Closer Encounters – Fastnet Trails

The view from Cappaghglass, on the Rossbrin Walk

The view from Ballycummisk, on the Rossbrin Walk

Today (Sunday 28 June) a newly established system of walking trails was formally launched – by longstanding local TD (now retired) Jim O’Keefe – at Aughadown: we were part of the crowd

The Unveiling – from top left: mover and shaker Eugene McSweeney with Jim O’Keefe; Jim and the Fastnet Walk Trails Group Committee cutting the ribbon; on the inaugural walk – Fr Patrick Hickey giving us the low-down on smuggling at Roaringwater Pier; the wonderful Kilcoe National School Band

At Kilcoe Trailhead – the walks unveiled!

Rediscovering what we’ve only recently discovered… is that the best way of describing our experiences exploring the just launched Fastnet Trails? We have been traversing and driving around the boreens – local lanes and byways – that permeate this beautiful stretch of coastline and country on our own peninsula (Ballydehob is colloquially termed ‘the Gateway to the Mizen’) for the full two years that we have lived permanently here at Nead an Iolair. We have taken in the vistas – from the windows of our car – and appreciated the profuse combinations of sky, sea and mountain as we passed on our way; now, we are seeing everything anew, and in closer focus, because we have started to walk the trails.

Old Copper Mine at Ballycummisk (Rossbrin Walk)

Towards Mount Gabriel – Butter Road Walk

It may seem strange that many of these walks are along roads but don’t let that put you off! Remember that here in rural Ireland the old lanes were made to serve farmsteads and are little used today by anything more than very local traffic. I did the hike home from Ballydehob this morning (after my usual excellent coffee break in Budds) on the long route, passing by Ard Glas (Ballydehob Rossbrin Walk): I pootled along for well over an hour and didn’t see a single vehicle in the whole of that time! In fact, a passing car (or bicycle or tractor) is an event: invariably it involves a pause in walking while the time of day is passed in leisurely conversation during which acquaintances are made and news is passed on…

Have you time for a chat?

Before the official opening Finola and I undertook one of the walks (Lissheenacrehig Walk, starting at Kilcoe Trail Head): we deliberately chose the one that seemed perhaps the least interesting as it heads north inland and doesn’t pass directly by Roaringwater Bay. I’m not sure what we expected – after all, we had travelled all the little roads on this route by car previously – we are great explorers! In fact, our eyes were opened and we were surprised to be presented with wide views focussing on Mounts Gabriel, Kidd, Corrin and all the rugged uplands in between, and to be given the huge bonus of time to stop and scour inviting rock surfaces for new examples of Rock Art (we didn’t find any). But also it was the closer encounters which we really valued: a wealth (if that really is the right word?) of ruined sheds and cottages; wells, walls and wild flowers; an old burial ground with its memories of lives lived; the tumbling waters and green rocks of the Roaringwater River just before it empties itself into the Bay; archaeology (viewed from a distance on this occasion – the standing stones and ring forts are on private land and – as always – permission should be sought from the owners prior to visiting: that, of course, creating further opportunities for chat and dawdling).

View to Mount Kidd, Rossbrin Walk

Butter Road Walk

The signage on these walks is clear but discrete – you’d have to try very hard to lose your way. Very occasionally there are information boards: these have been well thought out and attractively drafted. At the end of our sample walk we realised we had taken three hours to do the 7.5 kilometres: the well produced trail information recommends allowing an hour and three quarters! I think that emphasises our predisposition to get diverted in every possible way…

Signage on the Butter Road

Useful signs along the way…

In all there are 80km of walks set out, from Schull in the west to Lisheen in the east. They are easily accessible, and there is ample parking at all the Trailheads.

The one trail which is largely away from surfaced roads is the Butter Walk, running between Ballydehob and Schull. This an ancient way – Finola has written about it and its fascinating history previously. It’s magical to get into the heart of rural Ireland and to immerse yourself in nature and a past writ so clearly on the landscape.

Along the Butter Road

We really believe that West Cork is pulsating with an underlying energy! So much has happened (and is happening) during our time here. Much of it is, of course, down to people who have been working away for years – often behind the scenes and, therefore, unappreciated – but future generations will realise what a debt is owed to these innovators: West Cork has been steadily and deservedly building its reputation as good food capital of Ireland, for example – and the opening of Uillinn in Skibbereen will emphasise the equal importance and historical context of the arts in these remoter landscapes. For music, drama and literature, also, we are always spoilt for choice: the furthest we have to travel is half an hour to see and hear world class performers in all these genres.

Roaringwater River, Lisheenacrehig Walk

The latest asset to bring West Cork to the fore is this – literally – trailblazing one: the establishment of a network of walking routes along the coast, through the countryside and into the wild places. Fastnet Trails has been quietly gestating now for some time: the launch today shows how much work has been undertaken already – and what fruition has been attained. On behalf of everyone locally we thank the organisers for achieving the realisation of their dreams which benefit all of us and the generations to come. A grand start has been made: undoubtedly, more good works will follow.

Light and shade: Lisheenacrehig Walk

Fastnet Trails are recognised by the National Trails Office and the Wild Atlantic Way: the venture has been organised by The Fastnet Walks Trails Group with the help of the Community Councils of Aughadown, Ballydehob and Schull

Posted on June 14, 2015June 14, 2015
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Close Reading

It’s mid June. The gorse and the whitethorn, once the dominant colours in our spring landscape, have come and gone. The last of the bluebells, primroses and the wild garlic are fading fast. By the end of the month, the boreens will be heady with fuchsia and bramble flowers, and soon after that they will be lined with ubiquitous montbretia.

So this is the early summer interregnum – we think of it as the time of the hedgerow flowers. Every day we discover new delights peeping out at us from among the ferns in the ditches and from the ivy-covered stone walls. Not all are wild, or native – it can be hard to distinguish when a planted hedge has gone wild, or a wild plant has turned into a hedge. Some of the flowers overwhelm – as with rapeseed that has colonised a lane or ox-eye daisies massed along a footpath.

But most hedgerows, like a good novel, call for close reading. It’s easy to be aware that they are alive with colours and shapes, but stopping to really look carries the most reward, even as it slows down the pace of our regular walk.

At first glance…

The photographs in this collection were all taken this week. I can’t name them all but I know they include herb robert, campion, foxglove, speedwell, honeysuckle, clover, thistle, marsh orchid, field roses, buttercup, ragwort, navelwort (penny pies). If you can identify others, dear reader, please do!

We weren’t the only ones interested in this bounty.

I kept the sweetest discovery until last. in this age of bred-to-last-and-look-right strawberries, what a thrill to come across a few precious wild ones and wander home with that real, glorious sweetness in my mouth.

Posted on June 7, 2015June 7, 2015
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Irish Farming – 6,000 Years Ago

The Céide Fields Visitor Centre

How did we farm in Ireland in Neolithic times? Turns out, much as we do now!

We’re just back from an inspiring trip to Mayo, the highlight of which was a visit to the largest Neolithic site in the world – the Céide Fields (pronounced Kay-jeh, for our non-Irish readers).

Collapsed field walls under the bog. The white stakes mark the line of the uncovered wall

When we think of the Neolithic (or New Stone Age, or Early Farming) period in Ireland, we automatically think of the megalithic tombs – spectacular sites like Newgrange and Loughcrew, or the smaller portal tombs, like Poulnabrone or Arderrawinny. But how did these people make their living? What were their daily lives like? We found the answers, going back almost 6,000 years, at the Céide Fields.

The extent of the fields around the Visitor Centre

The Céide Fields is an extensive system of enclosures, stretching for kilometres from the sea over the hills, used for livestock farming. Occasionally, besides grazing fields, there is evidence for corrals, grain-growing, and farmhouses. In fact, much like we see around us in West Cork nowadays, people lived in their own farmhouses, surrounded by their fields, within sight of their neighbours.

This enclosure surrounded a farmhouse

Society was cooperative – it had to be, in order for such an enormous network of fields to be constructed. And life was peaceful: there is no evidence of defensive structures. The weather was warmer than now – warm enough so cattle could graze outside all winter – and there was enough land and food for everyone.

They quarried rocks for fences and for structure like court tombs

They had a spiritual life, building their own version of megaliths – the Court Tombs. We were fortunate to meet the manager of the Céide Fields site, Gretta Byrne, who gave us directions to Rathlackan Court Tomb – a site she had excavated. Court tombs are a type of chambered tomb, generally oriented towards the east and featuring a forecourt at the front of a long mound that covered the chambers. Rathlackan is a fine example, with three chambers and a nicely preserved forecourt. It took a highly organised society to build a complex structure such as this.

Forecourt

Chambers

In the 1930s a local schoolteacher, Patrick Caulfield, first discovered what were clearly pre-bog collapsed walls when cutting peat in the deep blanket bog that covers this part of Mayo. Decades later his son, Seamus, now an archaeologist, headed the investigations that led to the realisation of how extensive the field system was. Mostly this was done by probing – sending a thin metal bar down through the soft peat until it hit a rock. This technique was so successful that miles of walls could be charted without the need to excavate. Excavation focussed on uncovering small sections of wall and features like enclosures and house-sites.

I take a hand at probing

About 5,200 years ago, a combination of climate change and forest clearance led to the development of the blanket bog that covers the land today and ultimately forced these Neolithic people, after 500 years of successful farming, to abandon their fields. The ecology of bogland and the conditions that create it are the subject of some of the museum exhibits and also of the excellent guided tour that covered two hectares behind the Visitor Centre.

A section of wall disappears under the bog

If you find yourself in this part of Ireland, do plan a visit to the Céide Fields. Take some bug spray – although they weren’t in evidence when we were there, the Céide midges have a reputation for ferocity. Enjoy the display in the award-winning Visitor Centre first and fortify yourself with a coffee and cake.

This pine came from the bog

Once outside, as you walk along beside the ancient stone walls, look across the valley towards Downpatrick, and marvel at the continuity of a way of life – small cattle farms among stone-walled fields – that began almost 6,000 years ago.

This scene, in Galway, could have happened 6,000 years ago in North Mayo

We’ll let Seamus Heaney have the last word. His poem, Belderg, was inspired by the Céide Fields:

When he stripped off blanket bog

The soft-piled centuries

Fell open like a glib;

There were the first plough-marks,

The stone-age fields, the tomb

Corbelled, turfed and chambered,

Floored with dry turf-coomb.

A landscape fossilized,

Its stone wall patternings

Repeated before our eyes

In the stone walls of Mayo.

Looking towards Downpatrick Head from the Visitor Centre

Posted on May 31, 2015May 31, 2015
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Ewe-nique Experience

Between Glengariff and Kenmare, amid old-growth forest and tumbling streams, lies an enchanted garden. Hewn from rock, trees, and sheer imagination – this is The Ewe Experience.

Sheena Wood: artist and ecologist

Kurt Lyndorf, a former war correspondent, and Sheena Wood, an artist, started the project in Goleen and moved it to this challenging spot several years ago. Their aim was twofold – to beguile and to educate and they have accomplished both in the most delightful way.

First and foremost this is a sculpture garden in which Sheena’s quirky sculptures of animals and spirits are discovered around every turn. Sometimes they are obvious, and sometimes only sharp eyes will pick out a hint of something hidden in the undergrowth. Made from discarded clothing, old tyres, fallen branches, even plastic bags, the figures are more than they seem at first glance – they carry the message of conservation and sustainability that is one of the themes of this garden.

Ghosts among the trees

Tyre dino

Peer

The pathways lead up and down and meander beside a sparkling stream.

Along the way there are places to stop and play games (we spent a long time trying to beat each other at Stixs) or read snippets of verse. Information panels encourage us to think about how we interact with the natural world and how we understand it.

Your move!

Children will love this place as much as adults. The photos you see here are but a tiny fraction of the ones I took on the day we visited last year, just at the end of their season. It’s open again now, and I know Sheena and Kurt spend the winter planning new installations, so you may or may not see exactly what we saw.

Prepare to be captivated!

Careful on the way out!

Posted on May 24, 2015May 24, 2015
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Trading Up in Tudor Times: Fortified Houses in West Cork

Coppinger’s Court, Ballyvireeen, near Rosscarbery

Fortified houses are a distinctly Irish phenomenon. The Tudor period in Britain ushered in a great era of house building with many distinctive features. But England was a peaceful place – the owners of these great houses did not expect to be attacked. Tudor Ireland was a very different environment: life was still dangerous and conflict between the native Irish and the planter class, or between Irish clans, was common.

Machicolations at Coppinger’s Court

Up to the end of the 16th century the castle/tower house was the residence of choice of the powerful – a tall stone keep mainly focussed on defensive features and horribly uncomfortable to live in. (See When is a Castle..? for a complete run-down on tower houses.) These new houses emphasised the horizontal rather than the vertical, and were built with comfort in mind. However, they incorporated some of the defensive features of the tower houses – they were “fashionable but defendable.”

Mullioned windows

In Ireland they represented “a public display of power and wealth…[and] a long-term investment in their owner’s regional future and were monuments to an aspiration for an English and Continental house style suited to local Irish conditions. On a basic level the construction of a fortified house represented the owners desire to modernise and Anglicize.” These quotes and much of the information that follows is taken from The Fortified Houses of County Cork: Origin, Fabric, Form, Function and Social Use of Space, by Joe Nunan, who has generously made it and related material available on his website.

Gun loop at ground floor level, Coppinger’s Court

Fortified houses were built of stone but all internal floors, stairs and partitions were of wood. Defensive features included machicolations, bartizans, wall walks, gun loops, corner towers or wings to provide for flanking fire. They were built starting about 1580 up to about 1650.

Tower and Bartizan, Reenadisert

There are four (or five, if you include Baltimore Castle) surviving fortified houses in West Cork. The one that is most accessible (should you wish to visit) is Coppinger’s Court, in Ballyvireen townland near Roscarbery. It is also one of the most magnificent examples of this type of dwelling in Ireland. Some of the mullions remain in upper windows, and a sharp eye will spot gun loops in the outer walls. The machicolations are particularly fine, with impressive cut stone supports. This was the home of the infamous Sir Walter Coppinger, whose plan was to build a complete settlement around him in this lovely spot on the banks of the Roury River. He was a despot who got rich through clever manipulations of mortgage documents and he was said to hang his enemies from a gibbet from one of his windows.

The chimney on top of this wall has fallen – note the pile of stones on the ground

The house was so awe-inspiring in its time that the legend developed that it had a window for every day of the year, a chimney for every week and a door for every month. The house was eventually attacked and ransacked in 1641 and has sat in ruins ever since. Sadly, one of the magnificent chimneys fell down in the storms of early 2014. Evidence of a bawn wall remains, with possible outdoor cooking areas.

Gearhameen – a U shaped plan

The fortified house at Gearhameen near Durrus, built by the MacCarthy Muclaghs, provides evidence of the comfort that these new ‘castles’ provided. The household work was done on the ground floor – large kitchens contained huge fireplaces, and in this house we can see the main kitchen fireplace had a bread oven to one side and a slop hole for sweeping out leftovers to the pigs, who must have been in an attached pen (the smell!).

Large ground floor fireplace with bread oven

The first and second floors have large fireplaces, with magnificent herringbone chimneys still intact (and hosting nesting choughs).

Living quarters, large fireplace, joist sockets for first floor.

Rather than the machicolations we see at Coppinger’s Court, corbels on the outside walls probably supported wooden or stone platforms.

Corbels supported a platform for defenders

Like Coppinger’s Court, the outer walls still stand to their full height, but the loss of a keystone above one arch, and the consequent development of a large crack above it, bodes ill for that section of the wall.

Missing keystone

The house at Reenadisert, near Ballylickey, has been built onto and within over the centuries, serving as a modified dwelling place and as farm buildings. It was the stronghold of an O’Sullivan and has an impressive bartizan on one of the external towers. It is in a very ruinous state inside – the eeriness is enhanced by an enormous crows’ nest that has fallen from inside one of the chimneys to rest on the ground. There is evidence of a basement but this cannot be accessed.

Fallen nest

The house at Aghadown, home to the Becher family, consists only of one wall with attached towers. Ivy has threatened to take over most of it – I love Leask’s description of ivy – “destructive green mantle beloved of the sentimentalist.” Through it one can make out traces of the slate that once hung on the wall above the ground floor, the outline of corbels at roof level, and a string course between the ground and first floor.

Aghadown Fortified house occupies high ground with a commanding view

Interestingly, Dún na Séad Castle in Baltimore, home of the O’Driscolls, is described as a fortified house in the National Monuments Inventory. It possesses aspects of both a tower house and a fortified house – in this photograph you can see the corner bartizan, a gun loop, and the long, rather than tall, shape.

Dún na Séad or Baltimore Castle

For a comparison of the two types of edifices, take a look at Leamanagh in Clare – here a 17th century fortified house has been literally tacked on to a 15th century tower house.

Leamanagh, in County Clare

Joe Nunan provides useful summations of Irish fortified houses. Among other points, he says the following:

The fortified houses built in Co. Cork had a unique Irish architectural quality and a distinct southern English look and feel; the result of contacts built up between both regions, politically through plantation-immigration and economically, through trade with the port and fishing towns of Waterford, Cork, Kinsale, Youghal and Baltimore. The social changes that took place in Tudor England were reflected in architectural form by the elites in that society and it was the latter who spearheaded the Munster plantations. They were noblemen who viewed Munster as another region within a larger England and it was through these individuals that the initial architectural influence of the many gabled, oblong country manors with circular, square, rectangular and hexagonal corner-towers was introduced into Co. Cork.

Reenadisert

We are lucky to have these fine examples of fortified houses in West Cork still. However, all of them apart from Baltimore Castle are in a perilous state of dereliction. Gearhameen’s owner has tried to stabilise the building and stave off collapse but all of them may eventually succumb to the natural ravages of time. That’s a sad thought.

Posted on May 17, 2015July 24, 2015
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The Village That Never Was

Colourful Courtmacsherry

In the Days of Yore – when I first started to visit the west of Ireland – I travelled on the good old Swansea – Cork Ferry. It’s such a shame this route has now been scrapped (not once but twice): it was an overnight crossing, leaving the Welsh port at 9pm and arriving in the mouth of the Lee estuary at dawn. I felt there was nothing more beautiful than the slow cruise up through that great natural harbour in the early morning sunlight: passing lighthouses, lookout towers, mothballed ships, the Irish Navy and the coloured terraces of Cobh (pronounce it Cove), before disembarking at the exotically named Ringaskiddy Terminal.

Swansea – Cork Ferry: above – Celtic Pride, 1980s, below – MV Julia, withdrawn in 2011

Part of the excitement of that journey was the anticipation of the drive down to Ballydehob and beyond. I always went on the R600 route, passing through Carrigaline and Kinsale – stopping, of course, at Ballinspittle to check that the BVM was safely in place at her grotto – before heading out along Courtmacsherry Bay. The journey alongside that ribbon of water – the road hugs it for some 10 kilometres – is recommended as an exemplary introduction to the landscape characteristics of rural Ireland.

This water was known as Timoleague Bay until it became silted up in the 18th century

What was formerly Timoleague Bay is now known as Courtmacsherry Bay. Timoleague was the head of the navigation and thrived from wharfs built in front of the medieval Priory there until a catastrophic earthquake occurred in Portugal in 1755 causing a tsunami which hit the coasts of Britain and Ireland and dramatically changed the topology. This bay is one example: the inlet was no longer navigable for sea-going vessels up to Timoleague, and new piers and quays were built further to the east, closer to the mouth of the estuary, on the north facing shoreline. The place we now call Courtmacsherry didn’t exist until after this maritime event (hence the title of this post).

The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 changed the shoreline of Britain and Ireland

So how did the name ‘Courtmacsherry’ come about? It’s an unusual one, and a bit of a mouthful – locals call it simply ‘Courtmac’. According to Sean de Barra of the Courtmacsherry Historical Society the area was settled by the Hodnett family from Shropshire, in England:

…In the course of time they became more Irish than the Irish themselves and took the Irish version Mac Seafraidh…

…Which sounds like Macsherry – the prefix Cuirt would have been ‘Manor House’ or ‘Mansion’.

The Hodnett name is still familiar in the area

Although I travelled so many times along the road up to Timoleague it is only very recently that I actually diverted to visit Courtmacsherry. I’m very pleased that I finally did: it’s an attractive settlement which displays many aspects of its 300 year history. I had heard of the place – it has a lifeboat which is twinned with the one in Bude, Cornwall (have a look at this post). I worked for very many years in Bude with Jonathan Ball, who was Coxswain with the Bude boat and he led (and still leads) a choir from the Bude crew who have an annual twinning visit with the Courtmacsherry crew.

The Courtmacsherry Lifeboat has recently been in the limelight as the Centenary of the sinking of the Cunard liner Lusitania by a German torpedo has just passed (here is a very detailed account of the tragedy). The RNLI lifeboat Kezia Gwilt was on call during that event (having to row the 11 miles out to the wreck because there was no wind to sail her with) and helped rescue survivors. Sadly, 1,198 of the 1,959 people on board lost their lives on 7 May 1915.

Model of Lusitania on display in Courtmacsherry, 2015

The village is unusual in that it has virtually only a single street facade, which follows the line of the water. Finola liked the colourful house fronts! Fishing is still a living here, just about. Tourism is important nowadays: we certainly appreciated the hostelries, including the Golden Pheasant Cafe. There really are Golden Pheasants in the cafe garden and – to my delight – Robins and Chaffinches who will eat from your hand. Also, in the aviary, a magnificent Eagle Owl. Apart from all this the food is excellent!

Single sided street…

As with our own village of Ballydehob, Courtmac was served by a branch of the West Cork Railways. Although planned as a three foot gauge ‘roadside railway’ (just like our Skibbereen to Schull line), the Timoleague and Courtmacsherry Extension Light Railway was actually built to full gauge, and lasted a little longer: our line closed in 1947, this one in 1960. The track bed from Timoleague has been made into a scenic waterside footpath covering several kilometres.

Timoleague Station around 1910, top left – seaside Courtmacsherry 1950s, top right – the waterside walk along the old railway line, above

Our visit to Courtmacsherry was too short: we will be back soon, to take in the Castle and the Abbey – and to try and find out why it has an area called Siberia! My researches showed that there is another Siberia in Ireland: it’s in County Sligo and is also known there as Slieveroe. In that case the name is said to have come from An Sliabh Rua, which means ‘Red Mountain’ – but there are no such topographical features in this part of West Cork.

I didn’t quite draw a blank with ‘Siberia’. Here’s an extract from Eating Scenery – West Cork, the People and the Place by Alannah Hopkin, The Collins Press 2008:

…In July and August, like most coastal villages in west Cork, Courtmacsherry can be too busy; it is heavenly in May and June, September and October. But in winter Courtmacsherry is deadly quiet, prone to dull, dark days of low sky and mist, when you are acutely aware of its north-facing character.The only compensation in this season is the presence of thousands of migrant birds, great clouds of golden plover, lapwing, blacktailed godwits, and Arctic shags, fleeing the cold of Scandinavia and Siberia to roost on the mudflats of Courtmacsherry Bay…

The Unveiling – from top left: mover and shaker Eugene McSweeney with Jim O’Keefe; Jim and the Fastnet Walk Trails Group Committee cutting the ribbon; on the inaugural walk – Fr Patrick Hickey giving us the low-down on smuggling at Roaringwater Pier; the wonderful Kilcoe National School Band

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