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| LOUGH GILL, CO. SLIGO. -This lovely sheet of water, almost engirdled by its guardian mountains, is situated about three miles from the handsome and prosperous town of Sligo. It is easy of access and in consequence, is much frequented by tourists who revel in the fine scenery and the abundant sport offered by the innumerable "finny tribes" that swarm in the lake. Salmon, trout and the very largest species of pike-called "the freshwater shark," and one of the most difficult of fish to capture -make Lough Gill a very paradise for the enthusiastic angler. The lake contains twenty-three islands, finely arbored in the main. Two of these beauty spots are nearly covered by the ivy-grown rains of ancient churches, "the names of whose founders have vanished in the gloom." The ecclesiastical relics on Innishmore are very picturesque, and evidently of great antiquity. The finest vantage point on Lough Gill is the beautiful estate of the Wyrne family, called Hazelwood. Here landscape gardening, on a most liberal scale, has reinforced the bounteous works of nature. There is hardly a finer scene in Ireland than that presented by the view from the mansion at Hazelwood, where mountains, water and wooded island combine their charms to produce a noble picture fresh from the hands of the Creator. This lake has been mad the theatre of one of the best recent Irish novels, "The Wild Rose of Lough Gill," by Mr. P. G. Smyth, now connected with the Chicago daily press. |
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