• Facebook
    • Google+
    • Twitter
    • Get new posts sent to your inbox!
      Enter your email address below:

  • Sunday, September 14, 2014

    Mussenden Temple

    This is Manannán Mac Lir, The Celtic God of the Sea and the Broighter Gold. 

    In February 1896, two local ploughmen stumbled across The Broighter Gold Hoard (i.e. buried treasure). I saw this gold at the National Museum of Archaeology in Dublin. It contained an ornamented collar, a little boat with oars, a bowl, two bracelets, and two necklaces.

    It was widespread practice in Celtic times to make votive offerings to Manannán Mac Lir. The Broighter Gold Hoard may have been one of these offerings. People once believed his spirit was released during fierce storms. During storms, people are still known to remark, "Manannán is angry today."

    On my walk to the next village called Castlerock, I'd pass mostly farmland that bordered the northern coast. 

    And see more of my number one fans, the cows. I'm sure this attention has nothing to do with expecting me to have food.

    Although, they look like they're thinking I am the food. Especially that one on the right.

    After I told a friend back home that I was in Castlerock they said, "That sounds like something out of Game of Thrones." Then I remembered, "Wait, they filmed some scenes from Game of Thrones around here!"

    At that moment, there were two older men walking down the street, so I asked them if they knew how to get there. "Just turn down that road," one of them said and pointed to an intersection a few yards ahead. "You'll pass the 12 Apostles, a house famous for a recent murder," then went on to tell the story. Apparently a dentist and his mistress conspired to kill their spouses. The dentist held them under quilts and gassed them. "They took the bodies to the 12 Apostles house and left them in a fume-filled car to make it look like a suicide pact," he said then continued with his directions. "You'll go between some bushes. You'll think I told you the wrong way, but keep goin' and you'll see a sign for Mussenden Temple."

    Somewhere along the beach, below Mussenden Temple, fictional people were murdered on the Game of Thrones, by being burned at the stake. 

    I almost walked right passed all of this, but luckily the village of Castlerock sounds a bit Game of Thronesy

    After detouring to temple and spending a lot of hours lazing on beaches, I didn't make it far, but I did walk until dark...
    ...and setup camp between a beach and a golf course. If your golf ball lands on a sleeping drifter, is it out of bounds or do you have to play it where it lies?