CILL DARA - KILDARE

Round Tower at St Brigid's Cathedral

We awoke on Monday morning to a bright blue, sun filled sky and I felt this was a sign to rid ourselves of the cabin fever which we had both been aware of for sometime. 

"Kildare is calling us” I said to Lady H.

"Which way shall we go ?” said Lady H.

"We will take the stress free route and take the old road towards Dublin.” 

So we did, for the old roads are a pleasure to drive on these days and relatively free of traffic for most people use the motorways.

Kildare in Irish it is Cill Dara meaning the Church of the Oak, made famous by St Brigid who had her monastery there complete with a perpetual fire which was kept burning until the 15th century.

On our arrival Lady H hopped out of the car and went off to take photos and on her return said we'd visit the Parish Church next. 

“Hang on a minute" I replied “just behind us is the Cathedral with St Brigid’s Fire pit and the round tower, it’s important that I go there first.”

The first and last time I was at the Cathedral was in 1993 when I took a few friends to visit Kildare.We spent most of our time sitting in St. Brigid's Fire Pit chatting and when we decided to leave, we found ourselves locked in after the caretaker had chained the entrance gates together. 

We tried to attract attention to our plight by shouting but to no avail.

The youngest member of the group, a lad by the name of Tolly, climbed over the gate and went to the nearby pub for help, but not until he had tried to

con us all out of money. We were not so easily fooled and understood that if he was in funds he’d be in the pub for hours whilst we’d be still behind bars! 

After twenty minutes or so the landlord came across with a tray of free drinks and passed glasses of Guinness

through the gate to us. Tolly was dismayed after being told he was underage and about thirty minutes later the key holder arrived to let us out us out.

St Brigid's Fire Pit

On arriving at the cathedral we found the building locked, not that it bothered me for I have no love for church buildings.

www.chooseireland.com/kildare/st-brigids-cathedral

Lady H was keen to move on to the Parish Church which has doors decorated with Brigid’s Crosses and bronze hands. 

I explained it was just across the hill as I’d noticed a spire as we drove into town.

Over the hill we went and arrived a large church. There were doors but no bronze hands were to be seen, however we entered, lit a candle as requested for by a friend and left. 

Lady H disappeared (again!) and I was left alone to my own devices. This time I noticed two signs one said White Abbey Church and the other Carmelite Convent 

In my mind I said ‘Whoops I have erred! This isn’t the right church at all.”

Never the less during Lady H’s absence I went for a wander as you never know what may be discovered. 

Find something I did, something that I can best describe as a breasted tree with a ring seat around the trunk

'the breasted tree'

www.carmelites.ie/whiteabbeykildare.html

Finally returning to the car Lady H produced a map and she was right, the Parish Church was elsewhere. We drove down to the correct church, parked outside

and herself took off to take photos of the bronze hands, while I contented myself with a pipe of baccy. 

Our next stop was St Brigid’s Well and I spotted the sign easily so was able to direct my driver on her return.

St. Brigid's Well is in the countryside and it is in 'Nature' where I think you can best connect to any deity and by whatever name you care to use.

Return to Fore in Co. Westmeath

St. Benedictine Priory circa 1200

Amazing what a change of light has done

to this shot of the priory

In the foreground the pre norman structure of St Feichin's Church

pronounce Feichin as Fekkin.

The building with stone tower further up the hill is the anchorites chapel, which is an extension to the hermits cell which was occupied up until the 17th century

For further information please visit

http://www.megalithicireland.com/Fore.htm

&
http://aheronsview.blogspot.ie/2010/04/seven-wonders-of-fore.html

The Seven Wonders of Fore

Please double click to enlarge images

St Féctains church next to the yew tree, the hill behind

is Carrick Balor (Balor is ancient one eyed god) the field

to the left is a water meadow. In the foreground is Féctain's

healing well & Rag tree where the water will not boil,

it is aso the site of a megalithic tomb.

The stone lintel that was lifted by the power of prayer

Photo taken from window hole in St Féctain's church,

the Mill is a small stone building on the right

The Sheela na-Gig in St. Féctain's Church

The Rag tree at Féctain's well it is

actually an Ash.

The tree that will not burn

Sheela na-Gig at St Munnas Church

Before Munna became a Christian

he was a Druid apprentice under the tutelage of his father.

Hello my friends!

Last weekend I had every intention of writing about The Hill of Tara and of showing you pictures from angles which are not normally shown. Alas, I went to Tara on Tuesday of this week with two others, who like myself normally carry a camera and guess what ? It was one of those days when the three cameras were left behind.

Wednesday afternoon, it being so very sunny, we made a trip to Fore [Fobhair] in Co.Westmeath which nestles in an airy valley between high stony hills. There is something very precious about Fore, in that on leaving I always feel as if I have had a long holiday; even though my stay there was only for two hours.

On reflection I think that it might have something to do with the water that flows rapidly through a large water-cress meadow.

Fore is unspoilt by commercialism, given that its' former glory was as an early Christian stronghold of St Féichin - his name means Little Raven. The Seven Wonders of Fore are all connected to him in some way, these being :-

1. The Monastery in a bog.

2. The Mill without a race. Féichin built the mill and then walked to Lough Lene struck the bottom of the hill that stands between it and the waters flowed into Fore.

3. The water that flows up hill. This is an optical illusion of course, though it does appear that way until one looks at the lay of the land

4. The tree that won't burn. It would if you were brave enough to face the consequences of burning a tree with a cure.

5. The water that won't boil. Similar to 4 above, the waters can be bathed in for healing purposes only and one would have to face Féichin's curse if you removed any.

6. The anchorite in a stone. This refers to a stone tower on top of Carrick Balor.

7. The stone lintel raised by prayer. It is said that the builders became exhausted trying to position the huge stone, so they stopped work for refreshment and when they returned it had been perfectly positioned by Féichin using the power of prayer.

The 8th wonder for me was the Sheela na-Gig carved into a coinstone that we saw in Féichin's church.

On the way home I became fed up with the behavior of other road users who were tailgating me, whilst others were simply dangerous drivers, so I turned off onto a narrow country road to connect with another route home. It was on this narrow road that we came across St. Munnas church, a very untypical design for a church, having a Norman style rectangular three storied tower (known in Ireland as a Norman fortified farmhouse) attached to the church. Above one of the windows there was yet another Sheela na-Gig.

Sheela na-Gigs in situ are rare finds in Ireland for most of them have been removed to The National Museum in Dublin where the majority are stored in the cellar and rarely see light of day, the public display of them is rotated so we are told and permission has to obtained from the Curator to view the majority.

My travels for this week are not yet finished, for on Saturday we will be driving to Carna in Connemara, Co. Galway for The Joe Heaney Commemorative Festival of Traditional Singing & Music. Where pride of place is given to Sean Nós singing which is unaccompanied and has a highly ornamented melodic line.