I have learned a lot about Ireland. People have lived in Ireland for the last twelve thousand years. In a sparsely populated rural countryside, some of these structures are still around or maybe ruins of these structures. We really enjoyed seeing some of Ireland’s Archeological past.
The place we enjoyed most was Bonane Heritage Park, mostly because the gatekeeper had a wonderful dog named Nancy who guided us throughout the area. They had a ring fort, which is a circular fortified settlement that was built during the Bronze age before the year 1000. We saw other Ring Forts, including the one on the Aran Islands that I mentioned in an earlier post.
Nancy guiding us to the Ring Fort
This is a reconstructed Crannog at the entrance to Bonane. A Crannog is a dwelling built as an artificial island.
The main reason we really liked Bonane Heritage Park is that we met Niall Gregory, an archaeologist who was supervising a group that is building a pre-historical boat from a large oak log, using replicas of ancient tools. We spent a lot of time with Niall, and explained the boat building methods, what they knew about ancient tools, and how they made the replicas of the ancient tools. He did his Ph.D. dissertation on the construction of ancient boats in Ireland.
On this web site, I found a video of Niall explaining the boat building.
And Bonane Heritage Park also had a Stone Circle. Think Stonehenge, but with smaller stones.
There are Stone Circles all over Ireland. We especially liked the one in Kenmare, a few blocks from the center of the town. Notice the bush in the far left of the photo below. It contains hundreds of personal notes hanging from the branches, notes of love and of loss. The center stone was covered with a buch of personal objects, stones, some painted, sea shells, coins, medals, ribbons. I don’t know what the sigificance is, but I think the objects had meaning to the people who left them. It was a very peaceful location.
Our travel guide, Ricky Steves, suggested driving around the Ring of Dingle, on the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry. Oh my, it was fabulous.
We saw beehive huts, probably a thousand years old.
We saw the ruins of the Reask Monastery on the Dingle drive, with interesting carvings on standing stones.
The Gallarus Oratory is a religious structure built from stones, and the building is still watertight.
We took a detour from the main Dingle Loop drive to visit the Kilmalkedar Church, which dates from the twelfth century.
This was an abandoned farmhouse up the street, undoubtedly newer than twelfth century.
When we drove through Burren National Park in County Clare, one stop was at Poulnabrone dolmen, an unusually large dolmen or portal tomb that is probably five thousand years old.
In Dublin, we visited the National Museum of Archeology, which was great. There we saw the amazing “bog bodies,” bodies preserved in the peat soil (“bogs”) for hundreds of years.
We saw ruins of a lot of church ruins throughout our time in Ireland. The Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary is a major tourist destination. There is Cormac’s Chapel, built in the tenth century, and a Cathedral built in the eleventh century.
I liked the Celtic Crosses, and all of the lichens growing everywhere.
There had been a downpour, but here the rain has stopped.
Down the hill from the Rock of Cashel are the ruins of the Hore Abbey, from the eleventh century.
This is the ruins of Timoleague Abbey in County Cork, which we found on our first day of slow driving in the Wild Atlantic Way.
And finally, here is an old churchyard in County Mayo. We were driving to Achill, and I just wanted to stop and take pictures here.
Ireland is a beautiful country, with a long history!