Pilgrim Crossing

Location: Landing Pier, Station Island

A boat trip to Saints Island

Gazetteer description of the 1795 disaster

Raymond de Perilleux and Lough Derg

"The Profit of a Ferry-Boat for wafting the Pilgrims over the Lake"

Timeline: 1829

Saints Island Quay Archaeological Survey

"All was as still as death"

"I at length reached the goal of my long-nourished desire"

"The pilgrims throng the shore opposite to the island"

"The penance wheel turned round again"

"Water withers from the oars"

Lough Derg in the rain

Cardinal Michael Logue boards a boat at the Station Island ferry house, 1913

Ferry boat house, Station Island

Pilgrims board their boats south-east of Station Island

Station Island boat leaving

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

"Occasional freakish summer storms"

"There were boats at hand, and presence of mind, even among the onlookers, could have averted the tragedy"

An omen of disaster prior to the 1795 accident

Burials on Friars' Island, in Templecarne, and further away

The 1795 disaster

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

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

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

Antonio Mannini is rowed to the island

Antonio Mannini prepares for his journey

The demon Corna

The 1795 disaster