1889-90.] Iol 



feet high, with rocky top, an outlier of Slieve Bingian, and as 

 we come in view of its north-western side find it to be one of 

 the most striking specimens of ice-polished rock surface to be 

 found in Ulster. The granite rock shoulders of the larger 

 mountains are similarly rounded. Up we go, stepping from 

 ledge to ledge, but the climbing, though steep, is nowhere 

 difficult, though profusion of bilberries just now ripe offer 

 an excuse for the climber to proceed leisurely. He has time 

 also to note upon the damper spots the two insectivorous plants 

 of our northern clime — Pinguicula or Butterwort and Drosera 

 rotundifolia or Sun-dew, with its tiny red, hairy leaves, each 

 hair tipped with a seductive dew to close upon and entrap the 

 unwary insect that alights on it. But we are at last upon 

 the summit, and it seems incredible that Slieve Bingian is not 

 more heard of and more often visited. The masses of weather- 

 beaten granite that form the top, the " Castles of Bingian," 

 rise tower beyond tower, of more than the height and appear- 

 ance of genuine built castles ; battlement, pinnacle, bartisan, 

 and broad buttressed wall, all complete as though Conway or 

 Carnarvon had been piled upon the summit of this wild moun- 

 tain. The peculiar weathering of the granite into what might 

 easily be mistaken for horizontal courses of masonry adds to 

 the illusion, and from the rocky base the slope plunges at once 

 into a valley more than a thousand feet deep on either side. 

 The scene around is indescribable. From one side of our rocky 

 bastion we look into the " Happy Valley," a glen traversed only 

 by the shepherd and the turf cutter, through which the upper 

 waters of the Kilkeel River find their way. In the opposite 

 direction lies the valley of the Annalong River, which finds 

 and sometimes loses its way amongst the intricacies of granite 

 cliffs, which might be worth exploring some day. Towering 

 above this glen rise the precipitous sides of Slieve Lamagan and 

 Cove Mountain, as rocky and wild as the wildest part of Emer- 

 dale, yet who ever hears or tells of them ? Closing the head 

 of this valley north-eastward is Slieve Donard, which from this 

 side appears almost a perfect cone, and towers above everything 



