Browse Items · Digital Derg: A Deep Map

The approach to the lake

"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..."

Tags: aesthetics, crowds, heath, mountains, negative, negative description, nineteenth century, Pettigo, pilgrim path, pilgrim road, pilgrimage, pilgrims, Shane Leslie, view, vista, weather

"Suddenly the far-famed waters of Lough Derg appear close at hand"

"Suddenly the far-famed waters of Lough Derg appear close at hand..."

Tags: artificial land, Basilica, bedrock, building, costs, ferry, Margaret Gibbons, Station Island, vista, waiting rooms

"High, bleak, purple mountains"

"But we have not yet reached the island. We are still on the landing-stage looking up the long reaches of the lake (it covers and area of twenty square miles), noting the high, bleak, purple mountains which surround it, and the number of pretty…

Tags: beauty, colour, emotion, isolation, lake, Margaret Gibbons, mountains, vista, water

"A landscape that is usually a monotonous monochrome of either brown or grey tints"

"There is a lake called Lough Derg in County Donegal which has acquired extraordinary fame both in Christian history and in general literature..."

Tags: Alice Curtayne, colour, description, emotion, Heather (Calluna vulgaris), isolation, landscape, mountains, Rome, rural landscape, twentieth century, vista

"Rolling, tawny bogland framed the blue water"

"Turning back from [St. Dabheoc's Seat] to look down on Lough Derg, the aerial view of Station Island is exquisite..."

Tags: Alice Curtayne, birdlife, bogland, climate, colour, isolation, lake, larks, quaking bog, silence, St. Dabheoc's Seat, Station Island, twentieth century, view north, vista, weather, wind

"Floating on some miracle raft"

"Down below [Dabheoc's Seat], Station Island rose up in imperial grandeur against its background of low hills..."

Tags: Alice Curtayne, Basilica, colour landscape, hills, illusion, Isle of Patmos, light vision, miracle, revelation, St. Dabheoc, St. Dabheoc's Seat, St. John, Station Island, twentieth century, vista

"A mountain-locked lake that is just as secluded to-day as when Saint Patrick was attracted to its solitude"

A description of the timeless nature of Lough Derg, a window into the early days of Irish Christianity

Tags: Alice Curtayne, beauty, Croaghbrack townland, mountains, sunrise, sunset, timelessness, twentieth century, view, view east, view west, vista

"All around it is the glint and stir of water"

"Many pilgrims surveying the crowds during the night vigil promise themselves that, on their following night of freedom, they will look down from their cubicle windows at the fascination of the scene, when the people emerge and group themselves in…

Tags: Alice Curtayne, Basilica, breeze, crowds, darkness, environment, illusion, lake, lights, motion, night vigil, ocean, pilgrimage, pilgrims, sound, Station Island, stations, twentieth century, view, vista, water, wind