MONDAY MAY 11, 2009: BALLYVAUGHAN
FIRST CLASS SESSION: ANCIENT IRELAND & IRISH MYTHOLOGY
The alarm went off at 6:00 a.m.; I spent the early hours reviewing my lecture and presentation for today’s class. After I showered and dressed I went downstairs to make coffee for myself. As I was drinking my coffee I packed up my computer stuff and the presentation material for the day’s class. I was to walk to the house where Isaac and Tom were staying in order to be collected with them by Robert Wainwright for a lift to the college. I walked out of Meadowfield’s front door at 8:45 and arrived at my destination at 8:55.
The door was open so I walked in and found Isaac sipping on his morning coffee. Almost immediately Robert drove up and took a few minutes to come in and check to see if Isaac and Tom had any questions about the house. After some sorting out of how the timer for the central heating worked we were in Robert’s van heading to Orchard House to collect the students. We spent a few minutes at Orchard House while the students got themselves organized and in the vehicle. We arrived at the college a few minutes later.
We piled out of the van and Robert showed the students the computer lab then he went to retrieve the key for our classroom and bring us a flip chart and markers. While we waited to get the classroom in order I suggested that the students go to the café and get a cup of coffee or tea. When we had what we needed, I hooked up my laptop and tested it to make sure everything worked. Then I wrote a list of “vocabulary” words on the flip chart – I listed words that would be in the day’s lesson that the students may not be familiar with and/or words that were particularly significant. Today’s words included:
Drendrochronologist, Faerie Forts, Bronze Age, Tuatha De Danann, Cuchuliann, Queen Medb, Ulster, Connaght, Crannog, Hill Forts, Poulnabrone, Gleninsheen, Cathair na hYamham, An Rath, An Cathair Mohr and Cattle.
The class session started with a brief introduction and overview of the class; giving the agenda and objectives for the day. Then a short PowerPoint presentation, to introduce significant aspects of the day’s lesson, was shown. Some of the students were familiar with a few of the items in the presentation. Questions were asked and a short discussion followed.
Intro_09_001 (first presentation)
After the discussion a 50 minute PBS documentary video was shown “In Search of Ancient Ireland: Heroes” which is the first of a 3 part documentary series based on the book, “In Search of Ancient Ireland: The Origins of the Irish From Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English” by Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton, Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2002. The video is a linear collection of interviews and live action sequences involving archaeologists, scientists, and current cultural events linked to the history and mythology of ancient Ireland. It consists of information regarding the coming of the first people to Ireland, after the last ice age in 10,000 B.C.E., through the arrival of Christianity and the Early Monastic Period. It also covers the ancient earth religion of Ireland, the Invasion Myths, as well as the importance of the mythical figures of Ireland’s folklore
When the video was over we had a lively question and answer period with Isaac and Tom contributing with explanations, then the students were given a short bathroom/coffee break. When the students returned a second PowerPoint presentation was used that served as a review of the significant aspects of the movie and how they related to the day’s field excursion. The students had many questions with insightful, relevant comments. At 12:00 the students were excused for their lunch break in the college café, during which the BCA Dean, Dr. Timothy Jones, welcomed them and laid down the ground rules for their stay at the college.
AncientIreland1_09 (second presentation: part 1)
AncientIreland 2_09 (second presentation: part 2)
After a half hour lunch the students were back in the classroom listening to a twenty-minute recording of “The Story of Cuchuliann” narrated by the Irish storyteller, Ronnie Drew. After the story there was a short discussion period then at 1:00 we headed to Robert’s van to be driven to the village. This is where we were to start our walking excursion to the three ring forts of Cathair na hYamham, An Rath and An Cathair Mohr.
Robert drove us into Ballyvaughan to Meadowfield and let us all off. I went inside to drop off my computer and backpack and returned outside to join the group. The sun was shinning, the sky was blue and there was just a hint of a soft breeze – a perfect day for a long walk. I led the group down the main road for a short distance where we turned right to follow the country road that skirted Aillwee Mountain and that would eventually take us to our final destination of An Cathair Mohr. The students were carrying journals, pencils and pens with them to record their impressions of the landscape and the ring forts we would visit. Many of them had cameras and would stop and photograph things they found interesting. Our first ringfort to visit was Cathair na hYamhm, which stood in a farmer’s field. This is a ringfort that I was tempted to visit earlier this spring on my own, but never did. I had told Breada about it and she took it upon herself to ask around the farming community and found that it would be OK to visit as long as no one did any damage to the field or the gate. I was told that the farmer of this field was growing hay so we should all walk in single file so we would not trample a large area of vegetation.
After about a half an hour of walking we all could see Cathair na hYamham from the road. We walked until we came to the gate, went through, and then made sure that the gate was securely bolted shut before we went on. I led the students through the field toward the ringfort; it was on higher ground than the road so we were walking on a slight incline.
Cathair na hYamham seen from the backroad
Irish folklore claims that ringforts are “faerie forts” and imbued with magic causing believers in the faeries not to alter or meddle with them. This and the Irish reverence for ancient places contributes to why this ancient ringfort (as well as many others) has stood untouched all these years among valuable farm acreage. The early pre-Celtic inhabitants of Ireland known as the Tuatha Dé Danann came to be seen as mythical figures and eventually became the faerie people who ruled the spiritual part of Ireland that existed underground. Faerie forts and portal tombs like the Burren’s Poulnabrone Portal Tomb were seen as entrances to their world. Cutting brush, especially the whitethorn on faerie forts was reputed to be the death of those who performed the act. Throughout my many visits to the Burren I have heard several stories about supernatural events happening at faerie forts. This knowledge made the visit to this isolated ringfort a very special event for me.
For a more unromantic view “The Burren – A Ramblers Guide & Map, Ballyvaughan says this about ringforts:
“The evidence of Celtic habitation in the Burren is found in the literally hundreds of ring-forts in the area. The term “ringfort” is used as a general name for a protected enclosure where a farmer and his family lived where he may also have kept his domestic animals. Typically a ring-fort consists of a circular enclosure, surrounded either by a dry-stone wall or earthern banks and ditches, possibly surmounted by a timber palisade. Depending on rank and status, a ring-fort might be surrounded by several banks and ditches. A causeway interrupts the banks and provides a way into the enclosure, the entrance being secured by a gate. Within the enclosure there might be one or more buildings, for dwelling purposes and protection of livestock. The great majority of ring-forts in the Burren are constructed from stone, although earthern ring-forts also much in evidence.”
We entered Cathair na hYamham by stepping over a low area of its circular stone wall. Upon passing this threshold we immediately entered into a different world. Where outside there were wide expanses of green fields in bright sunshine; here there was a sheltered, softly lit hazel woodland. This is certainly a place I would have loved as a child – a true secret place. The students took their time wandering and investigating the interior, stopping to take photographs and taking out their journals to record the name of this place and their own thoughts and reactions.
The students were reluctant to leave Cathair na hYamham but knowing that we had two other ringforts yet to see they cheerfully agreed to continue on our day’s journey. We walked another 3/4 of a mile past the entrance to Aillwee Cave to the main road, R480 toward our destination of An Rath. The day was warm and sunny; our walk took us by a rural landscape of rolling pasture areas filled with cattle, sheep and horses on one side of the road and the limestone expanse of Aillwee Mountain on the other. The students commented on their observation that Irish cattle seem much more comfortable with humans and more inquisitive than their counterparts in the U.S. Many times the cattle would look up to watch the students walking on the road – sometimes moving closer to ensure a good thorough inspection.
Student walking excursion to the ringforts.
An Rath is an earthern ring-fort – today it is place of many large and interesting deciduous trees. The trees have grown out of the earthen enclosure itself – their roots growing in such a way to create step like features on the steep earthen mound. There are also several large trees in the interior of the ring-fort.
Trees growing out of the earthen wall of An Rath.
Standing inside the earthen ringfort of An Rath.
After our time at An Rath, we followed R480 southwest another 3/8 of a mile to the stone ring-fort of An Cathair Mohr. This ring-fort is tucked in away from the road and can easily be missed. There is a plaque planted in the ground before the entrance to the ring-fort giving some history of the structure telling us that the fort dates from 500 C.E. I find An Cathair Mohr very impressive with its gateway of stone. As you enter this ring-fort you get a breathtaking view of the valley below. One can see all the way to Newtown Castle and the village of Ballyvaughan on the sea. The enclosure of the ring-fort where the interior buildings once stood has overgrown with bushes and shrubs. Many of the students climbed up on the interior stone ring to get a better view of the surrounding landscape and saw the other concentric circular stonewalls below surrounding the fort that served the purpose of keeping domestic animals.
Interior wall of An Cathair Mohr
Once, when I visited this area alone during my stay in the Burren in 2002 I used Tim Robinson’s map, The Burren, Folding Landscapes to attempt to locate and visit a holy well that is near this fort. The holy well was marked as further southwest along R480 on a ragged cliff face. I walked up and down the edge of the road searching the cliff below me for any signs of the well. I soon realized that to really make a serious effort at the search I would have to climb below and maneuver among the sharp and jagged landscape. Recalling the advice I give to my students of not climbing the rocks of the Burren without someone near in case a resulting twisted ankle or worse, I had the good sense to postpone my search until another time.
Tags: Burren College of Art, Midwest Institute Ireland Study-Trip, Cathair na hYamham, Ringfort
