Lughnasa in the Boyne Valley

August is coming to a close and we have been out on the water pretty much every day this month, testing out our new whitewater rafts and bringing visitors up and down the Boyne. No surprise as the Boyne Valley has just been voted the most popular tourist destination in Ireland! In the meantime we have had the Olympics and the festival of Lughnasa, both of which have links with the Boyne. Before the Olympics there was an even more ancient games in the Boyne Valley. It was called the Aoenach Tailteann to commemorate the goddess Tailtiu. She cleared the land for agriculture so that the first farmers could plant their seeds and build their magnificent monuments.

A modern day Tailtiu?

As we paddle through the valley we can see that the landscape is changing. The crops in the fields are being cut and made ready to be brought in. This was when Tailtiu's foster son, Lugh, the king of the Tuatha de Danann, killed his grandfather, Balor of the evil eye. While this story from the Book of Invasions was probably linked to agriculture with the weakening of the strong summer sun and the crops being harvested, it is also similar to the Mediterranean festival of Neptunalia which was a time to take a break from work and take to the waters. Later on, the Christian faith turned Balor into Crom Dubh and Lugh into St Patrick. These legends then got the hollywood treatment in the Twentieth century when they were turned into Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

While the festival of lughnasa is celebrated throughout Ireland, mostly on hilltops, in Meath it is strongly associated with water. To this day in the Boyne Valley we see lots of people who do the rounds of the many holy wells in the area. These were probably linked with a water cult in prehistoric times and there is a long tradition in Ireland of placing objects in water as sacred deposits. In Christian times, the monks used the wells and rivers for baptisms and for keeping fish, so they have always been special places in the landscape. Some of them are associated with omens for the coming year while still others are supposed to have cures for ailments such as warts and backaches. Most of these wells also have fairy trees nearby and their branches are festooned with offerings. Of course, the Boyne itself also featured heavily in the traditions. At Lughnasa, horses were bathed at night at Stackallen, while farmers would drive their cattle into the Boyne at Trim in the nineteeenth century to avoid disease. For those who were more interested in human affairs than livestock, Lughnasa gave the opportunity to try out a new partner in a handfastening which would last a year and a day.
In the meantime we are having a quick break and a cup of tea before the next group of intrepid explorers arrive !

Trim Castle

As part of an effort to update our blog we are going to be posting a bit about some of the things to be seen on our river trips through the Boyne Valley. Right beside our base in Trim is one of the largest Norman castles in Europe. When Hollywood wanted a real castle to film Braveheart in, this is where they set up their cameras.

With its huge curtain walls, limestone base batter and impressive keep, this is exactly what we think of when we imagine life in medieval times. It appears to be the ideal picture of a defensive Norman castle, permanently ready for military activities.You can imagine knights in armour training for battle inside these walls while soldiers pour boiling oil on anyone foolish enough to try and enter. How else would the invading forces keep the peace amongst the unruly Gaels? Certainly there is plenty of evidence for violence within its walls. Decapitated bodies have been found during excavations. The architecture does lend itself to defense and the annals tell us that Rory O' Connor burnt the original wooden castle down before De Lacy built the stone one in the twelfth century. So far, so good. However, in reality, you wouldn't go wasting oil on people in medieval times. This is a myth. Oil was a precious commodity that the Normans traded from the mediteranean over to the Irish Sea and up the Boyne. The majority of people who lived inside the castle were clerks and beaurocrats, not knights. Although every Norman lord was trained in warfare, De Lacy himself was an international diplomat and a businessman, and he preferred money to military glory. He was sent over to stop the other Normans from fighting amongst themselves after Strongbow died. Trim was his administrative centre, which was part of his plan to attract traders and merchants from all over Europe to here. He achieved this aim by creating one of the first experiments in urban planning with merchants renting plots along the new straight streets that the free town council laid out. He had a mint here and he kept all the land records and deeds for the whole of Ireland here rather than in Dublin.

When it came to battle, The Irish preferred running open skirmishes across the fields. Sieges were the only strategy that worked against castles and the Irish were too impatient for that approach. This is if we are talking about the upper classes. When it came to ordinary working Irish people, there is a good possibility that the Irish people did not care whether it was the Gaels or the Normans that was ruling them. While the curtain walls and base batter were originally defenseive features in castles, they are also fashionable features. Castles were built by masons and they had a repertoire of architectural styles which they followed, just like we have features like pvc facia and double glazed windows today. So the defensive features could well have been there to impress. Not everything is about knights fighting.

Take the Barbican gate, which is unique in Ireland. It appears to have acted purely as a defensive entrance and it certainly did, with its double wooden gates, portcullis, murder holes and battlements. It is not unique in Europe though. The Barbican is a replica of the entrance to the De Lacy ancestral castle in Poitou in France. To the French lords and ladies that lived in the castle, this would have made them feel completely at home. The eight sided keep is also unique but it most certainly was not defensive as each side made them extra vulnerable. It may even have been built to reference the eight sided christian cross of its layout.

The keep only had one exit. Any schoolboy playing "castle" will tell you that this is not a good idea if you want to get away from your attackers. So, Trim Castle – military outpost or medieval administrative centre? Come downriver with us for a look yourself and make your own mind up.

Into the West

There really isn't a drop of water in the Boyne Valley at the minute (and by the looks of the levels on our favourite pastime, it might be a while before it returns to its normal playground glory) so we decided we would take the Boyne out of the valley and head into the west!
We loaded the tent into the jeep and loaded a steak sandwich into the belly. We loaded the jeep full of diesel and off with us on our merry way, with a couple of things we had to do, a couple of things we wanted to do and one or two things we might just do. The form was good, the sun was up and it was a bank holiday, happy bleedin' days !!
Approaching Galway I feared the luck I was born with was starting to fade, as was the sun. I realised this because at half past nine we had no campsite located, no torch in the jeep and eh, no beer!! So off with me down the promenade in search of a campsite and an off-license (that sold torches) and landed at Bayview caravan and camping park just on the outskirts of the town at 2 minutes to lock down. Fair play to them, by 10 past, me pop up tent was popped, me air bed was pumped and me and Gemma were looking out at the atlantic with a cool box full of bottles of heineken. Yes it was by the skin of our teeth but yes, we were there!
In the morning after we derigged the tent we drove into Galway docks to the canoe polo competition. As ever, its always a great feast of skill on the pitches in there and today was no different. Unfortunately our very own TCC teams didn't make it down this time but not to worry as BOYNE VALLEY ACTIVITIES are in the process of organising a canoe polo event this summer up the road in the Rathbeggan Lakes and I'm sure our local teams will shine and do us proud!!
Moving on up (I'm sure that was a Primal Scream tune) the coast to the quiet fishing port of Rosaveal I had to stop off to check out a crane for work. Yes its a pain, yes its sad but hey, somebody has to fund my trip around the west coast in these recessionary times and sometimes you just have to give in to the man. Otherwise the man will give me a kick in the ass and I'll be doing blogs on the dole queue - "today the dole queue was a bit bigger than it was yesterday" eh I don't think so. So off with me to Rosaveal.....
After my "hard stressful days work in Rosaveal" we continued up the coast to the bustling town of Clifden. Well what can i say!?! Some spot!! Super friendly, busy enough to enjoy its thriving atmosphere where each person who passes you does so with a tip of their cap and a friendly nod and quaint enough to enjoy the true quirkiness of this little gem. We stayed there for a few hours for no other reason than we wanted to. We did a bit of shopping (yes i am a man!). We had some dinner and even lowered down a glass of stout on our visit. Then we sat in the square to see the Rough Diamond cycle through the town, a seriously hard core pedal for anyone. Yet there were families, batmen and robins - even a miss piggy (though that could be the stout!!) I mean the bloody jeep was screaming on those hills, rough diamond? - Crazy diamond if you ask me! WELL DONE FOLKS!!
Off with us again heading to Leenann intending on calling into Killary Adventure Center to see could we catch up with the crew from Gaelforce on the off chance that some of them might have stayed put,but they had all gone up to donegal for their northwest challenge and I believe it was a huge success - as ever!

Rolling into Westport at bout 6pm, we booked in to the Clew Bay Hotel. Folks I was all on for camping again but GEMMA refused and as ever the gentleman it wouldn't be proper to insist if thats what she so wished (thats my story and I'm sticking with it!!). After heading down town for a look around and a bite to eat we ended up in the Clew Bay bar and retired early. A certain summit was calling!!
Breakfast was served and off with us,hiking boots at the ready, water and jacket in the rucksack and the same burst of enthusiam I get every time I head up Croagh Patrick. I'm hardly a pilgrim (and i did have my boots on) but i just enjoy climbing it. Maybe it's coz I cant really get lost and I just have to follow everyone or maybe it's coz I was looking at it for 6 months when I lived and worked on clare island and every time I drove past it I swore I'd do it "next time". Or maybe it's coz you get such a variety of people on it that I don't feel as bad when I'm hyperventilating and wondering how long it will be 'til my head explodes, or maybe it's the mad lads you meet up there. I mean c'mon, bare feet - Jasus! There was two lads there heading up barefoot in bloody bits. I just had to stop and have the craic with them. Well, I was having the craic as i was on my descent, body intact, feet intact, bloody sanity intact and they were in serious turmoil - their feet were ripped to shreds and they literally couldnt walk and I'd say they were thrilled with an asshole like me asking stupid questions like "does it hurt?". It's when they tell you they're grand you just think "am i really gone deaf, I could have swore they said grand?". Yep, there truly is nothing as quare as folk!!

Back in the hotel I'm chilled out in a jacquzzi pretty much living the dream. Well I was dreaming of the jacquzzi halfway down the summit so thats good enough for me! I'm heading for a steak dinner then off to Matt Molloys bar for some traditional music and a few pints of porter with my better half. Isn't it well for me. The town is friendly and the atmosphere is electric. We weren't sure where we wanted to go for a weekend break and what we even wanted when we got there but we got a fantastic time served on a friendly plate of proud-to-be-Irish sprinkled with a taste of Clew Bay charm......
Great weekend:-)

Doing a wheelie feider linn.

It was great to head in to the RDS on Sunday to have a look at the Adventure Weekend and check out what was happening activity-wise around the country. Seems like there's definitely plenty going on in this old island of ours!

We spent a couple of hours there and I have to say that while some people had been complaining about the prices and queues, it wasn't as bad as we feared. Maybe it was because it was Sunday or maybe it was because the Red Bull Flugtag had taken some of the crowds away to Dun Laoghaire to watch the nations finest launch themselves into the air in all sorts of contraptions. Either way, we could make our way around with plenty of ease. Brilliant for us, but maybe not so good for the organisers. 
The wind tunnel at the entrance lured every punter in the place to it like space cadets lining up for a rocket launch. You could watch people being blasted upwards and backwards in their "bat suits". As the skin from their cheek bones gently flapped around the backs of their ear lobes, their eyelashes were at full stretch up their forehead and you could easily mistake them for one of those terrible twins from Lucan while every filling in the place was on full view as the wind stretched their mouths into, eh, strange places. The grin from ear to ear as they stepped out of their suits told it all though. 
The stunt bikes had to be my favourite, or maybe it was the boarders. Come to think of it, the skaters were amazing. Jasus, the things them lads could do on a ramp was pretty damn impressive. Whether it was "NO FEAR" or "NO BLOODY SENSE" either way it was hugely entertaining. Some energy! These lads were feider linning all over the place.
Of course, I had my excuses for why i could never do it. "We never had a ramp when we were younger" or "we never have the time now that we're older". In fairness, even if I had a ramp and even if I wasn't as old as my birth cert says, my attempt on one of those BMX's would be less like those kids with liathroidi of steel and more like Obama's limo leaving the US embassy!!!

A river runs through it

Trim is a bit of an historical town.
People have been coming here for donkeys' years and they all arrive because of the river - the Boyne. About 8000 years ago, mesolithic hunter-gatherers used the river to navigate through the dense forests of Ireland. It was the only way to get around. They followed the salmon in season and camped along the clearings that the Boyne created, leaving their stone tools for archaeologists to find later on.
About 5000BC, agriculturalists arrived in the Boyne Valley and began to clear away the trees so they could see the land. They settled down, tended their crops and stored food for the winter months. This was the beginning of civilisation in Ireland. The Neolithic people built the huge ceremonial passage tombs that can be seen from the river, placing their ancestors in them and marking the territory as owners of the land. This was also the period when people began to look to the heavens. The name of the Boyne comes from the Gaelic for the white cow - the Milky Way. To the first farmers, the Boyne was a mirror of the stars that seemed to flow across the night sky. No wonder they constructed Bru na Boinne to take the calendar and the movement of the stars into account.

Being Ireland, we also have a legend for how the Boyne was created, just in case the facts are too dull. There was a queen called Boanne who was forbidden from going near the magic Well of Knowledge in Kildare, but curiosity eventually got the better of her. When she approached the well, the waters got agitated and exploded, driving her the whole way to the sea where she drowned. That is also how the famous Salmon of Knowledge came to be swimming around beneath the water until Fionn MacCumhaill got his hands on it.

Trim was one of the few spots of the river where it was possible to cross from one side to the other. The Irish name for the town translates as a river crossing point. We take bridges for granted nowadays, but back then a crossing point was the only way of getting from A to B without going all the way round to Z first. This meant that it was hotspot for people on the move.

The Christians arrived in Trim by way of the Boyne. Lomman, St Patrick's nephew and the founder of the town, arrived by boat. He converted the Gaelic chiefs here and gained control of the crossing point. The river was crucial for the trade between religious centres in Europe and it would have been very important for feeding the population that gathered around the place. Water-mills lined the banks and the town would have been busy with boats and fishermen. When the Normans arrived in Ireland, they recognised the value of Trim and the Boyne. They rented land off the church and built their great stone castle here, ensuring that the Boyne continued to be navigable so that they could import their goods around Europe. These strong links attracted religious orders like the Franciscians and Benedictines, whose abbey ruins can be viewed all along the river.

                                            
 The Boyne is still the life-force of the town. People come and go but the river just rolls along, at times quiet and relaxing and at times wild and exciting. Nowadays the Boyne is used mostly for recreation rather than trade and navigation. Boyne Valley Activities have sit-on kayaks, Canadian canoes and certified paddlers who offer different activities tailor-made to suit your needs. We specialise in river-trips. We are passionate about the landscape of the Boyne Valley, whether it is the river itself, the history or the many activities to be had around the place. We want to make your stay as good as ours.
Get in touch.