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North Cork is a beautiful part of the country, and alongside the banks of the River Funcheon that winds its way through the rich pastureland you can find Glanworth, a village full of heritage and history with a number of great medieval buildings to explore.

Glanworth is thought to be associated with a branch of the Eoghanacht, the ancient ruling dynasty of Munster during the early medieval period, however no visible remains from that time can be seen today. Instead much of the historic structures in the village date to the medieval period, following the Norman invasions. This area of Cork was granted to two brothers called de Caunteton (whose later descendants became Condon). They constructed a castle with a manor and town. By the end of the thirteenth century, Glanworth passed into the hands of David Roche through marriage, and his descendants remained there until they lost their lands after the Cromwellian confiscations in the seventeenth century.

 

The first place we stopped at Glanworth was at the medieval friary. This was founded by the Roaches for the Dominican Order in 1475. Unfortunately only the church remains of the monastic site as there are no above ground traces of all the other monastic buildings including the dormitory, cloisters and refectory. The church is quite plain, a long rectangular building with a tall tower. It does have a very fine window on the eastern wall and is well worth a visit if you’re in the village.

The fine gothic east window in Glanworth Friary

You can access Glanworth Castle through the grounds of the lovely Glanworth Mill. The castle is strategically positioned high on a rock outcrop and would have been an effective defensive position overlooking a key crossing point of the River Funcheon. 

Glanworth Castle positioned high on the limestone outcrop

It was first constructed by the de Cauntetons in the thirteenth century. Archaeological excavations at the castle revealed that the castle was constructed in four key phases, the first phase was a simple rectangular hall-keep surrounded by a strong wall which had a gatehouse in the western side. The main structure was the hall-keep, which served both as a defensive redoubt and a lordly residence, 

The hall-keep at Glanworth

this type of building was usually split into two floors with the ground floor being defensive and the upper floor containing the great hall and domestic quarters. You can see other similar examples of Glanworth’s hall-keep at Rindoon in County Roscommon and at the Rock of Dunamase in County Laois. Soon after the first phase was completed, the gatehouse was extended and converted into a domestic residence. During the fifteenth century in the third phase of the castle, the gatehouse was transformed into a fashionable towerhouse. During the fourth and final stage of construction at Glanworth in the early seventeenth century, a kitchen was constructed inside the walls. The castle was badly damaged by the Cromwellian General Ireton’s artillery in 1649, and never recovered as a defensive site.
You can get some lovely views over the River from the castle, where you can see the beautiful sixteenth or seventeenth century bridge.

Glanworth Castle

We did not get a chance to see it ourselves, but the ruined nineteenth century Church of Ireland church is on the site of where the medieval parish church would have been, and apparently you can still see traces of this earlier church, with medieval graveslabs reused as headstones and parts of medieval walls are still visible. 

The town of Glanworth is certainly worth a visit, and there are a number of great heritage sites nearby too like the impressive Labbacallee Wedge Tomb.

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Glanworth Castle

Conna Castle stands on a height that looms over the valley of the River Bride, a tributary of the Blackwater in Co. Cork. The Castle is a classic Irish Towerhouse, built around 1500 AD. After the rise in hostility between the Gaelic Irish and Anglo–Norman settlers in the fourteenth century, tower-houses became a common sight across Ireland, particularly within The Pale, the Anglo-controlled territory along the eastern coast. The English Crown had offered a subsidy of £10 to wealthy inhabitants of The Pale to build 'small towers to fortify their lands'.

The tower-house was usually surrounded by a bawn wall. This was often a large stone wall that served as the first line of defence. However there are very little remains of Conna's bawn wall as with most tower-houses the bawn wall is often removed, with its stone being recycled into other buildings over the centuries after the site is abandoned.

Tower-houses were not solely used by the Anglo-Norman settlers, the Gaelic Irish began to construct their own from the early fifteenth century, calling them caislén or caistél. Conna Castle was built by the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond, an Anglo-Norman family who had become increasingly assimilated into the Gaelic Irish culture. They resisted the Reformation during the reign of Elizabeth Ist and broke out into open rebellion in 1569. They failed, and the rebellion was ruthlessly crushed.  Their lands (including Conna) were seized by the Crown, even though the owner of the castle at the time Thomas Ruadh Fitzgerald had no part in the rebellion.

View from the base of Conna Castle over the River Bride

They were given to the famous English explorer, Walter Raleigh, who was granted 12,000 acres in Munster and made the nearby Lismore Castle into an elegant home. Thomas Ruadh went to London to try to press his rights as the legal heir to all of the Fitzgerald estates, but he was sent home empty handed, given only a nickname – Sugán Earl – The Straw Earl. 

When Hugh O'Neill launched his rebellion in Ulster in 1598, and achieved a great victory over the English at the Battle of the Yellow Ford, The Sugán Earl was emboldened, and launched his own rebellion. Supported by 4,000 troops sent by O'Neill, The Sugán Earl led a campaign to burn out the English settlers across Munster, however in 1601 he was betrayed by his kinsman, The White Knight. The Sugán Earl was taken to the Tower of London, where he became insane and died. Conna was then given to the Earl of Cork, Richard Boyle. In 1645 it was captured by Lord Castlehaven, and in 1650 Conna managed to hold off a ferocious attack by Oliver Cromwell, however it was burned in 1653 in a fire that killed three of the stewards daughters. 

Conna Castle passed from owner to owner until it came into the hands of the L'Estrange Family in the mid-nineteenth century, it was willed to the state in 1915. Conna Castle is easy to find as you can see it from miles away! It's located in the village of Conna between Fermoy and Tallow in Co. Cork. Park on the street and then access the site through the gate following the well made paths up the hill.

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+

If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. Our latest guide is to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews.

All photographs © Neil Jackman / abartaaudioguides.com

Known as Ireland’s Alcatraz, Spike Island has a long and varied history. The island is quite large at around 103 acres, it lies off the lovely harbour town of Cobh in County Cork. The first recorded habitation of Spike Island comes from the Early Medieval period. Saint Mochuda (also known as Saint Carthage), is said to have founded a monastic site on Spike in 635 AD. Spike next appears in the records when King Henry II claimed the island for the Anglo-Normans in 1176, however no traces of this earlier activity has been discovered by archaeologists on the island.

View of Cobh through one of the machine gun slits in a pillbox

It is thought that after his campaign in Ireland in the middle of the seventeenth century, Oliver Cromwell used Spike Island as a holding area for Irish Catholics who were being transported to work as indentured labourers on British plantations in the West Indies. This would not be the only time Spike Island served as a prison in its history. The island was also thought to be a popular spot for smugglers who were trying to evade the strict taxes of the time.

There is a wonderful variety of seabirds present on the island, including this Shag who seemed happy to pose for this picture

As the eighteenth century progressed, war between the increasingly ambitious European powers seemed inevitable. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, relations between Britain and France

had completely broken down following the French Revolution.

 Cork Harbour was of huge economic and strategic importance, so the British fortified Spike Island with batteries of cannons and a fort to deny entrance into the harbour to any hostile French shipping. A map of 1821 shows a large star-shaped fort, a hospital on the western side of the island, engineers yards, and a number of ancillary buildings, many of which are visible on the island today.

The fort is protected by a deep ditch covered by machine gun positions in the bunkers

In 1847 Spike Island again was used as a holding area for convicts before transportation to Australia and Tasmania. The convicts had a harsh life, and were used as forced labour to carry out numerous building programmes on the island, and by constructing the docks and forts on the neighbouring Haulbowline Island. Conditions on the island were said to have been very poor and arduous for the prisoners.

A number of political prisoners were held on Spike Island following the 1848 Rebellion. John Mitchell was probably the best known of these prisoners, Mitchell was an Irish nationalist and journalist was held on Spike Island before his transportation to Tasmania. Mitchell managed to escape the hellish life on Tasmania, and settled in America, where he became a prominent pro-slavery voice of the Confederate side during the American Civil War.

By 1883 all prisoners had been removed from the island and it reverted to being used as a military base.

One of the massive 6" guns on the island

During the First World War, Spike Island became an important base of operations against the German submarine fleet. During the War of Independence, hundreds of political prisoners and Republicans were interred at Spike Island. Under the Anglo-Irish agreement, Spike remained a British military base until 1938 when it was handed over to the Irish government. The Irish army and navy occupied the island, many living their with their families until 1985. The island served as a prison again, this time for young offenders, who remained on the island until 2004.
 

Block C Mitchell Hall

The island is an utterly fascinating place to visit and it really does have something for everyone to enjoy. History buffs like me, nature lovers and bird watchers, and people who just love a good walk in a beautiful and unique setting will all have a brilliant day out on this wonderfully atmospheric island. You can find out more about Spike Island, including how to get there and ferry times from Cobh from their website at http://www.spikeislandcork.ie.

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath

All photographs © Neil Jackman / abartaaudioguides.com

Something for everyone on the island, nature lovers, birdwatchers, history buffs and ramblers will all enjoy a trip

Drombeg is one of the finest of Ireland’s stone circles and certainly the most popular, attracting large numbers of tourists due to it’s picturesque setting. Like most of Ireland’s stone circles, the construction of Drombeg is thought to date to the middle and later period of the Bronze Age, approximately 3000 years ago. 

Stone circles are often considered to be places of ritual and ceremony. Drombeg is aligned with the setting sun of the mid-winter solstice (on the 21st December), a hugely important time in the ancient calendar as it marked the shortest day and longest night of the year. A time of rebirth and renewal as from that point on the days begin to grow. Drombeg’s  celestial alignment was first noted by Boyle Somerville in 1923, who saw that when observed from the entrance to the circle, the sun is aligned with the position of the large recumbent (horizontal) stone. 

The site has long been imbued with folklore and mythology, with the large recumbent stone being called ‘The Druid’s Altar’. In his book ‘A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany’, archaeologist Aubrey Burl records the story of Boyle Somerville who returned to the site in September 1935, accompanied by a psychic; Miss Geraldine Cummings: ‘She did not like the place. She felt it was…a place where animals, if not small children, were sacrificed at each winter solstice. She ‘saw’ a priest in blue and saffron robes standing at the altar of the recumbent about to kill his human offering… Drombeg was cursed. It was ‘guarded by spirits of darkness’. I didn’t notice anything overly sinister myself during our visit on Wednesday, instead of blue robed Druids we just saw a number of camera wielding tourists enjoying a lovely sunny day in West Cork. If you’re interested in more of the folklore associated with the site, do visit the excellent Voices of the Dawn website.

The site was excavated in 1957 by E.M. Fahy. He discovered that there was a compact gravelly surface within the circle, with a central pit containing the cremated remains of an adolescent and a broken, coarse pot dating to 1124–794 BC, perhaps as Aubrey Burl hints, this young person was an offering to the ancient gods. 

People still leave offerings of trinkets, coins and sweets on the Axial Stone

Nearby to the stone circle you can discover the stone foundations of Bronze Age huts and a well-preserved fulacht fiadh, these are a typical Bronze Age monument and fulacht fiadh are found across Ireland. Like this fine example at Drombeg, fulacht fiadh generally consisted of a stone-lined pit or trough, filled with water. Stones were heated on a fire, and when the stones were red hot they were dropped into the water, eventually causing the water to boil. Their function has been long debated in archaeology, from the traditional view of cooking places, to dying clothes, bathing pools or saunas and even as a brewery.  Back in 2007, I was fortunate to attend a reconstruction of a fulacht used to brew beer in County Galway by archaeologists Declan Moore and Billy Quinn. The simple process worked a treat, and produced very drinkable (and pretty strong!) ale. Just the kind of thing you’d want for a long cold mid-winter evening waiting for the Solstice!

The remains of the fulacht fiadh

Drombeg is a lovely site to visit, and on a bright sunny day there are few better places to be in the world than West Cork! You’ll find the site less than 10 mins drive from Rosscarbery, off the R597 road to Glandore at co-ordinates: 51.564561, -9.086998. The site is open all year round and is free to enter.

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Bridgetown Priory is a beautifully preserved medieval priory positioned on the western bank of the River Blackwater in County Cork. The Priory was founded in the early thirteenth century, by Alexander Fitz Hugh the Norman Lord of Castletownroache. He gave the site to the Augustinian Order, with thirteen carucates of woodland, pasture and arable land. A carucate was a medieval unit of assessment, that was calculated by the area a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single season. One carucate very roughly equates to around 120 acres, suggesting that Fitz Hugh’s original donation to the Augustinians at Bridgetown was around about 1560 acres.  He also generously donated one-third of his revenue from his mills and fisheries and all tolls from the bridge that once crossed the Blackwater at the Priory.

The Augustinian order had started to flourish in Ireland after the Anglo-Norman invasions that began in 1169, and as well as the establishment of Bridgetown Priory the area suddenly sprouted more priories, friaries, abbeys and nunneries nearby in Buttevant, Fermoy, Ballybeg, Glanworth and Castlelyons. We visited the remains of a number of those sites and will cover them in future articles here on Time Travel Ireland. Bridgetown Priory was a wealthy and prosperous site for the first century after it was established. In the Papal Taxation of 1306 the value of Bridgetown was reckoned at the hefty sum of £40.

The Tomb of the Roache Family

A number of the structures that make up Bridgetown Priory have survived in excellent condition, making it a fantastic site to explore. The early thirteenth century church is in good condition and contains an internal wall that seperates the nave (where the general congregation sat during mass) from the choir (reserved for the monks and clergy). There are signs of later medieval developments and modifications at the church, with a large two-storey residential tower added. You can see an interesting fifteenth century tomb of the Roche Family in the Choir, if you look carefully at the decoration you can see an upside down shield with a fish on it. Having the shield upside down indicates the death of the bearer, and the fish was the emblem of the Roche family who were probably key benefactors of the Priory. Above the tomb there is a well preserved late thirteenth century window.








 As you pass through the church you can encounter a number of medieval buildings and features such as a sixteenth century chapel, a well preserved thirteenth century graveslab, the calefactory (or warming house, apart from the kitchen, the calefactory was the only other building in the Priory allowed to have a fire), the priors domestic quarters, a room thought to be the kitchens, a large refectory where the priors met for large communal meals and a vaulted passageway that leads to the cloister. The remains are extensive and you can easily find hours slip by at this wonderfully peaceful spot. I highly recommend a visit, it has a similar feel and atmosphere to the extensive Kells Priory in Co. Kilkenny.

By the fourteenth century Ireland had fallen into a period of strife and warfare as the resurgent Gaelic Irish fought the Anglo-Normans for supremacy. Bridgetown itself suffered during this period, and by the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during King Henry VIII’s reign in 1541 the site was noted as being largely in ruins, and its value only estimated at £13. The last Prior at Bridgetown was given a pension, and the site was granted to the English soldier Robert Browne. The site was sold on a number of times before completely falling into ruin. Cork County Council began conservation works on the site in the late 1970’s and now it is open to the public. The site is free to enter with a number of interpretation panels positioned around the priory, and there is space to park your car in front of the site.

Bridgetown Priory is located about 12km west of Fermoy off the N72. About 2km south of Castletownroache take a minor road to the west at Kilcummer. Then take the road to the south after half a kilometre, the site is well signposted.

If you love images and information about Ireland's wonderful heritage sites you can get daily updates at Facebook, Twitter or Google+, or perhaps you might like to check out our website www.abartaaudioguides.com where we offer the highest quality audioguide experience in Ireland. Listen to the story of one of Ireland's iconic heritage sites, full of original music and sound effects they are a fun and immersive way of appreciating Irish history that can be enjoyed at the sites or from the comfort of your own home.

All photographs © Neil Jackman / abartaaudioguides.com

The tomb at Labbacallee near Glanworth in Co. Cork is Ireland's largest example of a wedge tomb, with a chamber that measures nearly 14m long. Wedge tombs are the most common of Ireland's megalithic tombs, and are most commonly found in the western half of the country. The name 'wedge tomb' simply refers to the simple wedge shape, as the height and width of the monument decreases from the front to the rear. Wedge tombs are the last of Ireland's megalithic tombs, and usually date to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age periods.

Labbacallee was excavated by Harold Leask and Liam Price in 1934. They found that the burial chamber was divided into two parts, a long gallery (see the header photo) and a small box like feature at the eastern end. This eastern feature contained cremated remains, and an unburned but headless skeleton of an adult female. The skull was found in the gallery next to the skeletons of an adult male and child. The remains of these three individuals were radiocarbon dated, the results revealed that they appeared to have been interred separately between 2456–1776 BC.

Folklore has always helped to protect some of Ireland's ancient sites. At Labbacallee, local legend tells the story that long ago four men went during the night to dig for gold that they believed to be buried inside the tomb at Labbacallee. As soon as they started to dig, a strange cat with fire erupting from its tail appeared, the men were terrified and dazzled by the blinding light coming from the tail of this hellish cat and they panicked, running across the fields fleeing for their lives, and in their confusion fell into the nearby River Funshion. One of the men drowned, but the others lived to pass on the warning not to disturb the ancient dead at Labbacallee!

 
The tomb is quite easy to find, from Glanworth simply head south on the R512 and take the first left after the church. The site is about 2km down this road. It will be on your left hand side behind a small stone wall. There is room to pull in off the road in front of the monument. There are a number of other great sites to see nearby, including lovely Glanworth itself with its Castle and Friary, and nearby you can also find the wonderful Bridgetown Priory.

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath
All photographs © Neil Jackman / abartaaudioguides.com