|
Devil's Churn - Ballygally Northern Ireland |
 |
 |
 |
|
There is a tradition that near the Devil’s Churn, between Ballygally and Larne, is a cave where a piper entered and disappeared in the various tunnels. Dr S W Hill, writing in the Larne Times (April 5th, 1924) said: “According to tradition a piper entered the cave near to the Black Arch in the limestone rocks, got lost, and was heard away inland under some farmhouse, playing the tune, ‘The Farther in the Deeper.’ Dr John Wilson McCloy, the Larne poet, who died in 1868, wrote a poem about the alleged happening.”
An extract form the ‘Topographical researches in the County of Antrim’ which appeared in the ‘Larne Weekly Reporter’ (1867), sheds further light on the legend and explains how the ‘Devil’s Churn’ acquired its name: "There is a cave on the sea shore, about two miles from Larne, in which the movements of the tide produce sounds exactly like those made by the old hand churns. It is called by most people ‘The Devil’s Churn’. It is said that a drunken piper went in to explore the place but never returned. He had his pipes with him, and as the story goes, may be heard playing at midnight underneath the hearth stone of a house in Ballycraigy, where the cavern is supposed to terminate.”
|
