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| ROSS CASTLE, KILLARNEY. -The castle pictured in the sketch is built on an island, or rather peninsula, of the same name in the Lower Lake of Killarney, now the property of the Earl of Kenmore, and is one of the best preserved ruins of its type in the ancient "Kingdom of Kerry." It was founded by one of the warlike O'Donoghues of the Lakes in the Fifteenth century, and, like all Irish castles of the olden time, has stood considerable battering from hostile cannon, domestic and foreign. It is a lofty building of square formation, massively buttressed and thickly coated with ivy. From its venerable battlements, which can be reached by a solid spiral staircase of cut stone, a matchless view of the whole Killarney region can be obtained. Ross enjoys the distinction of being the last Irish castle to surrender to General Ludlow, the successor of Cromwell and Ireton, in 1652. The English could not take the place until the General caused a small warship to be carried over the mountains and placed in the lake. An ancient prophecy declared the place impregnable until ships appeared before it. Ludlow's stratagem disconcerted the garrison, and hence the surrender. A ghostly legend says that one of the O'Donoghues, made immortal by magic, is occasionally seen riding a white horse over the waters of the lake, on moonlight nights. |
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