Romantic Ireland; volume 2/2

Down, one comes upon a region little known to the casual traveller, who is usually smitten at once with the

sundry visitors from the "Midlands" of England, have appropriated it as th

and picturesquely possessed of the same qualities as the middle and south of Irelan

ppy hunting-ground for the student of history and architectu

s, its shipping and its tramways, are evidences of that modern

into Drogheda, where he effected a landing, but with the loss of his brothers and Colpa, the swordsman, who perished in the bay, and from which circumstance the town derived its name." Thus writes Anthony Marmion, in his "History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland." "There can be no doubt," he continues, "that an eastern colony of Mithraic, or sun-worshippers, had been early established in the neighbourhood of Drogheda." Coming, h

om the very substantial remains of the St. Laurence Gate and the West or Butler Gate, it may be inferred that they were a wonde

Magdalen steeple-all that remains of the Dominican Abbey founded in 1

mwell's cannon razed the building until only the grim, gaunt tower or steeple was left. A sepulchral cairn of stone, known as the Mill Mount, appe

the fiords of Western Ireland, is in every way an attractive setting for Dundalk itself, which is mostly a town of one long vertebrate

Bannockburn, and lived here, after taking the town, for two years. He di

he town for the kin

e of the most ancient towns in the island, being famed even in Irish bardic literature. It was also the seat of a monastery,

urch, lo

ts, and pro

ed itself up in later years, and has becom

rding to the "Monasticum Hibernica," but no remai

ough. It is confidently claimed by many to be the most

. Its popularity is accounted for by its accessibility to Dublin and Belfast, whose work-worn habitants flee here in

ng bell echoed through the forests. Many heard the bell, but no one succeeded in solving the mystery, or indeed, ever suspected that there was any solution save a supernatural one. In the end of the eighteenth century, however, an ancient tree was blown down, and, in its hollow heart, was found a bronze church-bell of immense size and of great antiquarian value. It was this bell

uty of the Lough, will ever appeal to all

as interesting as they are picturesque. Underground, there is a range of small, gloomy dungeons, hewn out of the solid rock, where many a gallant life must have been worn away in bitter agony and despair, seven centuries ago, in those times when chivalry and romance were inextricably mixed with brutality. Just above the dungeon-cells runs the ruined stone terrace, looking out to sea, where (tradition says) the lords and ladies who accompanied King John to Ireland used to walk up and down of a summer evening, in the cool of the sunset wind. This of co

gnized in a peaceful fashion at the end of the nineteenth century; for one recalls that the ruined castles at Carlingford and Greencastle were built by the Anglo-Normans, at the close of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth centuries, to protect their lines of communication when

railways, and, in fact, they are but of the conventional variety, though it is only fair to say they are here perused under very attractive and charming conditions

rly two thousand feet, to Newry at the head of the Lough, where, on a rock which projects into the river, st

items of the daily press; but it is a quaint little town of half a thousand inhabitants situa

height), and was so important a town that it was guarded by seven castles,

wnpatrick. It is ancient and

. Patrick,

hows off its imposing cathed

re before the coming of Christianity. The town wa

blished the see and the Abbey of Saul of the Canons Regular, who was superceded in

ecclesiastical building, though to all appearances it is

the spot in the churchyard where his bones rest-or do not rest, for there is great and constant doubt as to whether this is really so or not. However, the

t cathedral, which Harris, the antiquarian, described in 1744, th

do rest upon t

Bridget, and

in a measure the claim, tho

was also Thomas Percy, celebrated for his famo

nded in 1187 by John de Courcy, and the celebrated Wells of Struell, supposedly of great virtue for the lame, the halt, and the

s most ancient and famous seat of learning,-when making

about which so much is yet destined to be written, is one of the most attractive

in Ireland." This is perhaps a sign of the advanced age in which we live,

easant excursions. The beautiful estate of Donard Lodge lying on the slope of the mountain is, too, a great attraction, as also are Castlewellan, the seat of the Earl of Annesley, and the Earl of Roden's domain of Tollymore Park; and as these three estates enclose or com

age with a church-spire nestling among the trees and ove

sacre in 1641; Mourne Park and Mourne Abbey are generally famous spots; the village of Killowen, from which the late Lord Russell of Killowen chose his

, and a hurried journey was made from Waterford to Rostrevor. They rowed down the lough to the little chapel next morning, and were married by the parish priest. In after years came the desertion of the bride and an action for maintenance, which was decided by an Irish