County Galway, Wednesday, 27th July 2022…
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‘Church of the son of the black man’
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Standing at one hundred and twelve feet high
the round tower here is the tallest in Ireland.
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It also leans alarmingly,
as can be clearly seen
from the photograph above.
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The ‘miracle’ of its still standing
when all about it has fallen prey to the ravages
of time, or politics, has been attributed to its construction
by the Goban Saor, legendary wonder-smith of the Crafty Folk!
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The Goban Saor, pronounced Govan-Seer
is the Irish ‘answer’ to the Scandinavian smith, Wayland.
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None other than he of Wayland Smithy fame!
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Unsurprisingly, perhaps, in the folk record
Wayland is regarded as a giant amongst men…
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If this legend is true the tower’s construction would be an incredibly ancient event
yet, curiously, not at all inconsistent with its apparently polygonal walls!
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In the Land-of-the-Living-Heart:
Brig and Weland Mind-Weld are playing fidchell…
Brig: Wen to Blakey-Topping.
Weland Mind-Weld: She’ll never get there.
Brig: But I have a poem for her.
Weland Mind-Weld: Which she’ll never receive.
A Mist on Blakey Topping…
A Mist of Mists on The Old-Wives Way…
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Brig’s Lay
Lay me down beneath an Iron Sky
In the centred stillness of a Dragon-Eye…
And let sweet-odorous heather be my pall
On an utterance hill where angel-feathers fall…
With earth beneath my skin and sky above
I shall await… in silence… the descent of love.
Blakey Topping, August 2013
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HEART OF ALBION
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
Unwittingly drawn into the mysterious and magical landscape of The Initiate, Don and Wen pondered the visual language of symbols, stumbling across revelations and realisations that would alter their perception of the age-old stories they thought they knew… tales that entwine across the tapestry of time.
A hilltop steeped in tragedy, a child whose eyes see too much… a Word-Weaver’s birth into darkness… strange forms shimmering on the edge of vision. They learned to walk the Living Land, listening to the whispers of Earth memory and the ghosts of the most ancient past. And from those tales, another line of communication opens as they explore the folklore, legends and traditional tales handed down, from heart to heart, over the millennia.
As the two friends travel between the sacred sites of Albion, they discover stories that tell how the leys were made, the true origins of the hillforts and the reason why Father Fish had breakfast in Slug Town.
Striding across this landscape of myth are the giants. From Cerne Abbas to the top of the Beanstalk, from Camelot to the Castle of Maidens, how and why is their presence stamped on the Living Lore of the land by their seven-league boots?
Join Don and Wen as the adventure continues, unravelling its mysteries and the magical relationship between Albion and its people.
France & Vincent 
1 thought on “Kilmacdough…”