Westropp — Forests of the Co-unties of the Lower Shmmon Valley. 289 



In the early tenth century our next document of any fuUness, "The Wars 

 of the Gaedhil with tlie Gaill," unfortunately only seems to mention " the 

 rough-furzed country " in one place ; but even this may refer to the 

 Ui Thoirdhealbhaigh or Hy Turlough, near KillalOe, which certainly suits 

 the phrase. The "Agallamh," or Discourse of St. Patrick with the 

 Finnian hero, Oaeilte — an early source in which we might have expected 

 information, from its topographical intention and sympathy with scenery and 

 nature — gives us hardly a hint worth noting. It brings the saint into the 

 mountains of south-eastern Limerick, and alludes to " the great hills and 

 moors and woods." We see the great stags, the green tulachs, whence " the 

 grey one of three antlers " was hunted ; the sodded forts, Duntrileague with 

 its enclosed pillar-stones ; but the only particular allusion to the trees of the 

 region is, at best, one to a " hardened holly javelin."^ Similarly, in the 

 elaborate itinerary of the Saint along eastern and north-eastern Co. Limerick, 

 and over the same district as in the " Agallamh," save that he did not cross 

 Slieve Luachra or the Shannon, not a single allusion to woods is found.- 

 The " Cathreim," in describing the raid of King Turlough down eastern 

 Co. Limerick, mentions " high-hilled, many-wooded Uaithne," orOwneybeg; 

 but, even in 1286, Aestrimaige, the Norman "Estermoy," in the Maigue 

 valley, and eastward, was " well grassed, with many dwellings," evidently 

 cleared land. The notices of woods in the Tudor State Papers, the Pacata 

 Hiljernia, and the Elizabethan Inquisitions call for mere passing notice, as 

 they sink into insignificance before the elaborate details in the Survey of the 

 Desmond Eoll. The Pacata, indeed, seems to mention definitely only the 

 woods of Kilquoig and Kilmore on the eastern border. 



Before 1420 Giollananaomh Huidhrin wrote a well-known topo- 

 graphical poem which has many allusions to the present Co. Limerick 

 and its trees. We hear of the " wooded lands " of Luachair and Clenlish 

 ■ I'Claonghlais), the fruit-trees of Uaithne and Ui Chonaill Gabhra, and the 

 " sweetest, smooth round apples " of the latter ; the trees of Deisbeag or 

 small county, and the " beautiful woods " of Corcaoiche not far from 

 Newcastle.^ 



The existing names derived from trees are not numerous. We get in 

 Clanwilliam Barony the oak-names of Derreen, Derryhasna, and Derryhisk, 

 near Castleconnell, and a hollywood site at Kylecullen in Ludden. Strange 

 to say, no such forest-names occur in Owney, though 2,500 acres of woodland 

 lay in Abbeyowney parish alone so late as 1655. The " Cathreim," after its 

 mention of the many woods there, speaks of the " open, level plain " around 



' Translation of Mr. Standish Hayes O'Giady's " Silva Gadelica," ii., p. 129. 

 - Tripartite "Life of St. Patrick" (Rolls series). ^ Topograpbicul Poem. 



