THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 10. | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1840. | Volume I. |
THE CASTLE OF RINN-DUIN, OR RANDOWN, COUNTY OF ROSCOMMON.
The mighty Shannon—the monarch of island rivers—in allits mazy wanderings almost from one extremity of Ireland tothe other, presents upon its green and diversified banks butfew features of greater natural beauty or historic interest thanthe point called Rinn-duin—a peninsula which stretches intothat great expansion of its waters called Lough Ree, betweenthe counties of Roscommon, Westmeath, and Longford. Thispeninsula, which is situated upon the Roscommon shore of thelake, about eight miles to the north of Athlone, is nearly amile in length, and, at its widest part, a quarter of a mile inbreadth; but it narrows gradually towards its extremity,and the lake nearly insulates a moiety of it at its centre. Itsdirection being southerly, the eastern side faces the expanseof the lake, and commands an extensive prospect of its islandsand the opposite shores, while its western side, facing theland, forms a beautiful bay, fringed with green sloping declivities.
A spot so circumstanced must have struck the early inhabitantsof the country as a sort of natural fortress, whichcould be easily strengthened by art; and that it was sostrengthened and used as a fortress in the remotest historictimes, may be inferred from its most ancient Celtic name—Rinn-duin,the point of the Dun or Fort, by which it is stillknown in the Irish language, though commonly anglicisedRandown, and more generally called St John’s. It is mentionedby this name in the following record in the Annals ofthe Four Masters at the year 1156:—
“There occurred a great fall of snow and a frost in thewinter of this year, so that the lakes and rivers of Irelandwere frozen over. The frost was so great that RoderickO’Conor was enabled to have his ships and boats carried onthe ice from Blein Gaille on the Shannon (at Lough Ree) toRinn-duin.”
Of the earlier history of this fort, however, which was doubtlessbut an earthen one, no accounts are preserved, thoughit may be safely conjectured that it was seized on and used asa stronghold by the Danish King Turgesius in the ninth century,as it appears certain from our annals that he had astrong fastness and harbour for his ships upon Lough Ree.But, be this as it may, we learn from another record in theAnnals above quoted, that Rinn-duin was used as a fastnessby the first Anglo-Norman invaders of Ireland as early as theclose of the twelfth century, when they were forced to seeksafety in it after a defeat which they had sustained in a battlewith Cathal Carrach O’Conor, the son of Roderick and Kingof Connaught. The passage is as follows:—
“A. D. 1199. John de Courcy, at the head of the Englishof the North, and the son of Hugh de Lacy, at the head ofthe English of Meath, marched to Kilmacduach to aid Cathalthe Red-handed O’Conor. Cathal Carrach, at the head of[Pg 74]the Connacians, gave them battle. The English of Ulidiaand Meath were defeated with such slaughter, that of theirfive battalions only two survived, and these were pursuedfrom the field of battle to Rinn-duin on Lough Ree, in whichplace John was hemmed in. Many of his English were killedand others drowned, for they had no mode of effecting theires