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"The buildings give the impression of resting on the water"

"The lake surface is broken by numerous scattered islands, the greater number of which are just rocks without either historical or scenic interest..."

Alice Curtayne, artificial land, Basilica, building, illusion, islands, lake, lake bed, Saints Island, Station Island, twentieth century, water

"The Chair stands out sharply against the vandyke brown of hibernating heathers and the orange of wilted bracken"

"Returning to the lake shore, another notable landmark there should be considered, Saint Brigid's Chair. It is a large rock, roughly-shaped like a high-backed chair, and its is prominent even among the large boulders surrounding it..."

Alice Curtayne, Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), Bridget's Chair, colour, Heather (Calluna vulgaris), lake stones, pilgrim, pilgrim crossing, pine, rock, shoreline, St. Brigid, St. Brigid's Chair, St. Dabheoc's Seat, tree, twentieth century

"The Church never relinquished her hold upon the one grey rock"

"Throughout all the perversions and confiscations [of the Reformation], however, the Church never relinquished her hold upon the one grey rock which then was Station Island..."

Catholic Church, Clogher, Diocese of Clogher, law, Leslie family, Margaret Gibbons, nineteenth century, ownership, pilgrim crossing, pilgrimage, pilgrims, Reformation, Sir John Leslie, Station Island, suppression

"Those trackless hills enfold the lake as though to hide it."

"It is remarkable how completely the exterior world is shut out. Those trackless hills enfold the lake as though to hide it..."

Alice Curtayne, barrenness, hills, isolation, lake, mountains, rhetoric, rural landscape, timelessness, tradition, twentieth century, water

"Tradition, when jealously guarded and carefully handed down is a reliable source of information"

"With the destruction of the buildings in Lough Derg and the expulsion of the Franciscans in 1632, all the records of its glorious part were also destroyed..."

Fair Lake, Lake of the Cave, Red Lake

"The original name of the lake was Finn-loch - the Fair Lake. Those who have visited Lough Derg in the summer and looked on its natural beauties may well approve of the name given by our Pagan ancestors..."

etymology, Fair Lake, Irish identity, Irish language, Lake of the Cave, Margaret Gibbons, monster, Red Lake, St. Patrick, stone carving

Forty-six small islands

"Lough Derg is dotted with forty-six small islands, some of them graced with shrubs and occasional rowans or ash, but the greater number are only bare rocks projecting out of the water..."

Friars' Island

"Friars' Island is unmistakable, because it is the nearest to the ferry. Unfortunately, the origin of its name is unknown..."

1795 disaster, Alice Curtayne, drowning, eighteenth century, Friars' Island, graveyard, twentieth century

From Magrath to Leslie

"The Monastery of Lough Derg, like most other Irish monasteries, was endowed with extensive lands at an early date by neighbouring chieftains..."

Clogher, confiscation, fifteenth century, Leslie family, Magrath family, Margaret Gibbons, monastery, ownership, patronage, seventeenth century, Termon Magrath

Saints' island and its soils

"The largest island in Lough Derg is Inishgoosk; it has no historical interest. The second largest island is Saints' Island, called St. Dabheoc's Island in early Christian times..."

agriculture, Alice Curtayne, Augustinians, farming, monastery, monasticism, North West Farming Society, ruins, Saints' Island, soil, twentieth century

Seadavog Mountain

"Dabheoc's name is commemorated, too, in Seadavog mountain, a low peak to the west of his Seat on the southern shore of the lake..."

Alice Curtayne, Ballymacavany Townland, etymology, mountains, place name, Seeavog Townland, Seedavog Mountain, St. Dabheoc, St. Dabheoc's Seat, twentieth century

Templecarne: Patrick's first church?

"…Tirechan says that Patrick founded a Church in Tirhugh. Where now is the location of that church?..."

Alice Curtayne, ancient church, Barony of Tirhugh, building, fifth century, myth, ruins, speculation, St. Patrick, Templecarne, Templecarne Graveyard, twentieth century

The lake returns to the Diocese

"In the year 1917 the final lawsuit took place, at the Quarter sessions in Donegal, before County Court Judge Cooke, K.C. ..."

Catholic Church, Clogher, compromise, control, court case, Diocese of Clogher, lake, law, Leslie family, Margaret Gibbons, ownership, Sir John Leslie, Station Island, twentieth century, water

Water-Horses

"Long ago the people used to send their horses to the mountain for the summer months. One day a man was going to the mountain for his horse as he required him to do some work at home. When he went up to the mountain he saw all the horses…

Croaghbrack townland, fairies, Folklore, horse, lake, Lough Kilraway, mountains, Oral History, supernatural, water, water horse

The snake of Lough Patrick and Lough Peter

"There are no holy wells in this district but there are two holy lakes called Lough Patrick and Lough Peter. These lakes are in the townland of Drumlougher and form the boundary between County Monaghan and County Armagh. St Patrick's stone is in a…

cattle, County Donegal, County Monaghan, cure, Drumlougher, Folklore, hills, Lough Patrick, Lough Peter, miracle, Oral History, pilgrimage, snake, St. Patrick

Leprechauns and Mermaids

"Very few stories are told of mermaids in this district as it is too far from the sea. The mermaid or 'maigdean mara' is very attractive. Once upon a time a glan man who made a station in Lough Derg returned home by Bundoran. He spent a few hours…

Bundoran, County Cavan, County Donegal, drowning, Folklore, Glen, mermaid, Oral History, pilgrimage, supernatural

St Peter's Island and St Peter's Well

"St. Peter's Island and St. Peter's well are situated about a half a mile due North of the village of Mountcharles. They are in the townland of Turras Hill. The little Island is in the centre of the lake, but since the erection of the waterworks in…

Augustinians, Catholicism, exile, Folklore, hills, holy well, island, lake, Mountcharles, seventeenth century, St. Peter's Island, Turras Hill, vanished island

Inishgoosk Townland

Inishgoosk is in the Electoral Division of Templecarn, in Civil Parish of Templecarn, in the Barony of Tirhugh, in the County of Donegal Inishgoosk is an island. Inishgoosk is on Logainm.ie: Inishgoosk. Inishgoosk has an area of: 55,836 m² / 5.58…

Barony of Tirhugh, Inishgoosk, island, lake, Parish of Templecarne, townland

"One might well imagine it to be the golden portal to some bright realm"

"A sunset on Lough Derg, under favourable circumstances, is, also, a spectacle of extraordinary grandeur..."

aesthetics, beauty, Daniel O'Connor, natural effect, nineteenth century, sun, water, weather

"We left the Island with dry skies but still carrying our fast with us"

"Then, with hearts refreshed, we turned to accomplish the three remaining Stations..."

boating, Catholic journalism, dryness, hills, Leslie family, pilgrim crossing, pilgrimage, pilgrims, Rome, Shane Leslie, The Tablet, timelessness, twentieth century, weather

"We seemed to stand in a dim place where two worlds meet"

"With the fall of night the world slipped away. We seemed to stand in a dim place where two worlds meet. At intervals we walked into the misty starlight and stamped a little warmth into our feet..."

aesthetics, Catholic journalism, cold, Leslie family, light, mist, pilgrimage, pilgrims, Shane Leslie, sound, Station Island, The Tablet, twentieth century, wather

Fauna surrounding the lake

"In describing the seventeenth-century Fauna, Knox makes note of wolf and red deer at Lough Derg. 'The deer come some times from Barnesmore to this Estate but having no coverts they do not stay in it,' whereas 'the wolves are but rare in the country…

fauna, James Spencer Knox, lake, red deer, Shane Leslie, Termon Magrath, wolves

Fish stocks in the lake

"In this Lough is great plenty of fish such as trouts, eels and salmon as I am told. Trouts may be had by angling in abundance from March till winter and at the head of the river between Knocnacoyne and Leanaght might a good eel fishing be had in the…

angling, Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar), eels, fishing, river mouth, Salmon, seventeenth century, Shane Leslie, trout

John O'Donovan described the lake

"Ballyshanny. (Nov. 1, 1835.) I visited the far-famed terrestrial Purgatory of Lough-Derg but received no benefit from my tours except a severe cold, which I attribute more to the wet mountain bogs that surround the Lake..."

bogland, cold, hills, John O'Donovan, mountains, nineteenth century, ordnance survey, penitential beds, pilgrimage, Royal Irish Academy, Saints Island, Shane Leslie, Station Island, stations, weather

Secrets of Templecarne Graveyard

A description of the graveyard and its relationship with the lake

cattle, devotional activities, James Spencer Knox, lake, mountains, Pettigo, pilgrim path, pilgrim road, Protestant critique, ruins, sanctity, seventeenth century, Shane Leslie, St. Patrick, Station Island, Templecarne Graveyard, Termon Magrath