Priest's Leap

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Priest's Leap Pass, looking south to Bantry Bay in Cork
Priest's Leap, the top of the pass looking north to Kerry

Priest's Leap ( English for "the priest's jump", Irish Léim an tSagairt ) is an almost straight but very steep single-lane pass road between Coohola Bridge and Bonane east of the less steep main road from Bantry to Kenmare in Ireland .

location

Slightly below the summit of the 572 m high mountain of the same name, it crosses the border between County Cork and County Kerry and is the highest mountain pass in Ireland. The single-lane path over Priest's Leap is very narrow, partly with loose gravel and a strip of grass in the middle, and has a very steep section north of the pass. There are only a few passing points, so that oncoming traffic may have to be reversed.

Surname

According to local tradition, the name comes from a legend in which a priest escaped the soldiers chasing him by jumping his horse from a rocky promontory in the townland of Cummeenshrule in County Cork. The priest's pursuit began in the townland of Killabunane, where a rock can still be seen today that is said to have melted under the paws of the pursuing dogs. The rock that looks like the paw prints are deeply indented is on the main road to Kenmare. He is called Carraig na Gadharaigh . Imprints of the horse's knees, hands and hooves can be found on another rock a few kilometers from Bantry , where he landed after his miraculous jump.

In the map of the Desmond Survey of the Barony Glanarought, which was drawn up around 1600, the pass is already clearly noted as The Priest's Lepp . The historian Caesar Otway mentioned him in his 1827 published sketches of the South of Ireland ( Sketches of the south of Ireland ), but could not trace clear which priest it was. According to him, it was either a Jesuit brother, Father Dominick Collins, who was recruited in the country to defend Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare's castle in Dunboy , and who was actually in the area during the 1602 siege of Dunboy. He was caught during the siege and later executed. He was beatified in Rome on September 27, 1992. Otherwise it could have been the Jesuit father James Archer, who was also involved in Dunboy. Both identifications are likely later literary ideas based on an older folk tale, as the Desmond Survey mentioned them before the siege of Dunboy Castle.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Priest's Leap on www.ireland-highlights.com.
  2. ↑ Shehy / Knockboy Area: The Priests Leap Mountain Léim an tSagairt at www.mountainviews.ie
  3. ^ A b Gerard Lyne: The Priest's Leap: An Intriguing Place Name. ( Memento of May 28, 2016 on the Internet Archive ) Originally published in Bonane: A Centenary Celebration (1992) .

Coordinates: 51 ° 47 ′ 36 "  N , 9 ° 28 ′ 16"  W.