Fri Aug 21 Streedag to Manor pt2

Just outside the village of Carney I got caught in a heavy downpour and had to run for cover. For 15-20 mins the rain hammered down. Carney was a small quiet hamlet which seems to have balooned recently with the addition of two or three housing estates. It's location, a few short miles from Sligo town yet in a very quiet, rural setting made attractive for the Celtic Tiger property developers. The rain doesn't do this place any favours though. I'm keen to keep moving as soon as the rain eases off. I get down the road about a mile before the rain starts coming down again in torrents and I have to scurry onto a ditch to find shelter among some trees.

Eventually the rain stops. The road is crossing an old area known as the plain of Maugherow in the direction of Glencar valley which is starting to come into view up ahead. From point of Ben Bulben which dominates the landscape the mountain range runs south to Kings mountain beyond which Glencar valley beginds to open out. I cross the Main Sligo - Bundoran road and follow this old road up to the foot of Kings mountains which looms above through a covering of mist. The road then winds its way around the base of this mountain to join with another road whih leads the way into the heart of the valley. De Cuellar and other spaniards escaping from the Streedagh area in 1588 would have followed a very similar route to the one I was on as they tried to find refuge in the lands of the rebel chieftain Brian O'Rourke. Sligo town, a few miles down the road, was garrisoned by hostile troops indeed, the whole coastal area between Sligo and Grange was dangerous for survivors on the run as bands of soldiers moved between both places searching for spaniards and their treasure. By turning inland through Glencar valley the survivors were putting distance between themselves and those hunting them. A few miles up the valley the fugitives would pass into the lands of the chieftain of Breifne who was giving shelter and protection to any spaniards arriving on his lands. The soldiers wouldn't follow them up here. It was too dangerous, the hunters would very quickly become the hunted. Only large bodies of soldiers ever ventured into Breifne.

The road I was on passed through a townland called Castletown. Back in 1588 there was an important and village here, under the shadow if Kings mountain, belonging to the O'Connor family who were Lords of Sligo. Peering over hedges I found the remains of the old stronghold. It has virtually disappeared now, almost totally flattened. All that remains is a large grassy platform, about 3ft high, in one corner of a field which mark the extent of the foundations and a single fragment of a wall is all that still stands of a village which once housed up to 50 families. Rounding Kings mountain I enter Glencar and follow the road up to the shores of Glencar lake.

De Cuellar and three other survivors of the Streedagh wrecks spent two nights in a deserted village close to the lake before moving up into the valley to safety. They slept in a haggard in which freshly harvested oats and corn were being stored and when a group of farmers arrived the next morning to work in the fields nearby the Spaniards were too afraid to leave their hideout and remained hidden throughout the following day buried among sheaves of oats. That night after the farmers had gone home they left under cover of darkness. As This road follows the lakeshore vertical cliffs on the valley sides tower above with forests hugging the lower slopes and numerous waterfalls cascading from the mountain tops over the cliff edges. Halfway along the lake one particularly large waterfall marked the ancient territorial boundary between the O'Rourke lands in the upper valley and the O'Connor country of Carbury in the lower portion of the valley facing the coast. Today the county boundary between Sligo and Leitrim is marked by this waterfall which itself is a notable landmark. In stormy weather strong winds blow the waterfall back on itself in a circular motion. You see the water dropping over the edge of the cliff, falling ashort distance and then the winds catch the water blowing it back up onto the mountain where it flows back into the streams and over the cliff edge once more.

I stopped at a carpark at the upper end of Glencar lake, near to the famous Glencar waterfall of W.B. Yeats lore etc. I don't have any interest in the waterfall myself, the carpark was just a convenient spot to stop for a drink and a quick bite to eat as its mostly uphill for 10 miles or so after this to get to the top of the valley. I was hungery, I had passed a house a short time earlier and the smell of a breakfast fry up that wafted out of its windows smelled delicious. My mouth strted watering and in a short time I couldn't stop thinking about food. It was a good place to stop as well as this particular spot was a good candidate for the location of the deserted huts in which De Cuellar and his colleagues hid. Down in the lake opposite the carpark are the remains of a crannog, a fortified lake dwelling. Over the centuries it was used as a stronghold by branches of the O'Rourke clan to defend the borders of their territory in the valley. It was still in use some forty years before the Armada came to Irish shores when it was mentioned in the old Gaelic annals. The old annals call this crannog 'Inish na Lainne' (Sword Island) perhaps a reference to past battles and border wars between the O'Rourke warriors and their neighbours the O'Connors of Sligo. The nobility who occupied these strongholds usually had retainers and supporters who lived in settlements in the adjacent neighbourhood so it was quite possible there was a lakeside village still in existence here when Francisco De Cuellar hobbled up the valley.

Leaving the lakeshore I followed the old narrow roads up into the hills of the upper valley. A few miles beyond the top of Glencar lies the adjacent valley which holds Manorhamilton and home. As the road climbed higher up the valley Benbo mountain and other hills which surround our valley began to drift into view still a few miles distant. Finally near the head of the valley, after creeping over yet another ridge the ruins of an old O'Rourke castle emerged from amongst the greenery a few fields away. This castle was known as Carha and from this place the valley takes its name - Gleann an Cairthe - Glencar. In 1588 it was one of the main strongholds in the area and was the seat of one of the principal branches of the O'Rourke clan. It was a towerhouse, a fortified residence rather than the big medieval castles that we picture from school. Today its in a poor state of preservation and its walls are gradually crumbling away. Most of the building has mostly collapsedbut enough of the structure survives to indicate it was a fine building in its day. Owen MacPhelim O'Rourke was the chieftain who resided here when De Cuellar and his companions arrived here in a bedraggled state. Almost a week after they were shipwrecked the men were in poor condition. Injured, half starved and wrapped in straw and a few rags to ward off the cold. They were in urgent need of decent food and shelter and it seems they were given a warm reception here. De Cuellar describes how the family took him under their roof and nursed him for a few days until he was able to continue his journey to the castle of Brian O'Rourke. Francisco was most likely exhausted and in urgent need of medical attention for his injuries but he had made it to safety.

So, leaving De Cuellar at castle Carha I climbed to the top of the valley and cyled the last 3-4 miles home still smelling the aroma of cooking from the house back in the bottom of Glencar. A rattle of thuinder took me out of that daydream and I had to race the last strech of road home as dark black clouds began to gather overhead. The last thing I wanted was a soaking now.