Irish Studies: Backtrack - Churches and Round Towers

Ah! I forgot about the photos from the Irish studies before last! It was so so long ago that I didn't even realize that I left them out haha.

I told you a little about what we learned that class way back before my post about Nina's visit, I know you probably don't remember so I'll recap for you, although I have to admit, I hardly remember myself haha. We mostly looked at structures that were built and inhabited by the Celtic people during the Iron age. This included ring forts, round towers, and medevil churches. So without further ado, the be-lated photos haha.

The ring/fairy fort that you all have seen a million photos of from me haha. It is just so photogenic!

That's the entrance. Can you believe people used to live in these things! They would build camps pretty much and structures to live in. A whole clan would live in a single ring fort. There are hundreds throughout the Burren and most of the time you can see one from another because visibility was super important back then for communication purposes.

Next we went to some old churches/grave yards.

Yes people, those are human bones, and yes... that is a human tooth. These bodies were not buried quite properly, thus animals have dug into them to eat some of the left over remains, if there is any...

A little nub of a round tower

A Byzantine-style double cross is usually a sign that the church it's depicted on once housed a fragment of the True Cross

Another round tower

This archway had a historical significance but I hate to admit that we saw it far too long ago for me to remember what it is. What I can tell you, though is that there are stone animals and figures carved into the stone around the archway. I believe there are four significant ones which were used to represent John, Paul, Peter, and Mark.

This is one of the oldest free standing, intact round towers left in the Burren. Pretty incredible huh? This is when the weather got pretty bad so we didn't get out, luckily I snagged a photo through the window - hence the rain drops and bad coloring haha.

Anyways, yeah totally forgot about those, I hope you like them!

Okay for real, for real, next post: DINGLE.