Glendalough

Sandy and I visited Ireland once before in 1990, for my annual ICA convention and a bit of touring around afterwards. One of our favorite places was Glendalough.

St. Kevin went there to be a hermit after 500 AD and a community grew around him. One of those Irish guys who helped save Western civilization. I think that argument a bit strong, but Irish Christian monks did keep a remarkable tradition of learning and art going when a lot of the rest of western Europe was falling apart, post-Rome.

The first photo shows my sister in law Shirley at the entrance to Glendalough.
This photo shows Sandy walking toward what is called St. Kevin's kitchen. But he probably lived in cave like a proper hermit and this was probably a small stone church. Very early construction, not dissimilar to the beehive cells we saw on Inis Mhór in the Aran Islands. Even the roof is made of stones stacked up in an arch that meets at the peak -- more like 3200 BC Newgrange than what people would build now.