Just on the outskirts of Ventry, Fionn Trá or possibly Ceann Trá, is a rare and fascinating museum – the Celtic and Prehistoric Museum, currently visited by appointment only due to Covid restrictions. It’s a personal collection with some truly remarkable artefacts and well worth a visit. However, lurking in the hedge a little further […]
Ventry
A Peregrination part 1: the wanderings of St Gobnait
With time to think, research and mentally meander, St Gobnait has been in my thoughts. I thought it might be interesting to look in detail at her remarkable journey when she too (physically) meandered around Munster, as she searched for the site of her resurrection. It’s a long and complicated wandering and will be covered […]
Water into Wine & Other Stories; three wells dedicated to St Brendan
There are a wealth of wells dedicated to St Brendan in County Kerry. So far I have visited where he was baptised, where he anointed two heathens, where he received the vision to go across the Atlantic and various others that are dedicated to this well beloved and wandering saint. Three more were on my […]
Two wells & a whole lot more at Cill Mhaoilchéadair
The western tip of Corca Dhuibhne, the Dingle Peninsula, is remarkable for the sheer density of early Christian remains: ecclesiastical enclosures, early crosses and holy wells abound. Passing through these clusters is Cosán na Naomh, the Saint’s Path, which is surely no coincidence.This pilgrim path starts in Dingle, Ventry or Kilmalkedar and wends its way […]
Tobar Manacháin agus an Madra
I’m back in the Gaeltacht having finished an intense but rewarding week on an Irish language immersion course in Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Corca Dhuibhne; Ballyferriter, Dingle Peninsula. (There’ll be a lot of Irish in this blog, hopefully mainly spelled correctly, but it seems only right to give names in Irish first). The course was very […]
Trekking through Glens: Tobar na nGealt
… A long time he went faring through all Ireland, poking his way into hard rocky clefts, shouldering through ivy bushes, unsettling falls of pebbles in narrow defiles, wading estuaries, breasting summits, trekking through glens, till he found the natural welcome of Glen Bolcáin. That place is a pastoral asylum, where all madmen Of Ireland […]