KILLARNEY, a market-town of Ireland, county of Kerry, is situated on a branch line of the Dublin and Cork Railway, 180 miles south-west from Dublin and 47 miles north from Cork. On account of the beautiful scenery in the neighbourhood, the town is much frequented by tourists. Within late years it has been greatly improved in appearance, and the streets are now spacious and well-paved, while many good houses and several imposing public buildings have been erected. The principal buildings are the court-house, the Roman Catholic cathedral and bishop’s palace, designed by Pugin, the episcopal church lately rebuilt, the lunatic asylum, erected at a cost of £30,000, and the railway hotel. Adjoining the town is the fine mansion of the earl of Kenmare. The only manufacture of any importance now carried on at Killarney is that of fancy articles from the wood of the arbutus; but it owed its origin to iron-smelting works, for which abundant fuel was obtained from the neighbouring forests....
The lakes of Killarney, about a mile and a half distant from the town, are situated in a basin between several lofty mountain groups, some rising abruptly from the water’s edge, and all clothed with trees and shrubbery almost to their summits. The lower lake, or Lough Leane, which has an area of 5001 acres, is studded with finely wooded islands, on the largest of which, Ross Island, are the ruins of Ross castle, an old fortress of the O’Donoghues; and on another island, the “sweet Innisfallen” of Moore, are the picturesque ruins of an abbey founded by St Finian the leper at the close of the 6th century. Between the lower lake and the middle or Tore lake, which is 680 acres in extent, stands Muckross Abbey, built by the Franciscans about 1440. With the upper lake, which is 430 acres in extent, thickly studded with islands, and closely shut in by mountains, the lower and middle lakes are connected by the Long Range, a winding and finely wooded channel, 2∣ miles in length, and commanding magnificent views of the mountains. Midway in its course is a famous echo caused by the Eagle’s Nest, a lofty pyramidal rock. The population of the urban sanitary district in 1881 was 6546.
[383 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]