Browne — Ethnography of Ininhbofin and Inishsharh. 361 



Castle, on the mainland, and tried there; having been convicted, he 

 was put to death, the means of execution being to chain him on a 

 rock, which is left bare at low water, so that when the tide rose 

 again he was drowned. This rock has ever since borne the name of 

 Carrig Guairim or Gorham's rock. The belief is that ever since a 

 curse has rested on the families connected with the murder, and that, 

 in consequence, no Halligan can ever become a priest ; and that 

 several who have tried have all failed from one cause or another. 



Cromwell's (or JBosco's) Castle. — There are many stories related 

 about the old castle on Port Island, at the entrance to the harbour. 

 Tradition says that it was built by a pirate named Bosco, about whose 

 nationality there seems to be much uncertainty : one account making 

 him a Spaniard, another a Dane. He was an ally of Grania Uaile, 

 who had a fort a little farther up along the opposite side of the 

 harbour, and for whom he kept a fleet of boats. He had a chain 

 boom stretched across the harbour's mouth, from his castle to a place 

 known in Irish as the Cat's Hole, close to the castle of the Guairim 

 mentioned in the last tale, and to the site of the present E. C. Church, 

 and thus prevented ships from entering or leaving the place without 

 paying heavy dues to him. An embrasure or doorway overhanging 

 the sea is said to have been used by him as a means of disposing 

 of his prisoners ; and just outside the mouth of the harljour, and close 

 under the walls of the castle, is a small rocky islet, called the Gun 

 Rock, on which Bosco is said to have had a heavy gun planted to 

 defend the entrance. 



Duiing the Commonwealth, the castle is said to have been at first 

 used as a prison for priests and monks transported tldther from the 

 mainland, and afterwards to have been strengthened, provided with a 

 small boat-harbour, and siipplied with a garrison, for whom a market 

 was opened in Middlequarter. A large treasure is reputed to be 

 buried somewhere within the castle ; and a story is told of a priest 

 who at one time attempted to dig for it, but was ordered to desist 

 by a voice which spoke to him in Irish out of the ground. 



The Bell of InislisharJc. — There once was a marvellous brass bell 

 in Inislishark, which was preserved with the greatest care, as it had 

 at one time belonged to St. Leo, the patron saint of the island, about 

 which the following legend is related. A Prench ship came to the 

 island, the crew of which plundered the place, and took away the 

 bell ; but their theft did not prosper with them, for they had not well 

 got it on board before very rough weather came on, and the vessel 



