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Limerick History - Bog Bursts, County Limerick, Ireland

A.D. 1697, June 7th. Kapanihane Bog, Co. Limerick, near Charleville:
Described in a letter dated June 7th, 1697:

"On the 7th day of June, 1697, near Charleville, in the County of Limerick, in Ireland, a great Rumbling, or faint Noise was heard in the Earth, much like unto a Sound of Thunder near spent ; for a little Space the Air was somewhat troubled with little Whisking Winds, coming to meet contrary Ways: and soon after that, to the greater Terror and Afrightment of a great Number of Spectators, a more wonderful thing happened ; for in a Bog stretching North and South, the Earth began to more, viz. Meadow and Pasture Land that lay on the side of the Bog, and separated by an extraordinary large Ditch, and other Land on the further side adjoining to it; and a Rising, or Little Hill in the middle of the Bog thereupon sunk flat.

This Motion began about Seven of the Clock in the Evening, fluctuating in its Motion like Waves, the Pasture-Land rising very high, so that it over-run the Ground beneath it, and moved upon its Surface, rowling on with great pushing Violence, till it covered the Meadow, and held to remain upon it 16 Feet.

In the Motion of this Earth, it drew after it the Body of the Bog, part of it lying on the Place where the Pasture-Land that moved out of its Place it had before stood; leaving great Breaches behind it, and Spewings of Water that cast up noisom Vapours : And so it continues at present, to the great Wonderment of those that pass by, or come many Miles to be Eye-witnesses of so strange a thing."

This communication was accompanied by a map and detailed description by John Honohane.

Ref: Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixi, pp.714-716, October, 1697; & Boate, Molyneux and others, a Natural History of Ireland, 1755, p. 113

A.D. 1708. Castlegarde Bog, County Limerick.- The Castlegarde bog, or as it was then called Poulevard, moved along a valley and buried three houses containing about twenty-one persons. It was a mile long, a quarter mile broad, and about 20 feet deep in some parts. It ran for several miles, crossed the high road at Doon, broke, through several bridges, and flowed into the Lough of Coolpish.

Ref: Dublin Evening Telegraph, 2nd January 1897

A.D. 1840, January.- Bog of Farrtindoyle, Kanturk, Co. Cork.
The bog was 10 feet in thickness, resting on a substratum of yellow-clay; the pent-up water underrmined a prodigious mass of bog, and bore it buoyantly on its surface; twenty acres of valuable meadow were covered, and a cottage: was propelled and engulfed ; a quarter of a mile of the road from Kanturk to Williamstown was covered 12 to 30 feet deep.

Ref: Freemans journal, January 3, 1840 (copied from the Cork Standard)

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