1832.] Scenes in the Irish Highlands Cunnemara. 623 



remains to afford even the means of conjecture. The islands scattered over the 

 vast sheet of Loch Corrib, are said to equal the days of the year in number: our 

 attention was directed, however, to but very few ; for they do not occur frequently, 

 until the lake expands to its greatest breadth ; and that being also the point where 

 the scenery loses its bold character, we pursued our voyage no/urther, but contented 

 ourselves with putting to shore and taking a general survey of the whole expanse, 

 with all its shores and islands, from the summit of the range of hills on the western 

 side. The view is truly magnificent, embracing the mountains of Mayo, and 

 those of Joyce-country, through which we had travelled the preceding night from 

 Leenane. About a mile from the old castle there is a little wooded promontory, not 

 far from which a fatal accident occurred, some months back, to a Mr. Browne and 

 two companions. A sudden squall no unusual event on these highland lakes 

 overset their boat, which was unluckily furnished with a sail ; and, being unable 

 to swim to shore, they perished within sight of the rest of their party, who had 

 landed for the purpose of kindling a fire and preparing dinner with the trout they 

 had killed. Loch Corrib, I should mention, is celebrated for an excellent species 

 of that fish, called the Gillaroe trout, remarkable for having a gizzard like that of 

 a fowl, which is frequently dressed alone and esteemed a delicacy. The Gillaroe, 

 however, is not the exclusive property of Loch Corrib ; several of the Cunnemara 

 lakes possess it ; we found it the following day in Loch Inagh. 



We dined on our return to the lodge, and started immediately after for 

 " Flinn's," or the " Half-way-house," where we had fixed to take up our quarters 

 for the night. When we arrived there, however, we found the beds engaged by 

 an engineering party, and learned with dismay that we had no alternative but to 

 go on to Garromin'(a place already mentioned) and throw ourselves on the hos- 



S'tality, not of the Dean, but of Red John M'Donough, commonly called Shawn 

 u, the tenant of a miserable hut not a hundred yards from the Dean's gate. 

 Dark were our forebodings of the entertainment that awaited us, and they were 

 realized. The supper consisted of half-boiled potatoes, with the addition of certain 

 eels roasted until they were actually transubstantiated into the nature of the 

 embers that carbonated, not cooked them. The beds, like those at Shawn More's, 

 conjured up to our imaginations the whole insect-kingdom. We plunged into 

 them, like Curtius into the chasm, with the certainty of being swallowed up alive 

 staring us in the face but in mercy to the reader I draw the curtain. I may 

 mention, however, what was going on outside. It was a general combination 

 against Morpheus. All the M'Donoughs were snoring obstreperously; there was 

 such a concert of crickets as chimney-corner never rung with before; and (as if 

 more Macbeths were wanting to " murder sleep " ) a trio of abominable kittens 

 were at play the live-long night with a number of the Morning Register, which we 

 had brought with us from Dublin for the politicians of Cunnemara all this not 

 a hundred yards from the residence of the Dean ! The voluptuous image of that 

 dignitary rolling in a bed of down after a luxurious supper, haunted our dreams, 

 and the next morning, at breakfast, there was a unanimous feeling against the 

 church establishment. 



The last excursion of which my limits allow me to give any particulars was from 

 Garromin to the series of lakes already mentioned, viz., those of Ballynahinch, 

 Derryclare, and Inagh. Next to the scenery of the Killeries, (if it is not unfair 

 to institute the comparison), that of these lakes is unquestionably the grandest in 

 Cunnemara. They rise considerably one above another ; the level of Loch Inagh 

 being higher than that of Derryclare, and the level of the latter, in like manner, 

 above that of Ballynahinch. The consequence is, that the two little streams, which 

 connect them together, rush down through their narrow rocky channels with great 

 impetuosity. That which unites the two upper lakes, has so rapid a fall that its 

 navigation is never attempted. We walked across the bog from M'Donough's 

 cabin to the lower end of Loch Inagh, and there got into a boat which, by the 

 kindness of Mr. Thomas Martin, had been transported upon men's shoulders from 

 Ballynahinch to meet us. The upper part of Derryclare lake, of which we had 

 necessarily a near view, struck us as being very beautiful; particularly the little 

 wood, with the thatched cottage, half-hidden in the trees, which is mentioned in 

 the " Letters from the Irish Highlands." The boatmen, who, fortunately for us, 



