The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 26, December 26, 1840Various
History
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 26, December 26, 1840
Various
Ireland -- Periodicals
THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
NUMBER 26. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1840. VOLUME I.
[Illustration: THE CASTLE OF TERMON MAGRATH, COUNTY OF DONEGAL.]
In a recent number of our journal we called the attention of our readers
to the little-appreciated beauties of Lough Erne; and we now present
them with another vista of that delightful locality in connection with
the Castle of Termon Magrath, or Termon, as it is more usually called,
which is situated at its northern extremity, in the county of Donegal.
Considered as a sheet of water, the lower lake appears from this side to
the greatest advantage; but its distant shores are but little improved by
plantations, and consequently look comparatively bleak and barren. In the
immediate vicinity of our subject, however, the scenery is of the rich
character for which Lough Erne is so remarkable, the shores of the lake
being fringed with the plantations of the glebe of Templecarn and those
of Waterfoot, the beautiful seat of Colonel Barton.
The Castle of Termon is situated in the parish of Templecarn, about half
a mile to the west of the pleasant and improving little town of Pettigoe,
which, if it had a comfortable inn, would be a good station for pleasure
tourists wishing to enjoy the scenery of the lower Lough Erne and that of
Lough Derg, with its celebrated purgatory of St Patrick.
The foundation of this castle, according to popular tradition, is
ascribed to the celebrated Malmurry, or, as he was usually called, Myler
Magrath, the first Protestant Bishop of Clogher; and there is every
reason to believe this tradition correct. The lands on which the castle
is situated anciently constituted the Termon of St Daveog of Lough Derg,
of which the Magraths were hereditarily the termoners or churchwardens;
and of this family Myler Magrath was the head; so that these lands
properly belonged to him anteriorly to any grant of them derived through
his bishopric. He was originally a Franciscan friar, and being a man of
distinguished abilities, was advanced by Pope Pius V. to the see of Down;
but having afterwards embraced Protestantism, he was placed in the see of
Clogher by letter of Queen Elizabeth, dated 18th May 1570, and by grant
dated the 18th September, in the same year. He remained, however, but a
short time in this see, in which he received but little or nothing of the
revenues, and in which he was probably surrounded by enemies even among
his own kindred, and was translated to the archbishopric of Cashel on
the 3d of February, in the year following. He died at Cashel at the age
of one hundred, in the year 1622, and was interred in the choir of that
ancient cathedral, where a splendid monument to his memory still exists,
with a Latin inscription penned by himself, of which the following quaint
translation is given in Harris’s Ware:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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