Rothar Routes

Cycle routes & pilgrim journeys in Ireland and Europe …..

Archive for ‘February, 2024’

Antequera – an Iberian Newgrange & Burren rolled into One!

The historic quarter of Antequera is a glorious monument to the rich history of Spain and its Christian and Islamic past. it even extends way past those influences with the location near the old town of impressive passage graves – on a scale not too dissimilar to Newgrange at Brú na Bóinne, which I recently cycled around. Most people will visit Cordoba and Granada to explore the magnificent Alhambra and the other stunning Moorish architecture but here has its own attraction. Antequera has so many gems, without the mass tourism that is a perfect place to be paced for a few days of exploration.

Window in the Tower of the Alcazaba

My interest in Antequera was piqued by talk of the largest Dolmen in Europe – a boast we have for our own Browneshill Dolmen just 2 kms out the road. The Dolmens of Antequera are passage tombs more comparable with Newgrange. Like passage tombs in Ireland, they were used for burial purposes. Their construction remains a mystery, being built from large carved rocks, they were obviously created to endure for eternity. The first passage tombs appeared on the Iberian peninsula and in Brittany before the construction of similar passage tombs on the island of Ireland. There are three tombs very close to the centre of Antequera, El Romeral, Menga and Viera. All three are located in a heavy industrialised area which does take away from the natural beauty. All three are really interesting places worthy of visits.

Entrance to El Romeral Dolmen
Dolmen de Menga entrance
View from the entrance of Mega, is aligned with Peña de los Enamorados
Inside El Romeral Dolmen
Video – Menga Dolmen

About 12kms away is the amazing El Torcal region high above Antequera. Like the Burren in Clare, this is a karst limestone landscape, with a ruggedness full of unique rock formations and natural sculptures. El Torcal, the Dolmens and Peña de los Enamorados were designated a World Heritage Site in 2016. There are two walking routes through El Torcal, the shorter takes about an hour to complete and the longer takes two hours. Delighted to catch glimpses of the Iberian Ibex grazing high up among the rocky outcrops but unfortunately too far away to photograph with my phone. We took the longer route and would loved to have stayed to also complete the shorter version but we had a lift to catch!

El Torcal
El Torcal
Video – a tight squeeze!

The Alcazaba of Antequera is a Moorish fortress that was erected over Roman ruins in the 14th century to counter the Christian advance from the north. The fortress is rectangular in shape, with two towers. Its keep is considered amongst the largest of  Al-Andalus – the Muslim ruled area of the Iberian Penisula. It’s a magnificent ruined fort. The Church of Santa Maria La Mayor’s Collegiate Church alongside the Alcazaba was constructed between 1514 and 1550 and was the first Renaissance-style building to be erected in Andalucía. The town is packed full of other old churches scattered all over the old town. The narrow streets and row upon row of white houses give Antequera a really picturesque back drop that you could spend hours wandering around.

Street scene, evening time Antequera
Many streets are connected by steep rows of steps in hilly Antequera

Antequera has a very relaxed atmosphere and a place you feel very welcome and safe. We were particularly taken with the sense of community as we descended, one evening, the winding streets down from the Ermita. It reminded me of photos I’ve seen of Bridewell Lane back in the 1950s – families out on the street, a young woman sowing a dress on her doorstep, elderly grandparents out chatting with neighbours and everyone looking out for each other. It felt good!

Alcazabal

Spain is one of the best countries to cycle in – the roads are safe and there’s lots of off road tracks to take as well. We were delighted to get the opportunity to cycle a section of the Camino Mozárabe back from Cartoaojal to Antequera. A common sight I’ve seen while cycling in Spain are the local village deliveries – be they bread men, or fishmongers. A toot of the horn tells the locals to come out on to the street to buy their fresh anchovies and squid, from a little van just like this:

Peña de los Enamorados – Lovers Rock

Camino Mozárabe route

Camino Mozárabe

If you like an active holiday, it’s hard to beat Spain – it has the weather, the roads, the friendly people, good food and so much history. Next time we go here we will book a place in the old town to stay in as we were located a little bit too far out of town and faced a lengthy uphill walk before we started to explore each day! Here’s a You Tube video to give a real flavour of Antequera.

St Fechin’s Way & the Seven Wonders of Fore!

St Fechin’s Way

Spent a marvellous few hours on a gorgeous Saturday morning wandering St. Fechin’s Way and around the ancient and historic village of Fore, Co. Westmeath. ‘Ireland’s Ancient Heartlands’ is a patchwork of many incredible sites, that do not feature high on the public radar but are all fascinating places to visit. I’ll be back for more visits and surprises!

The view across Fore Valley

Fore isn’t a place you would normally drive through, you need to seek it out, but it is worth the effort. It must have been a thriving place in the heyday of the early Christian Church. It was a target for Viking raiders and Fore was burnt to the ground on at least a dozen occasions. Fore became a great centre of learning with 300 Monks and 2,000 students – akin to a modern university town! Ireland truly was the land of the Saints and Scholars. Poor Fechin however died from the Yellow Plague in 664.

The graveyard at St. Fechin’s Church.

The Seven Wonders of Fore ar a curious mix of Pagan and Christian beliefs that must have been written by the earliest Travel writers trying to promote the village of Fore!

The Benedictine Abbey was a much later construct in the 13th century, with the first monks being French. It too was plundered often. It’s a striking ruin that you can wander through. I was especially taken by the Dovecote or Columbaria built close by. The Dovecote was built to house pigeons as a source of food and feathers!

Dovecote or Columbaria

St Fechins Walk continues for 4 kms in a beautiful scenic loop along the edge of a wood and there are lots of new trees planted, all sponsored by local families.

The oldest beech tree in the Valley.

Fore is nestled between two beautiful hills, the Ben of Fore to the north east and Carrick Balor (Of the Evil Eye) in the south west. The walk way has lovely display boards about legends and lore. Some of the stories are from the Dúcahs collection that I often refer to.

Looking for some wisdom in the Wisdom seat!

I love these folk tales which we all learned in our youth, hopefully they will continue to be passed down the generations.

Key to

The key to the Anchorite can be had from the Seven Wonders Bar, unfortunately I was too early and it wasn’t open.

The tree that will not burn with coins hammered into the trunk!

The water that flows uphill!

Monastery built in a bog!

St. Fechin’s Way

Santa Brigida

We have Saint Brigid to thank for today’s Bank Holiday! This year marks the 1500th anniversary of her death.

It’s lovely to see the revival in interest in old customs and traditions. The unique St Brigid’s Cross, made from rushes, has regained enormous popularity and are instantly recognisable as relating to Brigid.

The well known Wexford folklorist Michael Fortune has some lovely postings about making the crosses on his Facebook page. Here’s one example of a cross made by his enterprising daughters:

Over 3,000 secondary school students, from counties Kildare, Carlow and Laois created a human St Brigid’s Cross formation on the Curragh to mark the 1500th anniversary. Here’s a stunning aerial shot from local photographer Mark McGuire.

I think most families in Ireland have a Brigid somewhere in the family tree and my lovely grandmother was Brigid Kelly of Little Barrack Street and so we all have a soft spot for St Brigid who performed wondrous deeds, often kind natured domestic miracles. On a trip to Italy in 2019 I was inspired by some reading I was doing about the amazing impact of Irish saints in Europe and I took off one day in search of the village of Santa Brigida which is located north east of Florence. A lady called Margaret Stokes wrote a book in the 19th century ‘ Six Months in the Apennines: Or a Pilgrimage in Search of Vestiges of The Irish Saints of Italy’. It’s a labour of love and a detective story of sorts as she researches the reach of the wandering Irish Perigrini. Fascinating to think of monks from Inis Cealtra on Lough Derg, making their way in the 6th and 7th century across Europe. Brigid was among them and one version of her life story is that she lived her remaining years out in the beautiful and rugged hills above Fiesole. She found a cave there high in the mountains which were haunted by wild beasts. It was here she spend her last years fasting and in prayer. She was often visited in her hermitage by local peasants, knights and holy matrons. She was venerated as a saint by the local population who built a church above the cave and the tiny village of Santa Brigida grew up around it. I was delighted to find it and make that connection again with Ireland as was made by Margaret Stokes all those years ago.

Church of Santa Brigida
Cave of Santa Brigida
Fresco of Santa Brigida
Church of Santa Brigida
Grotta di Santa Brigida
Santa Brigida near Fiesole, Italy

Holy Wells, High Crosses & Swearing Stones

This is a fabulous 50 kms cycle route featuring interesting and important historical sites and surprising stunning hills scenery, which I really enjoyed completing on a windy February 4th morning. Hard to believe but I’d say once I left Carlow, and excluding Castledermot village I met less than 10 cars on these quiet country roads. I’m at a loss to understand why cyclists use our busy main roads when we have this glorious spiders web of bóithríns connecting up our towns and villages.

Most evenings I take the road out past Oak Park and Ballaghmoon and so the first part of this route is very familiar – or so I thought! I’ve loaded up the Ordnance Survey Maps on my phone and they are brilliant for highlighting heritage sites. Many of these are but ruins, and often long gone but at least I can be on the look out for them. I noticed a church marked near the river Lerr at Newtownallen but I could see no sight of it on the way out. I continued on this well surfaced road passing close to Kilkea Castle and heading towards Belan, Moone.

My first stop was another gem marked on the map, a holy well at Belan. It’s a small oval well covered by a fine corbelled structure with clear water inside which runs under a flag stone and into the River Greese.

St. Patrick’s Well at Belan
Crystal clear water in St. Patrick’s Holy Well
St Partick’s Well, Belan

Local folklore, says that St Patrick was chased out of Belan and this is supposedly reenacted every 17th March with a procession from the High Cross Inn! Sounds like a tale that originated in the Inn!

Not far away is the sleepy but historic village of Moone which is home to one of the best preserved High Crosses in the country, the tallest in fact at 5.4 metres. The carvings are so good, so well preserved and they feature many scenes from the Gospels. The monastery here was founded by St Palladius who came to Ireland in 431 AD.

I was at the northernmost point of my route here and headed east in the direction of Kilelan Abbey ruins. One of the great advantages of slow travel is the ability to stop and admire things that catch your eye. This is a unique church ruin with a square tower incorporated into the church building. Founded by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in the 13th century, it’s a pretty site worth investigating. It’s possible to get to the top of the tower but honestly, when I saw part of the tower held together with rope I didn’t even give it a second thought!

Leaving Kilelan Abbey behind I continued on a lovely quiet rural road along the side of Sheriff Hill and then Frocken Hill, as my father used call it, but I see it named on the Ordnance survey map as Corballis Hill. This is a great road with pretty scenery all round and some nice hills to climb. I should taken a few more photos!

I turned right then for Castledermot and a look at the famous monastery of Diseart Diarmada, founded in 812 AD, now St James Church of Ireland. This is a stunning site that is so easily overlooked which is on our doorstep. There are two very decorative High Crosses, one on the Northside and the other on the Southside, a Round Tower, a hog back stone and a swearing stone! The original monastery was plundered twice by the Vikings in the 9th century.

The Round Tower, which is just over 20 metres tall, was used to store valuables and this one is unusual as the entrance is just above ground level and is located to the north of the church instead of on the usual west side of the church.

Round Tower at Castledermot

There are a couple of other unique features worth investigating. A very rare, possibly the only one now in this country, a hog back stone. This is a Scandanvian type grave marker with carvings on both sides. These are covered in lichen now and hard to make out.

The Swearing Stone is another great feature. The “Leac na Mionn” or ‘Stone of the Oaths’ bears a circular hole in the centre of the carved head. This stone was used for swearing oath, sealing promises and making deals!

There are a host of other smaller crosses and markers worth checking out including another holed stone:

Roma Arch and Round Tower.

I was heading back for Carlow now and the best way by bike is out by the GAA field and over by Newtownallen. This allowed me look to see of there was anything remaining of the church ruins that I mentioned at the start and though I have travelled this road on hundreds of occasions, today was the first day I glimpsed these ruins. They are located on the other side to the River Lerr and I’ll have to find an away across at some stage to have a gander! All in all another lovely cycle with loads of interesting sites to visit.