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Knocknarea and its massive cairn is the most iconic and dominant landmark in County Sligo. Legend has it that it is the final resting place of the famous warrior Queen Maeve, who is said to have been buried standing upright in her armour, still facing her ancient Ulster enemies. Although the cairn has never been excavated it is likely that instead of an angry Maeve, the cairn covers a large Neolithic passage tomb.

This enormous cairn measures almost 60 metres in diameter and stands around 10 metres high. It is within a linear arrangement of five small tombs that surround the massive cairn known as Miosgán Meadhbha.

The mountain and its cairn appear to be the focal point of a number of prehistoric tomb sites in the Cúil Irra Peninsula, along with other sites at Carrowmore and Carns Hill, forming one of Ireland’s most important and striking prehistoric landscapes. The remains of a number of small hut sites were also discovered on Knocknarea.

The walk up Knocknarea offers some of the most spectacular views in Ireland, as beautiful Co Sligo and its Atlantic coastline opens out around you. The walk up to the cairn takes roughly 30 to 45 minutes, it’s relatively steep to begin with and good footwear is advised, but the summit is broad and flat allowing you a leisurely stroll while you take in the stunning scenery. Please do not be tempted to climb or interfere with the cairn as despite its size it is a vulnerable archaeological site of great antiquity and importance.

Visiting Knocknarea is a truly wonderful experience for anyone who enjoys their history, archaeology or just a good walk with spectacular views. The site is well signposted from Sligo and has a large carpark. You'll find it at co-ordinates 54.258746, -8.574649.

If you like Knocknarea you might also enjoy Carrowkeel and Carrowmore where you can discover more evidence of Sligo’s incredible prehistoric past.

Now you can hear the story of Sligo with a free downloadable audioguide and app please see here for more details.

If you’d like to keep up with daily images and information about Ireland’s fantastic heritage sites please consider following Abarta Audioguides on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Photo © Tomas van Houtryve-All Rights Reserved
When one thinks of Foreign Policy magazine, large photographs and photo essays don't really come to mind...but that would be incorrect. The magazine regularly features photo essays from well-known photojournalist and, contrary to many online newsy magazines, does a nice job showcasing them in a large size.

This month, Foreign Policy published Maostalgia, a photo essay by Tomas van Houtryve, who traveled in the heart of China and found Mao's legacy in the most unexpected places.

For instance, he photographed in the town of Nanjie, where its government provides for all its citizens' needs, supplying them with everything from cough medicine to funerals.

A different take from the recent photo essays on glitzy China we've been accustomed to see, and which for the most part extol the virtues of the Chinese economy.

Tomas van Houtryve is a documentary photojournalist who spent much of the past five years photographing the few remaining countries still under Communist Party rule. His 2009 photo essay for FP on North Korea, "The Land of No Smiles," was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

More of his images on China can be seen here.

Strategically positioned on a peninsular that thrusts out like a finger into Lough Ree, Rindoon is one of Ireland's best preserved deserted medieval towns. The castle at Rindoon is thought to date to 1227 and was constructed by Geoffrey de Marisco. It appears that Geoffrey de Marisco was a villain on a Game of Thrones level of nastiness. He was Justiciar of Ireland between 1215 and 1228, and took full advantage of the young King Henry III by being as corrupt in his dealings in Ireland as possible. He amassed huge swathes of land and a fortune by seizing goods, lands and taxes in the Kings name and then keeping the rewards for himself. He was eventually dismissed from office in 1228. He was even excommunicated for misappropriating funds from the Church (the money was just resting in ye olde account apparently).

However he is most noted for a truly despicable event in 1234. He was a long time friend of William Marshall and his brother Richard, and when William died childless, Richard Marshall was the rightful heir to the vast lands owned by his brother. Richard was denied these lands and exiled, falsely accused of treason and associating with the Kings enemies in France by the Kings councillors in an attempt to amalgamate the huge Marshall inheritance into the Royal coffers. The councillors pressured King Henry III into ordering Geoffrey de Marisco to capture Richard Marshall, and if he succeeded de Marisco would be rewarded with all of the Marshall lands in Ireland.

Marshall and a small number of loyal men were surrounded on the Curragh of Kildare by Walter de Lacey, Lord of Meath, Hugh de Lacey, Earl of Ulster, Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Offaly and a large number of knights and soldiers. De Marisco is said to have advised his old friend Marshall not to surrender and to fight, declaring that he would support him, however as soon as the battle started de Marisco withdrew his men, telling Marshall that he had just remembered that he was newly married to Hugh de Lacey’s sister and so could not possibly fight his brother-in-law. Despite this treachery, Marshall bravely fought on, and is said to have slaughtered six of the knights in a battle that raged for over ten hours. He fought so furiously that the others feared to approach him. They had their foot soldiers maim Marshall’s horse with lances and halberds, in its agony the horse threw Marshall at the feet of his foes, one of his enemies lifted the backplate of his armour and stabbed him in the back. Despite his grevious wounds Marshall survived, until the medical treatment he received (having his wounds probed with a red hot poker) finished him off, and the noble knight died.

De Marisco and his son William were vilified for their treachery, and were not even rewarded for their part in Marshall’s fall, as the King declared that de Marisco was in league with Marshall. The de Mariscos were declared outlaws and became pirates on the Irish sea, regularly raiding shipping to Drogheda and Dublin.

The castle that de Marisco constructed at Rindoon was one of the most important Norman castles in Connacht, and after de Marisco forfeited his lands when he was declared outlaw, the castle became a Royal possession. The castle was in the hands of a 'constable' who was responsible for its maintenence and defence, and records from the time show that money was regularly spent on the castle to bolster its defences and maintain it.

The battered slope added to the walls of the castle

The entrance into the castle

The castle is surrounded by a deep ditch and bank, and the base of the walls are clearly battered to provide protection against undermining and to deflect stones dropped from the battlements above into the front ranks of an attacking army. 
The gateway is well defended with grooves showing where a portcullis would have barred the way, and murder-holes strategically positioned above so the defenders could pour boiling fats and oil down on top of the attackers. 

Unfortunately the interior of the castle is in a dangerous state so access is currently restricted, but hopefully it will be opened to the public soon.

The defences of the castle held strong when the town was raided and sacked by Feilimid Ó Conchobhair in 1236, as he was unable to seize the castle. After Feilimid became King the following year in 1237, a period of peace and prosperity came to Rindoon, however it was not to last. Feilimid's son and heir Aed was far more warlike than his father, and successfully sacked Rindoon twice in 1270, in 1271 and 1272. The raid in 1272 was said to have been so bad that Rindoon was described as being 'levelled'. 

Rindoon Castle was repaired by Geoffrey de Geneville the Justiciar and rich Norman Lord who had inherited Trim Castle in County Meath through marriage. This work was continued by his successor Richard d'Ufford, who spent a fortune repairing the beleaguered town. Rindoon was finally effectively destroyed Ruaidrí Ó Conchobhair captured and burnt the town and seized the castle, while the Anglo-Normans in Ireland were distracted during the invasion of Edward Bruce. There were further small attempts to reconstruct the town, but it was positioned in increasingly hostile territory, and the resurgent Gaelic tribes repeatedly raided the town before it was finally abandoned. Some of the features of the site appear to date to the sixteenth and seventeenth century so it is apparent that activity, albeit on a much more muted scale, continued sporadically at Rindoon.

The remains of a windmill are also visible at Rindoon. The earliest mention of a windmill at Rindoon was recorded in 1273 when 45 shillings was paid to Richard Le Charpentier for steel to construct the mill. A mill also appears in the 1636 maps.

These remains are likely to date to that first half of the seventeenth century. The remains are of a round stone tower three stories tall (probably still at its original height). The tower is set on top of a low mound and surrounded by a ditch, it is thought the mound may well be the remains of the site of the original medieval mill. 

The church at Rindoon

The church appears to be of thirteenth century date. It is a typical nave and chancel church and is positioned on a height overlooking the beautiful Lough Ree. There are a number of other medieval features to discover at Rindoon, like the stone walls that once enclosed the town, and you can still make out the plots where houses and field systems give tantalizing glimpses of everyday medieval life

The defensive walls that surround the town

Rindoon is a fantastic site to visit, and as well as the intriguing history and archaeology, it makes for a lovely walk. It is similar in feeling to the other deserted medieval town I visited in March, at Newtown Jerpoint in Co. Kilkenny. At both of these sites you get this real atmospheric feeling that the medieval past is only covered by a thin veil, that the quiet fields covered with sheep were once vibrant markets, streets and houses thronged with people going about their daily lives. A site well worth a visit!

If you would like to learn more about this incredible place I strongly recommend taking a look at The Rindoon Conservation Plan by the Heritage Council (opens as a PDF). Rindoon is roughly half way between Roscommon Town and Athlone on the N61 and it is well signposted from the road (sat nav co-ordinates N53.54389°  W008.00299°), there is a small area to park your car. The main part of the site is about a 15min walk through fields, the fields are full of livestock (cattle and sheep) so do remember to bring appropriate footwear and please close all gates behind you. 

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

A cow making good use of one of the direction stakes for a good scratch!

We were given a tour by the original Kilkenny Cat!

Kilkenny takes its name Cill Cainnigh, from the ‘Church of Cainnech’. St Canice (Cainnech) was a 6th century monk, originally from Co Derry. The sites most associated with him were Aghaboe Abbey in Co Laois, and the monastic site here in Kilkenny, (though there is no direct evidence that he himself founded the site in Kilkenny).

The earliest visible trace of an early medieval monastic foundation at St Canice’s is the well-preserved round tower. Despite being built on precariously shallow foundations, the tower stands approximately 30 metres tall and is probably at least a thousand years old.

It is one of only two round towers in Ireland that you can still climb. The slightly nervy trek up the 121 steps is well worth it, as you are rewarded with spectacular views over Kilkenny.

View over Kilkenny towards Kilkenny Castle

The cathedral you can see today largely dates to the 13th century, although it was extensively renovated throughout its history. Construction of the cathedral began in around 1202, under the patronage of the powerful Ango-Norman magnate William Marshall (who was also responsible for the construction of Kilkenny Castle amongst many other towns, castles, cathedrals and churches). He brought in the finest stonemasons and craftsmen from his estates in Wales, England and Normandy. 

Throughout the medieval period the cathedral was expanded, altered and redeveloped. Inside the cathedral you can experience one of Ireland’s most evocative and atmospheric medieval buildings.

The tomb of Piers Butler (d.1539) and his wife Margaret Fitzgerald (d. 1542)

St Canice’s is home to one of the finest collections of medieval tombs and effigies. These house the remains of powerful and wealthy members of high society in Kilkenny. Many of the men are depicted in their full armour, and have dogs lying at their feet. This symbolises their loyalty and fidelity. You can also gain fascinating glimpses into late medieval fashion, as many of the women are depicted with elaborate headdresses and gowns.

The tomb of Honorina Grace (who died in 1596)

One the more prominent tombs in the cathedral is that of Bishop Ledrede. He is infamous for his part in the trial of Dame Alice Kyteler. She was a wealthy and well-educated woman in Kilkenny society. She married four times, with each husband dying somewhat mysteriously, leaving her even more wealthy. An accusation of witchcraft was made against her, along with her maid Petronilla, and her son William Outlaw.

The tomb of Bishop Ledrede

Bishop Ledrede presided over a trial. However Dame Alice managed to escape to England but Petronilla was burned at the stake. Her son, William Outlaw was forced to do penance. He had to attend three masses per day for a year, feed paupers, and recover the cathedral roof with lead. However, four years after William had completed his work on the roof, it mysteriously collapsed. 

As well as Bishop Ledrede’s effigy you can also see the graveslab of Alice Kyteler’s father. The graveslab was found in 1894, under the pavement outside the home of Dame Alice Kyteler (now Kyteler’s Inn).

St Canice’s is a wonderful and atmospheric site to visit. If you’re lucky you may even be escorted on your tour by the original Kilkenny Cat! Please visit their website here for opening times and entry fees.

I really hope you enjoy our blog. If you'd like to discover more stories about Irish history, archaeology and culture and if you'd like to support us you can download audioguides from my website abartaheritage.ie, where we have 25 guides that tell the story of Irish heritage and the majority are absolutely free to download.

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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.

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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