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Drombeg stone circle (also known as The Druid's Altar), is a Recumbent
stone circle located 2.4 km (1.5 mi) east of Glandore, County Cork,
Ireland. Drombeg is one of the most visited megalithic sites in
Ireland and is protected under the National Monuments Act.
The stone circle consists of seventeen closely spaced stones spanning
9.3 metres (31 ft) in diameter, of which 13 survive. The most westerly
stone (1.9m long) is the long recumbent and has two egg shaped
cup-marks, one with a ring around it.[3] A "Cork-Kerry type" stone
circle, it is flanked by a pair of 1.8m high axial portal stones,
which provide a south-west axis, and orient the monument in the
direction of the setting sun during the midwinter solstice. The stones
in the circle have been shaped to slope upwards to the recumbent
stone, the midpoint of which was set in line with the winter solstice
sunset viewed in a conspicuous notch in the distant hills. While the
alignment is good, it is not precise. The ruins of two round stone
walled conjoined prehistoric huts and a fulacht fiadh lie just 40m
west of the monument. Evidence suggests the fulacht fiadh was in use
up until the 5th century AD. The larger of the huts had a timber roof
supported by a timber post. The smaller hut had a cooking oven on its
east side. A causeway leads from the huts to the cooking place
(fulacht fiadh) featuring a hearth, well and
trough in which water was
boiled by adding hot stones.
The site was excavated and restored in 1957. During this process an
inverted pot was found in the centre of the circle, containing the
cremated remains of a young adolescent wrapped with thick cloth.
Radiocarbon dating of samples taken from the site suggest that it was
active c. 1100 - 800 BC. The pot was buried near the centre of the
circle along with 80 other smashed sherds, four bits of shale and a
collection of sweepings from a pyre.
Hasselblad 500 CM with Digital Back Hasselblad CFV-50. Lens Carl Zeiss Planar 2.8/80 mm C
© Luís Campillo 2014
From the series "Secret life of the trees".
Created after very last 5 days in Canada...
Who were the Druids? Popular folklore tells us they were ancient Celtic wise men. They wore long robes and had long, flowing beards. Merlin, the famous magician of King Arthur's court, was reputedly a Druid. They are credited with having built Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments throughout Great Britain and Europe.
Other sources tell us Druids were men and women who were really into trees. Their ceremonies were conducted in the open air, often in oak groves. The word Druid is apparently derived from the ancient Celtic words for oak and truth--dru and druidh. Other trees were also very important to them, including yew, hazel, walnut, willow, rowan, ash and birch. Tree symbolism was used in their religious and philosophical teachings, and in their calendar and system of writing, called Ogham.
Druids also believed that trees are like a humans. They deliver a babies, they grow, sometimes they get an illness, they fight, and they die...
Much better view in large
Explore #81, 11/20/08
Join the Druids in welcoming the time of Spring, when Mother Earth wakes up from her Winter sleep and nature awakens to grow and be full with new life.
The Awen Shrine
A druid was a member of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peoples of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and possibly elsewhere during the Iron Age. The druid class included law-speakers, poets and doctors, among other learned professions. Although, the best known among the druids were the religious leaders.
Very little is known about the ancient druids. They left no written accounts of themselves, and the only evidence is a few descriptions left by Greek, Roman, and various scattered authors and artists, as well as stories created by later medieval Irish writers. While archaeological evidence has been uncovered pertaining to the religious practices of the Iron Age people, "not one single artefact or image has been unearthed that can undoubtedly be connected with the ancient Druids." Various recurring themes emerge in a number of the Greco-Roman accounts of the druids, including that they performed animal and even human sacrifice, believed in a form of reincarnation, and held a high position in Gaulish society. Next to nothing is known for certain about their cultic practice, except for the ritual of oak and mistletoe as described by Pliny the Elder.
The earliest known reference to the druids dates to 200 BCE, although the oldest actual description comes from the Roman military general Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico (50s BCE). Later Greco-Roman writers also described the druids, including Cicero, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder. Following the Roman invasion of Gaul, druidism was suppressed by the Roman government under the 1st century CE emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and it had disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century.
In about 750 CE the word druid appears in a poem by Blathmac, who wrote about Jesus, saying that he was "... better than a prophet, more knowledgeable than every druid, a king who was a bishop and a complete sage." The druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianized Ireland like the "Táin Bó Cúailnge", where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity. In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and Neopagan groups were founded based on ideas about the ancient druids, a movement known as Neo-Druidism.
So it is a little disappointing to discover that the Druids Temple, situated near Ilton, about 4 miles west of Masham, is a folly. It was created by William Danby of nearby Swinton Hall in 1820. The structure sits deep within a private forest and includes a large stone table, a sheltered cave and an altar stone, everything you would expect for the odd human sacrifice!. The temple is approximately 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, with some of the stones standing over 10 feet high.
William Danby (1752-1832) was made High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1784. He created the temple to generate work for the local population who were paid 1 shilling a day. A salary was offered for someone to live at the Temple as a hermit for seven years. Apparently someone stayed for five years before going a bit mad.
Truck Align Caterpillar powered White Road Commander and a Geoffrey Reyner Gardner engined Seddon Atkinson 400 jostle for position at Brands Hatch 1986 Lucas Truck SuperPrix.
Best / Rarebit.... details from a 130ft wall painted in 2 days at Green Man Festival... long days churning out the tried and tested. Joiner coming soon
This is the Druid's Circle (Welsh: Meini Hirion) on the North Wales coastal walk above Penmaenmawr. Wikipaedia says it is 5000 years old. Dare I question their authority? Anyhow the sun remained behind the clouds and boy was it windy. I only had time to sacrifice so I continued on to the quarry that looms big above the A55 and the little coastal towns below.
This wonderful and evocative stone circle, considered one of the finest examples in Britain, forms part of a complex of ancient monuments on moorland above the town of Penmaenmawr. The circle consists of 30 stones, 11 of which are still standing, set into the inner edge of a low embankment about 35 metres in diameter.
Known locally as the Meini Hirion, or 'long stones' in English, the site was excavated in the 1950s. It revealed a capstone of a finely made cist (burial chamber), with stones, including quartz, scattered unevenly around it. Inside the cist was a food vessel that contained the cremated bones of a child aged between 10 and 12. The vessel is now in the Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery, Bangor.
A second cremation was found in another pit. A plain food vessel contained the cremated bones of a child aged between 11 and 13, accompanied by a small bronze riveted knife. Children’s remains within these circles may point to spiritual beliefs in youth and regeneration for the communities that used them. These monuments would have been important social places, where people gathered at certain times throughout the year.
A tentative date of 1450–1400 BC was proposed for the construction of the Meini Hirion, which would place them in the Bronze Age, though it was acknowledged at the time that it could be much older, dating from 3000 BC. The ring is not a perfect circle, being slightly flattened on the north-east side where a trackway cuts across.It has been proposed that the circle deliberately avoids this track, which would suggest that the track is earlier. Either way, the Meini Hirion are thought to predate the Druids by many hundreds of years, and the structure only acquired its English name of Druid’s Circle in the 19th century
Look at the stupid auto tags added by flickr:: outdoor cloud sky grassland field landscape mountain
I would never add such basic guff, and I don't want to be associated with such stupidity.