The finding of a shin bone in a pool of water in the bog motivated the name of the above lake which it is called to present day. It was thought that during the penal days a small monastery was sited about a mile from the lake in the village of Corramaeeagh and housed some monks. Some octogenarians of the past generation that I heard talking believed that the monks were surprised by a raiding party and one of them was captured in his bid to escape. It is supposed that his body was mutilated to such an extent that only one of his shin bones was ever discovered. That was how the pool of water derived its present name. The pool kept enlarging and with time that it now has the proportions of a nice-sized lake.

A Link With Loch Loirgín

The year was 1900, the month October and the time 1a.m.. At that time the teacher in the old school of Clondoyle was Dan McCarthy (a Corkonian) a man not given to false imaginations or hallucinations. As the mode of conveyance at the time he kept a white pony. I have a photo of himself, wife and white pony. He grazed his pony on Donelon’s farm at Clondoyle. One evening in the said month of October he went to see his pony, met the herd and adjourned to the herd’s house. They stayed in conversation until past midnight and he took his leave to go home. Whilst walking down the avenue from Clondoyle to the main road he stopped to light his pipe. When the light of the match burned out he spied a man standing beside him. They commenced to talk and in the course of the conversation he asked Dan if he knew Loch Loirgín or if he had ever been there. Dan replied he was often there. The stranger replied he was often there himself but he remembered a time such a lake didn’t exist. This sounded strange to Dan. Then the man stated that it was just a year since he was in Africa fighting the Boers. As he was a complete stranger Dan started to get worried with his nocturnal companion. After a short distance they approached the gate leading into the síodhán where the unbaptised babies were buried and he went in through that gate and disappeared. Poor Dan on arriving at his house got sick and spent three weeks in bed with the shock.

Author: Paddy Crosby, Glenamaddy B.N.S.

Source: Folio 1868, Pages 65-155. Irish Folklore Main Manuscript Collection