Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Guide to Killarney and Glengariff (Author: George Newenham Wright)

chapter 26

MANGERTON MOUNTAIN

From the little village of Cloghereen a road leads to the base of Mangerton, which, considering its height, is the easiest to ascend of any hill to be met with in a mountainous region. It was for many years considered the highest in Ireland, and set down in the old maps and surveys, as being 2,470 feet in height. But many valuable improvements have been made in the mode of measuring the heights of mountains, by which this error, with many others of a similar description,

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have been detected. It is now ascertained by the measurement of Mr. Nimmo, that the height of Mangerton is 2,550 feet, while that of Carran Tùal is 3,410.

Near the village a guide, provided with a horn, is generally in attendance, and conducts you by the easiest path towards the summit. Here, however, the tourist is subject to great annoyance, arising from the number of men and boys, who run on every side of him, without uttering a syllable, but merely keeping up with his horse. Entreaties to desist from this undertaking, as one would be sufficient to point the way and tell the names of distant objects, are of no avail; one says, ‘No gentleman ever prevented him from ascending the mountain’; a second avers, ‘That he is the Man of the Mountain’; and a third declares his resolution of not quitting the party till their return to the village: it is useless to resist, and the visiter has often six or eight guides forced on him, whatever may be his inclination. After an ascent of about half an hour, an elevation, equal to that of the summit of Turk, is reached, from which a most perfect bird's eye view of the lakes, speckled with islands, is obtained, and an idea of their relative positions afforded. At every step after this the view becomes more and more commanding. Keeping to the east of the mountain, the Devil's Punch Bowl is reached, without

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the trouble or necessity of once dismounting from your shelty. This celebrated pool is of an oval form, and perhaps two furlongs in diameter; its waters are very dark and cold; on one side the mountain rises very precipitously over it, while the other is protected by an elevation merely sufficient to confine its waters.27 Weld mentions an anecdote of Mr. Fox, whom he states as having swam round this pool, but I should think the experiment hardly practicable; for although with respect to distance it might be done by a person of great bodily strength, and experience in the art of swimming, yet the cold would most likely produce cramps that would either endanger life or compel the resignation of so hardy an attempt. It has generally been considered that the Devil's Punch Bowl is the crater of an extinct volcano, but there are, at this day, no remains discoverable around the mountain to justify this conclusion. There is a path leading round the Bowl, and to the very summit of Mangerton,

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from which there is a most extensive and sublime panoramic view in clear weather. The most beautiful object is the river of Kenmare, an arm of the sea, insinuating itself amongst the recesses between the mountains. The coast towards Bantry is also extremely grand; but the most commanding and attractive objects are the Reeks and Sugar-loaf; to the north-west Castlemain and Dingle bays, Miltown bay, and the Tralee mountains are seen. While on the edge of the Punch Bowl, the Guide places his auditors behind a rock, and descending to the edge of the bowl, blows his horn in a tremulous manner, which produces a most singular effect. This experiment was first suggested by Miss Plumtree.

There are several plants to be found on Mangerton, although its surface appears waste and barren in most places. Very near the top the London-pride, which is in England a garden flower, grows in great abundance. Close to the Punch Bowl grows the narrow-leaved mountain golden rod, besides the upright fir-moss, the fingered hart's-tongue, the cypress or heath-moss, the fenane-grass, the mountain millet-grass, and the mountain fern.

On Mangerton is found a species of whetting stone, whose grit is extremely fine; it is used by the peasantry for razor hones: when found upon the mountains, it is of a light olive colour; but

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the process of preparation, by boiling it in oil, changes the colour to a darker shade, and makes it assume a more close, smooth, and compact texture.

From the Devil's Punch Bowl flows a well-supplied stream, the chief feeder of Turk Cascade.

After surveying the grand spectacle from the top of Mangerton, there is a descent by a different route, which the guide is unwilling to be at the trouble of showing you, but which is much more interesting than the path by which the ascent was made; it is that by the Glen of the Horse, called by the inhabitants of the mountain, ‘GLEANNA CAPULL’. This Glen is divided from the Punch Bowl, by a lofty ridge or shoulder of the hill; its sides are quite precipitous, and a descent is, except in a few places, quite impracticable, and even in these not unattended with danger. One side consists entirely of broken craggy rocks, the habitation of the eagle alone; the bottom is occupied by two small dark loughs, on whose banks a few sheep and goats are enabled to procure subsistence for some months in the year. In this solitary region of desolation, which the man of the world would turn from with fear and trembling, human beings are known to spend part of their wretched existence: their dwellings are in the dark and dismal caverns in the rocks, and their only companions the wild birds that

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scream over their heads, and the cattle which their time is employed in tending.

The easiest entrance to this secluded glen, is by the narrow opening through which the overflowing of the pool discharges itself. The name is derived from the circumstance of a horse having fallen down its steep rocky side in winter. The effect of the horn or bugle in this glen is even more extraordinary than in the Punch Bowl, the buz or hum being louder and more tremulous.

From the separating ridge between Gleanna Capull and the Punch Bowl, other pools or loughs are discovered; one, Lough Na-maragh-narig, in a very elevated situation, and Lough Kittane, about two miles in length and one in breadth, in the Glan Flesk mountain. The view towards Glan Flesk, Filadavne, the Paps, &c. is waste and dreary: that part, usually called O'Donohoe's country, is particularly desert, wild, and desolate. And although at a remote period it was the lordly demesne of a petty prince, as O'Donohoe's castle, still raising its ruined tower in the centre of this barren waste, sufficiently indicates, yet it is now almost ungrateful to the eye to rest upon.

The descent of Mangerton is more readily accomplished on foot than on horseback, and is equally easy, pleasant, and interesting, as the

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ascent: on the way visiters are generally met by a few children, with bowls of goat's whey in their hands; and although they do not request the stranger to notice them, they expect he will taste uninvited: these are the least troublesome, the easiest satisfied, and, after the fatigue of climbing the mountain, the most welcome intruders met with at Killarney.

The horses are generally led, by one of the many attendants the tourist is compelled to employ, to a convenient place of rendezvous, from whence the ride to Killarney, by Cloghereen, is extremely agreeable and sheltered. Between Killarney and Mucruss, on the opposite side of the road, is a small ruined chapel, on the very summit of a rath, from whence an extensive and distinct view of the Lower Lake might be taken, but it does not differ much from that seen from the top of Drumarouk hill.