Glenade Lough — the Dobhar-chú stone

OVERVIEW

Glenade Lough lies in the valley of Glenade in north Leitrim, between the Dartry Mountains and the Sligo border. The Dobhar-chú — water hound, or king otter — is a creature of Irish and Scottish folklore that resembles both a dog and an otter, lives in water, and has fur said to have protective properties. Little of its lore was written down; it came through oral telling.

HISTORY

The account given locally is that Grace Connolly, of the townland of Creevelea on the north-western side of Glenade Lough, came down to the lake on 22 September 1722 to bathe and wash clothes, and was attacked and killed by a creature that came out of the water. Her husband, Traolach Mac Lochlainn, killed it, and — in the fuller versions — its mate, which came after him. What makes this different from other Irish cryptid lore is that there is something to go and look at: two gravestones in Conwall (Congbháil) cemetery at Drummans in Glenade, hers and her husband's, each carved with the creature. Hers shows it in its last moments, head thrown back, a blade through its neck.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Sightings have been reported down the years. In 2003 the artist Seán Corcoran and his wife said they saw a Dobhar-chú on Omey Island in Connemara — a large dark animal that made a screeching cry, swam very fast and had orange flipper-like feet. The entry rests on the carved stones, which are eighteenth-century, dated, and still in the ground.

VISITING

The lough is beside the R280 in Glenade. Conwall cemetery is a small old burial ground at Drummans on the approach to the valley; the carved stones are in it. A working graveyard — treat it as one.