Kenmare - Gleninchaquin

Early this morning we walked through the weekly farmers market and marveled at the vegetables, honey, ceramics, leather goods and yarn. The we boarded the bus for Gleninchaquin Park.

Prounced Glen-inch-kin, this park is actually all on private property, and it is a working sheep ranch. The group split so that 8 climbed up to the top of the waterfall and the others walked the fields, followed the river and bottle fed some lambs. The views from the top could have been spectacular but the weather prevented us from seeing it. 

            From the top of the waterfall. 

The rain began falling early last evening and must have fallen all night and was still coming down this mornig.  In Ireland the rain is very often just a very heavy mist, not rain drops like we find at home. None the less we needed rain coats and rain pants to keep dry.  The clouds were laying on top of the waterfall and prevented us from seeing some of the scenery but just as we got to the top they lifted very briefly so that we could see up the valley all the way to the bay.  I loved seeing the rock walls, white sheep dotting the fields and all the shades of green.  We truely saw why Ireland is refered to as The Emerald Isle.

On the bus ride to the park we learned a little of Irelands history from 3000 years ago to current times.  If you want to read about it, I have posted it at the bottom of this blog. Before the hikes began we stopped at a "Famine Cottage".  This small, thatched roofed structure was a typical homes of the poor Irish potato farmers.  They rented their land from a landlord and raised crops, chickens and milk cows to pay their rent with very little left over for themselves.  The walls were stone and the roof was sod overlaid with thatch. Their farm animals sometimes shared the one room with the family or were kept in an adjacent stall.  One family might have up to 10 children who all worked the land in one way or another.  When the potatoe blight of 1840 ruined the one money making crop these folks had, they were soon left destitute, unable to pay their rent and kicked off the land.

This evening we dined in the hotel restaurant with entertainment provided by some local children performing Irish dances and singing.  If you have ever seen River Dance, this is what they were doing in and among all the tables of diners.They were amazing!

History:  2500 Years ago during the Iron Age and into the Iron Age the peoples populating this island erected stones in a circle with a main stone in the center which is speculated to be a burial stone.  The circle was possibly dedicated to the furtility gods as it is aligned with the vernal equinox or the autumnal equinox.  A stone cirlce in Kenmare is dated to 2500 years ago and pre-dates Stonehenge. During the Bronze Age Celtic peoples from Germany, Spain, Slovakia, Normandy and Wales migrated to this island bring with them their language, calendar, stories and history, all passed down by word of mouth.  In 400 AD the Christians arrived and brought with them the ability to turn word of mouth into a written language. The Celts who marked the Irish the most were English who arrived in the 1100's.   Celts were of a warrior class and based their societies on rank, they used slaves and loved nature.