Lough Gur in County Limerick |
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Lough Gur (Irish: Loch Gair) in is a lake in County Limerick, 21 km south east of Limerick city, near the town of Bruff. The lake forms a horseshoe shape at the base of Knockadoon Hill. The highest hill is Knockfennel which rises to 531 feet above sea level and from its summit one looks across the plain of Limerick to the Paps of Dana, the Ballyhouras, the Galtee mountains, Slievenamon, the Silvermines, the hills of Clare and the mouth of the Shannon. Lough Gur is one of Ireland's most important archaeological sites. Lough Gur was the site of a Neolithic settlement which was inhabited in 3000 BC and the Lough is surrounded by ancient standing stones, burial mounds and megalithic tombs. The remains of at least three crannogs are present, and remains of Stone Age houses have been unearthed (the house outlines are known as "The Spectacles"). A number of ring forts are found in the area, with one hill fort overlooking the lake. Some are Irish national monuments. There is a castle, or tower house named Bourchier's Castle after Sir George Bourchier, the son of the second Earl of Bath, it lies at the neck of the peninsula around which the lake washes. There is some other architecture dating from more recent times, with the ruins of an early Christian church by the road leading down to the lake. At the far end of the lake are the ruins of a Norman castle, Black Castle, which is reached by a hill-side walk along the east side of the lake. This is one of the keeps used during the Desmond Rebellions, and is probably the place where the Earl of Desmond secured his authority in 1573 after casting off his English apparel and donning Irish garments on his return to Munster from London. |
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