It till it passes by the castle of Fuogh' to Lough Orbsen eastward. was commonly called Owan Roimhe, or Brimstone River. The occasion of the name was but lately discovered by an extraordinary drought of weather, An. 1666 and 1667, wherein there was brimstone found on the dry stones about the bridge of Fuogh. On this river is salmon fishing; and muscles are found that breede pearles ̊. On the north side of the river, not far from the bridge, westward, was discovered by revelation, about the year 1654, a well in honour of St. Michael, archangel. From this river to Galway, above twelve miles, there is indifferent good arable land by the lake and river of Galway, on the east of it, and the mountaines on the west, between it and another tract of land by the sea-side. Near Fuogh is the parish church of Kilcumin, and St. Cumin's well, where he is worshiped b The river and castle of Fuogh.-Fuazaio. This river flows through Oughterard, a small town about fourteen miles north-west of Galway, much celebrated by tourists. Mr. Inglis, in his journey through Ireland, A. D. 1834, state,s that "this straggling little village" has "one of the prettiest and most limpid streams in the world dancing through it." This is the river of Fuagh; or, as it is sometimes called, Owin Riff, in Irish Ɑbainn Roib, or the sulphur river. Whenever the river runs shallow, sulphur is found on the stones in its channel. The castle is called Nowghe in the document of A. D. 1586, mentioned in note 8, p. 44. It stood on a natural bridge in the townland of Fuogh; but was pulled down some years since to build the barrack of Oughterard. often of a large size. For an account of Irish pearls see Harris's Ware, vol. ii. p. 172; and some curious papers in Trin. Coll. MS. Lib. I. I, 3. a Well. This well is still shewn. e Twelve miles. It is reputed to be fourteen Irish miles; but as before observed, p. 6, notek, our author laid down his distances by the long Connaught miles. f Parish church.-St. Cumin's well. This parish is bounded on the north by Joyce Country; on the east by Lough Corrib, many of whose islands it embraces; on the south by the parish of Killanin; and on the west by the parish of Moyrus, in Conamara. The church is called in Irish Cill Chuimin, the church of St. Cuimin, who, according to tradition, was the original founder of the parish. Νο part of the primitive church remains. worshiped, as patron of the parish, [on the 14th] of October. Not far from thence is the castle and mannour of Aghnenures, where the salmon comes under the castle, on a river not far from the west side of Lough Orbsen. The next parish of Gnomore is Kilanhin parish; but Kilanhin" parish church is in Gnobeg, where the memory of St. Anhin, V., is celebrated the 18th of January; and where her well is frequented on the north-east brink of Lough Lonan'. This lake lies between Gnomore and Gnobeg, on an island wherof is the castle of Ohery; and where there is no recourse of water from it but under ground. Gnobeg containes the parishes of Moycullin and Rahun': the three The present building, which occupies its site, is comparatively modern. It is situate about a mile east of Oughterard. The well, tobap Chuimin, is near it, and is held in great veneration. The people, when passing it, take off their hats, and bow respectfully in memory of the holy man whose name it bears, and whose memory is "worshipped," i. e. celebrated here. See p. 23, note f. 8 Aghnenure.-Irish, Ɑċao na n-lúbar, the field of the yews. One only of these ancient yews now remains. It is growing west of the castle, and is supposed to have seen at least a thousand years, but it is at present evidently decaying. The castle, of which a considerable part remains, is situate near the brink of Lough Corrib, about two miles east of Oughterard. For an interesting description of it, by that excellent antiquary, who has done so much for our national literature, George Petrie, Esq., see the Irish Penny Journal, 4to. Dub. 1841, p. 1. h Kilanhin.-Cill aineinn, the church of St. Anhin. Her well, Tobar Aineinn, is near it, and appears marked on Larkin's large map. I have not met with any historical account of this saint. What is given above is probably from ancient tradition. i Lough Lonan.-Castle of Ohery.—The name Lonan is not known at present. The lough is now called the lake of Ross. The castle of Ohery stood on an island in Lough Lonan. In A. D. 1585, it belonged to Jonick O'Halorane.-Appendix I. In the same year, "Teige M⭑Fynnine O'Halloran of Ohayry, aged seventy years, deposed that he was driven out of his castles and lands by his kinsman Moroghe ne doo (O'Flaherty), since which time he dwelt in Clanricard.”—Orig. Record, Rolls' Office. Ohery is now reduced to a small portion of ruins. i Parishes of Moycullin and Rahun.This parish of Moycullin extends in length east. three first parishes ly in length from Lough Orbsen to the bay of Galway, and Rahun from the river of Galway to the same bay. The castle and mannour of Moycullin', whence the barony and parish of Moycullin are named, hath Lough Lonon on the west; Tolokian', two castles next adjacent, on the north; and Lough Orbsen on the The parish church theron, its chief feast of late is the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lady, on the 8th of December, as patroness. What antient patron it had is not known. Here Uillinn, grandchild of Nuad Silver-hand, king of Ireland, 1200 years before Christ's birth, overthrew in battle, and had the killing of Orbsen Mac Alloid, commonly called Mananan Mac Lir, Mananan the Mankish man, Mac Lir son of the Sea, for his skill in seafaring. From Ullin Moycullin is named; to wit, Magh-Ullin, the field of UllinTM: and from Orbsen, Lough Orbsen, or the Lake of Orbsen. Six miles from a great stone in that field (erected, perhaps, in memory of the same battle) to the town of Galway. from Lough Corrib to the bay of Galway, by which bay and the parish of Rahun it is bounded on the south; on the west by the parish of Killannin; and on the north and north-east by the same parish and Lough Corrib, and the parish of Rahun. See this latter parish described further on. * Castle and mannour of Moycullin. The record quoted p. 44, note 8, states, that this castle in A. D. 1586, belonged to "Rory O'Flahertie," grandfather of our author, who was himself called Rory Oge of Moycullin. See Mac Firbis, in his genealogical abstracts, drawn up A. D. 1666; and our author's Ogygia, p. 180, where he feelingly describes the loss of this his The "natal soil and patrimony through a long line of ancestors." The manor, with 500 acres in demesne, was created by a grant of James I. to Hugh O'Flaherty, our author's father, on 25th Jan. 1618.-Rot. Pat. 15°. 1 Tolokian. Tulócaodain. These two castles stood on the brink of Lough Corrib, in the townland of the same name. They were called the castles of the two sisters, of whom some romantic tales of former days are still current. One of these old castles was blown down by the great storm of January, 1839. m Ullin.-See p, 52, note 2, also Ogyg. pp. 174, 179, for further notices of the The parish of Rahun" ly's, for the most part, within the west liberties of the town of Galway; which liberties extend four miles by the river side, and two miles by the sea side from the town. The parish church of Rahun celebrates for patron St. James the Great, on the 25th of July. In the same parish is a chappell of St. James, at Newcastle, by Galway river near the town, which was wont to be visited on St. James's eve and day, yearly, by the people of Galway, for devotion. The tract of land on the south side of the barony, by the bay of Galway, divided among the four parishes, and separated from Lough Orbsen and the river's tract by a large space of mountain land, is battle and personages here mentioned. The great stone, alluded to above, has not been identified. No person in the district ever heard of any such monument. n Parish of Rahun.-Raż Un, the rath or dwelling of Un, a man of whom nothing more is known: "The annals of the human race, Of him afford no other trace." It is stated in the Book of Ballymote, that Heremon, the son of Milesius, conferred the government of the west of Ireland on Un and Etan, two chiefs who accompanied him from Spain, and that the latter built a fortress at Rath-rioghbaird, in the barony of Murrisk, Mayo county; but the Four Masters, at A. M. 3501, say that fortress was built by Fulman, one of Heber's chiefs, and that Un raised Rathcroich (or Cruach) in ArdEitig, or Fithaig. See Keating, book i part ii. ch. vii., and Ogyg. p. 187, for Un and Etan. An etymological friend, who good pasture for cattell; but so craggy and full of stones", and so destitute of deep mold, that in very few spots of it a plow can goe yet the tenants, by digging, manure it so well, that they have corn for themselves, their landlords, and the market. Never was garden with more paines tilled for black seeds. P Full of stones. Mr. Molyneux, in his Journey to Connaught, in April, 1709, preserved among the MSS. of Trin. Coll. Library, Dublin, I. 4, 13, and I. 1, 38, writes of this district: "I never saw so strangely stony and wild a country. I did not see all this way three living creatures, not one house or ditch, not one bit of corn, nor, I may say, one bit of land, for stones, in short nothing appeared but stones and sea. Nor could I conceive an inhabited country so destitute of all signs of people. Having got back through the barbarous country to Galway, I dined with the officers. This is the best town I have seen in Ireland. The inhabitants are mostly Roman Catholics, and the trade wholly in their hands, and indeed in all Connaught, as you go farther from Dublin, you may see the remains of Popery, less and less extinct than in the other parts of Ireland." Another traveller, Mr. Bush, who wrote more than half a century after Molyneux, says: "If in any part of the kingdom there are any wild Irish to be found, it is in the western parts of this province [i. e. Connaught], for they have the least sense of law and government of any people in Ireland, I believe, except that of their haughty and tyrannic landlords, who, in a literal sense, indeed, IRISH ARCH. SOC. 15. I They carry on horses, are absolute sovereigns over their respective towns and clans, which the western part of this province may not improperly be said to be divided into. Their imperious and oppressive measures, indeed, have almost depopulated this province of Ireland. The will and pleasure of these chiefs is absolute law to the poor inhabitants that are connected with them, and under whom the miserable wretches live in the vilest and most abject state of dependance.”—p. 35. "What with the se vere exactions of rent, even before the corn is housed, a practice that too much prevails among the petty and despicable landlords, ... • . . . of the parish priest, for tythes, who not content with the tythe of grain, even the very tenth, of half a dozen or half a score perches of potatoes, is exacted by the rapacious, insatiable priest. I am sorry to tell you the truth, that too many of them are English parsons. For the love of God and charity, send no more of this sort over, for here they become a scandal to their country and to humanity. Add to these, the exactions of, if possible, the still more absolute Catholic priest, who although he preaches charity by the hour on Sunday, comes armed with all the terrors of damnation, and demands his full quota |