Lough Mask (Irish: Loch Measca) is a limestone lough (lake) of 20,500 acres (83 km²) in County Mayo, Ireland, north of Lough Corrib. Lough Mask is the middle of the three lakes, which empty into the Corrib River, through Galway, into Galway Bay. Lough Carra flows into Lough Mask, which feeds into Lough Corrib through an underground stream which becomes the River Cong. Lough Mask is the fourth largest lake, by area, in Ireland and the sixth largest lake in the island of Ireland. The eastern half of Lough Mask is shallow and contains many islands. The other half (Upper Lough Mask) is much deeper, sinking to a long trench with depths in excess of 50 metres. Lough Mask has a mean depth of 15m, and a maximum depth of 58m. Its water volume of 1.3 km3 is the largest in Ireland and the second largest on the island of Ireland. Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland has an even greater water volume.
The lake is popular for its trout fishing. The World Cup Trout Fly Fishing Championship takes place annually on Lough Mask at Cushlough Bay near Ballinrobe.
In 1338 Sir Edmond de Burgh was drowned in the lake by his cousin Sir Edmond Albanach Bourke of County Mayo, at the end of the Burke Civil War 1333-38. He was captured at Ballinrobe and taken to Oilean-an-lara (the Earls Island) where he was killed.
According to a side-note on the manuscript containing the oldest copy of 'Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne' ("The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne") (Royal Irish Academy Ms. 24.P.9), Irish scribe Dáibhídh Bacach ("lame David") Ó Duibhgeannáin was living and working on Oileán Ruadh ('Red Island') on Lough Mask in the house of Tadhg Og O Flaherty on the date, April 1, 1651.
Lough Mask Murders - Upper Cloughbrack, on Lough Mask's southern shore, was the scene of the 1882 "Lough Mask murders", when two bailiffs working for Lord Ardilaun were killed, described as "an old man and a lad". Tensions had arisen in the area during the Land War and the proximity of land managed by Charles Boycott. The corpses were found in the lough itself. The controversial lack of credible witnesses led to four well-publicised trials of the accused in December 1882.
On the morning of January 3, 1882, Joseph Huddy, who had acted as bailiff for Lord Ardilaun and his father for more than three decades, left his home in Creevagh near Cong accompanied by John, his seventeen-year-old grandson, for the purpose of serving ejectment processes on twelve of Lord Ardilaun's tenants in the districts of Clonbur and Cornamona.
The Huddys began service in the village of Middle Cloughbrack (also known as America) before proceeding to Upper Cloughbrack, a densely populated area with no defined village center, on the southern shore of Lough Mask.
At 10:00 that January morning, Joseph Huddy had his driver stop at a point in the road that led south to Cornamona as it would be necessary for the Huddys to continue on foot. The elder Huddy left instructions with the driver to meet him in about an hour's time and that the last family to be served was that of Mathias Kerrigan. After waiting for the Huddys' return at the assigned spot for several hours, at 4:00, the driver drove on to Cornamona where he alerted the police. The police proceeded to Upper Cloughbrack to look for the missing Huddys.
The next day, the police questioned all of the adults of Upper Cloughbrack, but no one had any information on the Huddys even though it was known that Huddy and his grandson had gone into Upper Cloughbrack for the purpose of serving ejectment papers the previous day. After tracing the Huddys' movements as far as the house of Mathias Kerrigan, the police found evidence of a struggle in Kerrigan's yard, as well as a mark made by a bullet in the wall of the gable end of Kerrigan's house and bloodstains on the wall. Kerrigan and his sixteen-year-old son Matthew were taken into custody.
For four days, the police dug up bogland and searched the mountains without result. At this time, a navigable waterway existed between Lough Mask and Galway Bay by way of the Corrib River at Cong. The services of Her Majesty's Royal Navy were engaged, and forty men of HMS Banterer, then lying in Galway Bay, were sent to Lough Mask. For twelve days, the "bluejackets harrowed and dragged the bottom of the lake, their efforts frequently hampered by rough waters." Then on Friday, January 27th, "A grappling iron caught upon something weighty, which on being brought to the surface proved to be the body of the younger of the two missing men. The body was tied up in a sack in to which he had been put head foremost.... The second body was found about twenty minutes later, only a few yards from the spot where the first body had been found. The murderers had not taken the trouble to put the old man's body in a sack. They merely wrapped his own overcoat around him, and having firmly fastened a large stone round his legs, threw him into the water... The old man's body was also very little decomposed."
The police, now believing that the death of the Huddys was a result of an entire village rising up against the process servers, arrested, in addition to Mathias Kerrigan and his son, fifteen men on suspicion of complicity in the murders. Mathias Kerrigan was detained in Galway City Jail for nine months without being charged. In September 1882, he turned approver, that is, an informer, and named the three men responsible for the killings. Michael Flynn and Thomas Higgins of Middle Cloughbrack and Patrick Higgins (Long) of Upper Cloughbrack were charged with the murders. In four separate trials, one ending in a hung jury, in December 1882, all three men were found guilty and sentenced to death by Justice William O'Brien. The sentences were carried out in Galway City Jail in January 1883.
According to local legend, a banshee haunts Bly Island, a small island in the lough. There have also been rumored sightings of a banshee around the shore of the lough as well as other forms of paranormal activity.
Petersburg Outdoor Education Center is situated on the shore of the lough, close to Bly Island. The center uses the lake for numerous water sports including kayaking, canoeing and sailing.
"Loch Measca" was taken as the pen-name of Séan Seoighe (John Joyce) in Eachtra múinteóra an Irish-language memoir published in 1929.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
See alsoEdit
- List of loughs in Ireland
- River Robe
Trout Fishing In Ireland Video
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Article from Irish Fisheries
- Ireland Fly Fishing - Lough Mask
- wfdfish.ie Lough Mask
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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