[p. 100] On the 31st August I left Limerick for an excursion to Kilmallock a place which has been called the Balbec115 of Ireland. There are perhaps about 15 or 16 old houses of the same date and all about equally in ruins but many of them partially used by the construction of thatched hovels within the walls. The date on one of the Chimnies is 1648. Part of the town walls are remaining — two gateways, one of which is now the town gaol,116 an Abbey, and a large Church117. The Houses and gateways are called Castles by the inhabitants.
[p. 102] A range of Brown Stone hills crosses the road from Limerick to Kilmallock at Loch Gur — a very pretty piece of water, and the broken rocky hills which bound it, but quite naked. In a well which they were digging at the new infirmary118. I was informed that they had to pass through a considerable thickening of hard rock before they arrived at the Limestone.
After returning to Limerick I visited the new Library119 an institution still younger than that at Cork but which I am persuaded the spirit of the Irish will not permit to linger in an unformed state.