Lives of the Irish Saints, we find that St. Brigid visited many of the holy places throughout Ireland. And though we have no authoritative evidence as to her visit to this locality, on the other hand we have no reason to deny that, attracted by the austere life practised here by St. Dabheoc, she paid a visit to his retreat; and, after the fatigues of her journey, rested her weary limbs on this stone seat, and from it took a survey of the island hermitage of St. Dabheoc. As St. Brigid died about the year 520, it must have been during the time the Cambrian St. Dabheoc presided over the religious establishment on Lough Derg, that she visited the place. The place selected by this holy virgin to view this penitential retreat was singularly favourable. The death-like solitude and stillness on all sides, interrupted only by the occasional whir of the moorfowl through the heath on the adjoining mountain, the fitful gust of the breezes over the lake, or the beating of the waves against the "Chair" and along the rocky shore in its vicinity, are calculated to impress on the mind deep and abiding recollections of the "Lake of Penance." A little to the east of the chair, and bordering on the shore of the lake, may be seen a spa well, largely impregnated with iron. This well is marked on the Ordnance Map of the place. To the west of St. Brigid's Chair, and about two furlongs from the shore of the lake, but somewhat further from the chair, is situated on the very summit of a mountain a carnshaped eminence, on the summit of which is St. Dabheoc's Seat, which has been already described in this work. Writing on Templecarn churchyard we have already seen that the ancient roadway to Lough Derg passed by this old churchyard. And so it did. This ancient road, called by O'Donovan a via strata, is given on the Ordnance Survey Map of the place. At the present day it is very difficult to trace the course of this road, owing to the fact that it has been disused for at least between two or three hundred years; during this time heath and bog having accumulated over it where it led through the mountains, and, where it wound its course along the western shore of the lake, the waves having more effectively destroyed almost every trace of it. Traces of this roadway may yet be descried over the summit of Portneillinwore hill (which is convenient to Saints' Island), also in a few places along the shore of the lake, particularly at Portcreevy bay, where it quitted the lake and led on through a mountain valley towards Templecarn and Pettigoe. I have been told that at certain parts of this roadway, where the overlying bog has been cut away, large steppingstones, arranged in regular order, have been brought to light, which leaves us to conjecture that these were hollow parts of the roads that may have been partly flooded. I have also learned that where this roadway led through the tortuous defiles of the mountains between Pettigoe and Portcreevy, the pedestal of an ancient way-side cross may yet be seen; and that the ground immediately surrounding this pedestal is closely paved with stones which are worn smooth; the supposition being that the pilgrims here knelt and offered up a votive prayer either on approaching or quitting the island. Towards the south-western extremity of Saints' Island a narrow neck of water separates the island from the mainland; and here, during the time the monastery stood on Saints' Island, a bridge formed of oaken beams, and resting on stone piers, connected the island with the mainland. Of this bridge, Dr. O'Donovan writes in his Donegal Letters :- -"The neck of Seeavoc was anciently connected with Saints' Island by a wooden bridge, supported by stone pillars, a part of which may yet be seen when the water is clear. This bridge served the purpose of the present money-making ferryboat, and was crossed gratis." embankment of stones extended out into the shallow water on either side, while a bridge of beams spanned the deep stream that flows in the centre of this channel, and that here connects the upper with the lower lake.. Remains of these piers and of the tochar or causeway leading from them are still to be seen; but of the bridge of beams there is not a vestige left. Mr. Wakeman, in his Antiquities of Devenish, says that Devenish was in former times connected with the mainland by a similar tochap or causeway, some remains of the stone piers which extended into the water at the eastern shore of the island, and the place of landing opposite, being yet apparent. And the same learned writer says that some remains of the oaken piles which supported a bridge of this sort, are still discernible between Inishmacsaint and the mainland. It is clear, as we have seen, that a paved way or bothar led in former times across Portneillinwore hill, along the shore of the lake through Seeavoc, and on to the southern. bay of the lake, called Portcreevy. After the destruction of the establishment on Saints' Island in the seventeenth century, and the removal of the pilgrimage to Station Island, it seems most probable that Portcreevy (i.c. the bushy harbour, a name which it still merits by reason of the number of trees and bushes to be seen growing there) was used as the place of embarkation for Station Island. It would seem that the modern roadway was soon after established; for, it not only is the more convenient, direct and shorter route rom Pettigoe, but also the lake passage from the present ferryhouse is fully but half the distance as that from Portcreevy to Station Island. On these grounds we may sur- * mise that Portcreevy was not long used as a point of embarkation, and, in consequence, when Portcreevy was given up, the ancient roadway itself became disused. To return to the point at which I diverted, this ancient roadway, after leaving Portcreevy, proceeded through the rugged defiles of the mountains past Templecarn on to the wooded and fertile banks of Lough Erne. From this road, we may suppose, a branch path turned off to Inishmacsaint; while the main way led on to Devenish, "Devenish of the Assemblies" having been then the chief centre and emporium, so to say, of Fermanagh. Lough Erne having been then and for many ages the highroad and thoroughfare of a great portion of the north-west of Ireland, the monks and pilgrims sailed over its waters by cot or currach towards Devenish, on their destination for the sanctuary of St. Patrick's Purgatory :— "With footsteps strong, and bosom brave, Looking for that mysterious cave, Where the pitying heavens will show How my salvation I may gain, By bearing in this life the purgatorial pain.' * From Denis Florence MacCarthy's translation of Calderon's Purgatorio de san Patricio. |