Many a castle and stronghold have the O'Mahonys and
O'Donovans built among the crags of the rocky islands, which are grouped
in such variety to seaward, the ruins of which are to-day full of
interest and beauty for the tourist. But surely the day will come when
those crumbling ruins shall be once again a portion of the common soil,
nameless and forgotten; but distant though that day may be, Skull and
Skibbereen, those two famine-slain sisters of the South, must still be
found on the page of Irish history, illustrating the Great Famine of
1847.
The parish of Skull is situated in the barony of West Carberry, county
of Cork, and is very large, containing no less than 84,000 acres. The
town, a small one, is on the shore in the portion of the parish called
East Skull; West Skull runs inland towards Skibbereen, and in this
division is the village of Ballydehob. The town of Skull is built upon a
piece of low level ground, a short distance from which, in the direction
of Ballydehob, there is a chain of hills, the highest of which, Mount
Gabriel, rises 1,300 feet above the sea level. Nothing can be happier or
more accurate than the poet's description of this scenery, when he
writes:--
"The summer sun is falling soft on Carbery's hundred isles,
The summer sun is gleaming still through Gabriel's rough defiles.
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