Chapter 7: Cunga Fheichín (Cong)

• Cong Village
  
• Annals of Cong
  
• Cong Abbey
  
• Cross of Cong
  
• Black Bell of Saint Patrick
  
• Monuments
  
• Caves
  

Among the limestone rocks to the north-west of this castle may be seen two of the caves, for which Cong is celebrated; both are artificial, and one of them can at present be entered.

There are three descriptions of caves in this locality--natural, artificial, and mixed.The first is magnificently represented by the great chasm in the limestone rock about a mile to the west of Cong, and to the south-west of Aughalard; and which, from the number of pigeons and woodquests that used in former times to flock into it, is popularly known as the Pigeon hole, and in Irish, Poll na gColum, a locality rendered memorable by Lady Morgan; and the legends of which have been so graphically described by Samuel Lover, and where in boyhood we tried to purloin from old Babby, the priestess of the place "the blessed trout," with the mark of the gridiron on his side.

Call at the cottage nearby, and say you want to see the Pigeon hole; leave your car at the stile of one of the green fields that mottle the great limestone crop all around, and walk down a few hundred yards to the east.Hark!--listen!--the ground is hollow; there are sounds issuing from beneath your feet.Draw nearer stand opposite the little clump of dwarf oak, hazel, and holly, through which these subterranean noises rise to light and air.Look down the flight of steps up which that graceful girl is rising, with a pitcher of water on her head; descend by a flight of steps into the bowels of the earth, between huge masses of lichen-covered rock draped with tendrils of ivy, fifty or sixty feet long, depending from the top, and every chink and crevice of which is festooned with ferns and mosses of the greenest hue.Look up; the light of day is obscured by the over- hanging branches, and at your feet gushes a rapid translucent river, at which women are beetling clothes, or filling their water vessels.Fill your eyes with the scene --try and penetrate the chilling gloom that broods over the great chasm that spans the mighty rocks that have fallen on your right.Lo! presently on the top of one of these immense blocks stands for a moment a weird female figure, bearing a lighted flambeau, the genius loci --the Meg Merrilies of the scene.Away she flits--darkness again, save the reflection of the light on the stalactitic roof above; then, emerging from an unobserved passage, she stands on another and more distant crag, with her long white locks, and pale aged face, personifying the banshee of the ancient Fir Bolg.She hurls stones into the deep pools beneath, and utters a loud wail, that reverberates through the cavern, till the repeated echoes fade in the distance, and we watch the lurid light of the expiring lasóga she has thrown on the waters, as they float on through these subterranean caverns to the lake, or to rise in the great mill pond of Cong.

In the grounds of Strandhill there are two caves somewhat similar, "The Ladies' Buttery" and the "Horse Discovery"; the latter so called because it was discovered by a horse and plough having fallen into it, owing to a portion of the roof having suddenly given way, many years ago.Through both the waters of Loch Measca pass into Loch Coirib. Still more to the north-east there is "Webb's Hole," and in the townland of Cooslughoga, adjoining the roads leading to Cross and The Neale, a miniature pigeon hole, called Poll na deórach, or "the dropping-hole," with steps leading down to it; and several other natural caverns, through which the waters of the upper lake percolate.

All these the guides will show those interested in such matters; and also relate the atrocities of Captain Webb, and the marauding exploits of "Macnamara the robber," and the prowess of his bay mare; and also point out the hiding place of "Kelly the outlaw";-- most of the legends concerning all which have been related by Caesar Otway.

The artificial caves abound all over the plain of Moytura, from Cnoc Meadha to Binn Shléibhe.Probably they were all originally within, or surrounded by, forts or cahers to which they served as places of protection and security for women and children, and the wounded or defenceless; or to stow away valuables in case of attack.They may also have been used as sleeping apartments, and perhaps as granaries and storehouses, although at the time they were built the chief food of the Irish was animal.The following general description will apply to most of them, and the details and illustrative plans and sketches of a few particular ones will enable the reader to understand the manner of their construction, and the tourist to identify those he may desire to inspect by artificial light.

By fancying a trench sunk in the ground, ten or twelve feet deep, and from twelve to fourteen wide, and about thirty or forty feet long, either in a straight line, or turning at an angle about midway, probably to avoid an obstruction--the sides lined with walls two feet thick of moderate sized stones, put firmly together without cement, and not in courses; and the roof formed of enormous flags, many of them eight and nine feet long, four or five feet wide, or upwards, of a foot thick, laid on top--we have a good general idea of a Mayo Fir Bolg, or Tuatha Dé Danann cave, of probably two thousand years old. Towards what must be considered the entrance end the cave narrows, and the floor rises; but the general level of the roof is preserved, and the upper side of the flags of the roofing is now about two feet under the sod.At the distant end the cave widens often into a large oval chamber, and there is in some caves a small aperture, possibly for air and light, or communicating with those above, or to let out smoke. They were all entered by square apertures in the roof, as whenever the cave is perfect the ends are built up. This trap door may have been covered incase of emergency with a flag.

The Moytura caves present one remarkable peculiarity: they are nearly all divided into two chambers by a contrivance evidently intended, not merely for security, but concealment, as follows: A few years ago the author discovered a cave at Coill Donn, "the dark wood," adjoining the road leading from Cross to The Neale, sunk in the centre of the remains of a large caher to the north-east of the "Plain of the Hurlers," and of which the two following diagrams drawn to a scale of sixteen feet to the inch, present the elevation and ground plan.Its direction is from south-west to north-east; but, from the great variety in the line of these souterrains, it is manifest their constructors paid no regard to the points of the compass.Descending through an aperture at the low, narrow, southern end, which is now only three feet high, we pass into a chamber twenty-two feet long, but widening and deepening, towards the northern extremity.It is six feet wide, and four feet nine inches high; and in the lower part of the end wall there is a horizontal passage, about three feet square and six long, at the end of which a perpendicular shaft or chimney, eighteen inches by thirty, rises; getting through which, we land on a platform of masonry, three feet four inches high beyond which is another larger chamber, twenty-three feet long, and averaging six feet wide, and seven high --roofed over, like the southern portion, with immense flags that span the top.In the left corner is a small square recess, like a cupboard; and overhead a small aperture, through which light and air were admitted.The end of the cave approaches the outer circle of the fort, with the wall of which it may have communicated.

The upper diagram shows the section, and the lower the ground plan of this great cave, which is altogether fifty-four feet in length.A marks the first hall with its descending entrance; B, the low, narrow, connecting passage; C, the perpendicular shaft; D, the ledge at the southern end of E, the second, or great hall, at the extremity of which is the recess and ventilating aperture.

While, however, in modern architecture the general design of a dwelling, church, or fortress, is the same, the details often differ widely; so it was in cave building, for we find a great uniformity of purpose in all.In the townland of "Cave," at the south-west foot of Cnoc Meadha, one of these straight subterranean habitations may be seen, and from thence to the eastern rise of Binn Shléive numbers of the same class of underground structures are met with; and as we approach the battlefield they abound in every townland; and, if we refer to the Ordnance Maps, we see the great number of localities in which the word cave is marked.The cave at Attyricard, mentioned at page 74, is of this class, as is also that in the great enclosure of Cathair Péatar, or "pewter fort," at Ballymagibbon, although that extensive passage took a somewhat curved direction; and there can be no doubt that the remains of caves are still to be found on the sites of all the great cahers in this locality.That at Leaca fionna was only closed during the last century.

Another form is the Angular or Crooked Cave, of which that at Lisín Ard in Ashford described at page 93, is an example but one of the most curious of this class is that at Cuas luchóga or Cooslughoga, "the rat's cave," which is placed within the circle of an ancient fort, near Cailleach Dubh, about midway between the roads leading to Cross and Baile'n Roba. Scrambling down through the narrow dilapidated north-western entrance we get into a chamber, marked A on the following ground plan, twenty- one feet long, seven high, and six feet three inches wide, and running nearly east and west.The roofing flags are of immense size, and supported on corbels that jut inwards for about nine inches.At the extremity of this hall the walls narrow, and a small door appears, as shown in the left-hand cut at top of the illustration given in the sketch below.Creeping through this very small doorway, we get into the second or larger apartment, ,~ ~t.~ marked B, which is twenty-four feet long, and differs from that of most other caves in having the western side wall composed of large upright flag-stones, not unlike those that support the roof of the passage into New Grange; and, like those of that remarkable structure some of these are indented with artificial depressions along their sides and edges, as shown in the lower compartment of the prior illustration.We have not, however, as yet found on any of the Moytura caves those peculiar carvings, spires, lozenges, and volutes, such as characterize the caves of Meath.Either such were not known at the period of the construction of the Mayo caves; or, more likely, were only used in sepulchral caverns, and probably expressed ideas connected with the life of the deceased, or ideas of futurity.

This second chamber turns somewhat to the north, and is curved round its extreme angle, in the southern side of which we meet the high doorway shown by the second top figure in the foregoing illustration. From that, a narrow passage leads through a very small aperture at its top, over a barrier similar to that in the cave of Coill Donn, into a third, or northern, chamber, twenty-two feet long, marked C upon the diagram on page 110.

Not far to the north-east of this place, and upon the boundary of the Plain of the Hurlers, to be described presently, is Cathair Dubh, "the black fort," of which there are still some remains of the outer wall at the mearing of the townland, to which it gives name.Within this enclosure there is a very extensive curved cave, in good preservation, and remarkable for having still perfect the oblong doorway in the roof, by which access was gained to the interior. Having passed for twenty feet in a south-eastern direction, a long narrow passage leads at a acute angle into a chamber twenty-four feet long, and widening towards its northern extremity.

These details of a few out of the many caves in this locality, and in the neighbouring townland of Craobhach, that may he visited by the antiquarian tourist, will serve to give a general idea of their construction.Muileann a' Leipreacháin, or "the Leprechan's mill," not far from hence--where in former times the people left their caisgíns of corn at nightfall, and found them full of meal in the morning--is worthy of inspection as a natural cave.Although the grinding stones are still heard, no meal has been ground there since an old woman complained that she had been defrauded by the little miller.

"Kelly's Cave," at Learg na hÉille, "the path to the Neale," to the left of the road leading from Cong to Nymphsfield, affords a good example of the mixed variety already referred to; for, while it is evidently a huge cleft formed by nature in the rock, portions of the wall in front and on the sides are undoubtedly artificial.But the best instance of this description of cave, will be found in the great cavern to the west of the hill of Carn, near Loch Measca, where the entrance and a long passage, evidently artificial, and roofed over with immense flags, leads into a very large natural cave, from the roof of which depend numerous stalactites.