Beltany Stone Circle, Northern Ireland

Day 5

Due to our continual struggle with jet lag, we didn't get up and about until after noon. Paula had the day off from work at the Ulster Folk Park and Museum and Eamon was up and raring to go. He wanted to first give us the tour of his property, all 20 acres of it. Most of the pasture is rented out to a local hay farmer but there's still plenty to see. He has completely renovated the old family homestead and it is thoroughly modernized with several additions.

After lunch we hopped in the car to visit An Creagan, an historic bronze age theme park located just outside Omagh. That was enjoyable and we learned a lot about bronze age living, however, we were more interested in the even more ancient neolithic sites. Consulting the map we located our first stone circle at nearby Beltany. This one was a little difficult to reach, or should I say find. Since there are so many ancient sites in Ireland, many of the lesser known places are often deserted. Beltany was one such place. We finally reached it on top of a hill, and after the sheep scattered, we walked among, through and around the stones marveling at their placement, construction and purpose. Though thousands of years old and slowly falling apart, the henge still exudes a powerful presence. The diameter and sheer number of stones involved in the structure is a marvel. One can only imagine what it looked like and what kinds of ceremonies and rituals were performed here. My current theory is that the early builders used the stone circles to communicate with spirits either dead or in another dimension. I think the entire community participated in the gathering and consumption of psychedelic mushrooms that perhaps no longer grow in Ireland. Inside the circle was a sacred domain, while outside was the profane. Once you entered the circle all the normal rules of the outside world ended. Through the use of psychotropic drugs the veils separating different realities vanished. Magic, or what seemed like magic, permeated existence within the stones.