Squirrel in the steps of Richard Armitage and the Pilgrimage crew

Squirrel and her family took one for the team on their recent family vacation! Check out her story.

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Hello! Here are my Irish pagan pilgrimage memories, as a tribute to some scenes from the movie, Pilgrimage, and to the curious subjects of my current, variegated studies. They are meant to be descriptive for tourists and a playful tool and incentive for the “fans” who might be tempted to take this journey in the footsteps of the film Pilgrimage. I dedicate it to Servetus and Guylty, who I thank for her great advice! Happy reading!

A Journey to the Roots of Christianity and to Normans Invasion History and to Literary Culture

DUBLIN

St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin is built on the site where St. Patrick conducted the first conversions of the Irish to Catholicism. Its choir is composed mainly of stalls, in which the Knights of the Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick settled during the ceremonies. These stalls are surmounted by crests bearing their personal emblems and a flag bearing their coat of arms.

Choir, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Squirrel’s photo.

Christchurch Cathedral: I mention selectively the stone tomb of the Anglo-Norman Richard de Clare, nicknamed “Strongbow,” with his fabulous spurs. He was one of the most famous Norman lords of Ireland and, by tradition, debts were paid across his tomb. His original monument was “broken by the fall from the roof” in 1562 and “set up.” Strongbow is actually buried in the graveyard of the Ferns Cathedral.

Effigy of Strongbow, as it appears today.

Trinity College: The Old Library contains over 4.25 million printed volumes & significant quantities of manuscripts (including the Book of Kells), maps and music, facilitating access to cultural content in digital format for all. Thought-provoking minds have succeeded each other there. It’s recognized as a top international research center. So what about learning XIIIth century history before making a script and storyboard? (Just kidding.)

The Old Library, Trinity College.

English-language edition of Jeoffrey Keating, General History of Ireland [English name of Seathrún Céitinn, original tite Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, completed ca. 1634].

My son and daughter liked Dublin. They were enthusiastic and this is rare! They would be willing to plan a university internship there, or even to move and live there permanently, as far as my daughter is concerned.

A journey in the footsteps of the film Pilgrimage: WESTPORT, North County Mayo

Climbing up “Croagh Patrick Hill” (the misty peak on the right)

Dynamic, reckless “Squirrel” family on the way up — my husband, me, and my daughter

ONE OF THE OLDEST RELIGIOUS SITES IN IRELAND

“Croagh Patrick,” “the Reek,” “Holy Mountain,” “Cruach Phádraig,” or “Teach na Miasa”: Croagh Patrick was reputedly a site of pagan pilgrimage, since 3,000 BCE, especially for the summer solstice, and was once a Druid site. It is now a site of Christian pilgrimage associated with St. Patrick, who is said to have spent 40 days and nights fasting and praying for the conversion of Ireland in the fifth century. This mountain is home to an eleventh century monastery.

Squirrel fils (foreground) and Squirrel

TO FIND OUR LONG-FORGOTTEN GOLD

A seam of gold was discovered on the Reek in the 1980s: overall grades of 14 g (0.45 ozt) of gold per tonne in at least 12 quartz veins, which could produce 700,000 t of ore – potentially over 300,000 troy oz of gold (worth over €300 million). In 1989 plans to mine for gold drew huge opposition from the local community in Mayo, which launched a campaign to save the mountain. They succeeded in preventing gold mining. Mayo County Council elected not to allow mining, deciding that the gold was “fine where it was.” No attempts have been made to mine the mountain since.

On the way up the mountain, the exhausted and wet fan’s family would have sung “Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold”

This 764 m (2,507 ft) mountain was hard to climb because the surface of its path is made up of stones, cobbles, and pebbles.  The weather was sunny, cloudy, windy and even rainy.

East view from the top of the hill: bog farms; white plastic tarps covering peat; pine forest exploitation

On the last Sunday in July is the real pilgrimage. We climbed on Saturday, the day before. Some landscapes of the movie Pilgrimage were shot there.

Stunning west view from the middle of the hill: stone walls, sheep, 365 islands at Westport, Clew Bay, around which the last final movie scene was shot. For more about Clew Bay, I recommend this BBC video.

IRISH GASTRONOMY

A filling, satiating, nourishing, gargantuan meal: the perfect basis for hiking.

“Irish breakfast” with tea

“Irish Burger” with Coke

“Irish stew” or “Stobhach Gaelach” with Guiness

Irish meringue, crumble, apple cheese or cupcake

ACHILL ISLAND

Not far from Westport coast:

Beautiful graveyard with memorials to the victims of Achill’s greatest tragedies, the Clew Bay Drowning (1894) and the Kirchintilloch Fire (1937)

 

Rockfleet Castle, associated with Grace O’Malley, a fearless female leader who gained fame as sea captain and pirate. Not only men!

DELPHI, CONNEMARA

It’s a heartbreaking place for fundamentally different reasons.

The R335 from Westport in County Mayo to Leenane in County Galway is one of Ireland’s most beautiful scenic routes. North of Delphi in a typical old glacial valley, along the route, lies the beautiful Doo Lough Pass (“Black Lake”) between Mweelrea Mountain and the Sheeffry Hills.

“Doo Lough”, “Dhulough” or “Duloch”. Today, the monument in Doolough valley has an inscription, a quotation from Mahatma Gandhi: “How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings?”

Delphi Lodge was a shooting location and resort for the film crew, but a historic place of high human tragedy, too. One of Ireland’s most poignant spots is the site of the Doo Lough Tragedy, during the Great Famine of 1849. Many starving residents were forced to walk twenty miles or more in bad weather from Louisburgh to Delphi Lodge to attend an inspection and get famine relief. They were instructed to appear at 7:00 am, then sent back towards the town of Louisburgh, some twelve miles distant. It is supposed that more than 400 people died at Doo Lough on the journey.

A rather deserted place

At the end of «Doo Lough» lake – Salmon fishing ground

My dream would have been to fly as an osprey or an eagle above Delphi: “The Sheeffry Seven,” where I would have liked hiking if I had time enough. A video is here.

Our journey continued with views of many film locations:

Further down “Delphi Pass” towards Leelane was a natural wild salmon river dam – Ashleagh Falls

Sheep, heather, water bogs — like everywhere (the most characteristic features of Ireland 1/6)

Bog exploitation: cut peat collected to dry and gathered in blocks of turf called sods

Summery, green wooded valley as in Pilgrimage.

Beginning of Killary fjord entering Leenane (movie location in the fjord there).

CONNEMARA NATIONAL PARK

Hiking on “Diamond Hill,” “Bengooria,” or “Binn Ghuaire,” meaning Guaire’s Peak in English. It’s a friendly, cultural place to discover, a charming way to approach the hidden treasures of Connemara. There are many topics of great interest to focus on. The “Diamond Hill” is 445 meters (1,450 ft) high but easy to climb, and the paths are extremely well kept.

If I were younger and in better health, I would have tried the top hikes in Connemara: Owenglin Circuit Twelve Bens Galway or Traverse of the Maamturk Mountains, Connemara.

View of “Diamond Hill” from the garden of the Visitor Centre at Letterfrack

Hill surrounded with bogs and redhead.

Walking on sphagnum, mosses, and lichens on a bog path yields a strange sensation of softness, elasticity and sponginess. There are protected wildflowers to look at too: the Bog Asphodel, the Common Cotton-grass, the Foxglove, the Bugle, the Bogbean, the 2 Heathers: Calluna or Erica, the strange Butterwort and Round-leaved Sundew, and more common ones such as the Meadowswett, the Purple Loosestrife …

My daughter and I on “Diamond Hill,” on the quartzite path

Up “Diamond Hill,” the side view of “Twelves Bens” or “Twelve Pins” mountains and Kylemore Lake

Up hill gorgeous view of the “Twelve Bens” in Gaelic “Na Beanna Beola” (a known movie location area)

AND SOME GREAT “SOUVENIRS”

My most difficult adventure, trying to drive on the left side of the road

Burren & Cliffs of Moher geology discovery

Walls of Dublin (1)

Walls of Dublin (2)

Walls of Dublin (3)

 

Our holiday visit for pleasure was too short! We promise to be back next year, Madame Ireland!

Thank you all those who kindly welcomed, helped us, advised or inspired us to seek out this destination.

A special thank to my teenagers who took the pictures and helped me to send them. I conceived the text, but I took some sentences directly from Irish sources. Strongbow isn’t our photo, either.

ps: a link to an article about looking for ancient relics in Connemara.

~ by Servetus on August 24, 2017.