Ballinahinch Castle
BALLYNAHINCH CASTLE is the first very attractive object on the road from Clifden to Oughterard, and the residence of the principal land-proprietor in this part of the country, Mr. Martin. This gentleman is quite a king in his immense domain; and a person in the neighbourhood, speaking of him to a traveller, remarked, that Colonel Martin was the best Martin that ever reigned. His house stands upon the well-wooded bank of a long, narrow lake, and is backed by a range of dark and lofty mountains. The lake is one of a chain of waters that almost encircle the eminences called the TWELVE PINS of Binabola, said to be the most extraordinary and beautiful assemblage of mountains in the kingdom. In the course of Mr. Inglis's tour in Connemara, he was lucky enough to see a pattern in this neighbourhood, the description of which is too amusing to be passed over. He says, "It fortunately happened that on the second day of my sojourn at Maam, a very celebrated pattern was to be held on a singular spot high up among the mountains, on a little plain on the top of the pass between Maamturc and the neighbouring mountain, an elevation of about one thousand two hundred feet, and I, of course, resolved to be present. A pattern was originally a religious ceremony, and was, and still is, always celebrated near to a holy well; but although some still frequent the pattern for devotional purposes, it is now resorted to chiefly as a place of recreation, where, after the better disposed have partaken of the innocent amusements of dancing and moderate hilarity, drunkenness and fighting wind up the entertainment."
