Burren Excursion

On Friday night we met our theology professor, Brother Colman and on Saturday he took us to numerous early Christian sites on our way to the Burren and Glenstal Abbey. First we went to a place that had once been a monastic area and it had three different structures. Brother Colman was able to point out the architecture and show us what things were used for. We went to a graveyard that also had a church and a huge tower. The tower is 126 feet tall and it is the tallest one in Ireland from that time period and its’ foundation is only 18 inches. Brother Colman explained that this was possible because it was a cylindrical structure and the forces pull it inward.

Brother Colman telling us about the tower

Annie asked Brother Colman what you would have to do to be buried in the cemetery and he explained that it was pretty exclusive but also that people have been buried here for so long and it is so full that when they bury someone new, there ends up being remains of others dug up from the ground. He said there are thousands of people buried in grave yards like the one we were at. He showed us a fairly new grave that had a part of a cranium on it from the soil it was covered with!

Then we went to the Burren, a kind of national park that has limestone and lots of plants. The area where Ireland is now used to be Mediterranean so it has plants and physical features that would be unusual for that area. We went to a pilgrimage place where Saint Colman Mac Duagh spent time in a cave as a hermit. His story reminded me a lot of Saint Benedict.

The Cave

After that we went to a wedge tomb that is from before Christianity came to Ireland. Brother Colman explained that the people who built the tomb probably worshiped the sun and probably believed in an afterlife. He could conclude this because the tomb faces the east, where the sun comes up.

After this we went to one final location where we saw another church, two tombs, one that still had bones in it, and a well with holy water in it. Brother Colman explained the architecture to us and we walked to the well and got to drink the holy water!

Tomb with Bones still inside! 

Colleen touching the Holy Water

We ended the night at the Jamaican Inn hostel at Six Mile Bridge and the next day we went to Glenstal Abbey, the monastery that Brother Colman Belongs to.