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The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 2005- » 2006 (July-August) » Archive through July 07, 2006 » Grianghrafanna de Cruachan Aí « Previous Next »

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Liz
Member
Username: Liz

Post Number: 98
Registered: 07-2005


Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 - 11:05 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

This morning I made a page of photos I took of raths at Cruachan Aí this summer. The captions are in English. This is the area in Connacht where Maeve and Allil lived at the time of the Táin Bó Cuailgne. It's not a popular tourist destination. We met only one other tourist family, from Dublin, during our visit there. The people in Tulsk were very friendly. My husband attracted people in the midlands and west of Ireland, probably because they don't get too many Chinese visitors.

Seo an seoladh daoibh, má tá suim agaibh ann:

http://hometown.aol.com/egabay/cruachanai.html

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Fe arn (Unregistered Guest)
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Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 06:36 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

Maith thú, a liz.

Muise, is dócha nach bhfuil morán Sínigh luaite sa Táin. ;)

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Pangur_dubh
Member
Username: Pangur_dubh

Post Number: 76
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 09:28 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

Thanks Liz.

I have been to Cruachan on a number of occasions. It is just as fascinating as Tara, but unfortunately, it suffers from lack of proper exposure and publicity, I feel. In a sense, the Táin makes it more alive to me than Tara. Perhaps, though, it is the glamour associated with the High Kingship that give Tara a certain precedence. Still, I feel that better presentation and publicity could only benefit Cruachan.

Were there any tours of the place (with suitably knowledgeable guides, I mean) when you were there? There were none on my visits. I felt this was a bit shortsighted on the part of the organisers of the big centre they have there.

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Liz
Member
Username: Liz

Post Number: 99
Registered: 07-2005


Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 08:38 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

This is more than you want to know, Pangur Dubh, but here is the rest of the story.

The four of us went to the visitor center in Tulsk -- my husband, my daughter, my sister and me. My sister and I were arguing over who would pay the admission fee (we both wanted to pay for everybody's admission) and the people at the desk gave us a better rate than we expected. They were very pleasant and friendly to us. There were no other visitors at the center at the time.

They spent a lot of time giving us a nice tour of the visitor center and talking about the area. They showed us a good video. There is a rath right next to the center and it is being excavated. The crew had left about a week before we got there so we didn't get to see the excavation in progress.
We went across the street to Tulsk Abbey (a very picturesque ruin) and then drove a mile or two to St. Patrick's well on the Oirgulla (sp?) river, (where Ethna and Fidelma were baptized).
There were no organized tours of the archaeological sites and the map they gave us at the visitor center was not very accurate. It showed a road or path we couldn't find although we drove back and forth a few times looking for it. Still, we got to look at Rath Cruachan and we climbed up onto a rath and walked around it, which was fun.

Then we drove to Strokestown Park and spent a few hours there touring the restored big house, the Famine Museum, and the gardens. The Famine was a big event in our family since nearly all my mother's family left Ireland for Wisconsin because of it. So it was really fascinating for us to see the Famine Museum. The people who put it together did a fantastic job and I recommend it to anyone who visits Ireland. The house was unique because the occupants didn't throw documents away. So when the last member of the family sold it to a local man about 25 years ago, the new owner found papers from famine times still in the house, including a pitiful letter from his own family begging not to be evicted.

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Riona
Member
Username: Riona

Post Number: 351
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 12:15 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

A Liz,

That sounds really very interesting. Go raibh maith agat for telling us about it.

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Pangur_dubh
Member
Username: Pangur_dubh

Post Number: 78
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 - 05:15 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit Post Print Post

Thanks Liz. Very interesting indeed!

The need for a guided tour of Cruachan seems to pressing then, would you say? I think so, certainly. That said, I did enjoy my visit to the centre, and the people there were very helpful and friendly. But the site is vast, and it's not really something one would want to take on without some expert help.

I have visited Strokestown too in my heritage days. It's really a sad place, I feel. Perhaps the next time I am in Ireland I will have an opportunity to visit it again. I think it worth another call.



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