HARDWICKE'S SCIE N CE -GOSSIP. 



97 



SKETCHES IN THE WEST OE IRELAND. 



CHAPTER VI— ARAN ISLES AND GALWAY BAY. 



By G. H. Kinahan, M.R.I.A., &c. 



the entrance of Gal- 

 way Bay, and south- 

 west of Black Head, 

 in the Burren, lie the 

 three isles of Aran : 

 'Inishmore, Inisk- 

 maan, and Inisheer, 

 the last being four miles from 

 the mainland. As viewed from 

 the hills in the vicinity of Gal- 

 way, these appear to be five 

 islands, this being due to two 

 low valleys that cross Inish- 

 more ; one west of Killeany 

 Bay, and the other south-west 

 of Portmurvy. The last is so 

 low, less than fifty feet above 

 the sea, that Galway - bound 

 ships have mistaken it for one 

 of the channels into the bay, on which account 

 it has received the name of the "Blind Sound." 

 About the year 1640 an extraordinary high wave, 

 probably seismitic, broke on this coast, and ran 

 across the island through the Blind Sound. This 

 wave, possibly, was due to the earthquake men- 

 tioned in Mallet's list as having been felt in 

 Erance, Belgium, and Holland, at 3.15 a.m., 

 April 4, 1640. 



The ancient name of Galway Bay was " Loch 

 Lurgan." This name seems to be now obsolete, 

 but the natives of the islands on the north of 

 the bay still call the north sound Bealagh-locha 

 Lurgan — anglice, " the way of Lough Lurgan." 

 The historian O'Pflaherlie, in his " Ogygia," men- 

 tions that the islands of Aran were once joined to 

 the county Clare, which tradition he seems to have 

 taken from some ancient document ; the latter, 

 however, has not since been found. Of late years, 

 No. 125. 



however, the present vicar of Aran, the Rev. W. 

 Kilbride, has proved that siuce the islands were 

 inhabited, the sea must have been considerably 

 lower than at present ; as on the south of Killeany 

 Bay he has found, under the JEolian sands there 

 situated, primitive habitations, consisting of clog- 

 hans, or beehive-shaped stone houses ; fosleac, or 

 flag-dwellings, and other structures, which he has 

 traced to and below low-water mark. In confirma- 

 tion of Mr. Kilbride's discovery, there are found 

 in Hiar-Conuaught, at the north margin of Galway 

 Bay, submerged bogs, over eight feet deep, at low- 

 water of spring tide, that have roots of oak in situ, 

 which prove that when the bogs were growing, the 

 relative level of the land must have been at the 

 least fifty feet higher than at the present time. 

 The charts also point to a former connection 

 between the county Clare and the Aran islands, — 

 in fact, everything seems to suggest that the tra- 

 dition is quite correct, and that since the historical 

 period the sea has risen and formed islands of land 

 that once separated the bay from the Atlantic. 



As we are dealing with tradition, we may mention 

 the mythical isle of O'Brasil. This island is said 

 to appear at times, and, according to O'Pflahertie, 

 it is called " in Irish, Beg-ara, or the Lesser Aran, 

 and set down in cards of navigation." That such 

 an optical delusion does sometimes appear, out 

 to sea, is certain, as it has been seen by various 

 persons ; among others by the writer of these notes. 

 The island, or rather apparition, was lofty and 

 rugged, similar in outline to Inishturk to the north- 

 ward, in the county Mayo. The people of Aran 

 say that O'Brasil's island appears only every seven 

 years. To the north-west of Arau, in the open sea, 

 are the skirds (anglice, sea-rocks). These islands 

 and rocks sometimes assume fantastic appearances, 

 sometimes looking like a large city, at other times 



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