Maggies Leap
The area is beautiful. I have tramped it many times and completed the Mourne Wall walk (no longer an event, due to the problems it caused with erosion) - 26 miles and arduous.
The legend of Maggie has many versions. I like this one. In others she didn't make the leap safely...
Someone left a nice memorial to Maggie at the site... Sadly people have perished there.
https://www.thelastleprechaunsofireland.com/stories/maggies-leap/
Maggie was the only daughter of Deegan a renowned and skilful poacher
from Ballyvaston Killough in Co. Down. His fame and skill was known and
revered in the countryside around.
Salmon or pheasant, deer or
rabbit – nothing was safe from the snares and traps laid by the wily
poacher. Many an empty belly was fed by him in Newcastle and it
surrounds, when money was hard to come by and those that had a lot cared
little for those who had little.
Maggie was the apple of her
father’s eye and from the time she could walk, he carried her with him
on his back on his day escapades. Before she was 10 she had mastered his
trade and was as proficient as many four times her age in the ways of
the countryside.
Maggie and her father were no friends of the
landed gentry in the area. While they were never caught they were never
far from suspicion when deer disappeared from estates or the salmon
pools of the Shimna River were emptied of everything except water.
The gentry took to setting up watch by day and night but still they were never caught.
By
the time she was seventeen Maggie had matured into the most beautiful
and wild creature that the countryside had ever laid eyes on. She had
gold flowing locks, the figure of an hour glass and a smile that would
melt you.
She was as fleet of foot as a deer for those who dared
to chase her and had no eyes for any man other than her father Deegan.
Such was the devastation of wild game in the estates that the gentry
sought the help of the army to try and curb the activity of poachers and
in particularly the pair from Ballyvaston.
The renewed vigilance
by the soldiers took its toll on the pair’s activities and it wasn’t
long before hunger came to their door. Deegan was not as active as
before and Maggie became the sole provider. She did throw an odd wink
and a smile at a lonely soldier who would turn a blind eye to her
activities and hoping that she would favour him with something more; but
it never came.
On occasion she would climb down the cliff face of
Dundrum Bay to gather the eggs of nesting seagulls filling her basket
to the brim. It was on such an occasion that she was spotted on the
headland by a group of drunken soldiers. Her hair was blowing in the
wind, her skirt tucked up and in on herself from climbing; her long
beautiful legs striding out on the road home and her basket full.
The
saw an opportunity to block her path and keep her trapped between the
headland, a wide sea chasm and the sea. There was more on their minds
than the eggs of seagulls when they charged down towards her shouting
obscenities and roaring with drunken laughter.
She ran; but was
trapped – in front of her, the huge sea chasm cut into the coastline.
Maggie could not swim but death by drowning seemed a better option at
that moment than what might befall her. Still she held on to the basket
of eggs and summonsing the spirits of every deer they ever poached she
leaped for freedom and her lithe body landed with grace on the other
side leaving her pursuers to only stand and gape.
In her basket, every egg was intact.
Maggie
continued on for many years providing food for her father and mother
till the day came when they were gone and times became a little better.
She
never married but she is still remembered in this area and the chasm
north of Newcastle is known to this day as Maggie’s Leap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have attached some images. If you do go, worth crossing the road afterwards and explore the old Mourne Mountains smuggling trails towards Hilltown, via Bloody Bridge and the aptly named Brandy Pad.
If you do go in to the mountains please go prepared and be safe. Mountains can be unforgiving...