Hurley - Rahasane Turlough from Photographs

Rahasane Turlough

from

Photographs

Michael J Hurley

2016

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All photographs (except that of Fairy Shrimp) were taken byauthor and are copyright Michael J Hurley and must not be usedwithout written permission.

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Introduction

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes droppingslow

Dropping from the veils of the morning towhere the cricket sings.

For ten happy years from 1998 to 2008 my wife Phil, ourchildren, and I had a mobile home sited in the garden of Evelyn andPat Morris at Shanbally near Craughwell. While we spent our summerholidays there we also passed many happy weekends throughout thespring, summer, and autumn. I came to love the area and itsfriendly people and developed a fascination for the local Turloughin its varying moods of dampness and dryness. I often carried acamera and saw the area from the thick vegetation at the Shanballyend that petered out through a moonscape of moss-covered bouldersinto the vast plain of flat land in all of its moods.

One could get lost in the stillness,solitude, and buzz of a summer day and watch the occasional swanglide peacefully on the blue water of the river. Or at night in thefullness of the summer moon as bright as day I have been known toc ross and recross the strips ofmoon-blanch'd green ,the silence broken by the bark of a dog fox in the thickets aroundShanbally and an answering collie at Killeeneen.

Mind you evening time was best avoided asthe midges loved to feast on fresh blood and seemed to have aparticular penchant for a wary Dubliner who was foolish enough toenter their domain as seen on the 5 th June 2006 in the followingphotograph looking north over the Dunkellan at CraughwellBridge.

In this e-book I have brought together some of my ownfavourite photographs from those happy days in the hospitality ofEvelyn and Pat Morris in Shanbally. I am reminded fondly ofcarefree days fifty-five years ago when Pat and I were at firstfriends in Dublin and would like to dedicate this e-book to ourenduring friendship.

Michael J Hurley March 2016.

Historical Note on Rahasane House .

English: Rahasane

Irish: Rath Asin n Rath Easin

Meaning: Hassans Fort (ODonovans Field Name Books inGalway Library)

In 1671 the Ffrench family purchased Rahasane from a familynamed Geoghegan who were originally from Co. Westmeath. TheFfrenchs would be in possession until the death of Robert in 1846.They were Catholic landlords but almost continually in deep debt.During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries theyborrowed heavily resulting in the estate becoming greatlyencumbered. In 1758 a Robert Joseph Ffrench married Elizabeth Nagle(and her fortune of 12,000) who was a sister of Nano Nagle whofounded the Presentation order of nuns.

Thomas Joyce purchased the estate in 1846and he in turn sold it to Walter Bourke of Kilcolman nearClaremorris in Co. Mayo. The Landed Estates court sale notice ofJune 1871 mentions that RahasaneHouse was built by Robert Joseph Ffrenchat a cost of 10,000. The hapless Walter Bourke was murderedoutside Castle Taylor in Ardrahan in 1882, and RahasaneHouse was burned down in1896

The original Rahasane House , is described as inruins" on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map of the 1890s. Alater Rahasane House located in Pollnagerragh West townland is shown on the 1933edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map. There is no trace nowof the original house built by R.J. Ffrench.

A reflection of a tree on8 th August 2007 remindsme once again of the quiet beauty of this extraordinary place.Silence, tranquillity, and fresh air pervade the whole area ofunspoiled nature. While an old English proverb states that wateris the eye of a landscape, my own wise old sage of a father alwayssaid you cant eat scenery!

What is a Turlough? A Turlough is a karst lake, which has no surface outletand is surrounded on all sides by rising land. (Karst is a landscape formed from the dissolution ofsoluble rocks such as limestone. It is characterized by undergrounddrainage systems with sinkholes and caves.) It is a disappearing lake sometimes called a fen or a winterlake. The Rahasane example covers some 700 acres of land and it isbelieved that it may have been formed by the collapse of anunderground cave system. Beneath the surface there is a wholeseries of channels which have been eroded out of the limestonethroughout history and pre-history. Limestone is especially proneto erosion as can be seen in areas such as The Burren where drainchannels can be seen every few yards or so in the limestonepavement.

All of the Turloughs are found in limestone areas. This isbecause limestone can be dissolved away by rainwater which becomesacidic from collecting carbon dioxide as it falls. The cracks orjoints in the rock caused by the acidic erosion become widened tosuch an extent that eventually all of the rain falling on thelimestone disappears underground and the water moves through therock openings ranging from cracks a few millimetres wide to largecave passages. The limestone is then said to bekarstified.

Turloughs are found almost exclusively west of the Shannonand the word Turlough comes from the Irish tuar, which means dryand lach which means a place, although it is frequently thoughtto be derived from tuar loch, or a dry lake.

A Statistical and Agricultural Survey ofthe County of Galway in 1824 tells us thateven then drainage of the Turloughs were underconsideration. Amongst the many lakes orTurloughs that could be drained, or at least lowered, Turlough-morenear Tuam, that near Rahasane, and that extensive chain from CastleHackett to Shruel (sic.) are the most conspicuous: they are onlyoccasionally flooded in winter, and want chiefly an enlargement anddeepening of the outlet, or a confinement of the stream to a bedsufficiently capacious to accomplish this. (Interesting to read that they were only occasionally flooded in winter :how times have changed!)

The proprietors of these Turloughs havebeen wishing these fifty years this had been done, but speak toindividuals on the subject, and they are unanimous in nothing but adersire to throw the expense on any one but themselves. TheseTurloughs maintain about seven or eight sheep to the acre for abourfour months, but in wet seasons they are of littlevalue.

The Rahasane Turlough which is situated between Craughwelland Kilcolgan is believed to have been a much larger expanse priorto the drainage works which were undertaken under the Drainage Actof 1842. Since that work the Dunkellin River has followed anartificial channel or canal downstream of the Turlough, but part ofthe flow continues to go underground through a natural sink holeinto the underlying limestone. Rahasane consists of two basinswhich are connected at times of flood but separated as the watersdecline.

In the report, Arterial Drainage (Ireland) of 1853we read: In the case of the DunkellanDistrict, the Drainage Commissioners of Inquiry depart from thisrule (that all lands injured by flood and depending on the sameoutfall were charged with the drainage expense incurred in thatdistrict in proportion to the benefit conferred), and design workscharging the lands improved pro rata of the expense incurred uponeach particular reach, whether main river or tributary. By thismeans they render impossible the reclamation of Rahasane Turlough,of which 600 acres are liable to be flooded for eight months ofevery year, leaving the works necessary for the outfall of thisTurlough untouched, whilst they complete the drainage channelsabove and below it.