238 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Young's are available, there are several interesting traditions connected with 

 the place. 



There seems little doubt that it was here the " Siigan " Earl of Desmond, 

 the last of his house, took refuge after his futile rebellion, and was taken 

 prisoner by the White Knight of Kerry, in May, 1601. An account of 

 this incident is to be found in " Ireland under the Tudors,"^ which states that 

 " one of the Knight's followers .... led him straight to a cave not far from 

 Mitchelstown, many fathoms deep, and with a narrow entrance, perhaps the 

 same which tourists still visit as a natural curiosity. The Knight came to the 

 mouth of the cave, with a few men, and summoned the occupants to sur- 

 render. Desmond's only companion was his foster-brother Thomas OTeighy." 

 The Earl was afterwards sold to Queen Elizabeth for £1000, and immured in 

 the Tower of London, where he died. 



Young's description is worthy of reproduction for purposes of comparison 

 with the account of discoveries made by the authors of this paper in 

 September, 1908. He speaks of " a cave at Skeheewrinky between Cahir 

 and that place ; the opening to it is a cleft of rock in a limestone hill, so 

 narrow as to be difficult to get into. I descended by a ladder of about 

 twenty steps, and then found myself in a vault of a hundred feet long and 

 fifty or sixty feet high. A small hole on the left leads from this a winding 

 course of, I believe, not less than half an Irish mile, exhibiting a variety that 

 struck me much. In some places the cavity in the rock is so large that, 

 when well lighted up with candles (not flambeaux; Lord Kingsborough 

 showed it me with them, and we found the smoke troublesome), it takes the 

 appearance of a vaulted cathedral supported by massy columns. The walls, 

 ceiling, floor, and pillars are by turns composed of every fantastic form, and 

 often of very beautiful incrustations of spar, some of which glitters so much 

 that it seems powdered with diamonds, and in others the ceiling is formed of 

 that sort which has so near a resemblance to a cauliflower. The spar formed 

 into columns by the dripping of water has taken some very regular forms ; 

 but others are different, folded in plaits of light drapery which hang from 

 their support in a very pleasing manner. The angles of the walls seem 

 fringed with icicles. One very long branch of the caves which turns to the 

 north^ is in some places so narrow and low that one crawls into it, when 

 it suddenly breaks out into a thousand forms. The spar in all this cave is 

 very brilliant, and almost equal to Bristol stone." 



" Eor several hundred yards in the larger branch there is a deep water at 



1 Bagwell, " Ireland under the Tudors," yol. iii., 1890. 

 ' Probably the great Western Chamber. 



