Browse items | Digital Derg: A Deep Map

Rivers of southern Templecarn

"The county boundary of Fermanagh runs in the centre of a stream 40 feet wide flowing from north east to south west for 10 miles and turning the mill above the village, passes through Pettigo and falls into Lough Erne at Burnfoot..."

Burnfoot, County Donegal, County Fermanagh, hydrology, Lieutenant W. Lancey, Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, river, River Termon, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne, watershed

Templecarn is a "barren subject"

"The author of the following brief sketch, on first receiving a copy of the statistical queries, was for a considerable time in doubt whether to forward any answer to the inquiries proposed..."

agriculture, barrenness, commerce, dryness, isolation, Lieutenant W. Lancey, manufacturing, negative description, North West Farming Society, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, potential, Royal Irish Academy, rural landscape, Templecarne, Termon Magrath

The appearance of Lough Derg

"Lough Derg is a large sheet of water surrounded by black bogs relieved only by few detached cabins and patches of cultivation and its groups of islands..."

agriculture, appearance, bogland, cultivation, islands, lake, Lieutenant W. Lancey, mountains, negative description, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, quaking bog, remoteness, Royal Irish Academy, rural landscape, Templecarne

The brooks and rivulets of Templecarn

"The parish [of Templecarn] is well watered, possessing a considerable number of brooks and rivulets converging from north west and north east towards the south and finally falling into Lough Erne."

brook, hydrology, Lieutenant W. Lancey, Lough Erne, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, rivers, rivulets, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne, water

The demographics of Templecarn

"Templecarn contains 794 families, 1,987 males, 2,185 females, 1,728 Established Church, 2,568 Roman Catholic, 97 Presbyterians, 4,393 total..."

Catholicism, demographics, gender, Lieutenant W. Lancey, Methodism, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, Protestantism, religion, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne

The extent of the Templecarn bogs

"Though the number of bogs in this district is considerable, yet few of them reach to any great extent..."

bogland, extent, fir, landscape, Lieutenant W. Lancey, North West Farming Society, oak, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne, Termon Magrath, trees

The general appearance of Templecarn

"The general appearance of Templecarn as an agricultural district is wild and unpromising..."

agriculture, description, farming, geology, Lieutenant W. Lancey, limestone, Lough Erne, negative description, North West Farming Society, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, Pettigo, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne, wildness

The landholders of the parish

"The chief proprieters are the representatives of the late Colonel Leslie, who hold 45 townlands out of 50..."

Colonel John Leslie, demographics, economics, land acquisition, Leslie family, Lieutenant W. Lancey, mountains, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, pasturage, rents, Royal Irish Academy, rural landscape, Templecarne

The Leslies as landlords

"All the islands of Lough Derg and the eel rivers are let for 5 pounds…"

Colonel John Leslie, economics, eels, islands, land acquisition, Leslie family, Lieutenant W. Lancey, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, rent, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne

The mountains and hills of Templecarn

"Of mountains and hills there is a great number. The whole face of the country indeed consists of hills separated by narrow valleys..."

agriculture, cattle, Croaghbrack, Croaghbrack townland, Crocknacunny, hills, Lieutenant W. Lancey, Mindilpier, mountains, North West Farming Society, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, pasturage, Royal Irish Academy, rural landscape, Rusheen, Templecarne, Termon Magrath

The Pettigo River

"The Pettigo river rises about 5 miles north of Pettigo and runs in a southerly direction about a mile north of the village..."

Lieutenant W. Lancey, Lough Erne, mountains, North West Farming Society, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, Pettigo, river, River Ominey, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne, Termon Magrath

The trees of Templecarn

"Of woods, nurseries or plantations [Templecarn] is at present completely destitute, thought there is every appearance of it having been formerly well supplied with timber..."

"A fantastic display of lightning which continued for nearly two hours"

"Fourteen years passed [from 1918] before there is mention in the records of another such violent upheaval of the waters…"

Alice Curtayne, lake, lightning, mountains, pilgrim crossing, sound, Station Island, storms, thunder, twentieth century, water, weather

"A melancholy silence shrouded the scene"

"I remember a strange Easter Sunday spent on Saints' Island, not indeed with any hope of finding archaeological confirmation of its history, but simply in communing with the past..."

"A mountain-locked lake that is just as secluded to-day as when Saint Patrick was attracted to its solitude"

A description of the timeless nature of Lough Derg, a window into the early days of Irish Christianity

Alice Curtayne, beauty, Croaghbrack townland, mountains, sunrise, sunset, timelessness, twentieth century, view, view east, view west, vista

"All around it is the glint and stir of water"

"Many pilgrims surveying the crowds during the night vigil promise themselves that, on their following night of freedom, they will look down from their cubicle windows at the fascination of the scene, when the people emerge and group themselves in…

"Briars encompass it so thickly, and with such aggressiveness, one cannot approach within five or six feet of the mound"

"In the middle of this desolation [on Saints' Island] is an enclosure thickly overgrown with briars, to which barriers of nettles almost prohibit entrance..."

'Celtic' monasticism, Alice Curtayne, bramble, burial, graveyard, inaccessibility, monastery, monasticism, overgrown, Saints' Island, St. Dabheoc, tomb, twentieth century, weeds

"In going there they are answering the call for blood"

"Most pilgrims develop for this rocky island and its harsh routine an affection that really defies explanation..."

Alice Curtayne, blood, Catholicism, cultural memory, essentialism, ethnohistory, exile, familiarity, Irish identity, medievalism, nostalgia, pilgrimage, Station Island, timelessness, twentieth century

"In the end, all were obliged to return to the mainland and wait in the ferry house until the storm subsided"

"Although the transit to Station Island takes only ten minutes in normal conditions, there was not even this interval of calm all that day from nine o'clock in the morning until eight in the evening..."

Alice Curtayne, twentieth century

"Occasional freakish summer storms"

"Occasional freakish summer storms are peculiar to Lough Derg. Pilgrims often alighting at the shore on a tranquil summer day are often surprised at the unexpected commotion of the deeps and the dark yeasty appearance of the water..."

Alice Curtayne, cauldron, danger, lake, lake crossing, pilgrim crossing, rain, storms, summer, turbulence, twentieth century, water, weather

"On prizing up a few loose stones, one exposes heaps of enormous bluebell bulbs, white and skull-like in shape"

The rampant flora overgrowing Saints' Island

"Recited in the open, while facing the airy spaciousness of mountain, sky and water"

"The repetition of the baptismal vow [before St. Brigid's Cross] is a reaching back again towards baptismal innocence and is the usual ritual of retreats..."