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                        THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.

         NUMBER 16.     SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1840.    VOLUME I.

[Illustration: THE CASTLE AND LAKE OF INCHIQUIN, COUNTY OF CLARE.]

Connemara itself, now so celebrated for its lakes and mountains, was not
less unknown a few years since than the greater portion of the county
of Clare. Without roads, or houses of entertainment for travellers, its
magnificent coast and other scenery were necessarily unvisited by the
pleasure tourists, and but little appreciated even by their inhabitants
themselves. But Clare can no longer be said to be an unvisited district:
the recent formation of roads has opened to observation many features of
interest previously inaccessible to the traveller, and its singular coast
scenery--the most sublimely magnificent in the British islands, if not in
Europe--has at least been made known to the public by topographical and
scientific explorers--it has become an attractive locality to artists and
pleasure tourists, and will doubtless be visited by increasing numbers of
such persons in each successive year.

There is however as yet in this county too great a deficiency in the
number of respectable houses of entertainment suited to the habits
of pleasure tourists; for though the wealthier and more educated
classes in the British empire are becoming daily a more travelling and
picturesque-hunting genus, they will not be content to live on fine
scenery, but must have food for the body as well as for the mind; and
truly they must be enthusiastic lovers of the picturesque, who, to
gratify their taste, will subject themselves to the vicissitudes of such
an uncertain climate as ours, without the certainty of such consoling
comforts as are afforded in a clean and comfortable inn.

Yet we do not despair of seeing this want soon supplied. Wherever there
is a demand for a commodity it will not be long wanting; and the people
of Clare are too sagacious not to perceive, however slowly, the practical
wisdom of holding out every inducement of this kind to those who might
be disposed to visit them and spend their money among them. The first
step necessary, however, to produce such results in any little frequented
district, is to make its objects of interest known to the public by the
pencil and the pen--the rest will follow in due course; and our best
efforts, such as they are, shall not be unexerted towards effecting such
an important good as well for Clare as for many other as yet little known
localities of our country.

Clare is indeed on many accounts deserving of greater attention than
it has hitherto received. It is a county rich in attractions for the
geologist and naturalist, and interesting in the highest degree to
the lovers of the picturesque. With a surface singularly broken and
diversified, full of mountains, hills, lakes, and rivers, dotted all over
with every class of ancient remains, its scenery is peculiarly Irish, and
though of a somewhat melancholy aspect, it is never wanting in a poetic
and historic interest. Such a district is not indeed exactly suited to
the tastes of the common scenery-hunter, for it possesses but little of
that woody and artificially adorned scenery which he requires, and can
alone enjoy; and hence it has usually been described by tourists and
topographers with a coldness which shows how little its peculiarities had
impressed their feelings, and how incompetent they were to communicate to
others a just estimate of its character. Let us take as an example the
notice given by the writers of Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary, of one
of the Clare beauties of which the natives are most proud--the caverns
called the To-meens or To-mines, near Kiltanan:--

“At Kiltanan is a succession of limestone caverns, through which a
rivulet takes its course: these are much visited in summer; many
petrified shells are found in the limestone, some of which are nearly
perfect, and--_very curious_!”

This it must be confessed is cold enough; but the description of the same
locality given by our friend the author of the Guide through Ireland, is,
as our readers will see, not a whit warmer. It is as follows:--

“A mile from Tulla is Kiltanan, the handsome residence of James Moloney,
Esq.; and in addition to the pleasure of a well-kept residence, in a
naked and sadly neglected country, _some interest_ is excited by the
subterraneous course of the rivulet called the To-meens, which waters
this demesne!”

Now, would any person be induced by such descriptions as those to
visit the said To-meens? We suspect not. But hear with what delight