Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/128

 I oo Collectanea.

Roderic O'Flaherty in 1670, and the early nineteenth century visitors, Knight, Maxwell and Otway, One of the most interest- ing studies in survival of legend supplied by Connacht is the com- parison of the only recently unearthed Connacht version (1238) of the ninth century saga, the Tain bo Flidhais, with the late local legends of Dundonnell and Duncarton. Equally instructive is the modern tale of Grainne Uaile compared with her contem- porary record. With no further remarks I will preface my paper by the legends attached to the forts and castles of the coast of Mayo, the tales of " Donnell Dualwee," of the Battle of Cross, of Geodruisge and St. Patrick. We can then proceed to study the later legends, and eventually the folk-lore from the Moy to Galway Bay.

I. The Legend of Dundonnell.

On the long dreary road of over forty miles long from the nearest railway to BelmuUet, after a weary drive, chiefly through featureless valleys and moors, we pass the end of Carrowmore Lake and the Munhin river, and ascend a rising ground. On the bare hillside to the north are some scattered houses and a yellow mossy mound, the fort of Rathmorgan. Farther westward we descend into Glencashel, a wooded and picturesque little stream glen, called " the Gate of Erris." In the centre rises a dome of volcanic rock, the upper knoll carved into a fort known as Dun- donnell. Near it were shown the " turf rick," " corn stack," and grave of the giant " Donnell Dualwee" (Domhnall duail buidhe, the "yellow haired"). The fort was in occupation by the Barretts down, at least, to 1386, when Robert, son of Wattin Barrett, of Dun Domhnainn, fell, opposing the O'Dowds and O'Haras, who had felled the orchard of Caorthannan (at Castle Hill near Lough Conn 1), the Ath Fen of the Flidhais legend. Behind the hills is the long creek of Trakirtaan, and farther north the fortified headland of Duncarton, on the bay of Broadhaven.^

1 As some doubt is felt as to the identification, I may point to the Book of Distribution and Survey, 1655 (Public Rec. Office, Dublin), Mayo, p. 248, for Kirrhinan at Erriff in Tirawly, and to Bald's map of Mayo, "Castle Hill, Keerhanaan."

^TitscnhQd fournal Royal Society 0/ Atitiquarits, Ireland, vol. xlii., p. 132.

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