Kinfaela's or Kineely's stone. The stone is still to be seen, and is very carefully preserved; it is veined with red, which is the stain of MacKineely's blood that penetrated to the centre; and the tourist who is a lover of legend may indulge his taste among the people, who will tell endless stories regarding this wonderful stone."-(See Dr. Joyce's "Irish Names of Places.")

Dunfanaghy.

From Dunfanaghy several delightful mountain ascents might be made by those who are fond of that kind of exercise. Passing Cross Roads the road proceeds to Gweedore, a long drive of sixteen miles, through scenes of exceeding wildness. "The coast is singularly broken and intersected, and presents a labyrinth of islands, peninsulas, sound, and sea-lough in close resemblance to the less intricate parts of the western coasts of Scotland and Norway; and the seaboard is almost a chaos-a dismal wilderness of bog and pool, sand and naked rock—in which moors, ponds, shivering torrents, drifting sands and denuded granite are mingled in utter melee and severally striving for the mastery." Leaving the Bloody Foreland to the right, it passes Bunbeg Church and, following the course of the Clady River, arrives at

Gweedore Hotel,

the proprietor of which is no less a personage than Lord George Hill. This nobleman is also the owner of the Gweedore Estate, and he has done much to forward the interests of this hitherto neglected country. A most excellent fishing may be had here in connection with the hotel. The tourist may return from this to Letterkenny by mail car, or by a more picturesque route, via Dunlewy Church and Kilmacrenan, but if he is not afraid of a little fatigue he is recommended to continue the journey to

where there is a good hotel, and where the Rosses fishery is situated, the angling tourist will be likely to make a short stay. This fishery comprises over a hundred lakes, in which there is an abundance of brown and white trout. The drive from

Sea Cliffs of Slieve League.

Dunglow to Glenties

201

is very long, and for many miles through wild and beautiful mountain scenery. The road leads through the valley of the Gweebarra, which it crosses at Doochary Bridge, then taking an upward course it ascends the south side of the valley, and passing Knockrawer Mountain, Aghla, and several others, after a few miles further it arrives at Glenties, where there is an hotel.

Our road will now continue by

Ardara to Killybegs,

a delightfully situated village upon the sea, not far from the mouth of the splendid bay of Donegal. Here will be found very good accommodation, and the tourist is recommended to stop for at least one night. Next day he might well wind up his north-western coast tour by a visit to Teelin Head, and matchless cliffs of Slieve League, an easy journey. He will also have an opportunity by adopting this plan of visiting Glencolumbkille, where in strange juxta-position are a wonderful collection of cromlechs and fine examples of primitive Christian antiquities, some of which there is every reason to believe are old as the sixth century.

Carrick,

nine miles from Killybegs, is the best point from which to visit Slieve League and adjoining scenery. At this place he will find a most excellent hotel, established by the lords of the soil, Messrs. Musgrave.

Slieve League

presents the most stupendous sea-cliff in Ireland, rising up from the edge of the sea to an altitude of 1,964 feet. Teelin Head, part of the same range, is in height 1,415 feet. They are very easy of access. Next morning the grand old historic town of Donegal should be examined. Here, in excellent preservation, is the ancient castle of the Princes of Tyrconnell, and the ruins of a very celebrated abbey. And here also is an excellent hotel—The Gweedore. A pleasant excursion may be made from Donegal to Barnesmore Gap and Lough Eske, which will well repay a visit. A public car runs from Donegal to Ballyshannon, where is an excellent hotel, and where some very interesting sights by land and by water will delight the coldest.

BALLYSHANNON.

The legend from which this town derived its name is thus related by Mr. Allingham in his interesting work, "Ballyshannon, its History and Antiquities."

"More than five centuries before the Christian era the sovereignty of Ireland was committed to Aedh Ruadh (Red Hugh), the son of Badurn, and to Dithorba, son of Deman, and to Kimbath, son of Fintan, sons of three brothers, and each took his turn to reign for seven years. Red Hugh's turn was first, and came round twice again, and towards the end of his third period he was drowned while attempting

to cross the river Erne, at one of the fords. The old king's body having been swept down the cataract, was recovered and buried on the summit of the hill overlooking the scene of the disaster, and over the grave was heaped up a mound sufficiently large to indicate the resting place of a king of Ireland. To the death and burial of Aedh Ruadh,

The Abbey of Easaroe.

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the waterfall and hill above owe their name, the former being called Eas Ruadh (now Assaroe); the latter Sidh Aeadha (now Mullaghnashee). Its present name has no connection whatever with the Shannon, as people generally suppose. It, according to Dr. Joyce, comes from Bel-atha-Seanaigh (Belshanny), which means the mouth of Seanach's or Shannagh's Ford."

'The above-mentioned cataract is the chief feature of interest in the town of Ballyshannon. The river Erne, after foaming over a series of minor cascades on its route, here precipitates itself over a deep bed of rocks in a magnificent waterfall into the Atlantic. Below the falls is the old legendary island of Saimer, on which Partholan, an eastern chief, is said to have located the first colony that had ever immigrated to Erin.

That Partholan occupied this island we have not the slightest doubt, and that his sojourn here was at an extremely early period, even of the mythical history of this country; but we never could believe that the inconsiderable rock of Saimer could have afforded accommodation for an invading host, even counted by a few scores. It is, therefore, interesting to find upon the Ballyshannon side, nearly opposite the site of the present gas works, a small promontory, the sides of which are almost on every point inaccessible or perpendicular, and which is to this day divided from the mainland by a fosse cut through earth and rock, constituting for the little headland a regular Duin or Cathair, like that on Aranmore called Dubh-Cathair. But what renders this primitive fortification an object of especial antiquarian interest is, that it contains a subterranean house, partly excavated in the living rock, and partly composed of well-defined cyclopean masonry, the roof being formed of enormous flags resting on the inclined sides of chambers and galleries. Ballyshannon itself presents nothing particularly interesting; it is a market town, with the usual supply of well-built houses, handsome shops, banks, a Roman Catholic Chapel and Convent, a very handsome small Presbyterian Church and Manse on the road opposite the Falls, and an Episcopal Parish Church, plainly built, and not at all picturesque, seated, a most conspicuous object, on the top of the hill of Mullaghnashee, on the slope of which the town is built.

About a quarter of a mile from the town, on the banks of a little rivulet, stand the ruins of the Abbey of Easaroe, much famed in Irish history, but now retaining little evidence of former grandeur.

"Grey, grey, is Abbey Easaroe, by Ballyshannon town,

It has neither door or window, the walls are broken down ;
The carven stones lies scatter'd, in brier and nettle-bed
The only feet are those that come at burial of the dead.

A little rocky rivulet runs murmuring to the tide,

Singing a song of ancient days, in sorrow, not in pride ;
The boor-tree and the lightsome ash across the portal grow,
And heaven itself is now the roof of Abbey Easaroe.
It looks beyond the harbour-stream to Gulhan mountain blue,
It hears the voice of Earna's fall-Atlantic breakers, too;
High ships go sailing past it, the sturdy clank of oars
Brings in the salmon-boat to haul a net upon its shores ;
And this way to his home-creek, when the summer day is done,
The weary fisher sculls his punt across the setting sun,

While green with corn is Sheegus Hill, his cottage white below,
But grey at every season is Abbey Easaroe."

These ruins once formed part of an abbey built by Roderick le Canavan, Prince of Tyrconnell, in the twelfth century, on a site formerly occupied by a church of which St. Columba was patron. Easaroe, in common with most of our ancient buildings, has its tales of siege and outrage, but its chief calamity seems to have occurred in A.D. 1601, when Edward Diggs seized the place and garrisoned it. A pathway from the graveyard leads to a picturesque glen adjoining, where will be seen a cavern called "Casby," small indeed in proportions, and very suggestive of the "hermit's cell" of romance. Upon a ledge of rock inside the entrance are two of those curious basin-shaped excavations called "ballawns" or "little pools," which are never found but in the vicinity of our oldest churches, or in connection with works unquestionably pagan.

On an ordinary summer day the golden halo of rock and green without and the "dim religious light" of the cavern offer a delightful choice to the pedestrian. Here let him rest awhile and examine the wonderful geological character of his abiding place. In front the rock, to the eye of fancy, presents an image of a monster which, after a futile struggle in chaos, had died, leaving but a horrid head and jaws to tell, in stone, that there "were giants" of reptiles "in those days." Upon the left, extending from the ground upwards, are wonderful stalagmites representing a strong arbour. It is a place of a kind not often met with, possessing an air more of the fairy or Danaans than of the holy recluse; of the "sidh," or good people, than of the white robed "psalm singing" followers of Saint Patrick. Antiquaries with keen eyes will detect the carving of an extremely early cross upon the rock facing the entrance, and upon a ledge which may have served as an altar. There is a tradition that upon the course of the little river flowing below the monks of Assaroe had fixed a fish trap with which was connected a bell, so that when a salmon or large trout had entered, the bell gave tongue that a capture had been made.