The stones of Station Island

The stones of Station Island

Lough Derg--Accounts--Topography--Rocks

“The island called St. Patrick's Purgatory is altogether rocky, and rather level : without the compass of the island, in the water towards the north east, about two yards from the shore stand certain rocks..."

Caesar Otway, 1780-1842

Otway, Caesar, Sketches in Ireland: Descriptive of Interesting, and Hitherto Unnoticed Districts, in the North and South, pp. 156-57

W. Curry, jun. and co.; [etc., etc.], Dublin; First published, in part, in the Christian examiner. cf. Pref. A series of letters signed "C. O.", the first four entitled "Sketches in Donegal", the last five "Sketches in the south of Ireland."

1827

Digitised by Google, sponsored by New York Public Library, archived on Hathi Trust digital library

Public domain

1 p., ℓ., iv, vi, 411 p. 19 cm.

English

Description and travel

Text

DD_0037

54.6083, -7.8714

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433066646450

“THE FOLLOWING IS EXTRACTED FROM BISHOP HENRY JONES’S ACCOUNT, PUBLISHED 1647:

The island called St. Patrick's Purgatory is altogether rocky, and rather level : without the compass of the island, in the water towards the north east, about two yards from the shore stand certain rocks, the least of which and next the shore, is the one St. Patrick knelt on for the third part of the night in prayer, as he did another third in his cell, which is called his bed, and another third in the cave or Purgatory; in this stone there is a cleft or print, said to be made by St. Patrick's knees; the other stone is much greater and further off in the lake, and covered with water, called Lachavanny: this is esteemed of singular virtue; standing thereon healeth pilgrims’ feet, bleeding as they are with the cuts and bruises, got in going barefoot round the blessed beds. The entrance into the island is narrow and rocky; these rocks they report to be the guts of a great serpent metamorphosed into stones…"

Monograph