I'm on my way to attend the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul, where I'm giving a class on multimedia (Introduction To Multimedia). The class will adopt a simulated under pressure work environment where class participants have to shoot, edit and present their photographs and audio tracks to me, to eventually produce a publishable 3-5 minutes audio slideshow.

I'm stopping over in London for a couple of nights, then catching a flight to Attaturk Airport on the 19th June.

I will try to post on this trip as much as I can...perhaps even post some photographs of the workshop's going-ons. I'm taking my new Panasonic Lumix GF1 especially for that purpose. I'm also hoping to shoot for a personal project in Istanbul.

Photo © Kieron Nelson-All Rights Reserved
The only introduction from Kieron Nelson to his work is an email with his website's address, so I assumed he was suggesting I took a look at it and, if it passed muster, add it to The Travel Photographer blog.

Well, it easily passed muster and I'm delighted it did as it's a veritable trove of lovely photographs of indigenous people and of tribal cultures. He specializes in off-the-beaten-track destinations, and traveled from the jungles of New Guinea to the tribal regions of northwest Pakistan.

The photograph for this post is of a Changjiao Miao woman wearing the long horns with the traditional decorative hair bun made of linen, wool and small amounts of ancestral hair. Changjiao or "Long Horns", when directly translated, reflects the custom of animal horns being worn as head ornaments by tribe women for special occasions.

Kieron won an impressive number of photographic awards, and because of the spelling of certain words on his website, I guess he's British educated, but that's all I know of him.

I guarantee you'll spend a long time going through his Vanishing Cultures website.

I randomly came across these guys while walking through the basement of the Central (6 Eu Tong Sen Street #B1-49, 6222-0801). I didn't really think much of it until I realized that it was actually a chain from Korea. Since I still needed just a little more food, I figured that I'd grab one of their "baby rolls" just to give it a try.

Unfortunately, they were out of the one that I wanted, so I had to get this bulgogi version instead. It pretty much tasted like how you'd imagine it to taste: bulgogi wrapped in rice and seaweed, Korean style. I'm not getting this again, but I'll come back just to try some of the other things on the menu.

It seems to be buried in the backpages, but you may have heard about a report on the airline industry that came out today co-authored by Dean Headley of Wichita State University. The short version: service sucks and everyone is pissed off.

More airline passengers bumped, more bags lost and fewer on-time flights. For the third year in a row, those problems grew worse for the industry, according to an annual study that rates airline quality.

"They just don't get it yet," said Headley. Who's "they" and what don't they "get?" Well, take this statement from a spokesman for the Air Transport Association: "We're going to see more delays and those delays translate to cancellations, mishandled bags and unhappy passengers," It's not a pretty picture." He doesn't expect that picture to get better soon and he blames... the weather. I think we could look for a better answer-- and solutions-- from Jonathan Tisch.

A lot of executives at my former company, Warner Bros. Records, used to stay at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue in NYC. Before I started working at WB, an incident at the hotel became part of Warner Bros lore. One night during a series of executive meetings at the hotel all the rooms on an entire floor were broken into and 4 of our guys were robbed. The hotel handled their complaints so poorly-- practically blaming them for the problem and telling them that the hotel was too busy to help them or to even call the police-- that the Regency went from being the hotel of choice for our company to a hotel no one trusted... or stayed at. This was long before Jonathan Tisch became CEO of Loews Hotels.

In fact, reading Tisch's new book, Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough-- Reinventing the Customer Experience, is almost like getting a response to the whole hideous incident. Something like that could never happen under his leadership. Tisch is one smart cookie and this latest book by him is a must read for anyone involved in marketing. But aside from being an author, CEO of Loews Hotels and one of the heads as the whole U.S. tourism industry (as Chairman of the Travel Business Roundtable for over a decade), he is also mixed up with government and politics. That's what I wanted to talk with him about when I got him on the phone last week. It isn't what he wanted to talk about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's flattered people are pushing his name out there to be NYC's next mayor but he just wanted to talk with me about his ideas about customer service. He's got a great reputation as an old-fashioned-- or is it futuristic-- CEO who champions corporate responsibility and believes-- as well as acts on-- the premise that a company can do well and do good at the same time. That's a very hard line to sell to Wall Street. (He told me it's his cousin's job to talk with the Wall Street analysts, not his.)

He says tourism is 100% non-partisan and that it's part of the lifeblood of every state and every congressional district in the nation. He spends a lot of time working with government on issues critical to the tourism industry. A Democrat, in 2003 he was appointed to the Department of Commerce's U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board and he was a founder of the Discover America Partnership. I asked him if the Bush Regime is trying to politicize the Board he serves on the way they have been politicizing the Department of Justice and the General Services Adminsitration. I could almost see him rolling his eyes on the other end of the line. "No," he said.

So what did Tisch have to say about today's report about the airline industry? By now you should be able to guess yourself. "It would be wonderful if the airlines could think of themselves like other parts of the travel and tourism industry, and not just in the business of transportation. These new numbers show that as a group, they may be wining the battle of profitability, but losing the war of customer service."

I don't know about you, but when I'm on a ridiculously long line 2 hours before my plane is scheduled to take off-- and it probably won't be on time anyway-- and I'm holding my shoes and praying my belt buckle won't set off an alarm and that I'll remember to take back my cell phone and keys, I'm just hating George W. Bush even more than usual. And every foreigner I've spoken to who either comes here to visit or contemplates coming here to visit, is a lot more pissed off than I am.

OK, now we're getting into Tisch's territory. Foreign tourism is down nearly 20% since Bush, at heart a paranoid, provincial hayseed and a xenophobic nativist, took over the White House. The Republicans may have once been a business friendly party but now... well, during the Bush era our economy has lost $93 billion in revenue from global tourism (and $15 billion in taxes)-- not to mention 58 million fewer visitors and nearly 200,000 lost jobs. Last week the Department of Commerce released figures that reveal that overseas travel to the U.S. remains below pre-9/11 levels in six of the top eight overseas markets-- Mexico and Canada being the two exceptions. Travel to the U.S. in 2006 fell further in five out of the top eight overseas markets. A 2006 survey of overseas travelers conducted by the Discover America Partnership found negative perceptions of the U.S. entry process to be the greatest deterrent to visiting the country. That's not pro-Business and it's not good customer service. Tourists and businessmen from Britain, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Brazil are opting to go elsewhere.

Friends who stay at Loews hotels swear that service and overall product are noticably improved since Tisch took the helm. I couldn't find a dissenting view. When I asked friends in NYC what they thought of Tisch as mayor, those who knew who he is were enthusiastic. By chance while I was writing this my old boss, Seymour Stein, called me to fret about the possibility of Giuliani becoming president. I assured him it wasn't going to happen and when he was calmed down I asked him about Tisch. "He's very smart and he has a good heart. His family are equestrians and they once wanted to buy my ranch. He'd be a great mayor. That Giuliani... he was the worst..."


Tisch has been a super generous contributor to Democrats over the years, although almost all of the donations have been to button down Establishment and conservative Democrats, from the Blue Dog PAC, Harold Ford, Joe Lieberman (a former Democrat), Evan Bayh, Ken Salazar, Rahm Emanuel... and (many) hundreds of thousands of dollars to the big Inside-the-Beltway committees like the DNC, DSCC and DCCC. I didn't find many contributions for Republicans other than to Mark Foley, and token donations to Al D'Amato (once a cost of doing business in New York) and Conrad Burns. This week Jonathan made a very cool contribution to Blue America: a boxful of personally autographed copies of Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough. We'll be giving them away this Saturday at firedoglake as part of a live blog session with the man who represents-- among others-- Jonathan Tisch: Congressman Jerry Nadler. Come over and join us at 11AM est. The book is great.

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The interior of the 19th century part of the church

Every now and again a heritage site really surprises me. We were out on Friday looking at sites in the North County Dublin / Fingal region, and we really enjoyed visiting the town of Swords with it’s fine round tower and castle. After a lunch stop at Malahide Castle, we decided to stop at a church called St. Doulagh’s that was nearby. We thought it would be a ten minute stop but we were extremely lucky that we bumped into Victor, who works at the site and he gave us a fascinating guided tour of a truly remarkable building. 

The medieval font

St. Doulagh’s is still used as a Church of Ireland place of worship, and on first entering the church it appears as a very nice, but not particularly unusual place, with fine oak vaulting on the ceiling and the stately but welcoming feel typical of a lot of Church of Ireland buildings. However the first clue of the buildings antiquity was the plain medieval baptismal font that is still in use today. And when we were led into the vestry in the old part of the church, the sheer history of the building became very apparent. 

A medieval piscina and fragments of a medieval sculpture in the vestry

A monastery is believed to have been founded here by the little-known, seventh century anchorite hermit Saint Doulagh. However the earliest historical reference to the church dates from the ninth century, in the Martyrology of Oengus. In that text the church is called Duilech Cain Clochair. The site has many of the features of an early medieval monastery, in the 1980s excavations by the archaeologist Leo Swan discovered a number of burials and the enclosure ditches that once surrounded the monastery. 

The church building is a fascinating mish-mash of a number of different periods, and it can be extremely difficult to work out which features date to what period. The eastern end of the building is thought to be the earliest. It has a very steeply vaulted stone roof and has a croft or living quarters for the monks. It is a little reminiscent of the vaulted stone roof of St. Kevin’s Church at Glendalough, or St. Colmcille’s House in Kells. This part of the building is thought to date to the twelfth century, making St. Doulagh’s the oldest stone-roofed church still in use as a place of worship. The tall central tower is thought to have been added in the fifteenth century, and you can access a number of the rooms from the exceptionally narrow spiral staircase

The very narrow spiral staircase

In the entrance hall there is a small ‘hermit’s cell’ which is reputed to be the burial place of St. Doulagh himself. From there you can access the handsome 19th century church that adjoins the older building. 

In the grounds of the churchyard you can find a lovely octagonal building covering St. Doulagh’s Holy Well and it is a charming and atmospheric spot. The interior was covered with frescoes in the early seventeenth century, painted in 1609 by a Mr Fagan, of Feltrim, though Victor the guide informed us that they were destroyed in the aftermath of the Williamite Wars. 

Just behind this well you can find another well dedicated to St. Catherine. It appears as an underground bath enclosed by a rectangular vaulted building, but this one is unfortunately not accessible at present. Just on the outside of the site near the entrance you can find an early medieval plain granite cross on a modern stepped-base. This was said to have been moved from the inside of the churchyard in the late 18th century. 

I strongly recommend a visit to St. Doulagh’s, it is a really fascinating building with a great atmosphere. St. Doulagh’s church is located at Balgriffin, on the Malahide Road, some 600 metres north of Balgriffin Cemetery. It is on the bus route 42 or 43 from Dublin City Centre.

St. Doulagh's Well

The early-medieval granite cross

Tours are available from May to September on Sundays from 2.30pm - 5.30pm. Tours can be arranged at other times for school, families, historical societies and heritage groups by contacting The Friends of St Doulagh's, see their website for more details: http://www.fingaldublin.ie/interior-pages/activities-attractions-amp-conference/castles-churches-and-towers/st-doulaghs-church/

I hope you enjoy our blog, and if you have any suggestions for historical sites you’d like me to cover please do get in touch at info@abartaaudioguides.com. If you'd like to support us please check out our acclaimed series of audioguides to Ireland’s heritage sites, they are packed with original music and sound effects and a really fun and immersive way of exploring Ireland’s past. They are available from www.abartaheritage.ie.
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Some Sources and Further Reading

Baker, C. 2010. Antiquities of Old Fingal (Wordwell, Dublin) 

Harbison, P. 1982. St. Doulagh’s Church (in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 71, No. 281)

Wade over at Outdoorzy.com has a fun post in his blog yesterday on the Top 10 Cooletest Innovations in Backpacking Gear. I won't spoil the list, but lets just say there is a lot to love on it.

I agree with a lot of the things that made his top ten list, but would probably add the improvements in backpack designs as well. The packs today are large, spacious, comfortable, and have more features than we could have dreamed of even ten years ago. I do have a big thumbs up to the mention of the Jetboil and the MSR Miox Water Purifier. The gear innovations just don't stop coming. And we just keep dishing out the cash. :)

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Last Saturday we visited the infamous Hellfire Club on Montpelier Hill, just south of Tallaght in County Dublin. The Hellfire Club is steeped in stories of dark events and the occult. It was built by the famous Irish politician William Speaker Connolly in 1725 as a hunting lodge, however this building wasn't the first structure on the hill. In the foreground of our header picture you can see a low grassy mound with some large stones, this could be the remains of the Neolithic passage tomb that William Connolly is said to have had destroyed to clear the land for the lodge. Looking at a Google Satellite image of the Hellfire Club, you can clearly see traces of the circular earthworks that formed the Neolithic tomb, judging by its comparative size to the building it would have been a very large example of a passage tomb. 

Image from Google Earth showing the large circular earthworks, traces of the large passage tomb that once stood here

It would have also had extensive views over County Dublin, and its prominent location is similar to that of Seefin Passage Tomb located nearby in County Wicklow. The tomb features in the first supernatural tales associated with the building. It is said that shortly after the tomb was destroyed and its stones used in the construction of the Hellfire Club, a strong wind blew and demolished the fashionable slate roof of the new building, presumably in retaliation for the desecration of the ancient burial site. Undeterred Connolly had a new roof constructed, this time from a strong arch of stone that still stands today.

Connolly died in 1729 and the lodge lay unoccupied for a time before being acquired by the Hellfire Club. This was a group notorious for excess and depravity. They had famed drinking bouts, during which they always left one chair empty in honour of the devil. They drank a mix of melted butter and whiskey called scaltheen, and various accounts of them and their practices abound. I have read accounts that they poured this scaltheen mix 

over a black cat then set the poor animal alight as a precursor to their evenings revelries and devil worshipping. Another account tells of a priest who had been told of the satanic worship, he arrived at the club during one of their sessions to see them all gathered around a table, at the head of which sat a large black cat. The clergyman recited prayers of exorcism and threw holy water at the cat which ‘tore the beast apart’. Creepy stuff indeed, and you thought the television show Love/Hate was cruel to poor moggies! There are even darker stories of murder and sacrifice, of a young woman who was killed by being rolled down the steep hill in a burning barrel. The building was burned either on purpose to give it a more hellish appearance, or as an accident, when a poor footman accidentally spilled drink on the Principal of the Hellfire Club’s coat, he reacted by pouring scaltheen over the footman and setting him alight, the poor man tried to flee but bumped into tapestries, setting the whole building ablaze. According to this tale, many of the members of the Hellfire Club burned alive as they were too drunk to escape. 

 
With the Hellfire Club largely destroyed by the fire the members relocated down the hill to the nearby Stewards Lodge which also has a grim reputation with more tales of apparitions and ghoulish goings on.

When we visited there wasn’t much in the way of anything supernatural happening (well apart from a lot of kids running around shrieking, they kind of dulled any spooky atmosphere a bit but they were terrifying in their own way). Inside the building there are a number of rooms with fireplaces, arched windows and connecting galleries. The architecture is very unusual and it is well worth a look. Probably the most disturbing thing about the site is the unfortunate extensive graffiti and vandalism, there is no doubt it is still used as a place for excess and boozing, I suppose it’s just keeping up the tradition set by the original Hellfire Club!

The views over the landscape are incredible, and there is a nicely set out walking loop around the hill so it is a popular place for walkers and dog owners.

The site is about 15mins or so drive south of Tallaght on the R115. It is well signposted with a large carpark (please be careful not to leave any valuables on display in your car) and follow the well made path up all the way to the site.  If you like to use Google Maps enter Mountpelier Hill, South Dublin as your destination. Latitude 53.2518611 Longitude -6.3303444.

If you have a suggestion for a site I’d love to hear it, please let us know by dropping us a line at info@abartaaudioguides.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+, where you can keep up with daily pictures and information about Ireland's wonderful heritage sites.

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Incredible views over Dublin from the top of Montpelier Hill

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

Here's a really cool article from Newsday.com about a group of explorers who are setting out to retrace Captain John Smith's historic voyage to explore the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding tributaries.

The crew set off in a ship that is an exact replica of the one that Smith used himself, and the 1500 mile journey is expected to take about 120 days. Their launch coincides with the opening of the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the first national historic water trail in the United States. It is also the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Colony, which you can find out more about over at National Geographic's Jamestown site.

This sounds like another cool adventure for the sailors heading out to recreate this expedition. However, this is an adventure that we can recreate too. The water trail sounds like it's tailor made for canoe and kayak camping. I'm also guessing it won't be too long before someone set off to paddle the entire length of the trail.

Thanks Jason!

Update: Interested in helping out the planning for this historic trail? Then head over to NPS.gov/cajo to see how you can lend a hand. It's a great opportunity for any of us to get involved with a very cool project.

Also, if you're in the area and want to check conditions on the James River, you can do so at The Interpretive Buoy Site or by calling 1-877-BUOYBAY.

Thanks to the anonymous poster in the comments section for these!

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Last Sunday I visited a site I had long wanted to see – The Caves of Keash in County Sligo. These are some of Ireland’s most visually striking caves, appearing as black mouths set in the white limestone rock face high on the western shoulder of Keshcorran Mountain. There are sixteen caves and you can enter the majority to enjoy a really incredible evocative experience. 

Archaeological investigations in the early 20th century, discovered bones from animals that stalked Ireland towards the end of the Ice Age – with evidence of hares, brown bear, red deer, Arctic lemming and wolves all dating to more than c.12,000 years ago. 

Tantalising evidence of human activity was also discovered during the investigations, with artefacts and human remains discovered from a number of periods throughout Irish history. Perhaps most curiously a number of human teeth were recovered. They were found to date from different periods ranging from the Early Iron Age, to the Early Medieval period. These were the teeth of human adults, and due to the number of examples and nature of their deposition they are unlikely to be accidental losses. As there was no accompanying skeletal remains it is quite possible that they represent some kind of votive ritual tradition or religious practice. Animal teeth (particularly dog and horse) were also discovered in similar deposits. Both dogs and horses were highly prized and almost revered in Iron Age Ireland so they may also represent ritual activity. It is possible that the teeth formed part of a ritual celebrating Lughnasa, as the Keash Caves are particularly associated with the Iron Age god Lugh. 

Another discovery has more sinister possibilities. Part of a leg bone of an adult male was discovered within one of the caves, nearby to an iron crossbow bolt. This could represent the grisly end for someone who was hiding in the caves before they were hunted down. An entry in the Annals of the Four Masters from 1007 AD states: ‘…Muireadhach, a distinguished bishop…was suffocated in a cave, in Gaileanga of Corann’. 

Being so highly visible and unusual in the landscape, the Caves of Keash and the mountain are imbued with myth, legend and folklore. The legendary High King of Ireland, Cormac Mac Airt was said to have been born by a well at the foot of Keshcorran, and was raised by a she-wolf in one of the caves, perhaps echoing the story of Romulus and Remus who were also raised by a wolf in a cave. The caves also feature in stories of Fionn MacCumhaill, who had to enter the caves to seek out the otherworld smithy of Lon MacLíomhtha. Another story featuring the caves tells how Fionn and his Fianna were captured and bound in the caves by three hideous hags. If you'd like more information about the history, archaeology and folklore of Keshcorran please see this superb article. Dr Marion Dowd of Sligo IT is Ireland’s foremost expert in the archaeology of caves, and she has a great Facebook page that highlights the story of these fascinating places www.facebook.com/archaeologycavesireland. 

As well as the caves, the mountain of Keshcorran was an important place in ancient Ireland. A prehistoric cairn, likely to be a large Neolithic passage tomb, crowns the summit of the mountain. The cairn is part of an extended upland megalithic cemetery that includes the tombs on Carrowkeel. These tombs are clearly visible in the landscape from the summit of Keshcorran. Indeed from the summit you are treated to absolutely breathtaking views, on a clear day you can spend a while just gazing at the beautiful landscape at places like Nephin in Mayo and the mountains of Donegal.

We followed this stone wall across the summit towards the cairn

The large stone cairn on the summit of Keshcorran

If you look carefully you can see the tombs on Carrowkeel

You can find the Caves of Keshcorran signposted off the R295 between Ballymote and Boyle (around 30km from Sligo at co-ordinates 54º03.541, -008º27.146). There is a small carpark and a steep path up to the caves but I highly recommend good walking boots as it can be very slippy underfoot. We couldn’t find any obvious path up to the cairn, it was a very tough and occasionally nervy, climb up. As it hasn’t been excavated the cairn has no distinguishing features so unless you are particularly interested in upland megalithic tombs I would advise perhaps skipping the arduous climb up to this one and instead perhaps taking a trip to Carrowkeel after your visit to the caves instead.

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This is Lough Boora in County Offaly, the location of one of the most important Mesolithic sites in Ireland. Mesolithic means ‘middle stone age’ and this period covers between 8000 – 4500 BC, the time of the first human settlement in Ireland. These people often survived as semi-nomadic hunter gatherers, staying close to the coastal areas, rivers or lakes. The earliest settlement evidence in Ireland from this period was discovered alongside the River Bann at Mount Sandel in Co. Derry, where the remains of several small structures and activity dating to 7000 BC was discovered.

The site at Lough Boora was discovered in 1977, when a turf cutter found what he thought was an ancient road surface. He alerted the National Museum of Ireland, who investigated the site and found that instead of an ancient roadway they had actually discovered a storm beach on the edge of a massive post-glacial lake. This large lake originally would have been connected to the River Shannon, however over thousands of years bog formed and covered the area, all that remains of that lake today is the much smaller modern Lough Boora lake.

The Lough Boora Pyramid 2002, modern sculpture by Eileen MacDonagh and Marc Wouthers

The excavations also discovered a number of charcoal patches that were identified as the remains of hearths that were dated to between 6,800 – 6,500 BC, and over 1,500 artefacts such as stone axeheads, spear points, blades made of a flint-like material called chert and the remains of meals eaten nearly 9,000 years ago such as the burnt bones of wild pig, wildfowl and fish, suggesting that this site was the temporary campsite of a band of hunters. They probably used this area seasonally to hunt wild pig, wildfowl and other small animals. By today’s standards these Mesolithic men and women would have enjoyed a very healthy and varied diet that was dictated by the seasonal availability of fish, meat, wild plants, nuts and berries.

Today the site at Lough Boora has been completely excavated and there is no trace of the Mesolithic people that walked along this ancient storm beach or who sought shelter from summer winds and rain. However, you can walk in the footsteps of these ancient peoples as the area where the site was discovered is part of a great walk called The Mesolithic Loop, where not only will you encounter information about some of Ireland's earliest human activity, but also contemporary and striking works of art. A great, inexpensive day out and highly recommended! For more information about biodiversity activities and information on the various walks at Lough Boora visit: www.loughbooraparklands.com

The 'Skytrain' another wonderfully weird piece of modern sculpture to see at Lough Boora

Another shellfish-in-a-bag place has opened up in Singapore (195 East Coast Road, 6348-8195), although interestingly, these guys intentionally tried to be as close to the Boiling Crab as possible. And they generally succeeded, with the right amount of butter in there to give it the punch that it needed. Granted, the shrimp could have been fresher and the mixture could have been spicier, but these guys are still in soft launch mode for another week, so hopefully some of these things will change next time I go back there. Yes, I'd rather come here than Crab in Da Bag or Cajun Kings.

Who says fall has to bring an end to our mountain biking adventures? Certainly not pro riders Wade Simmons and Kevin Calhoun, who recently visited the Monashee Mountains in British Columbia to shoot this beautiful video. It takes about a minute and a half to really get to the good stuff, but once you get there, it certainly looks like they found an amazing place to ride.

All that inordinate and undeserved praise Frommer lavished on Toledo actually aptly describes Córdoba! Once the capital of Muslim Spain-- and the biggest city in Europe-- it still preserves it's Moorish legacy and was one of the best places we visited on our whole trip. I can't believe I had always missed it in the past, always opting for Granada and Sevilla (two other awesome cities in Andalusia). I think the express train ride from Madrid was 90 minutes. We stayed at the NH Amistad Córdoba, two minutes walk from the heart of the action. Real nice hotel, with very sweet, helpful people working there, kind of personal... nothing fancy but VERY pleasant. (They're amenable to discounts too.) Córdoba is a real walking town so it's great to be in the middle of it where you can easily walk everywhere.

Aside from the truly wonderful vibe and living museum quality of the city itself, the main thing to see in Córdoba is the Mezquita, the absolutely most astonishing and grandest architectural achievement of the Muslims in Spain. It's gorgeous and immense and breathtaking and worth as many hours as you can spare. The mosque dates from the 8th Century, although when the Catholics took back the town from the Muslims they built some kind of weird-- but beautiful-- 16th-century cathedral right in the middle of it. The 14th century Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos is the secondary place to see and that's pretty incredible too.

After the heavy and gigantic meals in Madrid we decided that lunches would be the main dining experience for the rest of the trip and that we'd eat tapas or light suppers in the evenings-- much healthier. The 2 best restaurants in town, La Almudaina and El Caballo Rojo are just ok, and, I'm sorry to say, very much over-rated tourist traps. I mean there was nothing wrong with the food in either (and both actually did serve delicious gazpacho) but they weren't all that special in the culinary department. They're supposedly the 2 most popular restaurants in all of Andalusia but that claim is patently absurd. Our luck totally changed when it came to dinner. Tapas was the name of the game and we found a place we went crazy for. You won't find it in a guide book but the concierge at the Amistad told us it was her favorite tasca in Córdoba; mine too! The name is Taberna Salinas (calle Tunididores #3, right off the Plaza Corredera, away from the whole tourist hubbub). It doesn't look like much but this tavern was founded in 1879 and the food they serve is spectacular, way better than anything at the fancy restaurants. They serve the gazpacho in a glass as a drink and I couldn't get enough! The bartender, Antonio, treated us like we were daily customers and the second night treated us like we were family.

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the International Space Station, a program that has successfully proven that countries can work together to achieve things in space. In the case of the ISS, more than 15 countries have contributed to the project and over the past decade and a half, a lot research has been conducted in orbit above our planet. To celebrate this special occasion NASA has released the video below which is a celebration of one of our greatest achievements in space exploration to date.

One of my favorite advances in terms of outdoor gear technology in recent years has been the introduction of waterproof down. In my opinion it is a real game changer in terms of providing us with the best insulation possible while avoiding previous problems with what happens to down when it gets wet. In the past I've reviewed (and loved) the Brooks Range Mojave jacket, which was one of the first products to incorporate DownTek, one of the options available for waterproof down. Recently I've been testing an Ignite Down sleeping bag from Kelty, which uses DriDown, the primary competition to DownTek. It turns out, it doesn't matter what you call the waterproof down inside, it still performs great and remains the best insulator available today.

The version of the Ignite Down sleeping bag that I tested was rated for 20ºF/-7ºC. That makes it a comfortable option for three-season camping. The bag has a pack weight of 2 pound, 12 ounces (1.2 kg), which is decent, if unremarkable. The mummy-style bag also includes internal loops for a bag liner, external security loops for connecting to a sleeping pad and hand loops for storage. It has high quality zippers and is made from 30D ripstop nylon, while being stuffed with 600-fill DriDown of course.

I was extremely impressed with the build quality of the Ignite Down. Kelty has a rich history of delivering outdoor gear that provides an excellent performance to price ratio. But this bag actually exceeded my expectations in terms of how well it managed to keep me comfortable in a variety of conditions. Better yet, it also feels like it is built to last, shrugging off the normal abuse that come with traditional  camping and backpacking trips. The durable external fabrics are easy to keep clean and very resistant to wear and tear.

The bag also happens to be quite comfortable, which is of course what we're all looking for. Not everyone likes a mummy bag, and if you're someone who feels restricted by this type of sleeping bag, the Ignite Down probably won't do anything to change your mind. But if sleeping in a mummy bag isn't a problem for you, you'll find that this one provides a snug, but not overly confining fit, with plenty of room inside. At 6'2" (1.8 m) in height, I used the "Long" version of this bag and found that I had plenty of room to spare. So much so in fact that I could keep socks, base layers and a few other clothing items that I wanted to keep warm and dry at the bottom without feeling cramped in any way.

As expected, the DriDown performs exceptionally well. The material provides plenty of warmth, even at a slightly reduced 600-fill level. In fact, I feel Kelty might be a bit conservative with their temperature rating and I wouldn't have a problem using this bag even in slightly colder weather. Its water-repellant properties make it a great option whether you're camping in the desert or heading to a damp forest. Similarly, it works well in dry, cool conditions, as well as damp, rainy or snowy ones.

If there is a knock on this bag it is probably in its weight and compressibility. As I mentioned earlier, the Ignite Down tips the scales at 2 pounds, 12 ounces, which makes it rather average in terms of pack weight. It also doesn't compress down particularly small, which means it also takes up more room in your pack than similar bags.

But Kelty more than makes up for these minor issues by delivering a great product, that happens to include waterproof down, at an amazing price. The 20ºF version of the Ignite Down carries an MSRP of just $219.95, and it can be found at places like Sport Chalet for just $199.95. That is an incredibly good deal for backpackers and campers on a budget, who care more about good performance at a great price than they do about shaving a few ounces from their pack weight. For those folks, Kelty has delivered a great option.

As we're heading into the holiday season, this sleeping bag also happens to make a great gift for your favorite outdoor enthusiast. I know I wouldn't mind finding one under my tree this year.

As I mentioned yesterday, The Gear Junkie is celebrating this five years of writing gear columns by naming his Top Ten Gear Items from the past five years. Yesterday he selected waterproof bags and kick-ass all-terrain trail shoes for number ten and nine respectively. Today we have a couple more cool items.

Coming in at number 8 we have Travelsafe 100 from Pacsafe. This item is a lockable nylon bag that is perfect for paranoid travelers who don't want to leave any of their valuables behind. The bag is reinforced with a steel cable netting, and will keep your passport, cell phone, money, and other small items safe from unwanted attention while you travel abroad.

Number 7 on the list of best gear is another pair of shoes. This time it's the Susitna XCR from Montrail, which are trail running shoes that come insulated with Gore-tex and a set of small rubber gaiters. The shoes are water proof and durable. The Gear Junkie even remarks that he climbed Mount Rainier in a pair.

As someone who is a bit of a "gear junkie" himself, I can't wait to see the rest of the list. However, am I the only one who wouldn't mind seeing a list of the Ten Worst Gear items that the Gear Junkie has had to endure over the past five years? That would be an interesting list!

What could be better than a timelapse of an incredibly starry night? How about a timelapse of an incredible starry night over one of my favorite places. In this case, Kilimanjaro – the tallest mountain in Africa. The mountain makes a dramatic backdrop as the celestial light show plays out over head. Quite beautiful. I hope you enjoy.

A Starry Night of Mt.Kilimanjaro from kwon, o chul on Vimeo.

No, I'm not intentionally trying to point out that it's US Beef above; that's just how they listed the item on the menu, verbatim. Anyway, normally this is not something that I would be ordering, especially from room service, of all things. But some colleagues have been telling me that the Sheraton in Taipei is famous for its beef noodle, and I had no idea why. This morning, I got up a bit earlier than I was expecting, and since my room rate didn't include breakfast, I figured that I'd grab a bowl off of their "Late-Night Menu" to see what all of the fuss was about.

Obviously it didn't look that great when they brought it up, and when I first tasted it, I wasn't that impressed either. I mean, the broth wasn't bad, but there were plenty of other places in Taipei that did a much better job of this. The noodles didn't particularly stand out either. Then I recalled what one of my colleagues mentioned in passing: she sometimes only eats the beef and skips the rest, which struck me as a bit puzzling since normally the beef is the part that I skip because it's so tough.

So I took a bite of the beef and realized why she liked it so much: yes, the beef was very tender and tasty, and indeed, I could have eaten just the beef but nothing else. I guess that's why they highlighted the US Beef...and perhaps to explain its sky high price of NT$520 (US$17.30). In that sense, I suppose it is a bit like Chatterbox chicken rice in Singapore: one of the better tasting ones but at a hotel-price and with plenty of better ones available on the streets. On that basis, I don't think that I'll be getting this again.

I wasn't intending to get ramen for lunch today. But I was nearby and noticed a bunch of new banners in front of Sanji advertising this stuff, so I really just got it out of convenience. It was pretty much what I expected: nothing bad per se, but of course rather heavy, salty, and greasy (like one would expect of a proper bowl from Sanji). I ate it with a side of guilt, especially since I paid extra for a large portion of noodles.