GlenavyHistory.com

This beautiful little cottage is situated in one of the. small islands of Lough Neagh, at a distance of three miles from Crumlin; and about one mile and two-thirds from the shore, from which the traveller can easily procure a boat for the purpose of visiting the island. The cottage, which is extremely pretty, and furnished in the most tasteful manner, was some time since erected by Earl O'Neill, to whom it belongs. The only object of antiquity here is a round tower, of which --

"Time, with assailing arm,
Hath smote the summit, but the solid base
Derides the lapse of ages."

We are informed by the Rev. Doctor Cupples, that its "eight is forty-three feet, its circumference thirty feet five inches, the thickness of the walls two feet eight inches and a quarter; the first story contains the door - the second, a window facing the south-east - and the third, another window, which looks out to the north, about three feet high, and one and a half broad. There are two rests for joists, and, in the first story, there is a projecting stone, about five feet and a half from the surface. Certain letters or characters appear to-be cut on the stones, in the inside; but so obliterated are they by time, that they are quite illegible. A hollow sound or echo is heard on entering the building; this induced a person who lived in the island, to dig five feet below the surface, where he found several human bones, and some coffin boards. A skeleton was discovered near the tower some time ago, and bones and skulls in many parts of the island. These circumstances indicate, that a place of worship once existed here; and sanction the opinion of Dr. Ledwich, that the round towers were appropriated to ecclesiastical purposes. It might also be inferred from this that the island was, at no very remote period a part of the continent. When the lake is at its summer level, a bank appears, extending from the island towards Gartree Point. Some persons who have examined it at low water assert, that the remains of a paved causeway are visible. The entire ground is laid out into walks; and covered with verdure. Several hundred rose trees, and those plants and flowers which constitute the pride of our gardens, all flourish luxuriantly. Even those sides of the island which are almost perpendicular, are adorned with all those creeping plants and hardy shrubs which are adapted to the situation.

Lough Neagh is twenty miles long and fifteen broad, and is said to cover an area of about 98,000 acres; its circumference being, about 80 miles 6½ furlongs It lies in the centre of the province of Ulster, and is bounded by five counties-, Antrim cm the north and east. Tyrone also on the east, a small portion of Down on the north-east, Armagh on the south, and Londonderry on the north-west It is about thirty feet above the level of the sea. Its situation, which resembles an inland sea, together with the celebrity of its petrifactions and pebbles, have always rendered it an object, of considerable interest It is not wonderful, therefore, that, like many objects much less within the range of romance, it should have the honour of a fabulous origin; and accordingly, while some early writers state that it suddenly burst out in the reign of Lugaidh Rhiabderg, in the 56th year of the Christian era, we are informed; on, the authority of the late Lord Bristol, Bishop of Derry, that "in a Monastery on the Continent a manuscript existed which mentions, that in the sixth century a violent earthquake had thrown up the rock of Toome, which, by obstructing the discharge of the rivers, had formed this body of water; and that Lough, Erne, in Fermanagh, was produced at the same time!" Of the formation of the lake two other wonderful accounts are given. One states that our Irish giant, Fin M'Coul, took a handful of earth, and flung it into the sea. The handful was of such a size, that where it fell it formed the Isle of Man, and the hollow caused by its removal formed the basin of the present, Lough Neagh! The other account is, that some now forgotten saint had sanctified some holy well, in consequence of which the waters were gifted with the most miraculous properties. The only injunction attending their use was that each person should carefully, shut the wicket-gate of the well. A woman at length neglected this command; the indignant waters immediately sprang from their bed; the terrified culprit fled; but the waters followed close upon her very heels and, when she sank down exhausted, closed for ever around her, and formed the present Lough, the length of which is just the distance she ran! The idea of a town being buried under the waters of the lake, is very prevalent among the peasantry; and Moore, in his well-known beautiful lines, has immortalized this remarkable belief;

On Lough Neagh's banks as the fisherman strays,
When the clear cold eve's declining,
He sees the round towers of other days,
In the waves beneath him shining.

There are several islands on the Lough; but they are deficient in the bold and frowning headlands and picturesque scenery, which constitute the charm of the Scottish lakes. Nor can it in romantic interest, or beauty and variety of scene at all compare with Lough Erne or the Lakes of Killarney. Gunny Island lies a short distance from the Armagh shore. A small cluster known by the y name of the "Three Islands" is situated about four miles from the river Maine, off the point of the parish of Dunean Lord O'Neill has planted all the islands with young trees, which have a very pleasing and ornamental effect and from Ram's Island, in which the cottage stands, a bank of sand and gravel, eighteen or twenty feet broad, extends - it is usually covered with water; but at in very dry seasons, it is broad, firm, and dry, resembling an artificial causeway, more than a natural deposit.

Extract from Northern Whig and Belfast Post — Saturday 11th March 1933:

"Queen of Ram's Isle"

Death of Mrs. Cardwell at 102.

By the death this week of Mrs. Jane Cardwell, in her 102nd year, Ram's Island, the "mystic isle" of sanctuary and beauty, which lies across the bay at Leneymore, near Crumlin, has lost its queen. She was a wonderful old lady, serene as the quietude within her island kingdom's bounds, when she came with her husband fifty years ago.

They lived, this old lady and her husband (he died a few years ago), with a daughter in the old summer residence of O'Neill's, its old lichened walls and mellow thatch in harmony with all surrounding nature, through which, as if to tell the wonder of its age and solitude, peeped the enduring ruin of a round tower.

They lived a humble life. He had his boat, his net, an acre clearing, facing the sun; his fowl, and a faithful dog so attuned to the stillness of the place that he rarely barked. She, too, had her work, and in between she watched the birds - ring doves and coloured shyer birds - fly with the thrush and willow-warbler over the busy wild duck or the stately swans which sailed round and round like white-clothed sentries. She knew them all, their birth and saw them fall among the trees or by the fast overspreading ramparts where once the flowers had grown tended by some other queen.

The funeral of Mrs. Cardwell took place to Glenavy Churchyard on Tuesday.

…There is a cottage which was once a summer-house of the O'Neill family, and the Island is a bird sanctuary full of the music of ring doves, blackbirds, thrushes, finches and other songsters, and it is an ideal place for a picnic. Engage the King of Ram's Island in conversation if you can and he will hear all the "crack of the countryside", including perchance some choice morsels about one Mrs. Thistlewayte who went from Glenavy to London and became the toast of a very gay season. It is said, but I have not seen it myself, that at very low summer level a causeway is exposed which connects Ram's Island with Gartree Point, and it is thought that this was built at the time of the religious establishment.

Ram's Island, County Antrim

On this island, the largest in Lough Neagh, the remains of a Round Tower exist, which, on application to the late Viscount O'Neill, of Shane's Castle, the writer was permitted to examine on the 10th September, 1844. Mr. George C. Hyndman, and Mr. Burgess, of Belfast, were also present. The island, which contains rather less than six acres, is included in the parish of Glenavy; and Dr. Reeves supposes that "the chapel" is mentioned in connection with the church - "the Church of Lennewy, with the chapel," in Pope Nicholas's Taxation, was situated here. The remains of such a building no longer exist; but vestiges of a burying-ground are, it is said, still observable. Of the tower, which forms a striking object, a portion measuring 42 feet in height is still to be seen; the original doorway was eight feet above the offset which determined the level of the floor. This has, however, at some time been closed, and admission is now obtained by an aperture broken through the western side of the building. Two windows remain, one nearly on a line with, and immediately over the true entrance, which faces S.S.W. This is, or rather was, rudely pointed. The other side is on the E.S.E. side. The interior diameter is eight feet three inches and the thickness of the wall two feet six inches, which gives a circumference of nearly forty feet. The lower part of this tower had been filled up to a considerable depth when the pleasure - grounds which surround it were laid out. It was excavated under the direction of the persons named, to a point where a lime floor had originally existed, but which had been broken through at some former period. Of course the examination, under such circumstances, was void of interest. Dr. Petrie quotes a statement from Mr. Windele of Cork, of "human bones having been found interred within that at Ram-island, in Antrim, and similar relics;" but that gentleman's authority is not given. Sir William Betham seems, from a statement afterwards made, to have adopted the same opinion. In the clay, beneath where the floor had been, bones were indeed discovered; but they were the remains of a sheep which had been thrown in, most probably at a late period. No information was procured respecting the nature of any previous investigation.

The name of this island is a subject worthy of some notice as an antiquarian question, for it is not probable it was received from the animal of the same name, nor from the surname which is sometimes found in England; and if the writer mistakes not, it was that of an Irish bishop since the reformation. It seems, indeed, probable, that this word is corrupted from an ancient Irish term which had for a time been superseded by Enis Garden, another corruption of the same.

The writer is indebted to the kindness of Dr. Reeves, for several references in the Annals of Ulster, and of the Four Masters, which seem to apply to this place. Enis Garden, it seem not improbable, is a corruption of a name which occurs twice in the Annals of Ulster - Inis Daircairgren - and most decidedly applies to some locality in or near to Lough Neagh.

AN. 1056, Gormgai prim anneara innsi Daircairgren plenus dierum in penitentia pausavit. Gormal precious anachoreta Insulae Durcargreniae. Plenus dierum in paenitentia pausavit

AN. 1121 Cumaighi mac Deoradha hua Flaind ri Derlais do badhadh I Loch nEachach inrn gab innsi Darcarcren fair d Uib Eachach da trochaic u er ar xl.

Cumagius filius Deoradii O'Flan rex Derlassiae (a territory in or near Hy Tuirtie) demersus in laue Each (lough Neagh) post expugnatam Insulam Darcarcrenii contra Eachios (Iveagh men) in qua occisi sunt supra xl.

No doubt can exist to these entries having reference to an island in Lough Neagh, and the Four Masters bear testimony to the event mentioned in the latter, but mention the island under another name - Rechrann.

The age of Christ, 1121, Cumaighe, son of Deoraidh Ua Floinn, Lord of Durlas, was drowned in Loch-Eathach after (the island of) Inis-Draicrenn had been taken upon him by the Ui-Eathach, where forty-four persons were slain.

Dr. O'Donovan, in a note on this passage, says:- "Inis- Draicrenn, now Rathlin, a small island opposite Rockland, where the upper Bann falls into Lough Neagh, in the north-east of the county Armagh." Dr. Reeves has given the writer the following note, in addition to what is found in his published volume, at pages 48 and 292:- "I was once of opinion that this island (Daircairgren) is the modern Rathlin Island in the Montiaghs, barony of O'Neill and East, Co. of Armagh; but the statement of the Annals of Ulster, at 1056, leads me to suppose that ecclesiastical remains would be found in this island of Daircairgren, wherever it was; however, I have not heard that any exist in the Rathlin of the Montyaghs. The island spoken of is certainly in Lough Neagh, and the question is between Ram's Island and Rathlin. You might look in the Ordnance Survey of Armagh County, sheet No. 6, and see whether any ruins of such are marked as existing on this island. If not, I should unhesitatingly pronounce in favour of Ram's Island, which was called Inis - garden (a corruption, I suspect, of the above name) and is so marked on some old maps." Besides searching the maps, the writer has lately examined the spot itself, and can find no trace of any building having existed on Rathlin Island, in the Montiaghs.