This article is from page 4 of the 2014-10-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A MYSTERY water er uption at Clarecastle Quay has turned into a local tourist at traction, with people now t raveling to quay to take in the bizar re geyser.
The water er uption, which has been christened t he “Fergus Monster” by locals, takes place a number of times each day and can see water shot up to seven feet into t he ai r. They can last anywhere between t hree and ten minutes, began in mid-July, and no one is quite sure what they are or why they star ted.
The length and the i ntensity of the er uptions does not seem to follow a specif c pattern with er uptions tak ing place in wet and dr y weat her, and all all stages of t he tide.
Clare Count y Council say they will investigate the er uptions, but is unsure of the origins of t he Fergus Monster. “We will be investigating t he sit uation when weat her and river conditions are suitable for such an under water investigation. The situation is most li kely the result of a par tial blockage of the pipe outlet,” said a council spokesperson. The er uptions were f rst spotted in mid-July of t his year with local woman, Fiona Walsh, one of the f rst people to witness it. “I wal k my job here [at the quay] ever y day. I had absolutely no idea what it was when I saw it. That day it went up to about three feet but people have seen it go much higher than that,” she said.
“We were wor ried initially because a lot of local dogs swim in the water here and one of them could get injured if they got t rapped in the blast. We get canoeists down here now and again as well. We thought there should be a warning sign at least.
“No one has been hur t and we’ve even had people coming here just to see it.”
The Fergus Monster begins with water bubbling at the sur face of the lake before geysers shoot out from the cent re of the bubbling. According to some local, t he er uptions are the result of new pumps being inst alled to deal with local f ooding.