Rescue at Brownshill Dolmen

The 5,000 year old Brownshill Portal Tomb, 

Kernanstown, Co.Carlow 

Poor Granny has a 150 tonne capstone on her head!

Grandpa assists Ollie to lift what is reputed to 

be Europe's largest capstone off Granny's head.

After the lift the Druid's Apprentice checks the energy,

to make sure all is as it should be.

The next stage is to do a rhythmic step dance

to seal the energy force.

On his final inspection of the portal tomb Ollie

discovers a Wooly Caterpillar.

The rescuers and the rescued are refreshed with ice creams

at the Chocolate Garden in Rathwood, Co. Wicklow.

Ollie takes Granny on an assault course to improve

her dexterity.

STONE and CROW

Corcomroe Cistercian Abbey was built during the latter part of the twelfth century by Domnal Mór Ua Briain, who was the King of Thomond of the Dál gCais clan (their lands being counties Clare, Limerick and part of Tipperary).  

Donal was the patron of several such religious buildings and I presume that this investment paid off by having the clergy under your control and onside during the Norman invasion which was instigated by the King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada. It was four hundred years later that the Dál gCais finally came under Anglo - Norman control.

The last Abbot was John O’Dea in 1628, after which it became dissolute.

In the bottom righthand corner you can see a warning notice about not standing on the graves.

Tomb of Conor O'Brien, King of Thomond who died in 1268.

During my recent visit to Corcromroe Abbey I and a local man were rather disappointed with the visitors who, with total lack of awareness, were walking across the gravestones as if they were paving slabs. 

This, despite the numerous notices asking them not to do so. 

They seemed not realise that they were walking on history and graves, a great many years older than the U.S. itself.

My fear is that eventually these old inscribed stones will be so worn away that there will be nothing left to admire. 

The central carving above is believed to be an anchor? 

An arch of hearts?

I talk to the crows and have been doing so for a number of years. 

When I noticed this one perched high up on a gable end I called up and said 

“ Hello Crow, I have come to visit your home place” to which I received a soft 

‘ Caw - awk ’ in return, as she glanced down at me.

You have to mind yourself with Crows and treat them carefully for they can understand what we say; in a similar way the Starlings too can understand me.

Several months back our wonderful black cat, Magic, died and as I was burying him the Starlings were sat in a long line on a wire above the garden noisily chattering away to each other. 

I wanted silence to do what I had to do, so I raised my arms to them and said 

“Be quiet now, show some respect” and they remained silent until all was complete.

If you visit the links below you can read more about the Abbey, in greater detail.

http://www.megalithicireland.com/Corcomroe%20Abbey,%20Clare.html

http://www.monastic.ie/history/corcomroe/

ttp://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/autumnal_rambles/corcumroe_abbey.htm

I won't be updating this blog until after the Summer Solstice - 20th June.

The Banner County

“The custom of carrying banners goes back a long way in County Clare. There is little doubt but that the Dál gCais carried banners at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 or that the Clare Dragoons carried banners at Fontenot in 1745 and in the many battles fought by the Clare Regiments on the continent during the eighteenth century.”

We went on a day trip recently to re-visit one of our favourite counties, as there are so many  antiquities dotted around the countryside we still have not viewed them all. The one thing I learnt a long time ago, when looking for interesting vistas or ancient sites, is that when touring you need to slow down, drive carefully and be adventurous. The best type of narrow roads to take are those with a thin strip of grass growing up the middle as very often you will see something interesting.

This is how we found ourselves outside (1) Smithstown Castle and on another narrow road we saw a fingerboard pointing towards the (2) Blakemount Holy Well.
This tempted Mrs H to go and find it - now doubt she will reveal all soon on her own blog.
It was on yet another narrow road, that I managed to photograph  (3) a double donut shaped erratic which had been dumped there by the last Ice Age.
Photo number (4) A Sham was found on a tourist road on the outskirts of Kilfenora, it is not an ancient monument and was only constructed recently by a local resident.
Photo (5) was taken with my new camera along the road from Callan to Ballyvaughan - said as Bally vocken not vawn.

1 smithstowncastle.com

2. Stile to Blakemount Holy Well.

3 a 'double donut' shaped erratic.

4 A Sham.

5 Along the road from Callan to Ballyvaughan.

Our circuitous route took us from Gort in Co.Galway along the R460 towards a small town of Corrofin or is it Coroffin or perhaps Caroffin or even Corofin ? 

I mentioned to  Mrs H on our way in that I wondered which spelling was correct because every imaginable spelling could be seen on signposts and billboards. I also wondered if the local business people had found a new method of attracting trade or perhaps their signwriters  were drunk?

Well now guess what I read last night on a news channel..

“Local groups have formed in the towns of Lahinch, Ennistymon, and Corofin, with each group set write to Clare County Council later this week, to officially begin the legal process of changing the towns’ names. The local authority has confirmed it is the appropriate agency to deal with this issue and that a local vote, similar to that held in Dingle in 2006, may also be required.

This situation arose more than five years ago when Transport Infrastructure Ireland, formally the NRA, contracted Clare County Council to update signage on the N67 tourism route.

At this time the official legal spelling of the towns, which was derived from documentation written before the formation of the state, was used to replace the traditional local spellings which had appeared on all signage for the past 100 years.”

My online research says this :The origin of Name: Corofin takes its name from the Irish ‘Coradh Finne’ which means ‘The Weir of Finnia’.

So there we have it:Transport Infrastructure/National Roads Authority and Clare County Council please take note!