
SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC. 3 i
on each side, within Claggan, where the course
changes to N.W. 23. W., and only one cable asunder.
Another is off Emlybeg point : they dry at half ebb.
These rocks are now beaconed. There is excellent
anchorage within Claggan, in four fathoms safe
shelter ground; and it would be prudent for strangers
to stop here for a pilot.
Tulloghaan Bay is a branch from Blacksod, and
can only be entered at high water, and in moderate
weather, there being a dangerous shifting bar at the
entrance. The North or Tulloghaan shore is the safest.
This bay contains a great many boats, sail as well as
row-boats : its line of sheltered coast is 39 miles, and
its surface about 10 square miles, or 6,400 acres;–
it dries for the greater part : sand and mud bottom.
It consists of a long channel from Doohooma Head
(or Kanrovar, as it is called,) to the fishery at Goula-
more, where it receives the O wenmore and Munhin
rivers; the distance 7% miles. Opposite Tulloghaan it
receives the waters of the Aghnis or Ballycroy river,
the second in size in the barony. On the South side
of Tulloghaan bay is situated the ruins” of Doona
Castle. (e) From this the shores of Ballycroy are
very much indented, but safe for boats or small
vessels, and are in length, including sinuosities, 47
miles. This includes the large islands of Annagh
and Innisbegil, with the small ones adjacent.
The entrance into the Sound of Achil from Black-
sod Bay is called Bull's Mouth, between Innisbegil
* “The Dark Lady of Dooma,” by the author of “ Stories of
Waterloo.”
32 SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC.
and Achil, 300 yards wide, with a current so great
setting in or out of it, that it cannot be stemmed
except with a strong leading wind, until the tide
begins to change at high or low water. Another, but
not so great a current, exists at the East end of Innis-
begil island. Small vessels, drawing no more than
eight feet water, may pass, at spring tides, from
Blacksod Bay through the Bull's Mouth and the
Sound of Achil to Clewbay and the ports of Newport
and Westport, taking care to be in at the Bull's
Mouth with the last of flood, so as to be out at the
other end of the Sound (Bealnaglee) with the first of
ebb, and with a leading wind; for the tide sets into
the Sound from the South and North, and meets
nearly half way, at which place the Sound dries at
łow water from the Island of Achil to the main.
Thus we have in Erris, Blacksod Bay, capable of
containing the whole British navy; Broadhaven, capa-
ble of holding some large and small vessels at safe
anchorage afloat, besides room for a vast number to
lie safely in channel on sand or mud; and these two
last bays approaching within 300 yards of one another
at Bellmullet.
Tulloghaan Bay and Achil Sound, practicable for
vessels of small burden, and the inlets of Broadhaven,
(the Greyhound river and Farsadbeg,) similarly cir-
cumstanced. The island of Inniskea, good anchorage;
Blindharbour, Frenchport, Scotchport, Portacloy, and
Porturlin, fit at least for boats;–the size and advan-
tages of all which may be seen more correctly in the
following table :
SEA SHORE, BAYS, HARBOURS, ETC.
33

ñºla...ºpºlº
Name. ; *:::: C ::. j. j #.
º miles. L. water.
Blacksod bay......... 45 |29,000 63% 113 5% 3 to 5
Broadhaven.........., 10 6,400 27 7# | 1 2 to 8
Tulloghaan bay...... 1O || 6,400 39 7# | 1 2
Inlets of Broadhaven 34 2,080 23 9 O 3F| 2
Blindharbour...... tº º gº # 200 5 1 O 2}| 2
Portnafrank, or
Frenchport.......... 1 640) 73 3 O 2#| 2
Bays of Ballycroy.... 13% 8,640 47 9 1} various.
Portacloy, Porturlin,
and other parts....] # 32O 4 I # | “…
Say 84 |53,680) 216 49%
The foregoing table shows at one view the impor-
tance of the sea coast—an extent of 84 square miles,
or nearly 54,000 acres of bay surface, perfectly shel-
tered, whose line of sea coast exceeds 200 miles, and
with depth of water for the largest in some, and, in
every instance, sufficient for the coasting trade of the
country; and these scattered along the whole shore,
and indenting so deeply, that there is no part of the
country more distant from some of these harbours
This is, there-
fore, a most important natural feature in the country.
than six Irish miles in a direct line.
Next after the sea, the inland waters engage
our attention as natural features. Lough Carrow-
more, containing 1,500 Irish or 2,430 British acres,
is the largest in the country, and is met with, on the
central road, two miles West of Bangor. Its direct
length is 3% Irish, or 4; British miles, and about half
C 5
34. I NLAND WATER.S.,
an Irish mile wide for half the way, when it expands
considerably. There are three or four small islands
upon it: the principal one is called Illan Roe, or the
Red Island, which seems to have given the ancient
mame to this lake; for, in the old maps, we find it
called Lough Nallenroe, quasi Lough An-illan Roe,
the Lough of the Red Island. The depth of this
lake has not been ascertained, but it is said to be
generally shallow. One or two boats are to be found
on it occasionally. Its height over the sea, taking the
high water of each, is 15 feet (Mr. Griffith, I think,
states it at 10 or 13 feet): its water, which it chiefly
receives from the North and Eastern glens, is dis-
charged Southward by the Munhin river into Tul-
Hoghaan Bay; a few perches from which it is met by
the Owenmore river, and their united waters enter
the sea at Goulamore fishery. The extent of country
that supplies water to Carrowmore Lake is 40 British
square miles, and about six square miles below it
into the Munhin ; so that, allowing three millions of
tuns of water per square mile per annum, the total
yearly discharge by the Munhin will be 138 millions
of tuns, or 377,534 daily at an average;—three or
four times more than this in floods, and only one-third
in summer, without taking evaporation into account.
Near the Eastern shore of the lake, at Glencullen,
limestone is found ; the Westen and other parts,
quartz rock or sand. The course of the Munhin, from
the lake to the sea, is two Irish miles, and the lake is
within three-quarters of a mile of the sea at Broad-
haven, at the other end near Carrowmore.
INLAND WATER.S. 35
The other lakes of Erris of any note, amounting in
the whole to 542 Irish or 878 English acres, are,
Fahey Lough in Ballycroy, Cross Leam, and Ardmore
Lakes, within the Mullet: they are all nearly at the
level of the sea at high water, and generally very
shallow. The Lough of Townynabul, or Lougherglosh,
on the Northern boundary of Tyrawly, with some
Small lakes on the bogs and in the bosoms of the
mountains, constitute, with those already named, the
inland lake waters of Erris.
Salmon and trout, in great abundance, are found
in Lough Carrowmore and its tributary streams;
trout in the others. Those on the sea shore, Fahey,
Cross Leam, and Ardmore, are remarkable for the
innumerable flocks of wild fowl that rest upon them
in winter. Solan geese, Swans, duck of every species,
gulls, &c. &c., form a most remarkably curious and
lively assemblage, floating on their still waters. The
sea water, in extraordinary tides, finds its way into
these latter lakes. They are seldom frozen through-
out, leaving a space in the centre for the feathered
tribe, who, in very strong frosts, are often caught
here by the ice, and left as a prey to the adventurous
fowler.
Of the rivers, the largest is the Owenmore, or Big
River, which divides Erris in the middle into North
and South ; its course from Corick bridge being
generally East and West. In 10 Irish or 13 British
miles from thence, it finds its level in Tulloghaan Bay,
the fall in that distance being 300 feet, or, at an
36 INLAND WATER.S.,
average, one foot in every 230. There are no extra-
ordinary rapids on it, the fall being tolerably uniform,
though there are some flats, or cess pools, but trifling.
Above Corick bridge, where the three principal
branches that mainly compose it meet, the extent of
country giving its supply of water to the Owenmore
is 70 square miles, equal to 210,000,000 of tums annu-
ally. From Corick bridge downwards, the water
shed may be 29 square miles; in all 99 or 100 square
miles, or 300,000,000 of tuns for the Owenmore alone
annually ; add the discharge of the Munhin, and
438 millions of tuns of water will be the annual
discharge at Goulamore. The quantity in summer
ymay not be one-fourth this, but it may be increased
four times in flood. Mr. Griffith observed that it
rose, at Bangor, ten feet in an hour, and fell as rapidly.
A most remarkable instance of the quantity of water,
and fall in this river, occurred in the year 1817.
About half way between Corick bridge and Bangor,
the ground on the North side of the river is very
steep, and the sides well cultivated. At the top,
about 300 feet over the river, there existed a tract of
very soft bog, extending some distance, in which were
a great many pools, such as are usually found in very
flat bogs. On a very rainy might, either these pools
had been surcharged with water, and, by flowing into
one another, (for they are often on different levels,)
caused a current in the lower parts, and by that means
causing a small cut,-afterwards increasing to a
larger one, it formed an opening of some size, or,
INLAND WATERS–O’HARA. 37
from its swelling up the soft bog, by charging it
with an unusual additional quantity of water, or
from the gradual growth of the bog itself. From
one or other of these causes, or a combination of
them, a large mass of the bog, about five acres in
extent, moved forward over the side of the mountain,
overturning every obstacle in its way, and, rushing
through two channels, (one of which it entirely closed,
there falling down the mountain side,) and over about
thirty perches in breadth of the mountain side, it first
carried with it two uninhabited houses, the ruins of
which, with the accumulated mass of bog, torn-up
bog-banks, and rocks, were precipitated upon the
house of an industrious farmer, named O'Hara, then
inhabiting the best-built house in the mountains, situated
about ten perches from the banks of the Owenmore.
The ruins, with the family and all their effects, were
carried into the river, and so violent was the torrent,
that it was only in Tulloghaan Bay, six miles farther
down, the bodies of the unfortunate inhabitants were
found in a day or two, with the timbers and vessels of
their houses, and the produce of their farm, floating
about its shores. Two soldiers of the 92d Highland
regiment, fatigued with still-hunting, had remained
after their comrades, hospitably entertained by
O'Hara, and with him and his family shared their
their miserable fate. Cries of distress, carried on
the whistling wind, were heard at night along the
river at Bangor, and the villages along the Owenmore
banks to Kiltena; but the night rained S0, and was
38 INLAND WATERs—o’HARA.
so dark, and the river so overwhelming in its head-
long course, that no assistance was attempted, or
could be given, with any probability of success. One
only son, then a little boy, had been sent of a message
to a distant village, where an uncle resided. The
rain kept him there for the night, and, on reaching
the spot where he left the night before, waste of the
most indescribable kind had covered his happy home,
and he was left alone, one of the desolate of the
world. I often saw him afterwards: from his excel-
lent character and conduct, he was invariably, when-
ever he wished, employed by me on the public Works.
Though a fine looking man, thought and melan-
choly had pictured themselves on his brow and coun-
tenance, and he was looked upon by his neighbours
with respect and sorrow ; and we knew him always
by the appellation of the “last of the O'Hara's.”
The second morning after this dreadful catastrophe I
reached the spot at dawn of day, from a village
where I slept, seven miles West of it (being them on
an excursion, taking some heights for Mr. Bald's
Map of Mayo). The passage by the road was
entirely filled up with soft flow bog, torn-up bog
banks, boulders, and a mixture of the soil from the
mountain side. No way seemed to be left for passing
but the dangerous and doubtful one of getting into
the river's verge, (then almost reduced to its usual
level and water,) and by stepping from one stone to
another to get beyond the limit of the run of bog.
Being extremely anxious to explore the source,
INLAND WATERS–POACHING, 39
ascertain the cause, and know the extent of the
avalanche, I ascended, unaccompanied by my man,
who declined the honourable peril, and, wading
through some soft bog near the summit to a high,
hard up-turned bog-bank, to see the extent of waste
before me, a fog had begun to creep gradually and
insensibly over the mountain top, in which I was soon
enveloped. To trace back my steps was now my
greatest object; but no trace of steps could be dis-
covered within my then range of view. I had to
trust to chance,—tried another route, and after
wading to the waist through soft flow bog, fortunately
so soft and loose as to allow me to drag myself out,
the hard bog banks scattered here and there offering
resting places, I gained the firm, untouched mountain,
and descended to the road in no very comfortable
plight. Never shall I forget the dangers of that
memorable morning. --
The Owenmore abounds in trout and salmon. One
of the modes of killing them by the poachers is rather
new, though simple : nor do I think it has been men-
tioned in the “Wild Sports of the West.” As they
attempt to pass up over the shallows, which are made
more shallow by placing small weirs in the deeper
parts, a fellow watches, and, striking them on the head
with a stick, soon secures his prey. Another method,
by holding lights over the pools of the river at night,
the fish are attracted, and a handy spearsman soon
deposits in his bag the bleeding spoil. These lights
are torches made of dried bog-wood, split, up into
40 INLAND WATER.S.
small slices, which produce a most brilliant blaze :
and the act itself is called “burning the river.” The
hundreds of them scattered through the mountain
region at night, in the fishing season, to the unin-
formed traveller, might appear as so many fay lights,
or “Will o' the wisps,” with all their accompanying
horrors. . .
Next to the Owenmore the Ballycroy river of
Sraighnamomragh is the largest in Erris. It may be
called a river down from Sraighduggan : its course
from thence to the sea is 7% Irish or 9% English
miles, receiving, on its way, large branches from the
Curslieve mountains. Its extent of supply country
is 58 square miles, or 174 millions of tuns of discharge
annually. I estimate the height of the river at
Sraighduggan at 100 feet over the sea, giving an
average fall of about 1 foot in 550.
At the mouth of this also is an excellent salmon
fishery, which, with trout in abundance, is found in
this river and its branches, even up to the lakes in the
Corries of Maumethomaas, Corslieve, and Nephinbeg
mountains. -
The next river in size is the Glenamoy: its course
from the lower end of Glencolra at the boundary of
Erris, from which it may be called a river, to the sea,
is 8 English miles, and the extent of country which
pours its water into it 26 square miles, equal to 78
millions of tuns of water annually. Though I have
not taken the levels of this river, yet, from my
knowledge of the country, I estimate that this point
INLAND WATER.S. 4, 1
of Glencolra may be about 50 feet over the sea,
giving the river a fall of about 1 in 800. There are
no great rapids down from Glencolna, but in that the
stream tumbles through rocks of a very considerable
elevation; yet there are frequent sharps in the Glen-
amoy, often very destructive in floods to the adjoining
alluvial soil, on which the tillage of this part of the
country is usually made.
A very considerable stream enters the sea nearly
at the same point as the Glenamoy, flowing from
Sraighatagil, and receiving the principal waters of
the North coast. Its extent of discharge is 24 square
miles, or 72 millions of tuns annually.
At the mouth of these rivers is a salmon fishery, but
a neglected one. t -
The Bealaveeny river, in Ballycroy, is in size next
to this. In fact, there is no country in Ireland having a
greater command of water for machinery, or any other
purpose of trade or agriculture. The peninsula within
the Mullet, from its peculiar form and composition,
can have no great streams (of wells there are plenty):
the chief one is that which rises in the mountains of
Cloneen and Aghadoon, and enters an inlet of Broad-
haven, near the old Furnace, the works of which (if
ever used) it supplied, or was destined to supply. A
new and more important direction might be now given
to it, and for very different purposes. Three square
miles drop their water into it, or nine millions of tuns
annually. The following table will shew at one view
the available water of each river, and the whole of
Erris :—
Extent of
discharging|Annual quan
Constant avail-
able quantity
Name. Length. º: tity flººd of .. ºth Height of fall at Slope of fall. I’ishery or not.
iOwenmore... 13 100 |300,000,000 20,000,000/300 f. at Corick 1 in 230 Fishery
Munhin....... 2% 46 |138,000,000 || 9,200,000215 at L. Carrowmore | I in 880 do.
Ballycroy..... 9% 58 |174,000,000 || 1 1,600,000|100 at Sraighduggan 1 in 550 do.
Glenamoy.... 8 26 w 78,000,000, 5,200,000 50 at Glencolra 1 in 800 A neglected one.
Sraighatagil. 4 24 || 72,000,000 || 4,800,000 60 about at village 1 in 350 do.
Bealaveeny... 2 20 60,000,000 4,000,000 40 at 1 mile distance | 1 in 132 Il Oile,
Furnace....... 13 3 9,000,000 600,000 60 at Aghadoon S3LIY1C Il OI10.
39; 277 |831,000,000 || 55,400,000
º

INLAND WATER.S. 43
In the foregoing table we have only the principal
rivers in Erris, and only the lengths of their main
trunks without taking in branches. Their surface
for discharging water is 277 square miles: all Erris
360, leaving 83 square miles, or 249 millions of tons
of discharge for the small streams and the remainder
of the country annually.
The whole annual waterfall of Erris is, then, at an
average, 1,080,000,000 tuns: it may be four times
that in winter, and only one-fourth in summer. If
we say that, from evaporation and other causes, only
one-fifteenth of this would be generally available as
water-power for machinery, we shall have then always
at command 72 millions of tuns of water, with falls
sufficient in all places for any works; and, at an
average, 1,080,000,000 tuns equal to the consumption
of 250 mills of the greatest power.
44 WITHIN THE MULLET.
POLITICAL AND CUSTOMARY DIVISIONS
AND NAMES.
ERRIS is divided into two parishes,—Kilmore, which
embraces the whole of the peninsula called “within
the Mullet,” and Kilcommon, all beyond it called
“the mountains,”—and is a union * to one Protestant
clergyman as rector, the tithes of which amount to
£300 yearly; another moiety, of equal amount, going
to the vicar.(f) ---
Kilmore is the living of one Catholic clergyman,
and Kilcommon is divided between three. There
are districts in Kilcommon which have peculiar
names, such as Ballycroy in the South, Bally monelly
in the East, Glenamoy and Doonkeeghan in the
North. The other subdivisions are into townlands ;
the ancient names of which, as compared with the
modern, may be matter of curiosity to some, I have
inserted in the Appendix, taken from a quit-rent
receipt, written in Latin in 1687, and copied from the
original, in the possession of William H. Carter, Esq.,
of Castlemartin. (g)
As the two parishes are very differently circum-
stanced, in many respects, from one another, I shall
give a separate account of each, so far as the adven-
titious or artificial relations of each are concerned ;
* No longer a union. Two Protestant clergymen, one at Kilmore
the other at Kilcommon. Tithes by composition, nearly equal.
KILMORE, OR WITHIN THE MULLET. 45
the great natural features of both being already fully
described.
Kilmore, or the peninsula within the Mullet,
contains” 18,000 Irish acres, of which 6, 100 are
arable and green pasture, 2,800 are sandhills or sand-
plains, and 9,100 highly improvable bog and moun-
tain, the greatest elevation of which is only 410 feet
over the sea. The total acres charged in the County
Book for Killmore is 5,678; of the quantity of arable
and green land stated above, about one half, or say
3,000 acres, may be under tillage, the remainder
being pasture. I find that the rental of this parish is
£4,800, and that the number of families that inhabit
it are 1723, whose total number are 8,662+ souls.
This would then give an average to each family
in the whole of nearly 10% acres; of arable and
green to each, more than 3% acres, and of tillage,
about 1; acres; and the average rental would be
about £2 10s. annually. In the sand country, between
Surgeview and Gladree, there is generally a tract of
sand on the West, in the middle the arable land, and
on the East, on the shores of Blacksod, the bog or
moorland, where such exists. In this part we have
4,800 arable and green aeres, 2,700 of sand, and 2,600
of bog and moor: total, 10,100 —of which say 2,400
are bearing crops; for this there are 1,334 families
which would have on the total acres about 7% to each
* These contents are from actual survey.
# The government census makes the families 1,687, and the total
9,287.
46 KILMORE, OR WITHIN THE MULLET-FARMS.
family; the proportion of green acres to each being,
as before, above 3}, and of tillage above 1; acres
excluding the sand acres, each family would have 5}
available acres. In the whole of the peninsula there.
are few farms divided, though the custom latterly is.
gaining much ground ; the usual system being com-
monage, both in tillage and pasture. In the tillage,
lots are cast every third year for the number of ridges
each person is entitled to after the usual rotation is
over. Potatoes the first year, then barley or oats,
after which new lots must be cast for the new potatoe
ground. The holdings are by sums or collops, which
originally meant the number of heads of cattle the
farm could rear by pasture, but as some tillage became
afterwards necessary, they divided the crop-ground
into collops also as well as the pasture, and each farm
then had its number of tillage collops and grazing
collops. The tillage collop is supposed to be capable
of supporting one family by its produce. In many
instances, poor families have no pasture to correspond
with their tillage collop; and even of this they may
have only a half, or quarter, called a geerla. This
may be placed in different parts of the farm, so as to
equalize the quality among the whole,_a ridge in a
good field, one in an inferior, and one in a worse one.
The prices of these collops vary according to the
quality of the farm : the average is about one guinea.
The pasture collop is the grass of a horse, or a cow,
Or two year-old heifers, or six or eight sheep. It is
evident from this system, that although a man may
RILMORE, OR witHIN THE MULLET, ETC. ETC. 47
expend a good deal of labour in digging and manur-
ing his ridge, it is only chance whether he will enjoy
the labour so expended the third year; and hence
that he is careless of future benefits, and that, of
course, the land will be but imperfectly cultivated.
In the pasture, if a poor man has not his quantity
of stock ready to put on it, the rich man who has
will have double benefit. It might be supposed from
this plan of management, that there was an equal
agrarian law among the villagers; it might have been
so originally; but, like every community where the
industrious man will be sure to rise superior to the
idler, we find that the proportions of collops held by
different individuals in a village are extremely various
at present; few rising above ten, and, as before men-
tioned, some as low as one-half or one-fourth. There
is a headman, or king,” appointed in each village, who
is deputed to cast the lots every third year, and to
arrange with the community what work is to be done
during the year in fencing, or probably reclaiming a
new piece, (though, for obvious reasons, this is rare,)
or for setting the “bin,” as it is called; that is, the
number of heads of cattle of each kind, and for each
man, that is to be put on the farm for the ensuing
year, according to its stock of grass or pasture;—the
appointment of a herdsman also for the whole villa e
* “Raigh,” I had understood to be “king,” until Mr. Hardiman,
the celebrated antiquarian and author of the History of Galway, told
me that it meant “ Kanjinne,” or “Head of the local tribe,” accord-
ing to the Brehon administration. I am happy to have it corrected
under such authority.
48 KILMoRE, or witHIN THE MULLET-FARMS.
cattle, if each person does not take the office on
himself by rotation,-a thing not unfrequent. The
king takes care generally to have the rent collected,
applots the proportion of taxes with the other elders
of the village; for all is done in a patriarchal way,
“coram populo.” He is generally the adviser and
consulter of the villagers, their spokesman on certain
occasions, and a general man of reference on any
matters connected with the village. He finds his
way to the “kingly station” by imperceptible degrees,
and by increasing ‘mutual assent, as the old king
dies off.
The soil in the sand country, having a great pro-
portion of that ingredient in it, is very light and
easily workable. The ridges are laid out with one
side raised and the other low, and, whether for grain
or potatoes, are never levelled down.
The breadth of a ridge is about ten feet, and the
covering is invariably taken or sliced down from the
high side ; thus constantly, but imperceptibly, chang-
ing the position of the ridge. Mr. M'Parlan says
this has been made and faced to the West, in order to
guard against the Westerly storms. But the fact is,
they are turned to every point of the compass, without
any regard to any wind. The form is certainly very
injudicious in a soil so little capable of retaining mois-
ture; and hence we find the most luxuriant part of the
crop near the lower side, which, from its proximity to a
generally retentive subsoil, and having the moisture
of the upper side, as well as a great portion of the
witHIN THE MULLET-STATE OF FARMS, ETC. 49
manure, transmitted to it through the loose sand, its
vegetation becomes more powerful, and we find on
the other side the crop very much stunted indeed.
The rotation of crops :—first year, pótatoes, manured
by sea-weed, followed by barley, if in sand soils, or
oats in strong or boggy soils, and sometimes flax,
for a small proportion. The potatoes are usually put
down in one field for the whole village, and the grain
in another, without any intervening fence; being
barely surrounded by one general one of a very
inferior description indeed. They have seldom any
other manure than sea-weed, their cattle being scarcely
ever housed ; a cabbage plot, if they have any such,
consumes all their house manure. -
For reclaiming the moor lands, sea manure is also
used ; seldom any thing else, though their shell sand,
on the East coast, would be an excellent substitute
or assistant;-they generally take two crops of pota-
toes off it before grain, then the usual rotation ; a
few patches may be allowed to run to grass for hay,
but this is not common. The great abundance of this
sea-weed manure found growing on the rocks, or
cast ashore on the Western beaches, makes them quite
negligent of any other substitute, and is a great
means of keeping them in this primitive state in
which we find them. Ploughs are only to be found
at Major Bingham's, Rev. Mr. Dawson's, and Rev.
Mr. Lyons's ; the whole work being done by the spade,
of which there is a very curious description here,
called a “gowel.” It consists of two small Spades
on separate soles of wood, in the shape of a fork,
- D
50 WITHIN THE MULLET-STATE OF FARMS, ETC.
joined in one at the handle ; each about 3% inches
broad, with a space between of about two inches
the whole breadth being 9 inches and 15 inches long
&
in this shape :
The handle is the usual length of the common spade.
This shape of spade I conceive to have originated in
a departure from the English spade, probably intro-
duced by Sir Arthur Shaen's settlers, (of whom some
account is hereafter given); but owing to not having
sufficiently good Smiths to make them in their origi-
mal shape, or the scarcity of iron, they contrived the
present one as a substitute. It suits very well in the
light sandy soils, but, in bog reclaiming, where it is
also used, it is but a weak and awkward instrument.
I have said before that the enclosures were but few,
merely the fence which surrounds the tillage parts;
being made partly of rounded stones, and partly of
sandy sods and soil. They are of the poorest descrip-
tion, and in winter generally crumble to the ground.
In spring, the surrounding fence is repaired by the
common labour of the village, under the direction of
the headman : no individual feeling a particular inte-
rest for one part more than the other, it is generally
very slovenly and ill done. The herdsman keeps off
the cattle, but the rabbit, in which this part of the
peninsula abounds, finds his way to the young corn, of
which it is very fond, and commits great depredations.
Major Bingham attempted, by high walls of a

wiTHIN THE MULLET-STATE OF FARMS, ETC, 51
kind of rounded stone, to stem the inroad of sand
from the West, but they soon tumbled, and the sand
got over and through them in every direction. On
the East side, where the soil is firm, he has made
some good enclosures, and so has Mr. Lyons. Trees,
or hedges, there are none. A few have grown up in
Major Bingham's garden, as high as the wall that
sheltered them from the blast, and some also at Carn;
but their growth ended there : yet we find stumps of
trees at Cloghar and Cartron, (as is mentioned before
under the head geology,) under high water mark in
the shores. In the parts where bog or moor soil exists,
the fences are more permanent, but generally Within
the Mullet they are of a very inferior description.
South of the Bay of Elly, with the exception of
what belongs to Major Bingham and Mr. Lyons, there
is only one village (Mullaghroe) where each man had
his holding separate and constant within his own fence;
and while they continued so, the tenants were thriving
remarkably well ; but an increasing population, and
a propensity to old customs, have made these separate
holdings little commonages, similar to the old and
large villages. Binghamstown, of course, has its
separate divisions. Mr. Ivers divided Ballymacsheran,
giving each man his own share under one fence, and
placing his house on it(h); and Mr. Carter has done
the same to his Emlybeg ; Gladree, part of Knock-
malina, and lately Aghaglosheen, and part of Carn-
Fowler, have been similarly treated with the best
consequences to property, industry, and general
cultivation. The moor lands have been all nearly
52 WITHIN THE MULLET-WARRENS-SANDS.
improved in those farms, within these few years sinc,
the division took place. These are the only parts within
the Mullet that are regularly divided. The portion
under sand is generally warren, except where the sands
are much blown, which fills up the rabbit holes, and
destroys them. In some parts, there is good pasture,
where the bent (arundo arenaria) has covered the
surface, and prevented the further blowing of the
sands. In the war times, these warrens produced an
immense income, (skins selling from 12s. to 14s, per
dozen,) and were then carefully protected ; but since
skins have fallen to 1s. 6d. per dozen, they scarcely
think them worth preserving, and hence great waste
and destruction has come over the sand country. The
mode of catching or hunting the rabbits was, by
pitching nets with hand-spikes, of dark nights, in the
space between the holes and the sand plain in front, on
which the rabbits graze ; the hunters going at the
outer verge of the plain, drove them onwards with a
hissing noise into the nets, where becoming entangled,
they were soon dispatched in silence, and another
pitch made in another part. The hunters usually got
the flesh for their labour. It may well be questioned
whether any benefit derivable from the sale of skins,
or use of rabbits, could compensate for the injury done
by them in burrowing ; for the surface once disturbed,
the high winds catch every point, and imperceptibly
wear away the whole sward, leaving it either bare
sand bank or barer plain. If they could now, by the
suppressing of the rabbits, and planting of bent, be
brought into the original state of unbroken surface
witHIN THE MULLET-WARRENS-BENT, ETC. 53
verdure, in which they existed at the time Gamble,
one of the early settlers under Sir A. Shaen, first intro-
duced rabbits from Westmeath into Erris, they would
be of a thousand times more use and importance
to the country. But the numerous proprietors
and sub-proprietors, with the commonage of the
tenants, render this a task not to be accomplished;
for, though one or two proprietors may plant bent, so
as to prevent, in their own parts, the blowing of the
sand, and produce in time some pasture, by their neigh-
bours neglecting it, the sand of their parts will be
blown over the improving man's, and leave him as
badly off as in the beginning. Of this species of im-
provement, or reclaiming, Major Bingham, Coun-
sellor Everard, and Mrs. Nash, have caused a good
deal to be done. The bent is planted in bunches, and
asually in rows at about one foot asunder ; but it is
better to plant it promiscuously, to prevent regular accu-
mulation of ridges by drills. After succeeding in arrest-
ing the progress of the drift sand, it serves for thatching
houses, litter, and subsequently good winterage for
cattle. When it has covered the whole surface or
before, other indigenous grasses spring up, and then
the pasturage is very fine.
The houses through this part of the country, except
those of cotters living under distressed middle men,
are well built of stone, with chimneys and windows,
where latterly glass finds a place, which was formerly
supplied by sheep-skins, producing a dim light from
without like brown oil paper, but precluding vision
from within. The thatch, instead of being confined
54, WITHIN THE MULLET--Hous Es, ETC.
in the usual way by scollops, is thrown loosely on,
and bound down by ropes thrown across the house
from eve to eve, there tied to pegs, or loose stones
lying on it, and sometimes by cross ropes from gable
to gable, in the form of a met, about four inches
asunder. This is done at least every second year,
most commonly every year. Their furniture is tole-
rably good, having opportunities of finding timber
cast ashore for making it. In the islands, and along
the cliff coast, they have feather beds, from the quan-
tity of wild fowl they kill or catch in those parts.
The manner in which this is done is not a little
curious. If they go to Blackrock, the seafowl are so
tame there, or rather so little used to man, that they
can be knocked upon the head with sticks, or caught
with nooses put upon long poles, which, being stretched
out to the place where the bird is sitting, unsus-
pecting danger, it is caught up and bagged. The
gun is almost useless here from the proximity of the
birds, and, when used at all, is only after flushing
them, when a shot may take down a score or more.
Boats have been frequently loaded with them, the
flesh is used by the natives, but has a disagreeable
oily, fishy taste; the feathers are what they are chiefly
sought for. Another method is, by tying a rope round
one of the men, while two others hold it at the top,
fastened also to a stake driven firmly into the ground;
he is them let down into the recesses of the rocks,
(often hundreds of feet from the top,) and there he
deliberately knocks them on the head, especially if
hatching, or seizes them if young. If it be in the
witHIN THE MULLET-BIRD-CATCHING, ETC. 55
egg-laying season, the basket is soon filled with eggs;
and the aeronaut is hauled up to deposit his load, and
he or another descends in the same way at some other
point. A boat, or curragh, sometimes attends in the
sea under them, if the weather be fine, to receive the
basket when filled, and return it for another load.
However fearful this practice seems to be, yet by
custom they think very little of it : some have been
so bold as to go alone to the cliffs, first making the
rope and stake perfectly fast at top, they coil the rope
round the body, and, by uncoiling as they descend,
arrive at any depth they please. The ascent is mana-
ged in nearly a similar way; but they haul on the rope
from resting place to resting place, at each of which
they coil round the body, and by this means return
after their desperate adventure. I have been posi-
tively assured that this has been not unfrequently
done with only a straw rope. The men of this parish,
when not occupied by the concerns of their tillage,
usually go fishing for their own supply; but, if in
the herring season, for sale. The women make frize,
flannels, and stockings for the family, or pull leaver,
dilisk, or crannagh on the rocks, and, after drying,
carry it to Crossmolina, Ballina, or Castlebar, a
distance of 45 miles, for sale. In return, they bring
any small commodities they may require, often rods
for making baskets, (for there are none in their own
country, though they may be easily reared in every
part,) or hoops for making the curraghs, a species of
boat or canoe which it may be as well to describe here.
A slight timber frame, of the shape of a door,
56 WITHIN THE MULLET-THE CURRAG H.
from seven to ten feet in length, has a number of
auger holes bored through it at about six inches
asunder. Through these, hoops (usually willow) are
run, and brought first from the bow and stern, and
afterwards crossed by others from side to side in a
semi-circular form, they are fastened at the crossings
by twine, and over the whole are spread two or more
horse-skins (according to the size,) sewed together,
and fastened to the frame by thongs of the skin all
round. Latterly coarse canvas, made of tow in the
country, pitched and sanded over, is used instead of
hides, and is found to answer better.
The shape of the curragh, when turned down, is
thus : -
and the cross section is nearly semi-circular. On the
inside there is placed, temporarily, a slight thwart as
a seat for the man who uses the two slight paddles
with which it is propelled; in the larger ones there
are two of these seats, with two sets of paddles, by
which the speed is vastly increased. The depth from
the frame to the water's surface in the centre is from
two to three feet; the usual complement of men,
three, each of whom takes the paddles in succession;
the paddleman standing up whilst his successor passes
under his legs to his seat, lest by leaning too much on
either side, he should upset the frail bark, in which
they venture many leagues to sea, and in weather in
which a boat could not live, provided they go head or

witHIN THE MULLET-STATISTICAL TABLE. 57
stern to wind; for side wind or wave of any force
would turn them over. The spare men are usually
employed in fishing, for which this kind of canoe is
peculiarly well suited, from the ease with which they
can approach the rocky shores, where a certain species
of fish is so abundant, floating as these (the curraghs)
do like fowl upon the water.
The following statistical table of the parish of
Killmore, or the peninsula, furnished me by the Rev.
Mr. Lyons, the enlightened and excellent Catholic
clergyman of the parish, will shew a great many
curious particulars relative to that part not to be
found in the government census, nor in many other
tables of the same description, and gives a short
epitome of the country. This is only the abstract
of a very voluminous set of tables, having the names
of every individual in each townland, the names and
ages of the sons, &c., and the maiden name of the wife,
with many observations, in a separate column, on the
landlord, middleman, quantity of manure, and state of
each individual family, for which I could not find
room here.
OBSERVATIONS BY AUTHOR,
Families...... . . . . . . . . . . . 1723.
Males. . . . . . . . . . . . 429O } 8662 }* public census, in the year 1831, 9287 ; but I believe this to be more correct. The whole
Females.......... 4372 * Barony, in 1821, was 17,879; in 1831, 22,824.
Rental......... . . . 3 e º e s e s & © £4300 Or about 50s. to each family. -
Sums or collops............4469.-Green acres as before 6,100; collops different in size and quantity. More than 2% to each family.
- rrne There is no composition—the old mode followed in collecting. There is now (1834) a compo-
Amount of Tithes....... #258. } sition for . (See note f.) S-5 ( ) |
l3oats (Sail) ............... 5th
(Row).............. , 88 Th : -- * l he little attenti id to the fisherv e * * * * *
Curraghs ................... 38 ese six items She W the it! e attention paid to the ishery—one boat of every kind in thirteen
Nets 85 256 * families, and one met in every seven. Three or four families frequently join in a boat, and
sts ......... tº e º e g º e º e s is tº s & º, two or three in a herring met, or set of nets. -
Lines ....................... 13 I . so
Spillets... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 - *
Horses ............ 587 943 Or only one beast of burden nearly to every two families. Major Bingham and a few others have
sº J e e . -
Asses ... . . . . . . . . . . . : some good horses. The general breed is small, but hardy.
Cows ...................... 1967.-This is more than one to each family.
Sheep .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2348.
Pigs........... * e º e s is & e = * * * * 9] 9. - .
Ploughs ................... At Major Bingham's, Rev. Mr. Dawson's, and Rev. Mr. Lyons's.
Carts ...................... Same.
Feather beds .............. 624.—Or nearly one to every third family. The substitute—straw, rushes, or bent.
Blankets .................. 1838.
Men without shoes ....... 734.
Men, women, and children,3156.-Wanting clothes, or nearly one-third the whole population.
Buying provisions........ 751.—In a year of great plenty, but after two of great scarcity.
Sick........... tº e g º e º ſº e º is tº & Gº 454.
TXied, 1831 ............... 236.
Carriages (four-wheeled) 2.
Do. (two-wheeled) 8,
WITHIN THE MULLET-STATE OF POPULATION. 59
From what has been said before, and this minute
table, it will at once be seen that the general popula-
tion are amazingly poor, subsisting, or rather existing,
on a piece of ground, quite insufficient in other parts
for the support of a family, (for, after deducting some
large farms, there will not be one tillage acre to each
family at an average,) and at a rent equal, and greater
in proportion of quality, to any paid in other parts of
Mayo, and that there is a quantity of unreclaimed but
highly improvable land, independent of the sand hills,
equal to support three times the present numbers, or
which would give comfortable subsistence to the
present population, were there means taken to bring
it into efficient production.
There are various causes for this neglect. The
first is, evidently, the system of commonage practised
in the country, by which no man has an individual
interest in the improving or ameliorating the land
beyond a second crop ; that, were he to reclaim, his
neighbours would, by chance, have the benefit of his
labours, and hence individual industry ceases to be
applied for these purposes; and all that can be done
to extract the most from the soil, and from one
another, is practised for the current year. .
An amazing quantity of labour is also lost in this
run-ridge system; for a man may have a ridge in
each of four or five parts of a townland, probably a
mile or two asunder, the manure for which must be
brought from different points, or probably the same
point with increased distance. Add to this the eternal
trespass that must occur in passing through one
60 WITHIN THE MULLET-CAUSES OF POWERTY.
another's lots, and it will be seen that the labour and
Joss of time that would be expended in this way
must be more than twice what would be necessary for
any compact farm. It is a fact, that they are the
most constant labourers; for, though the facility of
procuring manure is very great, yet the attention that
is necessary to secure it must be almost incessant.
What is drifted ashore is the common property of
all, but the man that is first to secure it carries it
away; hence, after storms, the shores exhibit a most
animated appearance :—men, women, and children,
up to their waist in the surges, raking in the floating
weed, and, after bringing it to high water mark,
carrying it off on horses or otherwise, to be spread
on the ridge for the ensuing crop.
This facility of manure is another of the causes why
the people do not choose to leave the spot where it
is to be found so easily, nor to make any exertion
to procure a substitute in any other way. There is no
country where the means of subsistence are in such
abundance as the peninsula of Erris, in years when
storms do not blast the new potatoe or grain crop ;—
fish abounding on their shores in every direction,
procurable by boat, curragh, or even line-fishing off
the rocks;–shell-fish of all kinds, sand-eels, dilisk,
leaver or sloke, and crannagh, growing on their
accessible shores. Every low water exposes these
luxuries to the young fry, who are diligent searchers
after them. These, with rabbits' flesh, the milk
and butter of a cow, &c., leave these people, under
ordinary circumstances, beyond the reach of want.
WITHIN THE MULLET-WANT OF DIVISIGN. 61
This produces an amazing population, who, from
these causes, adhere most tenaciously to their mise-
rable huts on ground where the necessaries of life are
so easily procurable. To the causes already adduced
for this want of improvement visible in the country,
may be added another not less important. The
principal property in Erris, the Shaen estate, remains
as yet undivided (?) between its chief possessors,
Messrs. Carter and Bingham; and hence, at the very
root, commences a kind of commonage for villagers
holding from either only an “undivided moiety,”
might, on a division by the proprietors, have it
turned over to one, not the person from whom he had
his original lease, or be obliged to take an unimproved
moiety as his share.” It is true, that a considerable
portion of that property, or Major Bingham's part,
had been purchased in fee by other proprietors, who
generally held the Carter half in perpetuity, and that
Major Cormick and the Bishop of Killalla hold con-
siderable property here, and others holding both sides
of the Shaem estate under leases renewable for ever;
yet little, if any thing, had been done by either of
them, until lately, in removing this baneful common-
age. These observations lead us insensibly to give
some account of the state of property in this country
at a former period.
That Erris, particularly the peninsula, had been
always thickly inhabited, there are sufficient evidences
in existence to prove. Its doons, or forts, its old
* This division is now (1835) effected, and an increased prosperity
may be expected as the immediate consequence,
62 WITHIN THE MULLET-ANCIENT POPULATION.
baronial castles,—its monasteries, churches, cells, and
burial grounds,-its monuments, inscriptions, and
the discovery of ancient coins,—the quantities of
human bones found scattered in different parts where
the sand had been blown away, and the existence of
ridges, or cultivated grounds, under sand hills, for-
merly 50 or 60 feet high, but now dispersed over the
country, and these ridges or grounds again producing
luxuriant crops, or grass;–all these (of some of which
a more particular account will be given under the
head of antiquities,) attest, indisputably, a great
population at all times. The Barrets, who possessed
large property in Tyrawly also, with the Burkes and
Lynots, seem to have been the principal, probably
the only, proprietors of Erris after the English con-
quest.* In the numerous forfeitures in the reigns of
the James the First and Charles, it would appear
that these proprietors of Erris were ejected; for, in
the reign of Charles the Second, we find a grant
made of the “whole half-barony of Erris, the parish
of Doonfeeny in Tyrawly, and the parish of Tar-
monbarry, in the county of Roscommon,” to certain
citizens of London, in trust for Sir Jas. Shaen, Knight
and Baronet; who, I find by a curious document in
the library of Trinity College, farmed, with others, the
revenues of Ireland. The “Indenture” of this farming
is dated the 8th of April, in the 28th year of the reign
of Charles II., A. D. 1676. He is therein called “His
* In a very curious map (lately shewn me by Mr. Hardiman, the
enlightened author of the History of Galway,) made in the reign of
Henry VIII, the proprietor's name is “O'Flaherty,” and the country
called Arras-dundonald, - -
WITH IN THE MULLET--SIR. A. SHAEN. 63
Majestie's Surveyor-General of Ireland.” He, with
his associates, had to pay down £60,000, and to pay
£20,000 the last day of every month. Thus, in those
days, the revenue of Ireland was £240,000 per annum.
In an old quit-rent receipt for the above properties,
Erris, Doonfeeny, and Tarmonbarry, dated 1687,
and signed by “John Price, Rec. Gen.,” the names
of the several townlands are enumerated; a copy of
which, so far as Erris is concerned, is given in the
Appendix, as it may be curious to compare it with
the present names. (See note g.) It would appear
that Sir James Shaen took no active part in endea-
vouring to improve this country; but his son, Sir
Arthur, followed a very decided course. He intro-
duced into the peninsula a Protestant colony, to whom
he gave certain allotments of land, both in this parish,
which became their residence, and in the mountains,
as additional summer grazing for cattle, with leases of
lives renewable for ever, at very trifling or nominal
rents. I do not know of his having given any of the
original inhabitants, with the exception of the Cor-
micks, any such leases or encouragement. This
colony was accompanied by a clergyman (Tollet) of
their own persuasion, who was made a magistrate
also. They set about building comfortable houses,
and enclosing vegetable gardens, and, of course,
“clearing the farms” of the Aborigines, for the
purpose of turning them to the rearing of other
stock; for so it would seem from the following peti-
tion (the original of which is lithographed in the
Appendix,A) addressed to Sir Henry Bingham, then
governor of the province of Connaught —
64, WITHIN THE MULX,ET-OLD PETITION.
“The Humble Petition of the Subscribers in behalf of them-
selves and other the Protestant Inhabitants in the Half-
Barony of Erris, most humbly offered to the Honourable
Sir Henry Bingham,
“SHEwBTH,
“That your Petitioners (Her Majestie's most loyal subjects),”
however, since their coming to the country, met with several
discouragements by the wicked combinations of those that
are no friends to the Protestant interest. For, not to mention
the many depredations committed by privateers, (which, though
the laws in that case do redress, yet have been a great uneasi-
ness, and the trouble and expense in recovering the same has
been no little,) the Papists have since taken such measures as
might escape your Petitioners, and now effectually ruined us;
and that is, by the most secret artifices of stealing our cattle,
to the number of 75, within the space of nine months, besides
sheep without number, not to mention the plundering of our
gardens, stealing our corn, both out of the field and haggard, &c.
The natives had carried all so privately, and the plot so well
laid, that it was by mere accident that the late, discoveries have
been made; and they are since closely confined by your Honour,
which service has laid your Petitioners under the greatest obliga.
tions imaginable. And your Petitioners most humbly beg that
your Honour will be pleased not to bail them for such reasons as
the bearer will make known to your Honour, and which would be
too tedious here to insert.—We humbly beg your Honour's
pardon for this trouble, which our great grievances, however,
forced us to, and do entirely throw ourselves on your Honour’s
protection, not doubting but Sir Arthur Shaen will make a
grateful acknowledgment of all your Honour's good offices and
services, as do your Honour's Petitioners, and will ever pray for
your Honour's health and prosperity.
“THOS. HIGGINBOTHAM, GEORGE HOUSTON,
JAMES MAXWELL, PETER HOUSTON,
JOHN DENISTOUN, PHILL. PARKER,
WILL. LINNEY, HENRY GAMBLE,
CLEMENT LANGFORD, SAM. CALWELL,
JOSIAH TOLLETT, SAM. LON.” * . .
* This shews the date to be in the reign of Queen Anne, The original is
not dated.
WITHIN THE MULLET-PROTESTANT SETTLERs. 65
This “clearing out” was revenged in the usual way,
as pithily stated in the petition. The Captain Rock
of that day seems to have had habits exactly similar
to the Captain of this day. The consequence of this
continued persecution of the colony seems to have
been, that the settlers admitted the natives to a parti-
cipation of the soil, to the exclusion, of course, of the
late “stock;” and, ancient habits taking their usual
course, another generation saw the colony “ipsis
Hibernis Hiberniores.” From their history a lesson
might be taken by the “Protestant Colonization So-
ciety” of the present day; for in no instance of the
forcible expulsion of the natives of a country (except
the planting of the five counties in the North by
James the First,) has the experiment been successful,
particularly when the numbers are small and the
district wild and distant from the immediate protec-
tion of the law. The consequence of introducing the
natives to the cultivation of the soil as cotters or
tenants was, that these settlers, exacting considerable
rent, both in money, service, and produce, became all
petty landlords, and having themselves little or no
rent to pay, the cultivation of the soil by them became
entirely neglected;—they barely shared the run-ridge
of the tenant as far as a couple of sums, for the feeding
of the host of followers, nurses and nurses' children
to the third and fourth generation, that swarmed their
well-stored kitchens. The sheep, the pig, the chickens,
the fish, the crock of butter, (sold by the QUART,) the
whiskey, all were supplied by the cotters, without
any labour or trouble of the “Master” at the “Big
66 WITHIN THE MULLET-PROTESTANT SETTLERS.
House;” who, having nothing to do, generally fell
into habits of expense and dissipation, which were
eventually his ruin. The head rent and renewal fines
were allowed to run on unpaid to such an extent,
that of the whole Shaem estate in Erris, containing
95,000 acres, less than one-half are not now held
under the original perpetuities. On these are now
found the description of holders in the statistical
table ; and of the original settlers who signed that
petition, only two at present exist in Erris, and one
(Parker) out of it; the remainder being entirely
extinct in the male line : and it is also remarkable,
that these three families still continue “Protestants,”
though all the others that remained in the country
had become “Papists.”
Sir Arthur Shaen resided for some time in Erris,
or at least frequently visited it, until he saw the whole
colony finally settled, each individual on his own
division of land, and probably prospering under his
own immediate protection and superintendence ;-
subject, however, in the intervals of his absence, to
to the inroads of the natives alluded to in the old
petition. There is no trace of any residence built
for himself by Sir Arthur, nor of any work of note
being completed. He, however, saw also the advan-
tageous position of Bellmullet, and the importance of
making a cut between the two bays, and commenced,
but did not complete, one at the narrowest part, which
is still called “Shaen's Cut.” The furnace also
already alluded to, on the banks of the river of
Cloneen, for smelting iron, was one of his works not
WITH IN THE MULLET-PROPRIETORS. 67
prosecuted to any perfection. Sir Arthur 'Shaen
having only two daughters, the second married to
Henry Boyle Carter, of Castlemartin, in the county
of Kildare, Esq., the eldest to John Bingham, of
Newbrook, in the county of Mayo, Esq., the property
was left in equal shares between them. The Carter
half still remains entire in the present possessor,
William H. Carter, Esq.; but of the Bingham half,
part is now held in fee by Counsellor Everard, Knox
of Rappa, Mr. M'Donnell of Carnacon, Kirkwood
of Cottlestown, Miss Nash of Carn, within the
Mullet; Major Bingham still retaining a consider-
able part. Major Cormick and the Bishop of Killalla
are the other proprietors.
68 WITHIN THE MULLET-IMPROVEMENTS, ETC.
HMP ROVEMENTS EFFECTED.
Major Bingham, who came to reside in Erris
about the year 1796, was the first who commenced
extensive improvements in Erris. Having taken a
lease, from Mr. Cormick, of the farm of Elly, he com-
menced building a suitable residence in the castellated
style, with offices and garden commensurate with the
extent of building. The castle, with a green house
in the same style at one side, and a chapel of ease
on the other, corresponding in style, with embra-
sures, turrets, &c., occupied a space in front of
700 feet : the interior is ornamented with histo-
rical and allegorical paintings, and has altogether
a most imposing appearance. I hope to be able to
give a lithographic sketch of it as more illustrative
than any verbal description.* It has been said already
that trees in his garden only arrived to the height of
the wall that protected them from the Western blast :
yet grapes grew to great perfection in his glass
houses, and small fruit and flowers found a most con-
genial soil in his and other gardens within the Mullet.
The failure of planting in the very few instances
in which it was attempted, I attribute very much
to the not rearing the plants in a nursery of the
country, as well as suiting the trees to the soil in
which they would, from their nature, be most pro-
ductive. On the Eastern part of the farm of Elly,
there was a tract of moor land and bog : this he
* This is here given.
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WITHIN THE MULLET-IMPROVEMENTS, ETC. 69
surrounded and intersected with roads, located a great
number of poor cotters on it, giving each a piece to
reclaim, rent free for a few years (usually five); and,
when the piece was reclaimed, the cotters were re-
moved to the next unimproved part, and so on until
the whole had gone through the first initiatory process
of cultivation. He then laid them down, field by
field, in a regular manner, and it is now by far the
most productive part of the farm. A boat-quay was
partially erected at the expense of the county; but,
neither being properly finished nor in a suitable place
for the general population of the country, it became
perfectly useless for general purposes. He commenced
also a mill, a great desideratum in the county, but
failed either to perfect the supply of water, or erect
the necessary machinery. There are now no mills
within the Mullet; there were one or two small ones
on a spring stream at Emlybeg, but the overflow of
sand destroyed the supply, and the only way by which
corn is now ground in the peninsula is by guerns, or
handmills; that is, two light stones turned round by
two women (generally), having each a hold of a
handle placed nearly in the midde of the upper stone,
in which also is bored a hole, for putting in the corn
to be ground: by this simple mode corn (I mean barley,
the general grain of the country,) has been ground
almost as fine as any flour. As there is little or no
water supply within the Mullet, wind-mills would
be the most effectual substitute. Major Bingham's
improvements were confined to Elly, or Bingham
Castle, as it is now called, until the period of the
70 WITH IN THE MULLET-BINGHAMSTOWN.
commencement of the new road into Erris, when he
commenced the erection of a town at Ballymacsheron,
or Binghamstown, as before observed. One of his
sons, Mr. William Bingham, built a house near it,
with a commencement of stores, not yet completed;
and, although the town was begun with spirit,
from some cause not easily accounted for in a public
way, but principally from its bad situation, and the
erection of a new town (Bellmullet) near it, in a
more central situation, Binghamstown has been latterly
falling into decay. Its population by the last census
WaS 2—
Males g & o e s 321
Females . e º & o 552
Males, above 20 Q • º 155
Agriculturists—First class labourers . º 6
Do. Second do. g º '74
Do. Third do. º º } 5
Manufacturers e t- º º O
Retail or handicraft . o e º 34
Clergy or clerks . -> o e 6
All other males e & e º 13
Servants, above 20 . º e e 7
Do. under 20 . o e e 3
Others e º º e e 1 l
Total number of houses º º º 1 39
Inhabited do. o ſo © 1O4
|Uninhabited do. o e . 1 I
Houses building . º º º 24
Families e e p e 130
Do. engaged in agriculture * º 69
Do. engaged in trade º º - 23
All others . º o g o 3
There is a church and chapel, an incomplete market-
house, the foundation of a school-house, a barrack for
police. The houses were altogether built by Major
Bingham, except Mr. Lyons's; and there are only
|
WITH IN THE MULLET-BIN GIIAMSTOWN . 7 1
three slated, the remainder being thatched, generally
of one floor, and very ill built. Those unfinished houses
appear more like ruins than new ones. There is a
house intended, I understand, for a cotton factory,
some time in progress, but not finished. Major
Bingham has been latterly improving Knocknalina,
where he built a slated house, and parcelled out the
land for tenants, and another lately at Annagh, on the
West coast. The system of locating poor cotters
on bog land for five years free, was followed by Mr.
Fowler, of Mecklenburgh-street, on his farm of Carn,
with a great deal of success; for, after shifting some
of them to other unreclaimed parts, those portions
reclaimed lying near Bellmullet, pay from £1 to £1
10s. per acre. He built their huts for them, and
gave each reclaimer an English spade, in the use of
which they soon became very expert, and were usually
employed at higher wages on the public works by me,
in draining and fencing, as “handy men.” The laying
out of the farms into seperate lots, already alluded to
by Mr. Carter, Mr. Ivers, and others, are the next
in order of improvements effected. The project of
the Rev. Mr. Lyons for locating one hundred poor
families on the farm of Shanaghy, with an improved
system of agriculture and management, agreed upon
between him and some benevolent Englishmen, who
contributed some funds towards so useful a purpose;
and will be, as destined, a model farm for the
country, and an experiment that may be usefully
adopted by landlords, or even by the government, on
a larger scale, it is to be hoped, will be completed.
'72 WITH IN THE MULLET-IMPROVEMENTS, f'TC.
The Messrs. Rowland's plan for improving Agha.”
glasheen, a farm taken two years since from Coun-
sellor Everard, containing about 950 Irish acres,
deserves to be recorded here. The lease to them
from Mr. Everard is for lives renewable for ever, the
rent £100 yearly ; Mr. E. allowing £200 out of the
first five years' rent towards improvement. They
have lotted out first upwards of 200 acres of it along
the shores of Blindharbour into parcels of five acres
each, one end butting on the sea and another on a
road which has been laid out, from the main road
going to Broadhaven, into the entrance of Blind-
harbour (along which Aghaglosheen partly lies), and in
which, at low water (it dries out), the finest coral and
shell sand is to be found. These lots are let from 2s.
6d. to 7s. per acre for the first four years, after which
the permanent rent is to be 7s. to 9s. per acre, accord-
ing to quality, for the remainder of the lease of 21
years. The rent of the first four years is given to
the tenant in fencing, draining, and improving his own
farm, with other necessary works, such as roads, &c.
generally useful to the whole, under the immediate
direction of his steward, but almost as much so under
that of Mr. Michael Rowland ; for he takes the neces-
sary pains to instruct them, and have the work well
done. He allows them 8d. per day for their labour;
and some have not only earned the rent, but twice the
sum, in this way. Mr. R. gives timber for the houses,
allowing them to build them on whatever plan they
please, or on whatever site they think most advan-
tageous (I confess I should use a little of my own
w1THIN THE MULLET-IMPROVEMENTS, ETC. 73
discretion in this affair), and has got made for them
strong spades suited to the work to be done, neither
the broad English spade which he thinks too broad
for the sod to be cut, nor the foolish tool of the
country, the “gowel,” or two-pronged spade. Some
parts of the farm, where there had been previously
some arable land, he divided info larger farms; in
one part from thirteen to fourteen acres, about five
of which were arable, and he brought a road judi-
ciously between the two kinds of ground, to give
opportunity of cultivating each, as well as a site for
the house.
In another part of the farm, he gave a few lots, as
high as 35 acres each, being there better suited to
have some pasturage with tillage, or rather that the
situation might be considered too exposed for the
latter purpose. Of the whole, about 100 acres of
of the highest ground (and it is the highest in the
parish, 410 feet only over the sea,) he intends to
pare, and burn, and cover with coral sand and the
rubbish mortar of an old signal tower, and sow with
grass-seeds, to be given afterwards either to the
tenants, or kept for his own use. Last year, he put
down an acre of turnips and brocolis, (the first field
green crop, I believe, ever sown in Erris,) and gave
them to such of his tenants as had cattle, to show them
the great ease with which they could be raised, and
the benefit of them for winter feeding. This is another
era in the agriculture of Erris. At the end of four
years he may calculate on arent of about £300, besides
100 green acres improved for pasture, and at the end
E
'74 WITHIN THE MULLET-IMPROVEMENTS, ETC.
of 21 years he may fairly calculate on 12s. per acre
all round, or £640 per annum. If this does not stimu-
late landlords and others to improvement, I do not
know what will. Before the erection of Bellmullet,
Mr. Everard could with difficulty get £30 yearly for
the whole of this farm ; it was considered a monstrous
price to get £100, and many very sensible men
declined it; but activity and judgment, with even a
little capital, will do wonders in a country where
natural and adventitious manure is so plenty. Mr.
R., to improve the getting at this adventitious manure
or drift sea-weed, has sloped down the cliffs of the
coves, where it usually came ashore, so as to make it
tolerably easy for a man to carry it up in a basket on
his back; the old way was most dangerous and diffi-
cult. By cutting away some of the rocks in these
coves, too, he made them accessible for boats.
The funds sent in the year 1831 from England,
and other parts, for the relief of the starving poor,
were in this district applied chiefly in making useful
lines of communication through different parts of the
country; and, though in many instances not com-
pleted, they are the first commencement of useful
work, and for so much afford great additional facilities
to the improvement of the country. The govern-
ment should give some means to perfect these good
beginnings.” Proposed improvements being reserved
to the end of the notice of Kilcommon parish, or the
mountain part of Erris, we will now proceed to some
particulars respecting it.
* I find that a great deal has been done towards this within this
year by the government.
KILCOMMON, OR “THE MOUNTAINs,” ETC. 75
KILCOMMON PARISH
Contains 124,000 Irish acres, rated in the cess
book, 6,327. Of nineteen farms on the sea coast,
containing by actual survey 8,827 acres, 2642
(including 400 sand acres), were found to be arable
and green pasture, or about 3 #5 acres of moun-
tain to 1 of green land. Out of 35,940 acres in
the interior, or along the north coast, 1,947 only
were arable and green acres, or about 18% acres of
mountain to 1 of green land. Having, then, these
data, that out of 122,000 acres, (allowing 2,000 for
water,) there are”44,767 absolutely surveyed, and
producing 4,589 arable and green acres, the total
green acres of the parish should be 12,506, or some-
thing more than 1 green acre to 10 of mountain.
By adding the green acres of Killmore, we have,
for all Erris, 21,400 acres, which, deducted from
140,000, the total amount exclusive of water, there will
remain 118,600 as the total of bog and mountain.
The total of green land and hard mountain, by the
county map, are 70,799, from which, taking 21,400
green, there will be 49,399 dry mountain; of which
say 5,000 above the limit of cultivation (900 feet),
and there are 44,399 free of water, and requiring only
fencing and turning up for immediate reclamation.
There are 69,000 acres of bog, of which I take it
9,000 are very soft, generally containing small pools of
water, but all on such levels as to be easily drainable.
'76 KILCOMMON, or “THE MOUNTAINs,” ETC.
The 60,000 are highly inclined, and, having an
average depth of 5 to 7 feet, are nearly as easily
reclaimable as the dry mountain. Total easily impro-
vable, 104,000. The great fee properties in Erris are
in the following proportions:—Shaen estate, 95,000;
Sir Richard O’Donel, 30,000; Major Cormick,”
10,500; Bishop of Killalla, 6,500. The census of
1831 makes Killcommon (including Ballycroy) 13,665,
which, at 5 to a family, leaves 2,733 families, for each
of which there are at present, at an average, more
than 4% acres of green land, and above 38 acres of
improvable mountain, or 43 acres say in all. Twenty
thousand acres of the whole may be on limestone
substratum, or near it.
The average rent in the mountains, taking all kinds
of lands into account in the farm, is from 2s. 6d. to
3s. per Irish acre. The number of heads of cattle
that may be reared may be 14,000, counting the sums
or collops of each village, of which the proportion
of tillage collops to pasture ones may be as the green
acres. The farms are from one half or a quarter collop
up to 5 or 600 acres; in the far interior parts, often
more than 1000 acres are in the possession of one man;
but, along the sea coast, they are commonages same
as within the Mullet; the population the same, half
agricultural and pastoral, half fishing people as there,
with this difference, that, from the extent of their
farms, they can rear more cattle. There are not
many sheep. In the interior, where no fishing can be
attended to, the inhabitants raise only as much grain
* Part of this is held in perpetuity under the Shaen estate.
KILCOMMON, or “THE MOUNTAINS,” ETC. 77
and potatoes as serve the purposes of provision or
fodder, and thatch, and a surplus which latterly is sent
to market, but, when not watched by the revenue
police, usually turned into illicit whiskey, which they
practice, not more for the extra price the produce
will give them under all its risks in that Way, than
for the purpose of having the grains and burnt
bere for their milch cattle in the winter. As the
facilities to go to market increase, this pernicious
practice will die away, and the time lost in this
doubtful speculation will be more beneficially employed
for more useful, legitimate, and moral purposes.
The milch cows and weak cattle are housed in
winter; all others are left out, the climate being
generally so mild that snow seldom rests a week even
on the highest mountains. Of butter there is little,
if any, made beyond the consumption of the family.
A woman in Ballycroy that would sell a crock of
butter twenty years ago, would be considered as de-
graded for life. It has been, I believe, little broken
through since, except in the neighbourhood of the
towns. The rearing of young cattle, and selling
them out at two to three or four years old, is the
chief occupation, and means of rent of the moun-
taineer. His mountains are very well suited for such.
But the opening of the country, by roads, has
latterly very much increased the quantity of land
brought into cultivation, notwithstanding that nearly
the same obstacles to improvement exist here as
within the Mullet, particularly the undivided state of
the chief property, the Shaen estate ; an additional
78 “THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC.
cause of which is, along with those already mentioned,
that if one half the farm is left waste by either party
of tenants, the proprietor can come for his rent on
those who remain ; and thus are left subject, though
holding only one half, to the rent of the whole, in
the event of the defalcation of any portion of the
tenants. It is to be hoped this cause will soon cease
to exist. (See note i.) Continuing still the further
opening of the country by roads, with the examples
set before them of the advantages of each man having
the produce and profits of his own industry, will
gradually wear down the old system, if no more
vigorous or decided mode is taken by the proprietors
or the government. That great tracts of this parish,
probably to the extent of 40,000 acres, in the O’Donel,
Cormick, and Bishop-land, are not similarly circum-
stanced as the Shaen estate, with respect to want of
division, is certain, and that they have not exceeded
in improvement the other parts of Erris notwith-
standing. The cause is in the apathy of the landlords.
(See-land scarcely ever improves); but it is gratifying
to find that the present proprietor of the greatest
portion of this latter kind of property, Sir Richard
O'Donel, with the advice and exertions of his enlight-
ened and energetic agents, Messrs. Clendening, is
making vast strides towards general improvement,
and particular improvement where opportunity occurs
for such by the falling in of leases. But the question
may be asked by some, Are these immense tracts
capable of cultivation and improvement to such an
extent as to be made fit for agricultural or improved
- - - jºre.
“THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC. 79
pastoral purposes 2 If we had not abundant proofs
in the instances already alluded to in the country, We
could cite innumerable ones out of it; and as it may be
useful to have the opinion of scientific men, sent
expressly by the government to enquire into this
fact, we shall give some extracts from their very inte-
resting reports. -
Mr. Griffith, in his report on Erris and Tyrawly,
lays down, first, the general principle, that “no
extensive or beneficial improvement can take place
until the country is opened by good roads.” Much
has been done towards this since his visit in 1812,
and another obstacle mentioned by him removed,
that “there was no present stimulus to exertion ; for
there is no market for grain or potatoes.” While I
write (1835), there is a higher price given for grain in
Bellmullet than in any other port in Connaught. He
says again—“In the most populous parts of Erris,
particularly along the shores of Broadhaven and
Blacksod, where the country is not covered with
bog, it is sandy and flat; the sand is almost entirely
siliceous, yet, with a slight manuring of sea-weed,
it produces excellent crops of barley and potatoes.
Bog stuff would be found a valuable additional
manure, but it is seldom used; and the sand, if
thrown on drained bog, would have considerable
effect in fertilizing it.” His general plan for improve-
ment consisted in increasing the quantity and quality
of the mountain pasture, by forming one drain for
irrigation on the mountain side, considering that
sufficient ; and that it would increase the means of
80 “THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC.
rearing “five to one;” and that “100,000 acres could
be improved in this way.” For, he says, “If the
more detailed plan of irrigation (alluding to the plan
proposed by Mr. Nimmo for the Kerry mountains,)
were adopted, the quantity of hay would become so
great, that the farmer would be obliged to vary his
species of stock to consume it;-he must then have
recourse to stall feeding, which would necessarily
induce the growth of turnips, and a detail of agricul-
ture, for which the country is by no means prepared ;
besides, it would be necessary for him to slaughter
his own fat cattle, and thus become an army or navy
contractor; for, owing to the great distance at which
Erris is situate from any extensive market for such
commodities, it would be impossible for him to sell
the fat cattle alive.” I saw fat cows and bullocks
reared in the Island of Achil, a more distant part than
Erris, on the quays in Dublin for shipment for Eng-
land. Roads and steam navigation have made a won.
derful alteration within the last twenty years, and, if
even that plan were to be adopted for the Erris
mountains, the sea makes a high road, and a steam
boat a sure carriage, for any live or dead commodities
from our shores; and any system, be it ever so
“ detailed,” can be now introduced into Erris by some
additional expenditure in opening the country.
But we do not look for having such extensive
farmers, but the more certain plan of a working popu-
lation uniformly scattered over it. We shall now
lear what Mir. Nimmo says on a neighbouring similar
district, Connemarra, in the county of Galway –
“THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC. 81
EXPENSES FOR, IMPROVING TEN ACRES.
-- FIRST YEAR e
80 Perches boundary drain, at Is. . . e
160 Do. cross drains at 1 #d. per drain
Trenching and forming ridges, at 5l. per acre
20 tons dung, or sea weed, per acre, at 5s. per .
Seed, 21. per acre dº tº © gº
Planting, earthing, and digging, at 5!, per acre
RETURN.
7 Tons or 1120 stone potatoes, per acre, at 5d.
SECON D YEAR,
OUTUAY.
10 tors dung or sea-weed wº tº © *
Seed and labour . & g s e g
SECON D Y E.A.R.
RETURN,
1500 stone potatoes per acre, at 3d. tº g
THIRIO YEAR, .
Seed oats, per acre, one guinea &
50lb. clover and rye-grass, per acre *
Hoeing, harrowing, &c. 5!. 10s. per do. gº
Teaping, paid by the straw . º *
IRETURN.
200 stone oats, per acre, at Is. per e wº
FO U R.TH YEAR,
Meadows, at 5l. per acre • e tº
FIFTH YEAR.
Second meadow * ſº & tº *
SUMMIA.R.Y.
OUTLAY .
& 175 o O First year .
95 O O | Second do, .
71 7 6 Third do. .
Topdressing, lime, or Fourth do.
coral sand or gravel, Fifth do. .
at I Ol. per acre, . 100 O O
gºmºmºmºmºr
£441 7 6 ||
.*
RETURN.
Profit in five years, £82
£ S. d.
4 0 0
I 0 0
50 0 0
50 0 0
20 0 0
50 0 0
33 175 0 (?
1 40 0 0
25 0 0
70 0 0
395 0 0
182 1 0 0
I l 7 6
25 0 0
35 0 0
0 0 0
£71 7 6
100 0 0
50 0 0
50 0 ($
. f. 140 0 0
I82 IO 0
1OO G
50 0 (0
5O 0 0
£522 IO ()
44.1 7 6
2 G
E 5
82 “THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC.
Or about 18 per cent. on the outlay; and he states that
“the land then is worth thirty shillings per acre //" *
Here are facts. On the foregoing calculation I shall
barely remark, that in no part of Erris would the
outlay cost within £100 of that, and probably much
less; for in Erris you can use the plough, without
the slightest obstruction, in all the dry bog and
mountain parts. It is not so in Connemarra : the --
dry parts are generally very rocky. So that we may
safely say; when applied to Erris, the profits would be
£181, or more than 50 per cent. on the expenditure.
The rotation in Commemarra is, first, sea-weed for
potatoes (18 tons to the acre); second, oats or barley;
third, meadows for four or five years, then sea-weed
on the second breaking. Bogusually pared and burned.
Wheat tried with success (and it has been success-
fully tried in Erris by the late Mr. Wallace, of
Cloneen). Thinks excessive drainage bad, producing
want of grain in the stalk. He says 12 tons of sea-
weed to 1 ton of kelp, requiring 20 days' labour to
cut and land, and about £2, 5s. for drying and
burning, which would carry out 18 tons of wreck for
manuring an acre. As his opinions on Iveragh, in
Kerry, similar also to our Erris, are of some impor-
tance, I shall add some extracts from his Report on
that country. After detailing a most ingenious plan
of irrigation, the expense of which he estimates at
£1. 1s. 4d. per acre, by which a deposition would be
effected, “one inch deep in 27 days, or a month over
the acre, or over 12 acres in a year,” he states that
* These reports were made when produce was higher than at present.
“THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC. 83
“the bog, if levelled, would then produce three tons
of hay at £2, besides leaving the ground in a good
state.” “Shell sand, (in which the shores of Erris
abound, as well as coral,) 176 loads of 2 cwt. where
there is only one journey made in the day; on the
coast, four or five times that quantity: lime costs
three times as much : coral is raised at 6s. 8d. per
ton, and six tons to the acre.” “Mr. Murphy limes
at the rate of 100 barrels, which cost £1.13s. 4d., but
with carriage, breaking, and burning, comes to £7.
10s.; then having drained and dug the field, say £1.
10s. ; in all £10. He gets
One crop, about 210 stone, at 4d. per stome, £12 12 O
Next crop, better, say . g tº . I 6 O C)
Third crop, worse . * * & . . 12 O O
Oats . * ſº © * * . 1 O O O
When he leaves for meadow, and them pays £4. 4s.
per.” “Price of drainage in soft bogs, £1 1s. 6d. ;
in firmer, 10s. Top dressings of gravel, clay, sand,
or sleech, may be laid on (by irrigation): they correct
the porosity of the bog. Burned clay acts power-
fully on bog. A layer of earth, one inch in thickness,
cannot, by the cheapest means, be put on less than 6d.
per cube yard, or £5. 9s. per acre ; in many cases,
three times that.” (If dug from the furrows, as it
could in most parts of Erris, it could be done for one-
third the money.) “Bog soil, when carried down
by streams, as valuable as any other. Where the
soil will admit of it, he proposes to lay the whole
field under water, and bring the soil over it by flat
boats.” (We have some situations where drains
84 “THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC.
might be made through the bog, which would admit
boats from the sea shore to carry weed, sand, coral,
&c.) “These dressings would make it worth from
15s. to £1 per acre. If hot lime be applied, £1 to
to £1. 10s. per acre for pasture alone; or bog ploughed
up or dug, and then followed by repeated ploughings
and harrowings, 60 or 100 barrels of lime applied
and reploughed for spring oats then, or rape. The
ploughings should be done in harvest, lest the sods
should dry too much. Lime seems the best manure,
especially after the bog has acquired some kind of
green sward : if that is not the case, dung or earth
should be applied, to encourage the grasses to rise.
Aime, slacked with salt-water, is unusually be?gficial ;
and shell-sand from under tide mark. Every kind of
calcareous matter good, sea-weed and shell-sand;—
paring and burning, unless mixed with clay, absolute
awaste on red bog, but necessary on rushy uplands.”—
All these extracts, I trust, will not be considered
useless or imapplicable here, as they shew the opinions
of clever men, who turned their attention to the
subject, and might be continued, ad infinitum, through
the reports of all the other engineers who were
employed for the same purpose. It may be noticed
here, that Mr. M'Donnell, of Carnacon, tried some
of the suggestions here mentioned, with respect to
irrigation and carrying down soil by intercepting
drains (communicated to him by me,) over a large
tract of his estate at Sheskin, in the Eastern part of
Erris, and, though roughly and unskilfully done, and
łittle attended to afterwards, yet produced wonderful
“THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC. 85
effects. Some thousands of loads of limestone, gravel,
and clay were, at little or no expense, carried over
his lower bogs and mountain, and, having procured a
presentment for a road into it, he is now beginning
to colonise it with effect. Major Bingham ploughed
some mountain at Bangor with bullocks, (which are
certainly best suited for that purpose,) and planted
some trees; but, both being unskilfully done, little,
if any, beneficial result has accrued from it yet.(?)
Other instances of successful improvement of simi-
lar countries may be necessary; and we shall first
mention those of Lord Palmerston, on the sea coast
between Sligo and Ballyshannon, at Mulloghmore
and Cliffony. He planted bent extensively, first
levelling down the uneven sand hills; and now the
greater part has become fine pasture. Of the re-
claimed bog and mountain (an extensive tract), the
expense was repaid in three years, and the land left
in a profitable state, worth £1 10s. per acre.
Lord Headly's estate in Iveragh, in Kerry, con-
taining 15,000 acres of bog and mountain ground,
and on the sea coast also, shews to what an extent
useful improvement may be carried by little means but
good management. “The means adopted,” says Mr.
Wiggins, an Englishman, the agent to the property,
in his examination before the Irish Poor Committee
in 1830, “were generally an attention to the character
of the people, and a constant desire, on the part of the
managers of the estate, to avail themselves of the
disposition of those people to the improvement of the
lands, and of their habits and character generally; it
86 “THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC.
was done with very little sacrifice of rent or money,
but a constant and earnest attention to the object of
improving the estate by the industry of the people ;
and whenever any particular instance of good manage-
ment, or industry, or of care to collect the land or
sea weed, or to reclaim or cultivate the land, or to
build a decent house, was evinced by any of the
people, they were encouraged by some little emolu-
ment, or attention, or allowance, or something of the
kind. I think the first system was to allow the people
half value of any improvement made out of the rent;
but, as these rents were considerably higher than could
have been paid, we conceive that the allowance was
rather nominal than real.” The increased value given
to the estate, he states, “If it were to be sold now,
it would sell for many thousands of pounds more than
it would have done before, even allowing for what
would have been the natural progress of the estate
without these attentions and urging. In fact, seeing
that the estate had been neglected for many years,
and seeing the necessity of either abandoning it to a
state of waste, or of doing something in the way of
improvement, Lord Headly wished its improvement
to be urged, and it was urged, and his own personal
attention had a great deal to do with it. And again, he
says, that this system “is perfectly capable of appli-
cation in any part of Ireland.” By this means the
people, from being “wild and savage,” became “well
clothed, orderly, and industrious, and as well con-
ducted as you see in a country village in England.”
Lord Clonbrock, in the county of Galway, has set an
“THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC. 87
example in the location of tenantry, improvement of
property, and consequently of rental, well worthy the
imitation of every proprietor, and of the blessings
and affection of those whom, by his good manage-
ment, he has made so comfortable. Hear Mr. Nimmo
again, in his evidence before a Parliamentary Com-
mittee in 1819. He states “that the waste lands of
Ireland, easily reclaimable and convertible to the
production of grain, almost without limit, for expor-
tation, comprise three millions and a-half of Irish
acres, or about the fourth part of the entire island,
and would provide fºr an additional population of two
5
millions.” “Upon the whole,” says he, “I am so
perfectly convinced of the practicability of converting
the bogs I have surveyed into arable land, and that
at an expense that need hardly ever exceed the gross
value of one year's crop produced from them, that I
declare myself willing, for a reasonable consideration,
to undertake the drainage of any given piece of con-
siderable extent, and the formation of its roads, for
one guinea per acre.” The total expense of reclama-
tion he estimates at £9, and the potatoe crop at £10.
He also computes that two labourers and one horse
can improve five acres of waste land in one year,
and derive an adequate subsistence from the produce.
Mr. Kelly, an intelligent engineer, in a statement
quoted by Mr. Butler Bryan in his “Practical View
of Ireland,” on a country similar to Erris in the
counties of Limerick, Cork, and Kerry, says, in
describing the rock and soil:—“The rock is covered
with a coat of clay from three to thirty feet in
88 5% THE MOUNTAINS”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC.
thickness, formed, of course, of the decomposed debris
of the rocks which lie beneath, and contain the two
ingredients, argil and silex, with scarcely any mixture
of lime. Towards the summits of the hill, and even
a good way down their sides, the clay is covered with
peat or bog, generally from six inches to three feet in
thickness, which produces heath and a few species of
coarse grass. Further down, approaching the vallies,
there is no bog, but a vegetable soil, part of which is
tilled, and produces good crops of oats and potatoes :
where lime has been applied, the produce is three or
four fold, and, in some instances, ten times the quan-
tity has been obtained. More than three-fourths of
this tract has never been cultivated, and the whole
affords great natural advantages to the improver,
whether his object be agriculture or manufacture.”
“The bog, however, which forms the surface at present
(of hills about 1000 over the sea, and not too high for
luxuriant vegetation), if left alone and unmixed with
any other substance, is nearly barren : the clay which
lies beneath is entirely so; but if the light bog were
drained and dug up, and some of the clay substratum
got up and mixed with it, along with a proper propor-
tion of lime (coral sand in Erris answers this purpose
where lime is not,) a very superior vegetable soil may
be made on every perch of the whole surface, and acres
of barren heath may be made to produce the finest
oats, potatoes, or hay ; so the agriculturist having the
substratum to form a basis for his soil, and the peat
for vegetable manure on the spot, wants only to bring
lime to decompose that manure, and to employ labour,
“THE MOUNTAINs”—IMPROVEMENT, ETC. 89
in order to convert the wild haunts of the grouse into a
productive field for human sustenance.” With respect
to the capability of the country for machinery, Mr.
Kelly states that, in this district, a circle of twenty
miles diameter, there is as much water-power as would
be equal to all the steam engines in Great Britain in
1819.” (Erris can boast as much.) Mr. Kelly further
states:—“Hitherto, the want of passable roads was
an insuperable bar to the improvement of this neg-
lected district. The new roads lately made at the
expense of government, of which there are 35 miles
within this circle, are the first steps towards a very
desirable change, which, indeed, they have already
produced, both on the comfort and morals of the
population, as well as creating habits of industry, not
existing before, to an extent truly surprising.”
Seeing, then, that the opinions of clever scientific
men, who have turned their attention to such subjects,
as well as the results of experiments made by the
proprietors already mentioned, are decisively confir-
matory of the fact, that these, and similar tracts so
circumstanced, are capable of improvement and recla-
mation, so as to be productive of profit to one class,
and of sufficient support and maintenance to the
other, and, supposing that ten acres will be quite
sufficient, in the first instance, for each family, Erris
will be capable of supporting with comfort four times
its present population, or nearly 100,000 souls. Five
Irish acres, in the plains of the country where popula-
tion is denser, is taken to be sufficient for the support
of a family at an average: under this supposition,
90 “THE MOUNTAINs”—EMIGRATION, ETC.
200,000 souls, or a number equal to two-thirds of the
whole population of Mayo, could find a sufficient
location in one of its mine baronies, and probably,
considering their seaward situation, a more comfort-
able one than is usually found in the interior. A
superabundant population is complained of, and the
government go to the expense of sending out families
to Canada, and other settlements, at an expense of
upwards of £150 for each family, including their
first years' rations. If the £150 per family were left
at home, and applied in districts similar to Erris, we
should see the results that would accrue, not only to
the people, but also to the government and revenue
of the country. It is computed that every soul in
this country pays annually, at an average, 11s. 3d.
in taxation to the state. We should, on this principle,
by the increased population, have left at home
£100,000 annually out of Erris alone, and that for an
outlay of £936,000, by Mr. Nimmo's calculation, or
369 per acre for reclaiming; which would be something
less than the price of the first year's potatoe crop.
The first outfit for a family, by a calculation made
by the Rev. Mr. Crampton and myself for Mr. Carter,
in building a small house, finding implements of
husbandry, a cow, ass, and a season's provisions,
would, in Erris, amount to about £30; add to this
£10 for contingencies, and £15 per family for the
general improvement of the country, and you have
the location made for one-third of what it costs to
send them to Canada; from which country no return
whatever may be expected in the way of revenue,
“THE MOUNTAINs,” ETC. 91
The expenditure, at this rate, would be £1,780,000,
and the revenue accruing would be £100,000 annually,
or above 8 per cent. on the expenditure, directly.
But what would the indirect revenue be from such a
sum laid out in the country in employment P It will
be now well to shew positive proofs of the return of
revenue to the government, for the expenditure of
money already laid out in this and similar districts,
in opening roads, making piers, &c. I will begin
with Bellmullet and Erris. The government have
expended probably £12,000 in these works in Erris;
what is the return in taxation ? The post office at
Bellmullet, in 1825 (established in 1820), after
paying its own expenses, cleared £130. Thirty-five
newspapers come every post to Bellmullet (three
times a week”); that is 5,460 in the year, the duty
on which is £56. 17s. 6d. besides any advertisements
from the country. There are in Bellmullet fifteen
licensed shops, and eight in Binghamstown, at £3
each—£69. (See note m.) The average sale of
commodities may amount to £10,000, on which say a
tax of £10 per cent. (tea, sugar, tobacco, spirits, and
leather, the chief articles of consumption, are nearly
f30 per cent.); this will be £1,000 more. Let us
take half this off by allowing that half the amount
would at any rate be brought from other markets,
were there none in Erris; say them £500. Customs'
duties paid by vesels exporting and importing, say
six annually, £20 per vessel (average) — $120,
* It is now a daily post.
92 “THE MOUNTAINs,” ETC.
to this the accessibility of the country at present, by
which the revenue may be so greatly protected by
the suppression of illicit distillation, in which this
country previously consumed all its grain, which is
now, for the greater part, brought to market. (See
note m.) I cannot calculate this additional facility of
suppression at less than 2000 gallons, on which the
duty would be £250 at least. The preventing from
smuggling cannot be counted well, except that we
know from a memorial forwarded to the government
by Mr. Knox, of Castlerea, and other gentry and
landed proprietors, previous to the establishment of
the coast-guard, that at least, $20,000 worth of
smuggled goods, were annually landed on those shores,
the duty on which would be 50 per cent, and in this
item alone would £10,000 be saved; but, after deduct-
ing the expense, we may safely say that £500 duty is
saved in that way. We will then have, by summing
up all, a sum of upwards of £2,000 annually, or about
16# per cent. on the outlay by the government of
#12,000. I know that on the whole expenditure on
the public works in the West of Ireland for seven
years, say £167,000, the late talented Mr. Nimmo,
who planned and nearly completed them, estimated
the revenue accruing to the government in conse-
quence of them, as equal to the expenditure; and it
has been stated, that in an expenditure by Mr. Griffith,
the engineer for the Southern district, of £60,000 in
similar works opening the country, &c. a revenue of
£50,000 a year has arisen to the government, “which is
to be attributed mainly to the increased facility of
“THE MOUNTAINs,” ETC. 93
communication by which whole districts have been
rendered available for productive purposes.”
So far as expenditure of money by the government,
the foregoing may be considered as conclusive argu-
ments of profitable return : and it has been shewn
from Lord Palmerston's, Lord Clonbrock's, and Lord
Headly’s experiments, besides the reports of the
Commissioners for the Drainage of Bogs, and the
separate extracts before mentioned from some of their
engineers' reports on this and similarly situated
districts, as well as by the very facts of the partial
improvements in the country itself, that landlords or
others, even middlemen, expending capital, will have
such profits as, in a very short time, would repay the
expense, and in half a generation leave the land at
least ten times better in rent, and fifty times better
in produce, than it is at this moment.
After this another question may arise. Suppose
you do colonise Erris to the extent mentioned, that is,
one family to every five acres capable of supporting
them, what is to be done with the increased popula-
tion of another generation or two P. Where will there
be employment for them 2 The answer is, Within six
miles of every man's door in the barony, Fishery,
The sea, that inexhaustible store of wealth, to be
procured by the mere seeking for it. Probably no
sea coast in Ireland is so productive in every kind of
fishery as that off the shores of Erris. It is a notorious
fact, that 50 to 100 fishing wherries from the East and
South coasts of Ireland come annually to the shores
of Erris, into the Bays of Blacksod and Broadhaven,
94. FISHERY-ENGINEERS’ REPORTs.
and carry off, before our eyes, loadings of fish
of every description, thereby enriching themselves,
when the want of means, or indolence of the inha-
bitants, will not permit them to “do likewise.” The
productiveness of fish and fishery on these coasts
cannot be better described than in the words of the
report to the Commissioners of Irish Fisheries, made
by Mr. Nimmo in 1824. Speaking of the North coast
of Erris, he says: —“North East of the Stags, about
six miles in 50 fathom water, is the Yellow Bank ;
it extends from Glinsk hill in Erris, one-fourth of the
way across to Arran : it abounds with cod and skate,
or maidenray. The whole North shore of Mayo is
excellent fishing ground in harvest, but it cannot be
pursued in sailing boats, as there are no ports to SaVe
them.”
“Off Erris Head, when you open Glenlara, E.N.E.
about five miles, is an excellent ling bank in 35 or 36
fathoms. Small cod also abound in the entrance of
Broadhaven.” He proposes a pier at Rinroe, and
two in Broadhaven (one at Inver), for landing.
“There is no other trade in Broadhaven but fishing,”
and that only pursued in row boats for immediate
consumption. Heretofore, there were some sail boats
that carried fish to Sligo ; at present there are none.”
(We have a market at home now.)
“The sea off this coast (West of Erris) abounds in
fish, being by far the most productive on the Irish coast;
and it is regularly visited by decked wherries from
* This was in 1824, before Belmullet was begun.
FISHERY-ENGINEERs’ REPORTs. 95
Skerries, Rush, &c. from the East coast, and by
hookers from Kinsale and the South. These vessels
being able to stand the heavy sea of the Atlantic,
can run to the fishing bank in the offing, and, of
course, can succeed better than the country boats.
The Skerry men use long lines also, spillers in
summer, and hand lines in the winter fishery. One
of the crew is left at some station on the shore to
attend to the drying of the fish, and the wherry comes
in with the fish caught, at least once a month in the
Season, or until the cargo be made up, when they
make off for Dublin.” *
“The Kinsale hookers use spiller lines of about
300 fathoms only, being unfit for running the long
lines, but succeed nearly as well as the Skerries men.
They also bring mackerel nets, which they employ at
might near the Bills Rock, with good success used
about Clew Bay. The principal white fish bank is
between Bofin and Achil, about two and a-half leagues
North of the former, (and within six or eight of
Blacksod,) and three from Achil Head.”
“It is abundantly supplied with all kinds of fish—
cod, ling, glassin, mackerel, and gurnet, especially in
spring, as also a few herring. The haddock and
whiting got there are only used as baits ;-whiting-
pollock and other rock fish are found near the Bills
and other rocks; best bait for them fresh-water eels;
the line put length ways through them and the hook
out at the navel.” “North of Achil Head we have a
sand track running up Blacksod Bay, affording, as
usual, turbot and flat fish. At the Black Rock, rough
96 FISHERY-ENGINEERS’ REPORTs.
ground, but beyond that lies the Inniskea ling-bank,
extending from five to eight leagues to the West of
these isles, abundantly stocked with fish, and much
frequented by the wherries in summer with spiller
and long lines; hand lines during winter. The mark
for it is, the minister's house on Annagh Head, in 40
or 60 fathoms, red sand. This bank is chiefly fished
from May to August, and is too rough later in the
season for country boats.” “The sun-fish bank lies
within sight of land of Achil, Slievemore bearing
E.S.E. by compass, 70 to 90 fathoms; sea breaks on
it in ebb and flood: supposed to be a ridge of land
extending from the Blaskets to Erris Head. Half-a-
mile further off we have 15 fathoms more water, and
the depth is considerable within it; the water outside
deepens quickly to 100 fathom ; and the probability
is, that this bank is near the edge of soundings.”
“A sum fish has seven to ten barrels of liver, worth
£40.” There are, besides these out-sea fishings, the
salmon fisheries of Goulamore and Ballycroy, in
Tulloghaan Bay, and one in Glenamoy, which, if
protected, would be very productive. Immense beds
of oysters, of the finest and largest kind, are found
in Blacksod and Broadhaven.
After the foregoing interesting and detailed account
of the fishery off the coasts of Erris given by Mr.
Nimmo, there is unquestionable evidence of a never-
failing mine of wealth on our coasts, sufficient to
employ an uncountable population, of which the
nucleus is already laid in the number of hardy fisher-
men existing on our shores. Can We, then, want
FISHERy—conting ENT EMPLOYMENT, ETC. 97
employment for an increasing population ? We
cannot, even were this alone the only source of pro-
curing it. But if we add to this the employment that
would be given in making nets, lines, ropes, &c. for
the fishermen,-the growth of hemp and flax, for
which the soil is admirably adapted, and the home
manufacture of limen and woollen for our own
people,_-the number that may be employed in mills
for home consumption, we have never-failing con-
sequent and contingent modes of employment, parti-
cularly for the female and younger portions of the
families.
Having such command of water-power, which is
so much cheaper than steam, what is it would
prevent us (except want of capital) from working
the cotton that passes our shores Eastward to
England. (o) Our country can afford it to the
manufacturers cheaper than in England, by the
difference of transport: our labour is cheaper, from
the facility of raising produce, and procuring the
means of subsistence in a thousand ways. An improved
system of cultivation would make even our best
grounds produce three-fold more than they do; and
we cannot almost see any limit to the population that,
under these circumstances, can be reared on our
grounds and along our shores. These are no vision-
ary ideas. Facts and fundamental principles have
been laid down in the previous pages, and we cannot
see the possibility of their being controverted.
9
8
13 ALLY CROY,
BALLY CROY,
Ballycroy, a district of Killcommon, deserves some
particular notice here, not only from its detached
situation, and almost disconnexion from the other
part of Erris, but from the difference between its
inhabitants in customs, manners, habits, dialect of
language, and the Aborigines of this part of Mayo.
It would seem as if this district of country did not-
belong at one period, to the half-barony of Erris;
for it is not enumerated among the lands in the grant
made of the “whole barony” to the trustees for Sir
James Shaen, already alluded to, nor in the quit-rent
receipt of 1687, in the Appendix, although its posi-
tion, separated by inlets of the sea on the West,
and by a high range of mountains on the South, from
the barony of Burrishoole, would naturally leave it
to Erris. (Lord Strafford's survey, which might have
been subsequent to the grant of Sir James Shaen,
may have classed it with Erris, as we now find it in
the cess books.) Tulloghaan Bay and the Owenmore
river on the one side, the sea up to the mountains of
Maumethomaas on the other, and their summits, with
those of Nephinbeg and Curselieve, form it naturally
into a separate part of the barony. -
The extent of sea coast in Ballycroy has been
already mentioned ; its indentings are very great,
and the safety of its inlets equal to that of inland
BALLY CROY. 99
Waters. Advantage is taken of this circumstance,
and of the general shallowness along shore, for
many purposes. A great number of boats is the
first consequence, and, having many of them, they
trade to Newport and Westport, particularly in
turf. Transporting sea-weed from one part of these
sheltered shores to another, either for burning into
kelp or for manure, in large masses, without any
other means than a man standing on the heap, and
pushing it forward with a long pole, is a very
common practice, and hundreds of these may be
seen floating with the tide up or down the Sound of
Achil or on the Ballycroy shores, in the fine summer
days, while a single man sits quietly on the heap,
roasting his potatoes and limpits or other shell fish for
his evening meal, carried forward to wards his destina-
tion without any trouble or exertion from him until
the tide slackens, or that he is obliged to pole it
forwards, in some parts, against the current. Like
the other mountain parts of Erris, tire population and
arable land is chiefly along shore, there being few
inhabitants in the interior ; the mountains being
chiefly used for rearing or feeding cattle. The census
of 1831 classes the inhabitants, &c. of Ballycroy thus:
Houses inhabited . . g g g te 424
Number of families & ... • * ſº ſº 5O5
Number of persons, male and female g , 2925
Number of males . g e & * º 142()
Females g ſº * * g º . 1505
Number of males over 20 & tº * o 473
Employed as handicrafts g tº * o 59
Employed in agriculture, &c. . g * g 81 7
Farmers of first class . e g te º 16
Farmers of gecond class . g & $3. & 489
00 BALLY CROY,
In the year 1813, there was but one imperfect road
penetrated this district from Newport, as far as the sands
of Dunaa, where a ferry-boat brought people across
the Bay of Tullaghan. A considerable salmon fishery
there at Aghnis, gave employment to a few boats and
men during the season, and had part of its produce
sent by this road in panniers by carriers, or cadgers as
they were called, into the interior of the country.
This road through Ballycroy was only eight Irish
miles in length, but I find noto existing in Ballycroy
upwards of twelve Irish miles more, branching off
from this main line, generally towards different points
and villages along the sea coast, and made chiefly
within these four or five years, under the direction
and management of Messrs. Clendemning, agents for Sir
Richard O'Donel ; adopting on his property the salu-
tary principle they had acted on through the estates
of the Marquis of Sligo, that no improvement can take
place until a country is thoroughly opened by roads,
and free access given to markets. Ballycroy contains
about 30,000 Irish acres; and, taking the standard
for green acres as before stated for Kilcommon, its
portion would be 3075. I believe there are as yet no
regular surveys of this portion of Erris, though I
know the Bishop of Killalla to have got one made
some years ago of his part of it, but so bad that he
placed no reliance whatever on its accuracy. The
robable number of heads of cattle that might be
reared would be 2000, (without talking of the
home milch cows,) or about one to every fifteen Irish
A 6'1"CS,
JB ALLY CR.O.Y. 10}
In summer, those who have a great number of
cattle generally take them to the distant mountains,
where they establish “bowlys,” or “sheelins,” as
they are called in Scotland ; that is, they throw up
temporary huts and live there for two months in
summer in the best part of the mountain pasture, and
make considerable quantities of butter, but only for
home consumption. At these summer residences
nothing is done but tending cattle, changing them
from pasture to pasture; but if roads were judiciously
laid out in these directions, I have no doubt but that
the summer residence would become the permanent one
of a great number who now throng the sea side;
for they are generally well and pleasantly situated
for reclaiming and improvement, and, being so conti-
guous to the best cattle feeding places, would save
much time and labour, at least labour now lost might
be made to serve both purposes. A belt up nearly as
high as the lakes in the Curries, round by Maume-a-
ratta and the lakes of Scardaan, the South face of
5 y
Corslieve or “Logănea,” to an equal elevation, and
round by the same belt to Tarsaghaan, might be the
limit of cultivation on the mountain sides. Slieve
Alp, Glore Slieve, and Bonmore hill, might be culti-
vated almost to the tops, and the remainder of the
district does not average 200 feet over the level of
the sea. There are no difficulties of any magnitude
to be encountered in the improvement of Ballycroy
more than any other parts of Erris, and, generally
speaking, it is flatter and might be more generally
benefited by roads, than the same extent, as far as
i02 BALI.Y CHROY,
the improvable parts go, in any other part of Erris,
though it has a greater proportion of flat bogs.
I have not been able to ascertain the number of
boats, &c. in Ballycroy ; but, from personal observa-
tion, and the nature of their shores, I know them to
be much more than the same length of coast in any
other part of Erris. Some useful piers, or landing
places for them, will be taken notice of in the pro-
posed improvements, as well as the general lines of
roads useful for Ballycroy. The leases given by the
O'Donel family were generally for three lives, but
being made to the people of a whole village, or pro-
bably to twenty joined in one lease, who again either
held in commonage amongst themselves, or so sub-
divided it into small patches in the different parts of
the farm, that there could be no concentration of
individual improvement, and hence necessity alone,
as the population increased, forced them into such an
extent of improvement as would, at least, give them
the means of existence in food, the chief means for
rent or money being rearing cattle. Add to this,
that these leases being given in the days of the 40s.
freehold-making, it is not only that the original lessees
became freeholders, but the system admitted of divid-
ing with their children, under the head lease, by
certain written instruments or demises, and hence it
would be found that, out of a lease of twenty original
lessees, there might be sixty freeholders turned out.
The late Sir Neal O’Donel had upwards of 4,000 free-
holders, principally of this description, on his estates,
The effects of this system might easily be foreseen,
Y3ALLY CROY. i{}3
and the present proprietor, with his able advisers,
will have much to encounter before the evil can be
remedied, and each man placed on his own farm to
reap the fruits of his own industry. I find that a
good deal is being done in this manner, and the result
must be beneficial, both to the proprietor and to the
tenant. It will be seem from the “geological” account
of Erris, that Ballycroy is composed of mica-slate, or
granular quartz rock, or their decomposition in soil ;
El O limestone, therefore, exists in the country; but,
from the frequent intercourse by boat between it and
Newport and Westport, limestone from the latter
places, or the shores of the small islands in Clew Bay,
is brought as a return cargo in place of turf or sea-
weed; it is not yet much used for reclaiming, though
it would be most desirable that large public kilns
should be established in two or three stations along
shore, from which lime could be easily conveyed to
the other parts; turf being so cheap here, the expense
would be barely the cost of transport, which would
be more than paid for by the profit of the up-cargo of
turf, and a cheap, effective manure established in the
country. It is true, that sea-manure and shell-sand
abound in every part; but it is also true, that the use
of lime on such soils as these (mica slate), is doubly
more profitable than any other that could be used,
besides giving the people habits of not trusting to
often precarious sources of supply, but to leave the
old-beaten father-before-me track for something more
advantageous and permanent. There are a considerable
} 04, BALLY CROY,
number of well-built country houses in Ballycroy,
probably owing to this greater facility of procur-
ing lime here than in other parts of Erris; and the
people, generally speaking, far from being poor, with
often greater marks than others of outside poverty,–
an active, hardy, intelligent race of men, hospitable
to an extreme, as far as they have means; but,
satisfied with little themselves, they seek not what
others would call comforts, but which, to them, from
habit, would be superfluous luxuries; hence, in their
houses, there is little of cleanliness, or apparent
comfort in furniture, bedding, or the usual accom-
paniment of a certain sum of riches. The whoſe .
thought seems to be the rearing and tending of cattle,
going to fairs, and selling or exchanging. In 1813,
I slept at a man's house who had 100 head of black
cattle and 200 sheep, and there was not a single chair
or stool in his house but one three-legged one,—no bed
but rushes,—no vessel for boiling their meals but one,
nor any for drinking milk out of but one, (the “Mad-
der,”) which was handed round indiscriminately to all
who sat round the potato-basket (myself among the
rest), placed upon the pot for a table ; yet this man was
said to be very rich besides the stock named above.
At that period there were only six houses in Bally-
croy that had feather beds, (though the people gene-
rally were rich,) on all of which I slept, besides all
the rush and straw ones that other parts afforded,
but which, with the best things they had, were given
with such an exceedingly kind grace and manner, as
would make them acceptable were they a great deal
BALLYCROY. 105.
worse. Now the people and country is much im-
proved in that respect. So little did they know of an
acre, then, that one of them, holding up the chain
between two brass marks, 10 links or 6% feet, asked,
“Is that an acre P” The mile was counted from one
hill to another. Now they know not only what an
acre and a mile mean, but British measure too.
I have said that there was a difference between the
inhabitants of this district and the other part of Erris.
The Irish channel scarcely makes so marked a diffe-
rence between the inhabitants of the Sister Island as
Tulloghaan Bay makes between Ballycroy and Erris
proper. - … - - +
Ballycroy and Achil have been, for an undeter-
mined number of years, inhabited by a colony from
the North of Ireland, who are called by their neigh-
bours, “Ultagh,” or “Ulster men.” At what period
this colony settled here, I have not been able exactly
to find out, but suppose they must be some of those
native inhabitants of Ulster, who were expelled by
James the First, and their lands given to Scotch and
English settlers, in five counties of the North. It
would seem that their leader was one of the O’Donel
family; for, from one of the old peasantry of Achil,
I heard two Irish verses repeated, descriptive of the
time of the death of Hugh, the great grandfather
of the present proprietor, Sir Richard O’Donel, viz.
1762, and of his (Hugh's) father, Colonel Manus, 1786;
so that there remains but little doubt, from these tra-
ditional remembrances, that such was the case. Sir W.
Betham, in his extremely curious and interesting
F 5
106 BALLYCRoy—THE “ CAAH”—SIR wiłłETHAM.
“Irish Antiquarian Researches,” Part I. page 189,
states that “the father of this Colonel Mamus,
Roger of Lifford,” was the first that settled in Mayo;
so that the first settlement, at least, of the O'Donels,
would seem to be some time after 1646. And it is
said by the same old Achil man, that the curious
ancient box, called by Sir William the “Caah,” but
by him the “Cohil,” and described as near as might
be by such a person as resembling exactly Sir William's
curious relic, was in the possession of two Ballycroy
men, named Maurice Freehil and Edmond Cleary,
and by them shewn as a curiosity through every
part of Ireland, until it was purchased from them
by the first Lady O'Donel, the mother of Connel
O'Donel, Esq., who shewed it to Sir William Betham.
This account, if true, would be somewhat at variance
with that given by the learned antiquarian. It is
curious that the date of the death of Colonel Manus
(“whose will was proved in Tuam in 1737”) agrees
with the Achil man's verse; and he tells also, though
Sir William does not, the date of the death of
Hugh (1762), father of the first Sir Neal O’Donel,
of Newport. - -
This colony of Ulster men, at whatever time they
settled in this country, still retain the ancient dialect
of language used in the North; intermarry almost
exclusively with one another; a hardy, low-sized,
dark-featured race; bold, daring, and intrepid in
danger; not good tempered, but hospitable to an
extreme. A stranger seldom enters their country
without having the usual salute of “you are welcome
BALLY CROY. {07
to the country, stranger,” given him, be he known
or not. They are considered generally very intel-
ligent, and having that degree of cleverness and
acuteness, particularly in bargaining, said to be
peculiar to their Northern origin. They are the
rºaterial of a fine people, if properly managed.
108 ANTIQUITIES.
ANTIQUITIES.
We shall now return to ancient days, and observe,
from the mute records that are left us, that even in
times which have outlived history, this portion of
the West coast of Ireland had been considered suffi-
ciently important and interesting to have attracted
the attention of people of other days.
We have no less than five “dooms,” which unques-
tionably mean places of defence, both from their
situation and the tradition of them handed down to us
(though we have not one of those circular earthen
mounds so common in the plains of the country,
commonly considered “Danish forts”). Doon-Donel,
already alluded to, in the entrance of Glencastle ;
T}oon-a-moa, on the West coast, opposite Eagle
Island; Doon-carton, Doon-keeghan, on the East
entrance of Broadhaven ; and Doon-vinalla, at the
entrance of Portacloy, on the North coast. The
legendary tales of some of these (see note b) might
be very entertaining to some, but we shall notice
them here merely for the purpose of shewing the
Jormer importance of the country. Of the monuments
which have left no trace behind to tell their story,
we find, besides the “dooms,” several “ cairns,”
called laghtas ; meaning the sepulchral mound reared
over where probably a chieftain had fallen in battle,
or to commemorate some deed of “great emprise”
over the thousands whose bones now whiten the
ANTIQUITIES. 109
plains beneath. Such is “Laghta Ard," or the
“High Monument,” which, in the memory of many
now living, had been entirely buried in sands for
ages, but still bore the name. One exceedingly
stormy night unfolded the tradition of the name to
be true ; for the whole sand soil to the depth of many
feet, at least twenty, (for I was often since on the
laghta; it is on the lands of Knockbaan, joining
South Emlybeg,) was swept away by the storm,
and a rough, rude, but very large “laghta,” or
“cairn,” stood revealed, resting on the primitive rock
or firm ground on which the storm prevailed not;
and the adjacent plain shewed the exposed bones of
thousands scattered promiscuously through the sands,
on a firm earth, having in many places the marks of
ridges. It also exposed a regular burial-ground of
great extent, which since has been considered by
many as the place which gave the name to the parish—
“Kill-more,” the “Great Burial-ground.” Other
“cairns” have been discovered, a very particular
one by the Rev. Mr. Lyons, in his farm at Cross,
which, having the appearance of a somewhat comical
earthen mound, he had the natural curiosity to
examine, and there found a skeleton placed erect //
denoting, as of ancient Scandinavian custom, that it
belonged to a king, or chief of note. The same
enquiring Rev. gentleman found some remarkably
curious graves in the Island of Inniskea, uncovered,
by the sands having been blown off them ; but as,
I trust, he will give the detailed particulars of his
curious and interesting researches to some learned
i iO ANTIQUITIES.
society or the world, it may be enough here to notice
them cursorily, as sufficient for our purpose. The
cairns on the tops of Curslieve mountain, and on the
hill over Gortmore, called “Seefins,” or the “seat of
Fin,” seem to record the existence of the celebrated
Fin-mac-Cool, or the Fin-gal of Macpherson's Ossian,
as an Irish chief of such renown and honour as to
have permanent remembrances left after him on his
visit to those remote quarters. It is not from these
cairns alone we claim Fin-gal and Ossian as peculiarly
ours; we have them in real song, and many a winter's
night have I heard the old chronicler, lying on his
back quietly, in the bed beyond the fire, repeat the
“deed of old” to delighted listening ears, but in
language so ancient as to be now almost unintelli-
gible to most Irish speakers of the modern school.
Some Druidical altars, or cromleachs, have had
existence in Erris. I destroyed one in Glencastle, by
making the public road through it. In Inniskea and
Divilame Islands, there are some curious long stones,
having hieroglyphic inscriptions on them; but, whether
belonging to the Pagan or Christian ages, I have not
been able to discover.
Of the monastic and religious buildings, we have
some written records. In the two Monastica Hiber.
nica, in the library of Trinity College, we find the
following accounts:—“Tarmoncarra, in the peninsula
of the Mullet, and half-barony of Erris. Some old
walls of a church appear here nearly buried in the
sands; they are said to have belonged to a nunnery
of which we can learn no account,” “Cross-
ANTIQUITIES. 11 I
inquisition, 10th September, 3rd of King James
finds this monastery possessed of the moiety of the
townlands adjacent to the same; annual value, besides
reprises, 2s.” Another account:—“Cross, in the
Mullet, a peninsula in the half-barony of Erris, on
the point to the South of Balludurish strand, and
opposite to Innisglora Island. Here we find the
monastery or religious house of the Cross, or the
Holy Cross, dedicated to the Virgin Mary; it did
belong to the abbey of Ballintubber, and the prior
of same always appointed a brother of his abbey to
be sub-prior in the house of the Cross, who was to
pay to the mother church (in the name of a chiefry,)
the sum of twenty oras of silver, or £1. 10s. 4d.;
and the sub-prior was to expend a further sum of
three oras or five shillings, being the remainder of
their income, in the support of himself and convent,
and also in defraying the expenses and necessary
repairs of their house. By an inquisition taken,
27th Queen Elizabeth, this monastery was found in
possession of three quarters of land, with the tithes
of the same, each quarter being valued at 13s. 4d.
sterling annually. The ruins of this friary may still
be seen.”
The foregoing are the only records I can find of
the monastic or religious buildings of Erris. But we
have opposite this same monastery of Cross, in the
Island of Innisglora, or the “Island of Glory,” the
ruins of an old chapel, with some cells, the stone-
vaulted roofs of which still remain perfect; in one of
which all visitors to the island, by immemorial usage,
} 12 ANTIQUITIES.
are obliged to “break bread,” literally, with one
another, be the bread or breads of whatever kinds
they may. Here also is a well, descended to by
many steps, out of which, it is said, if a woman, of
any age, take water, it will instantly turn into red
worms; and to this day there are few, if any, (and
these, of course, unbelievers,) who will venture to
do so. Here also O'Flaherty, in his “Ogygia,”
relates:—
“In Immisglore, on Erris shore,
Should we the bodies of our sires explore,
We'ed find them blooming, fresh and fair;
No human flesh can rot or perish there.”
The sand or clay from this island is said to have the
peculiar properties of banishing rats, keeping the
house it is in from fire, fever, &c. &c. In Divilane
Island, no rat will live. In Inniskea is the ruins of a
small chapel and grave-yard; another on the mainland
at Fallmore; and here they have the custom of cover-
ing the graves of their departed friends with the
rounded white quartz stones from the adjoining beach,
which has a beautiful primitive effect and appearance.
No flowers grow here to strew over the grave—no
lime to whitem that grave as an emblem of innocence ;
but departed virtue cannot fail even here to have some
tokens of respect shewn it. Nature and Nature's God
provides them, and the active sympathetic friends col-
lect, from the shores of the great Atlantic, the more
imperishable blocks of quartz, as a substitute to denote
that innocence and goodness sleep beneath. Near the
church of Fallmore is one of the “holy wells,” to
ANTIQUITIES. I 13
which people even yet resort for doing penance, beau-
tifully situated among the sand hills. Two “patrons"
were held here annually, but, from some disorders
that occurred there, the Catholic clergyman, Mr.
Iyons, entirely abolished them. There are no other
ancient religious buildings within the Mullet.
In the mountains, the ruins of the chapels of
Kilcommon, Kiltena, and Fahey in Ballycroy, shew
little architectural ornament in their construction,
but serve as marks to shew that inhabitants existed
in their era in those parts, sufficient to support
and fill them, though at this day they cannot boast
so many houses nor so good, with one late exception
in Glencastle, in the whole parish of Kilcommon.
Within the Mullet, until within these eight years,
there was not a single Catholic house of worship :
the open air wafted their orisons to heaven, which
was their only canopy; and the great boundless ocean,
whose thundering roar sounded in - their ears ; the
majestic peaked mountains surrounding them on
three sides; the face of nature in her bays, her creeks,
her rivers; heaths and green and grain-covered
fields, afforded themes to the inspired enlightened
preacher to press, upon the minds of his hearers, re-
verence, awe struck reverence, for HIM who was the
Author of all these wonders, of all these blessings.”
* From the top of Carm-hill, one of the most commanding inside
the Mullet, how often have these magnificent features of the Deity
been pointed to by their most excellent pastor and splendid preacher,
Mr. Lyons, in their native language, which, having in itself a thousand
beauties, was rendered still more beautiful by the style and energy, as
well as expressiveness, in which it came from his lips.
i i4 ANTIQUITIES.
There are two Catholic houses now, and a neat
Protestant church.
Of the baronial castles, one only remains now tole-
rably perfect, that is Dunaa, or Fahey Castle, in Bal-
lycroy (see note e)—Baranagh Castle, within the
Mullet, is very ruinous; and of Teraan Castle, there is
not now a trace to be found, the stones having been
used in building the walls of a chapel near it, though
I have seen part of it in ruins. This was the seat of
the chief of the Barretts, then lords of the country,
and was said to be so fine a specimen of architecture
in its day, that the owner caused a certain ornamented
stone to be placed on the top of the castle, by way of
denoting that, though others might be equal, his castle
was superior to any of them, having this top-finish on
or the
y
it. Hence it was called “Clogh-an-owir,'
“Stone of Pride,” and is still preserved by some of
the descendants of that family.
Dumaa Castle is said to have been built by the cele-
brated Grace O'Malley, the chief of the powerful
sept of the O'Malleys, lords of the baronies of the
two “Ooles,” that is, Burrish oole and Murrisk.”
She was noted not only for her great energy and
power by land, but for keeping a small fleet at her
* Oole eighter and Oole oughter.” The present representative of
the family is Sir Samuel O'Malley, Bart., who retains in his dignified
appearance and deportment, as well as in talent and ability, and in the
powerful protection he always affords his people, strong traces of the
olden time; and of the characteristic energy and perseverance of the
O’Malleys, the proud motto of “Terra marique potens,” was realised
in her; and the horse, boar and ship in the arms, significantly spoke
her power.
ANTIQUITIES. g I 15
disposal; and to her is attributed the building of
many castles along the coasts of Mayo, from Erris
to Connemarra, in Galway. Among these, Dumaa is
said to be one ; and this would seem to be another
confirmatory proof that Ballycroy once did belong to
Burrishoole. Grace O'Malley was cotemporaneous
with Elizabeth.(v) The building of Dumaa Castle
was rude, but strong; of the usual square form ; the
wall several feet thick.” Mr. M'Parlan mentions
many other “castles” in Erris, such as Inver, Knock-
malina, Corclogh, but I have never seen or heard of
them. He mistakes, I think, the Irish word cashil
for cushlaan, which means a real castle ; the first only
signifying an enclosure for cattle.
Of ancient coins, there have been many curious
ones found in the sands, one of which I have now in
my possession, but am not antiquarian enough to
decypher or tell its date. It may be necessary to
mention here, the existence, at present, in Erris, of
some of those signal towers (now ruinous and dis-
mantled), which were erected, some thirty years ago,
round the coasts of Ireland, in anticipation of a French
invasion : they are four in number, one at the West
end of Tarmon-hill, on the lands of Nakil ; another
at Aghaglosheen, both within the Mullet; one at
Doomkeeghan, and another at Glinsk; the latter two
on the North coast. They were never thoroughly
completed or used had they been now in a state of
* In the “Wild Sports of the West,” the destruction of part of
this old building is described with the characteristic spirit of the
author.
II 6 NATURAL CURIOSITIES,
repair, they might be particularly useful for the resi-
dence, or, at least, as look-out stations of the present
preventive coast guard.
NATURAL CURIOSITIES.
We may well say to such as have never seen wild
scenery, that the whole country is a natural curiosity.
But a sail along the North coasts of Erris affords
unquestionably some of the grandest and most pictu-
resque views in any part of Ireland. The views at
the Giant's Causeway, though fine, are tame, indeed,
as compared to them. In many places, there are
natural arches perforated through the cliffs, into
which, in fine weather, in curraghs or small boats,
one can penetrate to a great extent. These are
remarkable in the vicinity of Portacloy and Doonvi-
malla, as well as in other parts, and, in storms, afford
the most magnificent objects by the rebounding of the
sea, after filling, by its surges, these extensive caverns.
In some instances, the land has fallen in at consider-
able distances from the sea, and one can view, from
the top, the dark, troubled, and foamy workings of
the raging element some hundred feet below. A
small one of these, called Pullmashanthinna, near the
glebe of Tarmonearra, is visited by many, from its
BotANY-CONCHOLOGY. 3 1?
accessibility. I know nothing would gratify lowers of
grand scenery more than a sail along the cliff shores
of Erris.
In botany and conchology, I confess I am not a
sufficient adept to be able to describe, in a scientific
manner, all the natural productions, under these
heads, to be found in Erris. I had hoped, before this
would be written or published, to have the opportu-
nity of accompanying Mr. MKay, of the Dublin
University Botanic Gardens,” on an excursion into
this country, after his having visited, with interest, the
similar country of Connemarra, in Galway; but circum-
stances, over which I had no controul, prevented it.
This I can safely say, that in both those interesting
branches of science, it will be found to reward the
researches of the lovers of them. The juniper shrub,
in its wild state, is found in many parts, and the berries
used to give a gin-flavour to their spirits; samphire,
used much as a delicate pickle, grows abundantly on
the rocks along shore above high water. A species
of short submarine weed, of which I have not learned
the name, but usually called corrigeen, after being
washed, dried, and bleached, and boiled with milk or
water, makes a delicious kind of jelly, like blanc
mange. A species of submarine moss was, for many
years, thrown along the shores of Blacksod Bay, and
afforded, by its quantity, more than sufficient manure
for the land along its shores, and for miles in the
* I had become slightly acquainted with this gentleman at the
house of the late Mr. Nimmo, the engineer, - -
118 BotANY–ConCHOLOGY-zoology.
interior, and was considered superior to any of the
heavy strong weeds, thrown ashore, or growing on
the rocks, usually used for that purpose: from its
lightness, the carriage in large quantities became
comparatively easy.
I have seen it frequently so matted together after
drying, that it had all the appearence of brown paper,
and, I am sure if manufactured, could be used as such.
When taken up from floating in the water, and while
all its branches were perfect, and dried between the
leaves of a book, it had a very beautiful appearance.
This moss has not come to shore in any great quantity
for the last four years.
There is a great variety of shells, and, I am sure,
some new to the already known catalogue of our
country. Again I repeat to the lovers and adepts in
those sciences, Erris in its botany, embracing its great
varieties of “ericas,” or heaths, its lichens, mosses,
shrubs, its juxta-marine and submarine productions,
and in its curious conchology, will be found very
worthy of exploration, and reward all the attention
that may be paid to these subjects.
In the zoological department, we have the old
red deer still inhabiting the mountain corries of
Corslieve and Maumethomaas; the otter in the pools
of our soft bogs near river sides; the badger in the
rocky recesses of our glens; and the fox, that des-
troyer of lambs and poultry, committing frequent
depredations in spite of the crusades made against
him by the natives, and the persevering pursuit of
a regularly-paid hunter, who receives wool, even
J
ZOOLOGY-GEORGE FITZGERALD. 119
sheep and money, from the mountain farmers, as an
annual stipend for his unwearied exertions against
this subtle destroyer of their property.” I think I
see the old hunter, George Fitzgerald, standing now
before me, such as I have seen him once, with his
fox-skin cap, otter-skin waistcoat and leggings, with
two or three otter skins hanging over his shoulders;
the heads close to his neck, and tails trailing below
his waist; the fore-paws tied round his neck—it
seemed as if they had aimed their death-struggle at
that part of their persecutor—a long pike staff, with
a sharp hook at one end, in his hand, and his three or
four rough terriers trotting after him, himself as
keen-eyed and as rough in beard and brow, travelling
leisurely along the old rugged road through Maume-
aratta, amidst the screams of the eagle, the hawk, and
the “scald crow,” and eyeing steadily the scenes of his
past and his intended future exertions.
In the warrens within the Mullet, rabbits of every
colour, white, black, yellow, spotted, grey, &c., form-
ing, in the summer evenings, a most pleasing variety,
where so many thousands are seen playfully skipping
about on the sand plains, or among the picturesque
sand hills of their burrows. The small yellow lizard
is found in the dry heaths and bogs, but rarely ; and
of the feathered tribe, besides the usual moor-fowl, of
which Erris is certainly more productive than any
other mountain country I know, the sea coast, and
islands, and the unfrequented rocks, present a greater
* His exertions have even been celebrated in song by some
native poets,
120 CUSTOMs, MANNERS, COSTUME.
variety than, perhaps, along any other coast of our
island. I have said before, that swans, solan-geese,
and other emigrants from the Northern regions, visit
our shallow sand lakes in countless thousands. Swan
shooting affords some pieces of rare dress for our
belles, and a present of a swan's skin from a beau is
not an unacceptable favour.
There is nothing peculiar in the customs, manners,
or dispositions of the natives of Erris. The Bally-
croy colony being described already, the natives of
the other parts are generally a good-humoured, good-
natured, hospitable, generous race—of the middle size,
—active, intelligent, and, when an opportunity offers
of showing it, industrious ; though, it must be con-
fessed, little of it appears about their own habitations,
or in their agriculture; but this may be owing to
causes already explained. I have found them on the
public works as hard-working and attentive, as any
other people whatever that I have met with.
Twenty three years ago, when first I visited Erris,
there were some peculiarities in costume, particularly
among the females, which the constant intercourse
produced by the roads with the interior of the country,
and the introduction of cheap English goods into
shops at their own homes, has now nearly obliterated.
But I cannot forget the impression it made on me;
and, for many years afterwards, amongst crowds and
thousands in a distant part of the country, I frequently
recognised the female natives of Erris.
One man of real genius, though entirely unknown
to the World, and his productions, in verse and song,
BARRET, THE POET. | 2 |
only now recollected by his countrymen in their con-
vivial moments, lived in Erris, and died about sixteen
or eighteen years since. This was Dick Barret, the
poet; a more original, feeling, delightful composer in
his native language to all the grand and soul-stirring
airs of Carolan, never delighted a native Irishman.
Sweet, correct, mellifluous in his language and verse,
his songs were sung and listened to, by every one who
understood the beauties of their native language,
with the pleasurable feeling, that a remnant of the
bards of old had yet survived in Ireland. His humor-
ous compositions, in Irish, were exceedingly pleasant,
generally ironically satirical; he extravagantly praised
those for qualities of which they had the opposites,
and seemed to follow the style of Swift more than that
of any other ; indeed, he was an enthusiastic admirer
of his. His English compositions, which were few,
never exceeded mediocrity, and were generally pro-
duced on some convivial occasions. He seldom
attempted any in English, being conscious of his own
deficiency in that language, though he could write it
in prose with great spirit and correctness. He shewed
me some correspondence he had with the late Bishop
of Killalla, which was extremely well written, and
some unfinished verses (written on the soiled leaf of a
schoolboy's copy-book,) intended to be sent to Henry
Patten, Esq., of Westport, in return for a present of
Burns's Poems, which that gentleman had sent him,
having met Barret either accidently, or hearing of
his genius; they were excellent, and I begged of
him to copy and send them, but his modesty would
G
132 BARRET, THE POET.
not allow him. Though I am sure he had more com-
positions than he ever shewed any one, he so dreaded
the eye of criticism, that, I fear, they died with him ;
and to this day there has been no collection made of
his beautiful Irish songs, nor of his poorer English
productions. He did not seem to admire Burns, but
he talked of Swift with rapture. He was of the
humbler class, got some education, and became
school-master. His genius soon recommended him to
the gentry of Erris, with whom he associated on the -
most friendly terms, and no society was considered
complete in Erris without Dick Barret's presence.
He held a small farm of land from Mr. Fowler, of
Mecklenburgh-street, at Carn, near Bellmullet. I
believe he left one son by a second marriage, but I
have heard nothing of him lately. Though I have
fallen in with some of Barret's English productions, it
would be scarcely doing him justice to give a specimen
of any one of them without such a translation of his
Irish compositions as would redeem the others; and
who could fall into the same feelings, except Moore
himself, as are so pathetically given by Barrett in his
native songs. I will venture to give one English verse
of his
That I am a philanthropist I do declare,
And in my affections all persons may share.
From this declaration, my love's not confin'd,
But boundless as ocean to those of my kind.
It shan’t be engrossed by two or by three,
With mankind I glory and boast to be free.
And boast to be free,
And boast to be free,
With mankind I glory and boast to be free.
CLIMATE-DISEASES, } 23
CLIMATE–DISEASES.
The climate of Erris, situated as it is on the Atlantic
is generally mild and salubrious; snow seldom remains
a week even on the highest mountains; along the
shores it almost immediately melts away. Hard frosts
are also very rare, but storms are very frequent, and
the naked state of the country, without trees, hedges,
or shelter, gives pernicious effect to them, sometimes to
the destruction of the entire crops. In the mountains,
no cattle, except milch-cows or young weak calves,
are housed, and the general equality of temperature
is surprising. In summer, the breezes from the sea
make it agreeably refreshing ; in the winter, the wind,
though high, is not cold : coming off the great ocean
for a great part of the year, it carries with it saline
particles, which produce asthmas and consumptions.
Bysentery is a frequent complaint, and typhus fever
has often made desperate ravages, particularly in the
dirty crowded villages, where the miasma, produced
from rotten fish-heads and entrails, could not fail to
cause it. The people of Erris are not generally
subject to scrofulous complaints, which, considering
their general food, is rather surprising. Upon the
whole, the population are remarkably healthy.
We find in the statistical table of the peninsula,
(page 58) after two years of great distress and priva-
tion, only 236 deaths, in a population of near 9000,
i 24, DISEASES-D IS PENSAIRY,
or 1 in 40 nearly, and the increase annually 1 in 20.
The instances of longevity are very many. The moun-
taineers are remarkably stout and healthy, though
seldom wearing shoes on their ordinary business, par-
ticularly in tending cattle, except such as let the water
in and out again. The journeys they make are quite
extraordinary. A fellow in Ballycroy thinks nothing
of taking a ten gallon keg of whiskey, weight 150lbs.,
at least, and crossing the mountains to Newport, a
distance of twenty miles, sells it, and returns home
in the evening, without the slightest appearance of
fatigue and carelessly resumes his usual occupation.
A great propensity to drink whiskey existed among
the people, but, owing to illicit distillation being much
given up, and from the exertions of some of the clergy,
it has proportionally decreased. It is curious to
observe, that beer seems to be a particular favourite;
for, on fair days in Bellmullet, the whole stock of the
publicans is soon exhausted. -
In the year 1830, a dispensary was established in
Bellmullet, by subscription, from the proprietor and
inhabitants; and, I am happy to find, it has been lately
aided by some public funds. Previous to that date,
there was no medical advice nearer than 30 miles to
Bellmullet, nor medicine, except such simple ones as
could be given with safety by gentlemen or ladies.
Major Bingham, Mrs Dawson (mother to the rector),
and the Rev. Mr. Lyons, kept medicine chests for the
relief of the extremely poor, but their exertions could
only be very limited. Although Doctor Burns, who
attends the dispensary, does all that is possible to be
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS NECESSA.R.Y. 125
done, yet the district of Erris is so extensive, that
two others, at least, would be required, and necessary,
if funds could be procured: one in Glenamoy, to which
the Doomkeeghan and Kilcommon, with the Glenamoy
men themselves, and the neighbouring district of Bel-
derig, might come, and another in Ballycroy. These
three would suffice for the barony.
HMPROVEMENTS NECESS ARY.
Before mentioning these general improvements
that are necessary for Erris, we shall notice briefly
what has been already done. The central road from
Castlebar to Bellmullet and Blacksod Point, already
noticed in the Introduction, was commenced in 1819,
with funds borrowed by the grand jury from the
government; but, being incomplete in 1822, was
taken up by Mr. Nimmo, the engineer, sent down in
that year to give employment to the starving poor in
the province of Connaught. Under his general direc-
tion, and the immediate superintendence of the
writer of these pages, it was opened for carriages
in 1824, and subsequently completed. From this
road two branches were laid out in 1822, one into
Ballycroy, intended to be continued to meet the road
from Achil to Newport at Clew Bay. Of this only
$26 GENERAL IMPROVEMENTs NECESSAR3.
three miles were formed and partially gravelled, and
it remains so since. The second branch extended
from Bangor to Tulloghan ferry, North of the
Owenmore. This was all formed and partially
gravelled, but the bridges remain unbuilt, and
gravelling incomplete. From Killalla, but commenc-
ing at Ballycashil, another road was begun in 1822,
and completed nearly as far as Belderig, seven miles
in 1827, after which it was extended through Erris
as far as Glenamoy and Bealanabuy in 1830, and
since further extended to near Bellmullet. The
greater part of this is gravelled, remainder formed,”
bridges not complete, but, when opened, it will be a
very useful line. A pier for fishing boats has been
built at Blacksod Point, another at Saleen, or
Binghamstown, and a third at Bellmullet, which
serves as a shipping-quay for that town. (p)
Besides the roads already mentiomed, the comple-
tion and keeping in repair of which is of paramount
interest, the greatest object of improvement to Erris
would be to continue still opening the country by
roads. Although a good deal was attempted by the
local committees for the relief of the poor, in 1831,
in making partially short-cross roads to different
villages; yet it requires more ample funds, and more
directing skill, to effect the great lines of road that
are yet necessary for so great a district as Erris. H
will take leave to point out some of these.
* I find that the whole is now (1835) gravelled, and bridges
completed.
# This year (1885), almost all completed.
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY. 127
Commencing at the road from Achil to Newport,
near the Southern boundary of Erris, a new piece to
be made to join the old road that is made through
Ballycroy.” This old road, by some improvements,
might be continued to near Letrea in Ballycroy, from
which, turning to the left, it should proceed West of
the hill and chapel of Cross, between Drimsleed and
Knockmeelean, to the shore, near which it might be
continued to where the tide ends in the Aghnis river;
crossing which, at or near the salmon fishery, it
should run direct to the fishery of Goulamore.
Crossing the Owenmore there, continue West of the
Munhin river to the central road near Munhin
bridge, and, proceeding thence along the West shore
of Lough Carramore, cross the new Glenamoy road
near Broadhaven, and thence, through Inver and
Glengad, to the ferry of Doonkeeghan, at Rossduagh.
This, running chiefly along the coast where the popu-
lation is principally situated, and in a direction at
right angles with the three great leading lines that
penetrate from the West coast into the interior,
would give the advantage of proceeding to these towns
from the intermediate parts of the coast, or to take
their produce to Bellmullet market as the most conve-
nient and easiest of access. The length of this
might be 27 Irish or about 35 British miles.
From Donkeeghan (a very populous district,) with
branches to the inlets of Portacloy and Porturlin, a
road might be made to meet the great Glenamoy road
* I find this has been done.
128 GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS-SHIP CANAL.
at the bridge, where that road would cross the river
and proceeding Southward, cross the summit of
Sheskin, and thence direct to Corick bridge, for
Castlebar or Crossmolina. This would be a very
useful road. The road which Mr. M'Donnell has got
made into Sheskin from the central road might be
produced, with advantage, Eastward by Glencolna,
Altdarig, and Glencullen, to meet the road from
Ballinglen to Killalla, which has been lately much
improved by Major Gardiner's exertions.
Another road should commence in Ballycroy from
the proposed road near Letrea and proceed South-East
to Shraighduggan, thence through the pass of Maume-
arata, after which a branch should turn to Newport,
nearly by the old track from Newport to Erris, and
another, keeping North of the Birreencorragh moun-
tains through Keenagh, to join the central Erris road
where an old one leads to Rakestreet and Crossmolina.
This latterpartshould be improved, and have the bridges
built on it. Onefrom Ballycroy fishery to Corickbridge
would be useful. The foregoing are the principle main
roads that would, at present, be necessary for Erris;
but there are many very useful cross-roads, that would
be required to fill up this general outline for a more
detailed improvement.
Next, after opening the country thoroughly by
roads, the greatest improvement for Erris would be
cutting a ship channel across the isthmus of Bell-
mullet, between Blacksod Bay and Broadhaven.
Indeed, it is not only of importance to Erris, but to
the general coasting trade of Ireland. A look at the
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS.–SHIP CANAL. 129
chart of the North and West coasts of Ireland will
at once shew its great utility. From Killibeggs, in
HDonegal, with the exception of the deeply-embayed
and often dangerous harbour of Sligo, there is not a
single place of refuge for a vessel, until we reach
Broadhaven, where ample security is afforded ;
so that if a cut were made at Bellmullet, the very
wind that would keep a vessel weather-bound in
Broadhaven, would be that which would best suit
to pass southward; and the same with respect to ships
detained in Blacksod Bay, with the advantage of so
much still water navigation. The produce of Bell-
mullet could then be easily transmissible South or
North. At present the vessels come to the pier on
the Blacksod side, and must thence, in sailing for
Glasgow or Liverpool, sail up the whole length of
Blacksod Bay, and, rounding the peninsula, sail East-
ward on their course within three or four miles of the
pier they started from, after encountering probably an
adverse wind for the greater part of the distance. It
is true, that this latter inconvenience could be, in a
great measure, obviated, by having a pier or landing
place on the Broadhaven side of Bellmullet, to which
vessels trading to or from those ports, or any on the
North or East coasts of Ireland, might come ; but
there is not a suitable place for such nearer than two
English miles from the town, the inconvenience of
shipping or unshipping at which would be very consi-
derable and expensive. -
The cost of erecting a good pier and quay for this
purpose would go far towards effecting the other
- G 5
130 SHIP CANAL.
greater object. For promoting fishery, it would be
of Vast importance. At present, when the herring
fishery occurs in either of the bays, the row-boats
are obliged to be hauled across the isthmus to either
bays by men; an expensive as well as detrimental
process both to the boats and cargoes. The fish is
obliged to be taken out at either side, and carried
across on the backs of men or horses to the other,
and the boat then reloaded. The consequence is,
there are no sail-boats in Broadhaven, and they only
seek for as much fish as will give a winter's supply to
the families of the owners. Were this cut executed,
such boats would be built as could stand the rough
seas; and, if no market offered at home, they could
easily bring their loading to Westport, or Newport,
by a sheltered embayed line of navigation. The
same may be said with respect to agricultural produce.
A choice of market would be given, and an additional
stimulus to the growth of grain, which must now
either entirely depend on the price to be procured in
Bellmullet, or the alternative of illicit distillation.
To the revenue of the country it would be of impor-
tance. From this (the residence of the inspecting
commander of coast guards,) he could, without
hauling his boat across, as at present, freely visit all
his out-stations, either by boat or by a larger cutter,
who, had she a free run through here, could with
rapidity intercept any smuggler South or North, or
communicate with the vessels of war in either bay,
or in the offing. It is a curious fact, that in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Wm. Monson, Admiral
SHIP CANAL • 13).
of the Coasts, pursued pirates into Broadhaven, and had
to haul his boats across the isthmus of Bellmullet, to
come up with them at Inniskea. He mentions this with
some other curious local circumstances in his “ Naval
Tracts,” to be found in Price's Collection in the Library
of Trinity College, Dublin. The importance of the
place did not even then escape the observations of
that shrewd politician and able seaman.
The suppression of illicit distillation along the
coasts might be greatly facilitated by having a large
boat at this central point for conveying the revenue
police to any part where it might be necessary, either
for the coast or interior; for, as already remarked,
there is no part of the interior more distant than six
miles, in a straight line, from the coast.
The practice of illicit distillation had been very
prevalent until lately, although not entirely disused ;
the existence of a home market for grain has induced
many to give up such a ruinous practice. The impor-
£ance of this cut being clearly shewn, Mr. Carter,
the proprietor, directed the writer of this, in 1824,
to make the necessary plans, sections, and estimates
to be laid before the government. A copy was given
to Mr. Nimmo, their engineer, who, adopting the plan
and sentiments of the author's report, thus expresses
himself:—“The most important improvement here
would be to cut a channel across the isthmus, so as to
permit boats to pass at high water from one haven to
the other, as each of the inlets dry to a considerable
distance, at low water, and Broadhaven, in particular,
132 GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY, ETC.
is shallow at the head. It would be necessary to
continue this cut for some way through the strand;
but assuming only the depth of eleven feet, which is
obtainable near the shore in the Blacksod Bay, I find
the cut would have to be 120 perches in length, and
might probably be executed for about £5,000. The
bottom, for part of the way, is mica-slate rock, which
is above high water; the remainder, bog and gravel.
This cut would permit the passage, in most tides, of such
vessels as use the Forth and Clyde canal, and would be
certainly a great convenience in the time of the fishery;
but, I presume, it is unnecessary in this place to
enter much further into the detail of probable expense.
A plan of the isthmus and probable direction is
annexed to this report.* As the tide in Blacksod
rises earlier and somewhat higher than in Broadhaven,
there would, consequently, be a current through the
cut which might enable it to be kept clean without
lockage, and this current, if not too strong so as
to create bars, would probably improve the present
channel through the upper part of Broadhaven; at
all events, there can be little difficulty in cutting
that channel straight, and preserving it by jetties or
gravel lining. The Sound of Achil, though it ebbs so
far as to be fordable at low water, permits vessels of
the class of coasters to pass at high water, and, with
the proposed cut at Bellmullet, we would have a kind
of inland navigation from Westport to the Bay of
Donegal.”
* To the Commissioners of Irish Fisheries,
BOAT CANAL. i 33
This opinion, put on public record by such a man
as Alexander Nimmo, is quite decisive of its impor-
tance and advantages; and, after such, it is unneces-
sary to say more on this subject.
Next after the cut at Bellmullet, to connect Lough
Carromore with the sea on both sides, would be most
desirable. As already stated, it is only fifteen feet
over the sea at high water(g), and the height of the
summit between, only 25 feet, chiefly bog; some rock
appears at high water of the lake. We would then
have only 31 feet cutting at the summit, allowing six
feet to be the depth of water in the canal, and, by
running it in the shortest direction to Broadhaven,
the distance would be 300 Irish perches; and two
single, or one double, lock would effect the object.
But I would prefer continuing the canal, or, in fact,
making it altogether on the West side of the stream
that flows from near the summit to Broadhaven, along
the sloping ground, and terminate in the deep water
South side of Rinashunnagh. The distance would be
increased 300 perches more, and I would lock down
to low water, say twelve feet, or an additional single
lock. There are no difficulties of any consequence in
this route. The stream between Pulagurraan and
Rimashunnagh might be used as a feeder, or crossed
by a small aqueduct. By this latter route, much
sailing round Rinashunnagh would be saved, and
have the advantage of working at all times of tide,
not attainable by stopping at the head of Trakirtaan,
the point where the sea is nearest to the lake. The
connexion on the South side with Tulloghaan Bay
i84. BC AT CAN ALS.
would be effected either by cutting out the shallows
of the Munhin river, improving its course, and forming
a towing path on its banks for drawing up boats; the
fall being about 1 in 900, this is easily practicable.
The weirs for fishing at Goulamore give some obstruc-
tion to this, but a sluice-gate would readily remedy
the evil; or a regular canal could be cut through the
bog on the West side, and discharge below the fishery
by two single locks.
The great advantage of effecting this improvement
will at once be perceivable, when we recollect that on
the Eastern shores of the lake, or near it at Glencullen,
limestone, and limestone gravel, is procurable, which
might be conveyed down the canal on both sides as a
constant trade, and that, in return, might be brought
sea-weed manure, shell-sand, coral, &c. for manuring
the whole country on the borders of the lake. The
facility of transport for their produce of every kind to
Bellmullet, and giving to this little inland sea, and
the inhabitants of all the adjacent country, the advan-
tages of attending to fishery in either of the bays,
South or North, would be another of the good conse-
quences resulting from the work.
Connected with this navigation on the South side is
the making a cut at Geesala, from Tulloghan Bay to
Blacksod Bay, across a narrow isthmus only 140
perches wide ; the summit level only eight feet over
high water, and deep bog throughout. No lock would
be therefore necessary, barely a common bog-cut,
and might be effected for a very trifling sum. It would
save twelve additional miles of sailing or rowing
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY, ETC. 133
round Doohooma Head, in going to Bellmullet,
besides encountering the bar of Tulloghan, not at all
times practicable, and the heavy swell off Doohooma
Head. The rich flats on the Owenmore, the populous
village of Trista, with a great portion of Ballycroy,
would have, through this, an easy, safe water carriage
for their produce to market, and bring manure weed
from the West to their own shores. I am not prepared
to say but that the waters of the Owenmore might
find their way out into the ocean in this direction ;
for the cut would be directly opposite the run of the
river in that part.(r) Should another town or village
be ever erected in Erris, the best site, next after
Bellmullet, would be at Goulamore, between the junc-
tion of the rivers of Munhin and Owenmore and the
sea, through which the proposed road from Ballycroy,
on the South and the Northern district of Erris, would
pass. Almost despairing, as I do, of making Tul-
laghaan Bar available for general trading purposes,
this last proposed cut would afford more sheltered and
better ingress and egress to vessels trading with this
he W to W11.
Ballycroy being distant from Newport and Bell-
mullet, would probably in time require the erection of
a small town and exporting place. The best site for
this would be within the little island of Innis-Aghoo,
or the mainland of Tallagh, to which a branch road
should be made from the main one. To this point
there is free deep water from Blacksod Bay, but with
a heavy current in the narrow passage between
Innisbegil and Innis-Aghoo ; on the South, there is a
136 GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY, ETC.
sheltered but shallow passage to Newport through the
Sound of Achil at high water. There are some rocks
which might be beaconed.
In time, also, a site for a village might be well
chosen in Glenamoy, where the new government
road crosses the river : there also the tide ends, and
the proposed cross-roads from Doomkeeghan (and its
branches) to Corick bridge and Castlebar, would
meet. The bar outside, and the current at the
ferry, offer serious obstructions to free navigation up
to this point; but the proposed pier within Rinroe
Point would afford an asylum harbour until the bar
would be practicable.
At the village of Doohooma, a good site for a pier
suitable for the deep sea or bay fishery; another at
Rinarone (Doolough) would convenience a great
population, and add to the shelter which that creek ,
and channel already affords on the East shore of
Blacksod Bay. These, with the piers already men-
tioned in Blacksod Bay, the proposed ones at Inniskea,
Portmore, Portmore (Annagh), one in Broadhaven,
near Bellmullet, another at Inver, one at Knockma-
lina, on the opposite side, and the one at Rinroe,
would afford ample protection and landing places for
the coasts of Erris.
PLANTING.. 137
PLANTING.
That planting might be introduced with effect in
many parts of Erris, there can be no doubt. The
brushwood of Glencastle, Ballymonelly, and Dukell
shews the natural tendency of those parts to the
growth of wood, besides the evidence of former
forests existing in the country, shewn by the quantity
of timber dug up almost in every part through the
bogs. It has latterly been tried, but injudiciously,
and on a small scale, at Bellmullet, by Mr. Ivers and
the Rev. Mr. Dixon (since dead), and by Major Bing-
ham at Bangor. One fault seems to be, that the
seedlings were not reared in the country, nor planted
in sufficient breadth to shelter one another, and
entirely without protecting screens. There are many
of the sheltered glens, unsuited for any other improve-
ment, that would produce timber of the best quality.
Along the West side of Lough Carrowmore, parts of
the glens between that and Glencastle, that beautiful
glen itself would be vastly improved by planting
on the steep braes of the ravine, the doon, and the
other picturesque hills adjoining ; the East side of
Bangor, Top of Glencullen, Sheskin, Barusky, almost
every part of the glens of Ballymonelly, about the
East base of Curslieve, and West of it in Ballycroy,
parts of the Curries, and lower down the mountain,
Dookell (the name itself signifies the “Dark
Wood”), all these places would be well suited for
planting.
#38 EDUCATION.
Mr. Bald, in his report to the Bog Commissioners
on the district of Morisk (a country similar to Erris),
recommends planting as the principal improvement to
be pursued in similar glens. It should only be done,
in my opinion, where cultivation could not reach, or
be profitable. I am always fonder of growing corn
than trees, where possible.
E DUCATION.
There is scarcely any improvement that can be
effected in a country equal to that of properly educating
its inhabitants, but unfortunately all the public attempts
that have been made in that way have been quite
unproductive of the desired success, from the intro-
duction of sectarian animosity, and its consequent
baneful influence, into schools intended for useful
education. There were some schools introduced into
Erris by the Baptist and Hibernian Societies previous
to 1824, and I believe one exists still, or did lately,
under the influence of the Rev. Mr. Dawson, the rector.
In 1824, the Rev. Mr. Lyons, parish priest of Kilmore,
brought the inspector of the Kildare-street Society into
Erris, with the hope of establishing four or five schools
in his parish, under his own immediate superinten-
dence (having tried and proved the good effect of such
in the parish he had left, Ballina); but, owing to the
deeds and necessary stipulations required not being
ED UCATION, 139
signed or agreed to by the proprietors of the lands, or
for some other unfortunate causes, this attempt, at
improving the moral and intellectual qualities of his
people, failed. His active mind, however, would not
allow the plan entirely to fall to the ground: he esta.
blished one himself. His school house, the chapel,
got some assistance for forms, slates, &c. from Some
society (I believe the Kildare-street), but it was princi-
pally at his own expense this school was kept on foot;
its average number of scholars 150, and the system of
education the same as practised usually in such schools.
Selected portions of the Scriptures being read.
In the mountains, the chapels, as usual, became the
school-houses; the teachers (paid by the people) often
of a very inferior description, and, where chapels did
not exist, the custom was for two or three families to
join, and have “the master” week in turn with each.
Supported, of course, by the family, their salary was
trifling indeed, generally one shilling per quarter for
each child. In the war times, there were a great
number of these “masters,” deserters from the army,
who, seeking shelter in these then inaccessible wilds,
and hence it is that
there is scarcely a man to be found in the whole
3.
became “youth's instructors;
mountain country of Erris that does not speak English,
read, write, and keep accounts, sufficient at least for
the purposes of buying and selling. -
But schools should embrace something more than
this. Wational schools should have national objects,
the improvement of the people in a manner condu-
cive to the improvement of the country in those
14.0 E}D U CATION e
industrious, useful arts and habits of life, from which
peace and prosperity must follow. The writer of
these pages, in making a report in the year 1824 on
the improvements contemplated at Bellmullet, ad-
dressed to Mr. Carter, thus noted his"sentiments on
the subject of education :-
“In the plan of improvements, I have marked out
a plot for a school-house, and a field for the teacher.
The introduction of a good system of education among
the peasantry of the kingdom is so generally produc-
tive of good, that all endeavours to extend it should
be adopted ; but, with education of a moral and reli-
gious kind, I would introduce industry of any or every
description. I would not only teach a boy to read
and write, but also to work, so that when he arrives
at a period of life when he must leave school, and act
independently for himself, he will become a useful
member of society, instead of becoming what most half.
educated men are, (with no prospect before them but
returning to the spade as a daily labourer,) nuisances
and pests to society. The linen manufacture (then
flourishing) is the first consideration to which the
boys from the Peninsula should be directed, as there
the population is nearly growing beyond the means of
subsistence by agriculture, and flax grows luxuriantly.
Half-a-dozen looms, of the best construction, with
the tackle, &c. necessary for them, might be attached
to the schools, and as many boys might be instructed
two hours in the day alternately with others; so that,
allowing eight hours for school, 24 boys would
EID U CATIONo 14, 1
receive instruction daily, having six hours each left
for other literary instruction. Spinning-wheels might
be procured for the girls, and the most approved
methods of saving and dressing flax shewn them. In
a little time, a flax-mill might be erected in Bell-
mullet. The rearing and dressing of flax gives almost
constant employment to the female part of a family,
and tends to increase the quantity of arable land.
The profits arising from this manufacture are gene-
rally steady, and, in a short time, a school of this
kind would have in itself not only the means of
paying the first outfit and annual expense, but of
clothing some of the more destitute.
The promoting of agriculture in the mountain
districts is a great object; and this might most mate-
rially be advanced by introducing into the schools
small cheap tracts on the best mode of cultivation for
different soils(s),-the nature of manures,—the best
- add to
which a field for experiment in fencing, draining,
kind of implements, rearing of cattle ;
ploughing, and application by practice of what had
been daily read, and it would tend not only to make
good practical agriculturists of the sons, but the
fathers, seeing the great advantages of such a system,
would soon contrast it with their own old run-ridge
way, and their two-pronged spade, and gradually
adopt those which they would see so vastly prefer-
able.”—“The general and most approved principles
of building boats, making lines, nets, &c. might be
shewn and practised, and tracts on the best mode of
i42 EDUCATION.
baiting and catching fish, and of curing and packing
them in barrels.
All these might be introduced into the school with-
out much expense, and the results, under an active
intelligent teacher and general superintendant, with
sufficiently able assistants, would be productive of
permanent good to the country in general.
The boy, instead of being sent adrift on the world
with only as much learning as to be able to read and
write, and, of course, otherwise useless, would have
then a steady means of earning a livelihood in whatever
pursuit he would fancy, or to which circumstances
would lead him.”
It is quite gratifying to find, that though the fore-
going were the private opinions of the author, given
to a private gentleman in 1824, that similar ideas have
struck men of benevolent and intelligent minds since
that period; for, at this moment, there is being
erected, at Hollymount, in this county (Mayo), a
Provincial model school, for instructing a limited
number of boys in improved agriculture, and girls
in the proper management of dairy, &c. &c. (but for
AGRICULTURE only) from funds belonging to the
Mansion-House Relief Committee remaining since
the year 1822. Mr. Lyndsay, the estimable proprie-
tor of Hollymount, gave the accommodation required,
and Mr. Hyet, the active and intelligent agent of the
Committee, commenced its execution. It is to be
regretted, that it is limited to agriculture solely. My
plan would be more generally useful, particularly in
EDUCATION. 143.
the district under consideration —One school of this
kind at Bellmullet, one at Goulamore, one at Tul-
loghaan, one in Ballymonelly, one in Ballycroy, one
in Glenamoy, one in Doonkeeghan, one in Inver
(in the mountain country), one in Shanaghy, one in
Binghamstown, one in Aghleam, and one in Inniskea
(for the peninsula), would suit all the purposes; and,
as we are to have NATIONAL SCHOOLS, it would be
hoped that the government would extend their views
and means to such truly useful NATIONAL purposes for
the benefit of the rising and succeeding generations.
The Templemoyle school, near Londonderry, sup-
ported by the subscriptions of the neighbouring
gentry and other proprietors, was one of those useful
establishments, and has contributed amazingly to
the diffusion of the knowledge of good agriculture
through the district in which it was established;
and boys brought up at that practical school have
been eagerly sought after by land proprietors as
stewards and superintendents of farming operations,
so much so, that it became matter of considerable
speculation for respectable farmers to send one or two
of their sons there, as means of establishing them in
life.(t) These, and the establishing of agricultural
societies through different parts of the country, by
which premiums would be given to the best agricul-
turist in different departments; cattle shows of every
kind would create a spirit of emulation and enter-
prise now unfortunately not known in this part of the
gountry. -
144. TOWN OF BIELLMIUILLET.
I will now close this description of Erris with an
account of the present state of Bellmullet, a plan of
which accompanies this. Bellmullet, as originally
designed, consisted of one street, along the main road
from Castlebar to Blacksod Point, and reached from
the Broadhaven shore, and somewhat Eastward, to
the shore of Blacksod, having a square nearly in the
mid space, (but nearer Broadhaven,) of 100 feet front
in each direction of building. The length of the
main street was 1800 feet, in which, and the square,
with a few houses in the newly-constructed cross
streets, we find 120 houses, of which 73 are of two
stories and slated, 37 thatched, and 10 in progress of
being built. The demand for building plots increas-
ing, five additional streets were laid out, and the road
ways made by the proprietor: on these some plots were
taken, a site for a market place and Catholic chapel
laid out, in which there has been no further progress
made. Mr. Ivers, with the spirit of improvement
which characterises him, built, opposite Henry-street,
in William-street (see plan), a sessions'-house, the
under part of which might occasionally be used for
storage of articles brought to market. To the enter.
prise and exertions of this gentleman, Bellmullet owes
principally the present respectable appearance it
makes, and most of the trade carried on to and from
it. Mr. Davis, Mr. Reilly, Mr. Carey, other respect-
able merchants, have also contributed largely to its
rising prosperity, as well as to their own benefit. It
is also unnecessary to say, that the residence of the
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BELMULLET-POPULATION. 145
intelligent inspector of coast guards there, Captain
Nugent, from the commencement and before, had no &
small share in its rise and prosperous progress; for, with
the eye of a seaman, and the intelligence of a private
gentleman, he saw that the situation must succeed,
and day and night he urged on the half-doubting
original speculators, until a basis was established on
which a good superstructure has been, and a noble one
may hereafter be raised. &
A constabulary-police station is fixed here in Bar-
rack-street. There are six large mercantile stores for
the purchase of grain, capable of holding 5,000 tons,
and others daily rising for the accommodation of the
increasing trade. The number of shops, tradesmen,
and people in small business, together with accommo-
dation for coast guards, &c. has increased so much,
that there are no houses now fit for respectable
private lodgings; a circumstance which has forced
Captain Ireland, the excellent stipendiary magistrate
of the district, to remove to a distance of three miles,
where, by chance, he got the residence of a private
gentleman to accommodate his family, the gentleman
removing into a large town for the benefit of the
education of his children. A few respectable houses
built up by the proprietor would obviate this, and pay
well for the expenditure. Public officers, above all
others, should have good accommodation provided for
them in such a new place as Bellmullet.(u)
The total population of Belmullet, (without taking
into account those who live on other parts of the
* *
H.
j46 BELMULLET-POPULATIONſ.
townland, according to the census of 1831,) is 585, of
which the following form a part :—
Clergymen, g g g Q © d l
T]octor, • . . . . * I
Merchants, wº e wº g & 5
Shopkeepers, . & e g g 9
Innkeepers, gº e tº * g & 2
Publicans, e * * g tº e 4.
Teachers, • , , , g g o 2
Writing Clerks, te • . & 2
JBakers, $ g g * 2
Butchers, © • & * º 4.
Taylors, • & ºp ſº & & 2
Dress-makers . fe * g e * 2
Bonnet maker, . g gy te & tº }
Shoemakers, & g * & 5
Clothier, g * w e & H
JDyer, & * e e w º }
Masons, * 3,
Carpenters * & 3,
Slater, e § * * |
Painter and Glazier, . sº * 2
Sawyer, cº º: l
Nailor, © I
Blacksmiths, . g 3.
Wheelwright, . º e I
Brazier, & & tº * . º l
Boatwrights, . & * g • 2
The remaining families live chiefly by farming,
dealing, labour, or are coast guards and police, the
officers of which reside there also. In 1825, when
Belmullet was commenced, there was not a tradesman
residing there ; they were obliged to be brought at
great inconvenience from the interior of the country,
Ballina, Castlebar, Westport, and Newport. A few
were then in Binghamstown, but chiefly engaged by
Major Bingham. At present, they find plenty of
employment where they reside and in the country.
Since the separation of the religious duties of the two
RAILWAY. 147
parishes, a clergyman of the Church of England
resides in Kilcommon, until lately at Bangor, but now
has taken ground for building a house in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of Belmullet. The increase of
arable land in and about the town since its erection is
most extraordinary, On a map lately made of it and
the townlands, next East for 2% miles this is shewn,
and the lands divided into pieces, so that each indivi-
dual lives on and improves his own holding; the whole
system of commonage being entirely abolished in those
parts, as well as in the direction of the peninsula. On
the whole, it is one of the most gratifying spectacles of
improvement that can be seen anywhere, considering.
its state ten years ago, compared to what it is at
present; and if we look to the future, we can have no
less pleasing anticipations: and considering the position
of the town itself for trade, and that it forms the
nucleus from which improvements in agriculture will
extend by its influence and example to the most
remote quarters of the country. This will be greatly
facilitated by the late division of property between the
principal proprietors, Messrs. Carter and Bingham.
Since writing the foregoing pages a project has been
proposed, which will not only be of vast importance to
Ireland, but to the district of country which have
been describing more especially ; namely, the forming
a Railroad from Dublin to some port on the West
coast of Ireland, best suited as a station for carrying on
a correspondence and trade with America. Should
l48 RAILWAY.
Blacksod and Broadhaven be the Western termination
adopted, it will be well for us to consider this subject
fairly and impartially. There are three principal
points that have been proposed as a termination to the
railroad. First, Valentia; distance from Dublin, in a
straight line, 195 English miles ; is the most westerly
harbour in Ireland, having two entrances, from the
North and South ; very narrow ; one breaks across
from side to side in blowing weather, the other
requires a leading wind to carry a sailing vessel in or
out of it (a steamer, to be sure, could work her way
against this impediment). The harbour within, not suffi-
ciently large for any great number of vessels to lie at
anchor, although the ground and shelter is very good.
It is not in the direct line from Dublin to the banks of
Newfoundland, and, although it is the most westerly
port of Ireland, the distance from it would not be the
shortest to that point which must be first arrived at
by all vessels sailing in that direction. With respect
to the road from Dublin to it, I cannot speak from
absolute knowledge of the country, but it has been
stated to me by an engineer of celebrity, that there
are such serious obstructions to the construction of a
good line of railroad as to amount to next to an
impossibility. It would run for half the distance, it
is true, through a rich and populous country, and
improve the other half vastly; but it must be, from the
nature of the country, very much more expensive than
ordinary, and the distance to be made much greater
than to any of the other points mentioned. And
although the three points, Dublin, Valentia, and
RAILWAY. 149
Newfoundland form a triangle, two sides of which
must be traversed by land or sea; still, if the harbour
were sufficiently good, and spacious, and the country
to it more practicable for a road, the expense should
form the least consideration, it being the most Wes-
terly point in Ireland.
Galway offers itself next. There cannot be a ques-
tion but it is the shortest, and as level a line as any
that could be found between Dublin and any good
harbour on the West coast of Ireland. The direct
distance in English miles 115,” shorter than that to
Valentia by 80 miles. The harbour sufficiently spacious,
and, although there are some drawbacks in the way of
tacking room, I believe the shoals are so beaconed that
there could be no serious objection to it in this way.
But what then is the objection, for it is nearly on the
straight line to Newfoundland, merely difference of
time and inferior roadsted. A vessel to steam outfrom
Galway to arrive at the same westing as Valentia or
Blacksod, will have 60 English miles to pass over,
which, at 10 miles per hour, will be 6 hours; but you
gain in time on your railroad between Dublin and it
(allowing 20 miles per hour for the rate on the road).
In order to arrive at the same westing as Valentia,
you have 53 road, added to 6 sea—113 hours in all.
By road to Valentia, supposing the road as level as to
Galway, and the rate 20 miles per hour, 9; hours; diffe-
rence, l; hour in favour of Valentia. In going to
# The distances taken from Beaufort’s Map of Ireland.
150 - - RAILWAY.
Galway, you pass through the centre of Ireland, and
through very important towns, connecting with it the
navigation of the Shannon. In going to Valentia, you
cut off a narrow section of Ireland, passing through
some good towns but not of the same importance as
connecting this great line of navigation for the trading
purposes of the railway. --
Let us next consider Blacksod as compared with
the two others; distance in astraight line, 155 English
miles; on the direct line from Dublin to Newfound-
land; time by railroad 73 hours; shorter in time than
Galway, by 3% hours for the same westing, and than
Valentia by two hours. I allow that Blacksod being
on the direct line, nearly the time getting out of port
to the same exact westing as Valentia, will be com-
pensated in the passage. With respect to the levels
and facility for constructing the road, I myself can
speak with confidence. The line is as level fully as
that to Galway; the obstructions are less than
ordinary. There are no mountains across the line of
road, and, where it runs through them, there happen
to be valleys in the very direction, the greatest slope
of which will not be more than 1 in 200. This line
would cross the Shannon navigation, from which a
branch could be run to the important port of Sligo :
going North of Lough Conn, it would almost touch
the rising town of Ballina, and from it a short branch
could be made to Westport, (for I will discuss
afterwards the subject of proposing CLºw Bay as
the termination of the railroad, with some other
dreamings that appeared on the subject in the Mayo
RAILWAY-COMPARISON OF HARBOURs. 15 i
Papers,) Mullingar, Longford, crossing the Shannon
at or near Tarmonbarry, Strokestown, French-Park,
Ballaghaderreen, and thence in the direction to
Swimeford, in which it was proposed some years ago
by Mr. Nimmo, and lately by others, to make a mail
coach road; from Swineford, nearly by the present
new line towards Foxford, but at Calla Lough keeping
East of the Moy to near Mount Falcon, or probably
as low as Rehins, for a bridge site, thence to Cross-
molina, Corick Bridge, down the valley of the Owen-
more to Bangor; from which either of two lines might be
chosen, one by the verge of Lough Carramore to Broad-
haven and Belmullet, or Southward by Trista to Doo-
lough, Claggan, or Belmullet. These would be the great
leading points for the road. Let us now compare the
harbour of Blacksod with the others. I have stated in
a former part of this work, before I had any idea of this
new project of a railroad, that the extent of surface
of Blacksod Bay was 45 square miles. Let us now
see from M*Kenzie's soundings what extent of it has
3 fathoms at low water (18 feet), and we shall find 25
square English miles. The extent of 5 fathom water,
or 30 feet, 8 square miles. This extent would float
vessels of the largest size in the navy; ordinary
steamers and trading vessels do not exceed 12 feet
water; but suppose vessels so large as to draw 15 feet,
we would have 20 square miles at least for holding .
such vessels. Valentia, altogether from shore to shore,
up to Cahersiveen, would not be 7 square miles. I
have now before me the chart of Valentia harbour
made by A. Nimmo, and published by the Admiralty.
}52 RAILWAY-com PARISON OF HARBOURS,
The Western entrance is only 13 cable, or § nearly
of a naulic mile in width, and, for a length of the third
of a mile, the depth is 4 fathoms, after which it imme-
diately shoals to 2 fathoms; and within Loghaan Island
(# of a mile farther in), it shoals to 14 fathom, or seven
eet /// I count twenty-three rocks beyond the line of
low water in two miles of this entrance l l l with a
channel so intricate, that the ablest pilots would be
necessary, on any occasion, for venturing this passage.
The North-Western entrance, from Cromwell's Fort
to Beg Innis Point, is only 1% cable wide, or about
the #th of a mile ; depth, 6% to 7% fathoms; within
the entrance, 3 of a mile, and directly in the middle of
y 9
the entrance is the “Harbour Rock,” to avoid which
four different sailing marks are given. After you pass
that, the harbour is well sheltered and safe, and in
more than 5 fathom water for a superficial space of
more than one-fourth of a square mile / / The three-
fathom line is double that extent, or say # of a
square mile !!! (Compare this to Blacksod.) The
entrance North of Beginish has only 1% fathom, and
is seldom used. It is clear, then, that with a stiff
North-Wester, which would preclude the North-West
passage, the westerly one could not be made available
to get into the open sea at all times of tide (supposing
it free of rocks); for there is only 14th fathom at low
water in the greater part of that passage. On the whole
looking at it impartially, it has not anything like equal
claim for the purpose intended with Blacksod or Galway.
The open bay of Galway is but badly protected, the
extent of sheltered protection is very limited. But all
RAILWAY-COMPARISON OF HARBOURs. 153
Blacksod within the space I have stated is perfectly
sheltered from every wind, and in excellent holding
ground. One look at a chart or map of Ireland will
at once shew that it has the whole extent of the
peninsula of the Mullet from the isthmus of Belmullet
Southward (12 miles), as a complete natural break-
water against the Atlantic and the prevailing westerly
winds. Broadhaven is also safe, as stated in the
former part of this work, for a limited number of large
and a considerable number of small vessels; but if the
two harbours were connected, and a floating dock con-
structed—the entrance on the Blacksod side to be
between Claggan and Ardmore, in 20 feet at low
water, and between Rinmashunnagh and Shanaghee or
Knocknalina in 16 to 20 feet water, the cut across the
Mullet made to a sufficient depth and the channels
improved as proposed by Mr. Nimmo, we should
have a harbour, the entrance to which from either
side is free from rock, shoal, or bar, with sufficient
tacking room in the one bay outside, and close to the
open sea on the other, which could not probably be
equalled in the British Islands. I will not go so far
as to say that “God and nature intended these
harbours from the beginning for the purpose of a
termination for a railroad;” but I will go so far as to
state confidently, that there is not, on the West coast
of Ireland, any harbour so well suited for that purpose.
I will now discuss the merits of Clew Bay as such point
of termination. We fortunately have a most exact
survey of that Bay by Mr. Bald, with soundings of all
H 5
154 RAILWAY-COMPARISON OF HARBOURs.
the channels, taken minutely for the Commissioners of
Irish Fisheries (he and myself were the operators).
Take even Innisgoula, (the nearest admitted possible
port for a steamer); distance to Dublin, 140 miles—
7 hours; add 24 hours, or 25 miles, to reach westing,
equal to Valentia or Blacksod; total, 9% hours ; less
than Blacksod, 13 hours. º
Innisgoula is one of a group of 170 islands which
crowd the head of Clew Bay; its direct distance
from the nearest mainland is 1% English miles. To
connect it with the mainland, works of considerable
magnitude should be constructed (a chain of small
islands, lying nearly in the direction, might facilitate
this). The extent of 3 fathom, or 18 feet water, within
Innisgoula, as far North as Innisfeash and South as
Inniscuttle, would not certainly exceed ONE English
square mile, (Blacksod has twenty-five 1) and of 30
feet water not half a square mile. The entrance to
innisgoula is by a narrow channel, in which there is
no tacking room for a sailing vessel, and on each side
of which there are many shoals. (See map of Mayo.)
It is true, that like Valentia, a steamer could work in
and out against wind and tide ; but, for a general
harbour, it could never be available for great trade,
yet, it is the best in Clew Bay, which, in the outer
parts is too exposed for protection in any but moderate
weather. If Clew Bay were to be adopted at all, the
railroad should be run along either the North or South
shore to Boulyanglanna or Doobeg on the one side,
or Ruina or Carrowmore on the other side, throwing
RAILWAY-LEITRIM coAL DISTRICT, ETC. 155
out immense break waters in either case for protection.
It would not be then even as good or desirable as
Valentia, bad and confined as it is, compared to
Blacksod Bay. Others have been talking of having
the line of railroad to Blacksod run South and West
of Lough Conn. Where is the pass for it ? Have
they considered the levels necessary for railroads,
or the curves in the line proper for such P Have they
forgotten the rugged granite points of the Pontoon?
Nonsense. Indeed the vagaries that have been put
forth on this subject are amusing, but not wonderful,
when we consider the interested motives, or want of
łºnowledge, of some of the propounders. There is
one important feature in the proposed road to Blacksod;
that at the point where it would cross the Shannon,
you are in the neighbourhood of the great Leitrim
coal field, the produce of which could be carried
Eastward or Westward for your steamers, and left at
different depots along the line for the use of the
carriages, besides the vast advantage of supplying the
different towns along the line with fuel at such a cheap
rate and so expeditiously as could be done by railroad
communication, and also the produce of the Arigna iron
works. It has been said in favour of Galway, that
it has at present considerable trade, store houses, a light
house, docks and quays in being constructed, suited .
for much more enlarged commerce, and that the line
would cut Ireland into two nearly equal parts; that the
Shannon trade would also fall into it; the produce of
the Killaloe slate quarries would be added to the
156 RAILWAY—consequENT IMPROVEMENT,
Leitrim coal field, as well as the corn trade, and the
transmission of sea manure into the interior, which is
at present carried by cart many miles. All these are
fair local reasonings, and should have their weight.
But, I presume the Liverpool merchant or the govern-
ment will look first to the greater extent of safe
harbour for trade, and the difference of time in trans-
mitting the mails and other communications, than they
would to any existing inferior advantages. Stores and
docks would soon arise at their will, and the invest-
ment of capital in those parts which have none now,
would have the effect of increasing revenue and
industry to an extent that can scarcely be antici-
pated. The works along the whole line would
have this effect also on a line of country but par-
tially improved. Galway would still maintain its
usual trade. The country across Ireland to it is
chiefly green land already, and cultivation through
it certainly would be increased, but it would not
be so much so as in parts that are now in a state
of nature. Greater safety and extent, and a more
Westerly position, with so much difference of time in
its favour, are the great leading features to make
Blacksod and Broadhaven the point most to be desired
for a station for such a great communication as that
between England and America; and its internal ad-
vantages across Ireland are not less, but certainly
greater, considering its contiguity to the coal fields
and the Shannon trade, the towns along the line,
and the consequent improvement of a partially
RAILWAY, 157
unimproved country than any other line that would be
made for such a purpose across the kingdom.
I shall now give some extracts from Mr. Bald's
evidence before the House of Commons on this subject.
He has been latterly much engaged in the South of
Ireland, and knows a good deal of that country.
l
5
58 RAILWAY-MIR. BALD’s EVIDENCE.
Eatracts from Mr. Bald’s Evidence before the
Select Committee of the House of Commons on
Public Works, 12th June, 1835.
You talked in your evidence, a few minutes ago, of
a main trunk rail-road; now where would you propose
to have that main trunk rail-road passing through
Ireland from one point to another P-1 should propose
as a national work, that the railroad should go through
the centre of the kingdom, convenient to the great
bog fields, in the lowest and most level ground,
directly across the country to the Shannon, with
branch lines to Galway and Sligo ; the main trunk
extending through Mayo to the harbours of Blacksod
and Broadhaven, or Clew Bay. It would be nearly in
the line of direction going on an arc of the sphere
from Liverpool to Dublin, across Ireland, and on to
St. John's in Newfoundland.
Do you not conceive it might be done much more
cheaply than in the proposed way to Valentia P-I am
of opinion that no part of Ireland, in crossing it, offers
greater facilities than that from Dublin to the shores
of Galway and Mayo; because the country is level,
and contains abundance of material necessary to the
construction of such a work.
RAILWAY-MR. BALD’s Evſ DENCE. i59
What kind of harbours are those of Blacksod and
Broadhaven 2–Blacksod harbour is very large and
roomy, and works to any extent might be constructed
within it to hold ships; it also stands much seaward
into the Atlantic. Broadhaven is not so large as
Blacksod, but it is an excellent harbour. These
harbours might be united together, as they are only
separated by a narrow isthmus of about 600 feet
broad, by constructing two magnificent floating basins,
connected together by a canal. In this country is to
be found an abundance of the finest granite in the
world, extremely suitable for engineering works of all
kinds.
Do you not consider that those harbours are parti-
cularly well suited for steam navigation with the shores
of North America?—I do ; for they lie near the
straight line drawn on an are of the sphere from Liver-
pool and Dublin to St. John's in America.
Do you think it is nearer the straight line than the
line to Valentia 2–I am of opinion it is nearer to the
line drawn on an arc of the sphere going in the direc-
tion from Dublin to St. John's, than going by Va-
lentia to St. John's ; I am also of opinion that the
country offers greater facilities to the construction of
a rail-road, and is more level. The ground is more
hilly and undulating, taking a line from Kingstown
harbour to Valentia, than from Dublin to Blacksod
and Broadhaven, Clew Bay or Galway. -
What are the different lengths ; is there any diffe-
rence in the distances 2–In a straight line from
Dublin to Valentia it is 162 geographic miles, and
i 60 RAILWAY-MR, BALD’s Evid ENCE.
from Dublin to the harbours of Blacksod and Broad-
haven is 140; from Dublin to Sligo, 94; from Dublin
to Westport, 118; from Dublin to Galway, 97; and
from Blackrock, outside of Blacksod harbour, to St.
John's in Newfoundland, is about 1610 geographic
miles.
Have you formed any calculation of the expense 2–
No, I have not, but I should imagine from the low
plateau which stretches from Dublin Bay to the
waters of the Atlantic, across Ireland in that direction,
either to Galway or Mayo, it could not be attended
with any great expense. I will venture to say, on
account of the facilities, that it will be done for
£10,000 a mile.
Are the coasts of Galway and Clare such as to give
Blacksod Bay a decided preference over the harbours
in Connemarra and Kilrush 2–I presume from an
inspection of the chart, that the position of the har-
bours of Blacksod and Broadhaven are very peculiar,
and are capable of being united and improved to a
great extent, perhaps more seaward than those that
might be suitable for such a purpose, either in Galway
or Clare.
Would vessels be at all times able to leave the
harbours of Blacksod?—O, yes; steam vessels would ;
it is a large, roomy, spacious entrance, of great area
within, and three, four, five, and seven fathoms deep,
and where ship basins to any extent might be con-
structed. …’
And you prefer Blacksod Bay to Kilrush, the mouth
of the Shannon 2–I have been looking to the shortest
RAILWAY-MR. BALD’s Evi DENCE. | 6 ||
direction to be combined with the most seaward
harbour, and what would give the greatest possible
advantage to the country by the construction of a
main trunk railway across Ireland; and I am of
opinion a line taken from Dublin to the shores of
either Galway or Mayo, would be in the shortest
and most level direction; and the harbours of Blacksod
and Broadhaven will be found to be the most seaward
in that line. .
Would not steam packets, established in the bay of
Galway, always enable vessels wishing to leave that
port to go into the Atlantic P--The only difficulty
that steam packets would have to encounter in that
case would be the prevailing westerly and southerly
gales in getting into the Atlantic free of danger. In
the other case, the harbours of Broadhaven and Black
sod being, as I before mentioned, more seaward,
the steamers would get out at once into the open sea.
She can go direct to it as easily as she could to
Valentia?—She could make Achil Head and Blacksod
as easily and directly as she could Cape Clear, Valentia,
or the Northern or Southern channels of Ireland ;
besides, Achil Head is the most remarkable headland
on the West coast of Ireland, and forms the land on
the South entrance into Blacksod Bay. The Saddle
of Achil Head is elevated above the sea 2254 feet,
and can be seen in clear weather seaward, on the
waters of the Atlantic, at a distance of more than 58
miles. This gigantic headland is therefore, perhaps,
one of the most unerring guides to the mariner when
he makes land crossing the Atlantic from America to
162 RAILWAY-MR, BALD’s EVIDENCE—REMARKs.
the West coast of Ireland, that can perhaps be
anywhere found on the coast; being remarkable both
for its contour, height, and seaward position, such as no
mariner, even in the night time, during clear starlight,
would easily mistake. A light-house to be erected
on the Black Rock, which lies seaward to the entrance
of Blacksod, would be required, if the harbours of
Blacksod and Broadhaven are destined to become
the connecting point of Western Europe with the
New World. - -
19TH JUNE.
What is the reason of your preferring the harbour
of Blacksod to the harbour of Galway for the rail-road
you mentioned on your last examination ?—The only
reason, that it is more seaward than the Bay of
Galway; and the country all the way from Dublin to
Clew Bay, and on to the harbours of Blacksod and
Broadhaven, level and suitable to the construction of
a railroad; but the line to Galway is equally level,
and very much shorter than the one either to Clew
Bay, or the one to the harbours of Blacksod and
Broadhaven. ... •
On the foregoing evidence I will only remark, that
Mr. Bald does not seem to have been so well prepared
to discuss the merits of the other bays as compared
to Blacksod. Had he his own map of Mayo in his
hand at the time, he could easily have settled the
Clew Bay question by a single glance, Indeed, in
RAILWAY-MR. DALD’s EVIDENCE—REMARKs. 163
after conversation with me, he admitted that it could
not be made a useful termination for such a project.
And had he Mr. Nimmo's chart of Galway Bay before
him, he must have seen how far superior Blacksod was
to either, in point of safety, depth, or tacking room,
and would, of course, be more decided in his expla–
nations of their relative capabilities. He well knows
that the West or South coast of Ireland has not, by
any chance, such a magnificent natural harbour; and
these seeming deviations of his, relative to Clew Bay
or Galway, must be attributable to his not having
before him at the time the materials I have already
mentioned, namely, his own map of Mayo and the
chart of Galway.
Wherever such a work terminates, be it Valentia,
Galway, or Blacksod, it will have this effect, that it
will create a spirit of improvement in Ireland, which
will ultimately develope the great resources of a
hitherto neglected country.
A P P E N DIX,
Nore a. PAGE 4.
A LoNG the bed of the Owenmore river, or on its banks, was
the principal passage; but when this was obliged to be deviated
from, and the rough “bridle road,” or “Ballagh gorrue,” along
the mountain side, entered on, the custom was for the horseman
traveller, (who was usually accompanied by six or eight men,)
whenever he came to a “slough,” or very soft part, to alight, strip
the saddle and bridle off, upset the horse, tie his feet, and have
him dragged on his side across the “slough,” and then putting
on the saddle, &c., remount, and proceed to the next, first giving
each of the attendants a quantum of whiskey out of the keg which
invariably was carried with them as a necessary attendant. Major
Bingham and the old inhabitants of Erris recollect and have often
mentioned these facts. He, when about to venture to a summer
assizes in a later period, was invariably obliged to have his
tenantry, a month previous, putting these “sloughs” into such a
state by sods and heath, as to allow him to pass in and out on
horseback to Castlebar (which was even then a work of three
days, now he can breakfast in the one place and dine the same
day in the other); after which the sloughs, from the slightness of
the repairs, became again immediately as impassable as before.
The writer of this saw a lady, to meet whom, at the verge of the
bad road, her husband sent six men with a horse and pillion, pass
over some of the sloughs in a new way. The six men had ranged
166 API2ENDIX,
themselves, three on each side, standing over their knees in the
mud, and, grasping each other's hands, she passed from one set of
hands to the other, the hindmost pair still moving on to front as
she proceeded, until she reached the hard footing on the opposite
side.
NoTE b. JPAGE 8.
This is called “Doon Donald,” the fort of the giant “Donald
Doolwee,” who retained possession of all the country within the
fort against all invaders, and vainly fancied that by closing the
“gates” of the glen, (then deemed the only practicable passage
into the peninsula,) he had secured his possession from any
attempts from the enemy. But the dawn of a summer's morning,
bringing the cries and shouts of a thousand fugitives, shewed him
that his enemies were many and powerful, and had discovered
another pass along the North coast and Glenamoy for the inva-
sion of his territories. Doon-Keeghan and Doon-Carton, his
forts to protect the shore, were taken by surprise, the “creagh.”
had been made along the glens and shores, and the victorious
enemy were pursuing their success, driving the remnant of his
dispirited dependants before, to take shelter in his doon, or be
protected by his powerful arm. A few strides brought him over
the mountain of Glencastle, and it was on the sands of Tra-
Kirtaan, on the shores of the Broad Haven, that he first encoun-
tered these daring foes. His single arm drove them in hundreds
into the sea; still hundreds upon hundreds succeeded, and it was
not until the tide, rushing in between, separated the combatants,
that the work of destruction was given over. The enemy had
also their giant chief, who retired that night to the newly-cap-
tured Doon-Carton, enjoying the spoils of the country he had
sacked, and determined to encounter again the fearful force of
Donald’s arm. The gates of Donald's doon was closed that
night of suspense, but not the eyes of its giant owner. The
second morning dawned, and down strode the gallant Donald to
meet his foes once again on the sands, now dry from the retiring
tide, girt with that sword which was never conquered, nor would
ever be, so long as it was wielded by his hand, for an enchan-
tress of the distant isles of Inniskea had worked a charm that
made him, with it, unconquérable, -
APPENDIX, 167
Another bloody encounter shewed the resistless prowess of the
chief, as well as the noble daring of his opponent, who, for three
hours of that dreadful day, maintained, singly, a combat with the
giant of the glen; but again the retiring tide separated the com"
batants, and each retired, as before, to their respective doons. On
this second occasion, Donald was accompanied by his wife, the
beautiful daughter of the chieftain of the Reeks (Ballycroy), who
witnessed, from the height of Rinashunnagh, the noble exploits of
her husband, and the gallant bearing of his brave opponent, with
tens of thousands of followers that darkened the shores and brown
hills of Inver, She saw that, single-handed as he was, he must
give way, and proposed to Donald to give terms to the enemy,
to leave him possession of the “mountains,” with the sea coast
forts they had seized, while they themselves would still retain the
doon in the glen, and all within the hard-fought sands of Tra-
Kirtaan, the lake, and the Munhin river, with the peninsula on
the West coast, where the beautiful Doon-a-moa still remained
for their retired and summer residence, and the other at Doon-aa
for the pleasure of enjoying the fishery at the mouth of the
Owenmore river. In a fatal moment Donald consented. The
white flag was raised on the top of Glencastle; a corresponding
one soon flung its broad folds over the top of Glengad, near
TJoon-Carton, and the two chiefs met on the same sands, dyed
with the blood of thousands which two succeeding tides were not
entirely able to efface. The terms were accepted, and the stranger
chief invited, with such of his companions as he thought fit, to
enjoy the hospitalities of Doon Donald. The stranger chief was
beautiful, as well as brave: the wife of Donald witnessed his
prowess, but now saw, with admiring eyes, the graces of his
person and the polish of his manners, as compared with the rou gh,
gigantic figure and coarser bearing of the man she called her
husband. Every succeeding day—every walk through the
wooded glen they inhabited—every moment of retired conversa-
tion, fixed this more firmly in her mind, until love, overcoming
all other considerations, made her so wish for a permanency of the
happiness she enjoyed in the society of the stranger chief, that she
determined to disclose to him the secret of Donald's invincibility.
The very thought of the disclosure shook her whole frame from
head to foot; for she received the secret from him in such a
168 APPENDIX.
night, and under such awful circumstances, as could never be
forgotten. The curiosity of the fair sex is proverbial, and she so
worked on Donald's fondness one fine evening, that he promised
to reveal it to her that same night, at 12 o'clock, in the ravine of
the upper glen. A brilliant moon shed its light on the mountain
side, and played faintly twinkling over the bay, beyond which the
low streak of the peninsula was visible, when Donald, as the hour
approached, led her through the dark woods along the river verge,
under the huge rock which overhangs it, frowning at the entrance
of the glen, and then pausing, he asked her solemnly whether she
persisted in knowing the secret which made him unconquerable by
mortal arm; if she did, whether she would have firmness to
undergo the consequences? An affirmation was the reply.
Then, drawing his sword, which day or night he never laid aside:
the sheath was made of elastic steel-wire on the outside, with
which was interwoven, for a short distance, hair of brilliant
brightness, and which, plaited in a curious form, encircled his
waist, and by two cross-slings, the brawny shoulders which Sup-
ported it: this was always outside his garments by day. With
this sword he made three circles in the air, muttering some unin-
telligible words, pointed three times to the ground, three times to
the rising and setting Sun, at each time muttering some cabalistic
words. Suddenly the moon ceased to give her light, thunder and
lightning rolled in fearful peals, a tempest swept the forest up the
glen, and, by the fiery light of a thousand crossing flashes, as if
sitting on a throne of lightning, appeared a female figure, with
brilliant tresses, similar to those that entwined the belt of the giant's
sword, in the darkest cloud, bearing in one hand a scythe, and in
the other the skeleton of a human skull, on which were placed
keys crossed, a piece of silver, the emblem of a cross, and an hour-
glass, the symbol of time. “Morma,” said the giant, “I have
summoned you here from the distant isles, to tell this wilful but be-
loved daughterof the chieftain of the Reeks, the secret which makes
me invincible, and secures to you and me the secure possession of
the dominions within these gates: she says she will stand the test 3
do you administer it.” “Son,” replied the enchantress, “she
knows not what she does. Seldom has this overweening curio-
sity been productive of good, but, at your request, and knowing
that you love her, so you can refuse her nothing; I have complied
APPENDIX. 169
with your mandate, and am here now from the caves of the
roaring sea to try her fortitude and to administer the oath.” The
cloud lowered, the daughter of light, in thunders approached,
where firmly stood the “daughter of the Reeks,” and, stretching
out the skeleton head of departed man, she said, “Swear.”
Placing your right hand on this skull; “that the sins of the soul.
which inhabited this body, and of all the generations that went
before and have or shall come after it, be on my soul at the awful
day of judgment, to blast me to all eternity, if I shall ever reveal
this secret.” She boldly laid her hand upon the skull, which, at
that instant, trembled, and seemed to groan. The aerial figure
rose a little above the ground, and said, “Daughter, the hair
which suspends that gallant sword your husband wears was once
part of mine; the power was given me to entwine it so with the
steel scabbard that no mortal can draw the sword when once
sheathed by Donald Doolwee, except his own arm, nor conquer
him in battle, UNTIL THE KNOT which joins IT over. His Loins BE
cuT ; the sword can then be drawn, and, if by a foe of Donald’s,
it is it alone can cause his death, for no other steel has power.”
She vanished in a flash of lightning, thunders rolled tremen-
dously, and in their front lightning struck the opposite side of the
glen, shook the very mountain to its base, and opened that ravine
which, in floods, looks so picturesque on entering Glencastle. It
was not to be wondered that, after this, Donald’s wife hesitated to
make known to the chief she loved this fearful secret; but love,
all-conquering love, impelled her. One evening, while walking
in the most retired part of the glen, and almost on the spot where
she swore that fearful oath, she told this, to him, most interest-
ing and welcome of all secrets (but without mentioning the
manner in which it became known to her); and they immediately
concerted plans for putting his designs into execution. The chief
was to pretend that he would be returning next day to Doon-
Carton, and to press Donald to a greater share of wine than
usual, at a farewell feast; and at night, when fast asleep, she was
to cut the fatal knot which tied the enchanted sword to him, and
leave the rest to her lover. The plan succeeded; the knot was
cut, the sword drawn, and the head of Donald of the glen lay
instantly severed from his body. The mighty trunk was silently
rolled over the battlements and down the steep side of the doon,
A.
170 APPENDIX.
and the morning sun saw the red flag of the invader proudly
floating on the tower, and over the high hills of Glencastle, a
signal to his friends at Doon-Carton to come and reap the fruits
of treachery, after so many hard encounters. None of Donald's
followers made any resistance, but unseen hands dug his grave,
and a head and foot stone still mark the spot where rests the body
of Donald Doolwee. -
Time rolled on. The daughter of the Reeks enjoyed with her
lover, in riding through his newly-acquired possessions, the
pleasure she anticipated. Not so he. Outwardly he shewed her
all the marks of respect and attention that was necessary in secur-
ing the property acquired through her means, and that is so agree-
able at all times to the female sex; but he could not but reflect
that it was by her falsehood and treachery (without his knowing *
the perjury) to a husband, that he was then master of a territory
that otherwise would never have been his. A summons from his
paternal possessions in the interior of the country made him leave
Erris, first leaving a strong garrison in Doon-Donald; and she,
either willing to be with him as long as possible, or to avoid the
stings of conscience, which a lonely residence in the doon must
create, resolved and insisted on accompanying him. He acceded
to her request: they approached the Munhin river: their atten-
dants were far in advance, preparing the way; the flood had risen
considerably from a former night's rain; the pass over was by
a single stick placed in a narrow part, from islet to islet; the
river, deep and dark, received into its whirling abyss the perjured
daughter of the chieftain of the Reeks, the faithless wife of the
brave Donald, and the stranger chief passed on to fairer realms,
without the fear that his night's sleep might be like that of
Donald’s, when some caprice of an ever-changing woman might
induce her to treat him in the same way as she had done her brave
husband. A stork was seen flapping her heavy grey wings over
the waters; a shriek of “Revenge” was heard, and her flight was
directed to the distant isles, where it is still told * she remains
entire and perfect, and will to the end of time. —Tales of the
Mountains, by Miss Knight. - -
* O'Flaherty's Ogygia,
APPENDIX, 17L
- NoTE c. PAGE 9.
When this was written (September, 1832), another inspecting
commander had succeeded Captain Nugent; but, on a late visit
(September, 1834), we were greatly delighted to see him returned
to his former station, and, with his other hard-earned honours,
holding his Majesty's commission of the peace, for which his
great intelligence, independence of principle, and kind, concilia-
tory manners had so well fitted him as an associate with Captain
Ireland, the respected and excellent stipendiary magistrate of that
district.
NoTE d. PAGE 27.
The following description is kindly given by George Halpin,
jun., Esq., Engineer to the Commissioners for improving the
Port of Dublin, commonly called the ‘Ballast Board:”—“Eagle
Island, a rocky island off the Mullet of Erris. Distant from the
Stags of Broadhaven, eleven sea miles; from Achil Head, nineteen
miles; presents a steep cliff to the Western Ocean ; slopes away
shoreward with shelving rocks. It is in size nearly eleven acres,
and covered with sufficient pasture to feed from two to three dozen
sheep; purchased by the Ballast Office from Major Bingham and
W. H. Carter, Esq. Two lights will be so placed on this island as
to form marks for clearing all danger North and South. Proposed
height of light over the sea, 220 feet.”—The published descrip-
tion runs thus —“Eagle Island, situate off the North-West
coast of Erris, county of Mayo, bears by compass, from the Stags
of Broadhaven ; distance, West, 11 sea miles ; from Erris Head,
distance, West, 3; ; from the West Point of South Inniskea
Island, N.E. by E. 11; ; from the Black Rock, E.N.E. H. N.
14%; from Achil Head, N.E. # E. 19. The two lights on Eagle
Island bear from each other E. by N., S. by W., and kept in a
line will lead 3 miles to seaward of the Black Rock, and 2% miles
seaward of the Stags of Broadhaven, and clear of all outlying
rocks between Blacksod Bay and Broadhaven. The lanterns
are elevated 220 feet over the level of high water mark, and are
not illuminated landward from E. by S. to S. by W. & W.”—
(D. E. Post, 18th June, 1835.)
| 72 APPENDIXs
NoTE e. PAGES 51 AND 115.
Some curious stories are told of this remarkable personage
among the peasantry along the coasts; one of which is, that, in
visiting Queen Elizabeth, the latter, not being aware of the
quality of “Grana,” had consulted with some of her “wise
men’’ (probably women), to know how she should discover that
“Grana” was a gentlewoman. They advised that the richest
carpets, covered with gold-lace, should be spread out in the
presence chamber, in the entrance to her Majesty, and that if
“Grana” stopped to wipe her feet before stepping on them, that
certainly she was not used to courts, or to the style of a lady;
but, on the contrary, if she did not, but proceeded onwards with
ease, that she must be regarded as a person of consequence. The
usual mace-bearers and attendants were drawn up in state.
“Grana,” dressed in a frize jacket over a silk petticoat (in a belt
supporting which were thrust a brace of pistols, and a dagger,
with golden hilt), and with a species of light helmet on her head,
over the national head-dress of the “Binnoge,” boldly advanced
forward over the gold-lace-carpets. Careless of the depth of mud
left by her brogues, and seeing the curiously dressed attendants,
looked fiercely about her, took the under part of her jaw in her
hand, and, shaking it with a terrible rude noise, they all became
frightened, and ran away. Grana walked up to the Queen, took
a seat deliberately on her right hand, spat about on the floor as
carelessly as if at home in Clare-Island-Castle, or on the quarter
deck of her frigate; and, on Elizabeth handing her a richly-
embroidered pocket handkerchief, after using it, she flung it against
the wall, saying she “never pocketed her spittles.” The Queen,
either frightened at her demeanour, or more probably judging it
prudent to keep such a powerful personage in her interest in
Ireland, offered to make her a Countess ; but Grana proudly said,
“ One Queen could not confer honour on another;” but, however,
to shew the amity that existed between them, she would accept a
token of regard from her sister Queen, in the shape of taking a
title for her son, Theobald Burke, surnamed Thiboad-na-lung, or
Theobald of the ships (being born at sea); and he was created
first Lord Viscount Mayo.
APPENDIX. Jºë
N
NoTE f. PAGE 44.
This union has been latterly divided. Two clergymen reside
in it, each in his own parish. The tithes of each, by a late com-
position, amount to about £300. Mr. M'Parlan, in his statistics,
mentions a third parish, “ Kiltena;” but this is an error.
There is an old church and burial-ground of that name, but ho
parish.
NoTE g. PAGE 44.
Quit-rent receipt. Names in Erris:—Carne, Emloghcash and
Mayo, Aghadune, Clarane, Knockanbany, Aghaloshima, Mur-
ragha, Moyraha, Tullaghanbuy, Emlogh-Noagher, Montan de
eaden, Cross, Dramreagh, Barnagh, Leame, Ellanshankee, decem.
ac in Controversy, Forane, Newtowne, Clogharnakill, Lettar-
begg, Cartrongilbert, Emaver, alias Inver; Morigo, Alhoocon-
anny, Glankesko quatuor, quarter de Dunaaghan, viz. Killi-
clogan, Mungonboy, Lecarrowneyglogh, Lecarrowmactoige,
Carranbane, Groonagh, Rosdowagh, Owinreagh et Laghtmoghee,
Glanmoy, quatuor ac in Cartronregan, Carrowmore, Ballymo-
melly, Glancoe, six quarter, viz. Glancullan, Glantakell, Glanchoe,
Eddergenerals, Aghawakine, Dowlogh et Trusso, Dowhomagh,
Glancashil, Carrowmore, Bilbery, Kilheryduffe, Island Tower-
maglosse, Dowereaghan et Dowryaske, in the Barony.
Quit-rent receipt in 1687.
JoRN PRICE, Rec. Gen.
Intry per ROBERT CURTIs CAMDEN.
Not E I. PAGE 51.
I find that this subdivision has not taken effect, from the fee
property not having as yet been divided between Mr. Carter and
Miss Nash, who is a ward of chancery.
NoTE 3. PAGE 61.
The Shaen property is now divided, as far as Mr. Carter is
concerned, with Major Bingham, and increased prosperity in the
country may be expected as the immediate consequence. The
tenants, having seen the results of dividing within these few years
are now almost generally anxious to have the same done on,
their own farms.
I 3
174: APPENDIX,
NoTE k. PAGE 63,
Original petition of settlers.
NoTE l. PAGE 71.
On a late visit, I find Mr. Lyons has succeeded, and has com-
menced operations in fencing, draining, and improving in every
way, with a vigour and decision for which he is not a little
remarkable.
NoTE m. PAGE 77.
The lowering of the duty on regularly-distilled spirits to a
standard at which the small distillers could not compete with the
large ones will be the only effectual means of putting down this
illicit trade. But the late reduction will not have that effect; it
must as yet be assisted by an active revenue police. On a late
visit to Erris, I found that, from there not being a party of such
police stationed in the country, there does not exist a single licensed
house in all Erris; though, when the first part of this account
was written (1832), there were many; and I can almost positively
say that, at this moment, there is not, in the whole district, a
village which has not, or had not, alternately with others, a “still”
at work in it. Export is almost put a stop to, and the revenue
seriously deteriorated. This should be closely looked to, and
immediately remedied.
NoTE m. PAGE 85.
I saw lately some young larches planted, which seemed to be
thriving; the former plantation had almost entirely disappeared.
The ploughed mountain was still left in the same state.
NoTE o. PAGE 97.
The position of Erris, on the West coast of Ireland, having
such a splendid bay as Blacksod, and other safe ones, would make
it a most desirable station for steam * communication with Ame-
* The first steam vessel that appeared on the coast of Erris created a great
sensation. All took it to be a vessel on fire, off Blackrock. Boats and
curraghs were immediately shoved out, not to give relief or assistance,
but to share in the spoil of the wreck, for which the inhabitants of
this as well as probably of most wild coasts in Ireland, or elsewhere,
take advantage. The steamer “lay to” for some purpose; the boats ap-
proached from all quarters, anxious which should be first at the prize. The
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APPENDIX, 175.
rica; for it would be as near as the proposed station at Valentia,
in Kerry, with a far better harbour; and, being on the Northern
shore also, it would be more desirable, on account of its being a
nearer way to Belfast and Glasgow; and, by the canal across to
Edinburgh, Liverpool would be as accessible from it as from
Valentia. Since writing the above, the project of a railroad, to
connect the metropolis with the best harbour on the West coast of
Ireland, has been mooted, for opinions on which see PostScript to
the work,
NotE p. PAGE 126.
Tarmon pier is little resorted to, being originally intended as a
station for the large boats and wherries for the deep sea fishery,
is found not to answer that purpose, though it cost £1200, paid
entirely by the Board of Fisheries. Saleen pier was intended as a
landing place for the newly-erected town of Binghamstown (in
1822), and had, in that year, a sum of upwards of £300 expended
on it; it has since cost £800, half contributed by the proprietor,
Major Bingham, and half by the Board of Fisheries. It is nearly.
useless also ; it should have been placed on the South side of the
little bay of Saleen. Bellmullet pier, at the end of the town, was
originally commenced, with common rubble stone, by the pro-
prietor; afterwards, on representation of its importance, the
Board gave £250, the proprietor a like sum, to extend it, in a
manner nearly similar to the rough commencement. The execu-
tion of it was entrusted to the author of this, who, from a feeling
of ambition to have as good a pier at Belmullet (of which he was
the original projector,) as at any other part of Erris, executed the
work in a style equal, if not superior, to any other in the country,
(though not obliged to do so by his specification,) at an additional
expense, entirely borne by himself, of £227 1s. 1d. This is the
only exporting pier in Erris.
steamer, either willing to amuse them, or having finished their object in
stopping, allowed them to approach quite close, when suddenly she dashed
against wind and tide with such rapidity, that they all instantly, “bout ship,”
rowed homewards for their lives, shouting to one another, “ Lung shee, lung
shee, lung shee:”-A “fairy ship, fairy ship, fairy ship.” Some of the IeS-
pectable people on shore, who had lately read of such ships, from the descrip-
tion given, soon guessed what it was ; but no reasoning could ConVince the
peasantry, some even to this day, that it was not a ship navigated by the
fairies,
} %6 e APPENDIX,
NoTE 7. PAGE 133.
The level of high water in this lake has lowered at least five feet
within these twenty years, so that there is now a belt round the
lake of ground, on which grass is beginning to grow, and on the
West side insures an excellent line of road on a perfect level.
This must be attributed to the wearing down of the bed of the
Munhin river.
NoTE r. PAGE 1.35.
There is a bar at the entrance of this inlet at Dooyork, which is
sometimes dangerous; but there would be little difficulty in conti-
nuing the cut along the North side of the inlet across to the pier
proposed at Rinarone (Doolough), where there is fine deep water,
and safe anchorage, free of all obstructions. This might be made
the termination of the railroad, or Claggan, North of it.
NoTE s. PAGE 141.
Since 1824, Martin Doyle's inestimable little tracts appeared,
and, more recently, Mr. Blacker's. At that period (1824), the
author of this, conversant with all the modes of cultivation used
in the different parts of the country, contemplated writing a series
of similar tracts suited to the different portions of the country for
which they were intended. Pressing professional engagements
prevented him.
NoTE t. PAGE 143.
I find that Hollymount new school is to have the benefit of the
instruction of the elder and younger Messrs. M'Cleary, for-along
time the able, esteemed, and successful professors and superin-
tendents of the agriculture of the Templemoyle School in Derry.
Mr. Lindsay knew them, and it is another trait of his judgment
and discernment to select such practical men for thenew Provincia'
School of Agriculture in Connaught.
NoTE w. PAGE 145.
I never will forget my first meeting with Captain and Mrs.
Nugent. It was in the latter end of 1823, or the early part of
1824, that on the occasion of one of my weekly inspections of the
public works under my charge, I was accompanied by Mr. Baker,
another gentleman connected with the works, and my sister,
APPENDIx. * 177
who, taking advantage of our company, rode single from Castlebar,
to visit the hospitable family of the Nashes, of Leam. Before
entering Glencastle, the sky, which bore but little sign of change
in the morning, shewed evident marks of an approaching storm.
The wind whistled through the glen, the rain began to fall, first
slowly, but afterwards in torrents, and, by the time we reached the
bleak road which extends between Dorachorb and Bellmullet, the
storm had increased to a hurricane ; so that we were obliged to
put my sister's horse between ours, to keep her from being blown
off, and, by joining three together, to prevent our being all carried
by the storm into Broadhaven. There was no hut to receive us,
and I urged perseverance in our perilous and disheartening ride,
so that we might reach Mr. Briscoe's, the then lately established
postmaster, who, I knew, resided in the only habitable house (old
Andrew Lyons's) on that side of the peninsula. Knowing Mr.
Briscoe very well, I got my sister off, and familiarly opened the
outside door. A strange servant maid, seeing the pitiable condi-
tion we were in, took my sister to the fire, in a sort of a tempo-
rary kitchen, and I unlatched Mr. B.'s other only room, thinking
him there;—a wonder struck my eyes: a respectable gentleman
and lady were sitting near the fire place, which was placed on a
hearth—no grate; a few loose, uneven planks were laid on the
floor, to keep the inmates from the rain that flooded the floor;--
the only window, (one single pane of the glass of which was left,
the other being sheepskin) was temporarily secured with some old
cloth, propped up with sticks;–a straw rope reached across the
room, in which Mr. B.'s appendages of dress, such as they were,
had been usually slung, and often used for drying his shirts;—
the soot fell, in unceasing drops, from the black rafters and
scraws that frowned upon them; a kind of awni ng of sail-cloth was
swung over the fire-place, to protect Mrs. Nugent, who, when not
sitting there, was obliged to take refuge within the precincts of the
wooden bed, which, built in a recess of the wall, (called by the
country people “a calleagh.”) with straw matting for the roof
and curtains, had been handsomely resigned to her by Mr.
Briscoe, who, being a bachelor, could roam into better quarters
within the peninsula, carrying with him his post-office in his
pocket. Stumbling over one of the planks on entering the room,
and not observing Briscoe, but the unusual appearance of a gen-
f
| 78 APPENDIX.
tleman and lady, I apologised; “thought Mr. B. had been there,”
and was about to retire, when the gentleman, with the frankness
of a sailor, and the polished manners of a superior rank in
society, asked us in. “Sit down on a form.” There were but
two chairs, if they might be so called, and, apologising in turn,
that he had only come there the day before, and entirely a stranger
in another gentleman’s quarters, could not give us that degree or
accommodation we seemed to require, after being out in such a
hurricane,—insisted on our taking, however, something to drink,
and we retired to see about the horses. In the lower end lived
old Lyons's family. The horses were brought into the kitchen,
(now the elegant drawing-room of Mrs. Nugent,) for there were
no stables, no oats, no hay. Baker, wet to the skin, stripped
to have his clothes dried at the fire, (as he thought.) rolled
himself between some blankets in a lower room, into which the
storm poured its unmitigated fury of wind and rain. The
sheepskin had vanished—and he was obliged to rise to put on
half-dried clothes, when the tide ebbed out so as to allow us to
cross “Bundoola,” (there was them no road,) so that we might
reach the comforts of Leam Cottage, a distance of six miles, even at
the second hour of the darkest night we ever travelled. Such was
Bellmullet in 1813. What it is now, as contrasted with what it
was then, no one can even fancy that had not tasted the “sweets”
of both scenes, as Captain and Mrs. Nugent did;—to me such
scenes were familiar.
THE END.
W. WARREN, Printer, 140, Capel Street, Dublin.
Date Due


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