"The stone circles [of the Penitential Beds] are small. When this sanctuary was demolished in the seventeenth century the despoilers left only the rude foundation stones protruding from the soil..."
"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..."
"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..."
"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..."
"Pettigo. (July 23, 1824). A country road leads in this direction a mile: after leaving which we passed over the mountains following a path, which the number of devotees who visit the Island, had marked too distinctly to be mistaken..."
