A big day out...

...the first since February with our wandering companions, Robert and Finola. They took us to Cooleenamane, a remote glen high up in the mountains on the Cork/Kerry border. It was truly spectacular - the colours were amazing russetts and greys, the hawthorns and sloes were in abundance,  sheep and cattle grazed amongst the furze, ravens wheeled overhead as we followed a very boggy route upwards along the line of a river, evidence of glacial activity all around us. Robert  had already been and gives a good account of his first visit. Once 16 families had eked a living out here, the remains of their homes, their jumbled and mossy walls, a long and beautifully made boreen and lazy bed for potatoes still visible. We were annoyed to see another human behind us. It turned out to be Mary with her four dogs, older than us but skipping up the hills on the lookout for her brother's cattle.

Can you  see that jumble of large rocks in the centre of the image? That's where we were heading for for this was once a mass rock where people gathered during Penal times when it was illegal for a catholic priest to hold mass and for a congregation to gather. Mass was held in the open air in wild and remote places like this, the priest with a bounty on his head. Locally the site is known as the baylick or cave and may once had a family living in it.What's even more interesting is that on the inside of two of the huge rocks are carvings or scribings. Quite hard to know what was going on but  Finola  offered some thoughts on her visit. 

We tramped back through the bogginess along the river avoiding the cattle. Then we decided to continue for a while and to carry on along the Priest's Leap which must be the smallest road in the universe with the most terrific views downwards. Robert was driving but we were very impressed by a woman driver we met who was coming up and managed to do some unflustered reversing. The story of the Priest's Leap is a good  one and back to the Penal times when a priest on horseback was being pursued by soldiers. He and his horse did a most dramatic leap of 12 miles and landed in Bantry - just outside Lidl!  The cross marks the spot where they leapt. Looking down we could see the valley where we had just been. Sublime. We are so fortunate - even more fortunate, Molly Galvin's was open scones and tea were had. Wrecked now.

And thanks to the powers that be for the showcase