School: Castlemaine (C.)

Location:
Castlemaine, Co. Kerry
Teacher:
Máire, Bean an Chaomhánaigh
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0433, Page 024

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0433, Page 024

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  1. XML School: Castlemaine (C.)
  2. XML Page 024
  3. XML “The Ghost of Slieve Mish”

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  1. Old people in this district still talk of the ghost which haunted the pass of
    Gleann Scoheen or Scotias Glen
    which contains the grave of Queen Scotia, on the Slieve Mish mountain.
    There is not a shadow of a doubt that such a spirit haunted this lonely pass.
    The spirit would come in various shapes, and not alone struck terror into the hearts of the people for miles around, but actually killed some of them. At one time it would appear as a cow, at another time as a horse, sometimes again as a sow surrounded by a litter of bonhams, but always it changed into a fierce and terrible woman.
    Sometimes people escaped her wrath by being very civil and obliging, but others lost their lives on the spot, or got a severe beating from the effects of which they died. Let us take for instance the case of a man named Bryan Connor, a native of Tralee.
    Being out late on business and in a hurry home he had no option but to ride his horse through this pass (it being a shortcut through the mountain from Castlemaine to Tralee). Seeing a feeble old woman on the road he offered her a ride on horseback. The old woman instantly sprang on the horses's back to the surprise of the rider.
    They had not gone very far when the horse
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. agents (~1)
      1. supernatural and legendary beings (~14,864)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Peggy Kavanagh
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Castlemaine, Co. Kerry
    Informant
    William Hanafin
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    70
    Address
    Laharan, Co. Kerry