Sunday May 18th

We had a slightly later start to the day today as breakfast here at the Glendalough Hotel does not start until 8.00am so I took the opportunity to visit the ruins again before breakfast.  The weather was still looking good so I thought I would take more photos in different light conditions to those I took yesterday. 

After breakfast we met with Fr Michael Rogers who lives nearby and was to take us on a tour of  Glendalough.  We started the day with mass in the ruins of a 12th century church.  It had no roof but luckily the rain stayed away.  

Later in the day he explained to us that during the Penal times ownership of the ruins (along with a whole lot of other property) was passed by law from the Catholic Church to the Church of Ireland. At some stage the Irish Church found the upkeep impossible so they were passed to the state.  Laws had been introduced which made it illegal Catholics to conduct or attend public liturgies in any of these buildings.  Oops......  

Fr Michael was not only an expert on the site and its history but he was also able to identify all of the trees, and was a font of information on Irish folklore.  Did you know, for example, that in Ireland they refer to Hawthorn as Whitethorn (they must only get the white flowering one) and is called the fairie tree.  If you have a lone whitethorn tree you must never cut it down.  The Whitethorn is not quite yet out in full bloom in this part of Ireland but with the amount of blossom developing and the number of trees, I think it will be spectacular in a week or so.

And they have a rhyme that relates the order of the leaf returning on the mountain ash and the oak trees to the weather for the coming summer:

When the oak is before the ash, then you'll only get a splash.  When the ash is before the oak, then you'll truly get a soak.  

Evidently this year the oak has come first in this part of Ireland so they are expecting a good summer.

Anyway enough of that, back to Glendalough.  The name means “Valley of the two lakes” as there are two lakes in the valley which were formed after the glaciers retreated 10,000 ish years ago.  

The ruins at the site date back to around 600AD and through the ruins, you can trace the transformation of the church from one in which the monks and priests considered themselves part of the community in which they lived to one in which the clergy were considered to be separate (and perhaps superior) to the other members of the community with the older church ruins found in the area that was the village and the more recent ones at a distance from the village.

The original monastery was set up by St Kevin who was previously a hermit monk with a beehive shaped hut overlooking the higher of the two lakes.  The site contains the ruins of 7 churches and was transformed into a graveyard in the 1800s.  So today the ruins are surrounded by tombstones.

Information in the hotel claims that the site has more than 3 million visitors each year and judging by the numbers here yesterday and today, I would believe that.  

As well as the ruins there are lovely walks through the national park and the scenery is stunning.

In closing, I would like to thank all my friends who have been concerned that I have not been experiencing the “real” Ireland with our blue skies and sunshine.  You will be pleased to know that the rain did arrive as predicted today, luckily it was only light while we were out and about, but it became heavier and set in by late afternoon.