SUNDAY WALK

"go ciúin sa ghleann ina luí"




Each year the ard-rang goes out for a walk with a local native speaker. This year, the usual “victim” Paddy Beag was not available so Tony Birtil from Liverpool led the group. Usually, Tony “teaches” the hillwalking class but today he took us on a less strenous hike to the church.
We were a big group – Rang 6, Rang, 7, and Rang 8 all together. We walked in bright sunshine, seeing the valley at its best. Tony pointed out the damage to the trees from the storms of the previous Winter. Many of the trees suffered from the increased salt in the air. The fir trees, in particular turned brown and ugly and many other kinds of trees died. The local people refer to this phenomenon as “an gaoth rua” – the red wind.

At the church Tony opened the access to the souterrain. There is a wooden ladder now, something that wasn’t there last year. It is a lot easier to climb down into it than ever before. No one had a flashlight. I used the flash on my camera to poke around but I’ve been inside it so many times that I didn’t really need a light to find my way around.

After the church the group split up. Today is Open House at the Folk Museum. The majority of the group headed up there to get a taste of life in Sean Dún na nGall while a small group went with Tony and Seosaimh Watson to investigate a group of passage graves that the local people refer to as the “Necropolis”.