Chapter I: Part 1

BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES OF IRELAND

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUeBNER & Co., Ltd.

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BEAUTIES AND ANTIQUITIES
OF IRELAND

BEING

A TOURIST'S GUIDE TO ITS MOST BEAUTIFUL
SCENERY & AN ARCHAEOLOGIST'S MANUAL
FOR ITS MOST INTERESTING RUINS

BY T. O. RUSSELL
AUTHOR OF "DICK MASSEY," "TRUE HEART'S TRIALS," ETC.

LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
B. HERDER
17 SOUTH BROADWAY
ST LOUIS, MO.
1897

PREFACE

To describe all the beauties and antiquities of Ireland, an encyclopedia, instead of a volume the size of this one would be required. As one of the objects of this book is to show that Irish history is as generally interesting as Irish scenery is generally beautiful, few places are noticed that are not historic; but in a volume of the size of this, all the historic places could not be mentioned. Many books have been published during the last three-quarters of a century that treat on Irish scenery and antiquities. Some of them are very voluminous and copiously illustrated. They were, for the most part, written by persons utterly unfitted for the task they undertook. Their remarks on Irish scenery may be of some value; they may have thought Killarney more beautiful than the Bog of Allen; but wherever they touch on matters connected with history and antiquities, they are so often incorrect and misleading that the books they have published may, for the most part, be said to be useless. It is not too much to say that many of these works would be actually increased in value if the printed matter were torn out of them and nothing left but the illustrations and covers. The people who wrote them were totally unfitted to treat of Irish history and antiquities. They knew little about the history of ancient Ireland, and nothing of the Irish language or its literature. They could hardly be justified to treat of Irish architectural remains, because they were ill-equipped to do so, and were unsympathetic with the race that raised them.

If there is any country in Europe about the scenery and antiquities of which an interesting book could be written, it is Ireland. In no other country are scenery and antiquities so closely allied, for the finest remains of her ancient ruins are generally found where the scenery is most weird, most strange, or most beautiful. In no other country, perhaps, can so many places be identified with historic events, or historic personages, as in Ireland. It contains more relics of a long vanished past than any other European land. Great Britain seems a new country compared with Ireland. In spite of the wanton and disgraceful destruction of her ancient monuments that has been going on for centuries, more of such can be found in a single Irish county than in a dozen in Great Britain. Although Stonehenge is the finest druidic monument known to exist, the quantity of druidic remains is much greater in Ireland than in England. In the latter country we miss the _dun_, the _rath_, the _lis_, the round tower and the sepulchral mound, some of which are found in almost every square mile of Ireland. And coming down to later times, when men began to erect structures of stone, we find the remains of castles and keeps in such extraordinary numbers that we wonder for what purpose so many strongholds were erected. Counting _raths_, _duns_, _lises_, _cromlechs_, round towers, crumbling castles, and deserted fanes, Ireland may be called a land of ruins beyond any other country in Europe. To make these multitudinous monuments of a far-back past still more interesting, it will be found that mention is made of most of them even in the remnant of Gaelic literature that by the merest chance has been preserved.

The place names of Ireland are as interesting and as extraordinary as her antiquities, and to some are even more fascinating than her beauties. The bewildering immensity of Irish place names is one of the most remarkable things connected with Ireland; but like her ancient monuments, they are every day disappearing--fading away with the language from which they were formed. Even still, there are, probably, as many ancient place names in a single Irish province as in the whole of Great Britain. If it is not absolutely true when speaking of Ireland to say that, "No dust of hers is lost in vulgar mould," it can at least be said that there is hardly a square mile of her surface where some hoary relic of the past or some beautiful object of nature can be met with that is not mentioned in history, enshrined in legend, or celebrated in song.

T. O. R.

CONTENTS

PAGE

KILLARNEY 1

Its fame world wide--Beauty of its name--Extract from
Macaulay in its praise--Comparative smallness of
Killarney--Admirable proportion of its scenic features--
Softness and beauty its chief attractions--Its weather
often moist--Autumn the best time to see it--Its
overpowering beauty on fine autumn days--The country
round Killarney a wonderland of beauty--Its ruins; and
their historic interest.

TARA 12

Its antiquity its chief attraction--Beautiful view from its
ruined ramparts--The most historic spot in these islands--
Proof of the general correctness of early Irish history--Dr
Petrie's great work on the antiquities of Tara--His map of
it--Its adaptation for a seat of government in ancient
times--Its profanation by the erection of modern buildings
on it--Tracks of its principal monuments--No trace of stone
buildings found--Its praise sung by Gaelic poets--Was the
most important place in Ireland--The roads that centred
there--The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny; prophecy
concerning it; was brought from Tara to Scotland; now under
the coronation chair at Westminster; Petrie's mistake about
it; proofs that it was removed from Tara; the stone there
now not the Lia Fail; is the Lia Fail a meteoric stone?--
Tara the great political centre of ancient Ireland--The
Leinster Tribute--Slaughter of 3030 maidens--Indifference
of the Irish heretofore about their history and literature--
Many valuable gold ornaments found in Tara--The "Tara
Brooch"--King Laoghaire buried in Tara; his face to his
foes, the Leinstermen--The old feud between Meath and
Leinster not yet quite forgotten--Tara terribly uprooted--
Saint Patrick's goat--Last King that reigned in Tara--Its
vast antiquity worthy of credence.

LOCH REE 47

One of the least known of the great lakes of Ireland--Its
great beauty--Decline of population in the country round
it--Want of steam-boats on the Upper Shannon--Number of
Islands--Beauty of the Leinster shore of the lake; is
studded with gentlemen's seats--Goldsmith's house--Historic
interest of Loch Ree--The treaty of Blein Potog--Athlone;
its beauty of situation; the most prosperous town on the
Upper Shannon; its manufactures--Decline of the Irish
language--Improvement in the condition of the Irish
peasantry.

"EMANIA THE GOLDEN" 58

Emania a Latinised form of Emain Macha--The second most
historic spot on Irish soil--Its history--Its present
desolation--Its great extent--Denationalisation of the
peasantry in its vicinity; their almost total ignorance of
its history--Emania and the "Children of Uisneach"; extreme
beauty of that legend--The tomb of Deirdre--Many gold
ornaments found near Emania--Long preservation of a place
name--Queen Macha--The city of Armagh; its antiquity;
founded by St Patrick; ruined and plundered by the Danes;
was for some years the abode of a Danish King; its
picturesqueness.

QUEEN MAB'S PALACE 71

Rathcroghan, where Queen Mab lived and reigned, a very
celebrated place--She was contemporary with Cleopatra, and
was Queen of Connacht--Few legends about her in Ireland; an
historic personage there--Proofs of the comparatively high
civilization of Ireland in ancient times--Extraordinarily
long preservation of the legend of Queen Mab or Medb, in
England; her very long reign and great age; death in
Iniscloran; her fondness for cold water baths; the Four
Masters do not mention her--Description of the Fort of
Rathcroghan; the wooden palace that once stood on it;
unlike any of the historic forts of Ireland--Rathcroghan
desolate since the time of Queen Mab; its vast ancient
cemetery; Queen Mab buried there--Longevity of the ancient
Irish--Strong proofs that the Connacht queen was the
prototype of the Mab of Shakespeare, Drayton, Spenser, etc.;
her sister's name still preserved in an Irish place name--
Beauty of the country round Rathcroghan; its fertility--
Many mentions of Rathcroghan in ancient Gaelic writings.

THE HILL OF UISNEACH 84

One of the most historic of Irish hills; its peculiar
shape--Magnificence and beauty of the view from it--
Knockcosgrey--Decay of rural population--Uisneach
peculiarly adapted for a stronghold--Aill na Mireann, or
rock of the divisions; now called the "Cat Stone"; its very
peculiar shape; was supposed to mark the geographical
centre of the island--Great Synod held in Uisneach in A.D.
1111--Moat of Ballylochloe; its extreme beauty; supposed
origin of its name.

CLONMACNOIS 97

Strangeness and uniqueness of its situation--Love of the
strange and beautiful among ancient Irish Churchmen--The
Shannon--Views from Clonmacnois--Small size of its
remaining ruined fanes--Its round towers and crosses--
Wondrous beauty of its smaller round tower--Petrie's theory
of the origin of round towers--Destruction of Clonmacnois--
Vandalism manifest--Occupation by the Danes--The nunnery--
Clonmacnois founded by St Kieran--De Lacy's ruined castle--
Beauty and diversity of scenery of the Shannon; historic
interest of so many places on its banks.

KNOCK AILLINN 111

Third most historic hill in Ireland--Beauty of the view
from its summit--On it is the largest fort in Ireland--
Anciently the Residence of Kings of Leinster--The hill of
Allen; Finn's residence according to all authentic
documents; but no trace of earthworks on it--John
O'Donovan's opinion about it--Probable confusion of the
names Aillinn and Allen--Probability that Aillinn was
Finn's dun--Immensity of the folk-lore about Finn; as
widespread in Scotland as in Ireland; extraordinary way in
which he impressed himself on his age; does not seem to
have been a lovable personage--Dermot O'Duibhne--Real name
of the Campbells of Argyle--Finn, the most powerful man in
Ireland in his time--His name incorrectly spelt _Fionn_.

"KILDARE'S HOLY FANE" 126

Not much scenic beauty about Kildare--The Curragh--Few
ancient remains in Kildare--Its round Tower--Kildare once
a large place; famous on account of St Brigit--Its "bright
lamp"--Moore's noble lyric, "Erin, O Erin"--St Brigit's
life in the Leabhar Breac; extracts from it--Her benevolence
and charity; her love of the poor and the sick; she was
buried in Kildare.

GLENDALOCH 138

Its weird situation--A good central point from which to
make excursions--"Sugar-loaf" mountain; its horrible
modern name, and grand ancient one--Glendaloch the most
celebrated place in Wicklow--St Kevin; his youth; his
piety; he did not drown Kathleen; he only whipped her with
nettles--Kevin the most popular of Leinster Saints--"St
Kevin's bed"--Glendaloch an almost utter ruin--Ancient
Irish monasteries; their great wealth--Antique gold
ornaments--The evils of Danish raids--How well the Irish
fought the Danes--Round towers--Their uses--Books destroyed
by the Northmen--Halo of legend and romance that is round
Glendaloch.

"LORDLY AILEACH" 157

The second most historic spot in Ulster--Sublime view from
it--Noble work done in its partial restoration--Its early
history--Its destruction by a Munster King--A funny _rann_
from the Four Masters about it--Its great antiquity--The
great Circuit of Ireland made from Aileach--Quotations from
an ancient poem on the Circuit--A great poem totally
ignored by the Irish cultured classes--Muircheartach
MacNeill a great prince--His capture of the provincial
Kings--His tragic and untimely death.

"ROYAL AND SAINTLY CASHEL" 172

Peculiar situation--Ancient Irish churchmen's appreciation
of the beautiful in nature--Superb beauty of the site of
Cashel--A wonder that so few poets have been inspired by
it--Sir Aubrey de Vere's Sonnet on Cashel--Marred by the
erection of new monuments--Long the seat of Munster Kings--
Antiquity of Cashel as a centre of Christian cult--Wondrous
beauty of Cormac's Chapel; the most remarkable of early
Irish churches--The ancient Irish had no castles; they were
introduced by the Norman French--The city of Cashel--
Cashel, Glendaloch and Clonmacnois the most interesting
places of their kind in Ireland.

LOCH ERNE 186

Loch Erne, Loch Ree and Loch Derg compared; the former the
most peculiar of all Irish Lochs--Its innumerable islands,
and the great beauty of its shores--Want of proper
passenger steamers on it--Tourists must have good
accommodation--Ireland's beauties can never be fully known
until good hotels are provided--No other country of its
size has so many lakes and rivers as Ireland--Historic
attractions of Loch Erne--Devinish Island.

MELLIFONT AND MONASTERBOICE 195

They are the most interesting ecclesiastical ruins in
Louth--Great beauty of the site of Mellifont--Terrible and
wanton destruction of its ruins--Its name not Irish--Was
generally known as "the Drogheda Monastery"--Size of the
building--Was founded in 1142--Renaissance of Irish
ecclesiastical architecture; it began when Danish plundering
ceased--Effects of the Anglo-French invasion--Dearvorgil,
wife of O'Ruarc, buried in Mellifont--Antiquity of
Monasterboice--Its glorious ancient crosses--Its round
tower--Became a ruin many centuries before Mellifont--Beauty
and historic interest of locality--Drogheda--The burgs of
the Boyne, New Grange and Dowth.

TRIM CASTLE 207

It is the largest of Irish Castles--The Anglo-French great
Castle builders--Hugo de Lacy--Many Castles erected by
him--He was the greatest of the invaders of Ireland--He
wanted to be King of Ireland--Distracted state of the
country in his time--Trim once an important place--Claims
to be the birth-place of Wellington; an anecdote about
him--The country round Trim most interesting and historic--
The Boyne the most historic of Irish rivers.

CONG ABBEY 218

The most interesting ruin in Connacht--Roderick O'Connor;
Moore's opinion of him--Cong founded by St Fechin--Was
endowed by O'Connor--Description of the Abbey--Its
sculptured stones--The Cross of Cong--Cong never plundered
by the Danes--Peculiarities and beauty of the country round
Cong--Loch Corrib--The Joyce country; a land of giants;
anecdote about one of them.

LOCH DERG 231

Its great size--Want of islands its principal drawback--Its
hilly shores--Little traffic on it--Iniscealtra--St
Cainin--Killaloe; its ruined fanes--The Palace of Kincora;
no vestige of it remaining; totally destroyed by Turloch
O'Connor in 1118--MacLiag's Lament for Brian and Kincora--
The rapids of Doonas; their great beauty.

HOLYCROSS ABBEY 243

Its beautiful situation--One of the largest ruined churches
in Ireland--When founded--Its ruins not much marred--Was
inhabited until the suppression of monasteries--Beauty of
one of its sepulchral monuments--Founded too late to be
plundered by the Danes.

DUNLUCE CASTLE 247

The most remarkable ruined Castle in Ireland--From its
situation it is the finest ruin of the kind in Europe--The
narrow causeway by which it is entered--Unusual thinness of
its walls--Was evidently erected before cannons were
perfected--An awful place in a storm--Giant's Causeway--
Dunseverick Castle--Meaning of the name _Dunluce_--Not
known by whom or when it was founded--Was once owned by the
MacQuillins--Sorley Boy--Terrible catastrophe that once
happened at Dunluce--Must have been built before the
fifteenth century.

BOYLE ABBEY 254

Not much known to the general public--Its limpid river--
Rivers of muddy water an abomination--Irish rivers
generally clear--Extraordinarily luxuriant growth of ivy on
the ruins; their effect marred by the erection of a new
building close to them--Vandalism in Ireland--Ancient name
of Boyle--History of its monastery--Loch Key; the burning
of its _cranniog_--Loch Arrow.

THE LAKES OF WESTMEATH 263

Few in search of the beautiful know anything about them;
are best known to fishermen--Not many places of historic
interest in Westmeath--Loch Ouel--Turgesius, the Dane,
drowned in it by Malachy the First--Legend about Malachy's
daughter--Lover's poem about her--Quotation from the Book
of Leinster about Turgesius--Loch Sheelin; beauty of its
name--Beauty of Celtic place names--Beauty of the name
Lorraine.

KELLS IN MEATH 271

Its ancient name--Its great antiquity--Fertility of the
country round it--The tower of Lloyd--Tailltean; its
immense antiquity--The Irish Olympia--Proofs of the general
authenticity of early Irish history--Sir Wm. Wilde's
opinion of Irish chronology--Assemblies held in Tailltean
in recent times--Early Christian Monuments--Kells often
burned and plundered by the Danes--The Book of Kells and
the Tara Brooch.

CUCHULAINN'S DUN AND CUCHULAINN'S COUNTRY 281

Scandalous desecration of his _dun_; its situation and vast
size; its existence another proof of the general truth of
Irish history--Cuchulainn, the Irish Hercules--Origin of
his name--Nothing told about his size or stature--Total
ignorance about Cuchulainn in his birth-place; immensity
of the literature in which he figures--Literary industry of
early Irish monks--Cuchulainn loved by women; his abduction
of Eimer; his _liaison_ with Fann; the tract about him in
the Book of the Dun Cow--Fann's rhapsody--"Cuchulainn's
Death" from the Book of Leinster; beauty of the view from
his _dun_--Numerous antiquities of the County Louth--The
Cooley and Mourne mountains--Neglect of the scenery of
Louth and Down.

THE WILD WEST COAST 299

Its magnificence; comparison between it and the coasts of
Norway; its mild climate--Bantry Bay--The cliffs of Moher--
Half Ireland has been swallowed by the sea--Constant
erosion by the waves--Killary Harbour--Clew Bay, the queen
of Irish Sea lochs; comparison between it and other bays--
Croagh Patrick--Achill and its cliffs--Antiquities at
Carrowmore--Loch Gill--Sligo--Slieve League--Loch Swilly--
Grandeur of the scenery from Cape Clear to Inishowen; its
wonderful variety; its mild climate and wild flowers--Ten
people visit the coasts of Norway for one that visits the
west coast of Ireland--Want of passenger steamers on the
west coast; its beauties can only be seen to advantage from
the sea--Few safe harbours on the Donegall coast.

DUBLIN AND ITS ENVIRONS 325

Dublin not sufficiently appreciated by some of its
inhabitants--Its history--Its long Gaelic name--Danish
domination in it--Many times taken and sacked by the
Irish--Battle of Clontarf--Canute made no attempt to
conquer Ireland--Dublin has not suffered from a siege for
one thousand years--Its rapid growth in the eighteenth
century--Greatly improved during the last twenty-five
years--Its improvement undertaken under enormous
difficulties--Its educational advantages--Its libraries--
Its museum of antiquities; disgraceful management of it--
Dublin supposed to be a dirty city--Its situation--Its
public buildings--Its environs; their supreme beauty--
Glasnevin Botanic Gardens--Dublin Bay; poem on it--Variety
of scenery round Dublin--The Dargle--Howth--Fingall--Dublin
situated in a land of flowers--Abundance of wild flowers in
Ireland--Phoenix Park--Three round towers close to Dublin;
error in its census--What the author has said in its praise
is true.

BELFAST AND ITS ENVIRONS 357

Its rapid growth, and beauty of its environs--Its linen
trade--Business capacity of its inhabitants--Its history
and meaning of its name--The Giant's Ring--View from Davis
mountain--Belfast Loch--Hollywood--Scenic attractions of
the country round Belfast.

CORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 366

Its ancient name--Its history--Its situation--Is not
growing as it should--Prophecy about it--Its fine public
buildings--Its noble harbour--Cork should be where
Queenstown is--Environs of Cork--Its antiquities--Its
sufferings from the Northmen; their ravages; Lord
Dunraven's theory about them; they met stranger opposition
in Ireland than in any other Country; what the Irish
suffered from them; the Northmen not builders-up of
nations; gruesome revelation of their cruelty found at
Donnybrook--The author's theory as to the cause of their
invasions.

GALWAY AND ITS ENVIRONS 388

Its history--Was once a place of large trade--Frightful
decline of its population--Its splendid situation and noble
bay--Its environs--The Isles of Arran; their gigantic
cyclopean remains the most wonderful things of their kind
in Europe.

THE CLOUD SCENERY OF IRELAND 394

Ireland the land of cloud scenery; its situation far out in
the "melancholy ocean"; its moist climate; its sunsets;
their gorgeousness in fine weather; not often seen in
perfection but in autumn.

SOMETHING ABOUT IRISH PLACE NAMES 396

Ireland a peculiar country; its abundance of place names as
compared with Great Britain--Its _ballys_, _kills_, _raths_,
_duns_ and _lises_; their immensity--Dense rural population
of Ireland in ancient times--Antiquity of Ireland.

KILLARNEY

Killarney is famed and known all over the civilized world; but there are places in Ireland where isolated scenes can be found as fair as any in Killarney. Much has been written about this "Eden of the West," but most of those who have attempted to describe it have omitted to mention its chief charm--namely, diversity of scenic attractions within a small compass. Almost everything that Nature could do has been done within a tract of country hardly ten miles square.

Except some favoured spots in Switzerland, there is no spot of European soil more famed for beauty than Killarney. Its very name is beautiful, as any one can know who has heard Balfe's grand song, "Killarney." No sounds more harmonious or more fitted for a refrain could be uttered by the organs of speech. The name signifies in Gaelic the church of the sloe or wild plum-tree. The real name of the lake, or chain of lakes, which is one of the charms of Killarney, is Loch Lein, but the latter name is now almost obsolete.

Before attempting to describe Killarney, it will be well to give the reader an extract from Macaulay's "History of England." The passage is a masterpiece of prose. It is a sketch of the scenic characteristics of that part of Ireland where the famous lakes are situated:

"The south-western part of Kerry is now well known as the most beautiful tract in the British Isles. The mountains, the glens, the capes stretching far out into the Atlantic, the crags on which the eagles build, the rivulets branching down rocky passes, the lakes overhung by groves in which the wild deer find covert, attract, every summer, crowds of wanderers sated with business and the pleasures of great cities. The beauties of that country are often, indeed, hidden in the mist and rain that the west wind brings up from the boundless ocean. But, on rare days, when the sun shines out in his glory, the landscape has a freshness and warmth of colouring seldom found in our latitude. The myrtle loves the soil; the arbutus thrives better than in Calabria; the turf has a livelier hue than elsewhere; the hills glow with a richer purple; the varnish of the holly and the ivy is more glossy, and berries of a brighter red peep through foliage of a brighter green."[1]

Macaulay, in spite of his Celtic name, was not a lover of Ireland and the Irish, and there is no reason to suppose that this most wonderful word-painting was evoked by any liking for the land it describes. He had seen Killarney, and it must have inspired him to write the greatest descriptive passage he ever penned.

Those who expect to find in Killarney the grandeur of the Alps, the Rocky Mountains, or even of the Scottish Highlands, will be disappointed. It is too small to be sublime, for it could be ridden round in a day. The most wonderful of its many wonders is variety of scenery in a small compass. In this respect few parts of the known world can compare with it. Almost every possible phase of Nature, almost everything she could do with land and water, can be found in Killarney, and found on a little spot of earth hardly larger than the space covered by London. Mountains, lakes, rivers, rocks, woods, waterfalls, flowery islands, green meadows and glistening strands, almost exhaust Nature's materials for forming the beautiful. But all are found at Killarney. Man, who mars Nature so often, has helped her here, for the castles and abbeys he raised of yore still stand, and their ivy and flower-decked ruins, tenanted only by the bat and the bee, put the finishing touch on this earthly Eden, and make it one of the scenic wonders of the world. If Killarney had glaciers and eternally snow-clad peaks, it would have everything that Switzerland has.

Another wonderful thing about Killarney is the admirable proportion its scenic features bear to one another. If the mountains were any higher they would be too high for the lakes, and if the lakes were any bigger they would be too big for the mountains. Even the rivers and waterfalls are almost in exact proportion to the other phases of Nature. The monstrous Mississippi or the thundering Niagara would spoil such a miniature paradise; but the limpid Laune and O'Sullivan's babbling cascade suit it exactly. Killarney is the most perfect effort of Nature to bring together without disproportion all her choicest charms.

Small as Killarney is, it would take at least a week, or perhaps two weeks, to see it and know all its loveliness. It is only on foot and without hurry that its beauties can be seen in perfection. Its mountains may be ascended, and glorious views of sea and craggy heights obtained; but the charm of Killarney is not grandeur, but beauty. There are mountain views in Scotland finer than can be had from the summits of Mangerton or Carn Thual. It would be something like waste of time to climb those hills. Let the tourist rather wander in the hundreds of shady lanes or paths that skirt the lakes, or take a boat and navigate that most picturesque river, for its length, in the world, the Long Range, that connects the upper with the lower lake. Let him mark the wondrous luxuriance of grass, leaf, weed and flower. The arbutus grows so large that it becomes a tree. Ferns of such gigantic proportions may be found in shady nooks that they seem to belong to some far-back geological age. Softness, freshness, luxuriance and _beaute riante_ are the real glories of Killarney. In these it has no rival.

There are two drawbacks to Killarney; there is the guide nuisance and the rain nuisance. The nuisance of guides is probably no greater than in many other places of tourist resort, and, by a strong effort of the will, can be got rid of. But the rain is a more serious matter and must be borne patiently. Some years come when not a dozen dry days occur throughout the entire summer, but generally there is less rainfall than on the west coasts of Scotland or England. There have been quite as many wet days in Liverpool during the three last summers as there usually are in Killarney. It does, however, too often happen that tourists are confined to the hotel for four or five days at a time owing to the rain. It must be borne in mind that this excessive moisture of atmosphere is what has given the south-west of Ireland, and England too, their exquisite charm of verdure and wild flowers. When a fine day comes after rain in summer or autumn all Nature seems to laugh. Flowers of all hues open their petals, birds in multitudes begin to sing, and wild bees and hosts of insects make the air musical with their hum. The American tourist need have no fear when insects are mentioned, for the mosquito is unknown in Killarney. Midges are the only insect plague, but they never enter houses, and are troublesome only before rain, early in the spring or late in the autumn.

Most tourists go to Killarney early in the summer. June and July are favourite times for Americans to visit it. As it lies almost in the direct route between New York and Liverpool, they generally visit it before going to England or the Continent of Europe. But the time to see Killarney is in the autumn--it is then in all its glory. It should not be visited before the 15th of August; from then until the 1st of October it is the most beautiful place, perhaps, on the earth, provided always that the weather is not wet. There is only one thing that mars the weather in the south of Ireland--namely, rain. Cold, in the general sense of the word, is almost unknown. Every day that is not wet must be fine. There is, it must be confessed, rather more probability of having dry weather in Killarney in the spring or early summer than in the autumn, but, by visiting it in the spring, the tourist would gain nothing, and would lose the wild-flower feast of autumn. No American, or even native of England, no matter from what part of his country he comes, can form the faintest conception of what a Killarney mountain is in September, if the weather be fine. The wild-flower that is the glory of Ireland is the heath. It blossoms only in the autumn. Next in glory to the heath comes the furze. Both furze and heath are indigenous in the whole of the south-west of Europe, but, owing to the mildness and moistness of the climate of Ireland, they grow and blossom there with a luxuriance unknown in any other country. When a great mountain becomes a mighty bouquet of purple and gold, a sight is revealed which surpasses anything on earth in floral beauty. Almost every mountain round about the "Eden of the West" is clothed from base to summit in a vast drapery of heath. Some of the Killarney mountains are wooded for a few hundred feet up their sides, but most of them are entirely covered with heath interspersed with furze. When a fine autumn occurs, tens of thousands of acres of mountain and moorland gleam in the sunlight, an ocean of purple heath and golden furze. Not only do the heath and furze blossom in the autumn, but myriads of other wild-flowers appear only at that time of year, or blossom most luxuriantly then. Even white clover, which rarely blossoms in other countries except in the spring or early summer, open its flowers widest and sends out its most fragrant perfume in an Irish autumn. The air is heavy with fragrance of flowers, the mountains are musical with the hum of bees, and

"Every winged thing that loves the sun
Makes the bright noonday full of melody."

Killarney in a fine autumn becomes not only entrancing, but overpowering in its loveliness.

The whole country round Killarney is a wonderland. Macaulay's description of it is true to the letter. In all his works nothing can be found of a descriptive character equal to the passage quoted from him. He had a great subject, and he handled it as no other writer of the English language could. He has described one of the loveliest regions in the world in a few lines that will stand for ever as one of the greatest efforts of a great writer. His description is a brilliant gem of composition, just as the place it describes is a brilliant gem of nature.

No one should visit Killarney without visiting Glengariff. It is only about twenty miles from Killarney, and can be reached by a sort of low-backed car peculiar to Ireland. This car is a very curious sort of conveyance. The occupants sit back to back, with their sides to the horses. In fine weather there is no pleasanter mode of travelling than on a low-backed car, but when it rains one is anything but comfortable. Glengariff is thought by some to surpass even Killarney in beauty. It is a deep glen surrounded by mountains of the most fantastic shapes, clothed with a wealth of foliage that would astonish any one who had not seen Killarney. The lake that is seen at Glengariff is sea-water, and opens into Bantry Bay. The tourist will find an excellent hotel there, and no matter how he may be satiated with the beauty of Killarney, he will see other and more striking beauties in Glengariff.

Killarney is well supplied with hotels. There are four or five, and they are all good. Most of them are situated in sequestered places, where a view of some enchanting scene spreads before the door. The village of Killarney is about a mile from the lake; it is a place of no interest at all, but there is a very good hotel in it, and many tourists stop there, for it is just at the railway terminus. Hotel expenses at Killarney in the tourist season are not so high as at some of the fashionable Continental summer resorts. Guides are not much wanted, unless mountains are to be ascended. Then they are indispensable, for mists may suddenly come during the very finest day, and the tourist without a guide would run a chance of spending a night on a bleak mountain or being drowned in a lake or bog-hole. Ponies of a most docile character can be hired cheap. Pony-back travelling is a favourite mode of "doing" Killarney, especially with ladies and lazy men, but no one into whose soul the charm of Killarney really enters would think of travelling through such lovely scenes on horseback. On foot or in a boat is the way to see Killarney.

There are ruins of the most interesting kind in Killarney. Muckross Abbey is not so large as some of the ruined shrines of England, but it is a venerable and imposing building. It was built by one of the MacCarthys, chiefs of the district, in 1340. Ross Castle is another imposing ruin. It is situated on a green promontory that juts into the lake. There is some doubt as to the exact time when it was erected, but it could hardly have been before the fourteenth century. The most interesting ruin near Killarney, and by far the most ancient, is the monastery on the supremely beautiful island of Inisfallan. It was founded by Saint Finian in the sixth century. It was there the yet unpublished "Annals of Inisfallan" were compiled. Hardly any of the walls of the old monastery remain. The arbutus and the hawthorn are growing where once were cloisters, and are fast completing the ruin of what was one of the first of the ancient churches that were erected in Ireland.

TARA

The supreme attraction of Tara is its antiquity. It must not, however, be thought that a visit to this famous hill reveals no beauties. It is not situated among mountains; hardly a lake is visible from its summit: yet the view from it is so fine that if there was no historic interest attached to it, the tourist in search of the beautiful alone would have his eyes feasted with as fair a scene from one of its grassy ramparts as could be gazed on in any part of Ireland. Eastward the view is obstructed by the hill of Screen, but on every other side it is superb. Westward the eye ranges over the fairest and most fertile part of Ireland, the great plain of Meath and West Meath, anciently called _Magh Breagh_, or the fair plain. And fair indeed it is in summer time, one great green sea of grass and wild flowers, reaching to the Shannon, sixty miles away. But it is southward that the view from Tara is most striking. The Dublin and Wicklow mountains are more imposing when seen from Tara than from any other place. They rise in a vast, blue rampart, and seem so colossal as to appear thousands of feet higher than they are. Those old, barbaric Irish kings and chieftains must have been lovers of the beautiful, for they almost invariably fixed their strongholds not only in the fairest parts, but in places commanding the fairest prospects. There are hardly two other places in Ireland the surroundings of which are more beautiful than those of Tara and Uisneach, or from which fairer prospects are to be seen. They were, from far-back antiquity, the seats of those by whom the country was _supposed_ to be ruled, for it often happened that he who was styled chief king had but little control over his vassals.

There is no other spot of European soil the records of which go so far back into the dim twilight of the past as do the records of Tara. Before the first Roman raised a rude hut on the banks of the Tiber, when the place where the Athenian Acropolis now stands was a bare rock, kings, whose names are given in Irish history, ruled in Tara. When one gazes on those grassy mounds, that are almost all that remain of what our ancient poets used to call "the fair, radiant, City of the Western World," he can hardly believe that such a place could ever have been the abode of royalty, the meeting-place of assemblies, and the permanent home of thousands. Other desolated strongholds of ancient royalty and dominion bear ample evidence of their former greatness. Ruined columns of Persepolis yet remain. The site of Tadmor is marked by still standing pillars of marble, and vast piles of decomposed bricks tell of the greatness of ancient Babylon; but green, grassy mounds and partially obliterated earth-works are almost all that remain of Tara. It is so ruined that it can hardly be ruined any more. Time may yet destroy even what remains of the bricks of Babylon, but time can hardly change what remains of the ruins of Tara.

No other spot of Irish earth can compare with Tara in historic interest or in antiquity. Emania and Rathcroghan are little more than places of yesterday compared with it. It is over three thousand years ago since the first king reigned in Tara. Some may say that it is only bardic history that tells of what took place in Ireland in those very remote times, and that it is unworthy of credence. It is true that there is a great deal of fiction mixed with the early history of Ireland, as there is with the early history of all countries; but the ancient Irish chroniclers did not attempt much more than a mere sketch of the salient points of Irish history of very remote times, say from beyond the third century B.C. Some of the facts they mention have been verified in remarkable ways by what may be called collateral evidence. This evidence is found in place names, and in the names of persons and things. One of those proofs of the general correctness of what is related in Gaelic literature about far-back events of Irish history is so remarkable that it deserves special mention. One of the kings who ruled in Tara considerably over a thousand years B.C. was named Lugh, or in English, Lewy or Louis. He established the games that were held annually at Tailtean, near Kells, that were regularly celebrated down to the time of the Anglo-French invasion, in honour of his mother, whose name was Tailte. Those games were held in the first week in August, and from them the Irish name for the month of August is derived; it is _Lughnasa_. This is the only name known in Gaelic to the present hour for the month of August, except a periphrastic one meaning "the first month of autumn." This name for August is known in every part of Ireland and Scotland where the old tongue still lives, but it has been corrupted to _Lunasd_ in the latter country. The meaning of the word _Lughnasa_ is, the games or celebrations of this same Lugh or Lewy, who lived and reigned centuries before Rome was founded, and before a stone of the Athenian Acropolis was laid. It seems almost impossible to conceive that the Gaelic name for the month of August could have had any origin other than that given above on the authority of one of the most learned of ancient Irish ecclesiastics, Cormac MacCuillenan, Archbishop of Cashel, in the ninth century.

The descriptions of Tara given in ancient Gaelic writings have been verified in the most remarkable manner by the researches of modern archaeologists. Dr Petrie's great work, "The Antiquities of Tara Hill," would go far to remove the prejudices of the most bigoted despiser of Irish historic records. He was one of the most learned and scientific investigators of antiquities that ever lived, and was not only a good Gaelic scholar himself, but had the assistance of the greatest Gaelic scholar of the century, John O'Donovan. Those two gentlemen translated every mention of Tara that they could find in prose or verse in ancient Irish manuscripts; they compared every mention they could find of the monuments of Tara with what remains of them at present; and they found such a general agreement between ancient descriptions of those monuments and the existing remains of them as proved what is said in Gaelic manuscripts about the extent and splendour of Tara in Pagan times to be well worthy of credence. Every one who visits Tara, and who is in any way interested in archaeology, should have Doctor Petrie's map of it, which will be found in his minute and elaborate work on the "Antiquities of Tara Hill." That map is reproduced here. The book is very scarce, as only a small edition of it was printed, but it can be found in the "Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy." Armed with Petrie's map a visit to Tara would be one of the most interesting and enjoyable excursions that could be made from Dublin. Kilmessan Station can be reached from the Broadstone terminus in an hour, and less than two miles of a walk through a beautiful country brings one to the summit of "the Hill of Supremacy," as it was called of old when he who ruled in Tara ruled Ireland. No matter how confirmed an archaeologist he may be who stands for the first time on this celebrated hill, his first feeling will be of joy at the beauty of the prospect that is spread before him. To know how beautiful Ireland is, even in those places that are not on the track of tourists, and that are seldom mentioned in guide books, one should see the view from the hill of Tara.

It would be hard to find any other hill in Ireland so well adapted for a place of assembly or for the dwelling of a ruler as Tara. Uisneach, in Westmeath, is, perhaps, the only hill in Ireland that possesses all the advantages of Tara. In ancient times, when war was the rule and peace the exception, it was imperative that a stronghold should be on a height. Athens had its acropolis and so had Corinth. Tara had the advantage of extent as well as of height, and could be made a permanent dwelling-place as well as an acropolis, for there are fully a hundred acres on what may be called the summit of the hill. It is unfortunate that some of the hill has been enclosed, planted with deal trees, and a church erected on the very track of some of the most ancient monuments. This plantation and church have terribly interfered with the picturesqueness and antique look of Tara. Planting deal trees and erecting a modern church amid the hoariest monuments, and on the most historic spot of European soil, was little less than sacrilege. If there had been a proper national spirit, or a due veneration for their past among the Irish, they never would have allowed a church or any modern building to be erected on the most historic spot on Irish soil; and even now they ought to have the church removed, the wall torn down, and the plantation uprooted. All Greece would rise up in indignation were any one to erect a church or chapel amid the ruins of the Athenian Acropolis.

(_After Petrie's Map._)]

The most interesting and best preserved of the antiquities of Tara is the track of the banquetting-house. It must have been an enormous building, for it was about 800 feet long and about 50 wide. It is wonderful how perfectly plain and well-defined the track of this once great structure appears after nearly fourteen hundred years, and in spite of the way this historic spot has been uprooted and levelled. But not a vestige of stone-work or of stones is to be seen near the ruins of the banquetting-house. It seems absolutely certain that there were no buildings of stone in Tara when it was at the height of its grandeur, and that seems to have been about the middle of the third century, during the reign of Cormac MacAirt. It must not be thought that buildings cannot be fine unless they are of stone; but buildings of stone were very rare in northern countries until comparatively recent times. Moore, in his "History of Ireland," says, speaking of wooden buildings and of Tara--"However scepticism may now question their architectural beauty, they could boast the admiration of many a century in evidence of their grandeur. That those edifices were of wood is by no means conclusive either against the elegance of their structure or the civilisation of those who erected them. It was in wood that the graceful forms of Grecian architecture first unfolded their beauties." So the absence of stone buildings in Tara in no way proves that it was not a place of grandeur as well as of beauty; and the tenth century Gaelic poet may have been justified in saying of it,

"World of perishable beauty!
Tara to-day, though a wilderness,
Was once the meeting-place of heroes.
Great was the host to which it was an inheritance,
Though to-day green, grassy land."

Every mention of Tara in the vast remnant of Gaelic manuscripts of the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries that still exists shows it to have been, beyond all comparison, the most important place in ancient Ireland. Oengus the Culdee, author of the longest poem in ancient Gaelic, the famous Felire, recently translated by Mr Whitley Stokes, speaks thus of this renowned but now ruined spot:

"Tara's mighty burgh hath perished
With its kingdom's splendour;
With a multitude of champions of wisdom
Abideth great Ardmagh."

The poet contrasts the desolation into which the strongholds of the Pagans had fallen with the then flourishing condition of the centres of Christian teaching. Tara was the political as well as the social centre of ancient Ireland. It is in connection with it that the only mention made of roads having names is found in ancient Gaelic writings. Five great roads, as will be seen by the annexed map, led from Tara to the extremities of the Island. The Slighe Dala went southward; the Slighe Asail went north-west; the Slighe Midhluchra, went north-east; the Slighe Cualann went south-easterly; and the Slighe Mor went in a south-western direction. Traces of those roads may still be seen by the practised eye of the archaeologist.

One of the most interesting things connected with Tara is the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny. It was upon it the over-kings of Ireland had been inaugurated from far-back antiquity. It is said to have been brought by Fergus, brother of the then reigning chief King, to Scotland, in order that he might be crowned king on it over the part of Scotland he had conquered. It remained under the coronation chair of the Kings of Scotland down to the time of Edward the First, who seized it and brought it to Westminster, where it is now, and the sovereigns of England have been crowned on it ever since his time. Petrie maintains that the Lia Fail is still in Tara, and that the pillar stone that stands over the graves of the men who fell in '98 is it. He adduces very strong evidence from manuscripts of high authority and of great antiquity to prove what he says. There is, on the other hand, strong testimony to prove that it was brought to Scotland by Fergus. The question will probably never be finally settled. The principal virtue supposed to be possessed by the Lia Fail was that it would bring political power to the country in which it was, particularly if its people were of Celtic stock. It is very remarkable that soon after the stone supposed to be the Lia Fail was taken out of Ireland, her political power began to decline, her over-kings lost a great part of their former authority, and in the long run she lost her independence. Scotland's political power and national independence vanished not long after she had lost the Lia Fail, and in a few centuries after England had got it she became one of the foremost nations in the world. The English claim to be Saxons, but it is now generally admitted that the Celtic element preponderates in the island of Great Britain, so that the prophecy attached to the Lia Fail seems to be fulfilled.

The Lia Fail is certainly the most extraordinary stone in Europe, if not in the world. The famous Rosetta stone, covered as it is with archaic writing, and verifying, as many suppose, the truth of Old Testament history, is hardly more interesting than the rude granite slab that lies under the coronation chair in Westminster, unmarked with a single letter. It is about 25 inches in length, about 15 in breadth, and 9 in depth. How such a rude, unshapely flag-stone could have such a history, and have been an object of veneration and interest for so many centuries, is what strikes with wonder those who see it. But if it is not the real Lia Fail, if it is a sham, and if the stone still standing in Tara is the genuine one, the wonder increases; for the fact of a spurious article having become invested with such fame and regarded with such veneration is the greatest wonder of all.

Doctor Petrie says, in his "Antiquities of Tara Hill," that "it is in the highest degree improbable that to gratify the desire of a colony the Irish would have voluntarily parted with a monument so venerable for its antiquity and considered essential to the legitimate succession of their own kings." He quotes verses from a tenth century poet, Kenith O'Hartigan, who says that the Lia Fail is

"This stone on which are my two heels";

and he quotes from an ancient tract called the _Dinseanchus_, another proof that when it was composed, and that time could not have been later than the tenth century, the Lia Fail was in Tara. It often happens, however, that Irish annalists and historians, so fond were they of looking backward to the past, make things appear as they had been, and not as they were when they wrote. The over-kings of Ireland were called Kings of Tara five hundred years after Tara had been abandoned, and when it was as waste and desolate as it is to-day. O'Dugan, in his topographical poem, written in the fourteenth century, tells of clans inhabiting the English Pale, when they had been banished westward by the invaders nearly two hundred years before he wrote. He prefaces his topographical poem by saying

"O'Maolseachlinn, chief King of Tara and Erin,"

but the last O'Maolseachlinn that was nominally chief King of Ireland and Tara had died three hundred years before O'Dugan wrote! Why those old Gaelic poets were so fond of describing things as they had been, and not as they were when they wrote, is hard to understand. They may have got their information from documents that were centuries old when they copied them. It seems a certainty that the men whose writings Petrie quotes to prove that the Lia Fail was in Tara in the tenth century, did what O'Dugan did in his topographical poem--that is, speak of things as they had been hundreds of years before. He never mentions the English at all. This partially accounts for Irish writers of the tenth century speaking of the Lia Fail being then in Tara. They intended to describe where it used to be, but not where it was. When Petrie says that the Lia Fail is spoken of by all ancient Irish writers in such a manner as to leave no doubt that it remained in its original situation at the time when they wrote, he makes a great mistake. Here is a quotation from the "Book of Leinster," a manuscript of the highest authority, compiled in the early part of the twelfth century, and mostly from writings of a much earlier date:--"It was the Tuatha De Danaans who brought with them the great _Fal_, that is, the stone of knowledge that _was_ in Tara; from which [the name of] Magh Fail is on Ireland. He under whom it would roar was then [rightful] King of Ireland."[2]

There is another very strong proof brought to light by the publication of "Silva Gadelica," by Mr Standish Hays O'Grady, that the Lia Fail was removed from Tara. In the tract called the "Colloquy," one of the speakers says: "This, then, and the Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, that _was_ there (in Tara) were the two wonders of Tara. When Ireland's monarch stepped on it, it would cry out under him," ... "And who was it that lifted that flag, or that carried it away out of Ireland?" asked one of the listeners. "It was a young hero of great spirit that ruled over" ... Here, unfortunately, the tract ends abruptly. The "Colloquy," or "Agallamh na Seanorach," is a tract of respectable antiquity. Its language seems to be that of the fifteenth or perhaps the fourteenth century, but the version that has come down to us may be, and probably is, but a transcript of a much more ancient tract, the language of which was modernised.