528 Froceedings of the Royal Irish Acade^yiy. 



Booly OTlaherty who once held the castle there (in 1585 and later) is 

 still held in detestation as that of a tyrant and oppressor. He is said 

 to have allowed no turf to be cut within seven miles of his castle, and 

 to have poisoned the lake near it which killed all the fish. 



A couple of variants (apparently) of the same legend were obtained 

 about St. Mac Dara's Island. 



One is that having cows on the island but no bull, the saint prayed 

 earnestly for one, which came up out of the sea to him, and on landing 

 left marks of his hoofs on the rock which are to be seen to this day for 

 the confusion of the incredulous. The other story or version is that 

 St. Mac Dara had a neighbour, St. Coelan, who lived on Cruagh na 

 Kily or Deer Island, some six miles distant, who was not at all on 

 friendly terms with him owing to some argument which had arisen 

 between them (the legend does not say whether this argument related 

 to theological subjects), and this saint resorted to a curious and very 

 unsaintlike mode of getting the best of the argument by taking 

 advantage of the fact that St. Mac Dara had only ewes on his island, 

 and making use of a marvellous ram of his which he caused to leap 

 over to Cruagh Mac Dara at one bound and serve the flock. 



There is another and sadder legend connected with Deer Island and 

 the heaps of stones there which are said to cover the bones of people 

 who died there of starvation. This legend is given at full length in 

 a footnote to p. 102 of " O'Flaherty's H'lar Connaught." 



VI. — Aechi^oiogt. 



This district is fairly rich in antiquities, especially in the survival 

 of the use of many primitive articles and implements, which have 

 remained here unsuperseded, owing to this part of the coast line 

 having been, until within comparatively recent times, largely cut off 

 from the outer world by the absence of good roads through the belt 

 of desolate country inland and the absence of proper means of con- 

 veyance. These being now suppKed, many of the implements formerly 

 in common use are being rapidly superseded, while some have already 

 disappeared owing to the substitution of imported manufactured articles 

 for home made ones. The ancient monuments and buildings are not 

 very numerous, but are interesting. These I do not feel myself com- 

 petent to describe, as I cannot pretend to any special knowledge 

 on the subject, but my friend Mr. T. J. Westropp, to whose kind 

 assistance in the work of this survey I owe much, has supplied this 

 deficiency, and the section on Antiquities given below is from his pen. 



