Ireland Trip, 1996 (2) (3) (4) by Megan Coughlin

Via Flickr:

Revisiting Places: Allean Forest

I had fond memories from visiting this place 5 years ago, so I definitely wanted to come back and have another look and film a video for my Youtube channel.  There is a well-preserved 18th Century 'clachan', a typical Gaelic homestead found in the Scottish Highlands. The roof has been recreated in modern times, but still mirrors a traditional style found in places like Norway. Attached to the main room, where a whole family likely lived together, is a smaller room with a low entrance, which may have been used to keep animals or as a storage room. However, animals were often kept inside the main living area to provide some warmth during the night. There are several buildings in the area, but only one of them is preserved in such a good state. Of the other ones only part of the walls remain. There is a viewpoint nearby with a lovely wooden sculpture. When you continue further, you arrive at a 'ring fort', likely dating from the Iron Age or Early Middle Ages. Early writers surmised it to be a druidical site of worship, but nowadays it is considered another kind of homestead. In the middle of July, it was overgrown with ferns and bracken and it was hard to see a lot of details, but I could still make out the general shape of the fort. The walls are around 4m /13ft thick, which is quite a lot. There are 7 of these around the area, surrounding Loch Tummel, which you can see in the distance (as well as Schiehallion on the last photo). Excavations in the 1970s revealed some beads and rotary querns for milling flour, which point to its use as a place to live, rather than for worship. But it could have been a place where druids lived? Much has to be left to the imagination when it comes to archaeological remains.

Trelleborg, Denmark

Staigue Stone Fort, County Kerry, Ireland

Staique Stone Fort is located three miles west of Sneem, on the Iveragh peninsula. The fort is thought to have been built during the late Iron Age around 300 to 400 AD.  It is at the head of a valley opening south to the sea and is surrounded by a ditch. The fort's walls are up to 18 ft (5.5 m) high in places, 13 ft (4 m) thick at the bottom and 90 ft (27.4 m) in diameter. One of the most interesting things about the fort is that there are ten flights of steps, built in an X shape, along the circular internal wall giving access to the top of the rampart. Staigue represents a considerable feat in engineering since it was built without the use of mortar.