HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Weekly Photo Challenge – Rise/Set
Posted on March 28, 2018
The Grange Stone Circle lies in MB’s HX homeland and dates from the Neolithic era, estimated to be approximately 5,500 years old. The circle is 150 feet in diameter and contains 113 stones, the largest weighing some 40 tonnes. Because of an embankment around the entire outside of the circle, it is thought that the circle had ritual purposes. But who really knows?!
On summer solstice (21 June) and on winter solstice (21 December), local (& not so local) people gather at the circle before sunrise to watch the first rays of the sun appear for the day that’s in it. Assuming cloud cover does not spoil the occasion, which it often does!
MB took this photo on early morning, 21 December 2017. A candle glows in the centre of the circle as people await the sunrise.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Ornate
Posted on November 6, 2015
Made in an intricate shape or decorated with complex patterns. elaborate, decorated, embellished, adorned, ornamented, fancy, fussy, ostentatious.
MB is back in his favourite Grange Stone Circle in HX again. It’s Summer solstice morning, 21st June 2015, circa 5am, and the sun is not yet risen. MB is wandering around the circle taking shots of anything interesting that catches his eye in the pre-dawn light. Some visitors have left fruit on some of the stones during the night, as offering to the rising sun. One person has left an ornate (slightly) mini-sun.
MB gives you the mini-sun:
Weekly Photo Challenge – Wall
Posted on March 13, 2015
The HX region has over 5,500 years of continuous human habitation dating to the neolithic period. On the road between HX crossroads and the nearby lake of Lough Gur lies the ruins of an old church called Teampall Nua (New Church – in English language), which dates from the 17th century.
From The Lough Gur website (loughgur.com):
New Church replaced an older chapel which was used by the Earls of Desmond. The present structure dates from 1679 – a simple rectangular building. It was endowed with a chalice and patten which bear the inscription: “The guift of the Right Honourable Rachel Countess Dowager of Bath to her chapel-of-ease Logh Guir, Ireland 1679” The famed poet harper Thomas O’Connellan who died in 1698 in Bourchiers Castle is buried here in an unmarked grave as is Owen Bresnan (1847-1912) local poet and historian who composed Teampall Nua and Sweet Lough Gur side.
A piece by Thomas O’Connellan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Blt9B16TIQ
Pics by MB!
Winter Solstice
Posted on December 22, 2014
Weekly Photo Challenge: Good Morning! (Grange Stone Circle)
Posted on October 4, 2013
Good morning – circa 7am. Grange Stone Circle, South West Ireland. 21 June 2013. Summer Solstice Morning. The headstone throws a dramatic shadow across the center of the circle.
