Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Pococke's Tour in Ireland in 1752 (Author: Richard Pococke)
entry 49
On the 13th Mr. George Brown, a younger son, who is at the College, and Mr. Blake a young gentleman of Estate, going my way accompanied me, and showed me three miles off, a little beyond a village call'd Baleyburk, a cave to the right, into which the river Anne/falls, and goes for some way under ground, and coming out again falls, as they told me into Lough Carra, and is a river which in the maps is represented as lost in a very small Lough to the west of Lough Carra. It is a very fine face of a rock, consisting of about fifteen strata which lay very regular, I believe most of them are of plain black marble, as I was informed it is of that colour, but some of them when broke are of a brown colour. The river runs principally into one hole, which is as a beautiful arch, the strata rising one over another and each beyond the other, until it extends to the face of the rock, the passage may be forty feet wide and long, about 20 high, this leads to the grotto in which the river runs about sixty feet wide from the passage, seventy long, and 50 high, through this the river runs, but being then a flood, it was all over flow'd; to the west of this are two or three other passages into which the river runs when it overflows. Returning to the road we saw Kilturk a little beyond it to the left, a fine old ruined Mansion house of Mr. Brown's in which his father lived, and to the north of that we saw Holyhill, Mr. Chambers's. About three miles farther we came to Balintubber Convent; near Kilturk we passed through Balikeen, where the famous Fair had been held just 3 measured
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miles from Castlebar; this is an handsome Convent, called also De Fonte, from the Irish name which signifies the Town of the Well or Spring: there are handsome pillars and arches in it, and at the east end are two windows of the Saxon Architecture. The Lords of Mayo have their burial place here in a chapel in which there is a handsome altar piece and an altar of hewn stone, round the latter are the figures of our Saviour and the eleven Apostles in relief. Here I took leave of those gentlemen who went on in this road, which leads first to Castle Burk, the seat of Lord Mayo, where I heard there were some petrified stumps of trees and some underground passages to the Castle; beyond it is Rusk Garrah, Sir Henry Lynches on Lough Carra, it then goes to Holy Mount, the Estate and seat of Vesey Archbishop of Tuam, which was esteemed a fine place in those times, and so it goes to Tuam; But I crossed to the Ballinrobe road I had left a little before we soon came near Lough Corra at Ballikeneh and I went to a rivlet and took some refreshment. I saw to the north about two miles Newbrook Mr. Bingham's, and going on came to the bridge of Fere, under which Lough Carra passes into Lough Mask, tho' it is spoken of as a great work, yet it is only a long Causeway, with one arch in the middle which is not large. We passed over a greater work, a road made across a morass, having had a view of Lough Mask to the south for some time, I came to Ballinrobe, a very small town pleasantly situated on the river Robe, which about a mile below it falls into the Lough Mask. The large map of Ireland makes a small Lough here which is wrong. They have a handsome sessions house built of hewn stone, the assizes being held at this place and at Castlebar alternately: They have here fine quarries of a dark grey marble which rises so well that
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they make ashler very little inferior to hewn stone. This town belongs to Mr. Cuff who lives close to it, and is endeavouring to improve the town. There is a Charter School here for thirty children which I went to see where Mr. Miller, Minister of the place and Mr. Lanergan a clergyman of a neighbouring parish came to me and they spent the evening with me. There are remains of a church of a Monastery of Augustinian hermits near the town.