Next adventure was with my Early Start class to west county Cork. That trip gave new meaning to “field trip.” The first stop was a medieval ring fort in the middle of a cow pasture that we had to cross to get there. This stop also introduced us to Tomas’ habit of climbing onto things in order to talk to us. Ring forts are apparently quite common on the Irish landscape, though they were being quickly destroyed in the 1970s to make room for more agricultural pursuits. Then we drove to Ballinacarriga Tower house, this one is late medieval though, versus the early medieval ring fort (at this point I wish to inform everyone that I only learned while here that Ireland never really experienced the Renaissance that most of Europe underwent so the periods here are early medieval, late medieval, and the early modern. This means that anything that is late medieval merely follows the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169). After lunch, our third stop was a late medieval/ early modern fortified house called Coppinger’s Court. Sadly the place was not safe enough for us to climb around as we had been allowed at the tower house. Lastly we went to Drombeg stone circle. I can no longer remember if it was a neolithic or bronze age site, but either way, the stones there are all the original ones. Check: adventure two!

The day after this I went with my roommates, Molly and Ali, to Youghal (pronounced ‘yawl’) on the very eastern border of Cork and Waterford counties. Youghal is a cute beach resort town with great history. It has some late medieval structures including a parish church with its original wooden ceiling, one of the only ones in all of Ireland, and part of it’s medieval walls that you can (and we did!) walk upon. Check: adventure three!

The second field trip (another single day trip) went to northern county Cork and in to Tipperary. The first stop was the Labbacallee Wedge tomb, the largest in Ireland, which sadly says a lot about how small wedge tombs are. Labbacallee is also the name of the town and means “bed of the witch/ wise woman” and may refer to the body buried furthest back in the wedge tomb, that of a 60 year old woman. Then we went to the Mitchelstown caves where we were not allowed to take any pictures, but all you need to really do to imagine what it looked like is think ‘caves’. Then we drove to Cashel for lunch and the to see the Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is actually a large cashel (round enclosure built up on the inside with dirt and rocks to create an elevated platform to build upon) that was originally the site where the kings of Munster ruled from. In 1101 the site was given to the Church to basically kill two birds with one stone. By giving this land to the Church it helped promote the shift to a diocesan hierarchy as well as deny the family that had formerly been the kings of Munster their political center. We went to see Cormac’s Chapel, the finest example of the Romanesque architectural style in Ireland, which had been awkwardly assimilated into a Gothic cathedral, now the ruins of a Gothic cathedral. The restoration that was going on there made seeing most the building difficult, though the restoration has been revealing a lot of significant discoveries as far as the art history and archaeological world are concerned. Check: adventure four!

The third week of Early Start brought with it the two-day field trips. This time we headed up to Dublin and county Meath. It was a ridiculously long bus ride there, but going to the National Museum was amazing! Admittedly we were there for only about an hour and a half, so I didn’t get to see much, but what we did see was great! There was a large prehistory gallery that had examples of pretty much everything we had learned about in class. Seeing how thin a lunulae really is is a very different thing that knowing theoretically how thin it is. Sadly, no pictures were allowed, so I have none of the museum. While in Dublin we also went to Christ Church Cathedral, the mixed architectural style cathedral that it is. The transepts and chancel are in the Romanesque and the nave and aisles are Gothic. The most random and amusing part of that church was the gift shop and coffee shop in the crypt. Though, with the story Tomas told of how the crypt used to be a place where (in the modern period) ladies of the night would ply their trade and during the day, a market would be held, it made more sense that the crypt would now be a place to set up a gift shop. Lastly, we drove out to Monasterboice to see the 8th century high crosses. I had not realized how tall the Tall Cross was until I saw it in person. The next day we went to Newgrange, the Neoltihic passage tomb. Now that was HUGE. Pictures do not do its size justice at all. And Tomas had made sure 18 months prior that we would get to go inside the passage tomb. I cannot believe how efficient the neolithic people must have been to do all of their rituals in less than 17 minutes of light. Then was Trim castle. Again a place that pictures are deceiving. It, on the other hand, seems much larger in pictures that it is in real life. Not that it was not incredible to see, but it just seemed smaller. Our tour guide there was quite funny. Told us a lot of random facts, not always of any connection with Trim. Check: adventure five!

The last two-day trip my class went on was to the Burren, an area in western Ireland that translates as “the place of rocks.” Most of the places we saw while there were not sites that are along the tourists path, which was the most rewarding since it meant we were getting an experience we would never have gotten as a regular tourist. We saw what historically was the most impoverished dioceses in Ireland (Kilfenora) and the small cathedral that was built there. Then we drove further and stopped at an intersection, got out of the bus and stood on the road to look at a tower house that had been assimilated into a semi-fortified house. We couldn’t go up closer to look at it because the land owner won’t let anyone up there, but we got great pictures from the road! This was followed by a visit to Poulnabrone portal tomb, where we got rained on. Right after we left it was sunny and lovely, of course. After lunch we went to Corcomroe Abbey, which, while being built, lost its funding and thus only part of the church is well crafted and the rest is very rough stone. Then a long walk to another cashel, where, once again, we got heavily rained on. Poor Tomas wore his voice out yelling over the wind. Our last stop of the first day was the Cliffs of Moher where it was VERY windy. It was not the best day to have worn a dress, but all of my pants were in the laundry, so there wasn’t much of an option. The next day had fewer sites, but was still intense in pace. We went to Quin Abbey first, which is a lovely Franciscan abbey that still has parts of its second floors! Then to Moughan hillfort, honestly the least impressive site to be seen from the ground. Because of the forest growth, you really can’t get a good idea of how large it is, which is important considering it is the largest hillfort in Ireland. The last stop for this field trip, and really the whole class, was Bunratty castle and folk park. Bunratty castle is the largest tower house in Ireland and has been restored to pretty much the condition it would have been in to be lived in. It has been furnished with pieces that aren’t Irish, but you still are able to get an idea of how a medieval tower house would have felt to live in.

That about sums up the adventures of Amadea and Captain Rohan for the first five weeks. Stay tuned for the next ones!