The Sunny Side of Ireland: How to see it by the Great Southern and Western RailwayO'Mahony, John
History
The Sunny Side of Ireland: How to see it by the Great Southern and Western Railway
O'Mahony, John
Ireland -- Guidebooks
The beauty of Killarney is not without a rival, and that even "next
door" to it in its very own kingdom of Kerry. Leaving behind the
soft-swelling hills, deep-eyed lakes and dark mountains, we speed
southward and westward to other lakes and mountains kindred to what we
have already seen. It is for these lovely lands that the Gulf Stream
crosses the Atlantic to kiss, that we are making over the wide-armed
railway which clasps the most picturesque scenery in the country within
its embrace. Starting from Killarney for Valencia, we leave the train to
continue its journey northwards to Tralee, at Farranfore Junction. While
changing into the carriages for the south-west coast, where
"The mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another,"
one look round reveals the amphitheatre of hills. Westward, whither we
are going, the hills above Glenbeigh point our road to where the
Atlantic meets the shore. To the eastward, where the morn, in russet
mantle clad, walks o'er the dew, the line of far-piercing spears,
Mangerton, Torc, Glena, Toomies, and the Reeks extend. At Killorglin
(twenty-four miles rail), with a wide-spanning viaduct, we cross the
Laune, wending its way from the Lakes to Dingle Bay. Here the ruins of
an old Knights Templar Castle remain to remind us of the historic past.
For five-and-twenty miles from this place onward, the route runs over
the southern shore-line of Dingle Bay. Some five miles from Killorglin,
in a secluded nest of old trees beneath the mountains, lies ~Caragh
Lake~.
"Long, long ago, beyond the space
Of twice ten hundred years;
In Erin old there lived a race
Taller than Roman spears."
[Illustration: Fishing in Caragh River]
[Illustration: _Photo, Lawrence, Dublin._ Caragh River and Lake.]
[Illustration: _Photo, Lawrence, Dublin._ Southern Hotel, Caragh Lake.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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