Have I uncovered a secret ancient pyramid here in Ireland built by the Egyptians on an mysterious mission to Ireland some 4500 years ago? Well, no not quite! What I did discover though was an ancient Irish church built around 700 to 800 years ago in 13th century Ireland. That's still impressive in my eyes, when you consider Columbus only arrived in America in 1492. So Catholic locals were practicing mass here before then, so suffice to say it's a long long time ago. The days of our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grand parents.

Ireland is a country steeped in history often dubbed the land of saints and scholars and we still have an array of ancient churches, burial sites, ring forts, holy wells and other historical monuments dotted around the countryside, which are luckily protected structures and cannot be knocked down or interfered with.

Walking Coco

We have a beautiful Cocker Spaniel puppy Coco, who is 6 months old and is a real little character and helps bring balance to our house of 4 boys and just one girl - my wife. Now there are two girls including Coco. The photo above is her and her Mammy the day before she came to live with us. Here she is with her brothers and sisters:

I try to bring her for a walk every morning and it was on one of these mornings earlier this week that I discovered this ancient church and a little bit further up the road I discovered part of an ancient wall dating back around 800 years as well.

The church kind of felt like it was in someone's back yard, so I was unsure whether I could go in for a wander. I asked a passerby and learned that it was open to the public, so in we went. Luckily Coco had only 3 minutes earlier done her business and I had it with me in a bag, so I was confident she would not go in the cemetery beside the ancient church, otherwise I wouldn't have gone in.

Beautiful grotto

This grotto is a more recent addition and I'm sure you'll agree whether you are Catholic, Buddhist, Islamic, Protestant or atheist that it is a sight to behold. There is art in these things, as well as spirituality and meaning. You might just see the artistic angle and that's fine or you might all three and that's fine also. Indeed, you might see nothing in it and again, that's your opinion and you're very much entitled to it.

Headstones

These head stones have been here for 100s of years. There was a time when it was 1 day old and mourners cried tears for the person who died and here I am all these years later able to look at the head stone and thread over the same ground that they did. There is something powerful about that and I always feel a certain presence when I visit someplace like this. Interestingly I get a similar feeling on mountain tops. There's a certain spiritual presence or power to each I find.

I wonder what these people were like? What was there day to day life like in comparison to today? Did they sing songs and tell stories to entertain each other in this pre-internet and pre-tv era?

History of this place

I now wanted to know more about this old roofless church and graveyard I had found and the old wall as well. So I did some digging and found out that, the church was an adjunct of Moycullen castle and was known as Teampall Bhreandáin in honour of the Patron of the old Diocese of Annaghdown, which incorporated this area in the 14th Century. It is contained within a graveyard which is curved to the north, which may indicate the existence of an earlier ecclesiastical settlement here at an even earlier date. Within the church itself are tombstones of well known Galway families – the Ffrench’s and the O’Flaherty’s and the graveyard is home to the two oldest headstones in Galway. I also learned that many of the headstones are what are known as vocational stones, and bear a symbol related to the occupation of the deceased, and I could see a plough engraved on one, which would have meant that the deceased was a farmer.

All of this from brining Coco for a walk around the neighbourhood. Ireland is fascinating like that, you don't know what you might happen upon. That's it for me.

Thanks for reading

Peace Out