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Isn’t that just amazing scenery? I love the Irish countryside… *happy sigh*
After leaving the Lough Gur Visitor Center, we stopped at a dolmen. “What is a dolmen?” you ask. I’m so glad you asked! It is a megalithic (“containing large rocks”) tomb dating from waaaaaay back formed by large flat stones being placed on top of upright ones. This particular dolmen was pretty small, but has some interesting history. There are reports from 1833 that an old woman was living in this dolmen, refusing all aid from others, and ended up dying here. Whatever happened to her body, I don’t know.
The dolmen was excavated in 1938, and the remains of at least 8 adults and 4 children were found.
While the dolmen is not in the best of shape compared to others, it is still amazing that people were able to maneuver such large rocks without use of modern technology.
There was a field of yellow flowers across the road from the dolmen. At this point, we were trying to make good time so that we could see all we wanted to see before the day got too late, but one sight of the animals in the field and it was an instantaneous and unanimous vote to stop a while and take pictures.
This was not the only mare and foal we saw in the Lough Gur area, but these two were just too cute, bearing similar markings!
After lingering as long as we could, the ticking clock reminded us that we needed to get going to see some stone forts before the day got away from us!
livetofivehundred 