Ballyarr Wood

Wednesday afternoon we went grocery shopping in Letterkenny. Since that's a 30-minute drive all by itself, I like to go somewhere else on the way home.


We stopped at Ballyarr Wood.

Ballyarr Wood is predominantly old oak woodland. A number of other habitats including wet woodland, scrub wet heath and wet grassland also occur. The oak woodland has a well developed structure, with a high canopy of well grown oaks, a good understory of holly and hazel and rich ground flora. Natural regeneration is occurring. The other habitats, particularly the open areas of heath and wet grassland, enhance the diversity, value and character of the woodland. (source)

I saw "Ballyarr Wood Nature Reserve" on a map, but it took us a long time to find in real life. There's no signage from the road, and no parking, just a wide spot in the road. No, not really. The road doesn't widen. If you find a farm gate and this path, that's it.





We walk here often as it is rare to find a natural woodland in Donegal. As you grow to love a place, to learn the unique ways you love it. We have our favorite trees here, but I can't find photos of them. Maybe I'll post them later. 

There are old walls, and a pile of rocks on a hill, magical and attractive. The mushrooms in the first photo at the top of the page are growing here.  They marked this placee as a "fort" on old maps. 





This is what the archeologists say: 

Class: Ringfort - cashel Townland: BALLYARR
Description: Internal diam. 24m. A circular area formerly enclosed by a stone wall 2m wide comprised of two lines of large stones filled in with smaller stones. The NW half of the wall survives in a collapsed state up to .5m in height. The other half has been removed, but can be traced still. The site is overgrown but is apparently even, sloping gently N to S. It is situated on a spur of rough, wooded land sloping steeply N, E and W and gently to the S.

The best time to visit Ballyarr Wood is autumn, because mushrooms. 









Dog for scale. The locals call these shaggy ink caps.





Three huge ones just down the trail from those above. 












Turkey tails.







Our friend Arista is visiting. 

Us, with rowan berries. 

If You Ever Must Leave Ireland, Visit Here First

View from St. Colmcille's birthplace. 

In Church Hill near St. Colmcille's well, abbey, and oratory you can visit St. Colmcille's birthplace.

According to Manus O’Donnell’s account of Colmcille's life, on the night before Colmcille was born Eithne saw a vision of a young man. The youth told Eithne that there was a flagstone in Lough Aikkbon which should be brought to Rath Cnó where the saint would be born. The stone was found by Eithne’s family and brought to this place. When Colmcille's was born, a cross-shaped niche opened up on the stone. She is also said to have produced a blood-coloured stone - an cloch ruadh - which was kept in Gartan and which had healing powers.(source)

I've visited this place several times. A large flat stone faces the south, and behind it is a horseshoe-shaped cairn. Archeologists think these holes in the stone are a kind of rock art. They are always filled with water.

The stone where Eithne labored is called Leac na Cumhaid, Stone of the Sorrows. The name has nothing to do with Eithne; it's all Colmcille's fault.

If Colmcille had not become a monk, he would have gone into his family business of early medieval politics. He was an O'Neill. (I mentioned them earlier.)

It is my understanding that writing was the actual reason young Irish men converted to Christianity, not asceticism and Jesus miracles. If you lived in a culture of oral storytelling, writing in 561 AD was as innovative as a punch card in 1961 AD. 

For whatever the attractions, Colmcille converted to Christianity and used his family's money and influence to build abbeys, which were proto-universities teaching reading, writing, and book publishing. Abbeys competed with each other to attract scholars, each claiming to collect the rarest relics and holiest books. At some stage, he heard his former teacher Finnian had a St. Jerome's Psalter. A psalter is a book of just the bible's psalms, which are poems used as the monks' daily prayers.

Colmcille snuck into Finnian's scriptorium and copied the psalter all in one night, in the light of a miracle candle he also happened to have. He returned his abbey and told everybody "Hey, come to my abbey, we have a St. Jerome's psalter too."

Finian accused Colmcille of stealing his book. Colmcille said "No, you have your book, I have my copy."

Finian said, "That copy is mine too."

"You idiot," said Colmcille, "Information wants to be free."

"You thief," said Finnian, "Information is precious, and you've robbed the feckin' Word o' God off me."

They would have continued to assault each other with invective and verbiage, but Finian said, "Let's ask the King to decide." Colmcille agreed, because he knew he was right, and also because the king was his uncle.

King Diarmait wasn't quite sure what a book was, so Finnian handed him his original.

King Diarmait turned it over in his hands and stroked the fine old leather cover while Finnian made his case. "If someone is going to copy it, they need to ask me first, and make a donation."

Then Colmcille handed his copy to the King, with its nice new leather cover. "Finnian's single book could be burnt in fire or lost in a bog. Holy men like Finnian and me must spread that information by copying. Copying is not theft."

King Diarmait looked up from the book. "That's for me to decide, lad."

"Yes, you're right," Colmcille obsequiously agreed. "And if copying were theft, it would not be as bad a crime as refusing to spread the word of God." He flicked his eyes toward Finnian. "Like some people."

King Diarmait couldn't read, but he understood a book was a thing covered in a cow's skin. He gave his judgement: "To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy."

As you might expect, losing history's first intellectual property dispute made Colmcille incandescent, and not in a holy way.

Colmcille went home and told his O'Neill relatives that King Diarmait basically called him a thief. The O'Neills attacked the King's clan, and before long 3,000 men died in a massive brawl near Sligo now known as The Battle of the Book.

Soon after, the war came home to Colmcille when he was right here at his birthplace, Gort na Leic, Field of the Flagstone. 

A local man came up to him. "You arsehole, do you know how many of my friends and brothers died in your stupid Battle of the Book? I don't even want to keep on living."

Even though he knew he was right about copying the book, Colmcille felt responsible for the grief and loss of life. He knew envy was a sin as well as anybody. So he did what any miracle-working monk would do. He blessed the flagstone he was born on, and the water in its holes.

He gave the blessed water to the sad man, saying, "I didn't mean for all those guys to be killed." And for the rest of his life, the man lived free of crippling sorrow, as does anyone who drinks of the water to this very day.

Despite this miracle, Colmcille's conscience caught up with him. He felt responsible that 3,000 pagan men had died fighting for his vanity. He decided to leave Ireland, to build more more abbeys, and never rest until he had converted more souls than had been lost in the Battle of the Book.

He spent his last night in Ireland meditating on the Flagstone of Sorrows. And from that night, if someone sleeps here before they too leave Ireland, they will never be homesick.

And that is why this place is called Leac na Cumhaigh, "Stone of Sorrows."

Autumn Equinox with Dogs

This was the forecast, but Tuesday turned out to be a gorgeous day. We took the dogs to Church Hill, a fertile valley around pretty little Lake Gartan.










Artemis found a little patch of chanterelles.







I found some slippery gross ones. Last year I found amanita muscaria here around this time in the dozens, but not last Tuesday.






Puff balls as big as your fist.



The beeches are just starting to turn.




Erica, majestic as fuck.

After the walk, we visited St. Columcille's holy well, oratory, and birthplace.



Make a wish.




View of Gartan, east from the well.



That's our sturdy little car framed there. Sometimes I like to take pictures of it because it is so familiar and loyal and has brought us to so many sacred places.



St. Columcille's birthplace. The cross memorializes the life of Ireland's most notorious landlord, Black Jack Adair. I'll tell that story another time.

Our Local Castle

I saw my first European castle in 2008 from Kenmare Bay.  I can't find the photos from that trip, but this was is what I saw from our little fishing boat. 

Dromore Castle, Templenoe, Co. Kerry

The Dromore Castle we see today from water is actually modern, built only twenty years ago.  There was an earlier estate there, but now a ruin. 

The Victorian gatehouse of the former Dromore estate is for sale, only €90,000.  It stands on the road between Kenmare and Sneem and we drove past it several times a week when we lived in Kerry. Advertised as a detached one-bedroom, but oh, so much more than that. 



How cool would it be to live there?




Maybe not. 


We have a proper castle near us, Doe Castle. Since we've arrived in fall of 2017, we've walked around the grounds a few times. The tower dates from the 1420s, and the bawn wall from the mid-1600s, probably. Maybe. 





The O'Neill's gave the tower to a clan of Scottish mercenary soldiers (Gallowglasses/Gallóglaigh) in exchange for their service. They became known as Clan tSuibhne na dTuath or Sweeneys of the Territory. The castle became Caislean na dTuath, which eventually became "Doe Castle" in English.

The last chief of Doe, Maolmhuire an Bhata Bhui, who was knighted by Elizabeth I, rebelled and marched with Red Hugh O'Neill to The Battle of Kinsale in 1601. They lost.

The description from "Archaeological Survey of County Donegal" (c 1985)

Class: Castle - tower house

Townland: CASTLEDOE

Description: Doe Castle is a National Monument (No. 319) in State care. It is first mentioned in 1544 in connection with an internecine struggle between the sons of MacSweeny Doe. Some survivors of the Spanish Armada were granted refuge here in 1588. Between 1600 and 1614 the castle figured prominently in the local wars between the English and Irish. In 1614 it came into the possession of Capt. John Sandford and in 1623 it was described as: 

'an ancient strong castle, three storeys high, and a bawn of lime and stone… with good flankers…The castle and bawn are well repaired by Captain Samford who hath made in it some additions of buildings, and hath covered the house and slated it, and is now building a stone house within the bawn.'

Shortly after the outbreak of rebellion in 1641 (Irish Confederate Wars), Doe Castle fell into Irish hands and it was here, in 1642, that Owen Roe O'Neill landed with a hundred Irish veterans. It was captured by English forces under Sir Charles Coote in 1650 and continued as a military garrison during the second half of the 17th century. In the Williamite Wars it was taken by Donogh Og MacSweeny after the occupants had withdrawn for safety to Derry. It was subsequently abandoned and fell into ruins. 

MacSweeny is still a prominent surname in this part of Donegal.

Towards the end of the 18th century the lands came into the possession of General George Vaughan Harte and c. 1800 he began to restore Doe Castle. 

'All except the keep or tower was a complete ruin nearly level to this ground, even the court walls. The tower too was open from bottom to top . . . His son and successor, . . . Captain John Hart, finally completed the castle out-buildings and other improvements at great expense.' 

William Harte, who visited Doe during one of these alterations, records that on the east side 

'there has lately been constructed outside of the exterior stone wall, a lunette of earthwork, on which are mounted five long nine-pounders cannon'). 

The Harte family moved to Kilderry near Muff in 1864 and the estate was soon after purchased by Stewart of Ards. Though subsequently let to various tenants, the castle was abandoned by c. 1890 and allowed to fall into ruins. It was bought by the Irish Land Commission in 1932 and is now a national monument.

My local friends remember visiting the castle in the 1970s and 80s. 

Beside the tower house is the more modern ruin of a Georgian country house. The guide described George Vaughan Harte as a military veteran who fancied himself living in a defended castle, with round towers and gun loops, bristling with cannon sourced from distant battlefields. The cannons were supposedly moved to the Arnold hotel in Dunfanaghy, but I've not seen them. 

On the east and south of the keep is an L-shaped building with a battered two-storey circular flanker at the NE corner. The flanker has a conical corbelled roof and is fitted with three gun-loops on the ground floor and two loops and a small pointed window with chamfered dressings on the first floor. 

The north wall of this addition is probably a modern rebuilding and in the exterior face above the entrance incorporates the initials G.V.H. (George Vaughan Harte) and the Harte Coat of Arms. 

This L-shaped building may possibly be contemporary with the large hall built on the S of the keep. The lower courses of the W wall of this building are battered. The gun-loops and window with chamfered dressings in the ground floor of the east wall may be original features. 

The north wall of this building is undoubtedly modern and the east and west walls at first floor level are probably replacements of earlier walls. ... The three-storey circular tower which abuts the northwest corner and the southwest corner of the keep is probably an addition; it is fitted with gun-loops on all floors. 

The keep and adjoining buildings are situated within a bawn which is enclosed by a curtain wall and is defended by a three-quarter-round flanker at the NE angle and bartizans above the other three corners. The flanker is three storeys in height and has a corbelled roof; it is provided with six gun-loops on the ground and first floors and four on the second floor. The bawn walls have a prominent batter on the exterior. 

The main entrance to the bawn is by a causeway over the fosse on the west, which is protected by crenellated walls fitted with gun-loops; these walls are not bonded on the east into the main curtain wall and projecting gate-tower. Immediately within the gate is the entrance to an underground passage which leads to a postern in the fosse through the south side of the causeway. 

This underground passage is gated now, but a sign informs us at it is a sally port, allowing defenders to leave the castle undetected and attack besiegers. 

This carved head over the gate is not a sheela-na-gig, and I can't find any information about it. Someone probably moved here from a nearby church.

Only a few weeks ago did I visit when the OPW hosts tours of the inside. 

Doe castle is a tower house, and now that I've visited a few, they are all very similar in design. (See my visit to the ruined Fantstown castle in Limerick, the one with the sheela-na-gig and so much more.) They were introduced to Ireland in the 12th Century by the Norman invaders. Previous to the Normans, Irish homes, even of the elites, were round. 


Modern day elites sometimes buy these tower houses and refurbish them. Actor Jeremy Irons rebuilt Kilcoe castle in Roaring Water Bay, West Cork, and employed local craftsmen for two years. Belvelly Castle, on Fota Island in Est Cork is recently restored. (Before restoration.  After restoration. )





As you can see, Doe castle walls are thick, and contain within them a "mural stair" that takes you from floor to floor. 

Starting at the bottom, the ground floor is now the entrance and museum. You reach the first floor via that narrow stair on the right. Between the first and second floors is an oak stairway built during the restoration. The third and fourth floor do not have a restored floor between them.


 
View from inside the tower to the east. 









The first thing you see when touring a tower house is the toilet, or garderobe. The name comes from the practice of hanging clothes above the ammonia fumes rising from the pit. The ammonia killed the lice. And you thought tetrachloroethylene smelled bad. The nobility smelled like old pee. 




Ground floor museum.

This is the stair we used from the ground floor to the 1st floor. 



About as steep as a ladder. 





When OPW restored the castle, they added nice wide oak stairs between the 1st and 2nd floors. 

The most interesting thing about the second floor is that without the new stair, the 2nd floor is not accessible directly from the floor below, but is reached via two stairways from the third floor. 

The guide said there are two theories about this. Perhaps, it simply made a bedroom more private, in a house that was also a garrison. On the other hand, maybe it was a trap room, allowing defenders to lure attackers up the main stairs and then down into the second floor where they would be trapped and attacked via the second secret stairway. 





Here is the room on the second floor, with an entrance to the secret stair from above in that corner. 



Fourth floor, showing mural stair up to the roof. 



The fourth and fifth floors. 



The dark spots on the wall holes where the floor joists for uppermost floor would have been inserted.


The burial ground near the castle is in service, with stones bearing the names of familiar local families. At the far end, there's a very old elaborate memorial stone that we've been curious about. I later learned that this is a reproduction of the original stone safeguarded in the castle museum. 


 
The corner of the tower is just visible over the trees on the left. 




Tomb-slab (DG026-023002-): On the exterior N face of the tower adjoining the SW corner of the keep is a 16th century trapezoidal tomb slab; it was brought here from the nearby graveyard (DG026-024004-) in 1968. It is carved with an elaborate cross; the head comprises an interlace centre-piece with seven radiating spear-shaped terminals. The shaft is decorated with a double band interlace pattern and rises from a Calvary of five steps which encloses the sacred monogram I.H.C. On the left of the shaft are carved, a bird and three animal figures (including a bull?) and, on the right, three interlace designs, a vine-leaf pattern and (now broken) an animal figure. The slab is damaged and the date and inscriptions on the right-hand edge and 'the date may be 1544 [M] CCCCCXXXXIIII, . . . and the name of the sculptor MADONIUF ORAVAITY [ME] FECIT'). The name of the person for whom it was carved is indecipherable but it was assuredly for one of the McSweenys of Doe. 

I thought this might make an interesting pattern for knitting. 

In one sense, a tower house is a McMansion built by invaders. But any 600 year old building is going to have a local history, and like all monuments in Ireland, the land, sea, and sky around it never changes and always lifts my spirits.