As Sunday turned out to be lovely I took off to go to the Poulawack cairn in the Burrren and walk around there, it was very quiet, also visited the ringfort with the souterain and sat in the sun admiring the landscape. Went for a walk towards the Poulnabrone dolmen , a while ago since I was there, things have not improved , it is becoming the M50 of the Burren, first you have to walk past Caherconnell, which is turned into a tourist attraction, gifts shops, coffeeshop etc, who needs that? I remember 15 years ago on a misty morning looking for the fort, it was special then, the double walls, untouched, the farmer there told me a bit about it and it was lovely, and now there is a staircase build in it, not the only one, they managed to do that as well with Cahercommaun and some others , what is the point, leave it alone, I am holding my breath for some other monuments in the Burren, afraid that they will be turned into something they are not . The flags in the summer at Caherconnell are the worst, it is like the United Nations have a flipping conference there, appr. 5 big flags are standing tall at the entrance, very visible from a distance, it is completely ruining the landscape, I am so disappointed with the developments there. Then to Poulnabrone dolmen, ambiance is a good thing, you don’t find it there anymore, maybe on a moonlit evening when there is a quiet light shining on the dolmen and you can manage to ignore the explanarary posts, 3 at least, the people that sell jewellery there, and the carpark, and more so the terrible signposts towards the carpark, it looks so ugly, right in your face, gone are the times that you just jumped over the wall and walked over the limestone to it, last year there was somebody standing guard over the dolmen , well, do they think you put it in the boot of your car? The ropes around it, sad.

Up I went to the toothache well and visited the wedgetomb there, lovely and isolated, more like it. It is such a big tomb, it made up for the circus they made from the other monuments.

I won’t even start on the Cliffs of Moher . At least not today.

Well, Tom, great to read that you went back to the Burren in Clare and found the 2 tombs, if you went to Cappaghkennedy from Cahercommaun then you are lucky to be still in good shape, I had a fall there that still haunts me, and the chambered tomb in Parknabinnia, it needs no words really, I was tripsing in Cork and KErry for a bit, found the Uragh stone circle, amazing sight, it was very early, the light was shining in a face facing direction, low sunshine, I was transported back, so spiritual, the ambiance is beautiful, after that to Derreen west , a good circle, no complaints, and to the raised ringfort further on, that reminded me a bit of the ringfort in the Burren on Gleninagh Mountain, although that one has a souterain, it is a plateau , and unusual about is that there were so many stones and they decided to make an earthen ringfort and not to use the stones, Westropp has some interesting theories about this one.

Up to Mooghaun, in county Clare, near Newmarket on Fergus, a lovely hillfort, very well presented and maintained, there is a great quietness around the place, woodlands walks, and 3 ringforts so far I saw, it is a big site, and you can spent a couple of hours here, there are explainerary post on your way, the place was deserted, it couldn't be better, worth a visit.

My travels brought me to Cork where I visited Drombeg stone circle to start with, used to the inaccessable sites in the Burren and the hard work it takes to get there, this was so easy, and therefor a bit disappointing, ah well, the circle is in good shape, off then to Kealkil and that was more to my liking, the field to it was soaked, and we walked till our ankles in the soggy ground, and muck. The circle is perfect, the cairn is nearly overgrown and if I had a chainsaw with me I would have cut out the big bush in the centre, it is nearly covering it all, pity, there was nobody around and the area is beautiful, clear day, very good views, we drove back over the mountains to another valley, and another stone circle presented itself to us, it wasn't signposted, 6 or 7 stones inside a gate, we met a local farmer and when we asked if it was a real stone circle he started laughing mad, had no teeth in his mouth, whatever he said , i couldn't understand a word, we didn't know where we were, so I took pictures, if anybody knows where this one is, if it is one of course, the farmer had a good laugh, happy out.

Where do I start? A most interesting day, went up to Parknabinnia in the Burren to look for the chartered tomb, my 3rd attempt in 2 years or so, always found the other wedgetombs on the hill easy enough but this one kept escaping me, I set off, and after an half an hour or so I knew I was probably on the wrong track again, not to worry, I ended up in a stone circle with very high stones and a lot of them, at least ten, also very close to that a big cairn, this was all on flat terrain,not up the hill, I decided to go back and more west , ended up in a hazel and fern forest which was higher than myself, got totally stuck in there and needed to go back . I walked back halfway to the road wedgetomb and started again, one more shot before giving up, at this point I had already walked for 3 hours on very difficult ground, had some falls and trips, but still in one piece. Back towards the west and in a field I thought I saw the chambered tomb, but no, this turned out to be something else, not what I was looking for, a Burren Morgana again, but from that point I could see a path going towards the hazel forest, I decided to follow it and the path became clearer, after 5 minutes or so and 2 fields further I saw the Tomb, it is a sight to behold, finally after all these years , it is striking, it is very big, nicely tucked away in the corner of the field. It has 2 chambers, an entrance with standing stones and a path to go inside, there are no cap stones, the side stones are present, and the cairn around it is big and high, and when you stand on it you can look down into the chambers and make nice photographs, the sun came out, and while I was there a group of 8 walkers and a guide appeared as well, so I got a free lecture on the Tomb, which was a bonus, and an answer to my question, ‘’What happens to the remains that are being excavated’’, Are they put back into the Tomb ? The guide said that that was not the case, there is a Irish Law that says that anything that is found belongs to the state and goes to the Museum in Dublin. He also said that another reason was that if the bones or what ever else had been exposed after so many years it would deteriorate if put back so needed special treatment to keep intact. I found this upsetting news, and I hope they are not going to do more excavations, these people treated their death with so much respect, they shouldn’t be in a Museum in Dublin.
I can give some vague directions, when you are at the roadside tomb, you look straight forward and walk to a big boulder, appr. 125 yards or so, from there you see an other boulder ahead of you, which is smaller and kind of overgrown, you go into that direction, but not to it , that boulder is in the hazel, before you get there, you veer off to the left, and then you have to walk that for a bit, at some point you see the path, it will bring you over a stone wall, and all the way towards the second field where this treasure is. Good luck, it is worth a visit.This day is one of the highlights of my visits to the Burren, although, every day in the Burren is of course a highlight.

A gorgeous day , went again to Coskeam and went up further now to Dun Mor as the weather was good. There are some interesting features on the top, some of them could be cist graves , and I am quite sure that I saw the remains of a cairn, views were stunning, on your left you see Slieve Carran, then in front of you the majestic Turloughmore mountain and turn to the right and Knockanes and Mullaghmore are in view, heaven to look at, there is a castle in the valley below, half standing only, and numerous amounts of goats herds, smelly!!!!. But the sweet fragance of the blooming flowers made up for that. There is also a good view towards the Clab valley. I saw the entrance to the pothole, looks very reachable, might have a peek in the next time, the nice thing about Dun Beag and Dun Mor is that they are so easy to get up too. I saw the Coolnatullagh cairn from the top of Dun Mor, you need to know where to look , could not see the wedgetomb from the top, hiding I suppose. The best way to go up is to approach Dun Beag from the west, you see a skeleton of a shed , with a dirt track, this goes on for about 200 yards, after that you are on your own, the cattle in the field are all very friendly, you walk the limestone for appr. half a mile, you see some dense hazel growth at the foot of the mountain, that is where you should aim for, there is a handy path up.

Went to Coskeam again in the Burren, and went up Dun Beag, there was a ringfort that i wanted to find, it is a lovely little ringfort, one ring only, tucked away on the southside of the mountain, in a dip, it was blustery weather and as soon as you went into the fort it was quiet. A very clever position, Dun Beag is not very high and to reach its summit from the road is only half an hour, for once an easy climb, i couldn't carry on to its twin brother Dun Mor, as the weather turned nasty, if you walk from the fort about 5 minutes to the summit, it is worth it, the view toward Turloughmore Mountain is stunning, it took my breath away, . Turloughmore Mountain is another one i need to go to, but it looks like an overnighter,as it is high and broad, i don't think i do it justice to go up and down in one day, lets hope for dry warm nights,

Went to Coolnatullagh in th Burren today to look for the wedgetomb. Very quiet there and I found the wedgetomb after wondering around for an hour or so, it is very small, cute, the back slab is collapsed into the tomb, but it is still very recognisable as a tomb, better then some others i have seen, I hope this is the one that Cunningham descripes, it looks different, but hard to tell, it is the only one I could find, and it is in the right place as he descripes it at some from the road you can see the top slab, on my walk back to the car I saw the cairn that is photographed in Carletons Jones book , that was a bonus as I wasn’t really looking for it, it is close to the road, it looked sweet, stones nicely draped around at the feet of the cairn and small colourful little flowers blooming in top of it, the cairn is about 1 .25 meter high i’d say. In the field where the tomb is, ( the cairn and the tomb are not that close together) there are some more interesting structures, hard to say what they are, I wished I had X-ray eyes!
John B. , the following websites give some more info on Dysert,dysertcastle.ie and Clarelibrary.ie
I went to the ringforts in Dysert last week sometime, and took the medieval road, you are transported back in time.

I love the new addition of allowing guests to rank various sites (it'd be wonderful if we could add a brief comment as well). I never realized how many sites I've been to, how many sites in exist throughout Ireland, and even some sites that I've been to that haven't shown up here, as of yet. I agree with Marriane from Clare, Dysert O'Dea is really a very fascinating place. I've been there twice and was captivated both times. It really is unfortunate that the round tower is in such ruin and there is so little information about this site. I'd love to learn more.

Went to Blackhead in the Burren , walked all around the ringfort there and up to the cairn, a very perculiar cairn, very good views, tried to find the other one, which apparently is there, i have read about it, but could not find that one, a good excuse to go again, the ringfort has one corner that is square, the plateaus are very big and long, there was one piece of limestone up towards the cairn, that was at least 10 by 10 yards appr. without being broken. I like to say thanks to the people on the green road leading up to Blackhead, they find my dog who went missing for 2 nights, she was chasing a fox, and dissappeared. But she is back and rearing to go again