It is the largest of Irish Castles--The Anglo-French great Castle builders--Hugo de Lacy--Many Castles erected by him--He was the greatest of the invaders of Ireland--He wanted to be King of Ireland--Distracted state of the country in his time--Trim once an important place--Claims to be the birth-place of Wellington; an anecdote about him--The country round Trim most interesting and historic-- The Boyne the most historic of Irish rivers. CONG ABBEY 218 The most interesting ruin in Connacht--Roderick O'Connor; Moore's opinion of him--Cong founded by St Fechin--Was endowed by O'Connor--Description of the Abbey--Its sculptured stones--The Cross of Cong--Cong never plundered by the Danes--Peculiarities and beauty of the country round Cong--Loch Corrib--The Joyce country; a land of giants; anecdote about one of them. LOCH DERG 231 Its great size--Want of islands its principal drawback--Its hilly shores--Little traffic on it--Iniscealtra--St Cainin--Killaloe; its ruined fanes--The Palace of Kincora; no vestige of it remaining; totally destroyed by Turloch O'Connor in 1118--MacLiag's Lament for Brian and Kincora-- The rapids of Doonas; their great beauty. HOLYCROSS ABBEY 243 Its beautiful situation--One of the largest ruined churches in Ireland--When founded--Its ruins not much marred--Was inhabited until the suppression of monasteries--Beauty of one of its sepulchral monuments--Founded too late to be plundered by the Danes. DUNLUCE CASTLE 247 The most remarkable ruined Castle in Ireland--From its situation it is the finest ruin of the kind in Europe--The narrow causeway by which it is entered--Unusual thinness of its walls--Was evidently erected before cannons were perfected--An awful place in a storm--Giant's Causeway-- Dunseverick Castle--Meaning of the name _Dunluce_--Not known by whom or when it was founded--Was once owned by the MacQuillins--Sorley Boy--Terrible catastrophe that once happened at Dunluce--Must have been built before the fifteenth century. BOYLE ABBEY 254 Not much known to the general public--Its limpid river-- Rivers of muddy water an abomination--Irish rivers generally clear--Extraordinarily luxuriant growth of ivy on the ruins; their effect marred by the erection of a new building close to them--Vandalism in Ireland--Ancient name of Boyle--History of its monastery--Loch Key; the burning of its _cranniog_--Loch Arrow. THE LAKES OF WESTMEATH 263