School: Cronaghbois (roll number 2658)
- Location:
- Crannogeboy, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Criostóir Ó Beirn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1048, Page 353
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Cronaghbois
- XML Page 353
- XML “A Clever Fox”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- About 50 yrs ago the people of the Point suffered much from the depredations of a fox. Hens disappeared nightly and ultimately men with guns kept watch for him. He was so clever however that they could not get within range of him. He became so bold that he actually took away the hens in daytime when the women were feeding them. On one of these occasions a number of young men gave chase and followed the fox over to the cliff bound shore. The fox disappeared over a cliff which had a sheer drop of 70 or 80 ft to the rocks below. When the young men reached the place and looked down the concluded that the foxe's days were ended. However the hens continued to disappear and the people recognised the old fox again. He was hunted again and disappeared at exactly the same spot. A curious young man, on examining the spot noticed that a briar bush overhung the precipice. Lying in hiding close by, he saw the fox on the occasion of the third hunt swing himself over the cliff by the aid of the briar and land on a ledge a few feet down. The briar was partially severed for the fourth hunt and the fox dropped to the bottom of the cliff & was killed.
