Inishmurray County Sligo, Killybegs County Donegal, Ireland
We dropped anchor beneath an azure sky this morning close to Inishmurray, a tiny island lying off the county Sligo on the western coast of Ireland. Once ashore we began to explore and engage with this remarkable place. This is a multi-layered cultural landscape. Inhabited continuously since the Early Christian Period the few remaining inhabitants of the island’s nineteenth century village left their homes in November 1948. Built side by side along the sheltered eastern side of the island the houses are a silent reminder of an erstwhile vibrant and closely-knit insular community now scattered on the winds of modernity. The island boasts one of the finest and best preserved examples of an Irish Early Christian Period monastery. In the sixth century AD the little known St. Molaise established a small religious community here. Surrounded by a high circular dry stone wall, the site has a number of beehive huts, oratories, cross-inscribed slabs and leachts or square altar-like structures atop of which are numerous so-called cursing stones. Tradition has it that by repositioning these water-rolled stones, one can effect a curse on a rival or enemy. The site is still very much as the monks would have left it when it was abandoned in late medieval times. On this isolated low lying rocky outcrop they led a simple self-sufficient life. The ancient and more modern ruins are bereft of human voice but resonate with a veritable tsunami of bird song.
Back on the ship we were treated to an aerial display by the Irish Coastguard who had requested a simulated helicopter rescue drill. From the fore section of the ship we watched as the pilot skillfully hovered as a colleague was lowered and finally recovered from the aft deck. Lunch was served as the National Geographic Explorer sailed into Killybegs harbor in County Donegal. This is the headquarters of Ireland’s fishing industry and a popular destination for holiday makers. The afternoon was spent exploring the beautiful and historic valley known as Glencolmcille and its environs. The area has very strong associations with one of the most influential of Irish saints namely Colmcille or Columba, whose name means ‘Dove of the Church’. An extremely hard working individual, St. Colmcille founded a number of monasteries during his lifetime including Kells and Derry in Ireland and Iona in the Scottish Isles. Sculpted by the erosive processes of ice during the Great Ice Age this valley has a plethora of ancient ruins many of which understandably are associated with this saint including a pilgrim route along part of which the hiking groups from the ship were taken. This part of the northwestern coast of Donegal has an impressive collection of archaeological monuments many of which can be dated to the Neolithic period of the fourth millennium BC. We visited a court tomb at Cloghanmore and six portal tombs or dolmen at Malinmore. Known as megaliths, and built some five thousand years ago by early farming communities, they functioned as special repositories for the dead and also presumably as places of worship and possibly tribal expression. Although dilapidated and time worn they still captivate and impress.
In many places, local farmers were saving their hand-cut peat sods on the blanket bogs of the region, material used as a domestic fuel for centuries. To cap an already fantastic day we were treated to a session of traditional Donegal music in the early evening. Accordion, uilleann pipes, fiddle and bazouki were played with consummate skill by Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhride, Ciaran O’ Maonaigh and Bill Galloway.
