Below are extracts from the “Handbook for Travellers in Ireland (with Maps) 1866” which refer to the Millstreet area.
Note: the spelling is not great because a computer was used to scan it and copy to text, but the information of the time is interesting.
Coal:
… the only practicable coal being in Clare, where there are thin beds of culm, from which, however, one colliery-owner clears his 4000?. a year. This exception is in the barony pf Duhallow, in the neighbourhood of Kanturk and Millstreet. Here are six veins of anthracite coal, three of which, known as the Bulk-vein, Rock- vein, and Sweet-vein, are of tolerable thickness and have been pretty extensively
worked. ” The coals of the Munster field lie in a series of troughs, the hills usually striking from E. to W., and the strata dipping on either side, N. and S., at considerable angles, often perpendicular.” — Kane,
The coal rocks in Clare are of an estimated thickness of 3350 ft., and consist of limestone band …
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Geography
… To the S. of the rly. between Mallow and Millstreet are the Bochra Mountains, which give off streams N. and S. to the Blackwater and the Lee respectively. Having passed Millstreet, we have the very marked ranges of Cahirbama (2239 ft.), and the Paps (2268 ft.), separated from Croghane by the valley of the Flesk. Then comes Mangarton, with its magnificent subordinate cliff scenery of Glen-na-Coppul and Lough Guitane, together with Tore Mtn., at the base of which reposes Killamey, the most exquisite of British lakes …
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Travelling from Mallow to Killarney
… Still following the Blackwater, and leaving on rt. Rosnalee ( W. Leader, Esq.), Dromagh Castle (N. Leader, Esq.), Keale, Kathroe (D. M’Carthy, Esq.), and Flintfield, we arrive at Millstreet. A little before arriving at the stat. on 1., on the banks of the river Finnow, is Drishane CasUe (the residence of Col. Wallis), a castellated building flanked by a square tower at each end and incorporated with the old fortress, the ivy-covered tower of which rises from the modem portion. Drishane was built by Dermot M*Carthy in 1436.
The most attractive point about Millstreet {Hold: Wallis Arms) is its situation in an open wooded valley on the Finnow, surrounded by mountains, which at Cahirbamagh to the S.W. attain a height of 2239 ft. In fact they are the advanced out- posts of the Killamey group, that Las for some time peist been looming in the distance. The scenery of Millstreet is enhanced by the woods of Drishane, Altamont (Kev. G. Morgan), Coomlogane (M*Carthy O’Leary, Esq.), and Mount Leader, the residence of the Leader Family, at the foot of Mount Clara.
Near the mountains, on the road from Millstreet to Macroom, are the ruins of Kilmeedy Castle, which commanded the descent into the valley from the Muskerry Hills. After passing Shinnagh Stat. 26 m., where the river Awnaskirtaun is crossed and the Blackwater turns off to the N., the interest of the landscape is all concentrated on the 1., when the noble Cdhirbamagh 2239 ft., and the still more conspicuous range of the Paps 2268 ft., herald the approach to the finest scenery in the kingdom.
