Castle and Dolmen in the Irish Countryside

The time has come to wade into the long and complex history of Ireland.  Beginning with a little bit of ancient Ireland, I will then move onto the political history of Ireland.  This is fairly heavy going, so to help prevent the eyes glazing over phenomenon, I am going to parcel it out in smaller segments.

Ancient Ireland

According to archaeologists, Ireland was first inhabited ~10,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic period.  Passage tombs were constructed during the Neolithic period of 4,500 - 2,000 BC.  The tombs are of elaborate construction and some are calibrated to align with the midsummer sunset and winter solstice.  But we really know nothing of these early people, so I will have to leave it at that.

It seems as though the Keltoi or Celts, arrived from Europe near 700 BC.  It was thought that there was a large scale invasion from Europe around 500 BC; however, there is no archaeological evidence to support this theory.  No utensils that would have been in use by ordinary people have been found.  Also, there was no change in burial practices or lifestyle, which would have occurred in a conquered land.  It is more likely that groups arrived in Ireland over hundreds of years.

We do know that by the 1st century AD, the Gaels, a warrior group, were in control in Ireland because it was their language, culture and laws that were dominant.

The Gaels had an oral tradition where learning was by the poems and stories that were handed down.  Supposedly, the Romans thought the Gaels in continental Europe were elitists, as they would not share their knowledge through the written word.  The ancient legends were not recorded until monks wrote them hundreds of years later, inevitably, the monks would have incorporated their own biases into the legends.

The religion of the people was one of celebration, rather than one of obligation.  The main festivals were occasions of great celebration; a form of punishment was to be banned from attending a festival.

The Irish traded with the Roman empire but they were never conquered by the Romans; whereas, Britain, was conquered by the Romans in 43 AD.  As the Roman Empire in the west went into decline, the Romans were leaving Britain.  The Irish raided the British coast where they captured young people, to be sold into slavery.  The Irish settled parts of Britain; the settlement of Dal Riada in Argyle, Scotland, was a permanent colony.

We got off to a late start today, which was just as well, as it was a rainy morning.  By the time we got going in the early afternoon, things had improved.  Newcastle is not the type of place that we would choose to spend any vacation time in.  It is a seaside, resort type of town, with a lot of touristy stuff that holds little interest for us.  We are here for the Mourne Mountains, which are the highest in Northern Ireland and promise some fine walking.  However, we could not actually see the Mourne Mountains today, so we had to make alternate plans, which consisted of lower level walking.

We drove a bit north of here to the Castlewellan Forest Park.  Forest Parks are quite common here and are highly popular with the locals.  We stopped in at the information kiosk and told the friendly attendant that we needed a good, long walk.  He sent us on the most strenuous walk in the park, which really was a ‘walk in the park’ with little elevation gain to the summit of Slievenaslat.  However, the views of the Northern Ireland countryside were fantastic.  We cannot get enough of the rich green fields, which are laid out like an erratic quilt, bordered by dry stacked stone walls and hedges.

The beautiful Castlewellan Castle sits in a gorgeous setting on the edge of forest, overlooking the small lake.  The deciduous trees in the immediate vicinity are absolutely huge, a testament to the precipitation in Ireland.  The castle was built with locally quarried granite, and construction was completed in 1856.

Castlewellan Castle

Mountain lake on Slievenaslat

Mourne Mountains in cloud

View of countryside from summit of Slievenaslat

View toward the Irish Sea from Slievenaslat

We loved the cloud formation

Sun breaking through in foreground

I read about a wonderful dolmen in the area, so I asked the attendant at the forest park how to get there, he gave us directions, so we headed off into the countryside to find the dolmen.  This area is very beautiful, and the country is dotted with small farms.  It looks as though the farmers are mainly involved in raising cattle and sheep.  The incredible cream and cheese that we are buying are sourced from Northern Ireland.

A dolmen is a portal tomb, dating from 2500 to 2000 BC.  The Legananny Dolmen is a tripod dolmen, where the large capstone balances on three upright stones.  There is such a fine and beautiful balance to this dolmen, so much so, that it almost looks like the capstone is floating above the three upright stones.  It would have been covered with a mound of stone and earth by the builders.  The place in the landscape is on the slope of Slieve Croob, and now it is near a small cattle farm right alongside a narrow farm track.  We got really good light when we arrived at the dolmen as it was just a few hours before sunset and the cloud cover had cleared.  There are several dolmens in this area, and one could spend all day seeking them out.

I wondered if the farmers grew tired of all of the visitors walking right by their farm up to the dolmen, as this is one of the most photographed stone monuments in Ireland.  There is a sign urging people to park in the layby on the road, rather than driving up the farm track beside the farm.

Legananny Dolmen

Note the dolmen symbol in the gate

The view from our apartment near sunset