Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Journey to the North, August 7th, 1708 (Author: Samuel Molyneux)

entry 7

Friday
Carrickfergus is a place of good natural strength, situated on a Rocky Promontory which runs out into the Sea; not so big, clean, or thriving a Town in any wise as Belfast. It has litle in't remarkable but Lord Donnegall's monument in the Church, which is very rich and great; the great Castle belonging to the Crown, and a most noble old house of Lord Donnegall's Family built by Sir Arthur Chichester, Extreamly great and noble, but wanting the Gardens at Belfast, which, were they joyned, would make beyond comparison the finest Improvement in Ireland. It has a fine situation fronting the Bay, all the Grandeur and regularities of a modern building, and shews the great spirit of the builder; but What he set up is now making hast to fall to the Ground. From Carrickfergus we went thro' a wild country in about 4 hours to Antrim; we passed thro' Castle Norton, a small village.

Antrim is a pretty good Town situated on the North East Banks of Lough Neagh. It enjoys a considerable Linnen Trade at present. Here Lord Mazarreen has a pretty good house, and good Improvements about it, where he lives. We saw there the Largest piece of Lough Neagh Stone that I have ever seen; 'twas as thick as one's body, Irregularly shaped, perfectly like ye Root of a Tree, the Trunk and Small branches of the Root Loped off. This piece, not only for its bigness and shape, but also for the grain of it too, appeared the most like Stone of any I have seen. His Lordship assures me there are several such like sticking in ye Banks of the Lough, and that he does not doubt but that this Lough has this petrifying

p.157

Quality; nay, that he could have shewn me, had he been at Antrim when I was there, a piece of which half is a Stone, and half is yet perfect Wood. Mr. Maclean, Minister of the Town, gave me here certain Stones of a whitish Brown Colour, of a gritty Substance, much the biggness and shape of a Potatoe, save that they all have litle perturbance, by which, he assures me, they stick in the Banks of this Lough near the surface of the Water, the rest standing clear out, and that they there are found to grow till their Weight, and the Water washing away the Earth where they stick, they fall to the bottome. Of these stones the Arch Bishope of Dublin gave me several before, and related the account of them.

Having seen in the minuts of the Dublin Society and account of Fish called Dolleyn, a sort of Herring or Trout peculiar to this Lough (which is also mentioned in Giraldus Cambrensis Topog. Hiber., I Inquired for it At Antrim, but could not get the sight of one, tho' this was the Season of Catching them, and they told me there had been several Boat Loads brought in there the Market Day before, but were bought up for drying. From Antrim we went to Shane's Castle — Mr. O'Neill's — a very antient building about one mile from Antrim, situated on the very banks of Lough Neagh, so near that it and ye Garden Walls are washed by the Water, and from hence arrived in 4 or 5 hours thro' a miserable, wild, Barbarous, boggy countrey, to as bad a Lodging in a poor Village called Maghereoghill.