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.

 

A Day at Blarney Castle

Yesterday, I visited Blarney Castle in Blarney, Co. Cork, Ireland.  With several new friends in the study abroad program, I took a bus from Cork to Blarney, trekked through the rain, and reached the famous tourist destination.  It was delightful trip and a wonderful way to start our semester. 

Blarney Castle

A Little History

Blarney Castle was built in 1446 by the McCarthys, the dynasty of Munster. Two structures preceded the current castle-a wooden one in the 10th century and a smaller stone castle built around 1210 AD.  Throughout its history, the castle changed hands many times.  In 1874, a beautiful house was built on the grounds.  

Today, Blarney has become tourist destination.  Visitors can climb the battlements, brave the dungeons, and explore the surrounding gardens. The most famous aspect of the castle is the Blarney Stone.  Vistors lean over the edge of the battlements while holding onto an iron rail to kiss the stone and gain the gift of eloquence.  

According to the most popular legend, the stone was a gift to Cormac McCarthy in 1314 for his support to Robert the Bruce in the Battle of Bannockburn.  Another legend suggests that the Goddess Clíodhna told McCarthy to kiss the first stone he found when he was troubled by a lawsuit.  After doing so, he was gifted with eloquence, won his trial, and brought the stone back to Blarney.  A third legend speaks of the Lia Fáil which was the stone upon which Irish Kings were crowned.

My Time in Blarney 

The Wishing Steps

I visited Blarney with several other students and we had a grand time exploring the castle and venturing around the grounds.  We went into every room of the castle, some of which were indistinguishable and several of which retained partial ornate carvings in the stone.  At the top, each of us kissed the Blarney Stone.  The act was not nearly so terrifying as it is made out to be.  In recent years, safety rails have been installed and a guard sits next to it, holding your waist as you bend backwards. On our way back down, climbing a narrow spiral staircase, we came across the Murder Hole.  A large hold just above the doorway to the keep, it served as a final line of defense against unwanted visitors or threatening enemies.  Hot wax, boiling water, or worse was poured through the hole on such guests. 

After we explored the castle, we wandered through the battlements and walked through the poison garden, just left of the keep.  It contains dozens of poisonous plants for the purpose of educating visitors about plants to avoid in the wild.  We walked deeper into the grounds to the nineteenth century house which was already closed to visitors for the day and then over to the Rock Close.  Within Rock Close, legends still exist in the form of the Wishing Steps, a stairway carved through a tunnel of rock, and the Witch's Kitchen, a cave which boasts the dying embers of the witch's fire each morning.  It's a beautiful area, covered in shade from ancient trees and surrounded by moss-covered boulders.

Exploring the castle was a pure joy and the excitement for my upcoming course in Irish Archaeology has only grown.  Throughout the next few weeks, I will be learning about Archaeology while visiting ancient Irish tombs and castles.  

Slán agus beannacht leat. (An Irish Farewell.)

Welcome to Cork

Four years of dreaming, two years of planning, one summer of waiting, and a couple days of slight panicking have brought me safe and sound to Ireland.

I left home Tuesday afternoon from Dulles International Airport on a flight to London.  After more than six hours of sitting in a cramped airplane seat next to a nice English couple who delighted in my request for tea over coffee and in front of a rather unhappy toddler, I arrived in the Heathrow Airport.  I followed the signs for connections, crossed the UK border check, and somehow made it the departure lounge where I waited for my flight to Cork.  Two hours later, I was buckling in for the second part of the journey. 

Only an hour passed before I was happily climbing down a flight of stairs and onto the runway.  In all my other plane travels, I have gone directly from the airport to the plane and vice versa.  There was a delightfully old-fashinoned joy to walking outside of the plane in the fresh Irish air with a distant view of green hilltops.

My room

The Kitchen and Living Room

It wasn't long before I had made it through customs, picked up my baggage, and was climbing into a taxi driven by a friendly and helpful Irishman.  He told me about festivals coming up in the fall and pubs and restaurants I should go to as we drove through Cork.  Between the exhaustion of jet-lag and my excitement at having made it to the city, I felt like I was on sensory overload.  I found myself caught between silence and prattling on as one moment I stared out the taxi window at the pubs and shops and the next I was being asked my studies, my travels, and my opinions of the US presidential candidates.

Twenty minutes later I stood with my luggage in front of my apartment gate.  I rang for the landlady and met Breda at long last.  Friendly and personable, she showed me upstairs to my room, gave me a key and some instructions, and then went off with a reminder to call or email if I needed anything.

Now, it's Thursday evening.  Shannon and I have spent a day exploring the city and the UCC campus.  Still slightly jet-lagged, we've retired to our apartment for dinner and a rest.  No doubt we will head out later to find a bustling Irish pub.