1832.] [ 617 ] 



SCENES IN CUNNEMARA. 



THIS remote and unfrequented, but singularly picturesque and interesting district 

 of the west of Ireland, takes its name from the striking manner in which its coast 

 is indented by the Atlantic, the word Cunnemara signifying in Irish, ** the bays of 

 the sea" When better known than it is at present, it cannot fail to obtain a high 

 place we would almost venture to say the highest amongst the natural attractions 

 of the island. Its mountains are loftier and bolder, and its lakes far more exten- 

 sive, numerous, and beautiful than those of Wicklow, which have been so much 

 celebrated ; its shares are more magnificent than those of Antrim ; and if it yields 

 in beauty to Killarney, owing to the deficiency of wood, it challenges in a much 

 higher degree the ad miration of those who consider the principal charm of scenery to 

 consist in its wildness and majesty. The eye that is not to be pleased without mea- 

 dows and groves, must seek elsewhere for gratification ; here there is little upon 

 the hills but the purple heather, and in the valleys but the fern and bog-violet ; the 

 forests that once clothed the domains of the Blakes and Martins, have disappeared, 

 and left scarce a memorial of their former existence, save a huge trunk of m'ne 

 occasionally discovered in the bogs, or a solitary and stunted oak or yew, which, 

 having no fellow within twenty miles, is known to the natives by the name of " the 

 tree" and serves as the limit of an estate or the boundary of a parish. But if any 

 where there is a country where the absence of wood can be overlooked, it is this 

 region. The picturesque amply apologizes for the bleak and barren ; the charac- 

 ter of the scenery may be described to be a waste magnificence, wanting beauty 

 and mildness only to be more romantically distinguished by a stern and rugged 

 grandeur. 



There is one inducement, however, which can no longer be offered to attract 

 tourists to this part of Ireland. There remains now little difficulty and no danger 

 to give the excursion the air of adventure. Within the last ten years, new roads 

 have been executed, and good bridges have taken the place of perilous fords. The 

 hand of Nimmo is visible in places that were previously inaccessible except to the 

 feet of the red-deer ; and the fruits of his engineering labours are obvious in the 

 better tillage of the soil, and improved habits of the population. There is nowhere 

 a more peaceable race than inhabits between Loch Corrib and the ocean. Terry - 

 Altism has broken out in Mayo, without infecting them in its passage from Clare. 

 Nowhere is the person of the traveller more safe from harm ; and nowhere will he 

 experience more frequent instances of civility and good nature. The Galway 

 mountaineer is distinguished for his politeness and obliging temper even amongst 

 the peasantry of Ireland ; nobody is without the pale of his kind offices except the 

 man who is rash enough to undertake the service of a" tatitat" or any similar mis- 

 sion from the king's superior courts ; for him but we shall resume this sad sub- 

 ject when we come to mention the customs of the town of Cliefden. 



Cunnemara, in the vulgar and larger acceptation of the word, comprehends 

 almost the whole maritime and mountain regions of the county Galway. It pro- 

 perly, however, includes only the barony of Ballynahinch, and commences a few 

 miles to the north of the town of Qughterard, near a small lake called Loch Bofin. 

 The numerous islands off the coast form part of it ; and it is divided amongst three 

 proprietors, Martin of Ballynahinch, D'Arcy of Cliefden, and Blake of Reuvyle. 



" Place me where Dick Martin rules 

 The woodless wilds of Cunnemara," 



is nevertheless poetically accurate, the possessions of that celebrated character 

 extending over far the greater part of the district. There is one immense tract 

 which he facetiously calls his demesne ; a dilapidated edifice at Oughterard repre- 

 senting the gate-house, and twenty Irish miles of road the avenue, to the castle. It 

 need hardly be stated that such a demesne has no inclosures but the Atlantic and 

 the mountains. The island of Carrigaroon off Seyne Head serves as a deer-park ; 

 and that of Carrigavolty in thebay of Iloundstone is used as a kitchen garden. 



From Galway to Oughterard, a space of fifteen miles, the route is dull. Con- 

 siderably to the right stretches Loch Corrib, at this extremity an unattractive sheet 



M.M. New Series. Vol. XIII. No. 78. 2 T 



