I went a lot longer before my last post than I had intended to because I am working on a large piece in reaction to a Sam Harris podcast that is taking up my free time, and also life things getting in the way.
However I have quite a long list of shorter articles I've identified to post and I just need to get on track to write and post them.
So I hereby challenge myself to post at least every other day for the next two weeks! That means that I can take no more than one day off from posting. By committing this challenge here publicly I am calling on you to bear witness to the challenge in the hopes that I get the little extra push to do it.
For today, I took some nice photos of the beautiful and unique scenery of the west of Ireland that people outside this area may not have seen before. Here they are:
This is a moderately common kind of clearing found in the west of Ireland. The exposed rock is called karst limestone, which means eroded soluable rocks, of which limestone is probably the most common. The west of Ireland is on top of a vast limestone plate which has been shorn down to the surface by glacial movements in the last ice age.
One of the most well known regions exhibiting this is The Burren, a very rocky area in Clare. However these photos were taken in Connemara, which is not particularly known for these rocks, and are more commonly found mingled in with the landscape instead of as barren expanses as in the Burren.
Gaps form where the rain water erodes the rock, and there's no shortage of rain here! These wear down to form fissures that go all the way down to the water table. Gaps can be deep and dangerous, but most narrow out within a foot or two.
This is a top down photo showing you some detail.
There are sometimes rocks which jut up from the landscape. I'm never sure if they remained like this naturally, or probably were set up like this at some point. Who knows why someone would do this? There is a tradition of building "faery forts" of the rocks, little arrangements into monuments, which are said to be where faeries congregate and should not be disturbed. Obviously this is nonesense but you have to think that someone had the fun of putting these things here for others to find and wonder about.
This small clearing was it in large enough dense wood which I had fun exploring on my own on the bright evening. I love the deep green and mystical feel of this particular section. It makes me appriciate the inspiration for the many stories people here told over the centuries about the mystery of these places, it's not hard to see how.
I hope you enjoyed these photos and they brought a little of our place in the world to you.
