Bonnie Prince Charlie

Prince Charles Edward Stuart or Bonnie Prince Charlie is reputed to have hidden out in the parish of Glencolmcille in 1746. The prince was on the run following his failed uprising in Britain where he had attempted to regain the throne for his Stuart family. Around this very same time, a stranger accompanied by a manservant first appeared in Glenlough before leaving from the secluded harbour there a month later on a French ship, never revealing his true identity. After he had left and as word of the insurrection finally reached this remote parish, the locals soon came to the realisation that they had been graced by the royal presence. The stories of the prince’s wanderings in the area were recorded in a detailed lengthy letter by the rector of the parish, Valentine Poole Griffith, to his archbishop in Dublin a century later. Four coastal features in Glencolmcille now bear his name including Prince Charlie’s Cove at the base of Glenlough.