Staigue Fort

Photo hunt - stripes

he theme for the week's Photo Hunt is stripes. Here is a stretch on the theme. The photo was taken two years ago in Kerry in Ireland. If not quite striped the land is striated.

Humour of the Cork/Kerry sports divide sort of thing

Photo Hunt - Chipped

The theme for this week's Photo Hunt is chipped. Rather than lok for one of our many chipped mugs I thought I would go for a stone found in Derrynane Co Kerry in Ireland. The vertical cracks are quite natural but along the edge of the stone are deilberate horizontal marks. This is an ancient Irish script called Ogham. I can't remember what the inscription says though

Photo Hunt - View

Ballaghbeama Gap

Derrynane House

Somewhere in Kerry

The theme for this week's Photo Hunt is view. Here are some more photos from Ireland.

WW - Staigue Fort

This is the Staigue_stone_fort near Summer Cove, County Kerry.This week's entry for the Tuesday and Wednesday edition of Wordless Wednesday.

WW - Gallarus Oratory

Gallarus Oratory on the Dingle peninsula is Ireland's oldest building. Probably dating from the 8th century it is built without mortar. This week's entry for the Tuesday and Wednesday edition of Wordless Wednesday.

Photo Hunt - Clouds over the Paps of Anu

The theme for this week's Photo Hunt is cloud(s) What better choice than some more photos taken in Ireland. The mountain in question is known as the Paps or the Paps of Anu and are just over the Kerry border a few miles from Millstreet.

The following italicised text is from a forum on Julian Cope's Modern Antiquarian site


On our right, we were much struck with the singular appearance of the two hills, called The Paps. They are smoothly formed to the fairest proportion, imitating the outline of a woman's bosom' (Diary of Traveller on Butter Road in 1797 from visit to Killarney Lakes)

This was the first chance to take a photo of the Paps but the cloud base was too low to see the summit.

"The Paps are named after Anu, prinicipal Goddess of pre-Christian Ireland and mother Goddess of the Tuatha De Danann, a legendary group of divine invaders who ruled Ireland until their final defeat at the hands of the Milesians. The Goddess Anu brought prosperity to Munster... was originally a European Goddess, her name being commemorated most famously in the River Danube."
The this was taken on a clearer day with the mountains clearly in view. On each peak is a cairn

A photo of the cairn on the left peak There is a cairn on the right peak too. It's a hard climb and quite dangerous so the photo was taken with a long telephoto

The Paps' cairns appear to be part of a deliberately placed series which overlook the plains of the southwest. The cairn on the eastern peak is a substantial monument, measuring a height of 4 metres and a diameter of 18m-20metres. The entrances of both cairns are aligned westwards, towards the setting sun. It is thought that the cairns contain Neolithic burial chambers. They are the subject of ongoing study and excavations to confirm such theories.

The Paps were almost certainly objects of veneration for the stone age inhabitants of Ireland although I would like to think that my ancestors a few millennia back had a sense of humour.. I can imagine the conversation

"Hey check it out Beabhis, those mountains look like boobs huh, huh, huh, huh"

"Heh, heh, heh, he boobs Budvoc, boobs!"

Somewhere in Kerry

WW - Ballaghbeama Gap, County Kerry

This week's entry for the Tuesday and Wednesday edition of Wordless Wednesday.