THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 1. | SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1840. | Volume I. |
THE CASTLE OF AUGHNANURE,
COUNTY OF GALWAY.
Not many years since there was an extensive district in thewest of Ireland, which, except to those inhabiting it, was asort of terra incognita, or unknown region, to the people ofthe British isles. It had no carriage roads, no inns or hotels,no towns; and the only notion popularly formed of it wasthat of an inhospitable desert—the refugium of malefactorsand Irish savages, who set all law at defiance, and into whichit would be an act of madness for any civilized man to venture.This district was popularly called the Kingdom ofConnemara, a name applied to that great tract extendingfrom the town of Galway to the Killery harbour, bounded onthe east by the great lakes called Lough Corrib and LoughMask, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and comprisingwithin it the baronies of Moycullen and Ballinahinch, and thehalf barony of Ross. It is not an unknown region now. Ithas two prosperous towns and several villages, good roads, andcomfortable hotels. “The Queen’s writ will run in it;” andthe inhabitants are remarkable for their intelligence, quietness,honesty, hospitality, and many other good qualities; andin the summer months it is the favourite resort of the artist,antiquary, geologist, botanist, ornithologist, sportsman—inshort, of pleasure tourists of all descriptions, and from everyquarter of the British empire; for it is a district singularlyrich in its attractions to all those who look for health andpleasure from a summer’s ramble, combined with excitableoccupation. Of its picturesque beauties much has alreadybeen written. They have been sketched by the practisedhand of Inglis, and by the more graphic pencil of CæsarOtway; but its history and more important antiquities havebeen as yet but little noticed, and, consequently, generallypassed by without attracting the attention or exciting anyinterest in the mind of the traveller. We propose to ourselvesto supply this defect to some extent, and have consequentlychosen as the subject of our first illustration the ancientcastle, of which we have presented our readers with aview, and which is the most picturesque, and, indeed, importantremain of antiquity within the district which we have described.
Journeying along the great road from Galway to Oughterard,and at the distance of about two miles from the latter, theattention of the traveller will most probably be attracted by abeautiful little river, over which, on a natural bridge of limestonerock, the road passes; and looking to the right, towardsthe wide expanse of the waters of Lough Corrib, he will perceivethe grey tower or keep of an extensive castle, once the chiefseat or fortress of the O’Flaherties, the hereditary lords ofWest Connaught, or Connemara. This castle is called theCastle of Aughnanure, or, properly, Achaidh-na-n-Jubhar,Acha-na-n-ure, or the field of the yews—an appellation derivedfrom the number of ancient trees of that descriptionwhich grew around it, but of which only a single tree nowsurvives. This vestige is, however, the most ancient and interestingruin of the locality. Its antiquity must be great indeed—morethan a thousand years; and, g