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MUNSTER 43
beehive-shaped cells still intact, for you
to wonder at
the discomforts of piety. And in the crevices of
these rocks rare birds breed the stormy petrel, the
Manx shearwater, along with legions of puffin, guille-
mot, razorbill, shag, and the rest. But do not go
there even with a light easterly wind, for it blows
direct on to the rocky landing place; and if it blows
at all from the south-west the swell may be too big
even on the sheltered side. Nature is on a big scale,
a rough playfellow,
out here in the Atlantic.
Even landward from Lough Currane,
it is a wild
nature that you must encounter on the old mountain
road to Killarney, which you should travel for choice.
This way follows up the valley of the Eany River
(but you may take the main road skirting Lough
Currane and turn in west to this same valley at
Owroe bridge) to the pass of Bealach Oisin (Ossian's
Track) between Coolee and Knocknagapple. At the
crest one must be close on a thousand feet up, and
the view back over Ballinskelligs bay with the At-
lantic beyond, to which the eye is led by a long wind-
ing thread of river between steep mountain sides, is
a splendid prospect. Once over the neck, sea, river,
and tilled land all disappear: nothing
heath and rock and mountain. On the right
is seen but
is the
high ridge which makes the backbone of Iveragh:
in front of you the Reeks fill the eastern sky. Not