The Doolough Valley was the most beautiful scenery we saw in Ireland. Doo Lough means Dark Lake. The lake is at the southern end of the valley and does look quite dark on the surface. The valley is bogland and is uninhabited except for the intrepid sheep who seem quite content to have it to themselves. The bog grass has a beautiful reddish hue. Many small waterfalls flow down both sides of the valley.
The monument pictured in the second row of photographs commemorates those who died in the valley on a tragic march through the valley in 1849 during the great Irish Famine. Starving locals marched through valley to ask for food from their landlord at Delphi. “Landlords” were British aristocrats granted land seized from the local population by the English Crown and effectively functioned as authoritarian governors for their holdings. Though the landlord at Delphi had food, he refused to provide any to the starving marchers. Of the 600 people who made the trek to plead for food, 400 succumbed to starvation on the return journey.
Big thanks to Ken McCarthy for this photo.
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