The bend in the waterway brings one into sight of rich pastures and fine
demesnes. Ballintray, "The Town of the Strand" has in its vicinity
Molana Abbey, where the warrior, Raymond Le Gros, lies buried. At the
broads of Clashmore, the highest water-mark to which the inflowing tide
comes, one can easily imagine themselves upon an inland lake. Beyond is
Strancally Castle, beetling over the river, set firmly in a foundation
of crags. The local tradition carriers will gladly point out "The
Murdering Hole," a natural fissure in the rocks, and here they will tell
you that the departed Desmonds destroyed their guests after robbing
them! Above the confluence of the Bride with the Blackwater,
Villierstown and Camphire villages are passed, then the Awbeg joins its
little flood, and beyond the island Dromana Ford is reached. Near is
Dromana Castle, where "the old Countess of Desmond" was born. In the
table-book of Robert Sydney, second Earl of Leyicester, written when
Ambassador at Paris, about 1640, there is the following reference to
her:--
"The old Countess of Desmond was a marryed woman in Edward IV. time
of England, and lived till towards the end of Queen Elizabeth, so
as she must needes be neare one hundred and forty years old.
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