Town of Castlemaine
This is a former market-town, situated on the harbour of Castlemaine, on the south-west coast of Ireland. It was named after a castle erected on the bridge over the River Maine by Mac Carthy More and the Earl of Desmond as a defense to the River Maine crossing. It was the responsibility of each new coming chief to protect it; but when the Earl received possession of it from MacCarthy, he refused to admit McCarthy, and kept entire possession of the castle, which remained in his family under the reign of Elizabeth. Castlemaine is on the north side of the river Maine and lies south-east of the Slieve Mish range of mountains. River Maine flows into the harbour of Castlemaine, the castle stood over it and projected very much on the east side; and the buttresses of the arch by which it was supported are still there, and you can still see the stone socket on which the pivot of the castle gate used to turn.
Lough Derg is the lower of the two great lake-like expansions of the Shannon, the other, Lough Ree, lying further up the river. Save at its southern end, where he lake is embosomed in hills of Silurian slate, the winding shores are. formed of low-lying limestones, and the numerous islands arc composed of the same rock. Botanical interest centres on the low, uncultivated islets and reefs, and on the sloping, stony shores. Here a peculiar flora is developed, as the following list of abundant plants will show :
Westward a few miles, across the deep gash in which lies the Upper Lake of Killarney, Macgillicuddys Recks rise head and shoulders above the surrounding sea of hills. Those arc a beautiful group of lofty cones, with steep sides and many imposing cliff ranges, and deep coombs in which lie dark tarns. The loftiest, Carrantuohill, the highest mountain in Ireland, attains 3414 ft., and several of the other peaks exceed 3000 ft. At the cast end of the Reeks the famous Gap of Dunloe, through which a road runs, separates them from the Purple Mountain group which looks down on the Lower Lake.
This village situates on the seaward end of Glen Fas on the west of the Slieve Mish mountain range. Near Camp village there is a gravestone in the centre of a field bearing a simple cross, an Ogham inscription and a Latin script. It is believed that Fas, wife of a Milesian chieftain, was killed in the first battle between the