Saturday, 5. August 2006, 23:41:01
Near Gort - Kilmacduagh is an early Christian site with several ruined buildings and this well preserved round tower. Founded in the 7th century by St. Colman Mac Duagh. The Tower is the only part that dates from that period. The rest of the buildings date from 13th-14th centuries.
The Tower is an example of a particularly Irish structure - The Round Tower.
It is 111 feet 10 inches tall. The only door is 26 feet above ground level. It was built that high for safety during attack, the Monks would pull up the ladder, leaving no access for the attackers. The walls are 6 feet thick. The tower had a pronounced lean: over half a meter from vertical.
On the road from Corofin to Kilfenora can be found Lemeneagh castle. on the right of the picture you can see the original 15th century tower house. The rest of the structure was completed in 1643, when it was surrounded by extensive woodlands. there are walls in the nearby fields, the remains of what was their deerpark. During the Cromwellian occupation the house was taken over by troops and the family moved to Inchiquin Castle, After the soldiers had left the trees had been destroyed for fire wood, the deerpark ruined and the house in such a state of devastation, the O`Briens moved to their estates in Dromoland.
What can I say about Poulnabrone...
It is a classic example of a portal tomb. It has two portal stone on the sides of the entrance to a stone lined chamber, covered with a large cap stone. Excavations took place there between 1986-88 revealing that at least 33 individuals were buried in the chamber- both male & female infants, children and adults. The evidence suggests that they were buried or were allowed to decompose elsewhere before being buried here around 3000BC, the Neolithic or New Stone Age.
More than a thousand years later during the Bronze Age a newborn baby was buried just outside the entrance to the chamber.
When I was standing there, with the crags and crevices of the limestone pavement all around me I could feel a real sense of the past, of great age. this Dolmen is older than the pyramids.
The last time I was here was about 5 years ago, at the time It was not fenced off and hardly even signposted, It has changed it feels different now, there was an entire bus load of tourists there when we arrived:faint: but they departed about quarter of an hour later. I felt the need to be alone there, well me and the missus:heart: .
As
Walker of the Week this would be my Walk of the Week
(18%)
WIDGETIZE