Donn Binn Maguire and the Coppal Bawn

'In truth, Master', says he, 'I see only the shadows of the clouds moving across the mountain!' Angry at having his word doubted by his own servants, Donn Binn called another of his men to him.

'Do you not see it?' he asked, pointing. 'It is eating the tender young grasses down in yon' hollow! Do you not see where it goes as it moves from clump to clump?' But the servant only shrugged his shoulders.

'In truth, Master', says he, 'I see only smoke from the gorse fires further along the mountain!' Donn Binn's anger rose in the back of his throat like a black and bitter bile. He called yet another man to him and pointed to the hollow.

'See! The steed senses that we are here', he hissed. 'Do you not see him lift his mighty head to sniff at the breeze for our scent?' But the servant only looked around him.

'In truth, Master', he answered, 'I see only the wind ruffling the tufts of the wild mountain heather. I can see no horse at all!'

Much angered by their replies, Donn Binn Maguire swore a mighty oath and, digging his heels into the flanks of his horse, he thundered off after the fine white stallion in the hollow below.

Sensing his approach, the creature reared on its hind legs and suddenly took off like a startled bird across a meadow, with the chieftain after it at full gallop. Donn Binn rode like the wind in order to claim his prize and, though his men struggled to keep up with him, they soon fell far behind and he was lost to their sight. It was an enchantment of the Good People.

Well, far across the slopes of Binaughlin Mountain rode Donn Binn Maguire, following the enchanted stallion. He galloped hard over rocks and down streams, through briars and across lintholes and bogs. He galloped until he and his own horse were bathed in sweat and gasping for the want of wind. But never once did he overtake the magical horse which kept as far ahead of him as ever. They travelled far beyond the places where any person could live and galloped across lands that were nothing but bare mountain rock and which were peopled only by the crows and starlings. They galloped across places that were thick with purple heather and where only the wild hares started up at their approach.

At length they came to a very remote and lonely place, near to the very summit of the mountain itself. There, set deep into a stone cliff, the mouth of a great cave yawned, very wide and pitch black as night. A cold wind blew directly from it, away across the mountainside, fairly chilling the air all about. Another horse would have been frightened and turned there but the white stallion never broke its stride and plunged straight into the darkness with Donn Binn Maguire hard upon its heels. This was all as the Good People had planned.

With the sun now behind him, the chieftain found himself at the head of a narrow, cold, rocky passageway which seemed to lead down into the very depths of Binaughlin itself. The strange steed didn't hesitate for one moment, but rushed onwards through the gloom, the sound of its feet ringing loudly against the echoing rock. Donn Binn Maguire was fearless and the enchantment of the Good People was upon him. Urging his own horse on, he too rushed down the passage into the dark.

Down, down into the depths of the mountain and into the realm of the Good People themselves went the chase. Several times, the chieftain tried to overtake the white stallion but it always stayed ahead of him in the narrow passageway which led through the rock.

Suddenly, the passage that he had been following came to an end and Donn Binn Maguire found himself on the shores of a vast underground lake, stretching away through a mighty cavern ahead of him. The whole place was illuminated only by the dim glow from the eerie, cold mosses which hung from the walls all around. On the edge of a huge and tideless sea, the magic horse stopped, the enchantment was lifted from Donn Binn and he knew instantly that he was in some dreadful underground land, far away from his own folk. He realised too, that this was the very edge of the gloomy country of the Good People, deep below the earth itself, and that beyond the vast cavern-sea, kings and princes that were not of this world had their castles and dwellings.

Very frightened, he turned his horse to try to escape but the passageway down which he had come quickly and magically closed in upon itself sealing him far beneath Binaughlin Mountain. He stayed on the shore of that strange underground sea until the Good People themselves came across that mighty water in their boats, all hung with lanterns, to carry him back to their forts deep in that continuing gloom.

I've heard it said that his men waited the length of three days for him to return but, when there was no sign of him, they returned to his castle in great distress. It was put about in the countryside that he had been killed by the O'Rourkes who were raiding all through Fermanagh at that time, and that his body had been lost in a bog.

> > > Read the concluding part in this story.

From Beasts, Banshees and Brides from the Sea by Bob Curran