The Magic of Brackloon

The Magic of Brackloon Woods

Brackloon Wood is part of the Tóchar Phádraig/Patrick’s Causeway Bike Tour!

Brackloon Wood is an ancient and little-known place, not far from the remarkable Boheh Stone (where a 5,800-year old tablet was discovered in 2016). The 173-acre forest lies undisturbed and still in low hills on the eastern side of Croagh Patrick, its 200-year old Atlantic oak trees fringed with lichen and ferns. Yet these are just indicators of a much deeper past, when the entire area was covered with oak forest. This occurred after the glaciers started to recede from Ireland over 12,000 years ago, so that when the first humans arrived around three thousand years later, they found trees covering the lower lands around the more exposed mountainsides.

There are local stories of a Celtic past, of caves and monuments hidden in these woods. There are moss and bramble-covered standing stones found here. There is also a prominent ringfort and even a stone circle.

Other evidence of early human settlements is found here – several fulacta fiadh – a type of cooking pit constructed during the mid to late Bronze Age. These were usually constructed near streams or rivers, which provided the water to fill a stone or timber trough. Stones were heated on a nearby fire, and were then used to boil the water in the trough. Ringforts were built in Ireland during the early Christian period after 300 a.d. and were predominantly used for human habitation for hundreds of years. Earthen ringforts are called ‘raths’, while stone ones are referred to as ‘cashels’. These had as many as three concentric lines of ‘defense’ in the form of walls. The ringforts were used by humans and also as a shelter for animals. The ‘door’ to the fort was often built on the eastern side, away from the prevailing westerly winds. The ringfort in Brackloon Wood is a cashel, some 25 metres wide, located in the centre of the forest.

Brackloon Ringfort Souterrain

The 19th century author Thackeray called Brackloon “noble woods”. At that time, they were a part of Westport House Estate, owned by the Marquis of Sligo. Patrick’s Causeway or ‘Tóchar Phádraig‘ (click on the link to see post), passes close to the woods. This route predates Saint Patrick by many hundreds of years. It was believed to be a significant road capable of carrying wheeled traffic from Rathcroaghan (Cruachan) in County Roscommon – home of the High Kings of Connaught and the legendary Queen Maedhbh (Maeve) – to Cruachan Aigli (now Croagh Patrick).

Brackloon Tochar Padraig Notice

Brackloon is found seven kilometres southwest of Westport town. It is one of the few deciduous forests surviving in modern Ireland.

Evidence of extensive prehistoric settlements in this area is already indicated by the presence of cairns on the shoulders of Croagh Patrick. These large burial mounds of earth or stone are thought by Archaeologist Leo Morahan to have their origin in the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age.

Ancient Brackloon
Brackloon is an ancient place

Brackloon has undergone many changes in the years since it was pristine forest. Significant clearance of woodlands took place in the 16th and 17th centuries, after the invention of the blast furnace. Colonel John Browne, who had acquired huge swathes of land in Ireland, built what is now referred to as Westport House and established an ironworks at the nearby village of Knappagh in 1687. At its peak, 150 men were employed in the making of cannonballs, iron and metal tools to British garrisons in Galway and the island of Inishbofin. The ironworks was fueled by charcoal produced from local timber. Much of the deforestation of Ireland occurred during the industrial age, when the country’s English overlords used the country as a source for timber and charcoal. This exploitation of woodland occurred over centuries, and later fast-growing conifers were introduced. These ‘intruders’ to the primeval forest were culled by the Forest Service in the late 1990s, as the State sought to restore it to its deciduous origins by planting oaks, birches, willows and ash trees.

brackloon wood map

Acknowledgement to Dr. Deirdre Cunningham for her detailed work on Brackloon Wood.

 

 

 

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The Southern Wilderness

The Southern Wilderness

As a pilgrim approaches the shoulder of Croagh Patrick on a clear day, waves of mountain ranges stretch towards the southern horizon.

Looking southeast from the Reek, towards the Partry Mountains, with Lough na Corra in the foreground
Looking southeast from the Reek, towards the Partry Mountains, with Lough na Corra in the foreground

There is only one village of any size in the thirty spectacular kilometres between the Reek and Leenane, the gateway to Connemara. This is Drummin (An Dromainn, meaning “The Ridge”). At the time of writing, Drummin had a small church and a public house. It was also on this plain between Croagh Patrick and the next mountain ranges of Partry and Sheeffry that a young nun, Sister Irene Gibson, lived in a forest home as a hermit for several years up to 2003, in an unsuccessful attempt to set up a hermitage near the village.

It is said that after Saint Patrick fasted on the Reek for forty days, that he threw a silver bell down the south side of the mountain knocking the she-demon Corra from the sky into a lake, sited at the base of the mountain and known locally as Lough na Corra.

Looking southwest from the Reek, the first mountain range that comes into view is that of the Sheeffry Hills (Cnoic Shíofra, meaning “Hills of the Wraith”). This desolate and remote ridge affords spectacular views of both the Reek and the magnificent ranges to the south and west, including the Mweelrea group, the Maumturks, Ben Gorm, Devilsmother, and the Twelve Bens of Connemara. The highest peak, Barrclashcame, is actually eight metres higher than the summit of the Reek.

Connemara's Twelve Bens and Killary Harbour from Barrclashcame in the Sheaffry Hills
Connemara’s Twelve Bens and Killary Harbour from Barrclashcame in the Sheaffry Hills

Looking southwest from the top of the Reek, one can see the deep gorge that forms the break between Connaught Province’s highest mountain, Mweelrea (813 metres), and the Sheaffry Hills. This is the valley of Doolough (Dubh Lough – The Black Lake). This beautiful valley was once the scene of tragedy during the great famine, when starving residents were forced to walk for many miles in brutal winter conditions to request certification as paupers from the decision-makers who were staying in Delphi Lodge, at the southern end of the lake. The commonly accepted story is that they were instructed to appear at 7:00 a.m., then sent back towards the town of Louisburgh, some twelve miles distant. Several were too weak to continue and fell by the side of the road, where their bodies were later collected. Today, the monument in Doolough valley has an inscription from Mahatma Gandhi: “How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings?”

Winter Sun at Doolough
Winter Sun at Doolough

Beyond Doolough is Ireland’s only fjord – Killary Harbour. On a fine day, the Killary is visible from the Reek, as are the magnificent Twelve Bens and the tooth-like mountains of Maumturk.

Derryclare Horseshoe - Lough Inagh 

There are no direct roads from the Reek to the mountains of Mayo and Connemara. By car, it is necessary to either go via Westport or Louisburgh. The Western Way hiking trail does cross the valley, however, and intrepid walkers can follow this path without fear of motorized traffic.

Western Way Map
The Western Way near Croagh Patrick

The area south of Croagh Patrick seems placid today, but as evidenced by tales from the Tochar Padraig, or Patrick’s Causeway, which joins the main pilgrimage trail up the mountain from the southern side, this region has many stories of great hardship and persecution from not so long ago.

NEXT POST – The Wrecks of Clew Bay

Gold Mining on Croagh Patrick

Traces of the gold mining initiative are still visible on the Reek

A seam of gold was discovered on the Reek in the 1980s: overall grades of 14 grams (0.45 ozt) of gold per tonne in at least 12 quartz veins, which could produce 700,000 t (770,000 short tons) of ore — potentially over 300,000 troy oz of gold (worth over €300m).

More than a few traces of the gold mining initiative are still visible on the Reek
Many traces of the gold mining are still visible on the Reek

There are still many remnants of the gold mining prospectors high on the Reek, over twenty-five years after they were forced to abandon the project.

In 1989 plans to mine for gold on Croagh Patrick drew huge opposition from the local community in Mayo, who launched a campaign to save the mountain, which had been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. British environmentalist David Bellamy spoke at a rally in Westport at the time. Bellamy said Ireland was “the greenest country in the world”, but lagging behind the rest of Europe on environmental issues and that he hoped Croagh Patrick would be a turning point. If Croagh Patrick and its magnificent scenic hinterland was in any other country, he said, it would undoubtedly have been designated a world heritage site. He described as “rank vandalism” the politicians passive stance in allowing the area to be “put up for grabs” for prospecting licences.  Even if the company did extract the gold with the least amount of damage, he said, the ecological and environmental cost would be intolerable.

Paddy Hopkins, Chairman of the Mayo Environmental Group and its secretary Seán O’Malley were determined to protect Croagh Patrick and its environment for future generations.

A cairn in memory of Paddy Hopkins, who led local opposition to the mining, built by his daughter Fiona and her family
A cairn in memory of Paddy Hopkins, who led local opposition to the mining, built by his daughter Fiona and her family

The campaigners would succeed in preventing gold-mining. Mayo County Council elected not to allow mining, deciding that the gold was “fine where it was”. No attempts have been made to mine the mountain since.

NEXT POST – The Southern Wilderness

 

Sherpas on the Reek

Mingma Tsiri and Michael Cusack, author of "Croagh Patrick and the Islands of Clew Bay" on the shoulder of Croagh Patrick

Mingma Tsiri Sherpa, a man that very few know his name or how to spell it, is one of the very best high altitude climbers in the world.

Mingma – a man who has climbed Mount Everest 19 times and and is the first Nepalese to summit K2 – and his brother Pasang climbed Croagh Patrick as part of an effort to develop closer ties with Ireland and promote tourism in Nepal, a country that has suffered greatly since the earthquake in April 2015 that killed over 8,000 people.

Mingma Tsiri Sherpa first summitted Everest via the standard north east ridge route on May 12th, 1995 with the Taiwan expedition. His next summit came on May 10th, 1996 again with an expedition from Taiwan but this time via the standard south east ridge route.

Mingma Tsiri and Michael Cusack, author of "Croagh Patrick and the Islands of Clew Bay" on the shoulder of Croagh Patrick
Mingma Tsiri and Michael Cusack, Reek Tours guide, on the shoulder of Croagh Patrick

Mingma was at Everest Base Camp when the earthquake triggered an avalanche that killed nineteen people. In a talk given at Outback Jacks in Galway two days after his hike up Croagh Patrick, Mingma explained that if the earthquake had struck during the night, the sixty people rescued at base camp after being buried beneath the snow might not have survived.

Descending Ama Dablam
Sherpa Mingma on slightly more difficult terrain on Ama Dablam in the Himalayas!

Mingma’s brother Pasang, who himself has climbed Everest nine times (the family holds the Guinness World Record for most siblings to have climbed Mount Everest – a total of 56 ascents between seven brothers) explained how his father was employed by the first expedition to successfully climb Everest in 1953. His job was to collect from and deliver mail to Edmund Hillary and other climbers at base camp by running to and from Lukla – a distance of 38 miles each way.

Sherpas are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal. ‘Sherpa’ is now used as a generic name by many westerners to describe mountain guides from the Everest region. Being born at an altitude of 4,100 metres (13,400 feet), Sherpas like Mingma Tsiri and Pasang are at home in places where most people would experience symptoms of altitude sickness.

Pasang also spoke about the difficulty of rebuilding his own village, which was destroyed and is still without electricity nine months after the disaster. Despite this situation, he believes that Nepal is recovering quickly and that anyone interested in trekking or even climbing there should consider 2016 as a great year to visit.

“We are from the Rolwaling village, east of Kathmandu,” says Pasang. “Our village is in a very remote area that is over 4,000m high. You have to trek nearly five days from Kathmandu to get there.”

Because of this, he says, it received no assistance from the Nepalese government or NGOs in the wake of the massive quake, so he, Mingma and other villagers decided to fundraise by themselves.

“A lot of Irish friends helped rebuild the homes and set up the Solar Project, so I’d like to thank all the Irish people who donated.”

The project raised almost $30,000 to power the village by solar power, with Ascent Himalayas contributing money too. One of the most successful Sherpas in history, Mingma set up Ascent Himalayas in 2012. It employs 25 guides, as well as a number of support staff.

Whereas for decades climbing companies were Western-owned, more and more Sherpas are taking ownership of these businesses in Nepal.

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“Mostly, climbing expeditions in Nepal are run by big Western companies, but we feel we can do it ourselves, as the benefit goes to the whole country,” says Pasang.

“For a Western company, the profit is split between them and the local company on the ground, because to get the permit you have to use the local company … We worked for many years for a Western company, which is why we wanted to give those services to climbers coming to our country, but by our own company, as we are more experienced than most other companies.”

Croagh Patrick may not have presented a particular challenge to these supermen, but they were pleased to have trodden on Ireland’s holiest mountain as part of their crusade to raise awareness of the disaster that struck their beautiful country.

NEXT POST – Saint Patrick’s Causeway

The Rolling Sun

The Rolling Sun

Every year on April 18th and August 24th – on a clear day – a phenomenon known as the ‘Rolling Sun’ occurs when Croagh Patrick is viewed from the ancient stone at Boheh. This spectacle involves the sun tracing the western edge of the north face as though it is ‘rolling’ down the mountain. The two dates on which this occurs may be combined with the date of the winter solstice to split the year into three more or less equal parts. This may correspond to the sowing and reaping cycles even in contemporary civilizations. However, the significance attached to it by ancient civilization may never be fully understood.

The Boheh Stone
The Boheh Stone

Experts believe that the theory of crop production related to the Boheh stone and wonder about the relationship between the setting sun, the triangle of the mountain and the decorations found even today on the Boheh.

Looking east from just below the summit, towards the Boheh Stone
Looking east from just below the summit, towards the Boheh Stone

As Gerry Bracken, who first identified the ‘rolling sun’ phenomenon, points out, the Boheh Stone is an unremarkable mass of fractured rock that probably only escaped demolition because of its association with Saint Patrick (it is on the Tochar Phadraig trail that runs from Ballintubber Abbey to Croagh Patrick). On closer examination, archaeologists noted that the rock designs predated Patrick by at least two thousand years.

The Rolling Sun
The Rolling Sun – GIF image courtesy of Ken Williams

Winter on the Reek

Winter on the Reek

The first snow of the season fell on the Reek on December 12th 2015. We took the ‘normal’ pilgrims route up the mountain from Murrisk in order to take a closer look.

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Conditions were quite calm on the lower slopes, with the snow really starting to accumulate about halfway to the shoulder. Once into the clouds, however, it was quite a different story. As we approached the first station at about 1700 feet, a strong north wind was blowing. This was to become a gale higher up the mountain.

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By the time we reached the base of the summit cone, the snow drifts were up to three feet deep in places. Now the going started to get difficult, with ice forming on the exposed rocks.

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Visibility was limited in the upper slopes
Visibility was limited in the upper slopes

Approaching the summit, we were surprised to see a shadowy form emerge from the mists to my right and stagger off down the mountain. Realizing that the person was on a route that led towards the steep north east face, I shouted a warning that was lost in the gale.

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Despite relying on sturdy hiking boots, we realized that the surface rocks on the summit cone were going to be a challenge, as they were sliding even more easily than usual. So it was a case of two steps up and one step back for a while.

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Descending from the summit, it was obvious how easy it would be to veer off the normal path, as everything basically looked the same, with snow-filled gullies left and right. With the wind howling, the temperature change above the shoulder was dramatic. Even wearing a woolen hat and anorak hood, I could feel my ears acknowledging the sub zero wind chill.

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Back on the shoulder, a few people came walking along the ridge. They were well kitted out for the challenge, with poles, gaiters and Goretex clothing. However, the next group of individuals were ascending with ordinary shoes, no hats and thin jackets. They confirmed that they were heading for the top.

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“How is it up there?” one asked, at the same time offering 20 Euros if I would give him a ‘lift’ to the summit.

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“It’s a bit dodgy,” I replied. “You need to stay well to the left and watch out for the deeper drifts.”

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“That’s fine,” he said. “We’re a dodgy crowd at the best of times.”

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We wished them good luck and realized that it would be a challenge for most of us to get off the mountain and home to a warm fire without a few unplanned excursions on the slippery way down.

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The difficulties of this climb reminded me that despite its proximity to civilization and a warm bowl of soup in Campbells pub, Croagh Patrick is not a mountain to be taken lightly, especially when conditions can deteriorate without warning on higher ground. Once back in the car park, I used my binoculars to scan the visible parts of the northeast face for any sign of the climber who had taken the wrong path, and was relieved to see him traversing across to the main route.

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Anyone planning to scale the Reek after a fresh fall of snow would do well to prepare for difficult conditions on the summit cone – strong hiking boots are essential, along with waterproof trousers and several layers of clothing, including gloves and warm headgear. Despite the well-worn path, it is important to be vigilant on the descent and not be lured into one of several gullies that sweep to the left of the mountain. The northeast face can be treacherous, even in summer. Bring extra food and a flask, and even a compass – better safe than sorry!

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