IRISH NATIONAL HERITAGE PARK

You should have a great time in this park, ideal for learning about Irish history from prehistoric times to the Norman invasions.

The walk begins with a Mesolithic settlement (7000-4000 BC) and ends with the Norman invaders (12th century mounds and fortifications) and a replica of a round monastic tower (used as a minaret and shelter): a hut made of animal skins, summarily furnished with a wood fire, a deer antler and a few chestnuts and shells, all next to a small marsh planted with reeds. After a small bridge, we discover the Neolithic huts (4000 to 2000 BC) built in earth and with straw roofs, much more refined... Already men and animals are hutting separately. A small enclosure subtly indicates the birth of agriculture. More amusing is the reconstruction of a corridor dolmen, which parodies the funerary function of this type of megalith..

The Bronze Age (2000 to 500 B.C.) is represented by a menhir standing on an impeccably cut lawn. As it stands, it is more of a contemporary sculpture than a ritual (first burial without cremation) but, further down, a skull and some fragments of pottery bring us back to the seriousness of History. History which leads us, still by enchanting paths, to the circle of stones (here a replica of a specimen from County Kerry) surrounding a cult table

History, again, leads us to writing, without which civilizations would have disappeared forever. This park offers us a replica of the ogham stone which was the first language of Ireland, brought probably by the Celts around 500 BC

Let's follow these Raths, or fortified villages (10th and 11th centuries), where the huts are made of stone, before going to the first paleochristian monastery, with an oratory chapel of a divine simplicity, with only one opening to let the daylight in, and thatched cottages with beautiful mushroom-shaped straw roofs

Crannog is not lacking in interest, a fortified village and lake (on an artificial island) dating from about 1000 AD, but one will think of the proud Viking conqueror when observing the nave, a little tired, beached on the river that crosses this park and dominated by a very beautiful round tower. This beautiful walk ends on the Norman invader (mottes and fortifications of the 12th century) and on a replica of a monastic round tower.