School: Clochar na Trócaire, Maghcromtha (roll number 10047)
- Location:
- Macroom, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Na Siúracha
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0342, Page 157
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- About midway between the pictures-quely-situated village of Coachford and the historic town of Macroom, the ruined Castle of Carrig-a-drohid stands on a steep rock in the centre of the river Lee. A narrow bridge connects the ruin with either bank, hence its designation - Carrig-a-drohid or "The Brodge of the Rock."
There are two or three legends to account for the castle being built midway in the river, and its position, which gives it a romantic effect, lends colour to some of the stories relative to its origan.
The most romantic of those tales concerns the deformed son of a widow who lived in that locality, and was secretly in love with the beautiful daughter of a Muskerry chieftain, named Una McCarty. Una whose beauty, the legend goes on, was sung by the bards of Munster, was reputed to have spurned numerous offers of marriage from warriors and noblemen. Dermot, the widow's son, was very poor, and one of his occupations was snaring trout in the fords of the Lee. His "catches" he sometimes sold at the chieftain's stronghold, where he would linger to gaze on the fair Una before returning to his cabin to dream of her beauty and ponder on his prospects of gaining affections. At times, realising his deformity and extreme poverty, Dermot would say to himself, "When she spurns brave and handsome noblemen, she will never look on me for the one who would win her must rival them all."
One summer evening, while poor Dermot exhausted and weary from his fishing adventures, rested on the rock upon which the castle was afterwards built, he was attracted by an unusually sweet singer, whose voice went ringing melodiously through a sally grove that fringed the south bank of the river.(continues on next page)
