Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Irish Studies - Field Trips

Here are various photos from the field trips we take for Irish Studies, every Friday. These photos come from multiple weeks.

The following are all from February 11th, on a trip to Prehistoric sites in the Burren.



barely visible remains of a prehistoric tomb:



old wall running alongside the road we walked to get back to the bus (from the tomb site in the previous photo)


Glacial erratic boulder:


Two photos of a wedge tomb, and then the remains of another type of tomb (I forgot the name) which we had to crawl and walk through much scrub and bushes to get to (very much off the beaten path).



At the top of a decent sized hill, with a great view. I think the bus brought us there (we didn't climb, from what I can remember). Dustin and I got some photos of ourselves with friends.



Didn't know it at the time, but over a month later (March 25) we would climb the rounded mountain visible in the distance.




This next group are all from a trip to various pre-Christian and early Christian sites, on the 4th of March.



There were some very cool carved faces (some human, some animal-ish) in the arch to this one door. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the ruins (it was a church), and the age, and whether our teacher (Gordon D'Arcy) said anything about what the purpose or origin of the faces was.





Some remains of towers



Another church




This was a neat old, slightly leaning, and quite tall tower that we did not stop at because it was raining quite hard at this point in the afternoon. Neat to look at, though. I couldn't see the top of it from my seat in the bus but Dustin was on the closer side and shot a few photos through his window.




The next batch are all from a trip we made to a mountain (Mulloch Mor - I think that's how it's spelled). We climbed to the top, rested, and then back down the opposite side. The views from the top (or even halfway to the top) were beautiful and amazing. Then we walked on a famine road back to the main road, and the bus came and picked us up. At the very end of the trip, there was a brief stop to a site where, long ago, some Christians held services outside, away from others, because I guess they were being prosecuted at the time (it's the photos where there are some standing stones visible).

Big turlough:


Black lichen:


The land surrounding the mountain, and some evidence of coral on rock (from very, very ancient times when the ocean covered the land)


Flowers


Part of the way up the mountain





next several are at the top area, I think





Some trees on the way down the opposite side:


Standing rock alongside the famine road (we were now all the way down the opposite side of the mountain).


View from our final rest stop at the end of the famine road, and views of the mountain from this side



the final site we stopped at (mentioned in the beginning of this group of photos)