Fair Lake, Lake of the Cave, Red Lake

Fair Lake, Lake of the Cave, Red Lake

Lough Derg--Description--1940s--Margaret Gibbons

"The original name of the lake was Finn-loch - the Fair Lake. Those who have visited Lough Derg in the summer and looked on its natural beauties may well approve of the name given by our Pagan ancestors..."

Margaret Gibbons, 1884-1969

Gibbons, Margaret, Guide to St. Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg, pp. 10-11

Talbot Press, Dublin and Cork

1933

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Monograph

English

Pilgrim guide

DD_0105

54.616218, -7.876212

"The original name of the lake was Finn-loch - the Fair Lake. Those who have visited Lough Derg in the summer and looked on its natural beauties may well approve of the name given by our Pagan ancestors. After St. Patrick's day it came to be known as Lough Diergo, the lake of the cave, or else as Lough Dearg, the red lake, for tradition asserts that Patrick killed in his lair here a terrible monster which previously had scourged the entire district, and that the waters were reddened by its blood. In this connection anyone with an archaological turn of mind will be delighted to know that in the southern gable of St. Patrick's Church on Station Island there is inset and ancient stone with a carved figure resembling a wolf with a serpent's tail. The figure is supposed to represent to ravenous monster destroyed by the prowess of the holy patron."

Guide booklet