Adventures at Cushendall (Co. Antrim)

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Dan M’Killop (carpenter in Cushendun) relates, that about fifteen years ago, he and Hugh M’Kinley, of Knocknacarry, were on their way home from Ballymena; when they came to Cushendall, they chose the Layde road, the night being dark and wet. When they got as far as Patten’s Fall, Dan said to Hugh, ‘if we go by the short cut, we shall be covered with mud, as the lane is very much broken up.’ Hugh refused to take any road but the short one; and when they reached Douglas’s farm house the road was so bad that Dan took the front of the house, and Hugh the rere. When Dan passed the house he looked about him, expecting to meet Hugh again, he called, but there was no response. He observed, however, near the braes bright lights, like the gas lamps in a large town. He could not imagine what they were, knowing such to be impossible in that locality; he also believed he was in a plantation; the branches of the trees seemed quite close to him, as they swayed backward and forward. He stood still awhile, considering what course to take, and on drawing back a little, his heel struck something and he fell: he sat down, took his beads out of his pocket, and prayed for some time, considering he was on uncanny ground. He then rose, and fearing lest he might tumble over the braes (it being so dark), he made for the old road, and was conveyed by some unearthly means accross a mountain full of bog holes, ditches, and gulleys. He felt no obstacles in his way, the road seeming to be quite level, and he arrived at Pat Blayney’s house near the National School, Knocknacarry, Hugh M’Kinley said that when leaving Dan he heard a shrill whistle from the braes, which he answered, but Dan did not hear this. He arrived soon after Dan, coming down at the back of M’llreevy’s garden at Agolagh, nearly a quarter of a mile from where Dan M’Killop had regained the main road. Brenan 61-62

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