Chapter 1

In the west of Ireland, there is a very small village called Kraighten. It is alone at the bottom of a small hill. Around it, there is a large area of empty and unfriendly land. Sometimes, you can find old, broken houses with no roofs. There are not many people, and the ground is hard and rocky.

 My friend Tonnison and I chose to spend our holiday there. He found this place by accident last year when he was walking a long way. He saw that there was a good place for fishing in a small river near the village. This river does not have a name, and I have never seen the village or the river on any map. It’s like they are hidden because even travel guides don’t talk about them. This might be because the closest train station, Ardrahan, is 40 miles away. 

We got to Kraighten one warm evening. We had stayed the night before in Ardrahan, at the post office. We left early in the morning on a bumpy cart. It took us all day to get there because the roads were very bad. We were very tired and a little upset. But we had to set up our tent and put away our things before we could eat or rest. With help from our driver, we quickly set up the tent near the village and the river. 

After putting away our things, we said goodbye to the driver. He had to go back quickly. We told him to return in two weeks. We had enough food for two weeks and could get water from the river. We didn’t need wood for a fire because we had a small oil stove and the weather was nice. Tonnison wanted to camp instead of staying in a house. He said it was not nice to sleep in a house with a big family and animals, where chickens sleep above you and the air is full of smoke.