UCSC Extension Multimedia and Web Design Certificate - Final Project

Project Plan: Erin Dreams

Elsa DieLöwin

Light green background as used throughout site,
dark green map with yellow text

Images:header
map of Sligo area

back button - link to map-Galway.html & j-Galway
slideshow button - link to s-Sligo-62-25.html
next button - link to map-Newgrange.html & j-Newgrange.html

Light green background as used throughout site, dark green text as on all text pages

anchor for link to top of page

Sidebar/ single cell tables with literary quotes

Images:header
note button - link to music
back button - link to map-Galway.html & j-Galway
top button - link to top of page
next button - link to map-Newgrange.html & j-Newgrange.html

Sligo Carrowmore and Maeve's Tomb

Hills of Connemara
{text as below}

Journal text

August 6, 1998

 A little past Tobercurry, we turned west for the village of Carrowmore to look for the megaliths. Unfortunately, it was the wrong Carrowmore for us. There was a small school museum where the nice ladies gave us directions. There are about 3 Carrowmores in County Sligo.

 We came into Sligo-town into a rush-hour traffic jam. It turns out that there are races for which folks come from miles around, as we learned when we finally arrived at Mrs. Carroll's B&B, Ard Culainn. She suggested Molly Fulton's pub for dinner as it would be close, not too crowded, and with good food. All of these were borne out, though after a while the smoke got the better of us.

August 7, 1998

 I awoke to a view out the window of overcast sky and a mare with her very young foal in the field. After breakfast, we headed off to the Carrowmore Megaliths. We followed a guided tour of some of the cairns with a group of German tourists. The guide described how and when they were built, and some of the things being learned from the archaeological excavations.

 Like Newgrange, there is a large central mound with a ring of mounds around it, all in line of sight of each other, and in line of sight with further off sites. The oldest of the cairns is not the central one, but the central one seems to have been the most important, like Newgrange being newer but more important than Dowth. From the carbon dating on the burnt bones, it has been determined that the Carrowmore cairns are the earliest human-built structures in the world, predating Newgrange by 1000 to 1700 years, and the pyramids in Egypt even more. These are some 6000 years old. At least, that's what the guide said.

 There was one mound being dug by a team of Swedish archaeologists that had just been discovered as a site a few days before. As we watched, a couple of bits of bone were recovered by a young woman, as the leading archaeologist looked on and answered a few questions.

 From Carrowmore, Maeve's Mound is slightly south of west, a big flat hill rearing up from the plain with a tiny bump on the top. We drove the 4 or 5 miles between Carrowmore and the base of Maeve's mound, parked at the lot near a farmhouse, and began our ascent. The climb made Glastonbury Tor look like a molehill. It probably took us an hour to get all the way to the top.

 The path up is stony, slightly stepped and about 5 feet wide, with chest-high hedges on either side. About 100 feet up the path, we had to step aside into a notch in the hedge so some farmers could drive their sheep past us, about 25 or so of them. About 250 feet further up, we stood aside again, this time for 5 cows, one quite pregnant.

 We got to a right angle turn in the stone path, then it continued about 100 feet further to a gate. We passed through the gate and the climb began in earnest. We got to the flattish top of the hill and walked half way around the mound that had looked like a tiny, barely visible bump from Carrowmore. It's about 25 feet high and about 60 feet across at the base. We climbed up that mound, leaning forward to use hands as well as feet. The top of that mound is a flat area about 40 feet across. In the center is yet another cone of rocks about 4 feet tall and maybe 7 feet wide at its base. There were flowers and shells on the center of the mound. I added a couple of small rocks from California.

 The views from the top of Maeve's mound were wonderful, even through the overcast. We could see Sligo and its bay, Donegal, the lough, and the bays south of us. It seemed likely that we could see south all the way to Galway, though I didn't have a map along to compare the coastline. Unfortunately, I also forgot to bring additional film, so I got only one picture of the view. Perhaps if the weather had been clearer, we could have seen al the way to Tara!

 Coming back down the hill, I slipped on the wet grass. That decided me that taking off my sandals would be preferable to slipping again. The German tour group was coming up the hill as we were going down, and it was clear that many of them thought I was crazy.

 We headed south and east out of Sligo onto the N4, which looked, from the major patches of construction, like it was going to become an M4. We ate lunch as we went, finishing before we got to Taillte Hill. Krys said, "It's just a hill." Silly man.

Back Top Next

the Plain of the Towers of the Fomorians
from The Story of the Irish Race,
by Seumus MacManus (written 1921)
The Devin-Adair Co. , 1981, page 4

 Breas fled to the Hebrides, to his father, Elatha, the chief of the Fomorians, where, collecting a mighty host of sea-robbers, in as many ships as filled the sea from the Hebrides to Ireland, they swarmed onto Eirinn--and gave battle to the De Danaan (sic) at Northern Moytura, in Sligo. In this, their second great battle, the De Danann were again victorious. They routed their enemy with fearful slaughter, and overthrew the Fomorian tyranny in the island forever. The famous Fomorian chief, Balor of the Evil Eye, whose headquarters were on Tory Island, off the Northwest coast, was slain, by a stone from the sling of his own grandson, the great De Danann hero, Lugh. But Balor had slain King Nuada before he was himself dispatched.

 This famous life and death struggle of two races is commemorated by a multitude of cairns and pillars which strew the great battle plain in Sligo--a plain which bears the name (in Irish) of the Plain of the Towers of the Fomorians."

Queen Maeve
from The Celts
by Gerard Herm
St. Martin's Press , 1976, page 246

 Although King Ailill was the ruler, his queen always had the final word in the land of Connacht, for she could oder whatever she liked, take as a lover whomsoever she desired, and could get rid of them as she felt inclined. She was strong and restless, like a goddess of war, and she knew no law other than her own strong will. She was, it is said, tall with a long, pallid countenance and she had hair the color of ripe corn.