Jo Newton
THE LANDSCAPE
Painting of Mount Callan by Andrew Newland
My story begins on my doorstep. I live in a small cottage on a back road in the valley of the upper reaches of the Inagh river, east of Mount Callan. A quiet byway of Clare, not on any heritage trail or in a tourist brochure or especially remarkable but nevertheless tells a history and story of Ireland within its domain.
The view is not dramatic, a patchwork of fields of beigy, browny-green, with grazing cattle and the occasional wind bent tree or patches of uniform Spruce trees. A land made more fertile by drainage channels.
This part of mid-west Clare has a bedrock of horizontal layers of shale, mudstone and siltstone made of particles of clay, sand and silt deposited in a great delta over 320 million years ago when much of Ireland lay close to the Equator. The great rounded back of Mount Callan was pushed up, by the ripples of tectonic forces of the earth’s crust in Southern Europe. These Sedimentary shales are resistant to water, so it often lies on the surface, wet boggy land of peaty or gley soils. Hundreds of years ago this area was called “Brientir”, which translates as fetid land!
I imagine it to have been covered in a great tangled swampy forest of willow, alder, hazel, oak, ferns and vines, great pieces of bog wood remain to tell the tale, though the following account by Marie Flechard of a field visit by Pro Silva Ireland, to the Mount Callan estate in 2002 describes a yet living legacy:
Bog wood from the valley
We were taken to a deep ravine or glen with coppiced oak, from which invasive rhododendron had been removed allowing a ground flora of Wood Rush and many ferns. The more adventurous of the party clambered to the bottom of the glen in search of rare ferns and bryophytes. It was a thrilling experience to stand in the stream bed surrounded by humid moss-covered oak trees perhaps reminiscent of the primaeval forests of Ireland.
The Inagh river, which flows in loops and curves down the valley, is so called from the word, ‘eidneach’ meaning ‘abounding in ivy’. Its journey here runs through Drumlin country, the area between Inagh and Connolly has the highest density of these rounded small hills in Clare.
The term Drumlin comes from the Irish word ‘droímnín’ meaning little ridge. They were created at the base of the ice sheet that covered Ireland 20,000 years ago. As it moved north to south deposits of crushed till of clay, silt, gravel and boulders were left in its wake. The small hills have an elongated slope in the direction of the ice flow.
HISTORY
The Old Forge Crows Bridge
Stone bridges built across the river in the 1800’s, where the earliest maps show only fording places, meant this small road, was in the days of horse travel, a main highway east to Ennis from the coast circumnavigating the steep slopes of Mount Callan. Cart loads of seaweed from Whitestrand were taken to Ennis for sale as fertiliser.
Pieces made in the forge more than 50 years ago
In the last century my home was in fact lived in by a Blacksmith, Joe Vaughan, the forge, a small stone building with a turf roof next to the cottage beside this road. Blacksmiths were such an important part of the life of a community, not only shoeing horses and donkeys, the main mode of transport, but also making and mending cartwheels as well as all manner of necessary household items from pots and kettles to pokers and trivets for the fire.
FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM
The bridge across the river here, became a historical landmark, during the War of Independence in the 1920’s. Just beside Crowes Bridge an ambush was planned by the local Irish Republican Army to relieve the local Constabulary from Maurice Mills barracks of their weapons. Martin Devitt, a 25-year-old drapers apprentice, Vice Officer of the IRA and one of the most capable and respected local leaders, was shot dead in the ambush which went somewhat array due to passing civilians with a cart load of turf.
The two Martin Devitt memorial Stones.
A commemoration cross was raised in 1954 at the place of the shooting, however, years later it was stuck by lightning. A second stone was erected in 1999 with the Ballad written by Paddy Brennan, immortalising the act of heroism being played in honour of Martin Devitt. It begins:-
“Its near Crowes Bridge at Inagh
A monument now stands,
Erected by the people,
As done in other lands.
In memory of Devitt
Who led his gallant band,
And took his stand at Inagh
For to free his native land.”
RESOURCES
When it came to settling the land and human habitation access to an assured water source was a primary criterion. Both old and new Ordnance Survey maps show many wells dotted along road edge and field margin. Today most are hard to find, disused and overgrown.
The Old Well still in use
One nearby however, is still beautifully maintained, lime washed every year. It is not blessed to become a holy well but sacred in its own way, providing clean, pure fresh water and well visited by locals and many from further afield, creating a connection to the many generations before who drank from the water here.
Babbington’s Leek growing in the hedgerow by the well
An interesting plant grows by this well, the Babington leek. A unique species considered an ancient relic of cultivation, introduced 2,000 years ago. It was widely used for food, flavouring and medicine. The early references to ‘cainnen’ in Irish literature variously translated as leek, onion or garlic may well have been this wild Babington leek.
Bog Asphodel
Bog Asphodel is another unusual plant found on the less intensively grazed valley bog lands. The scientific name Narthicium ossifragum meaning ‘bone breaker’, derives from the belief that grazing the plant made the bones of an animal brittle. It was in fact the sour, calcium poor pastures that caused this, in which bog asphodel grows.
To ‘sweeten’ the land, for better pastures lime was used. In the valley there are several stone relics of kilns used to smelt limestone in the 19th and early 20th centuries, showing how widespread the practice was. Limestone would have been brought in by horse and cart, then broken into small pieces first by hand. Kilns are roughly circular stone structures with a large hole in the top and another opening lower down the side. Usually constructed on the side of a hill so they could be accessed from above to load in alternate layers of turf (the fuel) and the pieces of limestone.
Painting of an old lime kiln by Andrew Newland
A fire was lit through the lower opening known as a pouchean, also allowing the lime to be removed after firing. Temperatures of 900-1000 degrees Celsius were needed to reduce the stone to slaked lime, taking up to 5 days.
Slaked lime had many uses, improving land by raising the calcium levels, mixed with sand as mortar for building, a limewash for walls, wells and timbers, on tree trunks to prevent insect damage, a preventative to foot rot in cattle. As a powder, it was shaken over sprouted potatoes before planting to deter pests.
ANCIENT HISTORY AND FOLKLORE
Mount Callan, the highest landmark of the area, presides over the valley. Many of the places on the broad shoulders of Callan are prefixed ‘Booly’ meaning meadow or pasture, eg. Boolyduff, Boolyrahda. These come from the old farming tradition of driving the cattle up to the mountain at Easter to preserve the lower land grass for hay for winter food. Farmers would live in makeshift huts on the mountain until the end of September.
One level sward of grass 800 metres up was known as Buaile na Greíne, pasture of the sun, with stone markers and a monument Altóir na Greíne. It is believed to be the site of a traditional assembly place, usually found sited on a remarkable natural feature. The festival of Lughnasa was celebrated here, Lugh, the most brilliant figure of the Tuatha Dé Dannan, the divine people of Irish myth. It was held at the beginning of the harvest, corn in early times and later potatoes. Long ago it was celebrated with sacrifices of bulls and rams and goats and great feasting. As time passed it merged into a festive fair with plenty drinking, dancing, singing, hurling and racing going on for several days.
In the latter decades of the 19th century the stones were displaced, one story being the stones were broken up to make the fence of a local cabbage garden. By 1942 the Callan festivities were barely remembered as Priests had encouraged the Christianisation of the celebration, becoming Garland Sunday, held on the last Sunday of July. Tradition was to leave the first digging of the potato harvest until this day.
The Wedge Tomb on Mount Callan
The name of my townland, Formoyle, is thought to be derived from Formaoil describing rounded hills and terrain characterized by bog and scrubby woodland that were once the hunting grounds of the legendary Fionn Mac Cumhaill. As well as place names, the most lasting monument to these ancient warriors of the Fianna is a wedge tomb standing proud at the head of the pass over Mount Callan’s, south side. Visible for miles around, known as Diarmuid and Gráinne’s Bed, where the mythical lovers would spend the nights when fleeing from Fionn Mac Cumhaills wrath. Folklore holds it is bad luck to disrespect such places and could bring a curse, perhaps why these Neolithic monuments have stood for 4000 years.
From this ancient site, there are the most astounding views, west across the sea, east to Moy Lussa’s peak, south to the Shannon estuary, north to Connemara. The stones are huge and blocky, carrying on their surface ripple marks, imprint of the sea sand from which these rocks were made so long ago.
Today, huge wind turbines rise across this heathy upland, ancient monument in juxtaposition with those of the 21st Century.
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