When the Anglo-Normans, under Henry II, invaded Ireland, the great abbey was utterly destroyed by Henry’s lieutenant, Raymond le Gros. In 1185, Prince John of England built a castle on the site to dominate the countryside. Sir Walter Raleigh was onetime owner of Lismore Castle. Today, Lismore Castle is owned and occupied by the English Duke of Devonshire and, as a private residence, it is not open to the public. When the sixth Duke was making renovations to the castle in 1814, his workmen broke into a walled-up passage and found the famous fifteenth century Book of Lismore together with a fabulous crozier. The Book of Lismore, a collection of Irish saints’ lives, was written by Aonghus Ó Callanain, Friar Ó Buagacháin, and other scribes under the patronage of Finghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach (d. 1505). Finghin was a prince of the Eoghanacht dynasty and, therefore, a descendant of Fidelma’s family. The book had last been seen in Timoleague Abbey in 1629. It is now in Trinity College, Dublin, while the splendid Lismore Crozier is in the National Museum of Ireland.
Readers eager to follow the journey of Fidelma to Araglin should take the road from Lismore northwards over the Blackwater and begin to climb into the Knockmealdown Mountains, the central point of which is Maoldomhnach’s Hill, mentioned in this story. Keeping to the western side of the Owenashad River, the pilgrim should take the road towards the Kilworth Mountains. Beyond Knockadullan, on the left, they will begin to descend into the beautiful Araglin Valley, in which this story is principally set. This is only twelve miles from Lismore. The valley is still as attractive and relatively unspoiled today as it was in Fidelma’s time. It remains undisturbed with the river rising amidst the wild and spectacular mountain scenery. In Araglin, one is actually on the borders of the modern counties of Waterford, Tipperary, and Cork. Here, in this ancient glen, one may find the spirit of old Gadra, the hermit, has not been entirely banished by the onslaught of modern civilisation.
The Sister Fidelma novels
By Peter Tremayne
Absolution by Murder
Shroud for the Archbishop
Suffer Little Children
The Subtle Serpent
The Spider’s Web
*Valley of the Shadow
*forthcoming
THE SPIDER’S WEB. Copyright © 1997 by Peter Tremayne. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
First published in Great Britain under the title The Spider’s Web: A Sister Fidelma Mystery by Headline Book Publishing, a division of Hodder Headline PLC
eISBN 9781466814059
First eBook Edition : March 2012
First U.S. Edition: May 1999
The Spider's Web Page 33