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Published: August 6th 2007
Last Saturday all of us went to Glendalough (glen of two lakes) and the Wicklow Mountains. It is a monastery that was founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin, but the buildings date from the 8th through 12th centuries. It is located about an hour and a half from Dublin and is nestled into the mountains. Glendalough was once the religious philosophy learning center of Europe. Apparently Ireland was having a golden age while the rest of Europe was in the Dark Ages. A lot of the main abbeys around Europe were started by Irish priests. It is a beautiful monastic community by two lakes and lots of walking trails. The monks house, the round tower, and the church are all still standing. The cathedral is missing the roof and parts of some of the walls. No one really knows what the round towers (located at most of the monastic sites in Ireland) were for. The theories include storehouse, bell tower, and refuge from raiders or a combination of those. It didn’t work very well as a refuge from the Vikings. The monks hid in the tower (which has 6 wooden floors) with the relics of the church but the
Vikings managed to break in and set fire to the inside. Ten monks were killed in the fire. BTW the door is a good 6 feet off the ground and the monks would pull the ladder in behind them.
One of the most interesting things there was the monolith Celtic cross erected as a marker for the site. It is made of granite from the mountains and it is very different from most Celtic crosses. It has 90 degree angles on the cross instead of the curved cross, it doesn’t not have any decorative carvings on it and it is missing the holes that normally are between the cross and the circle around it. I have attached a picture of it and a normal Celtic cross (this one was on a grave stone so it did not have carvings on it). There is no way to date granite but they believe that the cross may be an early design of the Celtic cross.
The researchers cannot excavate the site until 80 years after the last member of the families that hold burial rights dies. There are 18 families that still hold burial rights there so they may never
get to excavate the site. The area around the site was quite beautiful. Very tall trees and many walking/hiking trails and probably the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. It is the sort of lake you would imagine that Arthur got Excalibur from.
After a couple of hours we left to go to Monkstown (a suburb of Dublin) to attend a traditional Irish dance and music show and to enjoy traditional Irish food. The food was interesting (bad interesting) at first but got better as the courses went on. The show was incredible. The Riverdance that everyone has seen on TV is not traditional Irish dancing. The leg movements are but traditional dancing requires that you keep your arms straight at your side at all times (unless doing a couples dance). The requirement comes from strict religious observances. The dancers even pulled people up to dance with them. I am so glad I wasn't picked. I did get a short video of the dancing.
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Aunt Dian
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Beautiful Scenery
Kirsten, I so enjoy the wonderful pictures you send and the history of it all. I would love to see for real the places you have just sent today. Such a wonderful experience to have, take full advantage of it. By the way, Caroline was very excited when I emailed her that you are going to have a little one. I sent her your blog and hopefully she will get a chance to follow it and to email you soon. She just finished her exams, passed, and is hoping to move into her own flat soon.