Drumena Cashel and Souterrain

Drumena Cashel.

I was to pass by Drumena Cashel on my way home through County Down a while ago so I stopped by to see it rather than drive straight past.

It's between Castlewellan and Kilcoo and lies close to the road.

The weather wasn't the kindest, but was rather a "soft day thank God" kind of day.

An onsite information board describes Drumena Cashel as an example of an early Christian era Cashel "farmstead enclosure".

While this might be true for the Cashel at Drumena it certainly is not true for all Cashels.

A Cashel is usually 

(though not always) a single defensive circular wall constructed of stone, sometimes built to a significant height.

It is often thought that most Cashels were indeed small homesteads or farmsteads but some of the larger ones such as at Lough Gur in County Limerick appear to be multi Cashel outposts, possibly with some of the walled  enclosures used to safeguard livestock in times of crisis or uncertainty .

 

The straightforward definition of a Cashel is simply a "Stone Fort" and the period of their usage is often given as sometime between the middle/late Iron age to the early medieval period, roughly 200 C.E. to 1000 C.E.

Those dates are a very rough estimation. Some Cashels were probably seeing continuation in use until considerably later in time.

It is also possibly quite likely that some Cashels were purely defensive in nature with no ongoing habituation and used only in times of War.

There are literally hundreds of Cashels to be found in Ireland and some contain accessable Souterrains such as the Cashel at Drumena.

Souterrains are underground passages used for the storage of goods and foodstuffs.

As well as being a safe place to store food it's possible the darkness, confined space and cooler stable temperature inside helped with preservation of foodstuffs and protection of it from vermin or interlopers.

In some places larger Souterrains could also afford temporary protection or shelter to local inhabitants. I'm thinking in particular of the large Cave of the Cats, Oweynagat in Roscommon, which was also a Souterrain although not in the context of Cashels.

Below is the entrance to the Souterrain made accessable with the addition of some steps 

Cahergall Cashel - Kerry (OPW)

It's quite likely that some Cashels were used for metalworking and were early armouries much like Rathgall Hillfort in Wicklow which was a large base for small scale industrial Sword making.

heritageireland.ie - Grianan-of-aileach - Cashel (Donegal)

CommunitiesNI-Drumena-cashel-and-souterrain

irishmegaliths -Cashels etc.

Choosesligo.com/ring-forts--cashels-in-sligo

Keep the wheels turning.

Southern Spanish Cave Art at Cueva de los Letreros

 

Cueva de los Letreros

The Cave of the Signs.

At a rocky escarpment in Southeast Spain's Almeria region known as Cueva de los Letreros is to be found some very rare Iberian Prehistoric Cave Art.

This location is only accessable with a guide.

It is a reasonably long climb and while not too taxing it is not for anyone unfit or faint of heart. 

The ascent begins as a small meandering dirt track through an Almond orchard.

Most of the upward journey has been "stepped" to make access a little easier up the steep slope.

It is located not far from the towns of Velez Blanco and Velez Rubio, both beautiful little towns worthy of a visit in and of themselves.

One of the towns, Velez Blanco, has a noteworthy and beautiful Castle with an unusual connection to the U.S.A.

Castle of Velez-Blanco

Castle Brochure

Cueva de los Letreros is just one of a number of sites dotted about the region which contain examples of Neolithic Cave Art and are designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

One particular painting represented in the Cave Art at los Letreros is the figure of a human holding what has been interpreted as both a Bow and a Rainbow. 

Take your pick, neither is definitive.

This figure is known as Indalo and is to be found throughout the region on everything from signs, jewellery, buildings, artworks and a host of other things and is synonymous with the Almeria region.

The Los Letreros Cave contains representations of what is known as Levantine-style Prehistoric Painting, with highly schematised animal figures (goats, deer, etc.) as well as men and women, usually with bowed arms and legs, dating to around 5,000 BC. 

The Los Letreros Cave was declared National Historic Monument in 1924, and more recently a World Heritage site. At this rock shelter the Indalo figure was discovered, representing a man holding a rainbow with his hands, and which has become the most representative symbol of Almeria.

Velez Blanco and Velez Rubio

Velez Rubio - Iglesia Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación

It is very difficult to convey both the beauty and the importance of these Neolithic era Cave paintings in these rough and somewhat shoddy photographs of mine.

While it is unlikely that any particular one of us can correctly identify or guess at what the many shapes portray or are describing, undoubtedly some are of obvious human form, some are animals and yet others seem anthropomorphic or possibly stylistic to the ancient artists themselves.

The reality is that today, they are what the eye of the beholder wishes them to be.

They are a wonder to behold in person and I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to do so.

Indalo him or herself.

A blow up from an onsite information board.

As you can see there is quite a lot going on in the artwork itself so it is probably telling a great many stories, about exactly what who knows ?

That's my best guess anyway.

Keep the wheels turning.

One Trillion

 One Trillion can be expressed as ;

1000,000,000,000

or:

One Thousand Thousand Thousand Thousand

or:

One Thousand Thousand Million

or:

One Thousand Billion

or: 

111.11 for each of Earth's 9 billion inhabitants, every man woman and child

or:

Widespread Healthcare initiatives

or:

Eradicating Polio and possibly Malaria

or:

Financing a Global poverty eradication Program

or:

Elon Musk.

You decide.

Edit :- Looks like you just did......

1st Shankill Somme Association and Commonwealth War Cemetery, Shankill Road, Belfast

1st Shankill Somme Association and Commonwealth War Cemetery

 I can't claim to know a whole lot about the Shankhill Road.

I was baptised Catholic but am a non-practising agnostic bordering on atheism.

Nonetheless I presumed it safe to assume that Catholics practising or not from the Republic of Ireland, would be far from welcome.

 However perhaps times have moved on in the Shankhill, I don't know.

All I remembered was the "Shankhill Butchers" who kidnapped Catholics and tortured them horrendously before murdering them and an IRA bombing of a shop which killed a lot of innocent people, two of whom were children.

Neither memory seemed like a good reason for visiting but I wanted to see the Somme Association Gardens and Commonwealth War Cemetery.

A namesake having won the V.C. early during WW1 and both a Grandparent and Great Grandparent having fought respectively in WWI and WWII, I thought I had just about as good a reason as anyone for visiting the Shankhill Road, wandering lapsed Catholic or not.

I found the memorial Garden quite well kept and a nice quiet place for reflection, giving thanks and peaceful introspection.

There was a Statue of Queen Victoria in the grounds and interestingly some walled remains of a "Watch House".

This was where a Watchman kept guard to keep gravediggers at bay during the night.

Doctors, medical establishments and assorted teaching practises would pay handsomely for corpses at this time with which they could carry out teaching lessons, demonstrations or experiments.

In order to meet this lucrative demand Grave Robbers would often attempt to dig up freshly buried bodies at night and steal them away.

Judging by the many Consultants carrying out Private work while using Public resources, taking "Bungs" from Hospital Cafes and Shops to secretly top up their salaries and promoting branded rather than generic drugs while simultaneously being paid by Pharmaceutical Companies to give "talks" at Conferences I actually sometimes wonder have medical ethics moved on much from the days of the Grave Robbers? 

Here lieth 3 of Alexander Cunninghams Children 1750.

The lettering on the Gravestone is very beautiful.

Another couple of old Gravestones with beautiful lettering.

The Somme was an unmitigated disaster during WWI although you could argue all parts of all Wars are a disaster in the first place.

So many troops were killed in such a short space of time that the British authorities initially imposed a blanket censorship of the Media and the Postal service.

Of the nearly 60,000 casualties on day one, almost 20,000 were killed with the remainder wounded.

First day of the Somme - IWM.

I was delighted to find an ancient Bullaun Stone at Saint Matthews Church on the Shankhill.

It was most unexpected.

I am firmly of the belief that rich people argue with other rich people by sending poor people from one tribe to inflict violence on poor people from another tribe while even more rich people from both tribes look on and sell the commodities of War to become even richer. 

Ergo ALL WAR IS A WIN WIN FOR THE RICH on both sides while the poor only become even poorer.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Don't even get me started on internecine Warfare.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

Keep the wheels turning.

Two Workers went to War.

Two Workers went to War,

neither knew just what the fuck for,

One manned a Machine Gun the other a Tank,

neither had ever managed a Bank,

One was a Street Sweeper the other a Waiter,

they both went to battle and died a day later,

The Wife of one had three young kids,

whose house was auctioned off after multiple online bids,

The Spouse of the other lived all alone,

in a squalid damp Rental with little to own,

And the War rumbled on like the “Devil may cares,”

while the Banker and Corporate bought and sold Shares,

And the Nikki Dow, Dax and the Financial Times,

kerchinged and kerchinged to the wonderful spoils,

As Northrup, Lockheed and Raytheon grinned from ear to ear,

the World shouted “5% 5% 5%” just out of fear,

So to keep the ball rolling they starved all the young,

then they sold some more missiles, a few bombs and a gun,

And as the Cash kept on flowing and the babies were dying,

all the while the Mother’s were twisted, broken and crying,

The Ghosts of the workers ruefully looking back in time,

wondering just how they died covered in mud, filth, blood and stinking slime,

Still the Shares kept on rising as the bodies were falling,

the Bells of Wall Street vulgar, Pealing and Calling,

Canary Wharf, Zurich and Japan’s Tokyo too,

so much money in death but what can you do ?

With American Dollars and a large German bomb,

they were dropping munitions with remarkable aplomb,

Not on fighters, nor enemy nor terrorist scum,

but on babies, civilians and children struck dumb,

Yet the workers lined up and signed up for War,

and still haven’t figured out just what the fuck for.

The Dublin and Laois cyclist.