Browse Items · Digital Derg: A Deep Map

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..."

Tags: 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

Otway muses on the metaphor of birds

"Having thus given the modern and ancient state of this purgatory, it is time to think of leaving it; and I confess I prepared to turn my back on this strong hold of superstition, without a desire ever again to visit it..."

Tags: birdlife, boating, Caesar Otway, crossing, greed, hills, nineteenth century, pilgrimage, profiteering, Protestant critique

Rathnacross Fairy Fort

"There is a circular fence of earth on top of a hill in the school district. It is known as Rathnacross and is situated in the townland of Drumawark.

There is a hole in the middle of it where a Celtic cross stood but it is broken now and the…

Tags: Drumawark Townland, fairy fort, Folklore, High Cross, hills, marker, pilgrim road, pilgrimage, Rathnacross

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…

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

St. Dabheoc's Seat and the old pilgrim road

"To the west of St. Brigid's Chair, and about two furlongs from the shore of the lake, but somewhat further from the chair, is situated on the very summit of a mountain a carn-shaped eminence, on the summit of which is St. Dabheoc's Seat..."

Tags: bogland, Daniel O'Connor, hills, John O'Donovan, mountains, ordnance survey, pilgrim path, Seedavog Mountain, St. Dabheoc's Seat, swamp

The Augustinians

"No record was kept of all the years that passed after the coming of the Danesmen till the Archbishop of Armagh sent a band of canons regular of the rule of Augustine..."

Tags: Augustinians, Celtic revival, hills, literature, mountains, Saints Island, Shane Leslie, St. Patrick, twelfth century

The coming of the Norsemen

"One soft autumn noon, the lough lay in a haze of golden mist. Behind the eastern clouds the sun puffed out some streaks of red, angry and livid in their broken setting, but softened and mellow ere they reached the hillsides of Ireland or rested on…

Tags: blood, Celtic revival, hills, literature, massacre, monasticism, myth, ninth century, Norse, Shane Leslie, St. Patrick, Vikings

The dimensions of Lough Derg

"The lakes [of the Parish of Templecarn] amount to 110, of which Lough Derg is the most extensive..."

The IRA evacuates from Pettigo

"A large-scale evacuation [of Pettigo] followed [the shelling] and the IRA men made their way to the hills to escape the bombardment..."

Tags: 1922, boating, Donegal Town, escape, evacuation, hills, IRA, Irish Civil War, mountains, Pettigo

The journey from Pettigo to Lough Derg

“From Pettigo to Lough Dergh, the distance is about three miles, over bog and mountain. It is a scramble all the way, endeavouring to avoid the marsh and bog land, that cannot, however, be avoided..."

Tags: barefoot, barrenness, bogland, hills, impressions, landscape, marsh, mountains, Pettigo, Philip Dixon Hardy, pilgrim road, pilgrimage, quaking bog, second-hand accounts

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