Ireland's curious places — from an ancient sundial to a beach with 1,000 seals on it
My travels all over the country in the early 90s while researching another book inevitably brought me through rural areas off the beaten track and for the first time, gave me an intimate view of my home country, its villages, its ever-changing landscapes and the rich variety of people who live here. Along the way I came across many curious and often quirky places and I noted and often photographed them.
These are extracts from Michael Fewer's latest book.
The grey seal capital of Ireland
Trá Bán, Great Blasket Island, County Kerry
Basking on the Blaskets…The Blasket Islands are the grey seal capital of Ireland, seals come from as far away as Scotland and the British Isles to breed around the Blaskets. Picture:Valerie O'Sullivan
There are not many places in Ireland where you can come across a wildlife scene that could be straight out of one of David Attenborough's TV extravaganzas.
The Blasket Islands, and particularly Trá Bán, the broad beach on the landward shore of Great Blasket, are the grey seal capital of Ireland. In late summer and early autumn seals from around the Irish coast, and from as far away as Scotland and elsewhere in the British Isles, come together here in great numbers to breed. They stay here through the winter, spring and early summer before departing again with their pups, leaving 'the locals' with a bit more space.
There can be as many as a thousand of the animals, lounging tightly packed on the sand, some of them on their backs comically scratching their bellies, while dominant males fight for the favour of females.
When the Blasket Islands were inhabited, as they were up until 1954, the seals were hunted for meat, blubber oil and their skins. The Great Blasket author Tomás Ó Criomhtháin wrote that the people of the islands would prefer to eat a seal than a pig. The oil was used for rush lights, and as a beneficial rub for rheumatism sufferers. It wasn't until after the human population had departed that the seal population returned, coming back to Trá Bán to mate, producing pups on a large scale. Today they have protected species status under Special Areas of Conservation legislation.
There are ferry trips to Great Blasket from Dingle and from Dunquin Pier.
Ireland's only cable car
Dursey Island, County Cork
Ireland's only cable car. Picture: Brian Lougheed/Cork County Council
Dursey Island, off the south-west coast of Cork, is a 6.5km-long and 1.5km wide wonderland of rolling grassy boreens between stone walls wreathed in herbs and wildflowers, exuding a heady perfume in summertime.
Only a few people live on Dursey today so it's a quiet place with only a symphony of calls from stonechats, choughs and wheatears breaking the silence.
It was not always quiet: O'Sullivan Beare, the local chieftain in medieval times, had a castle here, which was captured by the English after the Battle of Kinsale in 1602. The 300 men, women and children who had taken refuge in the castle were put to death: their bodies are said to lie under a pyramidic monument in the old churchyard. Nearby is the grave of Dursey islander Timothy Harrington, who died in 1904 at the age of 104, a testament to the healthy air of the island.
The island is separated from the mainland by Dursey Sound, which has a very strong tidal race, a reef in the centre of the channel making access to the island by boat hazardous at times. Ireland's only cable car was established here in 1969 to ferry people and farm stock back and forth 250m above the sea, and it remains the most used means of transport across the turbulent waters.
It is also the only European cable car that travels over the open sea and it has become one of the attractions of the island.
When I travelled on the original cable car many years ago there was a sign dictating the maximum loads: six persons, or one person and one cow, or one person and four sheep. A Lady of Lourdes holy water bottle hung by a string inside the door and a prayer to St Christopher was Sellotaped to the wall.
The Kilmalkedar sundial
Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry
Kilmalkedar sundial, Dingle Peninsula. Picture: Michael Fewer
The Dingle peninsula, pushing out into the Atlantic, is rich in prehistoric and early Christian remains. Christianity came to the area in the early fifth century, and was embraced enthusiastically by the people (there is no tradition of martyrs in Ireland in the early Christian period).
By the early sixth century they began to organise themselves, establishing monastic centres such as this one at Kilmalkedar, and those at Reask and Gallerus. Each monastic community operated independently and was ruled over by an abbot, a system that served well for the next five hundred years until 'reformed' by the European church.
The graveyard here at Kilmalkedar has been in use since the first church was founded in the sixth or seventh century, and here you will find a sundial that doesn't tell the hours of the day. It is a 1.2m-high standing stone with a goblet-shaped top, on which the radiating lines of a dial are carved. There is a central hole in which the gnomon, the projecting rod that casts the sun's shadow on the dial, would have been set.
This is very much a monastic object and harks back to those early Christian times when religion was people's main preoccupation. It tells not the hours of the day as such, but the times of the principal prayer periods of a monk's day — Prime, Terce, Sext, None and Vespers.
The other side of the stone is decorated with a marigold cross: just imagine how beautiful this stone was when the carving was new, perhaps 1,200 years ago.
Crotty's Den: The hideout of Waterford's Robin Hood
Crotty's Lough, Comeragh Mountains, County Waterford
Crotty's Den: The hideout of Waterford's Robin Hood. Picture: Michael Fewer
William Crotty (1712–1742) was the son of a smallholder in rural Waterford who turned to crime when his father was wrongly evicted. In his short life he achieved widespread fame, and stories about him and his exploits still live on in the Comeragh Mountains area.
He joined the numbers of highwayman and rapparees who were common in Ireland at that time, ambushing the coaches of the rich and relieving them of their money. He is said to have shared his loot with the poor, and became quite a celebrity in County Waterford, turning up at fairs and markets, taking part in dances and playing football and hurling with the locals. He was renowned for his dramatic escapes from the law, was an expert shot with pistols but claimed he only killed in self-defence. He had many hideouts, but the most famous was Crotty's Den, an almost inaccessible cave at the back of Crotty's Lough, in the Comeragh Mountains. He was eventually betrayed by the wife of his trusted companion, David Norris, and captured after a shootout.
Taken to Waterford Gaol in March 1742, he was hanged there, and his head affixed to the gaol gate. The authorities also attempted to capture Crotty's wife, but she is said to have climbed to a crag over the lake called Crotty's Rock, and thrown herself to her death.
Crotty's Lake can be accessed on foot from the R676: it is 2.3km and a climb of 300m from the road.
Ireland's Curious Places: 100 fascinating, lesser-known treasures to discover. By Michael Fewer
Ireland's Curious Places: 100 fascinating lesser-known treasures to discover (Gill Books) by Michael Fewer is available now
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