Ireland: Past and Present - Ireland 2014 - page 645

Irish stone circles are concentrated in two main regional clusters consisting of
more than a hundred circles each: central Ulster, in the North (radiocarbon-dated
1500-700 B.C. );andCountyCorkandCountyKerry,inthesouth(radiocarbon-dated
1000-700 B.C. ). The remaining dozen circles are scattered across central Ireland.
Somecircleshaveonlyrecentlybeenrediscovered,havingbeenburiedoverthecen-
turies by rapidly accumulating bog growth.
Dedicated travelers seeking stone circles will find them marked in the Ordnance
Survey atlas and signposted along rural Irish roads. Ask a local farmer for direc-
tions—and savor the experience (wear shoes impervious to grass dew and sheep
doo).
Here are my five favorite Irish stone circles, all within a druid's dance of other
destinations mentioned in this topic:
Kenmare is in County Kerry, on the western fringe of Kenmare town. It's the
most easily accessible of the circles listed here.
Drombeg isinCountyCork,35miles(56km)southwestofKinsale,upanarrow
winding lane just south of the R-597 coastal road.
Glebe is in County Mayo, two miles (3 km) east of Cong and 100 yards south of
the R-345 road to Neale (across a minefield of sheep droppings).
Beltany is in County Donegal, 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Letterkenny,
straight south of Raphoe.
Beaghmore is in County Tyrone, 20 miles (32 km) east of Omagh, north off
A-505 (Cookstown Road).
England, preoccupied with the Hundred Years' War with France and its own internal
Wars of the Roses, “ruled” through deputized locals such as the earls of Kildare. Many
Irish landowners actually resided in England, a pattern of absentee-landlordism that would
persist for centuries. England's laws were fully enforced only in a 50-mile foothold around
Dublin ( the Pale —from the Norman-French word for a defensive ditch). A couple of cen-
turies after invading, the Anglo-Normans saw their area of control shrink to only the Pale
(perhaps 20 percent of the island)—with the rest of the island “beyond the Pale.”
Even as their power eroded, the English kings considered Ireland theirs. To keep their
small islands of English culture undiluted by Irish heathen ways, they passed the Statutes
of Kilkenny (1366). These laws prohibited the settlers from going native and being se-
duced by Gaelic ways...or people. Intermarriage between Irish locals and English settlers,
adoption ofIrish dress, and the speaking ofthe Gaelic language were all outlawed. Inprac-
tice, the statutes were rarely enforced.