Pallas Lake

Pallas Lake is 25 acres in size. It was a bog hundreds of years ago. To this day there is still a lot of bog oak at the very bottom of the lake. One of the drains leads from Pallas to Marlow's Hole where it goes underground and comes up in Agall. Pallas is a spring fed lake. There are many waterways leading into the lake and one local theory states that these were made by O Connor Morris of nearby Gortnamona so as to maintain the lake for fishing and sporting purposes, as otherwise it could completely dry up.

Pallas Lake could once boast the finest coarse fishing. Years ago there were perch, pike, brown trout, tench, rainbow trout and roach in the lake but now there are only perch, pike, brown trout and rainbow trout. The Inland Fisheries came and poisoned the water to kill the fish. It was cleaned up and restocked.

The open season is from the first of May to the 30th of September and there is a six trout bag limit with an eleven inch size limit. The trout average one pound and since this is a very rich limestone lake, fish that overwinter can grow very big. There are good hatches of olives, chironomids, sedges - including murrough - and damselflies. You are only allowed to fish with flies.

Pallas was always a very popular place during the summer months. Many come there to picnic and to swim. The annual sports day at Pallas was the highlight of the summer for years. However, it has also been the scene of tragedy. Three policemen [RIC] from the nearby barracks at Blueball were drowned in the lake 100 years ago. The last drowning there took place about 1970. Legend has it that when one more life is lost there, bringing the total to 10, the lake will dry up.