The bed was a few boards laid on stones, on which was spread a
little green hay, and among the loose hay they slept.
The terror of the
little creatures pulled out of bed, while the wretched lair was searched
and they stood on the floor naked and shivering, was described to me by
one who assisted at the search. The bed was overturned, but the money
was not found. We drove on through the "stony streak" out to a clearer
grass country to Castle Bourke, a lonely looking ruin sitting among her
own desolations. It once covered a great deal of land, and there is
evidence of additions having been made to it at different times. This
Castle Bourke was one of the castles of the Queen of the West, the
celebrated Grace O'Malley. This castle is one of those given to Grace by
her husband of a year, Sir Richard Bourke.
There are still the remains of three buildings; one, said to be the
prison, was loopholed through the solid stone, some loopholes being
quite close to the ground, some straight through, some slanting, so as
to cover a man come from what direction he might, or what height soever,
even if he crept on the ground. Most of the castle, as well as these
buildings attached, had their roof on the floor, but in the square tower
of the castle proper still remains a stone staircase of the circular
kind.
As you go up this stair lit by narrow slits in the wall formed in hewn
stone you find an arched door at three different places admitting to
three arched galleries roofed and floored with stone.
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