Episode 8

More ancient tombs! The Megalithic tombs at Carrowkeel are thousands of years old. Sadly someone had felt the need to remove the information signs from the area but the local sheep still made good use of the steel posts to rub themselves against so all is not lost.

After another night of heavy rain storms it was a very wet climb up to these tombs that are right on top of the highest hill around. All the entrances are orientated, according to L, to face the setting sun of the midsummer solstice. As it was morning when we were there we just had to accept her version. It is believed that the tombs were used for many centuries then sealed up and rocks piled on top of them. Over the intervening centuries thick vegetation has grown over the rocks. The surrounding area is now peat bog but possibly wasn't at the time the tombs were made. Blanket peat bog goes up the hill sides and tops as well as in the lowlands.

Strokestown Park House in County Roscommon was built in the mid 1700’s and owned by the Mahon family. The last member of the family to live her was Olive and she sold the house and a few hundred acres of land to a local business man in 1981. After she had left and he went to inspect his purchase he found that he’d got much more than he’s bargained for. The house was full of the original furniture, paintings, floor coverings and the old kitchen. In the basement was found more than 40,000 documents relating to the property over the centuries and many of those related directly to the treatment of the local people during the famine of 1846 to 1850. Although in need of some restoration and maintenance work it was really nice to see it as it has always been.

Based on the documents found in the basement and other information there is also a small museum dedicated to the famine that is well worth a visit. Outside there is a large walled garden covering a few acres, but it’s not being fully utilized. We were just a bit early to catch the roses in bloom though one climbing one was a mass of pale cream and the perfume filled the air, according to L that is.

The rain and storms of the past few days are continuing and we even drove through some hail today. I must say that it seems to be looking very wet outside the car, and while the rain continues I get confined to the car quite often. I didn’t get to see the tombs myself for fear of falling head first into some peat bog; L assures me that would be very unpleasant and that most likely I would be binned afterwards.

I did get taken to see the Corlea trackway. This was built of oak and silver birch in 148BC (how they can be so precise in the date is a mystery). It was found in the mid 1980’s when the bog was being harvested to provide peat for the local electricity generating plant. About 100m length of it was located but only 18m has been lifted, preserved, and put on public display. Although now housed in a building it is in the exact same location. Lifting it, preserving it and relaying was a very labour intensive exercise and expensive too. My humans read all about it.

The trackway was built by the Celtic people across a bog, but it’s not known where it was leading to. The bogs here are much older and different to those blanket bogs we’d seen on the west coast. These are also much deep, being about 10m deep. This trackway is believed to have only been used for a few years before it sank into the bog, it was four metres below the surface when found. As everything or nearly everything is very well preserved in the bog the wood was in excellent condition but had to be specially treated once removed from the protection of the bog.

In the information centre at this site there is also a carving of some mythological hero, the wood used in the carving also has come out of the bog and dates from around 4500BC. It is Yew:

We spent a day in Dublin: As we neared the city we came to a Park and Ride so we parked the car in there and took a train into the city. It wasn’t really a cheap option but it certainly saved David a great deal of effort by not having to drive in the city traffic. He has found that the Irish drivers on the whole are very patient and courteous.

Fortunately for us it chose not to rain, that was nice. Mostly we seem to spend the day waiting; firstly it was for the train, we had quite a long wait. Then in a queue to see the Book of Kells, it wasn’t as long as it got later in the day. More than anything though it seemed to be at the traffic lights on pedestrian crossing, L feels as if it was half the day. Me, I was happy, I got noticed at several venues, L now tells people I have a 'press pass’, when asked for my ticket.

The ‘Book of Kells’ is an ancient illustrated religious work from the 6th or 7th century, probably at the Monestary on the island of Iona. All the writing and illustration is done on calf skin and there is something in the region of 180 calf skins used. It is a truly beautiful piece of ancient literature. It’s story is told in a few specially dedicated rooms in Trinity college library building. Upstairs in this building is the library with bookshelves on either side of a central hall two stories high. L tried to get some photos however, as no flash photography was allowed they come out somewhat blurred. The room is magnificent:

St Patricks Cathedral isn’t near as impressive as others we have visited but we did get to see the bust of, and the plaque for Jonathon Swift who was one time Dean of the Cathedral. He is the fellow who wrote Gulliver’s Travels.

The only other place we spent any time was at Dublin Castle where we did a guided tour. Here we were taken downstairs below the Powder Tower to where the archaeologists have been digging and were shown some of the earliest parts of the castle from the 12th century.

Like so many castles built by the Normans, this one too was built on a site that was originally a Bronze age earthen ring fort. Then the Vikings came in the 8th century and built their wooden forts over the earthen one, then the Normans built their stone one often after burning the wooden one. Who will come next; Alien space invaders:

The tour also included a visit to some of the major rooms of the palace that was built in the late 17th century to house the British Viceroys to Ireland. There are some paintings of several of these Viceroys in the long drawing room. The Banqueting hall was being prepared for yet another banquet: Our guide also told us quite bit of the history of Dublin.

The city has a great number of modern buildings intermingled with the older ones but at least it hasn’t succumbed to the fashion of building great highrise blocks of concrete and glass. The once unbelievably polluted river Liffey didn’t look at all bad and is crossed by several traffic bridges and there is a walkway along the bank. Feeling very tired we all made our way back to the car and headed off to find a place to camp. Not a spot of rain all day:

Now it’s back to the ‘back roads of Ireland’ and more castles, churches, abbeys, friarys etc: Being another fine day we took a lovely walk though the Kinnitty forest park. L commented on the lively birdsong. There seems to be plenty of birds in Ireland, either that or they are especially vocal, there is always a great amount of birdsong from daylight at some unearthly hour of the morning till about 8pm. That is well before dark, at present it doesn’t get dark till about 11pm and currently there is a full moon so it’s not really dark at all. In the forest there seems to be a lot of trees that have blown over, perhaps this was due to bad winter storms.

An unusual attraction is the one we saw at Birr Castle. This is an 1840 giant telescope, it was the largest in the world at the time it was built and for a further 5 years. The walls that support the mechanism are built in stone to compliment the nearly castle, however apart from the iron and steel to move the thing around most of the rest is wooden including the tube. This has a slight barrel shape and is put together in the same way so D expects it was built by a cooper. There is a walled garden at this castle too that we took a stroll through. The castle itself is the seat of the Earls of Rosse and is lived in by the family and isn’t open to the public.

Roscrea castle is another Norman castle, and in very good condition although quite small as castles go. An 18th century Queen Anne style house was built inside the castle walls by the Damer family. It has recently been partially restored and some rooms are open for viewing though not with the original furniture that was in the house. Still there are some beautiful pieces that L would have liked to have put in her pocket to take home. Two or three really nice Queen Anne style chests: Queen Anne style is much more plain and simple in design than many other styles.

On the top floor of the house was a display of farming implements and tools. L can remember many similar items from the farm where she grew up at Gympie. Also there is something that resembles a good sized rock, it’s ‘bog butter’. A large piece of butter that somehow got dropped into the bog; It’s been there about 300 years and is very crumbly: It’s the biggest suck piece of butter yet found.

Another walled garden and this time it was full of roses in full bloom, the perfume from them enveloped us just as we entered, L stood there gulping in big breaths of the lovely scent, bit like a beached guppy gasping for breath she was, quite embarrassing to a stuffed toy.

A couple more religious complexes I have added to my pilgrimage: I even got my photo taken with a likewise soul, the statue of a pilgrim from early Christian times. I am learning a lot about the lives of these hardworking Christian monks that seem to choose a site then set about building a church and converting the local inhabitants to Christianity. They must have been very tenacious people; there was the struggle to begin and get accepted in an area then once the place was beginning to get established they would be attacked or raided by various fractions: There were warring tribes, then later the Vikings plundering for whatever they could get, then the Normans probably for the same reason then eventually the reformation in the time of King Henry VIII, who abolished all the monasteries. After each successive event, expect the last, the monks would rebuild and carry on. Most, if not all of these places were self sufficient frequently introducing the most up to date methods. Often they were a place of learning too, in these ancient times they were the only places of learning.

Quite a large complex is at Clonmacnoise has several churches, two round towers and a myriad of grave slabs and markers. It sits on a rise overlooking the Shannon river that provided a transport link in a north-south direction, whilst the rise it sits on is an east-west ridge that was the main route between Dublin and Galway. It was founded by St Ciaran, now here’s the stumbling block, one date L read was the early 5th century, another was the mid 6th century, whichever is right, it’s still quite a while ago. There are a couple of beautifully carved high crosses here, apparently archaeologists can’t agree on a date for these but it’s believed to be the 10th or 11th century, same goes for the gave slabs.

Boyle Abbey was founded in the mid 1100’s by the Cistercians from France, and is a much smaller complex. The cathedral is the oldest part of the complex with much of the remainder being added at a later date when it became a military barracks after the reformation. There are some really good carvings high up on the pillars of the cathedral. When we arrived here I made a new friend who gave me a complimentary pass, she is very fond of ‘bears’, now I’m very fond of her:

With both sites and most historical site in Ireland it’s a never ending battle to save as much of these places as possible. The Irish weather has taken its toll on the sandstone that has been used for the carvings. Considering the adverse climate they have lasted remarkably well.

In thick fog and misty drizzle my humans made the steep climb to the cairn on Knocknarea. This Cairn, legend says is the burial place of Warrior Queen Maeve, who is said to have been buried standing up in all her battle dress. Archaeologists believe it is older than that, about 5000 years, but as yet it has not been excavated. This huge mound of stones is 10m high now, how high was it originally?

The fog had cleared by the time we got to Carrowmore where D got a couple of photos of the dolmen tombs, a central slab tomb within a ring of rocks, with the Knocknarea hill and cairn in the background. All the tombs here are orientated towards the main central tomb that was also buried under a mound of stones. Here, though, a great deal of the stones had been removed over the millennia to use on other things and the slab tomb inside had become exposed. This tomb also contained the remains of bodies that hadn’t been cremated, in all the other the remains had been cremated before being interred. This tomb faces the rising sun on a special day that is still celebrated in this part of the world. The start of winter, 30th October, the celebration that gave rise to Halloween, and end of winter, 10th February. Those tombs at Carrowkeel are also orientated towards this tomb. L is fascinated by all this stuff, but I think D is getting a bit bored with it all.

Sligo is a city dedicated to the poet W. B. Yeats, who comes from this area and spent much of his time here. What’s more, it was his birthday yesterday and there were some celebration that they now seem to be cleaning up after. We did catch the last couple of minutes of some Irish dancing, pity we didn’t see more of that it was really quite good. We strolled around town, very busy on a Saturday afternoon, along the river, and looked at another abbey.

On Lough Gill is yet another castle, but not a Norman castle. This one was originally built in the 1500’s by the O’Roukes and was a tower house surrounded by a curtain wall. O’Rouke come to a sad end having been executed because he befriended and assisted one of the ship captains from the Spanish Amada, that upset Queen Elizabeth 1st. The tower house was pulled down or destroyed somehow, in the early 1600’s the Parkes who came from England took it over and built a large house that incorporated one of the curtain walls and two of the towers. They were here for less that 100 years, then the place was abandoned for almost 300 years until archaeological excavations were done in the 1970’s then the place was restored in the 1980’s. It has a lovely outlook over Lough Gill.

© Lynette Regan 14th June 2014