The train will take you to Kenmare, where the railway company
has a really comfortable hotel, in whose garden you will see the
characteristic subtropical vegetation which can be produced in
this climate--palms, yuccas, New Zealand flax with its sword-shaped
fronds, bamboos, and the rest, "all standing naked in the open air"
like the heathen goddesses in the Groves of Blarney. From Kenmare the
beautifully engineered road, which was a joy to man and beast till
heavy motor coaches began to destroy it, runs along the north shore of
the sea lough and a few miles out crosses the Kerry Blackwater by the
most picturesque bridge over the loveliest stream that anyone could
ever hope to throw a fly in. A little farther along is Parknasilla,
the big hotel which has been built at a point where the coast breaks
up into a number of wooded islets, with bridges connecting them, and
meandering walks--well, nothing could be prettier. Then you go along
through Sneem, getting into opener, wilder country. As you approach
West Cove, Staigue Fort is on your right, a great circular structure
of dry masonry, more developed than the similar buildings in Aran, for
it has chambers in the thickness of the wall and stairs leading to
platforms for defence. From this monument of prehistoric times, whose
date can be measured by thousands of years, look across to your left,
where another stone building is in progress--a large hospital designed
to benefit the poor folk of this district: the bounty of a lady
belonging to one of the families who profited by confiscation and for
too long drew absentee rents. What may be the success of the scheme
cannot be foretold: but the beauty of her desire to make restitution
is not the least among the beauties of the Kenmare River.
At West Cove I have been lucky enough to stay with the man who knows
the west of Ireland in its present life and its past history better
perhaps than any living soul. In the great plot where cars draw up
outside his door, great plants of Arum lilies shoot up and flourish,
blooming luxuriantly in spring. They say that in Valentia an improving
gardener thought them too profuse in the Knight of Kerry's garden,
and pitched the roots out over the cliffs; but some caught on ledges,
fastened there, and sent up white lilies in niches of the crags--so
kind is that soft air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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