Adventures through Ancient Ireland: Doagh Holestone

 

We chose a soggy and windswept Sunday morning to visit another one of the countless remnants of ancient Ireland left strewn across the country.

 

Doagh holestone is a bronze-age megalith (around 2000BC) not far from Ballymena in County Antrim and is one of only a few holestones from this period remaining in Ireland.

 

 

In recent centuries Irish couples have been known to pledge their love to each other while clasping hands through this stone. But was it erected for that same purpose 4000 years ago? The romantic in me would like to think so but one theory about holestones is that bronze-age men would have  inserted their penises in these groin-height holes in order to ensure fertility! 

 

Either way, the connection to love and marriage remains today and some young couples still travel to the stone after their wedding ceremonies, or for bethrothals or handfasting ceremonies. I know Danny and I will be back to this site (hopefully in sunnier weather) for one of our year(and-a-day)ly handfastings.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

 In the Celtic wheel of the year, Samhain, or Hallowe'en as most of us now know it, marks the start of the new year and the change from the light half of the year to the dark half.

 

The pre-christian Irish calendar revolved around the summer and winter solstices (known as litha and Yule) and the spring and autumn equinoxes (known as Ostara and Mabon) between them. Most of the chambered tombs in Ireland are aligned to one of these four dates so that the rising sun fills the interior chambers with light.

 

Between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice lies Samhain. It is the time of the year when the spirit underworld and human world are closest and so the spirits of our ancestors, as well as evil spirits are able to enter our world. 

 

 

 

 To ward off evil spirits we disguise ourselves in costumes like theirs, so that they will pass us by unnoticed, and we leave food and light candles for our ancestors.

 

In the past people in Ireland carved swedes or turnips and placed candles inside. Once the christianised festival of hallowe'en was brought to America by Irish immigrants in the 19th Century, people started carving the more readily available pumpkins and gourds. 

 

These are two that I carved as presents for friends hosting Hallowe'en parties last weekend. And this time of year always holds fond memories for me because my brother was born on Hallowe'en so we grew up having great parties with pumpkins, apple-bobbing, sparklers and ghoulish costumes, and going trick-or-treating.

 

 

When christianity came to Ireland, the festival of the goddess Bride was made into St.Brigid's day, yule became Christmas and Samhain became all hallow's eve, when people pray for their dead.

 

While I'm no pagan, I'm trying to teach myself about our pre-christian history and customs and to understand the movements of the year so that I can have a better connection to the earth.

 

Happy new year to you all. May light guide your way through the darkness ahead.

 

Rock balancing at Murlough Bay

 

 

After going our trip to Fair Head, Dan and I drove down the VERY steep hill to Murlough Bay, a really magical piece of secluded coastline. We wandered around in the sunshine, got eaten alive by bugs and Dan worked on his rock-balancing skills.

 

 

 

 

I got down to the serious business of trying to find the prettiest stones on the beach to take home for my collection.

 

 

A 1000 year old crannog

 

 

Last weekend we went on another adventure through ancient Ireland. This time to Fair Head which is the most North-Easterly point of Northern Ireland. On top of the cliff are a couple of little lakes and one of those has a thousand year old crannog on it which I had been desperate to visit for ages (and scope out as a possible camping spot).

 

Crannogs are artificial (or partially artifical) islands used as dwellings in Scotland and Ireland in the Neolithic Period and sometimes inhabited as late as the 17th and 18th Centuries. This one on Fair Head has had some excavation and shown to be inhabited about 1000 years ago. There are about 1,200 of these structures in Ireland and they were often home to kings, lords, prosperous farmers and sometimes isolated monastic groups.

 

 

This one is pretty small and you can see in the picture above how the island has been strengthened with a circular stone wall. There were a few boats lying around the deserted lough but no oars so we weren't brave enough to venture out to the crannog.

 

 

 

Just beyond the lake is Fair Head itself, a sheer cliff which is popular with serious climbers. Lying down and looking over the cliff edge was as daring as we got.

 

 

 

So that's one more ancient Irish structure investigated, only about 50,000 more to go!

Celtic Carvings at Kinnagoe Bay

 

Just in front of where we camped at the weekend there were some celtic carvings on some rocks, not unlike those on the stones at the neolithic Newgrange passage tomb in County Meath. Most of us there agreed that the chisel marks looked a bit fresh to be have been made by ancient man, but in a way it doesn't matter to me whether they're 'real' or not. It shows that the celtic spirit lives on in Ireland. And Kinnagoe Bay is one special place. Remote, beautiful, wild.

 

 

We found a charcoal stick just asking to be drawn with, so I drew what I always draw - the triple spiral I had tattooed on my foot recently.

 

 

Danny and I made a trip to the car for supplies and the tide was so high on the way back that we had to climb over some rocks instead of going round them, and that path revealed another spiral carving, more like a labyrinth. And the next time I looked for it I spotted yet another spiral, this one exactly the same as my tattoo (inspired by the Newgrange chamber carving). When I went back to photograph it, it had rained and it couldn't be seen as clearly. Have a look to see if you can spot it just below the crack in the photo below.

 

The long trek we took to our camping spot on the second beach meant that we saw not one stranger on our beach during the four days we were there.

 

Magic.

Summer Solstice at Kinnagoe

 

This weekend past saw a much-anticipated camping trip to Kinnagoe Bay in Donegal with a group of about 12 friends. We treked across the beach in the picture above and then climbed over to the second bay hidden behind the headland.

 

It was a bit of a mission by itself and then we had a 20 kilo tent and everything bar the kitchen sink to drag over there too. If I'd known how epic the walk would be I might have packed a little lighter but at least we were cosy in the bell tent. Poor Danny carried it.

 

 

We stayed up all night to see the solstice sunrise and larked about in the surf.

 

 

And the solstice eve gave way to a most beautiful longest day of the year.

 

Small adventures: the Antrim Coast Road

Above, the view from Carlough on the Antrim Coast Road.

 

My mum and I have started a course to become language tour guides in Northern Ireland and so far it has been an absolute pleasure. We spent Saturday afternoon on a coach travelling along the beautiful Antrim Coast Road, passing through villages like Glenarm, Carnlough, Ballycastle, travelling over the still snowy Antrim Plateau and visiting the famous Giant's Causeway, Bushmills Whiskey Distillery and Dunluce Castle.

 

I was lucky enough to get my obligatory 10 minutes tour-guiding on the microphone out of the way early on and without any major disasters. And then I was free to enjoy the scenery, the commentary and the free whiskey in the distillery at lunchtime which sweetened the journey no end!

 



Above, views down to Carrick-a-rede rope bridge with Sheep Island behind and below, Rathlin Island, Fair Head and the traditional raven watching over Dunluce Castle.

 

I can almost feel summer in the air.

Adventures in sacred Ireland: Nendrum

 

During a brief spell of sunshine last week Danny and I escaped the big bad city and found a little oasis of calm which I never even knew existed before, just 16 miles out of the city. I'm mapping out sacred Ireland for myself inch by inch.

 

On the edge of Strangford Lough lie a series of tiny islands connected by causeways and on the very last one, Mahee Island, sits Nendrum monastic site dating from the mid fifth century, when Christianity was beginning to flourish in Ireland under St. Patrick. This monastery was founded by an associate of his called Saint Mo Choí.

 

The monastery had its greatest days between the 7th and 10th Centuries and the ruins include a church, a round tower and a sundial all within enclosures of three concentric circles.

 

 

We brought the sunday papers with us and sat on the grass overlooking a bay full of yachts.

Ireland is real pretty when the sun's out.