First Field Trip

As part of my study abroad program, I'm enrolled in a four-week pre-semester program studying Irish Archaeology.  Having never taken an archaeology class before, I thought this semester and this program was the perfect time and place to try it.  And I was right.  One week into the course, I am loving it.

In the trench surrounding the Garranes Ringfort.

Along with listening to weekly lectures from our brilliant and engaging professor, Tomás Ó Carragáin, I get to take four different field trips around Ireland to visit various archaeological sites.  On Thursday, I had my first adventure around West County Cork.  

We started the morning by visiting Garranes Ringfort which dates back to the Iron Age (600 BC).  It was excavated in 1930 and again in 1991. Today, the ringfort looks like little more than a huge round field, but around the edges the man-made trenches that served as the fort's defense are still present. After Professor Ó Carragáin talked for a few minutes about the site, I got to hike around the field and down into the trenches which were slippery from the previous night's rain. 

Next, we drove to Ballinacarriga Tower House, built in the mid-sixteenth century.  As a member of the Irish Archaeological Association, Professor Ó Carragáin has a key to all national archaeological monuments, enabling our class to enter the tower house.  He pointed out several carvings and details in the design of the building before we climbed the narrow spiral staircase, without any rails, to the top floor.  As it is not much wider than I am, climbing the staircase was unnerving.

Carvings of the Passion on the window of the Ballinacarriga Tower House.

The top floor of the tower house is open to the elements as the roof has long ago collapsed.  Professor  Ó Carragáin then showed us how several of the windows had been added at a later date, a fact we can determine because of their size and shape.  Then we discussed the elaborate Christian carvings around the windows.  It turns out that the tower house's top floor was a secret Catholic chapel when Catholicism had been declared illegal by the British crown.  

Statue of Micheal Collins.

     Before we continued our trip, we stopped for lunch in a town called Clonakilty.  Fun fact:  Michael Collins (a man instrumental in the Irish Revolution) lived and attended school there.  We passed a memorial statue of him on our way to the pub.  Fun Fact 2: Noel Redding, bassist from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, retired to Clonakilty in 1972 and played regulary at De Barra's Folk Club, the pub in which we ate lunch.

Coppinger's Court.

The white one in the back right was my favorite.

In the afternoon, we made two more stops.  The first was to Coppinger's Court, a semi-fortified house built in 1616 by Sir Walter Coppinger.  Reflective of the Renaissance style, the house today is in complete disrepair.  Profssor Ó Carragáin kept us to only one side of the house as we explored it and told us to whisper because parts of the building are so unstable.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this part of the journey was the posse of dogs who tagged along and proceeded to herd the nearby cows into circles for our amusement.  We had a hard time focusing on the lecture as we watched the dogs scampering about the site.

We ended the day at Drombeg Stone Circle which has 17 standing stones.  It is aligned on the setting sun of the winter solstice such that the sunlight tumbles up the hill and out of sight.  When it was excavated many years ago, the cremated remains of a single man were found beneath a flat, central stone.  Today, visitors often leave tokens of all sorts on this stone.

If you ever have a chance, go and explore these amazing archaeological finds or have lunch in Clonakilty.  The town is delightful and I hope to visit again. This coming Thursday, I'll be heading up to Dublin to visit the National Museum as well as Trim Castle and the famous Newgrange passage tomb.  Till then, slán agus beannacht leat. 

Drumbeg Circle, the largest intact stone circle in Ireland.