"[Lough Derg] is one of the loneliest places on earth. Its boulder-strewn shores, thirteen miles in circumference, seem to have retained all their original wildness..."
"Only one main road leads to the lake, that from the small town of Pettigo, four miles distant. This road ends at the ferry, where there is a house and a few other buildings..."
"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..."
"Lough Derg has certainly been well chosen as a spot of religious penitence and seclusion, for the character of its scenery harmonises well with such a feeling; it is that of wild and gloomy loneliness."
"The Lough, which is said to be about nine miles in circumference, is situated in the midst of high hills, which rise on all sides without the slightest appearance of cultivation..."
