Originally published in Hogg's Weekly Instructor (James Hogg; James McLeod; W. Curry, Jun. & Co.; R. Groombridge & Sons) vol.6 #131 (28 Aug 1847).
On Sunday the 21st April, 1847, at the age of 100 years, died Ann Murray, in her well-known cave, at Red Bay, on the north-eastern coast of the county Antrim. At the base of that lofty headland, called Lourg Eden, which forms the northern boundary of Glenariff, and which runs down to the coast road immediately adjoining the sea, are two natural cavities—one of these is occupied as a smith's forge, and the other has long been used as a human habitation. Few tourists to the Causeway have passed by these caves without paying a visit to Nanny, who, in her personal appearance, and in the originality of her manners, was as great a curiosity as the cave itself. To those who have never seen the interior of Nanny's Cave, it would be impossible to give anything like an accurate description—cold, damp, and dreary, extending about twenty feet into the rock, and not more than six feet from the ground to the roof in the highest part, with perpetual drops of water oozing out of the upper stratum, and so dark as to require, even at noon-day, the light of a candle, in order to explore it; with no vent for the smoke except the mouth of the cave, which was protected from the violence of the storm, in the winter season, by a small wicker.
Yet in this cave, where to have spent twenty-four hours would have taken the life of any ordinary being, this remarkable woman passed a solitary existence of fifty years, destitute of every human comfort, but in the enjoyment of excellent health, which she retained until a short period before her death. Although living in such a miserable habitation, Nanny has received more distinguished company than many who dwell in the most splendid palaces. The greater part of the nobility and aristocracy of the three kingdoms have called to see her, and she could boast of having received presents from some of the first families in Europe. Her only means of support were the voluntary offerings of the curious, who were attracted to her cell, and whose liberality she invariably continued to call forth, by her simple and unostentatious hospitality, as she insisted on every one who paid her a visit to partake of a small quantity of the best 'mountain dew' the country could afford.
The deceased was the original from which Banim in his historical novel of 'Boyne Water' drew one of his characters—Onagh of the Cavern. In the first volume she is described as ‘ a creature without friend or relation, fortune or home, except what the charitable or credulous administer to her wants; and that this sea cave, whence she has lately expelled the owls and bats, affords her a chilly shelter. What she thinks of herself, and what others concur in thinking her, it would not be for her safety to declare; but for my own part I sometimes think her mad, although more close observation banishes the idea. Perhaps to extreme ignorance her mind joins much enthusiasm and more cunning, and hence is she able to impress the character she generally bears. In age she was about twenty-five, in height rather tall, in person slight, in features spare and pallid; her back hair was uncovered, and over the vulgar female dress, that scarce ever varies in any time or country, fell the old Irish mantle, heavily hooded, and of a dark colour. Having stood before the young man, her flaming hand held up, she asked him, in Irish, to bid God save her.'
In this work, however, Banim endows his Onagh with certain mysterious and supernatural qualities, to which the real Nanny could lay no claim. Mrs B. Hall, in her description of the northern coast, gives an accurate account of the cave and of Nanny, as she was, and narrates, in pathetic terms, a story which Nanny herself had told her, how she saved the life of a child, on the occasion of a shipwreck, near her cavern, and with what feelings of pleasure, in her old days, she remembered that event. In all the 'Guides' to the Causeway, Nanny and her cave have been regularly worked into a chapter.
Be it therefore known that Nanny is no more. Her remains have been interred in the neat little graveyard at the entrance to the beautiful valley of Glenariff. But although Nanny is gone, the cave remains in all its pristine originality, and has even already received a new occupant; so the curious traveller and the admirer of the beautiful and the wonderful in nature will still have an opportunity of exploring this celebrated human abode—Nanny's Cave.—Belfast Vindicator.