An account of the stations

An account of the stations

Lough Derg--Vicinity--Purgatory--Travel guide

An account of the religious history of Lough Derg for the traveller.

J. B. Doyle

Tours in Ulster: A hand-book to the antiquities and scenery of the north of Ireland.
By J. B. Doyle. With numerous illustrations, chiefly from the author's sketch-book, pp. 362-63

Hodges and Smith, Dublin

1854

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

Public domain

Handbook

English

Travel guide

DD_0482

54.608689,-7.870387

"Upon our landing he pointed out the prior's temporary residence, being the first house on the left in the view, near to which are those occupied by his coadjutors. The first chapel near the landing is the ‘confessional:’ here it is that the pilgrims confess their sins, and have the amount of their penances fixed by the priest. Between this and the second chapel, or the ‘purgatory’ there are seven stations circles about twelve feet in diameter enclosed by low walls about eighteen inches high, in which there is generally a headstone extracted from some churchyard, in order to give greater solemnity to the place, and around each circle there is a narrow gravelled walk which the pilgrims have to traverse upon their bare knees. In most instances the ground is rocky and uneven, and the rough and projecting points render the operation still more painful. Each pilgrim has to go round each station as many times as may be fixed by the prior, some more, some less ; and when the whole seven stations have been made, they are then admissible to the sacred cross station, which is marked by the fluted shaft of what had been a very beautiful cross, but which has been broken by sacrilegious hands."

396 p. illus. 17 cm.