Photo—Lawrence, Dublin.
Pass of Ballaghbeama.
Leaving Caragh Lake, the railway line follows the flow of the river, the next station being Glenbeigh, where there is a growing watering-place. The strand is particularly fine, extending over two miles. There is a good hotel, with golf links, beside plenty of fishing and boating. Coomasaharn—the wonderful lake in the vicinity—it has been correctly said is surrounded by precipices more awful than anything to be found nearer home than the Alps or Pyrenees—clinging to the mountain side, at a height of several hundred feet above the sea, with here a cutting or embankment, and there a mountain gorge, in which a lovely waterfall is almost lost to sight in a labyrinth of foliage.
Mountain Stage and Kells are passed, and the train glides down an incline to Cahirciveen and Valentia Harbour. Cahirciveen, the birthplace of Daniel O'Connell, is the most westerly town in the three kingdoms. It lies with its back up against the Iveragh Mountains, and facing the blue waters of Dingle Bay. Only since the road was cut across the hills to Valentia in later years has it come to be of importance. In 1803 there were only fifteen houses here, and the beginning of its uprise in the world was when O'Connell got it made a market town. But in legends of the past it is a place of fame, and received its name from Sive, one of the beautiful daughters of the great monarch, Owen More. Carhan House, where the Liberator spent his childhood (but was not actually born, as alleged), the ruins of which now only remain, may be seen a short distance outside the town.
Photo—Lawrence, Dublin.
On the Coast near Glenbeigh.
Two charming fishing harbours under Knocktubber Mountain are worth seeing, Councroum, "the Haven's Bend," and Coonana, which is called after the woman who bore the great Finn. Here, the mighty fighter of the old days, "Conn of the Hundred Battles," fought no less than thirteen of his fields, and three pre-historic forts remain to bear testimony to the past—Cahir-na-cahal, Cahirgal, and Castlequinn.
