Lost stories from the Green Lake
This is a column on some of stories associated with the Green Lake, Cavan. It's the latest in the Times Past series by Jonathan Smyth...
What we may think we know through a comfortable familiarity, we may not know so much about, as we suppose. In the online stratosphere of the internet, there is a world of endless nonentity, a cacophony of social media posts continually clamouring for attention like the squawking of crows in a barn. But if we should venture into the great outdoors, there lies a natural world, awaiting discovery, and for me this is the real treasure.
What we find in the untold things, the histories of our locality, the stories from the places we inhabit, that is the real treasure. Situated on the edge of Cavan Town, there is the Green Lake, and like an Arthurian legend, it contains a knot of ancient secrets and happenings. Could there be a Green Knight connected to its waters? Incidentally, this knight is a symbol of nature who as our friend is good, but if we make it an enemy, we do so at our peril.
Ancient days
A druid travelling by coach, they say took umbrage to an old woman chucking a basin of water into the road as he passed. The horse bolted and in anger the warlock caused a flood that submerged the town beneath its depths and soon it came to be known simply as the Green Lake. The mystery of the lake emerges from the druidic tale and, through sheer enthusiasm and dedication, a local historian named Bridie M. Smith-Brady had the foreknowledge to write and publish much of the counties ancient and prior to then, unrecorded lore.
In 1935, she wrote a column on the ‘Tales of Annagelliffe’ where she opens with the Green Lake. She emphasises that: ‘Perhaps no spot in the historical background of Cavan Town is so important in the light of pre-Christian history as the Green Lake outside the urban boundary, for the “Pagan Brugh,” or ancient town of Cavan, supposed to lie beneath these dark, deep waters.’
Tradition accords that the town of ‘Brugh’ was a bustling settlement built of earthen and wooden dwellings. The druid, named Bud-an-Bhothair, may have been making his way to Beinn Eachlabhra hill ‘at the Cuilcagh mountain’ when the incident occurred.
Giant saucer
In November 1855, the stirrings of an ancient whirlpool beneath the lough’s waters were the topic of a letter to The Anglo-Celt, from a person called Clio, who asked the reader to consider ‘the basin of the Green Lake’ to be the shape of ‘a giant saucer’. The lake’s appearance in that year caused the writer of the account to consider the lakes ‘present’ character and why they must consider its ‘basin the theatre of a whirlpool’.
The water flowing from the North-East side, wrote Clio, ‘is suddenly compelled to change the direction of its current by the resistance presented to its motion by the Tullymangan shore, and hence a whirlpool is formed in the basin of the lake, the extent of which depends on the volume entering the lake, and the velocity with which it enters.’
It was a popular swimming location for locals and in the centre, had stones stacked in pyramid fashion with its ‘apex’ just above the water. Clio description speaks of ‘the steep and unclayey sides of this central deposit of the Green Lake whirlpool’. Elaborating further, Clio speaks of it being ‘well known to most of the young men of Cavan who, when swimming in the lake, usually made for this place to rest when ‘their strength’ was all but ‘exhausted’.
Broken ice
On the afternoon of the March 26, 1864, an accident took place which almost resulted in the ‘drowning of four young ladies’.
On the evening upon which the incident took place, reports were received of ‘the three Miss Gosselins, daughters of Major Gosselin, Cavan Militia, and Miss Hill, daughter of Counsellor Hill’, were taking a stroll across the ice on the Green Lake, when it unexpectedly ‘gave way’ causing the Major’s three daughters to become immersed in the water.
Miss Hill did her utmost to pull her companions from the waters but she too was ‘dragged’ into the lake. Mr Kellett, ‘a young gentleman,’ observing the ‘perilous position’ of the women from the far side of the lake, dashed over at ‘very great personal risk’ but his all his efforts to retrieve them failed at first.
Others on the lake shore realised what was a foot and how dangerous the situation was becoming and rushed to their aid. Three men - Lowden, Galligan, and Smith - gathered what was to hand, planks and ropes and headed over to Kellett and the young ladies. Thankfully, they succeeded in the rescue, and all returned safely to shore. The news report stated that: ‘None of the young ladies suffered any greater injury’ other than a good soaking… It could not be attributed to any rashness on the part of the young ladies, as many persons passed over the same place for some days previous.’
Fiction
The Green Lake was back in the newspaper again in 1917 when John P. Neary, Market Square, Cavan, penned a fictionalised story, titled, ‘Captain Finch’s Treasure: A Tale of the Green Lake’. Neary’s narrative explored the very nearby ‘Ghosty House’ and its apparent hauntings; his descriptions undoubtedly involve artistic licence. In the story, people are travelling by coach and are within a mile from Cavan town when the story begins.
A young lady, an elderly gentleman and a young man engage in conversation. Located in a field adjoining the Green Lake, there stood the Ghosty House, a two-storey, slate-roof building, which was the abode of an old lady. At one time it was a ‘comfortable dwelling’ but now the windows were ‘heavily barred’ and the windows ‘shuttered up’.
The imaginative adventure soon leads to Captain Finch and his hidden treasure at the Ghosty House, and a secret tunnel, which became his last resting place when the lake floods it. For his writing, John P. Neary appeared among the Celt’s prize winners. His creativity made him £1 richer.
Weather
Green fields become nourished by the rains, that old friend that accompanies our climate. In wet seasons, the Green Lake has considerably expanded its borders beyond its banks. In January 1948, the lake’s boundaries had increased and broadened out as far as the Ghosty House. The visibility of the lake island was now beyond normal view, and the overspill flooded low lying fields up to the old football pitch at Tierquin.
From a druidic spell cast in prehistoric days, local lore says that below those cool waters the former town of Cavan remains, titanic-like and undisturbed. Like our neighbourhoods, the story of the Green Lake has more to it than may meet the eye. How many more historical mysteries are there to be unwrapped in the county? Many more, indeed, would be the answer.
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